I gasped and fell back when her forehead connected with mine, the pain causing my eyes to water.
She slipped from my hold and moved behind me. Spinning round, I grabbed at her arms, lifting her and throwing her onto the bed. She bounced, her smile widening.
“You have no idea what you’re goading.”
She pursed her lips, her eyes hooded and teasing. “Don’t make excuses for your inability to get a hard on. Just tell me, we can simply talk if you’re having trouble.”
Her mocking laugh caused the air in my lungs to solidify, making it difficult to breathe. Fucking bitch. She wanted the darkness, then I’d make sure she never saw light ever again.
Grabbing her ankles, I flipped her over, her firm arse making my cock harder. There was something about her that called to something deep down inside me. It wasn’t just lust, it was a need, a hunger to inflict pain but at the same time I wanted to show her exactly what fucking me was about, how fucking pleasurable it could be.
She scrambled up the bed, fighting me all the way. I pulled her back down then covered her slight frame with my own, my body crushing her under me. The outline of her body fit against mine perfectly, her backside sitting seamlessly against my crotch, the dip below her shoulder blades creating a moulding for my chest, the length of her exact for our bodies to line up precisely.
Her elbow dug into my ribs but I was too far gone to feel the pain. The darkness had shadowed any rational thought about what I was doing. One of my hands pushed her face into the mattress as my other slid down my zip, freeing my raging hard on. The bitch needed to be taught a lesson, shown just who held all the fucking cards. She was a no-one, a fool who thought she could manipulate me. There was only ever one woman who had done that, and there would never be another.
Her body twisted below mine. The power I had over her was euphoric, feeding the side of me that had been buried for way too long. It felt good to hate again, cleansing to my soul. I wanted to break the bitch, destroy her underneath me. And I wanted to witness every single glorious fucking minute of her decimation.
I hooked her ankle with my foot, pulling one of her legs to the side, opening her up for me. She struggled, but only slightly. I yanked her head back so I could rest my mouth at her ear. She was gulping for breath. I hadn’t realised I’d pressed her into the bed hard enough to limit her oxygen supply that much. Not that I cared.
“You think you’re my equal?” She mumbled something I didn’t catch. “Well let me show you just how wrong you are!”
Her back arched under me as I thrust into her. Her pussy was wet, causing me to blink in confusion. They were always dry, always, especially the first time I took them. A moan left her lips and I smiled to myself.
“Well, well.” I pulled out of her and slammed back in, my hold on her hair refusing her body any movement. “Seems the pain feeds your inner slut.”
She didn’t speak but I held back the groan when she circled her hips beneath me. Fuck! My balls clenched as I fought to hold back my cum. Her tight pussy was a surprise, I had expected her to be slack, loose from all her previous lovers.
She freed her hands from beneath her body but I seized her wrists before she could use them to hurt me. Pulling them above her head and holding them down, I started to thrust harder and faster, my cock sinking deeper and deeper into her. Lust took over, refusing me any control over myself as I pounded her with an intensity I had no influence over. The beast inside me found the darkness, consuming it until I lost all constraint.
I squeezed my eyes closed as heat travelled up my spine. My cock throbbed from the thrill of blood pumping mercilessly, every single muscle in my body coiled tightly, begging for release and pleasure. Her moans morphed into cries as my sickness descended, twisting every thought, manipulating my perception. She begged me to stop then pleaded for me to fuck her harder. My mind crashed with the conflicting sensations, the tight grasp of her cunt as she pleaded with me to stop, the fight she attacked me with opposed her deep moans of pleasure.
“Yes,” she panted as she shook her head.
Everything started to hum, reality changing the fantasy until all I could feel was nirvana, her exquisite pussy milking me for my orgasm, her erotic moans pulling my own carnal groans and the expression of bliss on her face as I fucked her harder and harder.
She took all of me as she bucked back on me. “Hurt me,” she demanded as she clawed at the bedhead with her fingers but pushed back against me to pull me even deeper.
It suddenly occurred to me as my climax exploded that she’d played the game expertly, her pleads unheard by the monitors but her actions very much observed. She relished in the pain of depravity, revelled in the sweet thrill of suffering.
I pulsed inside her, emptying my corruption into her. But her own sin devoured it, her own orgasm locking me inside her as we both rode out the fever of carnality. Her scream of pleasure matched my own, each nerve ending in my body rejoicing finally at the sheer rapture of ejaculation.
A choked sound erupted from me when I recognised the thrill as something I hadn’t felt for a long while. For two years.
“No!” I shook my head rapidly as I scrambled off her.
She frowned at me over her shoulder as my wide eyes stared at her. “Daniel?”
“You…” I couldn’t face up to what my body relayed to me in the afterglow of climax. “You can’t be that person.” My system hummed, satisfaction relaxing my sated body as the lump in my throat restricted my breathing, making me lightheaded. “Why did you do that?”
Her frown deepened. “What?” She turned so she was facing me. Her firm breasts heaved with her deep inhalations, the sight making me hard again. God damn it.
“You manipulated me!”
Tipping her head to the side she eyed me warily. “I’d lost you. You had lost yourself. I did… said what was needed.”
My body calmed slightly. “So those things you said about Mae?”
She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. “Daniel. You honestly think I could think those things about Mae?” The release of her tears stunned me. She was putting on a show once again for the camera, her capacity to deceive quite disconcerting.
“I don’t know anything about you, Connie. I have no clue as to what your relationship with Mae was like. She had nobody, no-one at all in her life when I met her.”
“When you met her? I think you’re starting to believe your own lies, trusting fantasy. You didn’t meet her, Daniel. You hunted her down and ruined her.” Her anger was suddenly potent. Her fists tightened, her eyes narrow but she fought it back, her gaze flicking to the camera in the corner again to remind herself to keep it in control.
“I wasn’t the one who abandoned her, Connie. I take my own responsibility for Mae’s death, but I think it’s about time you stopped living in your own fantasy.”
She clicked her tongue and shook her head faintly as though she was disappointed in me. “Sometimes the choices we have to make aren’t made because they are the easiest ones. And sometimes…. Sometimes we aren’t given a choice in our own choices.”
Her grief was suffocating. I wasn’t sure if the tears that fell from her were still fake ones. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head and sighed. “I did what I had to, Daniel. Whatever I did or didn’t do, I have always believed that I did the right thing. My life was lived for my sister, my heart beat for her. I have no regrets; guilt, very much so but I won’t repent for saving her.”
My feet seemed to be glued to the spot. My legs didn’t feel as though they belonged to me and I reached forward, palming the edge of the bed as many thoughts rushed me at once. “Tell me one truth.” Her eyes held so much pain that her gaze crushed my insides. “Did you sacrifice your life to save your sister’s?”
Her gaze dropped so I didn’t witness her despair as she nodded. “Yes.”
I blew out the breath that had been stuck in my throat. “Who gave you
over to them?”
She lifted her eyes and frowned at me. “I gave me to them.”
“Oh my God.” Her pain was overpowering and I closed my eyes to her sorrow.
“He owed too much, the evil bastard,” she said quietly, retelling her tale to herself rather than me. “Mae was sleeping in her room when they came. They came for both of us but I fought them. Well, as much as I could at thirteen. Isaac, my Master, he… I don’t know to be honest, he just wanted me, said I showed potential, not that I understood what he meant then. He gave me the choice and I took it without a second thought. My death was faked two years later, my father’s debts were written off and Mae was free to live her life.” Her tears were fluent now as she looked up at me. “I didn’t know that I would destroy her anyway. If I’d have known I would never have…” She blew out, taking control again, refusing the liberation of her grief. She lifted her chin and pulled her shoulders back. “I did what I thought was right at the time.”
“You refused to cheat.” I whispered her sister’s words to her with a small smile. “And for that, Mae would love you unconditionally.”
“But don’t you see? I did cheat. I cheated death, I cheated Mae’s death.”
“No you didn’t, Connie. You just played the game with the only cards you had in your hand at that time. Anybody would have made the same decision. Giving up your own life is far from cheating, it’s the most honest thing you could ever grant.”
Sadness was thick and heavy around us. She nodded. “I need to be alone.”
I had a feeling this was the first time she’d ever openly dealt with what she had done, her sorrow and guilt drowning her.
Standing, I gave her a nod. “I’ll be back in a while.”
She gave me a small smile, the hold of her eyes on mine giving me thanks. I slid my thumb across her cheekbone, wiping away the stray tear that wasn’t fluid enough to make its escape. She blinked slowly, her face dark with burden but I heeded her wishes and turned away.
I didn’t miss the uncontrolled sob that echoed behind the closed door when I pulled it to.
WHAT THE HELL had happened? My sobs had died down, my guilt over Mae once more pushed aside. Daniel, or rather the last hour spent with him, filled my thoughts. Telling him my secrets was both a relief but worrying. I was usually a private person and the reason I opened up was a mystery. His love for Mae astounded me. I hadn’t thought him capable and if it wasn’t for the fact I’d seen him struggle to separate the two of us, then I’d have still never believed it of him.
My own words had fractured something inside me, because at one time, I’d thought them. I’d crushed my own sister at school, made fun of her with the rest of the small-minded bitches. Guilt and self-hatred had been my own form of self-harm since her death. What I wouldn’t give to go back and tell her the truth, tell her that I was the more insecure out of both of us. She’d been strong enough to embrace the gentle side of her, and to stick to her beliefs whereas I had been too weak to let mine be seen. I’d conformed to peer pressure, yet Mae had fought to just be herself. And that made her the toughest.
My head snapped to the door when it pushed open. A man stood in the doorway, his cold blue eyes narrow, his thin lips pulled into a cruel sneer. His head was tilted to the side as he studied me, his gaze slowly roaming over my naked body. My heart skipped a beat. I was unaware of him, my Intel hadn’t included this guy and I hated being unprepared.
“Ahh.” He smiled, but it was far from a welcoming one, his handsome face twisting into vicious grin. “Finally we meet.”
I watched him, bracing myself as he approached. He slid his hands into his trouser pockets as he came to stand in front of me, rocking on the balls of his feet as he locked gazes with me. There was something wrong with him. He stood rigid, almost as though he’d been frozen as he regarded me. He tutted and shook his head. “It appears Daniel is losing his touch.”
My eyes widened and I forced myself to sag when he snatched my throat in his hand and pulled me to the floor in front of him. “Kneel, bitch!”
Okay. Breathe. One. Two. Three….
He forced me lower until I sat back on my heels, my backside squashed under his forceful positioning.
Four. Five. Six…
I was struggling against the need to cut this bastard’s throat, my teeth clenched so tight I was sure I was pushing them into my gums.
Mae. Seven. Mae. Eight. Mae. Nine. You’re doing this for Mae…
“Where’s your fucking discipline?” He twisted my hair severely, pulling me across the room until I was slung the rest of the way, my body colliding with a large metal pole fixed to the ceiling and floor.
The Phantom inside me was battling with need to play the game. I wanted to break this fucker’s neck, rip his throat out with my fingers but I knew to get the final prize I had to succumb to what came in-between.
My eyes widened when a leather collar was wrapped around my neck and locked into place with a clasp. I pulled away from him but jerked back when the chain attached to the choker refused me any freedom. My fingers curled around it when I was yanked backwards, the bastard tightening the leash until my body was pulled up the pole, my feet leaving the floor, my body suspended from the chain.
“If you want to live then I suggest you grab onto those handgrips.”
I squinted at the pole, my eyes watering from slowly being dangled and choked. Two tiny metal bars stuck out from the pole above my head. Reaching up, I grabbed them, pulling my body with the action until the chain had some give in it, loosening the hold around my neck.
“I did wonder what all the excitement was about.” I stiffened when his palm slid down the curve of my spine. “You are stunning. The scars you bare are something of a concern but I’m sure we can work around those. Although I’m intrigued as to how you got them.”
“I was a stunt double for 007.”
I heard his gulp as he swallowed his amusement. “Really? Then you’ll be accustomed to the excitement of performance.”
What the fuck was this guy on? I had to be so careful not to fight him too much, yet I wouldn’t allow him to have free rein over me, the midpoint proving rather difficult to attain in my need for revenge and the schooled discipline implanted inside me from Isaac.
“Excitement of performance,” I echoed. “What did you have in mind?”
My hands started to sweat making it increasingly difficult to grip the bars. He needed to hurry the fuck up with whatever he was going to do.
He was silent and I turned to look over my shoulder. My gut clenched when he twirled a small knife in his fingers, his intense gaze on my face, his thin lips showcasing his vindictiveness. “Performance is everything, don’t you think Connie… or should I call you… Shadow.”
Shit! Fuck! FUCK!!
“And to who do I owe the pleasure?” I was stalling, my brain trying to work through several scenarios as I strived to locate a plan. I winced, clamping together my teeth, as he drew the tip of the blade down my back, blood already trickling over my naked backside.
Shit!
My eyes flew around the room, hunting for anything that could give me either a plan or a way out. How the fuck had he found out? It didn’t make any sense.
“You really didn’t do your homework did you? And for a Queen Phantom, that surprises me.”
“I think you should allow me the privilege of a name before you kill me.”
“The only thing I should allow you is a very painful death,” he spat as he twisted the knife into the flesh between my hip and waist. My jaw trembled with the pain but I locked it down, concentrated on the adrenaline. The vitality coursing through my veins enlivened the Phantom inside me; every thought, every sensation and each single breath pushed aside to make way for the assassin to manifest. Calmness surrounded me, slowing the beat of me heart and most probably saving my life as my blood thickened and the rush slowed each bodily function.
My head fell back when he sliced another line adjacent to the first. I need
ed to do something quick. Concentrating on the hold of the grips, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, my thoughts on nothing but the position of him.
“My name is Darren Trent. Ring any bells?”
Shit!
I wouldn’t let the guilt consume me, not at that moment, it would destroy me. Nodding, I gave him the attention he deserved. “Did Isaac send you?”
He narrowed his eyes on me, his cold stare sending chills through me. “Isaac sent me here a long time ago. Do you know nothing?”
Confusion caused me to frown. “What? I don’t understand.”
I hissed when he dug the knife into more flesh, his hand twisting, burrowing it deeper until the pain became almost unbearable. I wouldn’t allow myself to die before I’d enacted my revenge. I owed Mae that much.
He scoffed, leaning into me. “You know,” he sighed heavily as though bored, “for husband and wife, you two really don’t share pillow talk, do you?”
“Listen, Darren.” I tracked the metal chain, my eyes following its length up to a metal ring secured to the ceiling then down into Darren’s grip. “Blade, your brother, gave me no choice. You know how it is, kill or be killed.” I slipped one hand off the pole and onto the chain above my head making sure not to pull on it.
“He wasn’t sent to kill you though, was he? He was ordered to carry out an order you couldn’t fucking fulfil. He was sent to fucking ASSIST YOU!”
“She’s my niece and she’s innocent in all this!”
He snorted. “And he was my brother and your friend.” The forbidden gasp that left me fucked me off when he stabbed the blade into my shoulder. Shit, I needed to do this fast.
“Why did he send you here?”
He didn’t answer until he moved in front of me – right where I needed him. He grinned smugly. “Because he knew you’d go rogue, Shadow. How does it feel to be stabbed in the back by your own husband?”
I locked him in my stare, sighing as many different emotions swirled through me. “I’m sorry, Darren. And for what it’s worth, your brother was a good person and one of the best Phantoms there was.”
The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2) Page 8
