Chapter 2
Will
Eleven p.m., Saturday night. The Bellefleur District is not the shiniest of locales. I appreciate the wide selection of humanity, though. Hundreds of people. All walks of life. Preoccupied with petty squabbles, profane desires. Ignorant of how short their lifespans are.
Outside of Bartleby’s, I take in the scene until Autumn steps through the door and onto the sidewalk. Her eyes widen in surprise.
“Oh! I only texted you a minute ago,” she says. “You’re already here?”
“I was waiting for you,” I say.
She steps in close and wraps her arms around me. “You don’t have to do that.”
I do. Because I live for things like this. Touching her. Holding her. Watching her emotions, so fragile and human, pass over her face with every thought that travels through her mind.
She moves to my side and I lead her to the paid lot where I parked.
“I do not miss having to walk all the way to the hotel,” she says. “It was murder on my feet.”
“Do they hurt now?” I ask.
“No, they’re fine.”
I can hear the faint rise in her tone, the strain of a lie. That won’t do. If she’s going to feel pain, it’s going to be pain I give her. Pain that she likes. So I reach down, wrap my arms around her shoulders and knees. Lift her up.
She shrieks and giggles. “What are you doing?”
“Carrying you.”
“I can walk, you know.”
“Yes. You can. But it hurts you and I don’t like it.” I carry her the rest of the way to the car. A few pedestrians stare at us. Autumn gives them a friendly wave. They continue on, unconcerned.
When I get her to the car, I set her down next to it. She smiles up at me, her pink lips stretching.
I have to kiss her. I lean in. Press my lips to hers.
Her answering sigh is music. I stroke my tongue against hers, she responds in kind.
Tangling my fingers in her ponytail, I tilt her head back.
Kiss along her throat. Blow gently beneath her ear, watch her skin pucker with goosebumps. She whimpers, presses against me.
“More,” she says, rubbing her chest against me, trying to hook her leg around mine.
“In you go.” I open the door and step back, even though it’s painful. “If you don’t get in this car, I’ll fuck you right here in the parking lot.”
“That could be fun,” she says, but she turns to get inside the car.
“You’re a little temptress,” I say, smacking her ass as she climbs in.
I go around the car and get behind the wheel. She looks so soft and young perched in her seat. She fumbles with the seatbelt, so I take over, buckling her in. Safe. I need to keep her safe.
But even now, as I’m leaning across her, she lifts her chin, exposing her neck.
Unable to resist, I press a kiss there, right at the center of her throat. I stop there, though, breathing in and out slowly, trying to calm myself.
“You breathe,” she says, holding her hand in front of my mouth.
“Yes.”
She moves her hand down, hovering it over my chest, then places it firmly against my heart. “You have a heartbeat.”
“Yes.”
“You’re…alive?”
“Undead,” I correct.
Wrinkling her nose in confusion, she says, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t have to.” I lean over farther so I can run my nose along her cheek, kiss her temple. “We aren’t natural; we’re supernatural. Normal rules, common sense, laws of nature—they don’t apply to people like us.”
“So I have to make my peace with not really knowing?”
“Pretty much. Can you do that, little one?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good. Let’s go home and I’ll give you a reward.”
She squirms in her seat. Excited. Good. My dick is hard and I’m ready. I’m always ready for her.
The drive to The Corbin is short. I pull into my reserved parking spot. Xander’s place is still empty. Asshole. His loss.
I open Autumn’s door before she has a chance to. She glances up in surprise. “You’re fast.”
“When I need to be. I try not to scare you.” Leaning in as I help her from the car, I say, “Do I scare you?”
She shakes her head. “No. I feel safe with you.”
Her words pierce me. I need to live up to them.
As we’re making our way inside, my phone sounds with Xander’s ringtone. I pull the device from my pocket. “Yes?”
“Look, Gaius is in California.”
“Yeah,” I say. “We expected that.”
“He’s already staked some guys up in San Francisco. Neve is worried.”
“Neve is always worried.”
“She has fucking excellent intuition, Will. You know this. Stop ignoring the problem like you always do.”
“I’m ignoring the problem because there is no problem. We’ll avoid Gaius like we did last time. His business isn’t our business. Our business isn’t his. We can coexist in the same city for as long as he’s here.”
“Do you even hear yourself? He travels with an army and leaves destruction in his wake. Always has. We know; we used to be part of that army. Or have you forgotten?”
I haven’t. On the rare occasions when I sleep, I sometimes wake up with violent, bloody dreams. The stain of death on my hands. The taste of it in my mouth. “He has evolved,” I say. “We all have.”
Xander makes a sound of disbelief. I don’t care if he’s skeptical. Gaius Black hasn’t bothered us in over fifty years. He has no reason to bother us now.
“What are you doing right now?” Xander asks. “It doesn’t sound like you’re inside. Are you hunting?” He sounds hopeful.
“I’ve just brought Autumn home from work. We’re going in now.”
“Fuck.” Xander sighs.
I wait to see if he’ll say more. He always has more to say.
But instead, my phone beeps several times.
Bastard hung up on me.
Autumn
A knot of uncertainty has formed in my stomach. I overheard quite a bit of Will’s conversation with Xander. It sounds like Xander is the worrier between the two of them, and Will is the more relaxed, carefree guy.
And Xander is still pissed that I’m staying here.
None of this is reassuring.
Will didn’t immediately fall upon me and fuck my brains out like I’d been hoping he would. He got me all aroused in the parking lot. I would’ve let him fuck me there—I wouldn’t have cared who could see. I wanted him that bad.
But his phone call with Xander switched Will from amorous to anxious…or angry? I can’t tell. He seems relaxed, but there’s a thoughtfulness to his expression as he stalks back and forth through the kitchen.
As soon as we walked into the basement apartment, he stated that I needed to eat.
So now he is currently cooking, and it looks to be enough food to feed the entirety of San Esteban.
The dishes smell divine. He rapidly spouted a bunch of Italian-sounding names when I asked what he was fixing. In a perfect accent of course.
“Do you speak Italian?” I ask.
“Ciao.” He grins, but it looks forced.
“Really,” I say.
“Yes, Autumn. I speak Italian.”
“Do you speak any other languages?”
He nods. “Primarily romance languages. But I also speak German, Luxembourgish, Thai, and Mandarin. I’m working on Japanese.”
“Wow. Have you been to all of those countries?”
He nods. “Nothing but time to travel.”
I’m jealous. I wanted to spend a semester abroad when I was in college, but Dale strongly urged me not to.
He wasn’t in control of me, not technically, but he did control some aspects of my trust, and he was my only family.
I lived in fear of disappointing him. That’s why I dated all those douchey guys he set me up with.
Never again. Even if he never sees justice, I’m never living with him again, never going to worry about disappointing him or making him angry.
Will turns off the stove. “Love? Where did your mind go just now?”
“Just…nowhere. Thinking about random shit.”
“So crass,” he says. “Those are some dirty words coming from my angel’s lips.”
There’s a stern yet playful note to his voice.
“Are you hungry?” he asks, taking a pot of pasta from the stove and draining it, his movements efficient even while his focus is on me.
“Yes, Sir.”
He cocks his head. “Then I hope you like pasta.”
“I want something else to eat, Sir.” I stare meaningfully at his package.
After setting down the strainer, he turns to face me fully. Grabs himself through his jeans. “This? This is for little girls who listen to their daddies.”
Daddies? Instant arousal.
He watches my face carefully, then grins. “You know you’re my little girl, my little love.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Enough with the Sir. You can call me Daddy.”
I can only gape at him.
“You heard me right,” he says. “Do you like it? Does the thought of me being your protector and punisher turn you on?”
“Yes, Sir. I mean, yes, Daddy.” My breasts feel heavy, my panties wet.
“I thought it might. Freaky little girl.”
I look away, embarrassed. But even that embarrassment is arousing. Fuck. I am freaky.
Will stands tall, folds his arms across his chest. “Get on your knees and suck me, sweetheart. Show your daddy how good you are.”
I scramble to the floor in front of him, wincing at the cold tile.
“Wait a moment. My little doll is going to be on her knees for a while.” He gets a throw pillow from the couch and brings it back, tossing it to the floor in front of me. “Kneel on that.”
I scoot forward, relieved at the easing of pressure on my kneecaps. Tilting my head back, I can see Will standing over me, looking down. His bulge is growing larger, harder, the longer I look at him.
“Shirt off, love,” he says.
I whip off my shirt. Now I’m kneeling before him in a bra and black jeans.
He nods in approval. “Now take out my dick.”
It takes me a moment to get the buttons free, but I peel back the fabric and pull down his boxer briefs enough to free his cock.
He’s pulsing and warm in my hand. So full, so hard.
A bead of precome dots the tip. I stare at it, my mouth watering.
He coaxed me to swallow him all the way last time, and I want to do it again.
“Gobble this down and I’ll feed you dinner,” he says. “I take care of my baby girl.”
Holy fuck. A blaze of delight grows between my legs. “Yes, Daddy.”
I lean forward, holding the base of his cock in my hand and wrapping my lips around the head. He watches me, those blue eyes electric, locked on mine.
He tastes salty, musky, manly. I lick up and down his shaft as I take as much as I can into my mouth.
He curls his hand in my hair, tugging gently.
The control he exerts, the dominance, it makes me so wet, I can feel my panties sticking to my pussy lips.
I want to touch myself while I blow him.
As I reach my free hand to the apex of my thighs, he grins.
“Horny, dirty little girl. Can’t help but touch yourself, can you? ”
The chastising tone, the mocking glint in his eyes, they make me even wetter. I can’t speak, but I make an “mm-hmm” sound to tell him he’s right, even as my face burns with embarrassment. I rub myself through my jeans. It’s just as he said—I can’t help it. Especially when he talks to me like this.
“So naughty,” he says. “I’ll have to punish you for those filthy thoughts you’re having.”
I suck him harder, wanting to please him, wanting to get him off so he’ll punish me faster.
“Take it like a good girl,” he rasps, holding my head still and fucking my mouth.
Pressing the heel of my hand over my sadly-jean-covered pussy, I try to get some relief. If I could hit the seam of my jeans just right—
“Enough,” he says.
When I don’t immediately stop sucking him or touching myself, he tightens his fist in my hair. A delicate pain spreads over my scalp. I pull away from him, smacking my lips and staring into his intense blue eyes. “Sorry, Daddy,” I whisper.
Will I ever stop feeling a thrill when I call him that? Doubtful.
My fingers twitch, wanting to return to my pussy.
“You need to listen to me,” he says, voice gruff. “If you don’t, you’ll get punished.”
I wiggle in place. I like the sound of some punishment.
Maybe I did a little too much reading in the library’s BDSM room, I don’t know, but I glance around, wishing Will and Xander had some of the furniture I read about.
A spanking bench, for starters, but what I’d love to do is have Will spread me out and tie me to a St. Andrew’s cross.
“Are you paying attention, love?” he asks.
I shake myself from my fantasies, because there’s a real-life fantasy right here in front of me. “I’m paying attention,” I say.
“Good. Listen carefully. Stand up. Strip out of the rest of your clothes. Then turn around and put your hands on the counter.”