Into the Darkness Read online

  “Then here?” she asked, breathless at his first touch.

  The heavens opened, and the rain fell harder.

  He dropped her hand, shaking his head. “This is nuts.”

  As rain flattened her hair against her head, Natalie wanted to scream her frustration at his hesitation. Knowing her nightgown was soaked to transparency and hugged her curves, she leaned back against the iron balustrade on her elbows and stared, hoping he would make the first move to save her from making a worse fool of herself.

  He muttered a soft curse and brought up his hand to cup her cheek. His thumb wiped at the moisture gathering there. His palm was warm and a little rough.

  She shivered at the delicious thought of that hand smoothing the soft, cooling rain down her naked skin.

  “Maybe this isn’t the smartest thing for us to do,” he whispered.

  Natalie tilted her head to press her cheek against his palm. “Who wants smart? I’m only asking for a kiss.”

  His eyes narrowed, then his gaze dropped to her lips. When he leaned down, she guessed his intent—a quick peck and then he’d disappear downstairs again.

  As he closed the distance between them, she grasped the back of his head, winding her fingers into his dampening, thick hair, and tugged him closer.

  Rene groaned a moment before their lips met. Then he held himself still, not moving his mouth over hers.

  Natalie sighed and opened her mouth to lick at his closed lips. The rain pelted their heads, the moisture on their bodies acted like a conductor for the electric, arcing charge that leapt between them.

  Already, her body flowered. Her nipples tightened. Dew gathered at the juncture of her thighs. She leaned forward and rubbed her silk-covered breasts against his broad, wet chest, reveling in the spark of sensual heat that shot from her breasts to coil around her womb.

  His breath hitched and his hands gripped the iron behind her, but he leaned into her, his chest pressing closer.

  Not close enough. More! She tugged his hair hard and licked at the seam of his mouth, following her instinctive need to taste and tempt.

  He gasped, his mouth opening—but not pressing deeper.

  She surged inside, stroking his tongue with hers, slanting her mouth to softly encourage him to increase the pressure. Then she smoothed her hands down his neck to cup his shoulders, and down again, to scrape her fingernails along his spine.

  His body trembled and a growl erupted from his mouth, filling hers with his sweet breath, while his tongue crowded past her lips to lap along her tongue, darting inside, then withdrawing and stroking back.

  She hooked one leg over his hip, ignoring his initial, rigid resistance, to pull his lower body against hers, close enough now to rub the part of her that ached and swelled against the hard knot burgeoning at the front of his jeans. The hem of her nightgown bunched between their bodies, rising to bare her bottom and her moist sex as she rubbed harder against him.

  Natalie lost herself in the kiss, writhing against him—her whole world narrowing as his kiss changed subtly, until he sucked on her tongue and the ridge of his cock ground against her swollen folds. She dug her fingers into the hard muscle of his back and strained closer, needing more, aching for him to fill the empty place inside her body and her heart.

  Suddenly, he thrust himself away, stepping back.

  Dismayed, Natalie opened her eyes and stared.

  His hands were clenched at his sides. Ruddy color stained his cheeks. His lips thinned into a snarl. “This isn’t gonna happen, chère.”

  “Why not?” she asked, surprised her voice didn’t crack beneath the strain of her need and disappointment. “You can’t say you don’t want me. I felt how much you do.”

  He shook his head. “You’re a pretty fille, sweetheart, but I don’t mix business and pleasure. And I can’t keep watch when you distract me.”

  Her legs trembled, and she sank back against the balustrade. Her body ached with unfulfilled desire. Tears filled her eyes as she sensed him withdrawing, steeling himself against their powerful attraction. “I’ve never felt this way before, Rene,” she whispered. “And I’m afraid I’ll never feel this way again. I ache—inside.” Her voice broke and she turned her head, ashamed at the naked emotion she’d let him see.

  “Don’t do this. Let me walk away,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I’m not the man for you. Not now.”

  Her next breath was more a ragged sob, but she held herself rigid to keep from letting him see how much she needed him. She whirled and grasped the door latch to escape inside the room.

  She’d almost made it, almost gotten past him without crumbling, but a shiver racked her body as her hand closed around the knob. The soft sob caught her by surprise.

  His hands settled on her shoulders, and he drew her back against his chest. “It’s not that I don’t want you,” he whispered into her ear.

  She tore from his hold and pushed open the French door. “Just leave me alone.”

  “Natalie—”

  Grasping the edge of the door, she faced him, letting him see the tears falling on her cheeks to mingle with raindrops. “I’ve never made love with a man—hardly ever kissed before.” She drew a jagged breath and the words spilled from her. “Now, I’m being hunted by someone who wants me dead. And you can’t protect me. Not really. He can reach me anywhere. I just wanted something beautiful…just once. Something just for me.”

  Blinded by tears, she started to shut the door, but he pushed back and entered the room. Then his arms closed around her.

  She sagged against him, hating her tears, and the weakness that made her grateful for the warmth beneath her cheek and the strength of the arms supporting her trembling body. She clung to him, pressing her wet face against his skin.

  “It’s all right. Don’t cry.”

  Silence closed around them, a watchful, pregnant quiet that grew while he stroked her hair and back.

  His fingers lifted her chin. Their gazes met for a long moment. Natalie noted a pulse throbbing at his temple and felt the tightening of his arms around her. Her breath caught.

  “These jeans stay on,” he said, his whisper harsh.

  She nodded as hope and excitement stirred again. She’d promise anything to prolong his embrace.

  His hand slid along her hip and gathered her nightgown in his fist, drawing it up.

  She leaned away from him and raised her arms. The silk caressed her skin, teased over her belly, dragged across her nipples, then was gone—and she was naked beneath his heated stare.

  His eyelids lowered as his glance lingered on her breasts and dropped to the ruff of hair between her legs.

  Shyness fled at the sight of his chest rising and falling faster. His face hardened, the skin drawing taut over the sharp blades of his cheekbones, his lips tightening.

  His arousal was apparent to even her unschooled eyes. The outline of his hard cock pressed against the front of his jeans.

  She stood still as a statue, waiting for him to make the next move.

  “Climb onto the bed,” he bit out.

  She turned, aware of his gaze on her back and ass, and crawled across the satiny coverlet. Her heart sped up as his feet padded across the carpet behind her. The bed dipped beneath his weight, and she lay down and rolled onto her back.

  With only a golden shard of light from a distant street lamp beyond the balcony door, she watched him edge closer on his knees. His shadow blocked out the light, looming over her, large and dark as the sensual thrill building in her womb. Then he winced and straightened, and reached down to unbutton the snap at the top of his jeans. “This is gonna be hell.”

  She almost told him she had no objection to him shucking his pants, but she held her tongue, not wanting him to hesitate again. She couldn’t bear it if he left her now.

  He climbed over her, his denim-clad legs bracketing the tops of her thighs.

  Lying beneath him, Natalie catalogued every sensation so that she’d never forget what being with him felt like.
The moment felt…important. Beyond the fact this was her first time.

  He leaned down, settling over her, his palms cupping her cheeks. His lips dragged over her forehead, her eyes, her nose, before sliding over her mouth.

  The caress drugged her senses, setting her heart thumping loudly. Her hands cupped his rain-slick shoulders, urging him closer, but he slid down her body, nuzzling her neck, slanting over the tops of her breasts, until at last, he took a turgid nipple into his mouth and suckled her.

  Natalie arched her back, pressing harder against his mouth, her fingers threading through his hair to grasp him tight to her breast and urge him closer.

  As he sucked, warm cream seeped between her thighs, and she wriggled against his restraint, undulating her lower body to seek relief from the tension building inside.

  Rene groaned and released the taut tip of her breast, then fluttered his tongue against it, soft and fast as a butterfly’s wing.

  She urged him toward her other breast and mewled like a kitten when his tongue curled around the straining nipple. Fire leapt beneath her skin, racing lower, and her head thrashed on the coverlet. Her body was no longer hers to control.

  Like a puppet master, he tweaked one nipple with his fingers and sucked the other, pulling heat to the tips, until they stood rigid and engorged. When he bit her gently, she gasped and bucked beneath him. “Rene…”

  “That’s right. Let go,” he murmured, and nudged a knee between her legs. “Let me hear your pleasure, chère.”

  Eager to feel his touch on the place that burned hottest, she spread her legs to let him slip between and rubbed her inner thighs against him. Cool air licked at her moist folds.

  He scooted lower, his hands smoothing around her waist and down to cup her buttocks. He trailed kisses along her abdomen, sending shivers across her skin. When his tongue lapped at her navel, her belly jumped.

  Overwhelmed by his lovemaking, Natalie trembled and gasped for breath. Her fingers tightened on his hair, and she tugged him lower.

  Soft, strained laughter gusted on her belly, but he complied with her unspoken request and his lips glided down.

  Then he was there, poised above her pussy. He blew a stream of hot breath over her. His hands encouraged her to raise her knees, and he pushed them open to splay wide.

  Exposed, his for the taking, tremors racked her whole body. “Please, Rene,” she whispered, and pulled his hair again, digging her fingertips into his scalp.

  “Relax, sweetheart. Shhh,” he crooned, more breaths washing over her. His hands smoothed up her inner thighs, pausing an inch on either side from her outer lips.

  Then his fingers touched her, rubbing her plump outer folds, massaging her gently until her sex pulsed and emitted soft sucking sounds.

  When his tongue slipped between to flutter the edges of thin inner lips, Natalie’s shoulders rose off the bed, and she cried out. “OhGodOhGodOhGod…”

  Fingers circled, rimming her opening, dipping just inside and slipping away, then returned to tease more moisture from her body. He groaned—a rumble that vibrated against her flesh.

  “Christ, you’re wet!” His tongue stroked inside and lapped twice more and retreated.

  “No…more!” Natalie lifted her hips, seeking more of his intimate caresses.

  “So sweet…you’re killin’ me, baby.” His mouth closed around her inner folds, and he sucked, drawing, tugging them into his mouth to nibble gently.

  Her hips pulsed and she followed his lead, finding a rhythm he encouraged with gentle squeezes of her ass that eased the ache building between her legs. She shuddered and moaned, her breaths becoming jagged and rasping.

  “Come for me. Come for me, now,” he whispered, and then the pad of his thumb slid up her cleft, glancing on the knot of bundled nerves at the top.

  Natalie keened, long and loud, halting all movement to savor her escalating passion.

  Rene rubbed her clitoris, circling lightly as the coil of excitement tightened inside her. He paused to dip fingers inside her and draw more moisture, then circled again, harder now, until the first burst of rapture rippled through her channel.

  Suddenly, she cried out as an explosion, like a thousand splinters of light, catapulted her over the peak. She arched her body, thrusting into Rene’s touch.

  His fingers circled, his tongue stabbed inward—over and over, until at last the pulses tightening her pussy waned.

  Slowly, her shudders weakened, and she dragged air into her starved lungs.

  Rene shifted, climbing from between her legs and stretching to slide the length of his body alongside hers. He pulled her into his arms and tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder.

  Natalie nuzzled his neck, sighing. “I think I’ll sleep like the dead.”

  His lips grazed her forehead. “We’re a full-service department, ma’am.”

  She heard the smile in his voice and quipped, “Well, not quite.” Sliding her hand around his back, she hugged him. “But it was beautiful.”

  “My pleasure.” His hand glided from her shoulder to her hip. “Go to sleep. I’ll stay until you start snorin’.”

  “I don’t snore,” she grumbled.

  “That’s ’cause you don’t sleep, do you?”

  The tenderness in his voice almost undid her. Skin-to-skin, it was hard to remember she had secrets she couldn’t share—and she would never have met him if he hadn’t brought her in for questioning. “Sleep?” She struggled to remember his question. “Not much, lately,” she murmured.

  “I’ll keep watch, sweetheart.”

  Natalie would have liked to stay awake a little longer and explore his body as thoroughly as he had hers, but he’d already gifted her with more than she’d dreamed.

  She nuzzled his neck, enjoying the heat of his skin and the pulse that throbbed at the side of his neck. “Mmmmm…this is nice,” she said sleepily.

  His fingers combed her hair, and again, he kissed her forehead. “Sleep,” he whispered next to her ear.

  Her gums itched and tingled, and she ran her tongue lazily across the roof of her mouth but found no ease. She snuggled closer and breathed in his spicy scent.

  Then just as her mind eased into dreams…she opened her mouth and bit him.

  CHAPTER 4

  A shocked gasp and muffled “Sonuvabitch!” jarred her fully awake in an instant.

  Natalie’s eyes opened wide as blood, thick and rich, poured down her throat, spurting in rhythmic pulses that she gulped down as though dying of thirst.

  Instinct guided her, quelling the urge to gag against the flavor and thickness. More viscous than water, less so than oil, it felt like cream on her tongue, tasting faintly metallic, yet delicious.

  When the flow slowed to a trickle, she drew, sucking with her lips like a baby on a nipple.

  Heat filled her mouth, spilling down her throat to her belly, then spreading outward and lower. Her appetite was ravenous. So was the lust building in her loins, plumping her labia and releasing a wash of desire that once again coated her lips and smeared her inner thighs. But this time, her arousal was so much stronger than before.

  Delicious, wicked…sensual. She drank his blood like she wanted to take his cock—in lapping waves of heat.

  Even his resistance excited her.

  His hands clamped hard around her throat, short of actual strangulation—more a warning. “Natalie, for fucksake, let me go!” he said, his voice tight, anger radiating in the tension gripping his neck and shoulders.

  Despite the pressure, she chided him with a murmur and ground her jaws to stab deeper until his fingers released her, her incisors lengthening in a final, sensual thrill that felt very like the hardening of her clit when he’d rubbed on it.

  “Goddamn bitch!” he rasped. “Chessa warned…oh God!”

  Part of her knew what she did was sick and twisted. She was hurting him, maybe even killing him. But the fierce hunger overrode her conscience.

  And she wanted more.

  Her arms slid
around his torso and tugged to urge his heavy body over hers.

  He offered pale resistance, his hands bracing against her shoulders. “Sweet Jesus!” he said, his tone anything but anguished.

  Again, she murmured as she drank, urging him closer with her hands and rubbing her naked body against him.

  Reluctance stiffened his spine, but he eventually acquiesced, easing over her, his breaths coming harsh and jagged, his body trembling. “Natalie, let go of my neck.”

  This time his plea lacked conviction. While intellectually he knew he should resist, his body was succumbing to the desire, just as she was. His hips rolled, and he rubbed his rigid cock, still clothed in rough denim, against her delicate skin.

  She opened wide her legs and reached for the top of his jeans. Her fingers curved like talons around the waistband, and she jerked them to open his zipper and shoved them down his hips, past his hard, round buttocks. His cock emerged from the parting zipper to fall against her belly.

  Engorged, this thick shaft felt heavy and hard. Although she hadn’t had any experience with sex, her body instinctively sought connection. Her belly curved, rubbing and caressing his shaft, and her knees rose on either side of his hips.

  “No!” he gasped, and tried to hold himself away, but his action only aided her intent, giving her room to reach between their bodies and grasp his cock and push it between her legs.

  When the blunt, rounded head of his sex brushed between her slick folds, he stilled. “Not gonna happen, dammit!” he seethed.

  She sucked harder on his neck, punishing him, drawing on him until he trembled again and lowered his hips which forced him between her folds.

  Natalie took him the rest of the way. Bracing her feet on the bed to lift her bottom, she circled on his cock, screwing him deeper inside, working his thick cock past her virgin walls.

  She gasped at the pressure, gloried in the fullness. She pulsed her hips, reveling in the deepening pressure and the friction building between his shaft and her passage.

  When his round, blunt head butted against the obstruction deep inside her vagina, he groaned.