Page 23 of The Black Lotus (Fatal Florals Duet #2)

SIXTEEN

SERENA

H earing that makes me wish I could have tortured her longer, really prolonging her death, but I fear that would have hurt Aster.

I could see he was really struggling with the decision to save her or end her.

There was an internal battle I couldn’t see raging inside him and the only thing I wanted, besides her death, was to free Aster from his inner turmoil.

Free him from the guilt that would come from ending the life of his only childhood friend.

From not being able to come to her rescue.

Be the knight in shining armor she grew up admiring and fantasizing about.

To my surprise, I feel relieved hearing how his time with the Twisted Trickster started.

I’m more secure in myself and who I have become.

If past me went through this, I would have killed her the moment she touched Aster, but I held back because I trust him.

My knuckles go white against my plate. Granted, when she started talking more and more about their past, I blacked out, so I will blame my killing her on that.

I don’t bother hiding the smirk stretching across my face.

Female rage is a scary, unpredictable thing.

Placing my food down, I move in closer, Aster’s gaze piercing me, his eyes begging me to understand. I do, and yet… “Thank you for telling me. But I have questions.”

“I’ll answer anything,” he answers quickly, the words being said so fast they almost blend into one.

I nod my head once, contemplating what to ask first. “Your bond with her happened because of who your parents were?”

“Yes.”

“What made you want to save her from the bullies?”

“Honestly, to this day, I don’t know what made me jump in and save her.

I could chalk it up to our similarities in how we grew up or maybe I saw myself as she cowered from their cruelty.

Scared in an unknown place, judged because of where we came from, automatically labeled a monster and bullied not only from the kids, but from the adults too. ”

My mouth thins into a line, my heart breaking not only for Aster, but for Kelsey, too.

Even if she did try to kill me, she was a victim just like Aster.

They weren’t born evil, the people who raised them made them that way.

They are not monsters, they’re misunderstood, only knowing one way of living.

If anything, not killing in a place that deserved death shows they never were out of control.

They are both products of their parents' creations.

“I understand,” I whisper, smiling sympathetically. “Why did you break your promise to her?”

He sits in silence, his fingers covering his mouth as he ponders the question.

“I didn’t love her. I couldn’t see myself becoming partners with someone I only saw as a friend.

As we got older, I knew she was falling in love with me.

” He smiles sadly, his eyes unfocused on a past that finally caught up with him.

“I didn’t know I was capable of that emotion until I met you.

So, when I got out of there, I never looked back.

I never had any intention of finding her.

I changed my last name, partly so she couldn’t find me but also to separate myself from my parents abandoning me again. ”

“Looks like your plan worked.”

He looks down, fiddling with his hands as a sad chuckle escapes his lips. “Yeah, it did.”

“Do you regret it?” I ask breathlessly. Waiting for his answer feels like time has stopped and the world is falling off its axis.

His answer can either make me drop right along with it or have me soaring above it.

With everything we’ve been through, I would think it’d be an easy answer, but as the silence stretches on, that voice in the back of my mind, the one I thought I’d crushed, is waking from its slumber as it threatens to rear its ugly head. Please say no.

He sucks in a greedy breath, holding it for a beat before murmuring. “I just hoped better for her. I wanted her to be more than what her parents made her into.”

“You followed in your parents’ footsteps.”

“That’s different. Yes, I am a killer like them, but I was a monster before they made me into one; fascinated with death.”

“That doesn’t make you a monster.”

“It does if you imagined every possible way to kill someone and looked forward to your first kill growing up.” A sad, quiet chuckle slips past his lips as his fingers rake through his hair, unbelieving of the truth he is reliving.

I crawl into his lap and straddle his waist. “You didn’t kill me.”

“You were supposed to be my next lamb,” he mutters, regret filling his eyes as his fingers dig into my hips, a forceful grip that feels like he’s pouring all of his regret into his hold on me.

I lean in closer and my next words come out as a whisper across his lips. “Now I’m your vixen.”

His lips crash against mine, his fingers digging into my sides as my hands grip his hair. He flips us, gripping my ass and lays me on the bed, trailing kisses up my body.

He straightens, ripping off his shirt, and I place my hand out to stop him from kissing me again. His eyebrows crease, and before he can ask why, I slip out from under him.

“Lay down,” I demand. He turns to look at me, his brow lifting in question as he scoots up the bed, his back hitting the headboard.

He stares at me with a playful challenge in his gaze as I cross my arms over my chest daring him to challenge me.

A smirk lifts his cheeks as he slinks down, his back finally resting against the bed. “Close your eyes.”

His eyes disappear, my heart racing as my core clenches.

I walk over to the dresser and retrieve my gift, flipping it open quietly. “Keep your eyes closed,” I order, stripping and walking back to the bed to straddle him. Taking the cuffs that hang behind the back of the bed, I grab each of Aster’s hands and secure his wrists so he can’t move.

“I guess you’re done asking questions.”

“I am,” I muse.

“Can I open my eyes?”

I hold the blade in front of his face and hum my agreement. His eyes open, instantly finding the knife I’m holding.

“What are you planning to do with that?” he asks, his dick hardening beneath me.

Looking at my reflection in the silver blade, the beast within me lifts her head. “It’s your turn to bleed.”

He shifts under me as I trail the tip of the knife down his stomach, stopping at the top of his pants.

Shimmying down so I’m sitting at the end of the bed, I tilt my head as a wicked smile sharpens my face.

“You won’t be needing these,” I say, gripping the top and slicing the fabric all the way down to his cock.

“Payback for all the clothes you’ve ruined,” I tease.

“How long have you been waiting to do that?” he asks as he lifts his butt to help me take the pants the rest of the way off and I toss them to the floor.

Ignoring his question, I tap the flat part of the blade against my lips as my eyes trail his naked body. . “Where should I cut you first?”

Crawling back up his body, my mouth salivates thinking about my lips wrapped around his cock. I freeze, stuck with an impossible choice. Feed the beast or satisfy the beauty?

“You can always punish me later. I can see how badly you want to taste me.”

I bite my lip, tempted to do just that. “You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

“You would, too.”

Draping myself across his chest, I flip my knife and bring the blade to his arm, slicing slowly across it. Not deep enough to scar, but hard enough that a line of blood forms and drips down his arm.

His eyebrows raise slightly as his mouth makes an upside-down, closed smile and before he can say anything, I lean down and trail my tongue up his arm, the warm copper coating my senses.

We both moan as my lips wrap around his length and I suck.

I do the same to the other, basking in the taste of pure him.

I go back for more, our moans cocooning around us, but with some superhuman strength I didn’t know Aster possessed, he rips free from his restraints and snatches the knife from my hand, nicking my fingers as he places it on the side table.

He flips us over, my hair drapes in waves over the pillow, his chest rising and falling as he looks down at me with a hungry gaze. “I wasn’t done marking you,” I say, breathlessly looking up at him.

“I was done waiting.”

“Fuck!” I scream, as he shoves his cock hard inside me, my eyes pinching closed at the intrusion. My nails rake down his back hard enough he hisses, punishing me as he slams into my core over and over.

“Have to make you bleed somehow,” I tease, smiling up at him.

His hand slides underneath me lifting my ass to pound deeper and my hands fall to the side, gripping the sheets.

“That didn’t last long,” he grunts, nipping at the delicate skin where my shoulder meets my neck.

“Neither will you,” I say, reaching down to massage his balls, my blood marking his skin as I clench around him.

“Fuck, Serena,” he moans, his eyes fluttering as I feel his balls constrict, emptying inside me.

“Told you.” I lean up to kiss him, tracing bloody shapes across his chest.

“Your turn.” He dips his head to my glistening cunt and laps at the juices, flicking his tongue over my throbbing bud.

Clenching my thighs against his head, one hand tangles in his hair, pushing his head deeper as the other grips our bedding. My hips gyrate against his face, chasing my release as I get closer and closer to exploding.

As much as I loved being in control, being the one to make him bleed for once, and hearing the pleasured hiss release from him, I'd much rather be the submissive one. There is just something about Aster taking control that gets me all giddy and excited for what’s to come.

His unpredictability heightens all my senses and I always crawl back begging for more.

His fingers slide into me, pumping in and out, teasing my sensitive walls with his cum, making the pleasure all the deeper.

“Come for me, Serena. Paint my face in your essence.”

At his command, I explode. My legs shake as I cry out so loud my voice cracks. I try to push him away, the feeling too much, but he doesn’t relent until he’s had every last drop.