Chapter 26
twenty-six
RAE
I woke up before Darius the next afternoon. My phone was missing, so I grabbed his off the mattress and pulled up the main social media site he used, to kill some time.
There were pictures posted of us, and the posters had tagged him.
As I looked through them, I bit my lip.
The pictures weren't bad.
They were... cute, honestly.
Photos of us teasing each other while we ate way too many corn dogs.
Pictures of him basically carrying me to our car.
Images of us snuggled up together on the river bank, talking.
I liked them.
Hell, I loved them. To the point of saving the images and texting them to myself.
My phone would appear eventually.
After a moment of hesitation, I scrolled through the pictures Darius had taken of us together.
I found one where we were snuggled up on the couch with our headsets around our necks.
A blanket was draped over both of us while I sat on Dare's lap, and he was kissing my cheek while I made a face at the camera.
The smile in my eyes was ridiculously obvious.
We looked happy.
So, insanely happy.
I posted the picture to Dare's page with a simple caption.
Officially introducing Dare & Raven Scorch
Raven Scorch wasn't a fabulous name... but it was mine.
And I loved it, if just because it tied me and Darius together.
I exited the page before the likes and comments started coming in, just in case.
"What are you doing? Your heart is racing," Dare mumbled against my shoulder, where his face was pressed against my bone in a way that couldn't have been comfortable for him.
"Claiming you," I said simply.
His chest rumbled. "Finally. Can my life revolve around you now?"
I dragged my fingers through his hair. "As long as you still have hobbies."
"I'll have so many hobbies."
"Like..."
"Fucking you."
"That doesn't count."
"Cooking for you."
"I guess I can give that one a pass. Only because I like eating what you cook. What else?"
"The Cabinet shit? Callum wants me to hunt someone down with him tomorrow. You can stay here and play video games while I do."
"Alright, I accept your hobby list."
"Thank god." He adjusted our position slightly, so he could wrap his lips around my nipple and suck a little. "We should get working on hobby number one."
"Do you want to have a mating ceremony?" I asked, instead.
He went still, mouth on my nipple and hands on my body. "Is there a right answer to this question?"
I grabbed a pillow and smacked him in the head with it. He grunted like it hurt, even though we both knew it hadn't.
"I'm fine with or without a mating ceremony," he said. "I don't care about the party or the peacocking, but I'm not opposed. Do you want a ceremony?"
"I..." I trailed off, biting my lip.
"Do I need to smack you with a pillow to get an honest answer, like you just did to me?”
I smacked him with a pillow again, instead. He sucked hard on my nipple in revenge, and my hips arched against him a little. "I'm thinking."
"Think out loud."
"Fine. I think I kind of like the idea of it. It would feel more real if we had a ceremony. But I would want it to be small. Just us, and our family, and some takeout food."
"That sounds fucking perfect." He lowered his lip back to my nipple. "Open the nightstand drawer."
I tried to reach it, but it was way too far away. I had to pull some of my shadows off his skin, and used them to tug the drawer open and lift the single item in the drawer.
It was… a vibrator with what looked like an inflatable knot.
"I brought the sex club to you. Your own personal sex club. The only one you're ever going to get." He gave my nipple one last suck, licked the other one just so it wasn't completely left out, and grabbed the vibrator from my shadows. "Want to play?"
"You know I do. I still don't have a vampire form, so I'm not sure if the knot thing will work."
“You’re still a demon. It'll work. Give me your safe word."
My face flushed. We'd never tried double-penetration, but we'd talked about it, and he knew I was game. "We're not going to need a safe word, Dare."
He rolled me to my stomach and smacked my ass lightly. It stung, but only a little. "Just play along."
"Alright," I said dramatically. "My safe word is corn dog."
"That's technically two words, but I'll let it slide." He lifted my ass in the air, and ducked his head. I sucked in a breath when his tongue found my core, teasing my clit before dragging all the way up to my ass.
I grabbed the sheets to hold myself up as a moan tore through me.
"If you like the way that feels this much, you're going to fucking love having my fingers and cock," he said with a rumble. "Let's get you ready."
Darius teased me with his tongue until I came on his mouth, crying out.
My body arched and rocked as he slid out from beneath me, picking up the vibrator and lining the tip up with my entrance. "Ready?"
"Yeah," I breathed.
He slid it in. It wasn't as thick as he was, so it wasn't a big deal at all.
I moaned when it bottomed out inside me, and he fucked me with it slowly, until I was moving with it.
"Good girl, Shadow."
I swatted his arm playfully.
His fingertip brushed my back entrance after he dipped it inside me to make it slick, and I almost came from the sensation alone.
I swore when he pressed the tip of his finger into my tight hole. My hips rocked hard as I nearly came.
"God, that's such a fucking perfect ass." He took me a little deeper with the toy. I choked on another curse as it hit the back of my channel lightly.
He slid his finger in a little deeper.
A cry escaped me as I came hard.
He released the toy long enough to reach over and grab a bottle of lube from the drawer, and I gasped when his slick fingers met my back entrance again.
The sensation was different, now.
Even better.
He stretched me with two fingers, still fucking me slowly with the toy.
Finally, he lined the tip of his cock up with my entrance, and slowly, inch by inch, slid home while the vibrator still filled me.
Then he hit a button, and the knot on the toy swelled.
I came with a scream.
I arched.
Gasped.
Panted, and moaned, and sweat, too.
He fucked me slowly, holding his position every time I smacked his thigh hard to make him stay right fucking there.
I came over and over, until the knot finally started to release. Darius fucked me just a little harder, until I was screaming through another orgasm while his climax sent his pleasure rolling through the mate bond, letting me feel every shred of it.
He pulled out and carried me to the bathroom after he ditched the toy on the mattress. He held me close as he filled the bathtub, cleaned me off beneath the water, and pulled me onto his lap to snuggle.
I was dazed.
So very dazed.
But he started massaging my head again, which was still my absolute favorite.
"Do you wish you had a mate with a knot now?" Dare asked, his voice playful but his emotions not quite as light.
"No. I wish my mate had fucked me like that sooner."
Darius chuckled. "I think I can make it happen again."
"You'd better."
He massaged my scalp until I was boneless, then carried me into the kitchen.
We spent the next few hours making dumplings together, mostly naked, and played video games after that.
It was fucking bliss.
Maybe I didn't want him to have hobbies after all.
Maybe I did want his life to revolve completely around mine.
And maybe he was the most perfect mate I could've ever asked for. The one person in the city who needed me as much as I needed him.
Darius Scorch had become my whole fucking world—and I had absolutely no problem with it.
Not anymore, at least.