Page 171 of Of Blood and Banes
I finally look at him over my shoulders, snickering through pants, “What happened to until tomorrow morning?”
He snorts, his lips pulling up at one side in a crooked grin as he dips two fingers into me, wetting his fingers with the mixture of his cum and mine. “Who said I was done with you? I only wanted to look at how well you take all of my cum.”
He replaces his fingers with his cock and lowers himself over me. His lips brush my ear as he whispers, “I don’t want you to walk tomorrow without thinking of me.”
For the rest of the night, we go round after round. I’ve never had so much sex. Eventually, after my wrists ache from the shackles, he removes them.
And somewhere in between rounds, exhaustion claims us.
I wake to a shuffling sound and open my eyes to Darian’s back. He’s off the bed, his shirt already back on as he slides into his pants. Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I shift up onto an elbow,watching him clothe himself in the moonlight before he reaches for his shackles to put them back on.
“What are you doing?” I ask plainly.
He flinches, then tosses over shoulder, “Going back to where I belong. In the dirt…on the ground.”
“Since when?”He’s never refused to share the bed with me?
He pauses, thinking. Then works at fastening the belt at his waist with jerky movements. “If you knew any better, you’d know not to trust me.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re not going to kill me?—”
“As far as you know.”
“You would have already, if you intended to. If you wanted to.”
“You know nothing about my intentions,” he quips and takes a few steps over to the opposite wall. “You should be scared of me. I’m fucked up in the head. Do you not realize how stupid you are to test me?”
I recoil at the insult, gritting my teeth against it and biting back, “Because you think I should be scared that you killed your own father?”
He flinches as if I slapped him before pointing a daggered glare at me over his shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“Why?” I press on. “If you’re going to insult me by calling me stupid for not being scared of you, then at least give me a reason why.”
He scoffs, ignoring the question. “I can’t believe you’re insinuating such a thing.”
Still naked, I pull the sheets off the bed and wrap them around me as I get to my feet. Dawn can only be an hour or two away, based on the sky outside the windows. “Sethan told me.”
“Sethan’s a fucking liar,” Darian seethes, his nostrils flaring as I stalk toward him.
“Is it…because he hit you?” I ask gently, brushing his arm. That wicked rage burning in his eyes when I smacked him in the face all those weeks ago when he was training me wasn’t because he was embarrassed I caught him with such an assault.
No, it was something far more sinister. I had a theory it unlocked some painful memory in him. Reminded him of some dark, traumatic past. And now the longer I sit with it, the more I can’t ignore it. I can’t look past and forget it.
He jerks away from my contact, not looking me in the eye. “No.”
“Because you felt like he might kill you first?”
“No,” he growls in my face.
“Then why?” I whisper, trying to justunderstandhim. Back in Arterias, Marge had spoken of how similar Darian and I are, that we both lost our mothers. That hurt things bite. And he didn’t have anyone. No friends…not really any family, aside from Celeste, who he just pushed away.
“Because I’m a ruthless piece of shit. That’s why.” He turns his back to me.
“I…I don’t believe that,” I murmur, hesitantly reaching out again and pausing.
“Then I’ve failed to show you who I really am.”
My fingertips graze his back, my skin tracing hidden ridges and bumps. It dawns on me…scars.I can’t even hide my gasp. Perhaps that’s why he never could have sex with me face to face, and why he always spun me away from him. Because he’s hiding.
