by Lucian Bane
“And that’s bad?” She sure hoped to God it wasn’t.
“I don’t know what it is. I’m just not…” he shook his head and lowered it. “Never had anything so absolute and powerful and… irrational inside me except when…”
She waited, not wanting to push.
“When I killed those men… it was like being taken over. I was… standing just to the side as I did it. Watching it. It’s like that but different.”
“How?” she wondered, praying what he did with her was right before God because she’d never loved anything so much.
“With you, I’m taken over but I’m not standing and watching. I’m doing it, I’m the one. It’s not the strange thing doing it for me, but me. I’m the strange thing. And yet… there’s nothing in me that says it’s bad or wrong, it’s just… maybe scary.”
“Scary I can understand.”
“You’re scared?” he wondered, sounding worried.
“Scared that… it might be wrong, and you might stop.”
His relief was palpable before he professed, “If that fuck hits on you, I can’t promise what I’ll not do.”
“Well… maybe if he knows I’m taken.”
“Yeah.” He nodded looking around before opening the door. “Maybe. God help me.”
Nineveh couldn’t help her smile at realizing he’d likely just prayed for real, out loud. And that he had to call on God for help where she was concerned was just fifty thousand kinds of precious to her.
Chapter Six
Daniel wanted to spit nails as he led Nineveh into the house, arms too full of groceries for him to be able to head off the instant flirt attack Josh launched on Nineveh as they walked in. “Let me help you out there,” he insisted, taking bags from her despite her protests that she had it. That means get lost dude.
Daniel needed a few minutes before being thrown into this particular fight. He could face a lot of things and had faced some of the worst situations but this? With Nineveh and this dude? The warfare was hitting him in every blind spot he never knew he had and his flesh was ready to engage in all the wrong ways. He’d give Josh the head’s up about who she belonged to, leaving no doubt about it. And if he was dumb enough to cross a line after that, well, he’d meet him with the rod of the law. Eye for an eye.
Daniel set the bags of groceries on the island for Gramma, the entire time keeping an eye on where Josh’s hands were. He just realized Tammy wasn’t there, thank fuck.
Before he could rejoice, out she came from the hall, face lit with all the shit she no doubt had planned. He’d hoped she was different but if anything, she was worse. That little kissing bit she spilled was intentional. She was going to try and fuck with him or Nineveh and he needed to keep his cool about it, make sure she didn’t succeed. Josh he could handle, he was no real threat to Nineveh, but Tammy… she was trouble.
And the fact that he told Nineveh what he’d done didn’t help since he’d neglected to say how many times he’d done it. Only twice but still, he should have said. He had never been scared to tell the truth but the idea of hurting her made him sick. It was bad enough he had to say what he’d done. Now he fucking needed to tell her how many times or the bitch would volunteer every detail before he could.
Daniel reminded himself what he needed to be concerned with about people. Their salvation first. Fuck, that would be a real fight when he was ready to part the ground, shove them in, and seal the hole with liquid cement.
It was remarkable. In the south, people usually used their hands when talking, but with Tammy, she somehow managed to use her tits. Between her and the rooster rehashing their entire childhood where Josh was the hero and Daniel was the invisible underdog, the wick leading to the pile of dynamite in the pit of his stomach was down to a nub.
It was the longest thirty minutes of his life, and while praying for deliverance, God only issued more tests out of the mouth of jabber-jaw-Josh. “I was thinking we could go down to my house for a swim.”
“Yeah, no,” Daniel said. “I was planning on taking Nineveh to see some of the sites around the lake.”
“Ohhhh, are you going to take her to lovers point?” Josh wondered.
“Heyyyy, no fair,” Tammy whined. “That’s our spot.”
Before Daniel could say anything, Josh jumped in with, “It’s lovers point, plural. Doesn’t belong to anybody.”
Tammy shoved Josh’s shoulder. “You would know.” She turned eager eyes to Nineveh. “He’s slept with every girl that ever came to the lake, but none ever caught his wee heart like you.”
“You all watch my meat,” Gramma called out as she headed out the door. “Rob isn’t answering his phone, so I’m headed to pick him up. That old coot mighta fallen and he can’t get up.”
Fucking. Great.
“We’ll handle it,” Tammy called. “Between the four of us, I think we can manage,” she said quieter, winking at Daniel. “So, what’s it like being locked up?” Tammy suddenly asked, her eyes sparkling with lust for anything unholy. Before he could answer, she turned her guns on Nineveh. “Tell me what you do for a living. Josh says you can teach me a thing or two.”
“Me first,” Daniel said next to Nineveh on the couch. He took her hand in his. “Prison life was a real blast. The cigarette pack art classes were unprecedented, but nothing rivaled the daily ass wars we got to fight. I think I’ll miss those the most.”
“Ass wars?” Tammy wondered, with a light laugh. “How did that fit in with the Preacher stuff I heard about?”
“Oh, it fits in perfectly,” Nineveh said, looking at Daniel before turning to Tammy. “Just like him being my Dom fits perfectly. He’s a Preacher Dom,” she informed in all seriousness.
They both stared at her like she’d lost her mind in a kink shop and Daniel could barely contain his grin. He’d wondered how she was holding up under the pressure and now he knew. She was pissed but still on his side, thankfully.
Daniel lifted her hand and kissed it, mostly to hide his grin.
“Nothing like hearing the word of God while…” she looked at Daniel with a smile. “You do what you do.”
The way she loaded her do what you do nearly made him laugh. “You like that?” he asked, holding her gaze while happily playing along.
“I do,” she said with all sincerity. “Praise God, I do.”
Daniel turned his attention to the two buffoons, fighting to hold his poker face. “Praise God indeed,” he added, before leaning to kiss Nineveh mostly to have some place to hide his face. But Nineveh must’ve thought he wanted to take the game to the next level and decided to have a make-out session.
She finally pulled back with a breathless, “Praise God,” followed with “do you think you can show me where the uh… bathroom is?” She stood, and Daniel did too. “I always seem to get lost,” she said to them. “That’s why I need a Preacher. And a Dom. To correct me.”
“Somebody has to keep you out of trouble,” he said, leading her off.
“And punish me when I disobey.”
“Especially that.”
The second they rounded the corner, they ran up the stairs and into her bedroom. Daniel locked the door and turned right as Nineveh dropped to her knees and went for the button on his pants. She suddenly stopped and put her hands behind her back, looking up at him.
Daniel’s cock ached with the perfect vision of submission she presented him. No, gifted him. That’s what she was doing, trusting him with his position of power and making sure he knew that. The revelation kind of knocked him on his ass for a moment even as his body slipped into the commanding role that was growing into an addiction. Ten seconds in that role and his body heaved with ideas. Did he want to spank her or make her suck his cock.
Daniel glanced at the clock next to her bed. “You have one minute to make me come. If you fail, your ass will burn with my correction. Undo my pants.”
“Yes sir,” she hurried, her hands flying to obey.
Daniel locked his hands behind his head and w
atched as she worked his pants down just enough to pull his cock out. The bind on his balls stoked the inferno in his body as he spread his feet apart for balance.
“So beautiful,” she praised, stroking his cock with her hands. She didn’t devour him like he’d expected but instead lit the tip of his cock ablaze with rapid flicks of her tongue along his slit. She sucked the head between her tight lips, using her teeth on the ridge while her tongue kept that same rapid-fire pace on his slit.
When the urge to grab her head and take control had him hissing and gritting his teeth, she gripped the base of his cock in her fist and jacking him off at the same pace she licked the slit of his dick.
“Mother of God, yes,” Daniel said, his eyes swinging to the clock. “You have ten seconds,” he barely managed.
She suddenly dove on his cock to the hilt and Daniel let his head fall back, pushing against the flex of her throat right as she quickly pulled back until the head of his cock popped out of her mouth.
He eyed the clock then stared down at her upturned face, lips shiny and swollen. But it was the mischief in her pretty eyes that made his dick jerk. The idea she wanted his punishment had him beyond hungry. “You failed,” he announced, watching her tongue lick along her lips. “Undress.”
She reached for the button on her shorts. “Wait,” Daniel said, angling his head. “The fuck…”
He worked himself back in his pants and went to the bedroom door. Smelling smoke, he jerked it open and ran down stairs to a plume of you let the meat burn! Shiiit, Gramma was gonna kill him. Them fuckers left when their games didn’t play out. Fucking good! Was worth the burned food.
****
They’d survived the first leg of the day, but would they survive the last? Gramma had laid down the law, he was to remain a proper host until their company left. But Josh and Tammy seemed to catch their second wind and were determined to fuck with him in ways that might put him back in prison. His tongue was sore from biting on it. Tammy had returned dressed in a skimpy bathing suit top and blue jean shorts she probably had since she was twelve judging by how it fit. And Josh was shirtless in only swim trunks. Yeah, when they were young, it was common attire around the lake and nobody thought anything of it, but that was before Tammy grew them Geronimo jugs. If she got any more animated with them, she might knock herself out.
Thankfully, Nineveh didn’t seem the least bothered by it, but Daniel was plenty bothered by her and the way Josh seemed to be inching his way into Nineveh’s personal space. Meanwhile, Daniel was tied up in spiritual warfare with his own lusts warring against the spirit of God in just about every matter surrounding Nineveh. Instead of praying for God’s will, he was praying for a just reason to beat that handsy prick. Josh thought he was playing his game all cool, but Daniel knew all the games even if he’d never played them personally. Human nature and all its ugly facets had been his major in the pen. The only difference now was Nineveh. She opened things in him he’d never had to deal with before, not like this. All that self-control he’d mastered in prison was nowhere to be found where she was concerned. It was like she turned him inside out and now his sinful flesh was fully engaged in a war he hadn’t fought before.
Daniel couldn’t keep his eyes off her when she helped Gramma in the kitchen. He was sure she’d done that to get away from Tammy who, of course, decided to stick herself with him and Josh at the card table.
“Remember when we played strip poker and Danny boy ran away when he had to take his shirt off?”
Here she went again. Amazing how she always managed to get the conversation to sex. He looked at Nineveh and found her smiling at him, like she thought it was cute. “I would’ve stayed had you been there,” he said to her, making her smile more.
“Well, his sister sure stayed,” Josh said.
Daniel snapped his gaze to him, fury exploding in his blood. “Don’t talk about her.”
“What man? You know she had a special place in my—”
Daniel stood, his muscles flooded with fury. “I said don’t talk about her. Ever. You don’t know her, you never knew her. She wasn’t one of your fuck-mates.”
“Hmmm,” Tammy said, lightly.
Daniel looked at her and found raised brows that said otherwise then snapped his gaze back to Josh’s guilty hands raised in defense.
“We were young,” Josh said. “But I swear to God, I really liked your sister.”
“What the fuck are you saying, what do you mean you were young, you really liked my sister?”
Nineveh was suddenly behind him, hand on his shoulder. But the mountain of anger and pain from losing his whole family in a day had found somebody to blame, and this fucker right here, this disgusting piece of shit who really liked his sister, he was it, he was the one. Then came that single realization of that one fateful time. “You’re the reason. You’re why I couldn’t talk her into staying that day.”
Josh stood as though seeing he was about to need leverage.
“I wouldn’t lie to you, man,” he said quietly. “I really did like your sis—”
Before he could say the blasphemous words, Daniel slammed his fist into his forehead. The single punch triggered all the wrong instincts inside of Daniel as he dove on him before anybody could stop him. Because not only had he stolen his sister’s innocence, he’d killed his entire family, that’s what it all meant. And now, Daniel became that fine-tuned powerhouse of filthy moves he’d become in prison. A life that required blood for crimes. And his brain was locked on to destroy and live, while the screams of his Gramma, Nineveh, and Tammy became the bloodthirsty men in a cruel process that decided who lived and who died, or who thrived and who barely survived.
Something or somebody, somehow, plowed into his side and tackled him to the floor. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Please, Daniel!”
Nineveh. Her scream broke through the black haze and he blinked, fighting for air as he looked around and down. “Oh fuck,” he whispered at the blood covering his swollen hands. Panic slammed him, and he glanced to see Josh, unmoving on the floor. “Oh God, fuck, no, no, no,” he strained, crawling to him. He searched his neck for a pulse, terrified. After several seconds he found a weak one and choked, “Please, please, help me God. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Looking at his lopsided, bloody face made him sick. “Somebody help me!” he yelled.
“I called an ambulance,” Gramma cried, her breaths shaking. “Oh my God, Daniel. It’ll be alright, I know you didn’t mean this.”
“I’m sorry,” he wailed, making his way to his feet. He grabbed his head and turned blindly, Tammy’s terrified stare and Rob’s like an anvil of judgement. Guilty. “I need air, I gotta… I gotta get some air.”
He hurried for the back door and headed out, hearing steps behind him. He couldn’t face Nineveh right now and spun around, ready to tell her he needed to be alone.
“Don’t run from me,” she cried, slamming into him with a hug and holding him tight. Don’t you run from me,” she repeated between sobs. “We’re together now, you can’t run from me.”
He pulled out of her arms, looking at her as he realized. “You don’t even know me,” he yelled. “You think you know me but look at what I am, look what I fucking did. I’m supposed to be a Christian?” he spat, disgusted with himself. “I’m supposed to love people, help them, not fucking half kill them because I’m… I’m… so crazy about a woman that I can’t think straight!” He shook his head, pacing before her. “Ever since I decided to be with you, I’ve been—” She suddenly sucked in a breath and he looked at her. “No, no, no,” he said, seeing she’d taken it wrong. “This isn’t you, this is me.”
“It is me,” she said covering her mouth. “My evil life is contaminating your pure spirit, I knew it would, oh my God, I knew it,” she sobbed.
“Listen to me,” Daniel said, grabbing her arms. “It’s not you. I mean…” he lowered his head, trying to organize the mess in his mind. He finally stared into her eyes, his chest too fucking tight to breathe suddenly. “I
’m so overcome with you. With everything you do to me,” he said. “The things you make me feel, yes, it’s you, but it’s… it’s so good, I never had anything so good and I’m… I’m guarding it with all my mind, all my heart. I don’t want anything or anybody touching that because… it means everything to me.”
He let go of a half laugh, facing the crazy shit in his head. He locked his gaze back on hers, needing her to understand somehow. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t stop fantasizing about you every second.” He stepped closer until his body touched hers. “I can’t stop wanting you even while I have you.” He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “You make me feel… supernatural. I’m not just a man with you. I’m not just a human, I’m something more.”
She grabbed his face as he pressed his forehead to hers, struggling for every breath. “And yet, I thought I was a man who had conquered things but I’m not, I’m powerless. One moment I feel like a king and I want nothing more than to command you, and protect you, and the next moment, I just…” he grasped for air and courage. “I just want to lay at your fucking feet… and kiss them and beg you to never stop loving me.” He took several shuddering breaths. “I’m lost as can be in you, and yet… I’m more grounded than I’ve ever been in my life.”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his ear over and over before whispering, “It’ll be okay. It’s all okay, you’ll see. You miss them, that’s all.”
Those final words smashed through the fragile barrier holding all his shit in. The pent-up pain burst free and dropped him to his knees where he gave up all the hidden shit he thought he’d conquered. He gave it all to Nineveh who called it out with every soothing syllable she crooned in his ear. He held her tighter as the sobs shoved through the broken parts and gained momentum. But deep down, he knew, he felt it. This was the war he’d been avoiding, the fight he never wanted to face. Himself.
But he also knew that after all was said and done, he’d be free. He’d be equipped and empowered to be the man Nineveh needed him to be. And for that, he was more than willing to have that fight.
