Dark Desires by Candace Wondrak
Chapter Six – Will
Honestly, I took off my shirt to see if I could get her attention. I wanted her to look at me, to look at me like she’d looked at Markus when we’d walked up. I knew she feared him; of course she did. Anyone with brains would fear Markus Scott and what he was capable of, but she also looked at the man like he was a god.
Markus was no god. Neither was I, but still, I could not fight the instant envy that had swum through me and filled me up the moment I’d watched their eyes meet.
Plus, she looked hot as hell in that bathing suit, water droplets running down her chest, her blonde hair wet and clinging to her skin. Markus had seen her, how she’d looked, the same moment I had.
I didn’t like it. No, I decided right then I did not like anyone seeing Juliet when she was dressed in less than baggy jeans and a turtle neck. Call me jealous, call me obsessive, call me possessive. I didn’t care.
I watched Tori and Juliet in the pool for a long time. I didn’t keep track of time, nor did I doze off. I was as wide awake as ever. Who the fuck needed sleep when they had their drug of choice fifteen feet away, bouncing around in the pool and tossing furtive, sneaky glances your way?
Oh, I saw how often she looked at me. Just quick little glimpses in my direction, but they made me feel satisfied. How could I feel anything different when I alone had her attention? She might try to listen to Tori and her lessons in the water, but all of that girl’s attention was on me.
I wished Tori would get up and go, leave me alone with her. There were many, many things I’d love to do with Juliet, including untying the straps to her bikini top and letting the wet fabric fall away. Oh, fuck, yeah.
Of course, my mind started to wander to places I should not think about in the bright light of day, places that would only cause my dick to turn to steel in my pants. Now was not the time to have a hard cock, not while Tori was so close.
Again, I really wished Tori would leave. I wished I could have Juliet all to myself. I was her de facto guard now that Jaxon had proven himself unreliable when it came to her.
I know, I know, don’t make me laugh. If anyone was unreliable, it was me, but Markus was blind to it. I’d take anything I could get at this point. Any small scrap of affection, any lingering touch or batting of those eyelashes. Any nighttime caresses I could steal from Juliet. It’d been so long since I’d felt wanted, truly wanted, in the way a woman wanted a man.
So fucking long, it hurt. Hands, you see, just weren’t the same, no matter how vivid your imagination was.
Let Markus focus on Jaxon and his little crush on Juliet. I’d do what I could to foster Markus’s animosity towards Jaxon, just as I’d feed Jaxon’s crush. Though I was a jealous man myself, I knew it had to be done. Eventually, Markus would snap, and when he did, whatever was between Jaxon and Juliet would die. Simple as that.
And then… then I’d have her all to myself. That’s all I really wanted.
No, what I needed. I needed her. I needed her as badly as I needed the air to breathe. I’d learned, in these past ten years, to not stop and think about the reason why. I’d learned some things simply were, and there was nothing you could do to change it. My fascination and obsession with Juliet was one of those things.
She was good. She was light. She was everything we weren’t and more, and maybe that’s why I was so drawn to her. Juliet shouldn’t be here, in this house, and yet she was. She was, and I would not look a gift horse in the mouth. She was not mine to claim, but at the same time, she would be.
After a while, Juliet and Tori were done in the pool. I think Tori decided she needed more lessons—Juliet still couldn’t quite float, but what did you expect of a girl who’d lived her whole life locked in a house? I was fine with overseeing more lessons, for it meant I’d get to see Juliet wearing next to nothing even more.
I threw on my shirt as they got out of the pool, though my eyes were always on Juliet. She knew it too, for I saw how she reached for the towel the moment she was out of the water, how she both dried herself off and wrapped the fabric around her body, hiding her suit from me.
Such shyness. She wasn’t so shy during our little date. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d still be shy after she knew what it was like to be fucked hard and long. Would she always blush and act coy, or would she become someone new? I couldn’t wait to find out.
Tori finally went her own way to shower and change, while I followed Juliet, knowing she’d do the same. Juliet was pretty quiet as we walked to her room. She kept the towel wrapped firmly around her body, her hands holding onto the clothes she’d worn before. We swung by Stella’s room to grab her bra and panties, which she was quick to wrap up in her shirt and pants to hide them from me, as if she was embarrassed.
I said nothing to her at the time, of course. I was as quiet as I could be as we walked to her bedroom, and once we were inside, I watched as she went to the closet. I closed the door behind me, flicking the lock, unable to help myself.
What could I say? I guess I was a weak man after all, especially when it came to Juliet.
“You know,” I started, walking up behind her and causing her to whirl around, still holding those clothes tight to her chest, as if they were a security blanket. “Normally you shower first, before changing, otherwise that chlorine smell sticks with you all day.”
“Oh” was all she could say. Her big, blue eyes studied me. “You look a little red.”
My reply came out instantly, and I meant every word of it, “I’d take all the pain in the world for you, Juliet.”
She clearly didn’t understand I meant that literally—but I supposed she wouldn’t. She didn’t know that with every step closer to her, I put everything in jeopardy. If I ignored Markus, if I went against him, especially when it came to this girl, he’d retaliate in the only way he knew how.
Again, a price I was more than willing to pay.
“So, then I guess I should—” She started to move around me, but I grabbed her arm, stopping her. Juliet was all too easy to pull back, to hold in place. Not very strong, and, anyway, I didn’t think she’d fight me even if she could.
“Confession time,” I said, taking the clothes out of her hands and dropping them to the floor, off to the side. One less obstruction. “I think you look amazing in that bikini.” My hand went to the towel on her body, starting to tug it down.
She didn’t stop me, so the towel fell to the floor, revealing her body to me. The black bikini hugged her body tightly—some might say too tightly, as it was Stella’s, and Stella was a thin woman, without the curves Juliet had under it all.
“I think you should keep it. Stella won’t miss it,” I whispered, letting my gaze fall to her body, to her tits, which rose and fell with breathing that was almost labored. My nearness was enough to push her to the edge, it seemed, just as her nearness pushed me. Good to know we were equal in that respect. I ran my hands up her sides, watching her shiver under my touch.
“Will,” Juliet spoke my name in a hushed whisper, and never had I heard a better sound than my name on her lips. Like a prayer. Like a hungry, naked truth. She might be innocent, but she tempted everything that was dark inside of me. “What are you doing?”
“What I’ve wanted to do ever since seeing you in the water,” I admitted. No point in keeping the truth from her now. No point at all. “I want to see every inch of you.” I heard her breathing hitch the moment my arms went around her sides, fingers grazing her spine as I neared the tie on her back.
Just a peek. I could see her naked body and hold myself back, right?
In all truth, I’d known from the beginning this was where we headed. How could I deny it? I’d felt such all-consuming feelings before, but this… Juliet was so different. She knew what I was, what I could do, and yet she didn’t pull away, didn’t reach for the nearest sharp thing and stab me just to get me away from her.
I could see it in Juliet’s eyes: she wanted me as much as I wanted her, and that should be enough.
Her eyes closed the moment I started to undo the tie on her back, and instantly, the bikini top became loose around her tits, the straps hanging down her sides. I then went to the tie around her neck, and with some quick work, I undid that, too.
The wet bikini top fell to the floor as her top half was bared to me, and I raked my eyes along her chest, the nipples on her tits growing hard, pebbles which instantly called out to me. I could not stop myself. I brought my hands to her body, pushing her until her backside hit the closet door. My hands continued their upward trajectory, stopping only when I had a tit in each palm.
“Will,” Juliet said my name again. “We can’t—”
Did she hesitate because she had feelings for someone else, or because she was worried Markus’s fist would come down on me if he ever found out? The former made me sick with rage, while the latter filled me with even more adoration for this girl.
It didn’t matter either way. I needed her. I needed her, and she had to know it.
My thumbs grazed over her nipples, sending a shiver down her spine. Whatever else she was going to say died in the back of her throat as I continued to touch her. Heat flushed her cheeks, not a blush, but from how I currently touched her body.
That sweet little body of hers. She might not realize what it cried out for, but she would soon enough. I’d train her body if I had to; I’d gladly make that sacrifice.
My cock had turned to steel in my pants the moment I’d started to undress her. It bulged against the fabric, but Juliet’s eyes were still closed, so she didn’t see. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was move my hands off her tits, I wanted to get her naked, to see her in the light of day and drink her in.
If she was my end, she would be a glorious one, and I’d know every inch of her body before oblivion took me.
My hands dipped to the bottom piece of fabric still clinging to her body, and Juliet didn’t stop me when I tugged on it, all the way down to her thighs, where the suit fell to her ankles on its own.
Fuck. She was absolutely gorgeous. No flaws on that body at all, no scars, no birthmarks. Nothing but the smooth white skin of temptation and utter perfection. It took everything in me to not grab her and throw her onto her bed, show her just how badly she made me crave her.
Hmm. Would doing that right now really be so bad? I wondered.
Juliet went to wrap her arms around her body, to hide herself, but I pressed my lower half against her, not caring if my clothes got a little damp. Let them. Let me soak up any lingering wetness on her body and claim it as my own.
She let out a soft, breathy sound, and finally those eyes opened, their clear blue depths full of both confusion and desire. She was probably raised to hate men like me, to fear people like me—the ones who took whatever they wanted in this world, the ones who put their all into each and every thing they did. Her pupils somewhat dilated, her lips parted just enough for me to feel how shaky her breath was.
Oh, Juliet wanted me. She might not say it aloud, but she wanted me, and knowing that filled me with a certain type of smug pleasure. I wanted her to want me, obviously. Why would I want anything else in this whole fucking world? I didn’t have anything anymore. I didn’t have a family beyond the Scotts. All I had was her.
And that would be enough.
I pressed my lower half against her, grinding on her, wordlessly telling her how much she affected me, and she moaned the softest, faintest sound I’d ever heard, her hands finding my arms and holding onto me.
I wanted nothing more than to feel that tight cunt around my cock, to have her body beneath mine, force that mind of hers to lose itself to the carnal bliss I could bring. Mine. This girl was mine, and she didn’t even know it.
Not yet, but she would.
It was just as I started to lower my mouth to hers when someone tried the doorknob. When the doorknob didn’t open, a series of knocks echoed throughout the room. A concerned voice spoke, “Juliet? Are you in there?”
Her eyes widened, and I resisted rolling mine as I pulled myself away from her. Juliet quickly went for the towel on the floor, hastily wrapping it around her naked body, unable to move herself away from the closet door, where I’d had her pinned.
As I walked toward the door, I had to reach down to adjust myself—I recognized that voice, and I knew the last thing he should see after coming upon the door to her room shut and locked was an erection in my pants. He’d run and tell Markus, and I couldn’t have that. Not until I did what I had to to get him out of the picture.
I answered the door when I was ready, unlocking it and hoping I’d tucked my cock up enough against the waistline of my pants to hide it. It throbbed with the need to get inside Juliet, but it would have to wait.
“Hello, Jaxon,” I spoke, lifting my eyebrows when he pushed into the room, looking all around, as if he was her guard or something.
“What’s going on?” Jaxon said, “I came to see how you were doing—” Whatever else he was going to say stopped when he saw her in the far corner of the room, clutching the towel against her body. He whirled on me, a look of murder in his green eyes. “What did you do.” It wasn’t a question; more like an accusation.
I had my retort ready, “She couldn’t get her bathing suit off. Don’t get your panties in a twist. She’s fine.”
Jaxon stormed over to her, slow to touch her arm. Even though he lowered his voice to a whisper, I still heard him ask, “Are you okay, Juliet? Did he hurt you?”
Of course I wouldn’t fucking hurt her. Why would I hurt the one thing I adored most? It didn’t even make sense, but that was Jaxon for you. Trying to be the white knight when he so very clearly wasn’t. None of us were. Too much blood on all of our hands for that.
She was slow in shaking her head. “No, I’m fine.”
I could tell Jaxon didn’t believe her, nor did he believe my story of helping her out of her bathing suit. He pulled away from her, moving to me. I could see it on his face: he wanted to talk to me alone, away from her. Fine. Let him pretend to be her savior. Let him think whatever it was he’d think. It didn’t matter. I had a plan, and I’d already gotten the ball rolling.
He stormed out into the hall, and I followed him, closing the door behind me to give us some privacy. The moment I did, Jaxon fisted my shirt and slammed me against the wall, growling out, “I swear to God, if you hurt her, I’ll—”
I shoved him off me, causing him to stumble back. “You think I’d hurt her? You really think I’d do anything to her?” Rage coursed through me at his accusation; hurting her was the last thing I’d ever do.
Jaxon breathed hard. “I think you’ll hurt her without realizing what you’re doing. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done something like that, would it?” He cocked his head, jaw tense as he stared daggers at me, for he knew he was right.
“That was the old me. I’d never hurt her.”
“I should tell Markus what I saw.” A threat, which caused me to level a threat of my own against him.
“Do that, and then I’ll tell him how cozy you and Juliet get when you sneak into her room.” I waited a moment before adding, “Tell me, whose punishment do you think would be worse? Mine for letting you in, or yours for getting close to her after Markus pulled you two away from each other?”
It wasn’t a secret Jaxon used to be her watchman, her guard, and now I had the honor. Markus sure as hell didn’t trust me fully when it came to Juliet, not that I could blame him, but he trusted Jaxon even less. Markus wanted no one to touch the angel or her wings… and it seemed that was all either of us wanted to do: taste the forbidden fruit, claim it as our own.
Jaxon fumed, but he was quiet for a while, mostly because he knew I was right. Because I was. Markus would be angry with me for letting Jaxon into her room, but he’d hurt Jaxon far worse for daring to touch her.
“Fine,” he eventually said. “But if she tells me anything—that she doesn’t feel comfortable with you, that she doesn’t like the way you look at her, I don’t fucking care what happens to me. I’ll go to Markus.”
Before I could say anything, Juliet appeared, cautiously stepping out of her room. She clutched new clothes, the towel still wrapped around her body. Both Jaxon and I stared, though I liked to think I was a little less slack-jawed than he was. She looked between us, coughed, and said, “I’m going to shower. Please don’t fight while I’m gone.”
“Fight?” I echoed. “Why would Jaxon and I fight?” Playing dumb wasn’t my forte, I guess, for she saw right through me.
Juliet gave me a look, and it was a look that said more than words ever could, a look that told me she might not have heard what Jaxon and I had said to each other in the moments before she’d walked out, but she knew well enough. “Be nice to each other. I don’t want anyone fighting because of me.” Her blue eyes flicked between us, and then she wandered down the hall, disappearing as she turned into the bathroom.
After she was gone, Jaxon muttered, “She wants us to get along. I don’t think she knows you well enough. If she did—”
“She knows my past, if that’s what you’re talking about. I didn’t keep secrets from her. Not like you, acting like a shining knight, so much better than everyone else, but you’re not.” I folded my arms over my chest. “Does she know that? Does she know how feral you can be when you’re told to kill?”
I’d seen it firsthand myself. Jaxon might act like the pretty boy next door, but deep down, he was just as fucked up as all of us, maybe even more so. He acted so high and mighty, but he was nothing but a psycho, a Scott through and through even though he wasn’t born one.
Jaxon frowned. “Enjoy your time with her while it lasts. It won’t be long before Markus sees what I do. You’re obsessed, and when you get obsessed, people tend to die.”
“From what I heard, obsession is a Scott thing. If you think I’m the only one obsessed with her, I’d take a look in the mirror.”
He didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all. Jaxon said not a single word to me as he stormed away, and I watched him go, grinning to myself.
Let him go. Let him stew in his anger. He would not tear me away from her. No one could. Not even Markus himself. In fact, the only thing that could possibly tear me away from Juliet was the cold embrace of death itself.
And, call me psychic, but I didn’t think death had it in store for me just yet.
