Little Bird by Kally Ash
Wren
Skimmingmy hands down the stretchy electric-blue fabric of the dress I was wearing, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Even I had to admit that I looked great. I’d gone a little heavier on the eye makeup, lighter on the face, and painted my lips a bright red. Darcy was going to have a fucking aneurysm when she saw me.
With one final check of my reflection, I grabbed my phone and switched purses, making sure I had all the essentials, which included a condom. Because a girl never knew when she might need one. Plus, seeing Bane this evening had left me an aching mess despite the proposition he’d made.
Since coming home, that had been all I could think about, but even as I tried to come up with all the reasons why I shouldn’t, I kept returning to the fact that Hawk would be off the hook after this. It wasn’t a stay of execution, rather just a reprieve until he fucked things up again.
So when I looked at it that way, there was no point in even considering the offer, was there? Of course, I wasn’t a cold-hearted bitch. I understood that Hawk would probably not be walking this earth anymore if I let Bane destroy him like he wanted to.
Slipping my feet into the only pair of heels I owned, I locked my apartment and walked outside to call an Uber. I only had to wait a few minutes before I was safely tucked into the back of an air-conditioned minivan driven by what looked like a soccer mom.
“I love that dress,” she exclaimed as she navigated her way through the busy LA streets.
“Oh, thank you,” I replied, pulling the hem down a little. It was funny—if I were wearing a pair of shorts, I wouldn’t give a fuck how far they’d ridden up, but in a dress, it was a different story.
We ended up chatting the entire way to the nightclub, and when she pulled into the curb, she gave me a bottle of water and told me to keep hydrated. I got out, making sure everything was in place before strolling over to the bouncer and giving him my name.
“Welcome to Temptation,” the bouncer said. “You’re in the VIP section. The hostess will escort you to your table.”
VIP?What the fuck?
I nodded mutely and walked inside, my breath leaving me in a whoosh. This place was amazing. The lighting was moody, the music moving through me in an almost erotic beat. A young woman with blonde hair met me just inside the front door. When I gave her my name, she guided me through the club to a VIP area cordoned off with a red velvet rope. Unclipping one end from the pole, she smiled at me as I walked in. Surely, there had to be some sort of mistake. Darcy had said Baron was only the accountant for this place. Somehow, I found it hard to believe that his position would warrant the VIP section.
I stood there for a moment, simply absorbing the club’s mood and wondering where I could get a drink.
“Here,” someone said behind me, holding the stem of a champagne flute. I looked down at the tattoo-covered hand and spun around.
“What are you doing here? Please don’t tell me you own this club, too?”
He shook his head, his eyes giving nothing away, especially in the low light of the VIP section. “No, Evangeline wouldn’t sell it to me,” he replied easily. He gestured to the champagne again. “Drink?”
I reached out and took the glass from him, our fingers brushing briefly. A small growl escaped him, but I had no other gauge of his mood. Taking me by the elbow, he guided me to the long couches set against the back wall. We were hidden on three sides—the wall to our back and one side and a partition on the other side that opened onto the bar. Although I knew we didn’t have real privacy, it certainly felt like we did.
Bane drew his attention back to me with his hand on my thigh, his thumb caressing the skin just above my knee. I stared at his tattooed hand with his long fingers. His hand was bigger than mine, my leg looking so small compared to him. If he wanted to, he could just sweep his hand up and under my dress. A little breath escaped me as I tried to ignore the fact that it was what I wanted him to do.
“What are you thinking about, Little Bird?” he asked close to my ear, his warm breath feathering against my skin like a lover’s fingers.
I swallowed. Jesus, I felt hot all over but like my skin was too tight for my body at the same time. “I’m trying to figure out how Darcy got us into the VIP section.”
His grip tightened on my thigh. “I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend,” he growled.
“I don’t. Darcy is a woman and my best friend.”
As soon as I said those words, he released the death grip and swept his hand a little higher. “Good. And in answer to your question, Darcy didn’t get into the VIP section… I did. We have this entire place to ourselves.”
I looked around the private space one more time. There was a door on the far wall, a picture of a man and woman split by a line on a plaque in the middle. Well, at least I knew where the bathroom was.
“How did you know I was coming here?”
“I have my ways.” He picked up his glass of champagne and swallowed a large mouthful. I watched the way his throat bobbed as he swallowed down the gold liquid.
“Have you been tapping my phone?” Indignant didn’t really start to explain the ferocity of my feelings. I could handle men who thought they needed to dominate a relationship, but I wasn’t up for a stalker-grade man, especially not one like Bane Rivera. He had money and resources on his side.
A smile curved up the corner of his mouth. “No, Little Bird, I haven’t been tapping your phone.”
I felt like there was more to be outraged about here, but I decided not to push. Not now. I understood what he was doing. He was proving to me that he could insert himself in my life in any way he wanted.
“It’s not going to work, you know.”
His eyebrow quirked up, and he took another sip of his drink, watching me over the rim. “What’s not going to work?”
My eyes darted to his lips, wondering if they tasted like champagne now. “You proving that you can be everywhere I am. It won’t make me change my mind about the proposition.”
“You’re right.” He shifted his body toward me, placing his face close to mine. “But my life would be a lot easier if you simply gave me what I want.”
I shook my head. “How many women have you seduced into relationships with you this way?”
“None.” His reply came out smoothly with not an ounce of deceit. “And I don’t have relationships. I fuck.”
He said the words with zero inflection like he didn’t give a damn one way or the other. Placing my flute down, I stood. Bane looked up at me, his expression amused. If he was trying to push my buttons, top marks for him.
“Where are you going?”
“The bathroom,” I replied, moving off toward the door at the back of the VIP area. I pushed inside to find that it was just one stall inside the room along with a marble sink and a small armchair upholstered in velvet. I turned to lock the outer door when Bane pushed inside, slamming the door shut behind him. He slid the lock into place with finality, and I glared at him.
“Do you mind?”
“Yeah, I do,” he growled, coming at me like a starved man. Wrapping one arm around my waist, his hand went to my neck, holding me in place. A rush of excitement skittered through me, the warring emotions of fear and arousal wreaking havoc with my thoughts. Bane pushed his erection into my belly, making me moan.
“This is what you do to me, Wren.” He flexed his hips again, rolling them with frustrating slowness. “Why do you have to torture me?”
Me torture him? My fingers tightened around the lapels of his jacket as he thrust against me again.
I was suddenly breathless as I realized this was exactly what I wanted.
I wanted him.
Unleashed.
Uncaged.
Savage.
Tilting my face up to his, I silently begged him for what I needed, for what only he could give me. With a growl that lit up every single one of my nerve endings, he kissed me. I was braced for the same kind of savagery that he seemed to operate on daily, so I was stunned when his lips and mouth were soft against mine. I was struggling to put together the rough, demanding Bane I’d seen and this version here with me now. He backed me into the bathroom countertop, lifting me one-handed over the edge. His other hand was still wrapped around the base of my neck, his fingers tight and demanding.
Pushing my knees apart, he stood between my legs, dominating my space. I ran my hands over his shoulders and down his back, fucking praying we got to do this again when we weren’t fully dressed. I gasped when his fingers found the edge of my panties. He hooked them out of the way, sliding a finger straight into my drenched pussy.
He growled against my mouth, the sound vibrating through me, pushing me higher.
“Fuck, your cunt is so wet.”
“Yes,” I moaned, lowering my head to kiss his neck. He tasted of that same cologne and something else. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but I knew I would always remember him. Pumping the digit in and out, he slid in a second finger, curling on the upstroke. It felt like electricity was arcing through me, a live wire without grounding. I felt him everywhere. He was everywhere, from his fingers inside my pussy, his taste on my tongue, and the sound of his groans that ratcheted up, matching my moans. It was one erotic scene I had no hope of erasing because once this was done, I knew it would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Retracting his fingers, he forced my head back and pushed the digits that had been inside my pussy past my lips and teeth, making me taste myself. Greedily, I sucked myself off him, swirling my tongue around the digits. Bane’s eyes darkened, and he pulled my mouth closer, replacing his fingers with his mouth. We kissed like we were about to be separated for a hundred years, both of us unable to stop.
“I want to see what that mouth of yours can do,” he said in a graveled voice. “But I need my face down in your cunt even more.”
A whimper escaped my throat. I was surprised I was enjoying this dirty talk so much. All my other sexual encounters had been as vanilla as you could get, but this—Bane—was something else.
Dropping to his knees, he shoved the bottom of my dress up, exposing my pussy to him. He tore at my panties, pulling the stitching free and dropping the pile of lace to the tile floor. He dove in without preamble, urging me closer to the edge of the counter to give him better access. Wrapping his hands under my ass, he held me teetering on the edge while he lapped, sucked, and licked at my pussy. Throwing my hands out, I held myself steady on the walls, my heels digging into his shoulders. Bane growled as he ate me, a starving man in front of a long-desired meal. I threaded my fingers through his hair, holding him against me, grinding my pussy against his stubble.
My orgasm caught me by surprise, making me thankful I was already sitting. I screamed out Bane’s name, the syllable ebbing off into a low groan as he teased every single last orgasmic shudder from me.
I was panting when I finally came back online. I looked down at Bane as he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, wiping away my arousal.
“Fuck, I need to do that again,” he rumbled, leaning back in between my legs.