by Lucian Bane
“And as you know, I’m circumcised.”
“Yes, you are,” she said quietly.
“Which do you like better?”
“I like … circumcised,” she said, the words breathy.
Dante was ready to test her. “I see you’re letting me look at your breast.”
He eyed the way she licked her lips not confirming, not denying.
“Come stand right here, Rin,” he said. “I need to test you.”
“Test me?” she whispered, breathless now.
“Test your trust in me.”
“How … do you test that?”
“I test your obedience,” he said, his cock hard with his plans.
She slowly stood and Dante watched her walk to him until she stood before him.
“Move your hair to your back.”
She moved the one side at the front over her shoulder, her pace worried.
“Put one foot on my leg.” He tapped the spot and she eyed it, her lips parted as she did what he said.
Dante angled his head, looking at her pussy. “I want you to use one hand to play with your clit, and the other to finger your pussy. And …” he added softly, “I want you to look at me while you do.”
She obeyed him, her pretty eyes locked on his, being so strong while scared. He glided his hand up and down her calf, the along her outer thigh, watching her fingers on her pussy and clit.
“I want you to make both very hot. And I want to hear how hot it is.”
“It’s … so hot,” she whispered.
“You asked me what I like on a woman,” he said, raising his gaze to hers. “I like your pussy the most.” He licked his lower lip slowly. “But the second I say that, I think no, I like your tits more. And then again, no, it’s your nipples, the soft, swollen part below the nipple. And then I remember the nipples and think, no, definitely her nipples. And Rin?”
“Yes,” she gasped, her finger moving inside her while rubbing her clit in fast circles.
“I don’t like any other woman’s body besides yours. And I don’t like your body. I love it. Every bit of it. Is your clit hot?”
“Yes, so hot,” she whimpered.
“Put your finger inside it.”
She slid her finger in her pussy, gasping.
“Let me hear how wet you are. Fuck it for me.”
“Oh God, Dante,” she whispered, moving her finger in and out.
“Let me taste,” he said, stroking his hand over his cock, straining in his jeans. She stretched her wet finger to him and he eyed her, parting his lips and waiting.
Her moans grew when he leaned and sucked her finger deep into his mouth, flicking the tip with his tongue with a groan before slowly pulling back.
“And you’re pussy tastes better than anything I’ve ever tasted in my life,” he said. “Now make yourself come while standing there. I want you to look at me while I watch you be so very naughty for me. Do you like being naughty for me, Rin?”
She nodded, her brows drawn in torment as her fingers swirled in circles over her clit. “I like being nasty for you.”
“Fuck,” he whispered, staring into her eyes. “Nasty?”
“Yes,” she shot out.
“Nasty is even better than naughty,” he said, leaning and sliding his finger inside her. “Let me help you.”
“Dante,” she barely said.
“What do you want more, Rin? For me to fuck you? Or make love to you?”
Her body locked up with her orgasm before he got his answer and he stood, putting his arms around her, holding her up so she could enjoy it. He kissed her as she gasped and moaned, devouring it all up. “God you look so. Fucking. Good. In ecstasy.” He kissed her until ever shudder had its delicious way with her and pushed his finger into her mouth. “Taste it,” he whispered. “Taste your sweet, perfect pussy drenching my finger.”
She sucked with a desperate hunger, biting as she did.
“You suck my cock like a nasty princess,” he whispered.
“You like it?” she whispered.
“No, I love it,” he said, kissing her deeply while kneading her soft breast in his hand.
“Tell me now,” he said, pulling up. “Fuck or make love.”
“I think,” she whispered, “make love and then, I think, no, the other one.”
He smiled and chuckled, kissing her again. “See what I mean?” He loved how she kissed him back, her hunger delicate and curious. “Lay with me,” he murmured on her lips.
“Lay with you?” she wondered, sounding confused.
“Yes, in the bed. You in my arms?”
Recognition hit her with a gasp, followed by tears. “Right, I …” she wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t know that.”
“Why are you sorry, Princess?” he asked, pained.
She shook her head, and a sob burst from her then another. “I don’t know so many things,” she choked out bitterly.
Dante lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. His heart hammered in his chest as she clung to his neck and pressed her face against him. He suddenly didn’t want to put her down. Seeing her like that in his arms, safe and calm … what a gift. But he also wanted her to fall asleep in his arms. He wanted her to learn that’s how things should always be.
Dante lay her on the bed and loved how she wouldn’t let go of his neck. He removed her arms and placed them on her stomach, kissing her lips as he did. He climbed in the bed next to her and pulled her as close to him as he could get her. He stroked her, starting from the top of her hair, he glided his hand over her back, then the swell of her hip and thigh, returning again to the top of her head to repeat. Repeat over and over until she slept. Slept safely under his covering.
Chapter Nine
****
“Tin Tin!” Dante gushed into his phone, shutting the bathroom door.
The deep laugh of his brother gave Dante such a rush of relief, he had to sit and catch his breath. “Sorry it took forever and a day, goddamn bugs and cowboys throwing bum beef and jacking with people’s brake fluid. I’m in here all day and night and these fish fuckers ditch snitching’s gonna find themselves dancing on the blacktop.”
“Somebody tried to stab you?” Dante hissed.
“Not me, the place is runnin with cowboys and cell warriors galore. Fuck that, what’s up with you?”
Dante dove right in, not wanting to waste a second of the call. He started with the job he got.
“Great little bubba,” Tin Tin said, “proud to see you in that.”
“Well, let me just finish then decide how glad you are about any of it.”
Dante struggled to give all the details in order while Tin Tin’s ohhhhh shits randomly popped up at all the insane events on the timeline.
“So I left,” Dante said, “and then not four hours later, I get a call from the maid saying her husband’s killing her.”
“Goddamn Claw,” he muttered. “Tell me you didn’t kill him.”
“Fuck no,” Dante hissed. “And you can thank your white ass for that. I heard your voice clear as day when I was ready to. He won’t be walking for a while, but that’s still not the biggest problem,” Dante said, trying to hurry so Tin Tin could tell him what the fuck to do. “I took her from there and we’ve been hiding at a hotel. I started digging on this fucker, trying to get some leverage in case the heat comes.”
“And?”
“And we just found out today that the church Rin and her husband is a deacon at, have cells all over the US. Get this shit. At first I couldn’t find a fart mark on them. Then we found a janitor that had been fired. Blake met him and found out that he’d uncovered some child porn shit at the church. He brought it to the deacon and he was fired two weeks later, with accusations. And the deacon who fired him? Daryl fucking Bertrand, her husband.”
“Holy motherload of fuck,” Tin Tin muttered. “And this is in Arizona?”
“No,” Danta whispered. “This happened in Sacramento.”
“Sacramento Cal
ifornia?”
“Yes,” Dante said. “I feel like something major is going on Tin Tin.” Dante looked down at his phone when Tin Tin didn’t respond. “Tin Tin?”
“Claw,” Tin Tin said, his voice low and lethal. “Sacramento … is where I was convicted for the murder of that kid.”
Chapter Ten
Rin stared at the ceiling, wagging her foot to the chaotic flow of thoughts in her head. Every Dante-detail raced through her mind until her head did that shaking thing. Divorce, nakedness, loving, cherishing, passion … all that stuff he’d told her about. It was like cleaning a layer of filth from the window of her mind every time she processed it, allowing her to see outside.
The clearer it got, the more she saw. The more she saw, the more she was … a lot of things. Dumbfounded. Ashamed. Angry, hurt. Angry.
Seven years. Seven years that bastard made her think she was bad, dirty, or never good enough. The sky in her world was pouring down with ugly black dots and every time she considered what Dante had said, those dots came together, one ugly blob after another to form something big and scary that she could hardly stand to look at. Dots she’d allowed.
She sat up suddenly. That guilt. The one that had eaten her up, the one from marrying Daryl when her mom and dad didn’t want her to. The guilt from thinking that’s what killed them. That had made all his lies so easy to believe because … she sagged a little, feeling the blame finger slowly turning toward her. It made all his lies easy to believe because she believed it about herself. She truly did blame herself, she did feel dirty and bad and responsible.
That wasn’t Daryl, that was her.
She stiffened again. But the rest of the bad stuff was him. Maybe he hadn’t used her guilt on purpose but what he’d done, how he treated her—that was all wrong. Dante … Dante showed her how a husband should have treated her, Dante showed her …
She stilled, considering. What all did Dante show her? She stood and paced, needing to get all of it straight in her head. Dante showed her that she was worth so much more than she ever thought. She didn’t ever remember feeling that valuable. Not even to her parents, not like that. Of course not like that, Rin, it’s entirely different. He showed her that what she was feeling and wanting and needing was all from God.
Rin paused with a gasp. He’d been an answer to prayer. But she didn’t remember praying for this. She'd prayed to be healed so she could have babies, she prayed to be a better wife. Or so she'd thought. Maybe she'd prayed it deep down? With that part of her that knew, even when she didn’t? God’s spirit inside her? And so God sent Dante?
She went back to pacing, rubbing her arms. What if she was just making this up because she wanted it? What if it was another likely message sprouting up from the new soil in her mind?
The things Dante said presented themselves again, and immediately an orderly peace and understanding took hold of her. She closed her eyes, trembling in relief. She might not understand everything but when she thought of the things Dante said, there was a harmony and strength inside her.
God, she hoped. She didn’t want to be confused anymore. She didn’t want to be following a lie. But most of all, she didn’t want to be living a life that God disapproved of. And never in her life had she ever wanted God to approve of something as she did this. It was terrifying to want something so badly and not know whether your desires were coloring your perception of truth. Utterly terrifying. God, please, I beg you. Whatever your truth is, I want that. Show me. Hit me over the head with it, run me over with it. Please.
She spun at the sound of a card key entering the door. Her stomach flooded with so many emotions; fear, excitement, arousal, joy. Vomit.
Dante entered and shut the door, peering out of the curtain like he always did. They’d moved hotels. He said a week was long enough at any one place. They hadn’t found out anything yet about Daryl. They couldn’t reach Renee and that could be a good or bad sign he’d thought. Rin thought the same. She knew Renee cared for her but she also knew the woman feared Daryl. Rin had always read it as a healthy respect for the person who paid your bills and could have you deported. But now, she didn't know what she knew anymore.
Enter Dante, and the world tilted on its axis. Rin found herself having a hard time catching her breath at the sight of him. He was impossibly gorgeous. Literally there should be no man that gorgeous outside of a fictional thing. She’d thought he had the body of a god and still thought it. He filled his jeans to utter perfection, outlining his perfect butt and, mercy, the bulge at the front to which her privates answered with a surge of fire.
She resisted the urge to fan her face, panting lightly from the rush of desire.
He turned to her and she spun to the mirror next to the bathroom, not even sure why she did. What was she hiding from? Why was she? And then she knew the answer as suddenly as she wondered it. It was him. Just his presence brought all the things he’d done to her and all the things he promised to do and she hid what kind of mess that made of her. Just one look at the man-god and her entire world stuttered, choked, and gasped for air.
“I’ve been thinking Dante said,” hurrying over with a bag and plopping it onto the counter before her. She looked down and saw boxes and various toiletries. “You need a new look. We both do, really. It’ll buy us some time.”
“Time for what? Do you think we’re in trouble?”
“I don’t know and I’m not taking a chance.” He pulled the stuff out of the bag and all she could think about was how delicious he smelled. He wore some combination of his oils that made her clit tingle. Cedar and vanilla and another sharp, mysterious spice that called to her tongue. He held up two boxes. “Which color do you want to be?”
She looked at both, her thoughts running into each other. Color? Dear. Her stomach fluttered at the idea of what he was proposing. A new look. She took the box with the red color.
“Mmmm,” he said. “I was hoping you’d pick that one.”
The hunger in his voice made her legs weak as she looked up at his half grin. “I’ll cut my hair,” he announced. “In a couple days we’ll drive and get you a new wardrobe then we’ll head to a friend of mine in California.”
She looked at the box. “I’ve never done this.”
“Instructions should be inside.” He turned and went into the room and Rin opened the box and pulled all the contents out, happy he seemed to think she could handle it. Daryl would have left her to figure it out while implying she was stupid.
She opened the instruction paper and saw a pair of clear gloves stuck to it. She guessed to prevent color from staining your hands. She read the instructions carefully and Dante brought some items to the vanity and set them down. She lowered the paper a little and watched as he removed his shirt. The soft hum of hair clippers didn’t draw her attention from the glowing artwork stretching tight over his hard muscles. She gasped when clumps of ebony hair fell to his shoulders. She stared in panic as he slid the clippers over the side of his head. She suddenly saw him between her legs with her fingers tangled in that ebony silk and wanted to weep.
He suddenly paused and she looked in the mirror at him. “It’s just hair, it’ll grow back,” he said with a chuckle. She caught a glimpse of her reflection, mouth hanging open in shock and devastation.
When he went to slide it over the top she shot her hand out. “Wait!” He paused, turning only his eyes to her in the mirror. She held out her hand. “Let me.”
He stared at her a few seconds then handed it to her, opening his legs and lowering himself so she could reach easily. She stroked his hair softly, and began cutting all around the bottom, trying to figure out how to talk him out of cutting it all off. When she was done with all but the crown, she stroked the remaining hair. “That’s enough?”
He eyed her with those searching blue eyes, his brow filled with something close to amusement.
“Please?”
He shook his head a little with a smile while not seeming very moved with her sentiment.
&n
bsp; “I love your hair,” she said softly, unable to keep the sadness out of her voice. “It looks different enough?”
He closed his eyes with raised brows and a sigh. “I guess you do need something to hold on to when I’m sucking your pussy.”
Oh dear God. His words hit her body like a grenade of fire and she staggered back a little from it.
“Holy, fuck,” he muttered, turning to look at her. “I saw that.” His eyes grew dark as he lowered them over her body. “Hurry and get done so I can eat your pussy.”
She gasped and looked down at the paper on the counter as he walked off, leaving her trembling. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on what she was doing all the while seeing him between her legs, those electrifying blue eyes pinned on hers while he moved his hungry mouth all over her privates.
She decided she’d better conduct her “change” in the bathroom. She didn’t want an audience while she dyed her hair for the first time ever. Getting everything she might possibly need, she shut herself in the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Turning her head left and right, it dawned on her. She’d not ever had a different look. An image presented itself in her mind; hair that stopped at her shoulders rather than her butt. Hmm. That would certainly be different.
She looked through the clipper kit and found shears. Just how was she supposed to cut her own hair straight?
Straight? Why straight?
Chapter Eleven
Her mind went through some of the latest hairstyles she’d seen while doing her online fashion searching. The memory of one came to her. The woman in her vision even had red hair.
Rin combed the crown jewel of her head—as her mother used to refer to it—until it lay like a dark cape around her. She eyed the shears and quickly took them up before she lost her nerve and began to carefully cut along the pattern in her mind.
When she was done, panic cramped her stomach. Oh God. It looked nothing like the picture in her mind. She angled her head left and right, gasping. She looked like a seventies child with a bowl cut, only the bowl was a lopsided piece of pottery. She took up the shears again and aimed the trembling tip at various spots, snipping at the edge in hopes to take the ugly blunt away.
