Page 21 of Darkest Before Dawn


  “Please, stay and drink with me,” he said with a sparkle in his eyes. I was sure he’d left hundreds of hearts broken in his wake. He had player written across his forehead.

  “I’m flattered—”

  “Raphael,” Jaeden’s voice said from behind me. I hadn’t even seen him move, but a quick glance to where the pumped up Barbie stood glaring directly at me proved he had. She took long angry strides in my direction, which made my heart increase its rate, and once again I backed close to Jaeden for protection without knowing it until I was pressed against him.

  “I have something that belongs to you,” Jaeden whispered against my ear. “Come with me if you want it back,” he said. I didn’t wait; I turned and left Raphael and blondie watching us as we left them.

  “You shouldn’t have come here, Emma,” Jaeden growled once we were out of earshot of the others, at least I hoped it was and wondered how far they could hear.

  “Addy is here; you should have expected me.”

  “I wasn’t aware that you knew she had slipped out, much less that you would think of looking here first.”

  “Addy’s been on a tear about you guys for the past few days, so it was a good guess that she was probably here.”

  “And you came to beg me not to change her into the monster I am?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “Pretty much,” I shrugged.

  “What would you give me to keep her mortal?”

  “Are you bartering with Addy’s life?” I snapped angrily.

  “I’m not a good person, and I want you. I’m willing to play the bad guy as long as it ends with you at my mercy,” he murmured in my ear, his nose slightly grazing my neck.

  I snorted. “So you want me in your bed helplessly chained, and Addy stays human?” The mental picture made heat form in my limbs which traveled directly to my pussy. Oh yeah, I was a slut around him.

  “Yes. That’s exactly what I want.”

  “So basically you want me, in exchange for my best friend?” I asked as he held me locked against his body uncaring of who was watching us now.

  “If you actually think you can barter sex for my best friend, that makes you a monster. Not the fact that you’re a vampire.”

  Chapter 20

  “Come in, Emma,” he purred as we reached his office.

  “You want me to come into your office right after you told me you wanted me chained to your bed? I’m not an idiot, Jaeden.”

  “Never thought you were,” he smiled as he moved to close the door, leaving me no choice but to enter the office.

  “You know your mood swings are seriously giving me whiplash.”

  “Is that so?” he asked as he closed the door and moved to his desk, leaning casually against it.

  The room was huge, and opulently decked out in old Viking era pictures and designs. My heart hammered wildly from being alone with him, I shouldn’t have followed him to this office. There was a chemical reaction between us, one that made me a brainless hussy. My knees were weak, and my heart hammered against my chest. I could already feel the moisture pooling between my thighs from the thought of what he’d already done and what else he could potentially do to me. It was simple seduction, which he was skilled in.

  “I want to make a deal with you,” he purred with a thin layer of silk in his tone.

  “What kind of deal?”

  “I want you,” he smiled as I sucked in air.

  I swallowed past the sudden dryness of my tongue. “Excuse me?”

  “I want you,” he stood to his full height using his tall frame for intimidation. His blue-green eyes raked over my face with interest. “We’ve played cat and mouse enough; I want to taste you and touch you at my leisure. I want to see what is under here again,” he said as he reached out and ran his long, tapered finger over my left breast. “To put it bluntly, Emma, I want to fuck you. I think I have made that clear on multiple occasions.”

  I jerked back at his words, which splashed through me like ice water. His eyes sharpened as he watched my reaction while he calculated his chances. “I’m no whore, Jaeden. If you’re asking me to trade myself for Addy, you won’t like what my answer is.”

  “You’ve never been with a man before, have you?” he asked watching my face closely. I ignored his question and the tattle-tale blush that crept over my face. I watched his beautiful mouth as it tipped up in the gentle creases and turned into a mocking grin. “No, you’ve never been with anyone, have you? You’re still a blushing virgin.” His eyes sparkled with mirth, and the knowledge that he was right on the mark. His hand came up to remove a stray lock of hair that had fallen over my reddening cheek.

  “You have no idea how rare you are. Do you? Such untouched beauty, just begging to be taken. I want to be the first one who watches those eyes as you discover pleasure, to be the first male to drive you to the brink and watch as you fall over the precarious cliffs of pleasure. To watch as those eyes grow large with wonder as your sweet body trembles from its first sexual release. Allow me to be your first and I promise to show you pleasure so hot, deep, and profound that you willingly seek out my bed again.”

  “Just a little self-adsorbed, Jaeden; who says I want you to be my first?”

  He said nothing, but his seductive eyes missed nothing. I was unable to back away from him; my eyes had locked on those lips. Lips I’d kissed, and barely managed to remember to breathe. I’d barely survived them and with every kiss, it was getting harder to stop him. There was something magnetic about him that made me want him, badly. I felt safe with him, even though I shouldn’t. He’d managed to save my life on several occasions.

  But the main thing that entered my mind now, was that I wanted him. I simply did. I wanted him like I needed air, but there was still that tingle in the back of my mind that told me to run. It screamed that he was dangerous, and more. It was common sense warning me that I wouldn’t walk away from this being the same ever again. He’d change me, and I wasn’t sure I was willing to allow it yet.

  “I can see it in your eyes, Emma, and I didn’t offer to be just your first, I’m asking to be your first and, I have decided, your last. I want to part those sweet thighs, taste the sweet petals of your flesh, and teach you what it’s like to be seduced by a creature like me.”

  “And if I say no?” I asked as his body pressed against mine to show me that his need had made his pants become even tighter, as it pushed against my belly.

  “Then someone else will most likely take it from you. You already know your answer. You just refuse to admit it.” He whispered against my ear as his lips curved against my neck, where he kissed me softly. “You want me, little one. I can smell your desire already. So strong desire, sweet and inviting as it drips from your sweet pussy. Tell me, are you wet already? Are those sweet panties soaked from the need to be fucked?” His words were crude, but his hands moved down my body and sent a thrill of excitement and fear racing over my skin, tightening my nipples in anticipation as my back arched for his touch.

  “I want to taste you, all of you,” he growled low and throatily as his hungry fingers pressed against my moist heat. I cried out as he applied the slightest pressure, “here,” he whispered huskily as his mouth covered mine. The kiss was hard; and demanding. When he pulled away, I had to hold on to him or chance falling to the ground. “I want you. I want you so fucking bad that I would kill for it,” he growled as he then continued to kiss me. His mouth lifted from mine a second before a knock sounded.

  I shook my head, dispelling the spell of sexual seduction he’d wrapped me in. If he’d continued, I would have given him what he wanted and the way his eyes watched me, he knew it as well. More knocking from the other side of the startled me.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered me as he moved his well-muscled body out the door and locked me in.

  The moment
he left the room, I grabbed for a pen and paper on his desk and scrawled out a message before booking it through the open window. I eyed the message on the crisp white paper before I started the descending from his roof.

  ~Never going to happen Viking~

  I mentally kicked myself as I shimmied down the gutter downspout, thinking about what I’d written. Oh yes, I wanted him, in all sorts of naughty ways; I just didn’t want to be forced into anything. I could search for Addy by myself.

  It also didn’t help that the tingly, twitchy sensation that I had the night of the Friday wolf crashing party was back in full force. Being surrounded by vampires on their home turf might be a good reason for the creepy crawlies, but I had a feeling that it was something more than that.

  I made it to the ground with a soft thud, but the moment my feet hit the grass, something hit me so hard on the side of the head that I was stunned for a moment and staggered briefly as the world spun. Before I could get my balance, rough hands pulled me up and held me firmly. When I looked up, it was to find blonde Barbie watching me coldly.

  “If you’d just fucked him and allowed him to get you out of his system, this wouldn’t be necessary,” she growled as she forced open my mouth and pushed something inside. I gagged on the nasty bitter taste, and tried to spit it out as I fought against her and the arms holding me. She was pressing me against someone who felt like a clingy mountain behind me, sandwiching me to prevent me from stomping on his instep, elbowing, or head butting as she held my nose and mouth closed with her hands. “Swallow it whore,” she snapped. She had a thicker accent than Jaeden, but it was the same lilt, as if they spoke the same dialect once.

  Her nails bit into my flesh as her eyes flashed with anger. She hated me. I struggled to get away, but whoever it was that held me was stronger than I, and the more I struggled against him, the more he moaned, as if he was getting off restraining me. I choked on whatever it was she’d shoved in to my mouth, until she seemed satisfied that it must have been gone.

  She forced my mouth open and peered curiously in, I assumed to see if I had swallowed or cheeked it. “Damn,” she murmured to her companion. “She doesn’t have any fangs. I heard them say Jaeden had given her his blood. She is strong like one of us, but no fangs.” Viking Barbie looked a little confused as she looked down at me then her eyes narrowed.

  “If you are still human, you had better hope that dose doesn’t kill you.” She nodded to the man still holding me. “Pick her up and take her to his room,” the woman said coldly, a little too nonchalant about the killing part for my taste.

  Panic hit me as I was roughly yanked from my feet and cradled in the arms of a giant bald man with dark skin. Whatever they’d given me was fast acting, because my head had begun to swim. Or maybe it was from the knock on the head. What the hell was with people clocking me in the head these days?

  “What the hell did you give me?” I slurred. Within moments, my head wasn’t feeling the slightest bit of pain anymore; as a matter of fact, it was becoming a giant balloon and the building and the trees surrounding it were spinning around me.

  “Just something that will make you…more reasonable.” She smiled and nodded at me knowingly as we moved around the other side of the estate and opened the door to a back entrance. She was nice enough to hold it open for the man carrying me. “I have very good hearing, and I have been listening in to everything he said to you since you arrived. He is fascinated with you; you won’t give him what he wants,” she laughed mirthlessly. “My warrior always did adore a challenge. So, I give him what he wants and he will forget about you, just like all the rest he’s done this with, and then I’ll have my husband’s attention back,” she pouted. My eyes flew to hers in disbelief. I knew they had history—but married? I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.

  She’d drugged me to have sex with Jaeden? She was friggin’ crazy! I tried to wiggle out of the big man’s arms. “Please don’t do this,” I was begging. I wasn’t losing this war this way. I couldn’t! “You can have him!”

  “Oh you see, we play this game a lot,” she said as she smiled conspiratorially. “He pretends he doesn’t want me and goes to other women to make me jealous. He has a huge appetite and plays with many women. You are different; you he watches for hours when you don’t know he’s there. It’s like he’s obsessed with you, but, like the others, you will be out of his mind as soon as he’s played with you. I do hope you like it rough; my husband has a certain kink he’s come to like,” she smiled cheerfully.

  “You’re fucking crazy!”

  “No, I just want my husband to get bored with you; he always does,” she said simply. “I play with his friends and it makes him insane with jealousy.” She grinned dreamily. “Then he plays other women to get me back. It makes for a very good game. This time I plan to beat him to it and leave you for him as a gift. That way he thanks me,” she continued.

  “Then take him! Don’t put me in the middle of your damn games!”

  “I will, right after I let him fuck you senseless.” She seemed to have some sort of crazy logic about what she was doing that didn’t make the slightest bit of sense to me. The whole passive-aggressive thing just wasn’t working even in my foggy little world. Warmth filled my body and my arms felt loaded down with lead, and my legs seemed to be made of jelly and wouldn’t cooperate with my will to run away. An alien had taken over my body, and I was floating over it, watching. I was sure of it.

  Or, I’d taken a wrong left and landed my ass in Crazyville, which was only one mile away from Hussyland.

  She removed my clothes with a knife as her friend held me in place. She fought with the kevlar before figuring out it wouldn’t budge; she became frustrated and yanked it off without undoing the sides almost ripping my arms off with it.

  “I heard Jaeden tell you that he wanted you tied up, so that is what we will do,” she said with a soft giggle, like this was all some sort of big joke we were playing on Jaeden. My mind was becoming too foggy to care with what was happening to me or the planet.

  I was unceremoniously tossed on the bed, his bed. She pulled a box out from a hidden panel in the wall as the dark skinned male, who seemed only able to moan, held me down. His eyes were as black as midnight, and he had protruding fangs that looked too big for his mouth.

  She called out instructions, which the male followed, tying me to the bed posts, forcing my legs to stay spread open. I was about to scream, but she shoved a gag that had a ball in it into my mouth. I shook my head as she tried to secure it around my head. She had immense strength; her hands were rough, and unforgiving. Tears slid from my eyes as hopelessness set in.

  She blindfolded me, and I felt her fangs as they punctured the flesh of my breast. How could another woman do this? To another woman! I couldn’t move as her fangs bit me in several more places. When she finished, she made a hissing noise.

  “She’s delicious.” She hummed it as if it was a lullaby. “Put the bow on her pussy, and start the music. It’s time to fetch my husband.”

  Music started as the door closed. I choked on the gag, and waited for Jaeden to save me from this fucked up circus ride. I could feel blood dribbling from Viking Barbie’s many bites. Time passed, and I felt increasing changes to my body as it grew heated and wet. Sweat covered my face, as the pulse and pain from the bites blistered my mind.

  “I told you, Astrid, I don’t want anything from you…” Jaeden’s voice stopped at the door. His breathing hitched in his lungs, and then came the anger. “You fucking whore! What the fuck have you done?”

  She started chattering at him excitedly, but it sounded like that language Jaeden spoke those few times to me, so I couldn’t make out a word. Jaeden’s voice was dangerously calm as he responded to her. Her voice ranged from flirty and coy to petulant to pleading. For a fleeting moment I thought they sounded like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets and I lapsed in
to a mixture of snorts and giggles from the gag, but I couldn’t have cared less. I was on fire. Sweat beaded at my nape, and I needed something.

  “Get out of here, Astrid. Now, before I take your head like I should have done instead of marrying you,” Jaeden’s voice hadn’t changed; it was still calm and composed.

  The door slammed with a shuddering blow that sounded as if it had shattered. My skin prickled with the sensation of his eyes taking in Astrid’s handiwork. I gagged on the ball in my mouth again and it seemed to bring him out of whatever he was doing, because his hand touched the skin of my face and I moved my head and pressed closer to it for more.

  It was magical. His hands were magic; the moment they touched my skin, the pain eased. The moment the gag was off, he removed the blindfold and looked down at me. “I’m so sorry she did this. Stupid, manipulative bitch she is; this wasn’t what I wanted. Never like this.” His softly spoken words held a world of anger in them.

  I looked up at him dizzily. “You were going to make me do this for Addy though; you said you were willing to be the bad guy if it got you what you wanted,” I accused. “Now you have me.”

  “Is that why you left my office? I said I wasn’t a good person, and I meant it, Emma. I wanted you to come to me willingly, but you just wouldn’t let yourself go. I was bluffing and hoping you would push yourself that last little bit so you could finally let go. You unravel me, sweet girl. You make me need you like this, but never when it’s not of your own free will.” His hand moved my loose hair out of my face. “Sweet girl, I’ve wanted you like this since the first moment I heard your sultry voice. I wanted you to beg me for your precious release. I learned a long time ago that forcing a woman is an easy feat. Getting a real woman to come to you and beg for it? Now, that’s a precious thing. That is all I wanted with you, not whatever fucked up shit Astrid has going on in her head about what she thinks I want,” he said softly as his head shook grimly.