Black as Midnight

by Mary Martel

  Dash sighed heavily, the look on his face full of frustration.

  "I do want you, Ariel, more than I've ever wanted anything in my whole fucked up, sorry excuse for a life. But I don't want to rush you into anything, and if you're not ready—"

  I was so sick and tired of other people making decisions for me and telling me I wasn't ready when they had no idea. That was a question only I had the answer for.

  "I am ready," I stated in a voice laced with steel. "I've been ready for a good, long while but none of you idiots will listen to me."

  Dash opened his mouth, likely to protest some more and valiantly protect my virginity, but I’d had more than enough of this ridiculousness. It was time for action, time I take things into my own hands, literally.

  In order to quiet his protests, I kissed him. He was hesitant at first, his body tense beneath me. It didn't take long for him to relax again as the kiss grew more heated, frenzied even.

  I broke the kiss and went back to trailing kisses along his jawline before moving down to his neck.

  "Ariel," he moaned my name as I kissed my way down his body. I flicked my tongue across his nipple, making his entire body jump beneath me.

  His hands fisted in the sheets as I continued on my journey, making my way down his body, using my mouth and tongue to taste every available inch of his skin on my descent.

  Above his belly button and down to his crotch there was a thick trail of dark, red hair that led the way down to his pubic area.

  I had never done this before but I wanted to try. I wanted to make him feel good, and hopefully lower his inhibitions enough for him to give me what I wanted without further protest, because it's what he wanted too.

  I dragged my tongue down his stomach, stopping at his hip bone. I looked up at him as I paused for a moment, needing to see he was right there with me and enjoying what I was doing to him.

  His eyes were locked on me, hot and burning with desire.

  "What do you want, Ariel?" he asked in a thick, husky voice.

  "You," I said simply. For me it was that simple. "I just want you."

  My thoughts were entirely consumed with Dash. In this moment it was just the two of us and nobody else existed.

  "You have me," he whispered.

  A surge of victory burned through me. I wouldn't be his first, nowhere near it, but I would have something no one else ever really got from him. He was mine in ways he'd never been anyone else's.

  Without breaking eye contact, I palmed his dick in my hand. For something that looked so hard, it was a lot softer than I thought it would be, almost like smooth velvet. And it was burning hot.

  I curled my fingers around as much of it as I could and slid my hand up, stopping when my hand bumped up against the tip, and then slowly gliding back down. His hips jerked, coming off the bed. The look on his face turned harsh and he snarled something unintelligible at me.

  My eyes widened at the sudden change that had come over him as he sat up and, almost violently, flipped me over onto my back. My hair blew out all around me as I cried out in surprise.

  "Dash," I breathed out. "What are you—"

  He silenced me with a kiss, his mouth crashing down onto mine, almost much the same as I had done with him earlier.

  My hands went to his shoulders and slid around and down his back.

  He froze above me for a second, his mouth finally leaving mine and allowing me to breathe. He stared down at me, his eyes full of naked vulnerability as I carefully ran my hands over the scarred up, abrasive layers of skin on his back. He didn't ask me to stop so I kept going, exploring every raised line and hard ridge along the way. There were too many of them to count, from years of torture at his mother and grandmother’s hands.

  I knew he didn't usually allow people to get this close to him and I reveled in it, taking it as the gift I knew it to be.

  "Kiss me," I muttered, not wanting him to get too much into his head, and be here with me in the moment.

  His tongue flicked out, tracing my lips before his face disappeared in my neck. He kissed his way down the column of my throat. His hot, wet mouth dropped down to my breasts as he palmed them. One thumb flicked across my nipple, just how I liked it, while his mouth moved to the other one. I moaned as he sucked my nipple into his mouth, his teeth grazing it lightly.

  I shifted my hips restlessly as need pooled between my thighs, my core aching. I wrapped my legs around his hips and my breath hissed out of me as his erection pressed up against my center. It felt good, right, and I wanted more.

  Dash's hand left my breast and slipped down my body. Down past my pubic bone. His fingers glided through my wetness, his thumb going straight to my clit. He circled it in slow motions, causing me to cry out and arch my back off the bed. He kept kissing my breast, playing with my nipple with his tongue, as he slowly slid a finger inside me.

  There, right there.

  That was exactly what I needed, what my body craved. My hips jerked as he slid another finger inside, stretching, but not unpleasantly so. His thumb moved against my clit as his fingers slid outside of me, just to be thrust back in again.

  "Okay?" he asked quietly.

  I nodded my head frantically. It was more than okay. I might have been a virgin, but I knew how to touch myself and make it feel good. I had been the first person to explore my body this way, but his fingers felt a whole lot better than my own had.

  "Ariel?"

  "Yeah," I replied huskily. "Everything is okay." My breath hitched as his fingers withdrew just to slide right back into me.

  My insides fluttered before clenching around his fingers. Pleasure rocketed through me as I slid my hand around the front of him and down. I grabbed hold of the hand he was touching me with and held on, holding him in place as I rode out my orgasm.

  My eyes shut tight as greedy noises left my throat.

  I released his hand as my body grew limp and I melted back against the mattress, my legs still wrapped around his hips.

  Dash raised his head to look down at me while removing his fingers from where they were inside me. I whimpered as he pulled his fingers free, immediately missing them and wanting them back.

  "Christ," Dash murmured. "Please tell me it's true and you're on birth control."

  I blinked stupidly at him, coming slightly out of my orgasm induced fog.

  "What?" I hissed angrily at him. I was on birth control and had been for a long time, I had bad periods and it helped control them and made the pain bearable. The fact that he seemed to know this before I told him shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. They knew almost everything there was to know about me.

  I shook my head in exasperation as I muttered, “Yes.” I had nothing to be embarrassed about here and should have been glad he thought to ask first.

  His lips curled up at the ends as he shrugged his shoulders, boyishly unrepentant.

  He palmed his erection and guided it toward my core. He rubbed the head of it up my slit before going back to my opening.

  "Kiss me," I commanded, needing his mouth on mine.

  He gave me what I wanted and kissed me as he pushed the head of his cock inside my body. He grabbed my hands, pulling them away from his shoulders, and pressed them into the mattress above my head. He held my hands down as he slid slowly inside me, inch by inch, until he filled me up completely. There was a slight stinging and the stretching was almost painful. It was more uncomfortable than painful.

  His mouth went to my neck while he otherwise held himself still, giving me a moment to get accustomed to the feel of him inside me.

  When I shifted my hips beneath him, restlessly, silently begging him to move, his head came off of my neck and his mouth went back to mine.

  He broke the kiss as his hips pulled back before he snapped them forward again, thrusting inside me.

  He set a fast pace with his hips while he moved my hands so he could hold both wrists down with one hand. His other hand moved leisurely down my body. His forehead pressed against mine a
nd his eyes, too close for me to fully make out, looked hazy.

  Sweat broke out across his face and he pressed his thumb against my clit again, pushing me over the edge.

  I clamped down around him, crying out as I came again.

  "Fuck," he growled as he let my hands go.

  His hands went to my hips where he gripped me tight, lifting my ass off the mattress and holding me in place while he thrust forcefully inside me.

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, buried my face in his neck, and clung to him as I rode out the aftershocks of my orgasm. It didn't take him long before he found his own. Groaning loudly, he buried himself in deep, his body twitching uncontrollably as he came.

  I clutched tightly to him the whole time, unwilling to let him go.

  He let my hips go and wound his arms around my back, holding me to him as he fell over to his side and rolled onto his back, taking me with him and staying firmly planted inside me.

  The move forced me to let go of him with both my arms and thighs. My legs fell to the bed on either side of his. My forearms went to his chest and I pushed myself up so I could look down at him.

  The eyes that met mine were dark and as serious as I had ever seen them before. There was a possessiveness lurking in their depths that stole my breath away.

  "Do you know what this means?" he inquired in a guttural voice.

  I shook my head, having no idea where he was going with this. I hoped wherever it went ended with more orgasms for me though, I was greedy like that.

  "You can never leave now," he continued in that same guttural tone. "I won't let you."

  My lips kicked up into a soft smile.

  He couldn't get rid of me if he tried, I was going absolutely nowhere.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I hadn't been invited into the sanctuary of Quinton's bedroom before and I hadn't been invited now. I was restless though and the rest of the house was quiet, everyone sleeping because they'd been awake for days waiting for me to wake up and too wired to sleep before that happened.

  I couldn't lay there and do nothing anymore, so I showered and explored the closet. Much to my surprise, the entire thing had been changed around and stuffed full of clothes that actually fit me and weren't ridiculously small. Damien had gone shopping, yet again, and I tried not to be disgusted with the excess or worried about what he'd done with the clothes that had originally been in there.

  I found a black tank top that had a sliver of a moon on the front of it. I put on black leggings and, underneath it all, matching black bra and panties. I matched all around.

  I found my pentagram choker on a shelf in there, my cell phone sitting beside. I put my choker on and held on tightly to my phone. I turned it on and was surprised to find I had a number of missed calls and text messages, which was weird to me because pretty much everyone I knew was here in the house with me.

  Marcus had called me several times and finally resorted to texting.

  Marcus: Adrian has informed me you've been invited to dinner. I am so sorry, sweetheart. I had no idea he was going to involve you this way.

  Shit.

  I fumbled, almost dropping the phone. Somehow, with all that was going on, I had completely forgotten Adrian inviting me to some dinner with Marcus. Things really couldn't get much worse around here.

  There was another text from Marcus when I never responded to that one.

  Marcus: Of course, if you're not up for it, you don't have to attend. I would never force something like that on you. Adrian is playing games and I don't want you to get sucked into the middle of it.

  I pursed my lips as I read the next text after that one, shaking my head. It wasn't like Marcus to text so much. He was a lot like Rain in that he'd rather call or just come to where I was to talk. He didn't much care for texting and would rather have an actual conversation with you.

  Marcus: Please, don't shut me out now. I need you.

  I closed my eyes tightly as my head fell forward. I clutched my phone tightly in my hand, trying to figure out what in the heck I was supposed to do in this situation.

  I sighed before quickly texting back.

  Ariel: Sorry, Marcus. Things have been super crazy around here and I haven't checked my phone in a while. When is this dinner? And is it at your place or the motel?

  I hated sending him that text because one, I didn't want him to worry, and two, it sounded a lot like I planned on attending this dinner farce when I wanted anything but.

  When no reply immediately came, I opened up the other unread texts I had. It was from an unknown number I had never seen before.

  Unknown: Hello, Ariel. Dinner will be a formal affair and at the motel we've purchased for our stay here. It's a celebratory dinner to welcome Marcus into the Council. I'm sure you're already aware he's decided to join us.

  Unknown: Please, I'd like for you to bring your coven and your new bodyguards with you. We are waiting patiently to see how you all work out together.

  I frowned down at the lit up screen in my hand. Adrian had my number and was now text messaging me. How ridiculous and slightly terrifying. I had no idea how he'd gotten ahold of my phone number, but it was obvious he had it now. I wasn't surprised to see he was the opposite of both Rain and Marcus and, given that there were zero missed calls from him, he preferred texting to phoning.

  Not only was there that, which I was actually thankful for this time, but the A-hole hadn't bothered to tell me when this dinner was supposed to be happening. It's like he left it out on purpose in order to force me to engage with him.

  I would do no such thing. Instead, I'd wait until I talked to Marcus later and I'd ask him, essentially going around Adrian and leaving him out of the whole thing.

  Part of me was irrationally angry with the bald man for not texting me before showing up at the store and giving me a heads-up. Why couldn't he have texted me then, huh?

  I tossed my phone back onto the shelf where I'd found it and slipped my feet into a pair of obnoxiously pink fuzzy socks.

  On the same shelf as my choker and phone was a decorative silver bowl filled with a bunch of pretty colored studs. I dug around in there until I found some that were as obnoxiously pink as my socks. I removed the ones I had in my ears and stuck the pink ones in, dropping the ones I'd taken out into the bowl with the others. I thought it was sweet that they'd gone to so much trouble to make me feel happy and at home here.

  I shuffled out of the closet, making sure to close the door quietly behind me. Dash was still in the middle of the bed, his mouth slightly parted, and soft snores were coming out of him. It wasn't an attractive look, probably wasn't for anyone, but still, I thought he was adorable.

  I pulled the sheet up around his shoulders, covering all but his neck and head. I tucked the sheet into his sides and he was so out of it that he didn't even twitch.

  Binx was tucked up against his hip. His eyes were slanted, his tail twitching angrily. The little beast was not happy with me at the moment. He didn't hiss at me the way he would have one of the guys, but that didn't stop him from giving me his kitty version of a hostile glare. I made no attempts to pet him for fear of my life.

  I took one last glance at the redhead in bed with his black cat before slipping out of the door and closing it quietly behind me.

  I headed in the direction of the stairs but came up short when a light underneath a door caught my attention. I pressed my palm against the door, listening for any sound or movement on the other side.

  Rustling.

  Quiet humming.

  He was awake in there when the rest of the house was entirely silent.

  Figured.

  I lowered my palm from the door and headed back down the hallway that would take me to the stairs. The hallways in this house were so confusing sometimes, a person could get lost in here.

  The downstairs was deserted and I was thankful for it. I had looked in the mirror for a long time after getting out of the shower, studying my features. I thought that after what had ha
ppened between Dash and myself that I would look different in some way, that it would show on my face that I was no longer a virgin.

  Yet nothing had changed, and it was the face I'd always seen in the mirror staring back at me. My green eyes were the same as always, wide and filled with pain. Even though I had been happy when looking in the mirror, my eyes still held hints of my past in them and, in all likelihood, probably always would.

  That there'd been no sign of a change had really surprised me, because what went down between Dash and I had felt life altering at the time. And I looked the same, but I didn't want to run into anyone. Just because I couldn't see the change didn't mean someone else wouldn't be able to see it. These guys were intuitive.

  What if I ran into Rain and he took one look at me and knew I'd lost my virginity? Good god, that thought was unbearable and not something I thought I'd ever live down.

  I made two sandwiches in the kitchen, attempting to be as quiet as possible so as not to draw attention, and I somehow managed to pull it off.

  I carried the plate with sandwiches on it back upstairs.

  I knocked softly on the door that had the light shining underneath, the plate of sandwiches held aloft in the air between me and the door.

  "Come in," Quinton called briskly through the door.

  I was suddenly nervous, no longer actually wanting to step foot inside his private sanctuary.

  "Get in here, baby."

  Shit.

  I couldn't simply leave the plate on the floor in front of the door and haul ass back to my bedroom before he could open the door and drag me inside. Now he knew it was me and he'd just chase me down and drag me back.

  My hand went to the knob. Before I could bolt like a total coward, I steeled myself. I turned the knob and pushed the door open wide.

  I stood in the doorway with my mouth hanging open as my eyes took in his bedroom.