Dark Desires (Dark Romance Boxed Set)

by Cerys du Lys

  “Thanks, babe. That looks amazing.”

  I set down the ice and she gave me a little wink that made my face hot.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “If I asked you to feed me, would you do it?”

  She laughed at my stupid joke.

  Fucking hell. She’s your VP’s old lady.

  “Hell no. What do I look like, your nursemaid?” Julia’s smile remained but her eyes drooped with that blue expression I saw so often.

  “You’re too nice to be a biker,” she remarked softly as I ate my food.

  I’m not that nice. I’m thinking about kissing my brother’s old lady. Still, the compliment deserved a smile, which I gave her. “Funny, you seemed to hate me only a few hours ago.”

  Her face fell even further and I despised myself.

  “I never hated you.”

  She winced as she freed her arms from the leather jacket, which tugged at her red t-shirt. I couldn’t help but look at the tantalizing strip of flesh on her lower back that was revealed and I gasped. Instead of white skin, I saw a crisscross of angry, raw flesh.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Julia gave me a frightened look as she tugged her shirt down, hiding the wounds on her back. “Nothing.”

  I grabbed her and lifted the back of her shirt. She screamed and smacked my hands away, but not before I saw the ugly welts all over her back. The sandwich I just ate rose up my throat.

  “He did this to you?”

  “Goddamnit, Spike!” she screamed, tears filling her eyes. “Mind your own fucking business!”

  “I’ll fucking kill him. What a piece of shit.” Disbelief washed away into fury. I was angry enough to get up on my feet, but Julia pushed me back down.

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Oh, fucking yes, I will. He’s sick, Julia. Old ladies are not supposed to be treated like this—ever. No member would ever respect a brother who did this to his woman.”

  Her hair shook as she yelled at me. “Maybe they would. Especially an old lady who betrayed the club. Crash doesn’t care about me. Spike, if you threaten him, he’ll kill us both.”

  I sank back into the couch, she might just be right.

  “So you’re fucking okay with that?”

  All of the energy left her. Her shoulders slumped. “He said he didn’t mean it. He was using Red.”

  I looked at her trembling body and her streaming eyes, looking everywhere but me, and felt so sorry for her that I didn’t know what to say. It was like the mantra of every abused woman in the world.

  “Julia, sit down next to me.”

  She looked at me as she heard my softened voice and stepped over my legs. Sitting down, I saw how vulnerable she really was. All I could do to keep her hands from shaking was grab ahold of one. So I did.

  “If you want to get out, I’ll help you. On my mother’s grave, I’ll take you out of this hell hole.”

  “Don’t say that,” she gasped.

  Her hand twitched inside mine. “Julia, I give you my word—”

  She wasn’t listening to me.

  “That’s just what he likes. It gets him off. Some men like it rough.”

  I winced, wondering how someone so shrewd at playing billiards could be so clueless about her own situation.

  “That ain’t right. I’m not a fucking gentle flower in bed, either, but I would never leave a mark on a woman like that. A real man would never do that.”

  “I don’t have a choice.”

  Her hand slipped out of mine as she rose from the couch.

  “Julia!”

  She paused for a moment as she stood over me, her eyes creasing with sadness when she looked at the bandages around my ribs. Then she bent towards me, her golden hair falling around her face as she came way too close. Her lips brushed over mine, you could barely call it a kiss, but heat blazed through her mouth into mine and I leaned forward to deepen it without thinking. Julia pulled back as if burned, her pupils small. Her face burned and I knew that mine probably did, too.

  Holy shit. What just happened?

  “Hey—”

  “I’ll be outside if you need anything.” The firmness in her voice told me that the conversation was over. She gave me another melancholy look from behind her curtain of hair and paused by the door.

  “You’re a nice guy, Spike. I wish he was like you.”

  My heart galloped ahead when she said that. She’s into me. I was stunned. I was elated. I sank into the couch, overwhelmed with a sudden, steamy vision of Julia sitting on my lap with my arms wrapped around her. That was the first time I seriously considered what it would be like with Julia as my old lady. If I didn’t think of her in a sexual way before, I certainly was now. I always dismissed the thoughts from my head, assuming that she didn’t want me, but now it was possible.

  She kissed me.

  I wanted to bring her back inside and claim her as my own. I wanted her hair, her lips, her body, and her smooth voice.

  She’s Cain’s old lady, you piece of shit.

  JULIA

  When Tank drove me home I decided that I would try harder to make things okay with Cain, even though I wanted more than anything to turn back around to Spike’s house. I was playing a deadly game with him.

  I should have never said those things to him. I was courting disaster by allowing these feelings to continue. I kissed him for Christ’s sake.

  It had to stop.

  But how could I stop something that soared inside me without reason? How could I tell my body to stop having feelings for Spike?

  I sat in the living room in Cain’s apartment, my shoulders tensed with waiting for his arrival. My stomach growled with hunger and I realized with a shock that I hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon.

  Too much coke. But the cravings were nagging at me and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.

  Opening the fridge, I found ingredients for a stir-fry and cooked rice on the side. In the steam of the cooking vegetables, I wondered whether I should eat first or wait for him to come home. My back was still raw and I didn’t want to risk pissing him off even more.

  Paralysis froze my limbs as Cain opened the door. I didn’t even want to look at him. Realizing how painful a burn would be if he suddenly decided he wanted my face on the stove, I shut it off and stepped away.

  I can’t handle this.

  He stepped inside, looking like death.

  Dark blood soaked his red t-shirt and leather cut, staining the white stitches on his jacket red. He hung it on the wall and gave me a curious look.

  “That smells good.”

  My tense shoulders seized as he walked up to me and I held my breath.

  Don’t say anything.

  Cain’s arm wound around my waist and I gritted my teeth, smelling blood and whiskey all over him. His body was unnaturally warm, like a vampire who recently fed. He kissed my temple; it was an affectionate gesture, but he did it robotically as if he copied something he had seen many times before. I flinched when he touched my face.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you acting so strange?”

  To me, his voice sounded defensive. “Nothing is wrong.”

  I’m just scared shitless of you.

  “What did you do?” Now his voice took a violent turn.

  The malice in his red-rimmed eyes made me want to vomit. “You just came home covered in blood. I’m scared. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  He took my face in his and stroked my cheek with his thumbs. A smile lit up his face. “All I had to do was give you a little whipping to get what I wanted from you.”

  His cock dug into my thigh as he pulled my face closer and kissed me.

  Revulsion and fear swirled inside me, but I kissed him harder. You like this.

  His tongue swept inside my mouth, playing with mine as his hands ran up and around my tits. Cain broke away, looking drowsy before he ripped down my tank top and wetly kissed the swell of my breasts.

  “Get down on your
knees, babe.”

  I followed the pressure of his hands on my shoulders obediently, my core clenching even though fear ran through my veins like whiskey. Knowing what he wanted, I unbuckled his pants and slid his jeans down. His cock bounced up as I freed it from his briefs, already glistening. I took him into my mouth and his width stretched my cheeks as he pulsed forward. Cain let out a deep sigh as he sank inside my mouth, holding a fist of hair.

  I held my mouth open, running my tongue along the ridge. His hips bucked and he bent his knees to get all of him buried in my mouth. He fucked my mouth faster and faster, and despite my fear my body responded to the satisfied sounds he made. His shaft rammed all the way to the back of my throat. When I gagged, he pulled out. It glistened with my saliva.

  “Get up,” he said in a breathless voice.

  I obeyed and his sleepy face reached inside his pocket to produce a bag of coke. He offered it to me and I took it, kissing him in gratitude.

  “Thank you, baby.”

  His fingers slid up my arms and anchored over my shoulders as he turned me to face the table. I bent over the kitchen table as he ripped down my jeans. I sprayed the table with coke in my haste to get high.

  I didn’t fucking care what he did, so long as I got a hit. I grasped the tiny straw and snorted. The high rushed to my head as his cock shoved through me, striking a bed of pleasure nerves and I writhed on the table as he pounded me.

  Fuck, it feels good. But I wanted to be higher. I bent my head, my hair falling around my face as my body jerked with his thrusts.

  Another wave of energy and euphoria filled me, amped by his muscular legs flexing against mine, driving that rod of pleasure deeper and deeper. Finally, he collapsed over me as his cock jerked inside me and I didn’t even feel the pain. We made our way into the shower and fucked again, then again in the bed, until finally I collapsed and slept, the food on the stove forgotten.

  * * *

  The heat haze baked the concrete and swirled in the distance. It distorted the air; it even seemed to distort the sounds of ambulance sirens wailing in the distance. I drove my car slowly because the coke addled my brains and I didn’t want to ruin my ride. Spike and Cain rode on either side of the car as we drove around town. It was our day off to unwind, relax, so naturally Cain chose to ride through Tiger territory.

  Of course.

  Suddenly, the car jerked forward and a cloud of black smoke covered the windshield. I slammed my brakes and coughed violently as smoke furled through the ventilation.

  Shit. What the hell is wrong?

  Suddenly the driver’s door flew open and Spike’s anxious face appeared. Ahead, Cain was driving on the sidewalks, spray-painting the buildings red. He hadn’t noticed, but I didn’t think Spike could ever be distracted enough to not notice me.

  He leaned over my body to unhook the seatbelt and for a moment I was overwhelmed by the fact that his torso leaned over my lap. I blushed violently when he took my hand, helping me out of the car. The smoke still attacked my lungs. I doubled over and coughed while he rubbed my back.

  “You all right?” he asked with genuine concern.

  “I—I think so,” I said in a tight voice. I straightened myself and my heart thumped when Spike smiled, brushing a stray strand from my mouth.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  Cain’s harsh voice made me jump, killing my high. He saw us. I crossed my arms over my chest, away from Spike, but Cain only stared at the car. I blew a shaky sigh of relief. I thought for a moment that—

  Spike stared into the steaming mess as Cain popped the hood and shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I don’t know fuck all about cars.”

  “There’s an auto shop right there.” I pointed down the street. It was lucky I managed the break down so close to one, but we weren’t in our territory.

  “We’re not even supposed to be here. Maybe we should call a tow truck.”

  “Fuck that. Spike, you and I will push the car.”

  He wiped the sweat from his brow and removed his leather cut, followed by his t-shirt. I stared at the muscles rippling his abdomen and started when Spike winked at me. Cain quickly followed suit, discomfort from the heat overriding his need to wear his colors.

  I walked by them, quietly admiring their bodies as I put the still smoking car in neutral. They maneuvered the car down the street, their muscles straining as they pushed the car.

  We pulled into the auto shop at last and Cain fired a few times in the shop to disperse everyone from the place.

  “Take a walk,” he roared at them.

  I leaned against the wall of a derelict building as Cain tinkered with the car he bought me. Spike had the radio turned on way too loud. The bass boomed under my feet and rattled the remaining windows of the derelict building.

  “Are you done yet?”

  Cain’s pale skin was red from the sun and his eyes were bloodshot. The heat made the oil on his back slough off. His shirt hung from his back pocket and he dug in the trunk to find tools.

  “I need…something to unscrew the…”

  Spike leaned on the car door and laughed at his VP. “You have no idea what the hell you’re doing.”

  The thinning of Cain’s lips and the wrinkling of his eyes was hardly a smile. It was best not to antagonize him while he was on Red. “Any more of your smart mouth and I’ll knock your teeth out.”

  “Like to see you try,” he snorted.

  “Spike!” I shouted.

  A group of locals approached us. A short, broad-shouldered man aimed a pipe towards the car. “Turn the music down!”

  I smiled as Spike wheeled towards the man who spoke. “Sorry, what? The radio is too loud!”

  Red-faced, the man repeated his demand and Spike played dumb, cupping his hand around his ear.

  I reached in my purse and patted the gun inside, ready to defend my car from the pipe-wielding bastards.

  “TURN IT DOWN!”

  One of the men gave Spike a retaliatory shove. Spike stumbled backwards before stepping forward quickly as a slow grin spread across his face.

  Big mistake.

  With a single roundhouse kick, he sent the offender flying. With roars of outrage, the other man raised their pipes and crashed them over Spike’s back. Where the hell is Cain?

  He was still underneath the car, oblivious to everything going on.

  “Cain, get the hell out of there and help Spike!”

  The lanky man gave me an almost wounded look. “I don’t need his damn help.”

  Even though he took two blows to his back from heavy, lead pipes, he sprang upward, dancing around them with infinite energy. Suddenly a loud crack blasted in my ear and I saw one of the men collapse to the ground screaming.

  Spike jumped backwards into the convertible as more shots whizzed out from underneath the car, smashing into ankles. The air was punctuated by cracks of gunshots followed by screams. Finally, everyone was incapacitated or worse.

  The blonde man’s sweat-streaked body emerged from underneath the car. He still held his Colt, eyeing the screaming men with supreme indifference. They rolled on the blistering concrete, clutching their feet and legs where they had been shot.

  Incredibly, the sound of sirens wailed around us, sounding louder and more distorted than usual. My jaw dropped as red and blue flashes of light glimmered. The flashes of light grew larger and the remaining thugs scampered from the parking lot. In the months since I arrived in Victoria, I had never seen a cop.

  “We better split.”

  Cain seemed to barely register Spike’s voice. He aimed the gun at a man screaming profanities at them both.

  “My fucking leg! You pieces of shit are going to pay for this—”

  My heart squeezed suddenly as Cain raised his gun, aimed directly towards his temple.

  We’re not even supposed to be in their territory.

  “Cain, we need to get out of here,” Spike snapped, all the humor gone from his voice. His curly head turned towards the screeching sire
ns, which grew louder with every second.

  “I don’t need to do anything.”

  A particularly loud wail made me shudder against the wall. “Cain, he’s right.”

  He gave me an icy look that silenced my voice. My arm trembled against my side as Spike looked at me for help. I couldn’t fucking help him. The coke was wearing off and I sunk down the wall as despair swallowed everything.

  He tried again, this time giving Cain a crooked grin. “All right, tough guy. You’ve made your point. The police are almost on top of us and I’d rather not get the shit beaten out of me by Crash for getting arrested.”

  The pale, grey eyes were fixed on the kneeling, prostrate man. “Crash can’t do shit to me, or anyone else I’m with. With all the money I’m bringing in, I should be fucking President.”

  He ground the nozzle between the man’s eyes, as if he had suggested that Cain was not president material.

  Spike and I were careful not to meet each other’s eyes. If Cain had uttered that in the clubhouse, Crash would have been well within his rights to remove him from the VP position.

  Or order a hit on him. Killing brothers was strictly forbidden, but that didn’t stop the less honorable. It was known to happen. If caught, a prolonged, painful death on the offender was the punishment. That alone was enough to deter most people.

  His head jerked as two police cruisers squealed into the parking lot. I swallowed hard as they slammed their brakes. Spike held his arms up as they burst out.

  “Police! Drop your weapon!”

  Slowly, Cain raised his head to gaze at the two policemen threatening him almost as if he was bored. A taut leer stretched across his face and he spread his arms, inviting them to shoot his bare chest. A sickening relief filled me with hope.

  I definitely won’t cry over his corpse.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  The cops screamed for him to drop his weapon again as they hid behind their car doors. I hoped that he wasn’t reckless enough to shoot at a cop.