Black as Midnight

by Mary Martel

  "You can touch mine too, if you want," I said, as I pointed at the scar on my face. I dropped my hand to point toward my collarbones. "Or, if you'd like, you can touch some of the other ones I have also."

  I didn't exactly want him touching me, but felt it was only fair to offer it up to him since I had so brazenly touched the scar on his face and throat. And I had only offered it up because the touch hadn't been sexual.

  Trenton's eyes grew cold as he stared at my scars. His mouth twitched before his face turned to stone.

  "I'm not going to touch your fucking scars," he whispered in a voice filled with rage. I flinched as if he struck me, but he continued as if he didn't see my reaction to his words. "I'm going to be the reason you do not collect any more. Not ever again."

  He pressed his fingertips to my lips before placing them over his chest where his heart was.

  "This I promise you," he whispered hoarsely.

  I wasn't given the time to respond because he turned his back on me and stalked away toward the kitchen.

  I shut the bathroom door and slumped against it.

  His words hadn't been a promise, but a vow. To me.

  And I'd believed him.

  Eight minutes later, I walked into the kitchen with my face clear of tears and the ugly red splotches that crying like a baby had given me.

  Trenton's words had calmed me down immensely. I would never point that out to anyone ever though.

  Rain had a bunch of stuff I did not understand set out on the kitchen island and was setting up a little gun with a needle on the end of it.

  I watched him plug something into the wall and place a pedal on the floor by the stool he'd vacated when he'd stood up to plug the thing into the wall.

  "Are you ready for me?" I questioned hesitantly, as I stepped into the room.

  Rain glanced over his shoulder, his eyes were lit with a fire I had never seen before and it reinforced what I had already been feeling.

  I loved the drawing and I loved that it came from my family line. It made it even better that Rain wanted me to have it too.

  Still, it was a tattoo. A permanent mark on my body that I could never get rid of. And I wanted it. I had to remember that I wanted it and forget everything else. All the bullshit, all my feelings, they didn't really matter in this moment and I needed to remember this.

  I nodded my head. "I'm ready," I said, as I stepped into the room.

  Rain smiled at me before turning back to everything he'd set out on the counter.

  I ignored the two brothers as they watched me walk toward the island. I pulled out the stool beside Rain's and sat down.

  Rain did something with the machine in his hands before setting it down on the island countertop and turning toward me. He smiled at me, so full and beautiful that my breath caught in my throat at just the sight of it. It was so pure, so full of happiness and pride, that I was forced to smile back at him.

  "How do you want me?" I asked, as I placed my right hand on the island, my wrist aimed up.

  "That's good," Rain replied, as he turned his stool around to face mine. "Hold still."

  I could do that.

  For Rain, I had a feeling I could do anything. All he had to do was ask.

  “I have a confession to make though,” I murmured quietly.

  Rain looked up from what he was doing and eyed me questioningly.

  “I don’t like needles,” I confessed.

  His mouth twitched and I grinned at him.

  “It’s okay though,” I assured him. “I just won’t look. Maybe this will be better…”

  I got up and carried my stool around to the other side of the island and sat down across from him. I thrust my right arm across the counter at him, the inside of my wrist up. I laid my cheek against the counter and stared straight ahead at the refrigerator.

  “I’m not going to watch,” I informed him “and I think I’ll be alright.”

  “You know it’s going to hurt, right?” he asked in an amused voice.

  “Yeah,” I replied.

  When I said no more, he chuckled but got down to business. I closed my eyes as a buzz filled the kitchen.

  Rain had been wrong. It stung a bit, but it didn’t hurt me.

  Then again, pain and I were old friends. I had a feeling we always would be.

  It took him a little over an hour to finish. He worked without saying a word and the only sounds to fill the room came from the tattoo gun and Gossip Girl on the television.

  The end result was awesome, and looked like an exact replica of the one Rain had. He did good work.

  I looked up from my wrist to see him watching me with a soft look in his eyes.

  “I love it,” I told him honestly. A thought occurred to me then, and I smiled big and bright at him. “I bet Quinton yells at me when he finds out.”

  For some reason, that thought made me incredibly happy.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Quinton Alexander

  I stood back with my shoulder against the doorjamb, watching.

  I had never seen Rain Kimber more at ease than he was now, sitting in my living room watching television with Trenton and his daughter, Ariel. There was something about the brothers that made Rain act like almost a normal human being when he was around them.

  At first, this had made me incredibly jealous to witness, but that was no longer the case. I couldn't hate them, no matter how hard I tried. They were orphans, like most of the rest of us. And they'd witnessed their entire coven, along with their parents, being slaughtered by hunters when they were just mere children. Rain had been there like some knight in shining armor to save them when no one else had been able to.

  What I had originally mistaken for some sort of hero worship was what I was really jealous of, because I realized what it really was. The brothers had been alone for so long, but the moment they laid eyes on Rain again it had been like coming home after years and years of being gone. It was seeing your family again for the first time in forever, and you'd been desperate and missing their presence, their embrace, for so long that coming home finally was the best feeling in the entire world.

  The fact that Rain didn't push them away when he did everyone else, except Ariel was where my jealousy stemmed from, because I knew he, too, considered them to be his family.

  Rain had been my family, even if I hadn't wanted him to be, from the moment he walked back into Ariel's life. She was my family and always would be the most important person in it besides Tyson. She came with Rain and, for better or worse, that made him my family and important to me as well, because I knew he was now the most important person in Ariel's life and probably always would be.

  Ariel's relationship with her father wasn't one I was jealous of. They were both so horribly broken and sad, and they both worked so hard to hide it from the world around them that you couldn't help but be anything besides ecstatic that they'd found each other once again. Being in each other's lives was the only thing that would ever be able to even partially heal those two, but, no matter how much we all loved them, I didn't think they'd ever be whole.

  I was okay with that, just so long as I got to be there and beside the both of them for the rest of their journeys in this world to help make it as peaceful and happy as I could. That's what you did for the people you loved.

  Rain was my family and I wanted to be the same for him. It hurt me to watch these two brothers waltz into our lives and receive that honor from him immediately when I was really working hard for it and I thought we were maybe getting somewhere.

  As I watched their easy going nature between them, I knew I didn't have it in me to begrudge either Rain or Ariel of their easy relationship with the brothers. I'd give them both anything and everything I had to give, and they never even had to ask for it.

  Trenton, the bastard, leaned in next to my girl and said something to her that made her smile and her shoulders shake with laughter.

  Rain looked up and toward the doorway, catching my eye. His eyes narro
wed on mine and I shook my head. I wasn't here to cause problems and I didn't want the rest of them to notice me.

  My eyes went back to Ariel and a small smile curved my lips as I watched her laughing at Trenton. She looked carefree and beautiful. Beautiful, as always.

  My heart filled at seeing that smile. A smile from Ariel was a rare thing to behold. A carefree one from her was practically unheard of, and there were very few people who'd ever actually witnessed it.

  Trenton and Simon were here to keep her safe, to guard her body from harm, and I was okay with that. If they could make her laugh and smile along the way, make her happier than we already did, then I was more than okay with that as well.

  My eyes met Rain's again and there was something in his that I had not seen before when directed at me. Something close to respect.

  It wasn't the thing I craved from him the most, but I'd take it and hold it dear like the gift I knew it was.

  I turned around and walked away before Ariel noticed me and invited me to join them. I didn't want to join them.

  But I would not begrudge the brothers because they'd come into my girl's life now, and it wasn't even because I liked them because I was sure I did not.

  No, I couldn't begrudge it because I had a really bad feeling that not only Ariel, but all of us, were going to need them with what was to come.

  The End.

  For now.

  Thank you & What’s next

  Dash's Novella will come next. But... I have had something running around through my mind since starting Black as Midnight and you might just get a Rain Kimber novella in there too before the next full-length novel comes out. I just can’t let that manila folder he has go.

  Thank you so much for reading my book.

  Please, if you enjoyed the book I would really appreciate it if you left a review. Reviews mean everything to us Indie authors.

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  What’s up next for me? Well, I have a story called Killing Time in an Anthology that releases this summer.

  Love, Loyalty and Mayhem

  A Motorcycle Club Romance Anthology

  Releases: July 16

  Pre-Order: https://books2read.com/LLMAnthology

  Bad Boy Alpha Alert!

  Nineteen of your favorite MC authors come together to bring you brand new, never released stories from some of your favorite motorcycle clubs.

  Love-

  Life with a biker is an adventure full of twists and turns. When love is involved, MC men never back down from what they want—they fight for it.

  Loyalty-

  Loyalty is the foundation in any motorcycle club. Break it, they break you. There isn't a line they won't cross to protect who or what they claim as their own.

  Mayhem-

  These men live a life made by their own set of rules. Chaos tends to always find them. You cross them, the consequences are swift.

  Hold on for the ride as this talented group of authors come together to bring you an anthology like no other.

  Your favorite clubs, new clubs, and everything in between can be found in this collection filled with suspense, action, adventure, romance and so much more!

  **All profits from the Love, Loyalty & Mayhem: A Motorcycle Club Romance Anthology will be donated to Bikers Against Bullies USA.

  BAB USA is a national not-for-profit organization created by bikers to raise awareness and empower the community to fight the terrible effects of bullying on young people through education, community outreach and fundraising.