24. April 13, 2023
Cherry
The ride back to Les Vergers de la Mer was silent except for the sound of the vehicle itself passing over the roads.
Staring out the rear passenger window, she felt stiff as a board beside him, her hand engulfed in Demon’s resting atop his thigh.
She worried her palm would be sweaty or clammy. That wasn’t very attractive.
Suddenly, a whisper entered her ear, the breath attached to it soft and warm. “Stop overthinking.”
Turning her face to his, he was hiding behind the reflective sunglasses again but clearly looking at her.
Biting her lip, she paused and then nodded.
She was acting like what was coming when they got back to the estate was new to her.
It certainly wasn’t. But it felt new. Maybe because it was him.
Maybe because she was opening herself up to someone for the first time since her father’s disappearance, even if it was temporary.
Whatever the reason, she felt like she was spending the night with a man for the first time .
She laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Well, in theory, she was. Yes, they’d slept side by side the past two nights in the same bed.
Yes, she’d woken up both mornings in his arms, her back tight to his front.
But they hadn’t had sex yet, and she’d never spent the night with a partner before.
She’d gone back to their places or a hotel.
She’d fucked them. Maybe she’d hung out for a bit or even gone another round with them, but the time had not been intimate other than the sex itself.
She was about to have sex with a man she’d wanted for going on six years, then sleep next to him.
Stop overthinking? How could she not overthink what she was about to do?
When they arrived back at the villa, she was still lost in her own thoughts.
She heard him thank Matthew, and the driver replied, but the words themselves were merely mumbles.
As they entered the building, she registered Rayon appearing and Demon talking with him for a few moments.
About what she had no idea. Then he was guiding her up the stairs to their suite.
Most, if not all, of the guests must have left because the hallways were silent.
He pulled open the door to their room, gently ushering her inside with a hand to the small of her back.
Without conscious thought, she whirled into him and pressed her mouth against his.
He clearly wasn’t on board with her attack because his hands slid through her hair at the scalp and pulled tight, forcing her neck to arch.
The action pried her mouth from his, and that tautness of the muscles caused her lips to remain parted and her eyes to open wide.
He must have realized he had her strung tight because he let go with one hand and reached up to rip the sunglasses off his face and throw them to the side.
“You realize you provoked the monster, yes?”
“Yes,” she hissed when she felt the slight twist at her hair roots.
Now she really couldn’t move her head. She didn’t want to move.
She needed him to be the one in control.
There was just too much to process. Too much worry.
Too much unknown. These were things she was unfamiliar with in her role at Tribe.
She knew more than anyone except maybe God.
She was the puppeteer, controlling the projects they took on.
Controlling their actions by directing them where she wanted them to go.
Controlling the office from her computer station. Not tonight. Tonight, he had control.
“Good. So long as it’s understood.”
Forcefully, yet careful not to cause her to trip, he backed her up to the edge of the bed.
She felt the back of her legs hit the padded bench at the foot, and when he suddenly let go of her hair, she collapsed onto it.
“I warned you, fireball. I won’t be gentle.
I may start easy, but by the end, you’ll be wrecked.
If you don’t want me to own all of you, now’s the time to speak. ”
“I don’t want gentle,” she admitted. “I want you just as you are.”
“Then that’s what you’ll get.” His hand raised in front of her face, one finger laid against her lips.
“No talking from this point forward unless I ask you a direct question. I’m going to go downstairs.
I’ll give you twenty minutes alone. Strip the covers and the top sheet off the bed.
Do whatever else you need to do in the time I’m gone, but when I return, your ass better be naked and lying on your back in the middle of the bed.
Every stitch of clothing needs to be off your body, and I want your hair down and spilling all over my pillow.
Your hands will be up alongside your head.
Your eyes will be closed. Nod your head if you understand. ”
Reflexively, she swallowed and nodded. Apparently, BAMF mode was more than just his project gear.
“Good girl.” Immediately, he turned on his heel and went out the door, shutting it behind him without looking back.
Stupefied, she sat there for two minutes, trying to process what the hell had just happened. She had to work to shake herself free of the trance he'd put her in and get moving. She was down to eighteen minutes before he’d be back.
There wasn’t time for a proper shower, so she stripped off her clothes as she moved with purpose to the bathroom.
She made a pile of them on the vanity next to the sink, heedless of the wrinkles they’d have from not being folded and put away neatly.
Now was not the time to worry about that kind of trivia.
Instead, she focused on sponging herself down with a cool cloth, lotioning her skin, and brushing out her hair.
With three minutes to spare, she checked to make sure the heat of the day hadn’t done irreparable damage to her makeup, and seeing it hadn’t, she went into the bedroom portion of the suite.
Quickly, she closed the curtains on the French doors, then pulled back the coverlet and top sheet, loosely folding them and placing them on the chair in the corner of the room.
Finally, she slid onto the bed and arranged herself as he asked.
And waited.
It was probably no more than a minute, but the way her mind and heart were racing, time felt endless.
What would he do? She hadn’t taken him for a Dominant in the same way that his teammate TB was.
That man actually frequented a kink club.
He liked to control Flame through sex with various types of restraints.
She’d never seen evidence of that in Demon’s past. However, he’d definitely gone all extra alpha on her just before leaving the room, and she was not about to deny that her brain had nearly wept for joy that she wasn’t going to have to be in charge or assertive.
He clearly was going to be both of those things.
He’d told her there was a darkness in him.
A monster. She shivered. God, she hoped so.
Not the literal kind. But something subversive.
Unrepentant. Dangerous. Feral. Like a dark romance with the most unhealthy of trigger warnings that made a woman’s hundred-dollar panties totally unsalvageable, and she wouldn’t even flinch at throwing them away.
Or letting him rip them off her body and use them to stroke himself off over her while he growled an extremely dirty itinerary for them in his bed.
Then once he came all over them, he’d gag her with them while he held her down and fucked her so hard the headboard dented the wall. She shivered again.
“Whatever that thought was, fireball, I want to do that.”
So lost in her head, she had missed hearing the outer door to the suite open, then quietly shut.
A smile formed on her mouth. Was he hoping to catch her not being ready or not following his instructions?
His footfalls were slow, but she knew he was doing it on purpose to heighten the experience.
He wasn’t just dark. He was twisted in the most delightful way.
Her eyes were closed, as he’d ordered, but she could feel the air around her seem to pressurize.
She knew he stood at the foot of the bed, staring at her, but she remained unmoving, unseeing, waiting for whatever move he was going to make.
It felt like minutes passed before she heard another sound, but when it did come, it was the rustle of clothing as he moved, a gentle thud on the bedside table, and the clink of metal against a ceramic object.
The bed dipped slightly as he sat at her hip. “Remember. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound,” he commanded.
A single fingertip touched the upturned palm closest to him, and it trailed agonizingly slow down the inside of her bent forearm, inward from her elbow to her shoulder, crossed her clavicle, then downward to her breasts.
When he reached the middle of the valley between them, he changed direction again, smoothing over the plump flesh and tracing the edge of her areola, causing her flesh to pebble in response.
After several circles around the tip, he dragged his finger back to the centerline and over to the other breast, repeating his touch.
Back and forth, he teased her until she felt as if he’d mesmerized her with his touch into a state between asleep and awake.