4. Draven
4
DRAVEN
I sit silently as Matilda’s sobs gradually subside, keeping my eyes fixed on the road ahead. Every dark instinct I have is screaming at me to follow that car that made her get into mine and annihilate everyone in it. But I don’t.
Much to my surprise.
Matilda’s pain and fear are filling the car like a thick fog. It’s stifling. It’s… new.
Well, in a way, it’s new. Pain and fear I’m no stranger to, but the reasons behind this with her are something I’m not used to. Growing up in Hell with the Devil for a mother, a bio dad and then six other dads, plus another mum, isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s kill or be killed.
I choose to kill.
Except with Matilda, I want to kill for her.
Stopping myself from doing something I have never done before, I force myself not to reach out and comfort her. She needs this release, and I intend to give it to her, no matter if we have to sit here until dawn.
Unable to resist, I cast a glance at her thighs. Her skin is pale, and her flesh quivers as she shakes. I want to part her legs and run my tongue up the sensitive inside of her thigh before I taste what she has to offer.
Stifling a groan as my cock goes hard, I face forward again. The last thing she needs is me and my raging hard-on.
As her crying quiets to soft hiccups and sniffles, I risk a glance at her face. She looks small and vulnerable. Her rainbow-streaked blonde hair is tangled, and her eyes are red-rimmed, but even in this state, I can see her strength. She showed it to me by biting back. This girl has been through hell, but she hasn’t broken.
“Feel better?” I ask when she’s been quiet for a few minutes.
She gives a small nod, wiping at her eyes. “Sorry,” she mumbles.
“Don’t apologise. You’ve clearly been through a lot.”
Matilda takes a shaky breath. “Yeah. You could say that.”
I drum my fingers on the steering wheel, debating how to proceed. Push too hard and she’ll shut down, but I need to know what I’m dealing with here.
“Want to talk about it?” I offer carefully.
She shakes her head. “Not really.”
“Fair enough. But just so you know, I meant what I said earlier.”
“Which part?” Her blue eyes meet mine in a challenge, and I smile.
“All of it, but mostly the part about fate.”
“Fate,” she scoffs. “You are a dreamer, aren’t you, Draven?”
“Hah,” I let out a laugh. “That’s not an adjective anyone has ever used for me. Let me explain something, petal. I was on the main road, and it diverted me through the houses because of a patch of black ice.”
“So? What’s so fated about that?”
“It hasn’t rained in a while, and there is no excess water on the road to freeze in this barely sub-zero temperature. So why block off the road for black ice?”
She shrugs, pulling a face. “Maybe they got it wrong.”
“Or maybe it was fate pulling me towards where you were.”
“Gods, that’s a reach,” she snorts. “I bet you are a serious pain in the arse when it comes to arguing. You have an answer for everything.”
“Well, now I won’t argue with that. Growing up where I did, you need to have an answer for everything. And also for the things that hadn’t even been asked yet.”
She pauses, and her eyes search mine. “In Hell?”
I nod slowly. “In Hell.”
Silence falls, but it’s not uneasy.
Then she blurts out, “Like Hell Hell, or a hell-type dimension?”
“Hell Hell.”
“Ooh,” she murmurs. “Want to talk about that?”
It makes me chuckle. “Nicely diverted, but no.” I turn my eyes back to the road and shift into gear. “So MistHallow? Are you staying for the ride?”
She doesn’t answer me, which makes me look over at her. If she climbs out of the car, I will be forced to stop her. I’m not letting her out of my sight for various reasons, but the main one right now is that I like looking at her curvy body, smelling her unique witchy scent of honey-covered chocolate and staring at her face that could launch a thousand ships.
“Draven,” she murmurs and then surprises the shit out of me when her hand closes into a fist around my tee, and she drags me closer to her. She plants a kiss on my lips that practically sets the Porsche on fire. Sparks fly, and I mean that literally, burning our lips as she plunges her tongue into my mouth. Not usually one to freeze when a woman kisses me, I find I can’t move.
“Fuck, Matilda,” I murmur against her lips, finally able to lift my hands and push her gently away. “What are you doing?”
Her gaze searches mine from centimetres away. She bites her bottom lip and drops her gaze to my mouth for a second. “Making a choice.”
She slams her lips to mine again, lifting the lever that sends the seat back, falling backwards, at the same time as dragging me over the centre console.
The sudden movement catches me off guard, and for a moment, I’m lost in the heat of her kiss, the sweet taste of her mouth. But then reality crashes back in.
I gently but firmly grasp her wrists, easing back from the kiss. “Matilda, stop,” I say, my voice rough.
She blinks up at me, confusion and hurt flashing in her eyes. “I know you want me,” she says, dropping her hand to my cock and squeezing it tightly.
“That’s not the issue,” I grit out, removing her hand. “You’ve been through a trauma tonight. You’re vulnerable and not thinking clearly.”
“I know what I’m doing,” she insists, trying to pull me back down.
I resist, holding her at arm’s length. “No, you don’t. Not really. This isn’t what you truly want.”
She frowns. “I’m making a choice. My choice.”
“A choice made out of fear and desperation,” I counter gently. “You don’t even know me, Matilda.”
“So? Maybe I want to forget for a while. Maybe I want to feel something good for once.”
Her words pierce my heart. What kind of life has she been living that this seems like a good idea?
“You deserve better than a quick fuck in a car,” I tell her. “You deserve to be cherished and protected.”
Tears well in her eyes again, and she lets me go as she avoids my gaze. I take the opportunity to quickly sit back in my seat before I ravish her until she weeps for mercy. I grip the steering wheel tightly. “You don’t owe me or anyone else anything. Got it, petal?” I growl and set off with a squeal of the tyres as Matilda lies there next to me, not even with her seat belt on.
“Strap up. You could go flying if I have to stop suddenly.”
She does as she is told, raising the seat again and clipping her seatbelt into place. But her hand lands on my thigh and creeps up, closer and closer, until she places her hand over my raging dick again. She leans over and whispers in my ear, “If you’re such a badass, how come you are driving to MistHallow and didn’t just transport yourself there?”
I stop at the top of the road and turn the opposite way to the Honda that passed by earlier. “I like to drive. Don’t get much chance in Hell.”
“Hell has no cars?”
“No,” I say with a half-smile. “No roads, no cars.”
She sits back but doesn’t move her hand. I don’t make her. I can’t. I like it there. She squeezes gently, and I groan loudly. “Keep that up and I will forget everything I just said and treat you like a filthy whore. So stop, okay? I only have so much willpower.”
She hesitates, but then pulls her hand away. “See, that right there tells me you aren’t a good guy, Draven. If the necromancer and Prince of Hell thing wasn’t enough. So why are you being so nice to me? And don’t say fate or whatever else bullshit. It’s a cop-out.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles turning white. Matilda’s words hit closer to home than I’d like to admit. She’s right. I’m not a good guy. Far from it. The exact opposite, even. I could give her a hundred different reasons, but she won’t accept any of them. She wants to hear the raw, unfiltered truth.
“Because I want you more than I have ever wanted anyone else. I knew it as soon as I saw you on the pavement. I nearly drove over you on purpose so that I could stop and apologise. So I could talk to you. So I could know you. I’m attracted to you, Matilda, deeply fucking attracted and affected by you. Does that satisfy your need to know?”
“No, it doesn’t tell me why you aren’t fucking me like a filthy whore right now.”
“Fuck,” I growl. “You are impossible.”
“Well?” she pushes.
“I don’t want to treat you that way.”
“What if I want to be treated that way?”
“You don’t,” I state coldly. “If you did, you would have stayed at home, right?”
Her gasp lets me know I hit the nerve I was going for.
“You’re a bastard, you know that?”
“Did I ever say I wasn’t?”
“Fuck you.” She crosses her arms as we hit the main road again. I’m rigid. Unable to relax. She has wound me up so fucking tight I feel ready to explode, and that wouldn’t be good for this world. They aren’t ready for that yet.
We sit in silence, and then, out of the corner of my eye, I see her wiggling about. I don’t look at her, I barely even breathe.
Moments later, she holds her top up in front of my face for a split second before she drops it in my lap. I gape at it and turn my head to see her perfect tits on display, more than a handful with peaked pink nipples, and a wicked smile on her face. “Lose that willpower, Draven. I want to see you come undone.”
“Fuck,” I growl and hit the verge, bouncing up on the grass as I swerve to avoid hitting the barrier separating us from the other side of the road. I slam on the brakes, hard, jerking us both forward. “Fucking hell, petal. You have no idea what you’ve just done.”