The Dead King

by Pamfiloff, Mimi Jean

  “All questions you can resolve on your own,” he said, reading my thoughts.

  “Well, what if I don’t want to? What if—”

  “You will take the first flight home,” he stated bluntly. “There will be no discussion on the matter.”

  He was right. There would be no discussion because it wasn’t his damned choice. Ergo, nothing to discuss. I would go back to Florida when I was ready. Not before.

  “Why did you bring me here?” I closed the gap between us. “What was the point of dragging me to San Francisco, of blackmailing me to get me on a plane, only to say I need to go now?”

  Surely, he’d had a plan, a reason to make me come along.

  He rubbed his stubbled jaw, mulling.

  “At some point, you’re going to have to clue me in,” I pushed, “because either way, if I stay or go, shouldn’t I know what I’m up against? Don’t I at least deserve that much so I can protect myself?” At the moment, I was flying blind. Was an army of weirdos with freaking mind-control powers going to show up on my doorstep and try to kill my dad and me? Was that blonde woman going to come back and try to use me? Because she sure seemed interested in my abilities. Probably wants me to be her killer lapdog.

  “Wait,” I said. “That’s it. That’s why you wanted me to come along, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” he said unapologetically. “I thought your unique gifts might be of use.”

  I blinked at him. “So you brought me along to kill people? Great! Fucking great!”

  “You come across as harmless—a very handy weapon. But things have changed.”

  Glad to hear it, but…“How?”

  “That is no concern of yours.”

  Maybe not, but I couldn’t help how I felt about him. “Just tell me what happened. It was something in that house. Just tell me, and I swear I’ll go—if that’s what you really want.” Saying the words made my stomach knot. I prayed he wouldn’t take me up on that offer, because what I really wanted was to figure this out. I wanted to know why I felt like I did about him. A man who’d washed up on the shore right in front of my work after a hurricane. Dead one minute, alive the next. And now a fixture in my world.

  “Do you know what I really want?” he growled, stepping in closer, lowering his voice to a whisper.

  He flooded my mind with his thoughts: Me bent over the desk in front of us. Him pounding his cock into me as I moaned for more.

  “That is what I dreamed of.” He took hold of my chin. “That is what brought me here, and why you must go. It is for your own good.”

  My mouth went dry. Heat filled my lower belly. Suddenly, the thought of him taking me over this desk sounded good. It called to a hunger inside me that had been there all along, but I’d refused to acknowledge.

  I stared up into his hypnotic blue eyes. What if I want it? What if I want…you?

  “Do not make such reckless decisions, Jeni. Think long and hard about what you are saying. I will never love you. I will never stay with you.” He cupped his hand behind my head, pulling me flush with his body so I could feel his hard cock pressing against my stomach.

  A hard wave of need rolled through me. Whatever he wanted, he could have it. I wanted to be under his control. I wanted him to fuck me.

  Slowly, I turned around, planting my hands on the desk. A long moment passed, and then I felt his hands gliding to my hips. He pushed his palm between my legs and stroked me hard.

  I shut my eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. I could feel what he was thinking, that he wanted to savor this.

  He stripped away my damp coat and dropped it to the floor. He moved his warm hands under my sweater, cupping my breasts and squeezing them as he ground his cock against my ass. Every time he touched my skin, I felt a surge of heat pass through me. I didn’t know who this man really was. I just knew that he was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

  “That is correct, Miss Arnold. I am an abomination. I do not need my memories to tell me that.” He pushed his hot breath into my ear.

  My body shuddered with erotic pulses, the space between my legs aching for him to be inside me. I’d seen his cock. I knew it was thick and long. In my mind, I imagined the sinful sensation of him slamming it inside me and taking me hard. I imagined him coming over and over again, coating the wall of my pussy.

  He tightened his grip on my hip and pushed deeper between my legs with the other hand. I knew he read my thoughts. I knew he could see my dark desires.

  He slammed me facedown on the desk, holding me in place with one hand between my shoulder blades. “Is this what you want? You want me to fuck you like an animal.”

  No, I wanted him to fuck me like I was his.

  His free hand moved behind me, and then he tore down my jeans and panties, leaving my bare ass exposed to him.

  His cold hands gripped my hips and then…

  I gasped from the delicious pain of his penetration. He pulled out and thrust once more, making me cry out. He used his powerful arms and the weight of his large frame to hold me in place and drive deep.

  Each time he left me, I ached. Each time he filled me back up, I felt a rush of dark, delicious pleasure.

  I moaned in ecstasy, soaking up the sensation of his cock pounding into me, the friction of it gliding against my tight walls, fueling the fire. Each stroke pushed me closer, to a place where only his body and mine existed, where he gave me pleasure that mixed with the sweet pain of his thick cock.

  I moved my hands over the desk and wrapped my fingers around the edge, trying to brace myself as his large frame bowed over my back and his hips slammed into me at a steady pace. He fucked like I thought he would. In control, taking what he wanted, sating his lust like a dark hungry creature.

  I wanted it.

  I wanted him to use my body for his pleasure. I wanted to hear him growl as he came. I wanted his mind filled with thoughts of me.

  I lifted my ass, allowing him to drive deeper, welcoming him into my body.

  He took the offer.

  It hurt. It hurt so good when his length pushed too far. I savored the fact that my cries fueled him. He relished knowing he was too big for my body. I could feel his male ego delighting in it.

  Why did I want to please him so much? Why did feeding his dark sadistic nature make me want to come?

  I didn’t know.

  I didn’t care.

  I lifted my chest off the desk, planting my forearms in front of me. The pace of his thrusting grew faster, each movement more forceful.

  I rocked my hips back, in time to each motion, welcoming his hungry cock. That’s right. Fuck me, I thought. Fuck me. Give me everything. Just don’t stop.

  The head of his shaft worked against that spot deep inside me, and then I exploded. My entire body clenched up as the hard wave of ecstasy took hold, pushing my mind out of my body.

  I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. There was only him and me and an endless stream of erotic pulses I had no control over.

  “Fucking hell,” he groaned with pleasure. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” His words told me that he was right there inside my head—feeling, hearing, knowing what I knew: This was not just fucking. This was not savage lust, sinful and crude. He was inside my body and mind, and I was giving myself over to him.

  The waves of pleasure began to abate, my mind becoming aware of us again, of him hammering into me, taking what he needed.

  Then he stopped, fully sheathed inside my slick walls. He released a guttural groan, like a ferocious predator. He held my hips firm, digging his fingers into the soft skin as he flooded me.

  I gently rocked my hips, wanting to milk it, to make his pleasure last longer. I wanted him to feel what I had just felt.

  Our bodies craved one another.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  After we had sex, Jack didn’t say much. He never did, but this felt different. I could see a wildness in his blue eyes, like he was lit on fire.

  We dressed, and he took my hand, dragging me back to the
hotel several blocks away.

  It was night now, dark and foggy, but no longer raining. Thank God.

  The strange part was, as we passed a group of sketchy guys on the street, all with neck tats and hands suspiciously in their pockets, they took one look at us and walked away.

  Maybe they sensed what I was—this Seer who could send death after them. I didn’t know, but in my heart, I understood that I’d turned some sort of corner. I’d shed my old skin. I wasn’t afraid of people anymore. I wasn’t afraid of anything except losing Jack. He felt like an anchor in my dark storm.

  And, no, it didn’t make sense. I had just met him, but I couldn’t help how I felt. His power drew me in. His beauty was addictive. His darkness was hypnotic.

  We got back to his room, and he immediately stripped off my clothes. He stroked between my legs and kissed me hard, his lips lulling me away from reality.

  He stripped off his own clothes, giving me another glimpse of the hard sleek muscles covering his tall frame. Thick strong thighs, protruding biceps, washboard abs. His skin was smooth and flawless, a light-olive tone with a smattering of black hair between his chest muscles.

  For as long as I lived, I knew I would never see a man like him again. Too wickedly beautiful for words.

  He pushed me down on the bed and lay over me, kissing my neck, massaging my breasts, grinding his hard shaft between my legs. His breathing was heavy and filled with faint growls.

  “I’m going to fuck you again and again, Jeni. I’m going to make you see how merciless I can be.”

  I didn’t care. Whatever spell he held over me, I wanted it. I wanted him.

  He pinned my arms over my head, bringing his mouth to mine. His lips were soft and warm, but his stubble was rough, and I delighted in the contrast. No one had ever kissed me like this, like he hungered for me.

  His tongue mingled with mine, massaging and pushing in time to his grinding hips. He worked his hard length up and down my slick valley, almost bringing me to the brink, only to pull away before I ignited.

  He lifted himself off my body and kneeled between my legs. He took his length in his hand and guided himself in, watching the act with those intense blue eyes.

  Over and over again, he worked himself in and out, bringing me to the edge, but never allowing me the release I needed.

  I threw my head back onto the pillow, my chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. Please, please, please…

  He knew what I was begging for.

  “No.” He flipped me over, gripping my hips and bringing me to him. He was in me again, this time moving with excruciatingly slow, deliberate strokes. “I’m going to make you raw from fucking. Then I’m going to make you come and beg for more.”

  I was already at his mercy. He could have anything he wanted. “Just don’t stop.”

  He flipped me back over and stared for a moment, a look of wonder in his eyes.

  He lunged forward, pushing his shaft deep inside me while trapping my mouth with another searing kiss. I wrapped my legs around his ass and tilted my hips, hungering to have him deeper. Not just his body, but all of him. There was a connection between us that I hungered for more of.

  He broke our kiss and began moving at a feverish pace, pounding me toward that sweet, sweet release.

  He came with a deep, throaty groan only a man could make. The sound of his voice triggered my own climax and pushed me out of my body once more.

  There was nothing besides the waves of sinful pleasure and the sound of his animalistic groans. I felt him pull me into him, into his mind, allowing me to experience his body falling to pieces one wave of ecstasy at a time.

  I didn’t know how long it lasted, but when I came back to myself, my body limp and sated, I spotted the sun coming through an opening in the curtains.

  “It’s morning,” I said, stroking his back as he lay collapsed on top of me. I didn’t care how heavy he was. I didn’t ever want him to go. He was my dark addiction. We had been fucking for hours, and I was already wanting more.

  “So it is,” he mumbled into the crook of my neck.

  “I need to eat.” And I could use a shower, but I was too tired to move.

  “This may help.” Jack rolled off me onto his back, resting his arm over his head.

  Something churned behind those blue eyes, something that bothered him. If I were to make a bet, I’d say it was the same thing that had been bothering him earlier.

  “What did you see at that house?” I asked, hoping that he’d answer me this time. When are you going to start trusting me?

  He stared at the ceiling for a long while. “That place was evil.”

  Yeah, no kidding.

  He continued, “But I am not speaking of the sort of malevolence one might equate to a serial killer. I am speaking of something so dark it consumes everything around it. The walls of the home were dripping with it. The soil was saturated with it.”

  I’d felt it, too.

  He added, “People have died in that house by the hundreds. Thousands were tortured there. Nothing good ever lived there.”

  “I don’t understand what it has to do with y—”

  “The home was mine, Jeni. I know it was. And if it is any indication of the man I have forgotten, I am unsure it is wise to revive him.”

  “You keep talking about yourself like you’re the devil, but you don’t know that. I’ve seen you do kind things.” For example, he saved me at the police station back in Tampa. He stopped Randall from hurting me. He healed my dad.

  “I believe the reason I came back to life,” he said, “was not because of the ring. It was because death will not have me.”

  The ring. The ring. “You mean the ring you were wearing before?”

  “When I woke in that metal box, it was in my hand, and I knew what it was. I knew it reversed death. It heals injuries. That is why I put it on your father’s finger before I smothered him with a pillow while you slept.”

  “I’m sorry. You did what?” I sat up and pulled the covers over my chest.

  “He did not feel a thing, I promise. But he needed to die first in order to be brought back—healed. The next morning, I ensured he did not recall the incident.”

  What the hell? He killed my dad?

  Jack gave me a look. “Everything comes with a price, Jeni.”

  I scrubbed my face with my hands. I couldn’t even handle thinking about it. “Where’s the ring now?”

  “Your father still wears it.” He sat up and stared into my eyes. “I made a deal with you—to ensure he would be protected.”

  I hadn’t even noticed my dad wearing it, but then again, I’d been distracted by the miracle of him standing in the kitchen, making pancakes.

  Suddenly, another thought hit me. “So if you didn’t have the ring on at the warehouse, how did you come back?”

  “That is part of the puzzle I was attempting to explain. I recall removing the ring while I was trapped inside the container, repeatedly drowning. I wanted the pain to end. I wanted to die. However, I kept coming back. Or, at least, this is what I remember. So I tested my theory in your motel room. A quick drowning confirmed that whatever I am, whoever I was, hell will not have me.”

  Jesus. Rejected by hell? It explained why he kept telling me he was not a good man. He believed he was too rotten for even the devil’s taste. Of course, I didn’t believe in any of that stuff. Or maybe I did? Every belief I used to have was up in the air. “So you want to drop it—you don’t want to know who you were or how you ended up on the bottom of the ocean.”

  “That house,” he said, “that office, my few memories are all pointing to the fact that I am beyond redemption. Beyond human.”

  I never thought I would see a man like him fear his own evil. He wasn’t afraid of pain, of dying, of killing.

  “Thank you, but I am not afraid.”

  “Then what?” I asked.

  “It is merely a question of logic. Someone went to great lengths to erase me off the face of this planet and
punish me. Perhaps their actions were warranted, given what I have learned.”

  “Okay.”

  He turned his head to look at me. “I do not want to live forever. I know from experience that being unable to die is its own kind of hell.”

  “And?”

  “And perhaps I should attempt another path instead of continuing on the previous one.”

  Redemption, I thought.

  “Yes.” He nodded.

  I couldn’t exactly argue with him. I had gotten a taste of that house’s…whatever it was. I’d felt the same darkness in that abandoned office. If he decided not to pursue his past life any further, I got it. I got why.

  “I am glad you agree.” He placed his feet on the floor, putting his back to me. “I will order breakfast while you bathe,” he said.

  I took that as a polite way of saying he needed a moment.

  I got up and glanced over my shoulder at Jack, noting how something had shifted inside him. Even his face looked different. The dark shadows that once clung to him had been replaced by light. His cheeks were flushed, and his blue eyes seemed brighter somehow.

  “Stop looking at me. Shower,” he commanded.

  I bobbed my head and went into the all-white marble bathroom. It was an old hotel, so the space was small, but the big showerhead and glass sinks were nicer than anything I was used to.

  As I let the water heat, my mind wandered. Was this subtle shift in Jack because of me? Was it because he’d decided to take another path? I didn’t know, but for certain, his change of plans caught me off guard. Even he had to see how turning away from his past meant he wasn’t irredeemable. Something told him not to repeat history.

  I let out a slow breath and stepped under the shower, allowing the hot water to run down my neck and back. I shampooed and washed my body, noting my sore muscles. I felt physically exhausted, and mentally, the worry was just getting started. Because I was beginning to realize that I’d made a deal with that blonde woman. A deal I couldn’t keep.

  Fuck. I should’ve told Jack about the cuff. I should have said something right away.