Dark Heir by Faye Pierce

Chapter Five

Midnight

“This is more a pool than a tub,” I mutter, sinking lower into the obscenely extravagant bathtub. Jets are built into the sides; it might as well be a jacuzzi. I turn the faucet from off to on with my big toe, adding bits of hot water into a tub that’s threatening to overflow at any moment.

Damn Leo for knowing I wouldn’t drown myself.

I’ve never wanted to die, and I certainly don’t want to now. I want freedom. I’ve always been a fighter, Leo knows that. Even before now, he’s said as much. After my accident, I went through months and months of rehab in order to learn how to walk again. Leo always supported me. Pushing me to work harder, to go farther. At the time it felt like he was simply being an asshole and wanting to see how far he could push me and get away with it.

Guess that habit hadn’t ended with time either.

My thighs clench under the water, seeking friction. What is he playing at? If I am simply to be held for ransom, an object to hurt Caspian, then why did he have to do what he did? I can still feel the sting on my ass; I can feel the ghost of his fingers curling inside me. I don’t know what happened between Leo and Caspian. I don’t know what made him decide to betray his best friend like this. Everything he’s said to me so far implies that something big must have happened that they didn’t bother to tell me about.

Did I miss it somehow? Have I been too absorbed in my own life and business to realize they were fighting right in front of me? Cas refuses to allow me to be involved in his work. He doesn’t even like Leo hinting at what goes on behind closed doors. Any hopes of being a part of that part of Cas’ life ended when that bullet nicked my spine.

Why keep me in this room? Why give me access to everything he has? Leo easily could have kept me downstairs in that room, locked to that bed. He could have let me rot down there. What is he playing at? My fingers pull at the skin of my lower lip.

Why did he touch me like that? Leo has always been the type of man to take what he wants; it is why he and Caspian work so well together.

Worked.

Whatever they had together is over now.

So what if his hands felt amazing? When Caspian rescues me, as he will, Leo is a dead man.

Why does that bother me?

Leo kidnapped me. He stole me. He chained me to a bed, he stripped me in the dining room, and then he…

My hand slides down my chest between my breasts, shifting and turning lower as my eyes close. Leo bent me over the table and pulled my shorts down; he marked me over and over again, that sharp bite of his hand against my skin and then his...

My head falls back against the edge of the tub as my legs part under the bubbly water, my fingers moving to recreate exactly what he did.

His hands are strong, calloused from years of fighting. His grip is powerful and yet so dexterous. This is the very last thing that I should be doing right now. My fingers are too narrow, they don’t fill me the way his do, but I try. With my eyes closed, I can hear his voice in my ear, that husky way he commanded me to promise him I would behave. Would he say this is behaving?

Like I manifested it, the bedroom door bangs open.

Startled, I yank my hand from between my legs and clamp them shut. The flush to my cheeks and my rapid breathing is a dead giveaway as Leo rounds the open French doors into the bathroom.

“Don’t stop on my account.” A bottle of whiskey is clutched in his fingers, a glass pinched to the side of it with his index finger. Leo’s shoulder lands heavily against the doorframe as he looks over as much of me as he can see.

Naked.

I’m naked.

“Leo! Get out!” I proclaim without thinking. My arm wraps around my breasts, and I sink lower into the water and its traitorously dissolving bubbles. Then I notice. “Jesus, your face!” I exclaim. Leo’s face is mottled, swollen in places. His knuckles are bruised and split; his hands look like the blood on them is only half his. His hair messed and his clothes wrinkled. Is this why he left dinner? Is this why he had to leave so suddenly?

My stomach is in knots. Who hurt him? I shouldn’t care.

It wasn’t Caspian, was it? Is Caspian okay?

The fear is going to cripple me—the two men I care for more than anything else in this world, in danger for reasons I don’t even know.

No, one man. All that matters is Caspian. Caspian has to be okay. I push the fear, the need to cry, all of my indignation at Leo’s intrusion down deep inside of me. Somewhere near the useless longing I have for Leo.

I want to help clean him up like I’ve done so many times before. I want to bandage him up. I want to throw things at his head and beat my fists into his chest.

I fumble for the towel next to the cold mug of tea Lily had brought up after dinner. I’m still not certain if it is the tea or the air that’s drugging me into such deep sleep over and over again, so I didn’t drink it. I knock it over in my awkward fumbling.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Leo says, brow lifting as if he honestly expected me to show sympathy for him. He shifts the bottle from one hand to the other and pours himself another shot. “Don’t you dare touch that towel.”

My hand pauses. “Or what?”

“You know what.” Leo levels me with a look, downing the contents of his glass. I do know what. Only seconds ago I was attempting to mimic it, and guilt floods me. “Your brother is giving me grief, you know that?”

I can’t remember how to breathe. “Is he...is he—”

“Fuck, Midnight, I’m standing here bleeding and broken, and you want to know if he’s okay? What about me?” Leo’s lip curls into a sneer, and he looks down at the glass in his hand pointedly.

“I don’t care if you’re okay.”

“Liar.”

“I hope he kills you,” I spit, trying to make it true.

“Liar. Twice,” Leo snarls, looking back to me. “Though it’s certainly more likely now that you’ll get your wish. He’s bound to know exactly who I am now. But before you get your hopes up that he’s about to make some daring rescue just because he knows who I really am, you’re mistaken.”

Now it is my turn to snarl. “You’re screwed, Leo. You know Caspian will stop at nothing to get me back.” I force a cruel laugh as I fold my limbs up around me in an attempt to keep myself covered. “He will come for me, and he will kill you. Whatever this bullshit coupe is - you’re going to lose.”

Leo swirls the contents of his glass around twice, “Maybe.” it sounds so final, as if there’s no way he could possibly lose. His forest green eyes lift to me “Maybe not. Would you mourn me, Midnight? You’re in here touching yourself to memories of me, you can’t want me to die that bad.”

“I-I am doing no such thing.” I lie again. I’m sure my hot cheeks are giving me away.

“I’ll do you one better.” Leo sets his glass and bottle down on the vanity and moves to the foot of the tub. He gestures for me to stand with one finger. “Get up,” he commands.

“Fuck off.”

His nose crinkles in irritation, just like it had before he put his hand around my neck earlier. Fuck, why is that face so enticing? Leo is insanely attractive on a regular day. His determined, single look of focus shouldn’t make him more attractive. It should be frightening.

“Right.” Leo pushes his sleeves up to his elbows and toes his shoes from his feet. “I warned you about this.”

“What are you—” My eyes widen as he steps into the other end of the bathtub, and moves for me. I try to scramble away but his strong hands catch me under my arms and lift me like I weigh nothing. I shriek and attempt to wrap my hands around myself, and Leo’s hand slaps mine out of the way.

Shame and humiliation burn in my cheeks as I stand before him, bared to his scrutiny. There’s something impossibly vulnerable about the way his eyes rake over me, his gaze darkening as he drinks in my wet skin and lands back on my eyes.

Leo pushes my wet hair over my shoulder. His head tilts to the side, and he moves closer to me. I hate that my breathing is growing shallower. “You’re getting blood in my bathwater…”

“And?” Leo runs his knuckles up the side of my neck, reddening the water that runs down me in rivets. His touch is impossibly soft as he runs his thumb over my lower lip.

“Is it bad?” I stutter, his thumb pushing over the corner of my mouth.

“Do you care?” he whispers.

Of course I care. I’ve always cared. It’s never been a good idea to be attracted to him. Caspian would kill me if he knew.

“If you say I’m a dead man anyway, why do you keep denying yourself? He can’t stop you now.” Leo’s hand drops away so suddenly I almost follow the contact. “I know you want me.”

Leo taps his fingers against my bare hip, slowly encompassing the bone with his hand and pulling me closer to him. “Perhaps I’m in the mood to turn my night around. Why don’t you tell me what you were picturing me doing to you earlier? I might fulfill your girly fantasies.”

“I don’t want you,” I lie, but my breathing is too labored to hide the truth. I’ve pictured him standing this close to me so many times. I have begged him to kiss me in my mind so many times over the years. “Get away from me.” My voice doesn’t even sound like me. That heat slowly creeping through me floods my whole system as his grip tightens.

“That’s the last lie I will allow you to tell me, Midnight.”

He can say my name like that again.

Leo pulls his shirt up and winces, revealing bruises and cuts all over his torso. My lips part in surprise and my brow knits. It looks painful, to the point that I’m not sure how he’s standing here and looking at me, let alone having a level conversation. His hand drops to his belt and undoes the buckle. “You have two choices, Midnight. You can get out of this tub and lay on the bed for me like a good girl, and I might reveal to you who I really am…or you can continue being a brat and I will punish you. Your choice.”

Leo’s belt comes loose from his slacks, and I know he means it. I swallow hard, and he lets my hip go. I step one hesitant foot out of the tub and consider for a very serious moment bolting for the door. It might be unlocked. He came in here so suddenly.

It might be. I look over my shoulder, and he’s watching me. Am I faster than him? I doubt it. Where will I go if I make it out of the door? I’m naked and wet, and I have no idea where we even are. Where would I go? We could be out in the middle of absolutely nowhere for all I know.

I stop a foot from the bed, and turn slowly back to see him.

The look Leo gives me as I sit on the edge of the bed is indescribable. Heavy and intense, it makes me feel...desired. It’s more potent than anything I’ve ever dreamt up before. Leo undoes the button on his pants, now wet with soapy water, and leaves them behind in the tub.

Leo’s in good shape. Knowing that and seeing him move so easily are different, his muscles contracting as if the need to be close to me erases all the pain he’s in. His hand finds my neck and pushes me back onto the bed. I gasp. His body above mine is intoxicating.

We move upward on the bed. He pushes my leg up and plants the heel of my foot on the mattress. His fingers trail up my ankle to the inside of my leg until he pushes my thighs apart. I should fight him. I should at least make a show of not wanting him. But it’s like he pulled a fantasy right out of my head. “Which part were you touching yourself to?” Leo whispers, breath gusting over my face.

Kiss me. Please kiss me.

“Was it this? Or was it me spanking you...or all of the above?” My hips lift toward him in spite of myself. Leo’s fingers find their goal, circling around my entrance at a torturously slow pace. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, Midnight.”

My eyes snap to him. Leo smiles, and I’m rewarded with his finger sinking inside of me.

“Don’t look away; don’t close your eyes,” Leo commands. He adds a second finger, the sweet stretch distracting me. Leo’s head dips to my jawline, and his lips brush a soft kiss over the skin there. He nudges my jaw upward, and his lips find the pulse point on my neck. He lavishes my skin with his lips and tongue while his fingers work inside of me. He kisses me everywhere he can reach, but I can’t summon the courage to touch him back. The guilt of enjoying myself is at war with how badly I want him. “Are you always this responsive?”

“W-what?”

“Don’t play dumb, little girl, I know you’ve had a boyfriend, remember? Sweet little boring Jake. So boring that he didn’t even have a parking ticket in his background check.” Leo pauses, something I don’t understand passing over his expression. “I hated when he touched you.”

Was Leo jealous?

“I admit, there were times I thought very seriously about breaking each, and every one of his fingers so that he would never have the privilege of touching you again. Thinking that he might be…” Leo broke off his sentence like the implications of what he and I might have done together was too much to consider. “Did he make your legs tremble like this?”

My body is coiling higher. I almost don’t understand what he’s saying.

“Did he satisfy you?”

“We-I’ve...never done it...this. I’ve never done this.” My breathing is coming in short ragged gasps.

“You’ve never…” Leo’s words trail off. His fingers still for only a moment before he picks up the pace again, and I shake my head.

“No, never.”

“You waited for me?”

I can’t answer that. I cannot tell him how many times I’ve dreamt about this exact thing. I look to the canopy of the bed, and he stops moving. My thighs tighten, and I snap back to him, “No, please.” My legs are shaking. After this afternoon and the bathtub, I’m half insane with need for release.

“Answer the question, Midnight. Did you want me to be your first?”

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. Leo pulls his fingers from me, and I groan at the emptiness, my hips wanton with the desire for closeness, to be nearer to him.

He pinches at my clit, and my vision blurs with stars. “Now. Midnight.”

I nod, frustration blurring my vision. “Yes! Okay! Yes, I wanted you to be my first!” I want to hit him. I want to shove him away from me. I want to scream at him—and then he kisses me. His mouth covers mine possessively, not waiting or asking for permission as he claims my lips as his own.

His fingers find my center again. His other arm finds mine and lifts it in silent command, or perhaps a request, to touch him.

I don’t need to be asked twice. My fingers push up into his blonde hair as I savor his lips on mine. He tastes better than anything I could ever have imagined. The weight of him on top of me is almost more than I can stand. Then he adds another finger inside me to pair with his thumb’s ministrations, and I’m catapulted over the end, his name on my lips a desperate cry for more as I shatter apart.

I barely notice the shift of him over me as he rids himself of his underwear, but I have risen from my small death as his fingers are replaced by something larger. Hard, insistent, that final measure to claim me. To own my body as he pushes inside of me without warning.

“Fuck, Midnight,” he groans as he sinks inside of me. It hurts—I can feel myself stretching around him as he moves slowly. Each measured movement of his hips seems painful for how carefully he’s trying not to hurt me.

“It’s okay...please,” I whisper, and he doesn’t need to be asked twice. My knees lift to encircle his hips. If I’m going to hell, I might as well enjoy my ride with this fallen angel on the way there. “Leo!” I cry out, and his arm bands around my lower back, lifting me. The depth is mind-blowing. It’s like I was made for him. His pace is unyielding, and I want every bit of it. I want everything he can give me and then more.

I lose myself in his touch. I lose track of how high my body coils. I am convinced I half lose my mind as we chase that bliss together. My heart aches, and my body burns for him. I could kiss Leo forever. I refuse to allow myself to think of anything beyond tonight, beyond this, beyond us together. My hands explore every part of him I can reach, fingers trailing down scars I’ve memorized so long ago. I know how he got most of them, but others I want to ask him about. But I don't dare burst the bubble we’ve formed for ourselves.

Leo leaves me for only a moment to flip me onto my stomach. He pulls my hips back toward him and slams inside of me again. He lifts my body until it’s molded to him, his arm belted around my torso and holding my neck firmly. The other reaches around my stomach as his fingers slide down to my most sensitive part.

I reach behind me to pull him close.

“You belong with me Midnight,” he groans into my ear, and my head falls heavy onto his shoulder. His teeth close on the shell of my ear. I can’t breathe. I’m so close. His pace is unrelenting, and I don’t want it any other way. “You belong to me, Midnight. You were always meant for me.” Leo’s grip on my throat tightens. “Isn’t that right, little girl?”

“Yes,” I gasp.

“You belong to me, don’t you, Midnight?”

“Yes!”

“I can do whatever I want to your perfect little body, from now until I’m done with you because you belong to me...don’t you, Midnight? All of these years, you’ve always been mine. I’ve known it too, waiting for this, waiting for you to surrender to me. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”

I can hardly think straight. My body is shuttering. I’m fully at his mercy, held to this world by him and him alone. Oxygen thins, and my body is teetering over the edge. I nod; I am prepared to beg, to give him anything to release me.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, my property, my good little girl. Swear it, Midnight.”

My hand shifts to his wrist as he yanks me back to him. “I swear, please, I’m yours.” I nod, “I’m yours.”

It’s true. I’ve always been his, only his. We are lost to oblivion together as we orgasm in unison, his heat filling me. Spasms of pleasure rip through me over and over again. I don’t know how long I ride those waves, how long his skilled fingers keep me there, or when he finally allows sleep to claim my exhausted, spent body. I’m just aware of the bliss of being in his arms as my very last waking thought.