Chapter 15
Iscreamed as Darius’ body covered me, and wood chips from the bed frame and stuffing from the mattress flew through the air.
“Get to the door!” he screamed. “Stay low!”
We used to have drills for this kind of thing, and while it had been years since our last one, the instincts kicked in and I army crawled to the door. It was then that I saw the remains of my gown, tossed to the floor during our fight. The hem was damaged from the wine spill but this was the first time I’d noticed darker dots, rust colored and…
Blood…
An answer as to how this attack had been possible with Angelica’s protections in place were starting to form, but everything was too chaotic to latch onto it. I realized that Darius hadn’t followed me to the door with my heart in my throat.
When I glanced back, Darius was pulling a gun from under our bed and rolled on his back toward where a hole about the size of my head had been blown straight through the wall.
“Go! Find Trey and Angelica!”
“Not without you!”
He glanced back.
“Nina…please!”
A metal cylinder sailed through the hole and I screamed in panic as Darius sprang to his feet and yanked the bedroom door open. Darius half pulled me as I ran with him through the door and out into the hall seconds before a concussive blast sounded behind us. The sounds of fighting below filtered up to us, the slap of flesh meeting flesh and screams, followed by gun shots.
Darius dragged me down into the basement training room stairs and threw open what I’d thought was a supply closet.
It was, just not for training equipment.
An entire arsenal was behind the door, complete with tactical gear and every size gun imaginable. I even spied grenades as my panicked mind tried to process what I was seeing.
He pulled on a black tactical shirt and then a vest over it before handing me the same kind of shirt. I was shaking as I wiggled into it and then Darius strapped a bullet proof vest to me, the weight already making me feel clumsy. When I looked at his face, it was stern; no hint of the passionate, filthy mouthed lover that had made love to me from a distance.
“Darius,” I put my hand to his face, begging him with my eyes to give me something, anything.
He paused and I saw the edges of his stoicism melt.
His strong arm brought me hard against him. The vests we wore meant I didn’t really feel his warmth as much as I wanted, but this was enough.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“If anything…”
I stood on my tip toes and pressed a kiss to his chin before letting my head rest at the hollow of his throat. For just a moment, I let myself lean against him, soak up his strength.
“There was blood on my dress,” I said. “I think…I think whoever bumped into me they cut themselves on purpose so they could get around the wards. It’s the only thing I can think of. The magic in the wards is strong, but biological material inside the ward would’ve provided a way in. Which means…”
“They knew you’d be there…they planned this out.”
“Yeah.”
His jaw clenched and he stepped out of my embrace so he could reach into the closet for a small gun.
“You remember our trips to the shooting range?” he asked.
I nodded, mouth dry. I hated guns but saw the need to know how to use one now.
“The magazine capacity is small but so is the recoil. You’ve only got four shots, make them count, use your power if you have to.”
“Okay, but…the others—”
“You are my only concern.”
His voice was so cold and hard. I didn’t want the distant bodyguard who was all business. I wanted the male I’d fallen in love with to hold me, tell me it was going to be alright, that this wasn’t my fault.
“I should’ve looked at my dress closer,” I said as Darius loaded himself up with weapons.
“No, I should’ve gone after the guy. I felt something off and I let myself get distracted.”
My head snapped up and my eyes narrowed on him. This distance wasn’t just getting himself into the right headspace to deal with this intrusion. He was putting a wall up between us, and I was not going to allow that.
“You are not regretting what we did up there. That was not a distraction, it was fucking perfection.”
His eyes closed and he slumped just a little.
“If I hadn’t been so distracted about him…”
“Stop! I was pushing it, I wanted you jealous, okay? So…we’re both to blame but right now, I just really want to get out of this alive.”
He looked over at me, and there it was, that heat that had skated across my body like a physical touch when he’d been getting us both off.
“I won’t let them hurt you.”
“I know.”
His red eyes flared and he took a sharp inhale. His muscles stretched before my eyes, and the part of the door he was holding folded under his grip.
“If I…lose control…you run,” his voice was deeper, harsher.
“Look at me.”
He squeezed his eyes tight.
I took his face in my hands, the sound of fighting above us starting to get louder.
“Look at me!” I demanded.
When he did, Darius’ eyes were him, but also not. I could see the thing inside of him, the part he hated and called a beast.
I held his gaze purposefully and said, “I trust you. All of you.”
His teeth bared into an animalistic grimace that was as close to a smile as his berserker could manage.
“And you’re…mine.” His voice was strained, halfway between the gruff tone I knew and something far more monstrous.
Even now, I wasn’t afraid. When I’d absorbed his memories, I had seen him as a berserker, I had seen the gore on his hands, seen the way he defended those he loved. He may not remember what happened enough for me to have seen more than pieces, but I knew to the deepest parts of my soul that Darius would never, ever hurt me.
“Yes, I am. So protect me and stop when I tell you. Got it?”
He growled.
“Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Good, okay…let’s go.”
He went ahead of me, guns strapped to his body, a large rifle in his hands. We climbed the stairs quietly, my palms sweaty and pulse beating hard in my throat. I wasn’t scared of dying, not really.
It was the thought of being taken from him, of being locked up again.
“Darius,” I put my shaking hand on his arm, tears burning my eyes. “If…if they try to take me…”
“I won’t…no,” he said, knowing what I was requesting, even while he was on the edge of letting his berserker out.
“I can’t go back.”
“No…no going back.”
I opened my mouth to argue when he crushed his mouth to mine, hand clasping the back of my neck. With a deep, shaky breath I saw him wrestle control so he could speak in a full sentence to me.
“You are mine, and no one, no one takes what’s mine. You understand me, Nina?”
“Y-yes…”
“Good. Stay behind me.”
He opened the door and checked the hall, gun at the ready. When Darius was satisfied that it was safe he nodded for me to follow him.
The hall was cloudy with smoke, the scent of fire and something sulfurous in the air. I heard a distant pop of gunfire and Darius shoved me against a door halfway down the hall. Someone was coming through the smoke and Darius readied the rifle. I grasped the gun he gave me in a shaking hand, ready to do what I could.
There was a gruff breathing sound ahead of us in the smoke, like an animal, but also not. Darius’ body froze and he glanced back with panic shining in his red eyes.
“Run back to the—”
Something ripped him away from me and tossed him against the opposite wall like a doll. I screamed, and fired the gun at the hulking figure, all in black. The bullets pierced him, I saw them go through the fabric on his arm and shoulder, but he shook them off as if they were nothing.
It was then that I saw his face, and I screamed in terror.
He was an Orc, his green skin mottled and strained, eyes blood shot and bulging in his face. Spittle flew from between his lips on each snorting breath. When he reached for me, I darted away and ran in the direction I’d seen Darius thrown. The Orc was enormous, but clumsy, and he missed. With another roar, he pursued me, his heavy footsteps clomping after me through the cloying smoke.
I didn’t know if it was the training with April, or the power of the Morrigan, but I was aware of the bullets in the Orc’s body, those little pellets of metal, lodged deep in his soft tissue. The smoke was getting thicker and it was hard to breath, but I forced myself to focus on those small pieces. When I found them, I twisted them inside his flesh, carving deeper holes.
The Orc roared in pain and I kept doing it as I tried to find Darius. The metal was all the way through the Orc’s body by the time I found him. I was so relieved that I lost control of the bullets and they clattered to the floor. The Orc let out a snuffling breath and his heavy footsteps lumbered nearer to me.
“He’s coming,” I coughed. “We have to…Darius?”
He was breathing hard, his muscles expanding, and when he looked at me I recognized this as his berserker form.
I glanced back and realized that this other Orc was also in the throes of that transformation, but his seemed more like someone on steroids with a crack chaser than the natural transformation that Darius was going through.
“Go…away…get…safe.” His voice was so deep I almost couldn’t understand him.
I backed away from him, more to make him feel better than me, and was barely two feet away when the other Orc barreled into me and tackled me against the wall. My head struck the plaster hard and I saw stars. Everything felt fuzzy, and there was a sticky warmth on my face. I knew that I had to move, get to safety, but my limbs were useless.
The attacker loomed over me and one huge hand was coming right at my throat. He could snap my neck without a bit of effort, but I was finding it impossible to make myself move. I’d just leaned to the side and was attempting to drag myself away when another snarling roar met my ears. The Orc was yanked back, and through the smoke and the tears in my eyes, I saw the two huge shadows grappling with one another. I wanted to help, to do something, but the pain in my head was starting to throb and I felt sick.
Just as I managed to get on all fours and started to crawl, I heard a wet squelching sound, and then stomping footsteps chasing after me. I started to sob, not at all sure who had won, but by now terror was overriding everything else and I knew I had to get out of this hallway. Since the living room was out of the question, I focused on getting back down to the training room. I could barricade myself in there, I just needed to—
“Aah!”
A hand clasped my foot and I screamed with everything I had.
I looked up, and into Darius’ familiar face. It was blood splattered, and his eyes were glowing, skin strained, and there was more of an animal about him than the intelligent being I had come to know, but it was still him.
“Darius…” I put my hand over his, not thinking about the blood that coated them.
Everything hit me at once.
So much pain and fear. The attacking Orc had been captured and ripped apart inside, put back together but wrong. Who he was had been locked up behind this other part of himself that he’d never experienced before, and he was lost inside of himself, watching his own hands do horrible things. Between each act, he was put to sleep, only to awaken with a drive to obey the mysterious man that held his leash.
I saw it all, every murder, every moment of despair until I was drowning in it.
I was weeping, my hands buried in Darius’ shirt as he carried me through the smoke.
“He was forced…,” I sobbed, “he didn’t want to.”
Darius grunted, and I looked up into his face, which was still showing his berserker, but he was holding me so gently. I palmed his cheek and he looked down at me.
“Dangerous…shouldn’t…touch.”
I shook my head.
“Not dangerous to me.”
And then I kissed him, just a brush of my mouth against his to show that I wasn’t afraid. Darius barely returned it and when I pulled back, he was staring at me in shock.
Right before my eyes, I saw the berserker retreat, the transformation occurring in reverse.
His eyes stopped glowing, his breaths returned to normal and his body no longer had that strained look. He was returning to his normal huge self.
Darius’ hands cradled me to him and he ran his lips in adoring kisses all over my face.
“How did you do that?” he asked. “How did you…you reached him.”
“He’s a part of you. All I did was talk to you.”
He swallowed and shook his head, rendered speechless by this.
Footsteps echoed to us in the dissipating smoke and Darius set me on my feet behind him. His gun was lost, but he still had his hands, and he set himself in a wide stance, fists at the ready.
“Darius?” said Trey.
My body deflated and I thought I was going to be sick with relief, as well as a concussion.
“Pass code,” Darius demanded.
“The book was better than the movie,” Trey said. “Which is always the case, by the way.”
Darius didn’t laugh but I did, mostly because if Trey was joking, that meant Angelica was alright.
The handsome Korean man came through the smoke, his white dress shirt dotted with blood and dark smudges. His hair was half out of the queue it had been in and his pants were torn. He carried a large rifle, his skin covered in intricate blue and gold scale patterns, and his normally rich brown eyes now glowed a sapphire blue.
“Nina is hurt,” Darius said, sweeping me up in his arms again.
My stomach lurched at the sudden movement and I almost vomited.
“Wanda should be able to do some basic healing magic,” Trey said.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked.
“Angelica, Wanda and Jack are a bit banged up but fine. April was hit in the shoulder, Wanda is working on her now.”
“You have an extraction plan?” Darius asked.
“Working on it.”
We followed Trey down the rest of the hall and the stairs. The beautiful cabin was a mess of rubble and broken furniture. The floor to ceiling windows were gone, glass glistening on the floor. Jack was sitting beside April as she grit her teeth, and Wanda healed the wound. Angelica was holding a katana that she cleaned on a dead man’s shirt. Her blond hair was frizzed and there was a cut on her cheek.
“How did they even get in?” Jack demanded. “I thought you said this was secure.”
“It was, but they must’ve found a way around it.”
Guilt gnawed at me and added to my nausea. How did I tell them this was my fault without losing all the trust Darius and I had built up over the last few days? Would this cost us our place here, our chance to get that artifact?
Wanda sucked in a breath and weaved side to side.
“Something is wrong,” she panted. “The magic…it feels off. I think they might’ve poisoned the energy well.”
“Which means no portal,” Trey said.
“And that they’ve more than likely got the obvious alternative routes covered,” Angelica said, sliding her sword into a sheath on her back.
“I didn’t think the Foundry Brothers had those kinds of resources,” April said, her voice weaker than I’d ever heard it.
“Who?” I asked as Darius set me on a part of the couch that didn’t have much rubble.
“A rival team that we pissed off on our last job,” Jack said. “They’ve been making noise about coming for us, which was why Angelica put up all those wards. I just didn’t think they’d go to this length for a stupid rivalry.”
I glanced at Angelica and Trey for a second, but they didn’t show any hint that the wards and the attack had anything to do with this fight between thieves.
But no harm in letting them believe it if our cover is protected, I guess.
“Can you check out her head wound?” Darius asked Wanda.
“I think a gunshot wound is a bit more serious than a little cut,” Wanda said, getting back to work on April.
Darius and I both frowned, and I reached up to the spot that had been bleeding a minute ago. It was still sensitive, and I could feel a scab, but there was no bump, no throbbing headache. Even my nausea was letting up.
Darius knelt in front of me and lowered his voice.
“It’s healing on its own.”
“I never…I mean, how?”
He gave me a meaningful look and I knew the answer. The Morrigan wanted me in tip top shape obviously, but whether that was so I could put it into an artifact or so it could take me over was anyone’s guess.
I flinched as the last of the cut mended, wondering how in the world we were going to explain this to everyone. Darius and Trey started talking about how we could safely leave, Angelica was saying something to Wanda, but I experienced it all as if from a distance. The more my body healed, the more a whispering cadence repeated in my head.
My veins flooded with heat, a thick, potent sensation. I wanted to hit someone for attacking us, for hurting my new friends, pummel my fists into them until bones broke and skin opened like rotted fruit.
…vengeance…vengeance for us…for that Orc…vengeance…vengeance…
That single word beat like a drum through my mind, then my blood, until my body vibrated with each syllable. I could feel all the metal around me. Knives, bullets, pieces of the broken TV and furniture. It sang to my power, mine, not the Morrigan’s, but that bright well inside of me. I could feel its influence on it, black veins that ran along the pillar of gold, but it didn’t diminish it.
If anything, I could feel the two different streams of power sharing, melding.
It felt amazing, as if it were always meant to be. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to it.
And as I did, that sense of rightness in my desire to avenge all the wrongs began to build, a wave in a typhoon, getting higher and higher. When or how it would crest I could not begin to guess, but the rise felt so good, almost like the build to an orgasm. Would the fall of the wave be the release too?
“Nina!”
I was torn away from the building wave and everyone was staring at me, but none more so than Darius, whose mouth was drawn tight with fear. I looked around at a glittering display of metal, all risen from the ground and shaped into weapons. They were pointed away from the team, out toward the broken window, but it was a terrifying and incredible sight.
I laughed in delight and extended my hand to one of the smaller daggers I’d created. It molded to my hand, a perfect grip. The knives longed to be my instruments of justice and I was a moment away from sending them to find the intruders.
“Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Jack barked.
“This level of metallic kinesis is…I’ve only heard of it in books,” April stared at me, for the first time she looked afraid. “Nina, how are you doing this?”
“I-I don’t know,” I only half lied. “I just am. And I know that I can finish this. I can send these knives singing through the night…and kill every last one of them.”
“No.”
I glared up at Darius, no longer sure if this was me or the Morrigan, or both.
And I really didn’t care.
“Vengeance,” I hissed. “I want it, I deserve it!”
Behind him, Jack and Wanda glanced at each other, confused. I was close to revealing everything and I wasn’t sure I could stop myself. Something had snapped in me, something primal and powerful, something that made me feel invincible. I would never let anyone hurt me again. I would be strong enough to stop them.
Yes…yes…vengeance…strength…
I knew then that it was the Morrigan, taking advantage of my emotions, of my power, which was so much stronger than I ever knew. The trouble was, it felt really good to let it stir this up inside of me. I’d been so afraid, felt so powerless to change what had been done to me, what was happening now. And yet, I was the most powerful person in the room, reveling in that, unafraid.
“I want to end all of this,” I growled.
“I know,” Darius soothed, “but what you’re proposing…there’s no coming back from it. And I won’t have you darkening your soul like that.”
“Besides,” Trey interjected, “we have no idea if the attackers you are sensing are all that’s out there. They might just be the first wave. It’s more important that we get out of here and regroup.”
“Nina,” Darius leaned closer so that only I could hear him, “you need to let this go. Please, this isn’t the way. You’re endangering the job.”
The job.
My chance at being healed.
No, of having what’s mine taken!
I shook my head to dislodge that thought.
This power, the dark, velvet strand getting bigger inside of me, that wasn’t mine. It didn’t belong inside of me, and it was starting to control me, to taint that beautiful well of magic inside of me.
So I nodded, letting all but the weapon in my hand fall softly to the ground.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“A safe house,” Angelica said. “No one knows about this one. The wards are strong, but of a different magical signature. We should be safe there until we leave for Vancouver in a few days.”
“Give me an address.”
“You can’t do a portal,” Wanda said, holding up her hand, “the well is poisoned.”
“For you. Not for me.”
“Nina, no one has that level of power.”
“What’s the alternative?” I asked, looking around. “Blasting our way out? How many of us will die if we do that?”
“It’s not possible to draw that much energy,” Angelica said, her voice very pointedly trying to get me to back down.
But I knew I was right. Even without the Morrigan pushing me to use its power, I knew that we didn’t stand a chance if we stayed, or if we tried to shoot our way out.
So I looked everyone in the eye, except for Darius, because he already knew what I was about to do.
“I have a lot of power. I keep it a secret because it’s dangerous for me to reveal it to anyone,” I swallowed. “But I can open a portal and get us out of here.”
“No,” Darius said, his jaw clenching. “I won’t let you do this, it’s too dangerous.”
“I am not a child. And I am tired of being weak, of letting other people bleed for me. I’m done being a victim, Darius!”
“There’s being strong, and then there’s letting emotion drive you,” Angelica said behind me. “And making a decision like this right now, that’s emotion.”
“Maybe we should let her try,” Trey said.
“She’s not going to sacrifice herself because the wards failed and now we’re surrounded,” Darius said.
My body was buzzing like I’d drank an entire carafe of coffee and I was ready to just open a portal to wherever and leave. Darius and Trey’s argument was starting to pick up steam, louder and louder.
“Everyone just calm down,” Wanda begged.
“We need to get the fuck out of here,” Jack said, “so if she can do it, let her.”
Their voices were swirling around my mind in a chaotic cyclone. I was starting to feel incredibly overwhelmed as the Morrigan was also getting more and more persistent in its call to exert power.
“Drawing on that much energy could kill her,” April retorted. “I don’t care how powerful she might be.”
“Just let her try!” Jack yelled.
“No one is letting or forcing her to do anything,” Darius fumed. “The risk is too great.”
I put my hands over my ears, everyone’s voices were suddenly too loud.
“We need to talk about this rationally,” Trey said.
“And let whoever attacked us close the circle? Very smart,” Jack snapped.
“If she can do it,” Wanda said, “I might be able to lend her some power of my own so that she’s not drawing so much from herself, but it will drain me.”
“I don’t think we should—”
“Stop talking about me!” I shouted.
My voice reverberated through the room, and the ground rumbled under me. I was seething, my breath coming fast, and the knife burning my palm as I held it even tighter than before. The room became absolutely silent once the echo of my unnatural voice faded.
Trey was shielding Angelica, who had drawn her katana, Wanda had a small dagger in her hand and Darius was positioned to shield me from everyone, just as Jack was attempting to shield a shocked April.
I hadn’t noticed it before. I assumed it was just emotion, and maybe it was. Maybe that was what fueled the Morrigan more than anything else. But now it was too late.
I was shaking uncontrollably, and my body was bursting with that velvet power, but this time it was also braided with the golden strands of my own.
“I need…to…release…”
Wanda’s eyes widened.
“Shit, everyone get back! Get back!”
They scattered as dark veins started to flow across my pale body. At the same time, a golden light started to shine I closed my eyes and saw that power inside of me, heard the whispers, and knew that I could control it.
Please…don’t let me hurt anyone here. Help me.
“Address,” I demanded.
Angelica gave it to me and it was like I had a magical GPS; I could see the small craftsman house on a non-descript street. It was surrounded with a tight, powerful weave of protection spells. I cut a hole through the steel-like strands as if it were tissue paper. The air in the room popped and I let out a sigh of relief as the power flowed out of me, liquid midnight shot through with sunlight.
“Go,” I said, my voice threatening, deep.
I opened my eyes and there in front of me was a portal to inside the house.
Angelica and Trey went first, followed by Wanda and Jack supporting April. Darius stood by my side and we walked through together. The moment my feet touched down onto the soft carpet, I rewove the protection spells, adding an additional one of my own.
I felt clean and light, and I let out a tripping laugh that ended on a cough.
When I wiped my mouth, black bile came away from my lips.
“Nina…” Darius whispered.
I glanced up at him, eyes wide.
“I’m fine.”
And then I fainted.
Chapter Twenty
Nina
With the exception of near suffocating levels of tension in the SUV, the drive to Vancouver was relatively painless. I ended up sleeping most of the way, curled up next to Darius, as my body tried to replenish my energy stores. I wasn’t kidding when I told Darius that I was drawing on more of its power. What he didn’t know was how badly it was draining me. Not just my physical body either. There wasn’t just a hole in the well of my power, the whole damn thing was getting weak. Soon, there would be nothing keeping the Morrigan out and it would poison my entire well.
When they extract it, how much of my own abilities will go with it?
The thought made my chest ache along with my head. I was starving and grouchy when we arrived at the hotel, which didn’t help anything. To say Darius was on high alert was a laughable understatement. He was snapping at everyone, causing people to scurry past us if anyone dared to stop and give me even a friendly smile.
“Can you calm down, please? No one is going stab me in the lobby of the freaking Auberge.”
He crossed his arms and looked away, jaw tense.
I would bet he was also hungry, considering how much food he usually ate. I’d had a sandwich late in the morning before the fucking in the room and fighting in the backyard, but I hadn’t seen him eat at all.
“Look,” I said, rubbing his bicep, “let’s get checked in and get some room service, okay? Maybe take a dip in the tub?”
That had him relaxing a bit and he arched an eyebrow as he looked down at me.
“Trying to bribe me into good behavior with food and pussy?”
“Yes.”
He was trying desperately not to smile and looked away to grab the key cards from the concierge. I threaded my arm through his while we followed the bellhop with our luggage into the elevator. The rest of the crew had already checked in; we were the last ones because, for some reason, that’s how Darius wanted it. My little nap had reinvigorated me and I didn’t feel like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat anymore, though the headache remained. I caught Darius rubbing the back of his neck and wincing a lot since I’d been rescued.
“You want me to give you a neck massage?” I asked.
“Among other things, yes.” His grin was subtle but it still managed to shoo straight to my clit.
I had always loved the way his full lips curled up when he smiled but now I also knew the other wonderful things that mouth could do and I loved it even more.
Actually, I loved all his parts, but especially the thick green rod between his legs.
Damn…prepare me indeed, that thing nearly stretched me wide open. I hope he’s not going to be all protective in the room tonight. I want to see how far I can get it in my mouth.
I was starting to think that being horny was my body and minds way of handling epic levels of fear and stress because I should’ve been unable to think of anything except tomorrow. Yet here I was, plotting all the different ways I could get Darius’ dick in my mouth.
Darius tipped the bellhop and then ordered me to wait in the open doorway while he checked the room. I knew there was no talking him out of it, so I didn’t argue, even though all I wanted was that bath and food.
Finally, he came back and snagged me around the waist, crushing me to him before closing the door with his foot.
The way this Orc kissed me!
It was desperate, all consuming, like he thought it would be the last time. But I was determined that, no matter his fears, this was just the beginning for us. I knew he didn’t want me using my powers, and I wanted to agree to it, to give him comfort if nothing else, because I hated seeing him so afraid.
But I also knew that if it was a choice between having our future and not, I would do anything, even risk losing pieces of my soul to the Morrigan. There was nothing in this world that would keep me from having that dream with Darius. We both deserved to finally be happy.
“Now,” he murmured against my throat, “what was that about food and other things?”
“No idea,” I breathed, ready to test the flexibility of my jaw when my stomach rumbled.
“Uh-huh, you don’t get fucking until you’ve had food.”
I stuck my bottom lip out in mock pouting.
“Aw, I wanted dick for dinner.”
He chuffed out a laugh, and set me on the bed.
“How about cum for dessert?”
“I could be talked into that.”
He kissed the tip of my nose and then grabbed the room service menu off the coffee table. I hadn’t really noticed, since Darius had made me wait in the doorway, but we had a very nice suite. Now that I was further in, I wanted to explore. There was the bedroom with a giant bathroom and tub that I couldn’t wait to try. Then a comfy but elegantly decorated living room with a flat screen and what I assumed were large windows that Darius had already covered with the thick drapes. Then finally, a small eating area with a fully stocked bar.
“What do you want?” he asked handing me the menu, although I didn’t need to even look at it.
“Cheeseburger and fries with barbecue sauce not ketchup, and a very large bottle of sparkling water with lemon.”
“You got it.”
It didn’t take long to get the food and we both dove in. Darius had ordered the same thing I did, but with a side of roasted broccoli and what looked like some kind of herb rubbed chicken breast. In the time it took me to decimate my burger and fries, he’d finished all of it. I could feel the pull of a food coma coming on but I also really wanted that bath.
“Come on,” Darius said, holding out his hand.
“Is it dessert time already?” I asked with a grin.
He chuckled.
“Not yet. You said something about a bath and neck massage.”
I let him lead me into the bedroom and he drew a bath while I undressed. When I walked into the bathroom, he was already naked, his cock standing at half-mast. I leaned against the doorway and took a moment just to admire him; this huge, scared male who had such a tender, fierce heart. He was beautiful to me, inside and out. I wanted to protect him, to share the faith I had that, despite the obstacles, everything would be alright.
All I can do is love him. I hope that’s enough.
He turned to look at me and I let him slowly rake his gaze over my body. I’d never had issues with my body, the thickness of my thighs or the roundness of my hips, but I also had never been this comfortable naked with a man before. It was easy with Darius though because he made me feel like the most desirable woman in the world, a rare beauty that he delighted in having as his own.
He approached me slowly, and knelt at my feet. With a reverence that stole my breath, Darius grazed the tops of my feet with his fingertips, then my calves, the back of my knee. Up he went, slow, savoring every inch of me until he was framing my face with his hands. He kissed me slow and I let myself fall into the all-consuming fire of his adoration.
Without stopping the kiss, Darius picked me up and walked to the tub. The scent of lavender and vanilla filled my senses moments before he stepped in with me. We took our time washing one another, letting ourselves forget all else, but this one small pocket of time.
It was as natural as breathing for me to straddle him in the warm water and slide myself onto his hard cock. My hands were wrapped around his neck, eyes locked with his as I rode him slowly.
“You’re everything,” Darius rasped, hands on my ass while his pelvis thrusted up to meet me. “Every dream I never let myself have, everything I could ever want.”
“So are you to me. And I want to keep you…forever.”
“Forever, baby.”
He filled me so perfectly, so completely that I couldn’t think of anything past where our bodies were joined. This was what I had always dreamed of sex being like, more than just pleasure. I wanted to meld my heart to someone else’s, to feel their pleasure wrap around mine. Our sighs and moans rose into the scented air as our bodies moved together, finding a rhythm as if we’d done this hundreds of times before. Soon that bright, overwhelming fire was careening through me. My toes curled, my back arched and I surrendered myself to the flames.
Darius buried his face in the crook of my neck, Orcish pouring from his mouth as he spilled himself inside of me.
“I love you,” he rasped, biting and sucking on my skin. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”
“I know,” I wrapped my arms and legs tighter around him, wanting to protect him too.
And this time, I would.
We cuddled a while longer, until the water was too cold and I was chilled. In spite of that, I yawned as I stepped out of the tub and reached for the fluffy towel.
Darius plucked it out of my hand and proceeded to dry me off.
“You know, as much as I like the sight of you kneeling naked at my feet, I am capable of doing that.”
He grinned up at me and I swear my pussy spasmed.
“Maybe, but I like taking care of you. And this way, I get to touch you.”
“Well, I can’t complain about that.”
I didn’t bother to wrap myself in the soft robe hanging behind the bathroom door, not when I was going to do more naughty, naked stuff with Darius in the bed. I ran into the bedroom and dove under the Egyptian cotton sheets with a long sigh. This was almost perfect.
“Darius? Where did you go?” I called when I realized he wasn’t in the bedroom or bathroom.
He came back into the room, the robe stretched so tight and awkward across his body that I couldn’t help laughing.
“Why are you wearing that?” I asked.
“I had to step out into the hall, didn’t think this was kind of place that would appreciate me in all my glory.” He gave me an honest, relaxed smile that melted me.
And then he held out a fancy, gold lettered shopping bag to me.
“I thought you’d be more comfortable with a weighted blanket so I asked the concierge to get one from a local shop. I’d been trying to get one for you before now, but we couldn’t afford for anyone to know where we were and so ordering one was out of the question.”
I watched, slack jawed and tears in my eyes as he unfurled the light pink weighted blanket on the bed then proceeded to arrange it on my side.
“Darius,” I gulped tears back and shook my head. “How are you this wonderful?”
“It’s just a blanket,” he said, eyes downcast.
I yanked on his hand and he fell onto the bed next to me.
“No, it’s not. It’s you taking care of me like you always do. Even when you never had a hope in hell of anything more between us. You always knew when I was getting sick, or when I was uncomfortable in a situation. You had my favorite foods in your mini fridge at the house. You have no idea what it means to me.”
“It makes you happy,” he slipped under the covers and pulled me to him. “And so it makes me happy too.”
I snuggled in, the weight of the new blanket calming a part of me that was constantly going, and I found my eyes drifting closed as I laid my head on Darius’ shoulder.