Chapter 9
Corvus
This has been the most bizarre day in my entire life.
Mother’s called me three times, insisting I give her my ‘fiancé’s’ number (which I do not).
Damen, Aspen, and a few others from my generation of Van der Horns sent over rude memes suggesting I’ve holed up with my lover instead of spending time with family.
Even Remo, who wasn’t present to witness the whole fiasco sent me a message.
[Sorry about the family BS. That’s exactly why I don’t go. Need me to take someone out?]
I didn’t answer, but it did bring a smile to my face for a second. Sadly, all our immediate enemies got finished off in the hunt, and it’s not like I can ask him for Aspen’s head. The brat is family after all.
I attempt to get someone to put in a reinforced door in one of my bedrooms, but since it isn’t an emergency, I can’t find anyone willing to do that over the holidays.
Dalton refuses to use the electronic nanny I gave him with breakfast, so I left him to think about his behavior.
Fortunately, my local deli is open for business, as is the gym I go to.
I didn’t think my departure would do much, since he’d just gone to sleep instead of agonizing over his entrapment, but around twenty-four hours after our arrival, I was fed up with waiting for his move. I’d acquired his life for a reason, and he wouldn’t be denying it to me any longer.
So I did what any other man in my position would have done and spiked his plate of ‘Marry me’ chicken from my favorite Italian place. He might not want to fuck me after a day in the cage, but the aphrodisiac will take care of that easily enough.
My dining room is small, cozy, with a view of the snow-covered garden.
Thick walls and a hardwood floor in the same color are livened up by an antique table, and a set of eight matching chairs, even though I rarely have visitors.
Mother insisted. The crockery is a pristine white, and the long candle emerging from the fir-and-holly centerpiece in the middle livens up the interior.
I look around, because everything needs to be perfect, if I’m to convince Dalton that dancing to my tune will be to his benefit.
The still life painting with the human bones is crooked once again, so I adjust its frame and only then hurry upstairs, where I’ve locked Dalton in the biggest bathroom, along with a set of clothing I purchased earlier, estimating his size.
He was silent when I led him in, but he didn’t try to kill me when I unlocked the cage, so that has to count for something.
As much as I like him cocky, the broody expression did something for me as well.
When I walk in, he’s so startled that foam and water splashes out. While he doesn’t need to know I made the bath bombs myself with an aroma I concocted, it does please me that he’ll now smell of something I’ve created.
He’s flushed in the way I want him to be in an hour when the aphrodisiac works its way through his system and fucking me becomes an inevitable consequence.
Dalton is a beautiful inked beast I intend to tame for my purposes.
I don’t bother to look away, and watch every muscle in his arms tense. After all, he belongs to me now.
“Is my time up?” Dalton says with a sigh, but it’s almost a joke, so we’re getting somewhere. It’s an improvement from dick denial and silent treatment.
I exhale and pick up a fresh towel, approaching the tub of black marble installed by the previous owner.
It might or might not have been the main reason why I chose this particular home.
I unfold the towel and spread my arms, waiting for him to get up and step into it.
The air is warm, damp and smells of the patchouli I added to my bath bomb.
Perhaps I should increase its proportion in the mixture when I make the next batch? It suits Dalton so well...
“Dinner’s served. I don’t want to eat cold food.”
My home is a world away from the damp basement of the Van der Horn family seat, and the sooner he understands that there’s comforts to be earned here, the better for both of us.
I’m fully prepared for him to shove me or snap at me. I’ve got both poison and my knife at hand, just in case, but you don’t tame a bear without risk.
He rises from the water, unbothered by his nakedness, and gives me a good view of his glorious, tattooed body before stepping into my towel’s embrace. Hopefully after tonight, bygones can be bygones.
“What am I having?” Dalton asks. He’s a bit sulky, won’t look into my eyes, but I’ve learned he’s very food-motivated, so that should make training easy.
I close my arms around his sturdy form and shut my eyes, reminding myself this is not the moment to pounce.
But he is so tall, so broad, so handsome, and so very accessible, I find it difficult to stop myself.
Never before have I lived with a man I can touch freely, and if the piece of candy doesn’t want to suck me back, I’m going to remind it what it was like last time.
“We are having Italian. I ordered chicken and gnocchi.”
It’s adorable how his eyes light up. As though I’m the center of his universe, even if his mouth won’t admit it.
“You’re eating with me?” He swallows and lets me dry his short hair. He doesn’t need to know how much I enjoy touching him.
I pretend to focus on the towel to avoid looking into his eyes. “I think we should talk. Dinnertime will be perfect for that.”
He eyes me suspiciously, but doesn’t waste any more time, and puts on the clothes I got him.
Seeing how they fit, I’m happy to prove to myself that I still have an eye for sizing.
It’s nothing too fancy, just a pair of casual pants and a black shirt that’s a little tight around his biceps, but I can’t say that I mind.
The dark colors combined with his tattoos make me salivate a little, but I keep that to myself.
He can’t know how much that one fuck got under my skin.
“Not afraid I’ll lie through my teeth then climb out of the window first time I get?”
He’s teasing me about it. So he’s either trying to be some mastermind manipulator, or wants to reassure me with the joke that I’m safe.
“I hope you won’t, for your sake. It would have been a waste of all my efforts to keep you alive this long,” I tell him, leading the way to the dining room smelling of that divine, creamy sauce. I quickly choose the chair in front of the unspiked meal and place the napkin in my lap.
Dalton seems a bit startled as he looks around, his gaze lingering on the painting of bones, but then sits opposite me as I light the candle between us. And there it is. The corners of his lips lift in a little smile.
“Okay. Now this is how you should treat your fiancé,” he says and grabs a fork.
I chose this exact dish, because one of the herbs easily masks the aftertaste of the aphrodisiac. I take a sip of white wine as I watch him take that first bite, but as he moans, shutting his eyes in pleasure, tension evaporates from my muscles. It’s nice to see him pleased.
It’ll be even nicer when he stops being a stubborn donkey and gives me another taste of his dick.
“I was improvising,” I tell him softly, and slide the first gnocchi into my mouth.
“It took me by surprise, won’t lie. That bit about me not leaving town, but going to yours was really smart.” Elbows on the table, stuffing his mouth, he watches me with all his attention, and I simmer in it like a frog that doesn’t yet know it’s getting cooked.
I suppose a bit of risk is inevitable, and I’ve been depriving myself for so long that now that I’ve made that rash decision…
I can’t go back on it. Of course, people argue and couples split, so I could have informed my family about our parting within the next few months, but…
why would I do that when Dalton already knows my family’s secret, when he owes me his life, and when his cock felt so irresistibly good inside me?
I hide my hands under the table when they shake and offer him a smile. “You know what wasn’t smart? Borrowing a million dollars you don’t have. How on earth did that even happen?”
Dalton slouches with a groan, but doesn’t lose his appetite. He’ll soon get hungry for more than some chicken, and I can’t wait to taste him. “Eh… It was a weird night that spun out of control. I just finished work, but had this lucky feeling in my gut, you know?”
I give him a deadpan stare. “No, I don’t know.”
“So anyway, I had a drink or two, and since the lucky feeling persisted, I tried a bit of roulette. Just a taster. And just like that, I was a grand ahead. I was behind on rent, so I thought, you know, why not try a bit more? I moved on to cards. I was always good with those. Kind of. My dad taught me how to play poker. That’s when a grand turned into ten, and I was locked in.
Next drink, sweating bullets, betting big, and fucking winning.
It was like a long line of coke straight to my dreams. I thought, why couldn’t it be me?
People win the lottery. I could win big too.
Walk away as a new man with a new life ahead of me.
“I kept playing, the stakes were getting higher, and in my head, I was already moving to a nicer house, getting a new car, all that shit. When I lost, I lost big. It was like my whole body was in shock and couldn’t even understand it.
You’d think that okay, you had your big night, you blew it, time to go home and forget it.
But… I don’t know, maybe I seemed rich because I bet so big before, but the casino offered me a loan for a few more rounds.
And so I made the number one mistake you can.
I tried to win back what I lost with borrowed money.
“By the end of the night, I was a million in the red. Just a complete fucking disaster.”
It was.
It was also a trap.