27. Lena
My eyes flutter open, and I’m met with darkness. The curtains of Tony’s room are completely blacked out and my sense of time is hazy. Sitting up, I let my eyes adjust to the dark, and it seems like I’m alone in his giant bed, which is the size of a small island, surrounded by a sea of black satin sheets. I didn’t peg him as a man who appreciated the finer things, but he continues to surprise me. Like last night, instead of taking me to my room or back to Devin’s, he brought me to his.
He put me in the shower and watched me through the clear glass from where he leaned against the doorframe. As soon as I was out, he was on me, pressing me against the wall, forcing my palms to stay flat, holding my head against it and fucked me, pulling out just to make a mess of me again, coming all over my lower back and ass.
Like I was nothing more than a rag doll, he threw me over his shoulder and carried me out to the bed, where he forced me onto the mattress face down. Using his cum as lube, he took my ass, his huge cock stuffing me full. It was painful bliss, the kind that I wouldn’t mind relishing in for the rest of my life. I will walk the edge and wait for him to push me over again and again.
Dragging me back into the shower, he cleaned me up, making sure to take care of every inch. His touch was delicate, so much so that my eyes grew heavy, and before I knew it, I was dried off, in bed, and drifting off to sleep. Dreaming of two dark figures as they hunted me down, making chase.
Tony’s rough and unapologetic. And for a man of little words, the ones he does say are some of the dirtiest I’ve ever heard. It makes me wonder who he was before he came to the club. Before Devin. It’s the way his eyes change, the light filtering in and out of them as he turns into a shell of himself before snapping back to reality. But he still manages to be careful with me when it matters, and he seems thoughtful in everything he does. The way he treats the staff and Tasha shows that even behind his hard, masked shell, there’s a caring soul.
The lock on the door clicks, and Tony slides in, quick to close it behind him and lock it once again. He’s clearly making sure that Devin stays out, which, from my understanding, could be a bad thing for both of us, especially since Tony sent the video of us in the private room. According to Tony, Devin’s taken to bloodlust to calm himself down while he waits for us to come out.
His room is about the size of my first apartment with Bri, which was spacious even for the two of us. He has a full desk, a seating area, his fireplace, and this giant fucking bed, and he still has room to put more furniture if he so chooses. His walk-in closet off the bathroom is massive, and his shower could fit five people, just like Devin’s. Their rooms are similar in size, but their styles couldn’t be more different.
Where Devin’s room is filled with light, neutral colors, his bathroom is bright with white tiles, and Tony’s is dark, with black tiles, black bedding, and dark flooring.
Both their styles are sleek and minimalistic, and the details in their rooms clearly give away just how different they are. Devin prefers to cover the walls with high-end art, showing that he came from money and enjoys finer things, spreading himself throughout the apartment.
While Tony is high tech, his computer setup is extremely impressive, with a large screen mounted on the wall. He’s even installed neon lights around the room and under the bed, which give off the same vibes as the lighting in the Underground. It was so sexy when he powered them on, the red glow making his gray eyes look monstrous.
He’s carrying canvas totes and headed toward the large desk area of his room. He maneuvers around before opening one of the cabinets on the wall. No, not a cabinet, but a full-sized fucking refrigerator.
He unloads groceries from the cloth bags and quietly closes the refrigerator door, cutting off the dim light. He turns and I catch his eyes, freezing him in place.
“Is that a refrigerator?” The disbelief drips from my words, but I shouldn’t be surprised that he installed a full-sized refrigerator in his room. This man nearly has this place set up like a fucking bunker and enjoys his privacy. But I swear I see a twinkle of amusement in his eye, or it could just be a reflection from the glow of the neon lights as he brings them up, the room glowing. He chuckles, actually chuckles. “There’s a microwave in the cabinet next to it, if you’re interested.”
All I can do is shake my head and scoff. “Who are you, Tony Fox?” It’s posed with a joking tone, but it’s a question I’ve been dying to ask over the past few weeks. There are things about him that just don’t seem to add up and no one can seem to answer for me.
I hardly know anything about him, and he’d rather keep me at arm’s length than let me in. I try my hardest not to compare it to the way that Matt kept me in the dark, but the cruel voices in my mind seem to remind me that I have a type. Dangerous and full of fucking secrets.
He watches me curiously as if he can see right through me, reading me. “It’s not important.” He says the words lowly, as if it’s a whisper in the wind. “But what is important is that you know that I’m not like him . ”
His words knock the breath from me, because now I wonder if he can read minds or if I am just that predictable. “I never said you were.”
He takes a few steps around the desk, the open space now the only thing between us. “You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your face.”
Shit . I’ve never been good at hiding anything, so of course a man like him could see right through the dark and read my face. “If you’re not him, then who exactly are you?” I tap my chin with my pointer finger. “Who is the man behind the mask?”
He takes a slow step toward me, his footfall heavy as it hits the floor. “Who said it’s a man behind the mask?” He curls and uncurls his hands at his sides. “What if I told you, it was a monster? One that you let crawl into your bed, right between your legs.”
Sliding myself over to the edge of the bed, I hook my legs over the mattress, letting them dangle just about the floor. My legs are bare, and the only thing covering my body is Tony’s oversized T-shirt, one he insisted I wear after our shower. “Then I’d say I’d want to see for myself.” He flexes his hands again as I stand, the cool floor under my feet. My steps are slow as I move toward him, letting the tension build between us. “I know what monsters look like now, and from what I can see, you don’t share a single resemblance.”
“You’ve only met one kind of monster, the kind that are born that way. Some of us were made into one.” My breath catches and my feet freeze in place. He watches me carefully, assessing my reaction. A reaction that is once again written all over my face.
I relax my shoulders and continue to close the distance between us. “I don’t care what kind of monster you think you are, Tony. I’m not afraid of you.”
He takes a step toward me, heat radiating off his massive body in waves, heating my skin. “You fucking should be,” he nearly growls, the words a rumble in his chest .
“Maybe.” I shrug. “But Belle fell in love with the Beast, didn’t she? And look how that turned out for her.”
He cocks his head to the side, narrowing his eyes at me. “He turned back into a man at the end, but I’m cursed to be like this forever.” He takes another step, electricity crackling between us. “Is that what you fucking want? Half of a man?”
I close the distance, our bodies inches from each other as I look up at him. My hand floats up and I let it hover over his chest, unsure of what he might do if I touch him. “I’ll take whatever you give me, Tony.”
His breath hitches and his steely gray eyes dilate as if he just took a hit of his favorite drug. His hand comes up and wraps slowly around mine, finger by finger, before pressing it to his chest. His heart thunders under my palm and I feel the hard muscles that he has hiding under his tight, black tee. We stand like this for a moment before he takes a step, leading me back toward the bed.
He lets go of my hand and bends, removing his boots and kicking them under the bed, in bachelor fashion. He lowers onto the mattress, sliding himself up to the headboard to sit against it. I watch him curiously because this feels like some kind of trap, but he reaches out a hand, and any doubts I have about his feelings for me come crashing down. The wall that’s been between us coming down once and for all.
I take his rough, calloused hand, letting it scrape against my palm. He pulls me onto the bed, where I straddle his lap, my exposed pussy sitting right on his black, tactical pants.
I let my hands drop to my thighs, unsure of what he wants me to do. I’m worried about pushing him too hard, something that Devin told me not to do because Tony’s fuse is short, and his patience is thin. But right now, the man that Devin described is not the man in front of me.
My hands hover on his chest, my fingertips brushing against the fabric of his shirt. He takes a sharp breath as I lay my palms flat against his pecks, a quiet growl rumbling through him. His heart is still racing, even though he gives off this unnatural air of calm. Resting his hands on my waist, his fingers press into me, holding me in place.
He wants me here.
I trace the edge of his hood with my finger, feeling his cropped haircut underneath. I hear him take a sharp breath as I move my finger up slightly, but I never hear him exhale. I lean in and brush my lips over the scar that cuts through his eyebrow, my fingers inching further under his hood, feeling the longer hairs on top of his head.
He tenses up, and I hear another quiet growl, causing me to freeze. “I’m…I’m sorry.” I let my hands drop down to his shoulders as I lean back to look at him. “I didn’t mean?—"
He presses his finger to my lips, silencing me. “This wouldn’t be happening if I didn’t want it to, baby. Keep going.”
I hold still, even as his hand pulls away from my mouth and I watch in awe as his fingers curl around the black fabric of his hood, pulling it back and putting himself on display. Even with a short cut on top and the sides blended into a fade, his hair is dark brown with wisps of silver all over, looking like a dusting of starlight against a stark night sky. Small, black diamonds glint from his pierced ears.
I take a quick breath in at the sight of all the scars across the right side of his scalp that disappear into the slightly longer hair on top. I slowly reach up, giving him time to stop me if he wants to, and let my fingers trace over them. I explore every raised scar, following each one like lines on a map.
Even though his skin is marred, he’s even more handsome than I could have imagined— with his mask still covering the bottom half of his face.
“We don’t have to do this,” I say quietly, my voice making him tense up. “It doesn’t change anything.”
I watch as emotions swirl in his eyes, his brows furrowing as he considers my words. I attempt to slide back to give him some room, but his hands fly to my waist, once again holding me in place. “ Stay ,” he breathes. The single word alone would have stopped me in my tracks, even without his shaking hands, his fingers tightening their hold on me to near bruising. It’s a rough, almost raw command that sounds like it has been ages since he said it.
I trace my finger along the strap of his mask, watching as his eyes widen with what looks like fear. My heart aches at the thought that even this simple touch has him on edge and that whatever happened in his past life has made him so afraid to show me what’s under his mask, that he’s physically shaking.
My fingers trace the ridges of his mask as I listen to his sharp and heavy breathing that filters through the grates of his mask. My fingers stop at the clip on the side, dancing over it, but before I can press it, his hand shoots up and grips my wrist. I let out a startled gasp as his fingers tighten their hold.
Tony holds my gaze, wariness in his eyes. We’re frozen in this moment as I wait for him to decide if we’re going to cross this line because when we do, there’s no turning back. He will have laid it all out there, bearing all his scars to me.
His shaking hands remain on my wrists, gently pressing his fingers into my skin, the heat of his touch sinking into my veins, warming me all over. He uncurls his fingers, letting them fall away one by one. He closes his eyes and breathes deeply as my finger presses into the clip until it clicks free. The strap loosens as I unclip the other side, pulling it away and finally revealing the man behind the mask.
His lips are full, and I fight the urge to press mine on them immediately, pushing my tongue past them and tasting him. His skin is smooth, except for the jagged scar that cuts up from his chin, across his lips, and across his cheek. A battle scar that looks as though it had been poorly stitched on the field to have healed like this. It poses too many questions about who he was before he came here, ones I’m not sure I’ll ever have the courage to ask.
He’s so ruggedly handsome that it's not fair to the world for him to hide his face. But, then again, I might be selfish enough to relish the fact that I’m one of the only people who knows what he looks like, that I don’t have to share it with the rest of the world. He’s the one who would follow me in the shadows, whether to protect me or hunt me down like the monster he claims to be. I’ll take him either way.
I gently run my finger across his soft lips, his warm breath filtering through. “Tony,” I breathe. His eyes stay closed, and his body relaxes. I cup his face and lower my mouth onto his. I trace my tongue across his still-closed lips, begging for him to let me through; the need to taste him almost unbearable.
I pull my face back, the subtle feeling of rejection growing in my chest as his now open, gray eyes take in my face, looking for something in my expression. I sit back, his hard cock still pressed against my center, and take in the man sitting in front of me, a dozen questions sitting on my tongue.
I let them sit there, waiting for the perfect moment to open the dam and let them through, but they evaporate as his hands run up my thighs, pushing up his shirt to expose my bare pussy. I untuck his shirt and start pulling it up. He grips the hem, leaning forward, pulling it and his hood off.
I take in his broad chest, peppered with tiny scars. My fingers trace the muscles down to his belt, running them along the top of his pants. His fingers press into my skin as he breathes my name. I don’t hesitate as I crash my mouth into his, and this time, he opens for me, letting me taste him, sweet from the nicotine of his vape.
He grips the back of my neck, deepening his kiss, and sucks the air from my lungs as he leans forward. I mirror his hand and grip his neck as he stiffens under me. My thumb brushes over a giant scar at the base of his neck and as I pull back, I see his eyes have gone blank.
Clearly another thing from his past that was concealed beneath his hood, and while I could poke and prod, demand to know what happened, find out who fucking did this to him…I don’t. He has never once asked me about anything in my life, an d while I know he has looked up every detail, if it wasn’t for my connection with Matt, I actually doubt that he would have.
He pretended not to listen as I bared my soul, but I know he heard every word and noted every detail of my shitty life. He hates the bastard as much as I do. I know he kept his distance for so long to protect himself and those he cares about from falling into the hands of people like Matt. Like I so unknowingly did.
I brush my thumb over the thick scar tissue at the base of his neck and across other small scars that push out from the edges, trying to smooth the skin and his pain away. I gently kiss the scar that cuts through his handsome face. “I don’t care about your scars, Tony,” I whisper against his skin. The words seem to curl around him, relaxing his muscles one by one. I continue to run my thumb over the scar. “I only care about the man…or better yet, the monster, beneath them.”
Brushing my other hand through his hair, I let my fingers get tangled in it, gripping it at the scalp. I guide his head back, slanting my mouth on his and eliciting a groan from him as we go to war with our tongues and teeth.
I grind my core against his hard cock, letting the zipper area of his pants press into my clit. I want nothing more than to explore this man and let my tongue soothe over every scar. His hands push up my shirt again as he runs his hands up my sides, a shiver skittering across my skin. His thumbs caress the sensitive skin under my breast before he palms them.
I hold the shirt up as he squeezes my budding nipples between his fingers, causing me to gasp. “I can’t wait to taste more of you.” He bends down, pressing my tits together to run his tongue across my nipples, my head falling back as I grip his hair. “I’ve been waiting for so long to devour every inch of you.” He scrapes his teeth across my skin, nipping and sucking at my breasts, my desire flooding between my legs.
I reach between us, undo his belt, and unbutton his pants. I slowly pull down the zipper, letting each click echo through the room. He watches my hand tease him as I run my fingers under the waistband of his boxer briefs before he meets my gaze, his eyes dark and hungry. I give him a sly smirk before I grip his dick. “I want your monster to fuck me, Tony.” I lean in as his eyes darken even more. “Show me what you’ve been hiding under that mask of yours.” I press my thumb onto the head of his cock, smearing his precum. “Make me fucking scream .”