23. Rare Flowers in Bloom #2
Ian’s fingers spread across her lower back as he used the flower to lightly caress Deja’s shoulder, sending shivers down her spine.
“Women amaze me…” Ian said thoughtfully.
“I have seen women own their sexuality and the sexuality of others. I’ve seen them give life and take it away.
I’ve seen them deal with the horrors of man with a smile on their face…
As you do often… And no wonder the god I worship is a woman.
For only a woman could endure what the women of that brothel suffered… ”
Ian held Deja’s gaze. “I have seen women declare autonomy and have their lives threatened because of it. As I’m sure you know very well.
But the women I grew up with did not forgive as easily as you did.
And so, I helped them dispose of the bodies.
Quite often. I guess you could say I developed almost a reflex to getting rid of human filth, be it alive… or dead.”
Deja didn’t know whether to be mortified or impressed by the implication of his words. But she was more disturbed that he was exposed to such a lifestyle at such a tender age.
“I apologize for subjecting you to violence you’re not yet used to.
But I must admit… it was rather freeing.
Because for the first time I did something for someone I care about without being told to.
” Ian smiled. “It was like an instinct. I’m used to taking direction.
Like a robot without a mind of its own. But with you…
” Ian ran the flower over her cleavage. “...It’s like I’m free to follow my heart-”
“By killing people?” Deja interrupted.
“People are inherently bad, sweetheart. Especially men,” Ian noted.
“You mean men like you,” Deja reminded him.
Ian bit his lip, trying to hold back his grin. “Men like me… would happily take on the label of ‘bad guy’ to cleanse the world for someone like you…”
Sliding his fingers behind her neck, his thumb caressed her cheek. “Because you, sweetheart, are too pure and too perfect to waste your sorrow on someone who doesn’t deserve your sympathy…”
Deja looked up into Ian’s intense gaze as he thumbed her bottom lip, his eyes glazed over with lust. “Why do you care, Ian?” she asked with a challenge in her stare. “You’re speaking in riddles. What are you really trying to say?”
Ian tilted his head curiously before a grin teased the corners of his mouth, emphasizing his deep dimples. “You’re being manipulative.”
“I just asked you a question!”
Ian laughed. “You know exactly what you’re doing, sweetheart.”
“And what am I doing, Ian?”
He held her gaze as he gently ran his hands over her arms and circled them around his neck. He caressed her skin before tilting his head, affectionately kissing her forearm.
“You want me to reveal the inner workings of my mind…” he said, brushing his lips against her arm. “To strip away the layers the way I want to strip this dress from your body…”
Ian grabbed her chin and tilted her head back until she met his gaze again. His hands glided down her waist until he held her hips as they continued to sway to the music.
“Some attempt at trying to understand why murderers kill,” Ian said, tracing circles on the small of her back. “When it’s the same answer as to why predators hunt.”
Grabbing her hand, Ian carefully spun her around before pulling her back to him. Her back flushed against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She felt his erection pressed against her backside. His fingers danced down her arms as his lips kissed her shoulder.
“Or perhaps, the question is… how does a killer fall in love…” he whispered in her ear. Deja exhaled as his fingers slid into the slit in her dress. With one hand possessively palming her breast, Ian’s fingers caressed the inside of her thigh before grazing the front of her panties.
“...is that what you want to hear, darling…” he groaned in her ear as his fingers rubbed over the front of her panties.
Deja’s knees grew weak as she leaned onto the banister for balance.
“You want to hear that I’m insanely in love with you?
That I can’t function properly when I’m thinking about you? ”
His fingers slipped beneath her panties and slid between her labia to claim her clit. Deja desperately grabbed his hand as he slid two fingers inside of her. “That my mind, my words, my actions are no longer my own because you’ve completely taken residence and left me a desperate, wanting man?”
Suddenly, she heard her panties rip. She quickly turned around in his arms and saw him staring at the damp cloth in his grip. Cheeks flushed, eyes dilated, he held them to his nose and deeply inhaled.
She had never heard Ian growl, so the sound he made shook her to her core. Slipping her panties into his pocket, Ian pushed her back against the banister before his hand was between her legs again.
Deja gasped breathlessly as his fingers plunged deep into her womanhood. She gripped his bicep tightly as her head fell forward against his chest. Her body writhing with need as his fingers pulled her apart with every subtle twitch.
“Now, I see…” Ian hummed into her hair, holding her close, fucking her mercilessly with his fingers. “You’re looking for a confession…”
“Ian,” she whimpered, her thighs tightening around his wrist before he abruptly palmed her face and tilted her head back so that she was looking into his eyes.
Deja felt herself leaking down her thighs. His fingers made her vibrate as he added another. But no matter how much she writhed, he still held her gaze.
“I am in love with you… Deja Louis. If that’s truly what you wanted to hear…” he said, searching her eyes. “And I am a very jealous man because I should be the one making you moan. Making you cum. Making you gasp for breath… just like this …”
Deja bit down on her lip as his pace increased. “I should be the one bringing you to your knees, begging me to fuck you into euphoria. It should be me. I want to be with you all the time. I need it. I need you. To wake up next to you. Make love to you. Worship you.”
Deja gasped as she felt her climax reaching its peak, but Ian held her still as his fingers pulled her apart.
“I want to bathe you in love, gold, and adoration, and even that wouldn’t be enough.
I give you my heart, as decayed as it may be from a life you would be mortified by.
But see, darling… Your very existence has withered the sutures of violent chaos and loneliness barely holding this pathetic, decaying organ together…
only to be woven back together by your grace with just a hint of hope that some things… are worth giving a damn…”
Ian’s eyes fell to her mouth as she was gasping for breath, meeting her release before he swallowed her whimpers with an impassioned kiss. Her fingers dug into his bicep as an erotic wave of pleasure flushed her body. His tongue claimed her mouth, barely giving her reprieve to breathe.
Deja panted hard when he finally released her lips. Her body collapsed against him with exhaustion as he held her up, and she felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled.
“Been a while for you, has it…” he hummed, affectionately kissing her temple.
Deja peeled off of him, leaning back against the banister to find her balance.
She swallowed hard as he slowly sucked each wet finger into his mouth, his eyes never leaving hers.
“...thank you for the pleasure of tasting you…” he grinned.
Deja finally regulated her breathing. “Ian…” she said, taking his hand, and he looked at her, startled. She tried to find her words. “I feel like… something terrible happened to you… You and Keith and Caleb… and Jax…”
Ian looked at her, confused. “Nothing terrible happened-”
“You never talk about your parents.”
“My beautiful flower,” he smiled at her. “If I wanted to tell you horror stories and give you nightmares, I’d tell you about my parents.”
Deja frowned. “That doesn’t make me feel better, Ian.”
“I can fix that. Just hike that dress up for me again,” he grinned when suddenly his phone went off. “Oh dear…” he sighed. Ian looked at Deja. “My apologies, sweetheart. Would you give me a moment?”
Deja followed Ian back inside and down an empty hall when he abruptly stopped and turned to face her. “Just wait here,” he said.
Deja looked on, confused as he disappeared down the hall.
She heard a door close behind her and quickly turned around.
But there was no one there. Shaking her head in frustration, she headed down another corridor.
“Not this again,” she muttered when she bumped into someone’s chest. Someone’s bloody chest.
She looked up until her eyes widened at the blood-splattered mask looking down at her. Deja turned to run, but before she could scream, a hand wrapped around her mouth and dragged her into one of the rooms. She screamed into the palm that was holding her face.
“Baby, calm down! It’s me!”
Deja stumbled out of their embrace and turned around. “Caleb?! What the hell?!”
The light in the room flickered on. “Apologies, that’s my fault,” Ian said, standing by the table, wearing a mask. “I summoned him.”
Deja’s eyes widened in horror at the dead bodies of the site investors Ian had massacred. “Are you fucking kidding me, Ian?!” Caleb snapped.
“Oops?” Ian shrugged.
“ Oops ?!” Caleb growled, looking at the blood-splattered room incredulously. “What the fuck do you mean ‘oops’?! Aren’t you supposed to be the responsible brother?”
“Don’t patronize me. It was a reflex- Deja, darling, you can leave. Caleb is here to help me clean up,” Ian said, pulling on a pair of gloves.
“Like hell, I am. You told me someone tried to hurt Deja,” Caleb said, annoyed.
“They did. Psychologically . And I took care of them,” Ian said, pulling out a thin saw. “Do you have the garbage bags?”
Caleb sucked his teeth as he tossed the roll of trash bags at Ian. Lifting his mask, he turned to Deja. “You should go outside until we’re done.”