Dark Devotions by Nichole Greene
24
OLIVIA
Nolan’s apartmentis completely unique to the other three. Where they all have the same floor plan, his is a divergence with a two-level loft penthouse with a balcony. When you walk in the door, it’s just a large open room with two-story windows along the west facing wall. He has a small kitchen—the smallest of the four— along one wall. The other side of the room has a large couch, a wall mounted TV, and a baby grand piano. There are guitars and a mandolin spread around the room, too.
I walk to the piano and run my fingers over the keys, remembering the nights he used to sneak me into the band room in high school and play music for me all night. He walks over and holds his hand out to me.
“Let me show you upstairs, that’s where the real showstopper is.”
I follow him up a floating staircase with no railing on the outside. I don’t know if I could use these stairs regularly, just following him up gives me vertigo. When I step into his bedroom and he turns me the opposite direction, however, I completely forget any worry about the stairs. His rooftop patio is literally half the building. There are outdoor couches and seating areas all over. I spin around when he leads me out there.
“This patio must double the square footage of your penthouse.” I walk over to the edge, a glass wall with a chrome bar across the top that hits me right about at my ribcage.
“It does.” He stands beside me as the cold winter wind whips our hair into our eyes. “The sunsets are incredible from up here.”
“I bet.” I turn and look out over the overcast city. “It is cold though.”
“Definitely,” he says with a laugh and pulling me into his arms. Neither of us is wearing a coat, so we only stay out for another minute before racing back into the warmth of his apartment.
He pushes me against the wall as soon as we get back inside, one leg sliding between mine. Then he leans down, covering my mouth with his. I part my lips immediately, our tongues tangling in slow strokes.
“I’ve thought about you here so many times over the years,” he whispers against my lips. “What it would be like to wake up in my bed beside you. I knew you were married, but it never stopped the thoughts of you from creeping into my mind.”
“Sometimes when I was locked in the basement room, I would imagine laying on the lawn at FPA with you. I’d catalog all the songs you taught me, by band, year released, and genre,” I confess to him softly. “You and your love of music literally held me through some of my darkest moments, Nolan.”
“Liv.” He takes a shuddering breath as he rests his forehead against mine. “I hate that you needed to do that, but I love that you thought of me. You will never be in that position again; I promise you that.”
“I know. I’m home now.” I kiss him again, but he stops us before things get too heavy.
“Okay, more of that later. I want to cook you dinner and play you music until you tell everyone else that I’m your favorite,” he says with a sly grin.
“I’ll never pick a favorite, but I encourage all of you to spoil me in your efforts.”
He smiles and leads me back down to the main level where he starts preparing dinner. I lift myself onto the counter beside him and watch as he tenderizes two chicken breasts before pan frying them. Then he adds cream and sun-dried tomatoes to the skillet. He starts a small pot of pasta as well.
The entire vibe of the night is so casual and intimate that I forget all about everything going on outside these four walls. We talk and laugh over a bottle of wine. Eventually he leads me over to his piano, lifting me effortlessly to sit on top of it. I move my legs out of the way as he starts to play ‘Moonlight Sonata’.
Goosebumps erupt over my skin at his beautiful tenor and the emotion seeping into his voice as he looks me in the eye while he plays. By the time he’s finished, I’m about to melt off the edge of the piano and into a puddle at his feet.
He has a different idea though. He pushes me back so I’m laying across the top of the piano with him between my legs. He tears my leggings and panties off in one fast swoop. My legs drop onto the keys, causing loud sounds to fill the suddenly quiet room. I don’t even sense movement before his mouth is on me, flicking my clit back and forth with his tongue before sucking it between his lips.
My shirt is pushed up, exposing my lace-covered breasts. He uses his long fingers, elegant enough to play Chopin and deadly enough to kill for me, to torture my nipples. I gasp and grip the edge of the piano as they pinch and twist the taut peaks with the perfect amount of force. My legs tremble as my orgasm builds.
The heat inside me explodes when I look in the window and catch our reflection. His face buried between my spread legs is mind-blowingly erotic. The possessive way his hands splay over my chest while I arch upward in absolute fucking ecstasy. He devours my orgasm like it’s his last meal, not stopping until my panted breaths slow.
He lifts his head and gives me a satisfied smirk before tearing my bralette down the middle and pulling my shirt all the way off. I’m completely naked before him, and he soon joins me. He sits back down on the bench, pulling me into his lap and impaling me with his cock. My elbows land on the keyboard making hideous noises.
“I’ve always thought about fucking you like this,” he says as he holds my hips still and surges in and out of me. “Owning your perfect pussy on my piano.”
He bites his lip and stares down at where our bodies are joined. The sound of my skin slapping, our moans, and my elbows hitting the keys in time with his thrusts make up the soundtrack of our fucking.
I feel him swell inside me as my walls tighten around his cock. One of his hands stays on my hip, his fingers digging into the skin to leave their mark. The other hand tangles in my hair as he brings us face to face, forehead against forehead.
“Tell me you will never leave me again. Tell me you are just as desperate for me as I am for you.” A tear rolls down his cheek. “Tell me you love me as much as I have always loved you.”
I wipe his tear and claim his lips. “I do. I love you so much. I’m yours Nolan. Today, tomorrow, forever. I will never leave you again.”
He comes while we kiss each other with those promises. The hand that had been holding my hip moves to my clit, pinching it the same way he pinched my nipples earlier and striking the match to my orgasm. I bite down on his lip, tasting the metallic tang of his blood on my tongue. Our bodies are still wrapped together, and now it feels like our souls are bound by our words, our passion, and our violence.
* * *
Bright morning sunlight is streaming through the windows when I feel the bed sink beside me. I open an eye expecting to see Nolan, but instead Grant is sitting beside me. I look over at the other side of the bed in confusion and then back at him.
“Nolan had to go take care of some stuff with Lake this morning back at the house upstate. I brought coffee.” He holds out a steaming mug of the gods’ nectar.
“Thank you.” I sit up, reaching for the cup with one hand and clutching the sheet to my chest with the other.
His features sharpen and he holds the cup out of reach. “Drop the sheet. There’s nothing to hide from me.”
I hesitate. I know there are marks from Nolan’s hands and mouth on various parts of my body, and I don’t want to trigger Grant. Especially knowing how he reacted to me arriving with bruised ribs and broken bones from Tripp.
It clearly takes me too long because he reaches down and pulls the sheet completely off. The cool air hits my body, sending goosebumps from my neck to my toes. I watch his face as his eyes roam down my body. His lip curls in a half-smirk when he sees the bite mark on my left breast.
“Why didn’t you want me to see these marks?” he asks.
“I didn’t want you to be upset by seeing them the way you were with the bruises from Tripp.” I reach down to pull the sheet back up, feeling too vulnerable under the intensity of his forest green eyes.
He tosses the sheet all the way down past my feet before I’m able to reach it. Then he runs his fingers over the bruises on my hip. “Seeing marks from any of us doesn’t bother me. These are from passion and love, not malice. If anything, it kind of turns me on.” He gives me a mischievous wink. “Next time let me know so I can watch.”
He reaches out and wraps his hand around my neck, pulling me to him. He gives me one of his slow and sensual kisses, unbothered by my coffee breath. I whimper when he pulls away. “So needy.” He rubs his nose against mine. “I wouldn’t stop if you didn’t need to get up and ready for your lesson with Lilith today.”
I totally forgot. My eyes dart over to the clock, and I relax a bit when I see that I have an hour. I have just enough time to shower and get dressed.
“I’ll make you breakfast while you shower.” He stands and walks down the stairs.
I cover back up and take a minute longer to enjoy my coffee before wandering into Nolan’s bathroom. It’s the most basic of all the guys’, but that’s one of the things I love most about him. He’s always had the simplest taste. He didn’t even have his own car in high school, which was unheard of, as half the kids had their own fleet of vehicles.
He, like everyone else, has bottles of my preferred beauty products in his bathroom. I’m still unsure about how it’ll work with the guys and I being in one relationship. I kind wish we could all live together in the same house. It was so nice to be behind the same door and under the same roof as everyone down in Costa Rica. It felt so secure to have them all so close.
After I’m done showering and getting ready, I join Grant in the kitchen. He holds out two boxes of cereal, one box of Lucky Charms and one box of Frosted Mini Wheats.
“This is all Nolan has for breakfast, and I didn’t want to order anything with all the extra security. Choose.”
I grab the Mini Wheats and fix a bowl. Grant goes for the Lucky Charms after refilling both of our cups of coffee. We eat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said in Costa Rica,” I say as I stand up to rinse my dishes in the sink.
“I’m anxious to hear those thoughts and answer any questions you might have.”
“I’m curious. Curious enough to want to try some things.” I keep myself busy, so I don’t have to look in his eyes as I speak, too nervous for prolonged eye contact. “I don’t know if I could handle any physical pain, at least not right off the bat.”
“I don’t want to hurt you; pain isn’t the goal.” I don’t hear him move but I can feel him at my back. His hands gently grip my shoulders as he spins me around. “Tell me what you think about, what you hear when your eyes go vacant and the panic settles in?”
I drag a breath in through my teeth as tears prick my eyes. I don’t feel ready enough to talk about this, but when will I ever? After a moment’s hesitation, I decide if I can’t open up to my guys, who can I open up to?
“I hear him.” My voice comes out as a raspy whisper. “I hear all the awful things he said to me, the names he called me. The lies he told me.”
“I want to erase his voice from your memory. I want you to take ownership of those lies he told you. I want you to flip the script on him.”
“I want that too.”
“When you’re ready to try, I will be too.” He kisses me gently, just a brush of his lips against mine. “There’s no rush, though. This is on our timeline.”
I’m about to lean in and kiss him when his phone beeps with a text notification.
“Lilith is on her way up. I’ll finish cleaning up, you go meet her at Lake’s apartment.” He kisses my forehead and swats my ass playfully. “Learn how to kick all our asses.”
I meet her out by Lake’s front door. She looks as stunning as she did the first time we did this. Her glacial blue eyes give me an appraising look before she nods in approval.
“I mean this nicely, you look a lot better. You even have a little tan.”
“Yeah, four days in Costa Rica will do that to you.” I unlock Lake’s door and lead her inside.
“Nice, Lake’s beach house?”
“Yeah, have you been?” I ask, curious as to how well she knows the guys.
“Yes, we vacationed with them two years ago. By we, I mean my family by choice not by blood, Griff, who works a lot with Grant, and his wife, who happens to be my husband’s sister. Then my cousin Levi and his wife, Ivy. I’m sure at some point you’ll meet everyone.”
She walks down the hall to Lake’s home gym and flips the lights on. She’s definitely been here before. I keep reminding myself that the gorgeous blonde Amazon in front of me is married and has been with her husband since high school. Otherwise, the jealousy would make me go insane.
Why am I even jealous? I have four boyfriends. Four boyfriends who are faithful to me and me alone. I give myself a mental shake to calm down.
“Let’s start with some stretches. If your ribs are better, I’ll work you through some holds and ways to escape them.”
“My ribs are a lot better.”
“Perfect. Let’s get started.”
Lake comes in and sits on a bench to watch until she chases him out for getting growly when she hurts my fingers. She calls it after three hours which is probably good. I'm so exhausted I doubt I’ll even be able to stand to take another shower. Grant and Lake are in the living room watching some financial news program when we come out.
Lake stands to walk Lilith down to the lobby muttering about how her husband would murder him if he didn’t accompany her down to her car. She laughs but doesn’t disagree. I get the impression that her husband is a pretty intense guy.
“You look exhausted,” Grant says after they leave.
“I am.”
“I have an idea, come with me.” He stands and holds out his hand. He leads me to his place and back into the master bathroom. He runs the water and motions me over. “Tell me what temperature feels good.”
He pulls the stopper in his fancy glass tub when I tell him it’s a good temperature. Then he grabs a bottle of Epsom salts and dumps some into the water. The scent of lavender fills the room and steam rises off the water.
“May I?” he asks, holding the hem of my shirt in his fingers. When I nod, he pulls the shirt off, my sports bra, then my leggings and panties. He holds my hand while I step into the hot water and submerge myself. “Relax for a couple minutes. I’ll be right back.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I let my head rest against the bath pillow he hung on the edge of the standalone tub. It’s large enough for two people, and I’m tempted to ask him to join me, but I think I’m too tired for sex. I let my eyes drift closed and completely zone out in bliss as the warm water soothes away all my aching muscles.
“Liv,” Grant’s voice is quiet and calming, “I’m going to wash and condition your hair, okay? Just keep relaxing.”
I keep my eyes closed and my head tipped back as he pours water over my head to wet my hair. He gently massages the shampoo through my blonde strands, giving me a soft smile when our eyes meet. Then he repeats the rinsing with even more care to keep the suds out of my eyes. I wonder where he learned how to care for someone like this. He works the conditioner through my hair and twists it up to keep it from dropping into the water and rinsing off too quickly.
“How did you learn how to do all this?”
“At Seven, in the dungeon, we have public scenes and rent private rooms for scenes. I’ve been around enough true Dominants that I know how to give good aftercare. That’s what this is similar to.”
I think about that for a while. I really don’t know a thing about this. I didn’t even know aftercare was a thing. “So this is what you’d do for me if…”
“If we experiment with degradation? Yes, or it could be different. We could talk, and I would reassure you.” He grabs my chin and runs his thumb over my bottom lip. “For example, if I told you that you were my slut,” his thumb slides between my lips, “I would make you feel like the most important woman in the world to me, because you are. You are beautiful.” He drags his thumb back out, pulling my bottom lip down. “You are courageous.” He fills the cup back with water and begins rinsing my hair. “You are intelligent.” Rinse. “You are strong.” Rinse. “You are mine.”
“And Lake’s, Nolan’s, and Sawyer’s too.”
“Behind my front door,” his eyes glitter like emeralds, “you are mine, and mine alone.”