Darkness Burning Read online

  Her cheeks filled with fiery heat. Miki debated blurting out the cause, but she didn’t think she could bear it if he laughed at her again. Instead, she tightened her lips and glared.

  His hips flexed, giving her a shallow little dig, and this time she couldn’t bite back the gasp.

  He lifted off her in an instant.

  Before her relieved sigh ended, he knelt between her legs, bending over to peer at her sex.

  Miki slammed her hands over her pussy and tried to close her legs. “Enough, already!”

  “Let me see,” he said, prying away her hands and diving closer.

  When she realized he wasn’t giving up, she flung her hands away and closed her eyes, determined to live through the next humiliating minutes despite her desire to die right then and there.

  His fingers trailed along her outer labia, and air hissed between his teeth. “Your skin’s inflamed.”

  So was her clitoris, but he’d discover that soon enough.

  Despite the chafing injury that caused her discomfort, the other parts of her genitalia had remained in a state of unabated arousal, likely reacting to the heat surrounding them.

  She hadn’t dared risk touching herself with her fingers—the rasp was too abrasive. Should she tell him? Beg him for release? He had to know better than she did how to alleviate the ache.

  Something warm and wet, and unbelievably soft, stroked along her outer lips, leaving cooling moisture behind. His tongue. God, his tongue.

  “Have you any aloe?” he asked softly.

  “In my medicine cabinet,” she said, her voice faint and breathy.

  Alex rolled off the bed and walked barefoot to her bathroom, returning in a moment with a small container in his palm.

  “Raise your knees and let them fall open.”

  She didn’t think to disobey; instead, she opened eagerly. His fingers soothed over her skin, smearing cool gel up and down until he coated her outer lips. “Better?”

  She nodded dumbly.

  Something changed in his expression. It darkened. His jaw ground tight. With his fingers still resting on her inner thighs, he lifted a dry thumb and pushed up the hood protecting her engorged, perfectly erect clit. “Were you going to tell me you needed release?”

  She shook her head in denial.

  “Never hold back from me. I will never deny you.”

  Miki wondered at the passionate promise. Inside her starving, lonely soul she dared to let hope grow that maybe he intended to begin some sort of relationship with her. That he wouldn’t abandon her after he’d achieved his own pleasure.

  Was she so needy, so pathetic that she read something more than he intended in his solemn words? At the moment, she couldn’t think beyond the agony clawing at her womb. “Alex…I ache.”

  “You shouldn’t have washed so thoroughly. All those natural lubricants…”

  She shook her head violently. “I didn’t feel clean.”

  “I made you feel that way,” he said quietly. Not a question. He knew he was responsible for the damage he’d done her psyche. A small, regretful smile lifted his lips. “Let me help you.”

  Without waiting for her consent—probably because he knew she couldn’t tell him no—he reached for a pillow and dragged it down the bed.

  She lifted her hips automatically, letting him slide it beneath her. Opened to him, her sex elevated like an offering, she closed her eyes and sighed as he once again bent between her legs.

  When his tongue softly laved her clit, she trembled, her breath catching on a jagged sob. Slippery fingers opened her lips. A single digit traced her cleft and slowly dipped into her entrance.

  Miki cupped her breasts and arched her back. Moisture seeped around the finger stroking gently inside. His tongue continued to swirl over the exposed knot of nerves, rasping softly while he tunneled into her.

  Miki’s pussy clasped him, making succulent little sounds that seemed to excite him, because he began to murmur against her, and his tongue flicked faster.

  His gentleness was almost more than she could bear. Despite the raw heat burning around her entrance, she began to chant, to beg him to enter her. To fuck her.

  “God, please, Alex,” she moaned, lifting her feet from the bed and widening her legs.

  Alex shook his head, and his lips closed around her clitoris. He suckled the knot, forcing it to rise higher, creating a painful fullness that kept her on the edge of exploding while his finger twisted and skimmed inside her clenching walls.

  When his lips slid toward the base of her clit and tightened around it, tugging it firmly, Miki’s legs straightened, her hips curled, and suddenly she cried out, jerking her hips against his mouth as he teethed the base of her clit and swirled his tongue over the top.

  How long he tortured her through her orgasm, she couldn’t know. She flew outside herself, colors exploding behind her tightly clenched eyelids, until she fell back, her legs easing toward the mattress, her body trembling. Only then did he gently enfold her in his arms.

  CHAPTER 15

  Miki lay on her side atop crisp white sheets, hands tucked beneath her cheek like a child. The late afternoon sunlight streamed through the open window, glinting in the gold and red strands of her thick hair.

  Alex couldn’t wait for her to open her eyes so that he could find the answer to the question that had been bothering him ever since he woke. What color were her eyes, anyway?

  A silly thing to consume his thoughts, but so much more enjoyable than recalling the dream that had disturbed his sleep. Just when he’d touched innocence, hoping to escape his sordid world in the arms of an uncomplicated woman, Inanna’s dark, cruel past had reached out to bite him in the ass again. He needed to see Simon. To show him what he’d discovered.

  He trailed his fingers along her cheek. “Time to wake up, Miki.”

  Her forehead wrinkled and she muttered, but she rolled to her back and slowly pried open her eyes, squinting at him through her dark, auburn lashes. Her gaze widened as she stared at him standing next to the window with the sunlight warming his back. “Are you supposed to do that?”

  Green. Darker than the color of grass—more the deep, lush shade of a primordial forest. “Do what?” he asked, trying to remember the question.

  “Be in the sunshine. Shouldn’t you be smoldering, at least?” She sniffed as though seeking a hint of smoke.

  His lips stretched, and he released a short, gusting laugh. “I told you I’m different. Did you sleep well?”

  A blush flooded her cheeks with an adorable pink.

  “I think the aloe did the trick,” he said smugly, giving her body a possessive sweep.

  Miki’s hands shot down, clutched the edge of the sheet, and pulled it up to cover her breasts. “You didn’t…um…I fell asleep. Sorry about that.”

  “I didn’t what?” he teased, pretending not to understand.

  “Come,” she said, her tone flat.

  “Well, I’m a man. Half, anyway. Yes, I was aroused,” he said, nodding, “but I enjoyed giving you pleasure.”

  Her glance slid away. “Did you do something…? Just curious.”

  Alex sat on the bed beside her and lifted her hand to hold inside his. “Trying to ask me if I masturbated myself?” At her distressed moue, he relented. “Yes, I’m not made of stone. You came so completely undone, I was inspired. Couldn’t sleep until I took care of it.”

  Her vivid green glance flirted beneath her eyelashes. “I would have helped.”

  “Nice to know,” he replied dryly.

  She sat up, raking her hair back, and secured the sheet beneath her arms. “Do we have any more of that aloe?”

  “Need me to apply some more?” he said, letting his voice slide deep to see her reaction.

  She didn’t disappoint. Her breath hitched, and rose bloomed brighter in her cheeks. “I can manage—”

  He squeezed her hand. “I’d enjoy it. Just say yes, if you want me to.”

  Her blush intensified, spilling down her throat
to tint the tops of her breasts, but she lifted her face. “Yes. I’d like that.”

  “That’s better.” Alex stood, turning away to adjust himself inside his jeans. He could do this. Perhaps afterward he could even manage to walk without a noticeable limp.

  “I hope you don’t think I’ll always be this agreeable,” Miki said behind him, her voice recovering some of her trademark starch. “I don’t think I’m the submissive kind of woman or anything.”

  Scraping the jar off the top of the dresser, he turned. “I didn’t assume you were.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I thought you just deliciously sated.”

  “What man talks like that?”

  “I’m not metrosexual, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ve just been around a while.”

  Her eyebrows lowered, but he could tell she fought a smile; her lips twitched. “Maybe I should do this myself,” she said, holding out her hand.

  Alex slowly shook his head and tugged the sheet from her tight grasp, his amusement fading immediately. In sunlight, her pale, creamy skin shone like mother-of-pearl, the golden highlights in her deep auburn hair burnished like a fiery halo. Even her lips, slicked by her tongue, gleamed.

  Looking at her, with her legs curled beneath her, her hands rising to cover her breasts, all the shadows in his life seemed to burn away in the brilliance of her beauty.

  He sat beside her again and lifted his hand to cup her cheek, smoothing his thumb over her full lower lip.

  Her pink lips parted, her tongue darting out to touch him. Her eyelids dipped as she tilted her head, her expression, one filled with painful longing, begging for his kiss.

  Alex set the jar on the mattress and bent to take her mouth. Miki’s lips opened, welcoming him inside, her tongue stroking into his mouth to mate in a wild tangle with his.

  He thrust his fingers through her hair to cup the back of her head and slanted his mouth across hers to deepen the kiss.

  She leaned into him, sighing, and then jerked back, her lips closing. “You brushed your teeth.”

  “I used your toothbrush.”

  “That’s not the problem. I didn’t.”

  “Use my toothbrush?”

  “No, you idiot,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I haven’t brushed my teeth.”

  Alex smirked. “I don’t mind.”

  “I do. I must taste—”

  “Delicious.”

  “Liar.”

  “Okay, a slight exaggeration, but I don’t mind. Perhaps you’d prefer I kiss something besides your lips?” he asked, lifting one brow.

  Again she glanced at him from beneath her lashes, her chest lifting to her shallow inhalations. “Maybe—”

  Alex leaned closer, nuzzling her neck. “The aloe first?”

  A soft hand smoothed around the back of his neck, teasing through the hair at his nape. “The aloe…after?”

  Alex couldn’t resist sliding his tongue along her sleek shoulder, halting at the corner of her neck so he didn’t alarm her. “I’m not coming inside you. You’re sore.”

  “Then let me pleasure you.”

  He lifted his head while arousal flared, filling his loins with heavy, throbbing anticipation. “You’d do that? After everything…”

  “You made a very pretty apology. I’m still quivering inside.”

  God, how she pleased him. Alex stared into her eyes, finally understanding why the phrase was called “falling in love.” The combination—a perfect moment, the perfect lover, and complete surrender of self—made him wish he could make time stand still. “Mikaela…”

  “I want to do this. Just show me what you like.”

  “You already know. You took me in your mouth in the garden.”

  “You forced me to swallow you whole, and I wasn’t really taking notes. I’d like to do better.”

  “You had never done it before?”

  Her expression turned suddenly stark, haunted. “Besides that very brief moment with Nic, I don’t know.”

  Sensing an opportunity to learn more, and a chance to deepen her trust in him, he tamped down his arousal and scooted closer to her on the bed, slowly bringing his arms around her waist while keeping his gaze locked with hers. “Tell me what you mean.”

  A slight, unfunny smile thinned her lips. “A couple of years ago, I woke up.” She shrugged. “I was lying in tall grass on an embankment. Naked. Shivering, although it was about as warm as it is now outside. When I crawled up to the road, a car stopped, the couple took me to the hospital. They ran tests, a rape kit—nothing seemed to be wrong with me. But I couldn’t remember my name or how I got there.”

  “Your name’s not Mikaela, then?”

  “I chose it from a book of names. I liked the sound of it.”

  “Pretty choice,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ears. “No one came to claim you? No missing person reports were ever filed?”

  “The police checked it all out. Took my statement, looked around the bayou where I was found, but came up with nothing.” Miki rested her head on his shoulder.

  Alex hugged her closer and smoothed his hands up and down her back. “I’m going to come off sounding like the biggest jerk ever, but I kind of like the idea that most anything I show you, anything I do, will seem like a first.”

  “I like believing you were my first,” she said, her voice muffled against his skin. “You would have been my only, except for Nic—”

  Wanting no reminders, he interrupted. “Did he rub you with aloe?”

  A soft, feminine snort was followed by a quiet, “No.”

  “There’s another first,” he said, smiling into her hair. He rubbed her back again and took a deep breath. “Did he tell you he might be in love with you?”

  “Of course not.” Her head fell back, her eyes widening. “We hardly know each other…”

  Not wanting to scare her off, he gave her a little half smile. “Well, then, there’s another first I’ll reserve. For later.”

  A shallow crease formed between her dark brows. “You’re not worried my past will come back to haunt me?”

  Alex cupped her chin in his palm. “You have no past that doesn’t begin with me.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Now you do sound a bit like a jerk. But oddly, that turned me on.”

  “Which is a very nice segue back to our original discussion.”

  Her lips slid easily into a teasing smile. “We were talking about something?”

  “You…pleasuring…me.”

  “But I’m the one turned on now.”

  “Who says we can’t pleasure each other at the same time?”

  “Without you coming inside me?” At the wicked rise of his eyebrows, her gaze rounded. “Oh! You mean you and me…our mouths…”

  Alex lowered his eyebrows and gave her smoldering look. “I’ll go down on you while I fuck your mouth.”

  A soft sigh slipped between her lips. “Not the way I would have phrased it, but could we do that? Please?”

  “Maybe I’ll let you be on top. I might forget myself and choke you to death. I was a gentleman last night.”

  “You have your limits?”

  “Stretched to the breaking point, sweetheart.”

  “I can do that to you?” she asked, wonder in her voice.

  “Effortlessly, so it seems,” he murmured, caught again by her amazing green eyes.

  “What do I do?”

  “I’ll show you.” Alex stood, stripped off his jeans and boxers in one enthusiastic push, and crawled onto the bed. She scooted to the side, her hands still covering herself.

  He eyed her covered breasts and lifted an eyebrow. “You know I’ve seen every inch of you.”

  “Not in the daylight. I feel really…exposed.”

  “Sexy, isn’t it?”

  She licked her lower lip and stared at his cock, which jutted toward her. “Very. And impressive. I only had a glimpse before. And the shadows…”

  “The shadows hid many delights. I didn’t know your true colors. Green eyes,�
� he said, staring into hers. “Lovely…like moss.”

  Her nose wrinkled. “Sounds slippery and spongy.”

  “They’re beautiful. So are your nipples,” he said, prying her hands from her breasts. “Peach, with rose tips.”

  “Sounds like a tea.”

  “I’ll take a sip or two,” he said, fingering a nipple, then bending to draw it delicately into his mouth.

  She moaned and he drew away instantly, cupping her breast gently. “Are you sore here as well?”

  “No, just aching. I liked it.”

  “Lie back, then.”

  “I thought I was going to be on top.”

  “We’ll get there. I promise.”

  Miki lay down, letting her hands flutter to the mattress. When his lips closed around the opposite peak, she gasped and squeezed her thighs together, which reminded her of the ache between her legs. Moisture seeped slowly from inside her. “I like that. So much.”

  His tongue circled her areola, lapping over the tip, dragging it upward before he latched his lips around it and suckled gently.

  Miki’s belly trembled and her legs shifted restlessly. Alex’s hands smoothed over her skin, warming her, shaping her curves, petting her as though he gentled an animal, which she realized she needed, because her whole body shivered with nerves and delight.

  He traced the indention of her waist, molded over the flare of her hip, followed the sleek lines of her outer thighs, but never ventured between them. Too soon, it wasn’t enough. The tug of his lips sent little shock waves throughout her body, and intense heat curled around her womb.

  She shifted her legs again, opening them, lifting her hips to invite him to explore, but he ignored her plea, instead switching breasts and gently torturing her with more hot licks and tugs that had her nipples ripening into painful points, which he toggled and teethed on until her mewling cries lifted endlessly into the air around them.

  “Alex, please. You’re killing me, I need more. I need you inside me, now!”

  His tongue fluttered at her tip, and he lifted his head. His cheeks were stained with ruddy color; his nostrils flared. “You’ll have to straddle me. Put your knees on either side of my shoulders and lower yourself over my face.”