Dark Days (Written Pictures #2) (23 page)

Raven slumped down on the arena floor, catsuit torn, sucking in air as she watched the other woman reach up, tense and arch away. Blood trickled into one eye but she could still see enough. She saw the woman’s head roll back and mouth open in a scream that had no sound. Reaching a point of no return, the white-clad woman tipped over, landing heavily on her back, her eyes wide and her skewered chest still. It was in that moment she knew she had killed her last hope. And with the first of her sobs, Jacqueline returned and Raven was gone.

CHAPTER LII – Night Moves

He lay there, wide awake, unable to shake off the drama of the day. The event had driven the assembled crowd wild and Alexei was sure it would bear fruit in his drive to the top. He had already been able to negotiate an additional transport deal with the Prince that would give him the capital to take out the remaining factions who cluttered the path of power. Alexei was confident there would be more deals to come too, with the pipeline deal the most important of the lot.

Hell, if they wouldn’t do the deals he wanted there was always blackmail - each and every one of them had witnessed the killing in the ring and
his
police chief was only a phone call away. He even had credibility with Interpol still and his hidden cameras had been carefully placed to pick out exactly who had been watching. Everyone except him.

The hint of blackmail had, after all, worked on the Prince to clinch the transport deal Alexei wanted, despite initial protestations. If it worked with him, it would work with others too.

Yes, the Games were delivering what they were supposed to, just perhaps not in the way he had expected. And yet on another level entirely, they were creating havoc in what had been a fastidiously well-ordered world.

They had been planned so meticulously, that was Natalia’s forte after all. Were they still his games though? With Natalia having set up the fight to the death, were events still his to control? Natalia didn’t deal in the unexpected. The significance of that apparent spontaneity wasn’t lost on Alexei and caused his brow to furrow in thought.

Even before he’d had her, his woman could have been lost, victim to that feral female that he had passed over and thrown to the guards. Natalia had bought her as his next, dealing with a man known as the Algerian.

Alexei’s plan had been to give the woman to the Arab as his part of the bargain, fulfilling part of the deal. Her death had driven him to hint at the use of blackmail instead as he wasn’t ready to let the black-haired woman go. It had been a risk but one he had needed to take, a tool he was reluctant to use on a person with the reach and influence of the Prince. He had got away with it though, just, and in doing so had kept his woman.

Barely a man Alexei told himself, thinking back to the Algerian. He had no backbone nor any sense of anything but money. There was a man even Alexei was wary to touch again after finding nothing about his background, preferring to leave such matters to his little sister’s sharp mind.

His thoughts circled back to Raven. He could have lost her and the threat of that worried Alexei more than he cared to admit. In his mind he pictured her body skimmed by the tight latex and her straight hair shimmering in the occasional sun. He replayed the image of her fight, long limbs magnificent in their movement and imagined she was fighting for his favour.

A stirring of his cock marked its approval and reaching down, it took only the slightest encouragement to fully engorge to the thought of her battling to be by his side. Vibrant and vivid, the image risked consuming him until, flinging the sheets aside with a grunt, Alexei rose from his bed.

== ~ ==

Unable to shake what had happened from her thoughts, she lay awake. She had killed. Self-defence, but still, she had killed.

She had been given no choice. Never someone who could be said to be a friend, Raven had thought her connection to Red had meant something. It certainly had to her and only now was she realising that was more than just the hope of escape. It was a connection to her past, a thread to join her to a time when she had been more than just a plaything, a time when she had been so sure.

Something had possessed the woman though, driving her wildly beyond reach, much as Raven had tried to call her back. It had been a trauma beyond words. She had killed and killed more than a person. In her subconscious mind, she had looked to Red as a sanctuary in which fragments of hope had coalesced.

It had been a steady process of erosion of will and self before the gathering for the Games. She had only just about held herself together. It had been enough though to weaken her to the thrusts which now bit so deeply.

She couldn’t go on like this. Jacqueline needed Raven but Raven wasn’t strong enough to fight any more. Red had died and hope had died with her. Laying there sobbing, there was one choice left. Alexei’s face appeared again in her mind as he did of late when she needed strength. But he had been part of her humiliation, perhaps even the architect of it, though she had a suspicion it was probably his bitch of a little sister.

Natalia would never let him go. Even if she somehow managed to work her way into Alexei’s bed, Natalia would always be there in the background, working out ways to have her gone, or worse, dead. Natalia’s eyes had already given her away, and her declaration at the last event had set her intent in bold – she would stop at nothing to protect what she had with her brother.

Could Alexei protect her from his sister? Perhaps, but again the thought that he had been part of the humiliation and that he had just stood by and watched it happen. He was always in her mind though, filling her thoughts, when what she really wanted him filling was her cunt.

Shit. She couldn’t exist like this. She was going slowly mad and losing what little of her remained. She had to escape while there was still something left to save. The only question in her mind was how.

== ~ ==

A third person also lay unable to sleep, mind racing then looping to repeat, adding fragments of detail each time. She had challenged her brother and it felt, well, good. Every last component had been planned to the nth degree but that burst of spontaneity, spurred by seeing that woman, that American
,
had just taken over and driven Natalia to raise the stakes.

So this was what power felt like. She had simply stood up and decreed that a woman should die. She had been right to do it too. Having no option but to take a life had visibly shattered the American woman and a shattered woman wouldn’t hold the interest of Alexei for long.

Nestling deeper into the embrace of her pillow, Natalia’s eyes rested on the exquisitely tended doll’s house. There was doll-Alexei, dancing with his miniature sister in the ballroom. There was no American bitch there and there never would be. Contented, Natalia allowed her eyes to close.

== ~ ==

Alexei hesitated outside the room where she was kept. There would be no going back if he went through the door and his hand tightened on the handle, knuckles whitening.

In his mind he had been here many times. This was reality though – no rewinding if things got fucked up. In his imagination he had thrown open the door before throwing her face down on the bed with an undeniable force that showed her the full fury of his vengeance. Vengeance? No, it wasn’t that any more. The force within him that obsessed on her was stronger than that.

In this reality, he knew he was no longer capable of doing that, not with her, not after what he had seen inflicted on her. She had been through two ordeals, surely the closest approximation to hell. She had been forced to endure what no one should and forced to do what no one should be compelled to.

Yes, she was American but this was beyond that now, far beyond. Alexei had to go to her. He had been a fool. He had judged love to be a delicate emotion, cluttering up life, no more than a distraction but he had been wrong. Love wasn’t some a la carte choice to be passed up in favour of an unsatisfactory takeaway fuck. It existed by itself but in itself was fundamental.

He thought he had known love before but saw now that it was a shallow love of things – history, status, revenge. There was something deeper and more rewarding beyond that, something he had denied himself. Or perhaps that had been his sister too, feeding him fast fucks to deflect him from seeking what ready filled an appetite. Had he been used by her? He didn’t like to think so but now the blinkers were off and he at least saw that there should be more. The American woman had shown him, and he had to be with her. Pressing down on the handle, he pushed the door open.

A contrast to the crumpled white sheet, she lay on her side, eyes open but distant, lost. Though her body bore the scars of his hospitality, she was beauty incarnate.

A small light recessed into the far wall, sealed from prying fingers behind a Perspex cover, silhouetted the perfect sweep of her hip. His eyes trailed up the nip of her waist, tracing the curve his hand would.

Unable to stop himself, Alexei moved, his final decision made. He closed the short distance quickly and raising a knee to place it beside her onto her bed, he bent down to frame her head in his strong hands. Her dark eyes looked into his and when his lips pushed hard onto hers, those eyes came alive and she responded with a fierce kiss of her own.

CHAPTER LIII – Predators & Play

The kiss seemed to last forever. Passions passed through the lock that was that kiss and energised the troubled souls of two who had yearned to meet. She would swear later that the light flickered as the electricity of their kiss crackled between them and couldn’t help but moan to the purest of sensations, vibrating her lips in waves, encouraging his to press harder still in response.

She felt his tongue dance and Jacqueline’s eyes fluttered closed to the bliss sealing the moment in her mind. His tongue pushed, probing and without hesitation, she permitted him unhindered access. In a second, he plunged inside, delving into her mouth, meeting her tongue and pushing it back, dominating the kiss with a groan of his own.

Why had he come? As his heavy kiss continued unabated, Jacqueline felt the thrill of his large, warm hand find her breast. Her back arched on instinct, rising to the call of his strength and when his other hand slipped under her naked bottom, it was already beyond her to stay still. He was strong, so strong and the odour of him beckoned her forward.

Her hands slid across his broad back, clutching him to her, nails gouging to keep him hard against her. Her untethered leg slid up his, toes pointed as she caressed her way to his buttock. She wanted to trap him firmly to her, needed to even, though she knew from his pressing stiffness that there was no question of him pulling away.

Feeling her entwine around him, Alexei’s tongue pushed deeper into her mouth. One hand squeezed her breast as fingers of the other curled into her soft buttock. With the passion whipped up by weeks of self-denial he asserted himself on her. It wasn’t the first time in her life she had allowed herself to be physically controlled but this time she truly felt it. This was real. Fresh. He had control. She was his woman. She loved it.

The remnants of her nails clawed at his back and the chain with which she was attached to the bed clanked as she tugged at it in an effort to hold him closer still. She needed him more than she had needed anyone before - that scared and thrilled her in equal measure. What raw intensity she felt in that kiss. Even if she lived forever, the passionate ferocity would never be matched.

And so she kissed. She kissed him back with the fury of her need. She kissed him with the intensity of long, slow-stoked lust. She kissed to show him she was his. She kissed him until her lips were raw and she felt unable to physically kiss any harder.

Raven was alive and ablaze. She needed more, much more and grabbing his hair, she yanked his head back, finally breaking the kiss. Panting hard, her chest rising to him, she breathed out what she needed more than anything. “Fuck me! Fuck me now!”

Held off her, Alexei’s breathing was as heavy as hers. Dancing eyes watched her plumped lips as she rasped the words he had longed to hear. With a growl, he devoured her breast, ignoring the tear of pain in his scalp from the tight grip she still kept.

His lips engulfed her nipple, rolling it before his teeth bit down, flicking the ring with his tongue. Grinding down, he reminded her who had control. Raven groaned. Her back arched further up to ease the pain but also to ease his access. She pulled his head right, left, steering him to her need as he served his own.

Fuck Natalia. Fuck escape. She needed this, needed Alexei. She was Raven reborn. Leant heavily on her legs, she had no choice but to splay them. With easier access, he quickly slid a hand over her sex, gathering her juices before delving into the inferno that was her clitoris.

The explosion to his contact pulsed pleasure to each pass of skilled fingers. All those weeks. All that work. All those days of destruction were worth it just to feel what she was feeling right now. He had swept away any doubt just as surely as he had swept fingers across her soaking sex.

Finding the waistband of his boxer briefs she thrust her hand beneath to clutch his erection, his erection for her.

“I said fuck me!” she growled, tugging firmly on his cock, matching the rhythm of his divine attentions to her bud. He responded though as he wanted to. His tongue flickered over the very tip of her pierced nipple, nibbling the base with his teeth to spur a rise in the pitch of her moans.

Alexei ignored her commands. Commands slowly weakened to requests. As he played a symphony on her body, even requests melted into needy pleas of desire. She was his to command. His and only his.

When her body started to roll to each steady sweep of his finger on her clitoris, her grip on his hair became nothing more than a token gesture. On and on he pushed her, driving her body hard and fast with his twin assaults while she in turn smoothed elegant fingers up and down his thick cock, wanting to release it from his briefs, wanting it inside her.

“Fuck me!” she groaned again, her voice heavy with need. Again he answered with action, withdrawing his mouth from one breast only to plunge onto the other, hurtling her arousal ever higher, way beyond her control.

“Please..!!!” she gasped, hips rolling to receive the luxury of his touch, shuddering as an exploratory finger slithered back across her sex.

“Master, please!” she begged, rolling her thumb in circles over the head of his cock to emphasise her need.

Withdrawing from her breast, Alexei looked down at Raven and Raven looked up at Alexei. A pause. Don’t fucking stop! Hips thrust up to him, wanting, needing.

“Good girl.” No more needed to be said. With that, he tore his underwear down to reveal the full majesty of his manhood.

Two predators. Both panting, both needing. They were about to consummate a bond neither had expected to find, each driven to the edge of sanity by lust for the other.

“Fuck me, Master,” spat Raven, voice strengthened by the implicit threat of what she may be driven to do if he didn’t.

Her soul was his and now he would take her body. With a curling of his hips, Alexei drove hard into her, meeting no resistance as he finally thrust forward, taking his desire as surely as he now took her body.

Raven’s world melted. Pressing deep into her she welcomed him totally with all of her being. It was so right that she was here. Now. With him. Their connection was more than simply physical. Had her whole life led to this moment?

She lay beneath him, matching his powerful thrusts with her own in a melding of two worlds. Was she just his latest fuck? She had to show him she was more. She had to demonstrate to him all that she was and with a grunt at the exertion and strain on her bruised body she managed to unbalance him. Still impaled, Raven was now on top.

Growling in animal lust she rode him, grinding her hips down hard to take all that he was, grinding out her need. She was still Raven even as she declared him Master. She could see her future. As he lay beneath her, fists clutching the sheet and eyes closed in ecstatic bliss, she had the proof within herself that Raven would never be fully broken. Raven had become part of the core of who she was.

Her fingers closed around his throat, riding the moment, riding her man. Yes, she was Raven once more. She always would be and fucking him hard, she started to squeeze.

There was so much hate in her, so much frustration at how she had been treated and it seemed now to flow to her fingers, even as she fucked down with wild abandon. She was taking him now as he had watched her taken. He was just like the others, just another fuck and feeling him tense, her fingers flexed on his throat, savouring the moment just before….

She was close though too. This wasn’t the Raven of old. The old Raven would have fucked him to her orgasm then rolled away. Not finished? Too bad, she had.

He had to cum too. She wanted to feel his pleasure inside her. Her inner muscles rippled to milk him as she fought her own orgasm, growling to hold it back. He was so close, she knew the signs.

She drove down on him with renewed urgency, fingers playing with his throat, fucking him as she breathed her ownership of his body, “Mine.”

A single word. A simple word. But without doubt, a heavy word. A word heavy in lust, heavy in meaning, heavy enough to be an unbreakable bond between them. And Raven drove down harder, her thighs quivering as she struggled to keep her mind from dissolving in the white-hot inferno of passion. She needed him to cum. Releasing the grip on his throat, Raven slapped his face then jagged her hand to clutch his throat again.

He was the bastard that had presided over her humiliation. She had him. She could squeeze the life out of him. Yet all she wanted to do was squeeze down harder on his cock, squeeze it with everything she had. She needed him. He needed her. It was carnal passion and with a tensing of his body and a final cry of release, Alexei gave her what she needed.

It was enough, more than enough. Feeling his warmth spread inside, Raven plunged over her precipice too, their bodies writhing as one in single climactic perfection. Wave after sumptuous wave crashed over her, caressed back then crashed again.

She could kill him but she couldn’t. He
was
different. He alone understood her. He alone could give her all she needed and relaxing the grip on his neck, she collapsed onto his sweating, spent body to be enveloped protectively in strong arms as she fucked him through twin orgasms and into their beyond.