Page 25 of Darkest Before Dawn (His Perfect Darkness #2)

I try to recall the feelings, but they’re distant and muted as if recalling the memories and talking about them put them firmly in the past. “It was, but I was also fascinated. I wanted to see how she solved the case. But it hurt, too. Like touching a live wire. It was a shock, but. . . I wanted it?” I don’t know how to explain it, so I try again. “I wanted the pain.”

“Like picking a scab. It hurts, but not as bad as the original wound. It’s proof you survived.”

“Yes,” I say, smiling in surprise. It’s amazing to have Rex understand me so perfectly. It unlocks something in me and makes me feel free. “That’s exactly it. But then Lacy found me reading it and was horrified. She took it away.”

“Is that when you wanted to become a detective?”

“I guess. I kept snooping. She wasn’t supposed to bring those notes home, but she did. She worked on them constantly. And then, one day, I helped her solve a case.”

“How?”

I grin to myself. I remember the moment so clearly. “I snooped again. It was a murder, and everyone thought the husband did it. He had no alibi. But then I—” My smile fades as I realize I’ll have to tell him that I had a vision. I haven’t told him about those yet.

I’m not ready to reveal that side of myself to him.

“I, uh, had a feeling that it was the neighbor. I told Lacy, and she followed my hunch and broke the case.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen. I was in foster care at the time, but Lacy had me over for visits on the regular.”

“She could tell you had a gift.”

“Yes,” I say carefully. Interesting choice of words, and too close to the truth for my comfort. “She got me a job with a private investigator she trusted, and I did so well that I decided to go to the Academy.” I stop talking because I’ve just told Rex more about my past than I’ve told anyone.

But somehow, it doesn’t seem so heavy sharing secrets this way. They’re just whispers in the dark.

I ponder this. It’s nice to share things with Rex. Nicer than I thought it’d be. Especially because he’s not pushing me to tell him more.

I hear him shifting in bed like he wants to reach for me, but he won’t allow himself to transgress the boundaries he set between us. He’s a tamed beast. Knowing that makes me want him more.

Finally, I give in. “You can touch me,” I say, and smile when I hear him move. As soon as his arms close around me, I’m able to let go and drift.

Heat sears my face. I’m surrounded by a shower of sparks. An invisible wall of pressure hits me, and I’m falling into darkness. Someone’s murmuring over me in a voice that sounds like Burgess.

“A shame,” he says over and over again. “A shame about her. . .”

I come awake, still feeling like I’m falling. The dark bedroom is still, but shadows crawl in the corners of my vision.

I sit up, but it doesn’t quite break the spell.

“Inara,” Rex says. I feel his hand hover at my back. “I’m going to touch you.”

I bob my head and relax against his hand. My muscles are tight, like I’ve been locked in a tight box. He rubs my back like a parent soothing a child who just had a nightmare.

“What do you need?” Rex rumbles.

This is about when I would do a scene. Something to bring me back to reality, to make me feel again. I wouldn’t be able to cry, but hurting on the outside would be a relief and a release in itself.

But. . . I’m not ready for Rex to be completely in charge. I’m still afraid he’ll consume me.

“Put your hands behind your back,” I tell him, just to test him to see what he’d do. It’s too dark to see more than the outline of him, but I sense his shifting movements. Very slowly, he puts his hand behind his back. The muscles of his shoulders bunch and then smooth.

He waits like that. I don’t think anyone has ever seen him look so vulnerable. Maybe I really do have control over him.

“Now what?” he asks after a long pause.

“I’m not sure.” We laugh together, and it’s a soft, lovely sound.

“Lights on, lowest setting,” he commands, and the lamps on either side of the bed brighten the barest amount.

“You can touch me,” he says. I lean closer, intrigued. “Take your finger and trace my lips,” he instructs. “Do it slowly.”

“You can’t dom me without touching me,” I say, running my index finger over the shape of his mouth.

He raises a brow.

He’s telling me what to do, but his hands are still behind his back, so I grow bolder, rubbing my thumb over his plush lips. His breathing grows heavy.

I sense the subtle changes in his body, too. A tautness to his physique that wasn’t there before. “Are you aroused just from this?”

“I’m always aroused around you.”

I slide my hand down his chest, and his heavy muscles quiver under my palms. His body is a work of art. His abs are chiseled from concrete. I dip my hand under the covers to take him in hand, and he hisses. His cock swells in my grip.

“Do you want to come?”

“It’s your decision,” he whispers.

The power he’s handing me is heady, but it feels wrong. I shake my head. “Tell me what to do.”

“Is that an order?” There’s a smile in his voice, and it annoys me. I want him to stop asking me things so I can relax.

“Yes.”

“Then jack me off, slowly.”

I wet my lips and obey.

Rex

Her slender fingers move up and down my shaft. In the low light, I can tell her eyes are heavy. She seemed frustrated when I tried to give her the reins, but the more I tell her what to do, the easier she breathes.

Her submission is heady. Blood pools in my groin, making it hard to think. “That’s it, beautiful.”

She licks her lips again, giving me another clue. “Do you want to taste me?”

A small nod.

“You’ll have to be good and not use your hands.”

Gods, she obeys so sweetly. Her mouth closes over me, and I grow light-headed with the sensation. Her breasts hang down, adorned with lace. She looks like a goddess, worthy of worship. It’s overwhelming to watch her work to please me.

“You’re being so good for me.” I fight the urge to jerk my hips and thrust deeper into her mouth. “I’m going to touch you now.” I pause, but she doesn’t stop bobbing her head in an easy rhythm.

I gather her dark, silky hair away from her face.

I can’t help but control her head a little, increasing the speed, but she closes her eyes and sucks harder, so I know she’s okay.

I’m entering dom space, where I’m attuned to every flutter of her eyelashes, every deep inhale she takes through her nose.

I want to continue this scene, coaxing her deeper until she’s floating in subspace and I have total control.

She’ll sleep well tonight. I’ll make sure of it.

I tug her hair a little, enough to make her scalp sting. A little pressure on the back of her head and she takes my cock deeper. “Gods, you’re perfect for me.”

She shifts on the bed, growing restless.

“Are you wet for me, little sub? Do you need me to stroke you?”

Her lashes lift, and she pleads with me through her gaze.

I need to tread carefully. I don’t want to take more than she wants to give. I’ve crossed too many lines. Going slowly now is how I regain her trust.

But then she curls her tongue around my shaft, and my hips rise. I fuck her mouth in short strokes, bringing myself to the edge. She’s soft in my grip, letting me use her for my release.

So fucking beautiful.

I pull her off me before I come. Her mouth falls open, lax, and a string of saliva hands from her puffy lower lip.

“My sweet submissive.” I swipe my thumb over her mouth, collecting the spit. “You’ve earned a reward.”

“You didn’t come.”

“You don’t worry about that. I’ll use you as I see fit.” I fist her hair and draw her down where I want her, lying on her back, nestled in the pillows with her legs splayed.

I settle between them, lifting her foot to kiss the arch and make her toes curl. I kiss the inside of her knee and nuzzle my way up her inner thigh.

“Oh gods,” she groans when I kiss her mons.

She’s fresh and sweet and dripping for me. She shaved tonight, too. It might be her preference, but I’d like to think it was for me.

I settle in to lick her until she’s squirming. Then I hold her thighs down and lick her some more. “So sweet.” I want to live between her legs.

“Rex,” she pants. Her feet scrabble on my back. I want her lost to reason, acting on instinct, wild. She’s close but not there yet.

“Put your hands on my head. Pull my hair when you want to come.” Her nails scrape against my scalp, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever felt.

I push up the silky fabric of her night dress over her lower belly, sink two fingers deep into her channel, and tease her clit with my tongue. The perfume of her arousal rises around me. She loves this.

Her legs start to shake, and she’s about to rip out my hair when I raise my head. “You don’t come for me until I say.”

“Oh,” she sighs.

I spread her open further and drag my tongue lower down, teasing between her ass cheeks. My cock is pulsing with the need to be inside her, but the pain is its own sort of pleasure. A sign of my control.

I slow down, eating her more lazily until we’re both covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Working us both up so the fall will be farther.

“I could do this all night,” I murmur. “Would you like that? I could tie you down and eat you out until you’re begging nonstop. Then make you come over and over until you’re so sensitive, every orgasm is torture.”

She moans, and I swirl my tongue around her engorged clit. “But not tonight. Tonight, I’ll go easy on you. You’re going to come for me, Inara, and then you’re going to sleep.” I need her to rest deeply, undisturbed by dreams. I’d give all my wealth to buy her a night of unbroken sleep.

I lick her until she’s shaking. “Do you need a little pain?”

She nods.

“Ask me, then.”

“Please. Please hurt me.”

“Like this?” I slap her between her legs.

Her head jerks back, and her body writhes, tantalizing under her silk nightie. “Yes,” she sighs to the ceiling.

My hand is wet from her sex. I use it to jerk off, stopping when the base of my spine tingles.

Then I slap her again. She rocks from side to side, keening.

Then I close my fingers around her clit and pinch it, hard. She almost levitates off the bed, but when I let go, she starts shaking.

“Come for me now.” I thrust in three fingers this time, stretching her to the point of pain, and that does it.

Her sex ripples around me. I could come from this alone.

Only years of practiced control keep me from spurting onto the bedspread.

“Oh, Inara. You’re so beautiful when you take pain for me. ”

I lean in and lap up her essence. She reaches for me, and this time, I gather her wrists and pin them to the bed. More cream pours out of her, making me groan. I have to stop and rise to kneel over her, offering my cock to her mouth.

“I’m going to come.” She takes me in, takes me deep.

She’s so small under me, I have to be careful.

But then she strokes her tongue on the underside of my dick, worshipping me.

I release her wrists, and she raises her hands and grips my ass, urging me deeper.

Her sharp little nails dig into my muscles, and I lose it.

My climax ripples up my back, my body going numb with an overload of pleasure.

I slide deeper into her mouth and give her my cum, spurt after spurt.

I withdraw quickly so I don’t choke her. But she swallows it all.

“Good girl. Such a good girl.” I pull out and move back down her body, finding her hot, wet cunt and fastening my mouth over it, palming her ass and lifting her up so I can devour her.

I want her to come a few more times until she’s wrung out and half-conscious.

Then I’ll hold her in my arms and watch over her until morning, ready to soothe her if she has another bad dream.