The Darkness Within Him: The Untwisted series

by Alice Raine

  After that enlightening half an hour, I had wrapped myself in my nice, fluffy, and non-bondage-like robe, then chewed on my nails for a long time, wondering why I had even bothered to read that stuff and not really finding an answer.

  I’d summarised that, yes, Nicholas might have been the best sex I’d ever had, but even after just that short amount of research it had become clear to me that if he really was a dominant he was obviously in a completely different league to me, living a lifestyle I didn’t see myself fitting into in a million years.

  Unfortunately, my determination in this decision faltered as soon as I had laid eyes on him at my next piano lesson.

  Things with Nicholas simply got more and more complex from that day forward, because for whatever sick reason, my little research mission had made me even more curious about him. I clearly needed to get a hobby or something to occupy my mind and help me avoid my perusal of unsuitable men: perhaps stamp collecting or something equally as drab that would fit nicely with my boring bookshop persona.

  At my lesson the following Friday, the tension between Nicholas and me was awful: so much static filled the room that I actually felt sick but I couldn’t tell if it was sexual tension or anger on his part. He’d barely spoken a word to me apart from instructions and I started to feel distinctly like he didn’t want me here at all.

  That was what I had been thinking until halfway through playing a new piece when I glanced over and caught him staring intently at me, his eyes blazing in a way that even I couldn’t misunderstand. He wanted me.

  My breath shuddered to a halt and I gulped like a fish out of water. The realisation that Nicholas wanted me made me hornier than I could believe, so finally sucking air into my lungs again, I stopped playing and plucked up the courage to say something.

  ‘I did a bit of research last week, Nicholas,’ I mumbled shyly, turning myself marginally so I was almost facing him. Almost, but not quite; his dark eyes were too intense to deal with at the moment.

  ‘Research?’ he murmured blandly. He had hidden his previous wanton expression but the flash of something else in his eyes indicated that he was more interested than he was letting on.

  ‘Yeah, I looked on the internet about your … um, type of lifestyle,’ I said, throwing his own choice of words back at him.

  ‘Really? I’m sure it made very dull reading,’ he said flatly, closing the piano lid but again giving nothing away. God this man was infuriating!

  ‘It was quite an eye-opener, actually.’ I blushed and tucked my hair behind my ear before recalling how Nicholas had said he liked it down and quickly flicking it out again. Really, I did this just as much for me as for Nicholas because it was true: my hair did look nicer down. After his comment the other week, I’d experimented with it in the mirror at home. When my hair was tucked behind my ear, my cheekbones looked a bit too pointy somehow.

  Seeing my self-adjusted hair flick, Nicholas arched an eyebrow at me but remained silent, so I continued, feeling a renewed surge of confidence.

  ‘So, basically, you like to take charge in the bedroom and dominate a submissive woman for both her pleasure and yours?’ I asked in a tiny voice. Hell, I’d started now, I may as well continue. What was the worst that could happen? No more piano lessons? To be honest, I was never going to be the next Chopin, or Nicholas Jackson, so it wouldn’t exactly be a huge loss to the musical world, would it?

  Folding his arms across his chest, he observed me with narrowed eyes for what seemed like an eternity. ‘Yes,’ he said darkly, ‘I like complete control. They do as I say or they get punished.’

  ‘Punished?’ I questioned weakly, my brief period of confidence ebbing away as I began to feel rather nervous at his use of the P-word, the one I’d avoided reading about in my research. Stupid girl, I chastised myself.

  ‘Yes. It’s common in sub/dom relationships. The dominant partner, be that the male or the female, will use punishment to ensure their will is done correctly. Didn’t that come up on your little research mission, Rebecca?’ Nicholas asked sarcastically, his face confusingly impassive.

  ‘Well, it did, I just didn’t think that you …’ But my voice trailed off when I saw the dark look that sprang to his eye. How very naive I’d been.

  ‘You didn’t think I’d do that?’ Nicholas snapped. ‘Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it? We barely know each other.’ His tone was almost bored. ‘You know nothing about me, Rebecca,’ he added sourly, turning away and sorting through a pile of piano books.

  My heart was thundering under my skin. He might be acting blasé but something in the tension of his shoulders made me persevere. For whatever reason, since last week’s liaison with Nicholas, I felt changed. Gone was the prude who used to carefully select her boyfriends and make them wait weeks before they could so much as touch her; in her place was an independent woman who knew what she wanted – Nicholas. More accurately, Nicholas and his superb sexing skills.

  I chewed on my lip as I accepted this realisation. I wanted this man, desperately, and instead of shying away from the embarrassing fact, I was determined to pursue it.

  ‘Can’t we just have sex?’ Holy fuck! Was that seriously my voice that had just spoken? Blimey, how had shy, cautious Rebecca suddenly transformed into this wanton hussy I now appeared to be? Apparently, I swore in my head too: another new development for me. I certainly was changing a lot recently.

  Nicholas seemed to half choke, half laugh at my request, creating a noise in his throat that was almost a bark. ‘You’ve researched dominant relationships in all their dirty glory, I’ve just told you I like to punish the girls I fuck, and yet you still want to have sex with me?’

  He was mocking me, that much was abundantly obvious, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to notice the hint of astonishment and temptation in his voice.

  Shit . I was in way out of my depth here, but what exactly had I expected: him to fall at my feet and beg me to sleep with him? Hardly, Nicholas was way too controlled for that. He’d been honest and upfront from the start and I was being stupid enough to hope that last week’s little sex session on the piano might have left him feeling the same as me – wanting more.

  ‘Do you regularly proposition men like this?’ he asked, his voice darker than before and causing me to glare at him in indignation.

  ‘Of course not!’ I retorted, before faltering as I realised just how sluttish my behaviour must appear. ‘But then I haven’t had mind-blowing sex on a piano before either,’ I admitted in a low mutter. I hadn’t had mind-blowing sex full stop, just normal, run-of-the-mill sex, which paled into insignificance when compared to what I’d experienced with Nicholas last week. Not that he needed to know that. He was arrogant enough already without me further inflating his ego.

  My face was seared with a flush of mortification at the way this conversation had digressed but I decided I might as well say my piece before I left. ‘I … I enjoyed last week, Nicholas, more than enjoyed it … and I just thought, you know, if the whole dominant thing was negotiable, or didn’t involve pain, then maybe we could have sex again sometime.’

  With my eyes averted out of pure embarrassment at the shocking words coming out of my mouth, it was hard to judge his reaction, but it seemed like Nicholas was completely still and silent next to me for an eternity, to the point where I sighed before standing to leave.

  A gentle hand on my wrist stopped me. ‘Raise your eyes, Rebecca,’ Nicholas instructed softly, now standing up next to me. And as if under his spell, I immediately did as he asked.

  See? I could follow instructions … sometimes.

  ‘I like to see your eyes, so green, so beautiful.’ Raising a hand, Nicholas stroked my cheek gently. He sighed as he did so, and I watched as a mix of emotions flooded across his face.

  ‘The dominant thing isn’t negotiable, Rebecca. It’s who I am, it’s all I’ve ever known … but you have no idea how much I want to have sex with you again … and for some reason you now tell me you want that too …’ Nicholas
paused, running his free hand over his chin as he considered the situation. ‘What a conundrum …’ he murmured. Then, with no warning whatsoever, the hand on my cheek moved to the back of my head, knotted through my hair, and dragged my head toward his lips.

  Off we went, then!

  ‘Don’t punish me,’ I implored in what I hoped was a stern tone before our lips met for a kiss that nearly had my head rolling off my shoulders from its level of passion.

  Gosh, he really was such a good kisser.

  ‘Do as I ask, Rebecca, and I won’t need to punish you,’ he muttered hotly against my mouth, making me shudder with exhilaration.

  Holy shit, this was really happening! My body was awash with emotions: this was so scary and somehow so freaking hot at the same time that I was hugely turned on already and all he had done was kiss me. It was like Nicholas was able to flick a switch inside me that no other man had ever discovered, and regardless of how illicit it might have been, I absolutely loved the feelings he was stirring within me.

  Abruptly tearing his lips from mine, Nicholas now seemed to loom over me and he breathed heavily as he ran his eyes over me. ‘Come with me. I need to get you naked, Rebecca.’

  OK , there was certainly no misunderstanding that statement. Breathing deeply while I had the chance, I took his hand with my trembling fingers and let Nicholas lead me from the music room. He headed across the landing toward a corridor I hadn’t been to before and then through a door into a darkened room. When he flicked a switch next to the door, the room was lit with the soft glow of wall lights and I saw that we were in a huge master bedroom.

  Continuing to suck air into my struggling lungs, I could detect the familiar smell of his aftershave in the air – spicy and musky, possibly with an undertone of pine in it, and a complete turn-on for me. It merely added to my heightened state of arousal.

  My eyes swept around the room. Like the other parts of the house I had seen, the furniture and decor seemed to be expensive and tastefully done. A gigantic four-poster bed sat in the centre of the room; it was made up with pure white sheets but the black wrought iron frame somehow seemed to scream of the illicit things he could do in here. It was just a normal bed but there were so many bars and finials in the frame’s design to tie me to that the possibilities seemed endless …

  Choking on my thoughts, I distracted myself by looking around and noticed all the walls were neutral colours, but the rest of the furniture was a deep wood, so dark it almost looked black. The effect of the white sheets and walls together with the black furniture made the room feel rather oriental somehow, but neutral enough to fit what I had expected of Nicholas’ bedroom.

  As I turned, I found him watching me intently, the look in his hooded eyes one of pure, unadulterated hunger. Hunger for me, I realised, and immediately I flushed again. Why the hell couldn’t I control my cheeks!

  ‘Come here,’ he commanded in a low tone, and I immediately began to wobble my way toward him on jellified legs. Being a confident, independent woman, I really shouldn’t have liked being told what to do like this, but Nicholas’ salacious orders seemed to appeal to some primal part of me and I just couldn’t help but comply.

  I pondered this as I crossed the room because it was an odd sensation for me. I’d always been quite aloof in relationships, happy to be the one setting the boundaries and never particularly bothered when they ended, but with Nicholas I wanted to please him and I wasn’t sure why. Almost laughing out loud, I realised it was probably because I hoped that if he was happy then in return he might use his supreme sexing skills to make me happy too. I’m sure you get my drift.

  Apparently, Nicholas Jackson had managed to bring out my hidden hussy once again.

  ‘I would like to begin by undressing you, Rebecca; I seem to recall we skipped this part last time,’ he commented softly, his tone somehow putting me at ease. Maybe this wouldn’t be so different to my previous sexual encounters after all.

  ‘Such beautiful eyes. Let me look at you.’ His blazing stare didn’t leave mine as he reached down and began to undo my jeans without so much as a glance. He’d clearly done that before. Unfastened, my jeans slid down the overheated skin of my legs and crumpled around my ankles. ‘Step out of them and kick them to the side,’ Nicholas instructed me in a husky voice and I did as I was told, luckily not getting tangled up and not saying anything because, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to talk, or even capable of speech in my highly aroused state.

  Ever so slowly, Nicholas reached out and began to unbutton my shirt. I was hugely overexcited by this point, my breathing coming in jagged pulls, and I closed my eyes for a second to try and recover myself so I didn’t look like a blathering idiot.

  Before I knew it, Nicholas had me turned around and I felt a hard, stinging slap to my right buttock. Ow! Pulling me sharply against him so my back was pressed to his front, he leant around and nipped my neck with his teeth before whispering in my ear, ‘Eyes open, Rebecca, you know my rule on that. I won’t tell you again.’

  Jeez, eyes open. OK, I must remember that.

  ‘Sorry,’ I muttered, because it seemed the right thing to do and, in response, he placed several kisses on my neck while his hand gently massaged my smarting behind, before reaching around me where he continued to undo the last of my shirt buttons.

  Still standing behind me, he pressed his stomach against me and a thrill ran through my body as I felt the hard length of his erection digging into my lower back. Placing his hands on my waist, Nicholas then proceeded to run a teasing trail up my sides to the shirt collar where he took hold and slowly started to pull it off me, peeling it lazily down my shoulders and arms until just the cuffs remained.

  Taking me completely by surprise, he suddenly did something to the shirt that had my hands trapped behind my back … I supposed he must have twisted the material while my wrists were still in the sleeve cuffs. Whatever he did, it well and truly trapped my hands, and I stood helpless with my breasts jutting forward as Nicholas stalked back around to stand in front of me.

  ‘That should stop you fidgeting while I examine your rather lovely underwear,’ he commented lightly, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

  Trailing his gaze across my already heated skin, I watched as Nicholas’ pupils dilated further and a sigh escaped him. His obvious appreciation of me merely added to my arousal, and I squeezed my thighs together as I felt myself start to throb and moisten further. I glanced quickly down and was so pleased I had made the effort to pick out nice lacy underwear tonight before leaving the house.

  ‘You have a fabulous body, Rebecca,’ Nicholas murmured thickly, his eyes roving over me while his hands stayed firmly at his sides as if he were allowing himself to look but not touch.

  I began to squirm on the spot. How was it possible to get this turned on from just a look?

  Finally, he put me out of my misery by stepping closer and placing his hands on my waist, rubbing soothing circles on my exposed flesh and sending electric tingles cascading across my skin. One hand began the ascent to my bra and I couldn’t help but moan softly as his fingers finally made contact with my breast. Slowly, his other hand joined in as he massaged and kneaded at my sensitive flesh through the lace of my bra, making me shudder with desire.

  Suddenly, he reached around behind my back and tugged me against him, finding my mouth with his and invading it with his probing tongue. His kiss was fierce but passionate and I found myself longing to touch him, run my hands through his hair, pull him closer, but I couldn’t because my hands were still caught in my damn shirt.

  Nicholas undid my bra with one hand while still demanding access to my mouth with his relentless tongue as mine duelled with his fiercely, unwilling to be dominated just yet. Then he tugged the right cup of my bra down over my breast and rubbed the heel of his hand up against my nipple, skin on skin, causing it to pucker and harden under his touch as I gasped against his lips.

  My body’s keen response seemed to spur Nicholas on be
cause I felt his thumbs tuck into the waistband of my knickers, then suddenly his lips weren’t on mine any more because he’d bent down and slipped off my underwear in one fluid movement.

  Rising, he placed a brief, chaste kiss on the small strip of hair at the apex of my thighs, making me gasp again, before standing fully and immediately claiming my mouth with his. His right hand continued rubbing circles across my belly, travelling ever lower until his palm rubbed across my pubic hair. My stomach clenched. I could barely focus; his lips were ravaging mine but his fingers began to work their way ever lower until …

  ‘Oh God, Nicholas …’ I cried out softly as his fingers lazily circled my already pulsing clitoris.

  ‘Shh,’ he admonished me quietly, his fingers slipping first down one side of my wet lips and then the other, and I felt a hint of embarrassment at just how soaked I must be now. But when he dipped one finger inside me, those thoughts vanished and it took all my remaining self-control not to scream out with pleasure. Briefly, he pulled back, and I saw him release a hissed breath through his teeth before he sank a second finger inside me.

  It felt so good that I couldn’t believe I would ever get enough of this man.

  ‘So ready, Rebecca. You certainly are keen,’ he observed with a dark smile as his fingers began to move expertly in and out of me, rubbing exactly the right spots and making my legs rubbery beneath me within seconds.

  After hardly any time at all, my body was building toward a release, but as if sensing my imminent climax, Nicholas pulled his fingers out of me and smothered my attempt at a protest with a firm kiss to my lips. Drawing back, he examined me intently before lifting his hand and placing one of his fingers in his mouth, sucking it with obvious pleasure.

  Holy shit, that finger had just been inside me … That was really pervy, but somehow really hot too, and I watched in fascination as his eyes dilated with pleasure.