DarkInnocence (7 page)

“Duly noted.”

Eli turned and walked through the door. I shut it behind him
and turned to lean my back against the hard surface. I drew in a deep breath
and shut my eyes. A few weeks ago I would have given anything to hear Eli say
those things to me. Now they just made my brain hurt.

“I know how much you wanted him,” Dante said in a low,
cautious voice.

I opened my eyes and found him standing a few feet in front
of me. His eyes were guarded, his face blank. Damn. I hadn’t even heard him
move. I crossed the space between us, choosing him. I cupped his hips and
leaned in to press my breasts against his front.

“He’s what I thought I wanted.” I spread my hands up his
chest and rose on the tips of my toes. I linked my fingers behind his neck.
“Turns out, you’re what I need.”

I didn’t require him to stay clean, or to stop sleeping
around. My craving for him went deeper than my attempts at self-medication. I
needed him like air—needed the connection between us to live my life to the
fullest, to be the Hannah I’d always wanted to be deep down inside. Dante saw
me, the real me, the screwed-up me, the one with all the flaws. Despite all
this, he wanted me anyway. His strong, safe state of being gave me the courage
to become the person I’d always wanted to be.

I nipped his bottom lip with my teeth and soothed the sting
with my mouth. Dante cupped the back of my head and sucked my tongue into his
mouth with a low rumbling growl. He stepped into me, and my back hit the door.
As he lifted me, I wrapped my legs around his waist. Hard and ready, his cock
pressed against my core and I ground against him.

“Let’s go back to bed,” he said.

I reached down the front of his sweats, palmed his granite
cock. “Let’s.”

My head hurt. My muscles throbbed. When I opened my eyes, my
vision blurred. Who knew I’d feel so horrible after a night—and morning—of
amazing, mind-altering almost-but-not-quite-sex. I groaned into the soft pillow
and wished for the first time in a very long time that the darkness would steal
me away into dreamland.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

What was that sound? I shook my head and regretted it. My
brain throbbed. My skin felt tight all over. The muscles in my jaw, thighs and
for some strange reason, calves, screamed.

Dizzy and disoriented from lack of sleep, or maybe too many
orgasms, I struggled to untangle myself from the blankets, arms and legs woven
around me. Behind me, dead to the world and naked as the day he was born, Dante
slept. Considering we’d finally fallen asleep around seven in the morning and
it was only ten now, I didn’t blame him.

Damn, why was I awake?

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A familiar noise. The one that had roused me from sleep way
before I was ready? Someone was apparently at the door and not going away. If
it was Eli again, I swear I was going to kick his ass. I pressed a hand to my
forehead in an attempt to contain the ache and swung my legs over the side of
the bed.

Dante, as if sensing my absence, rolled over on top of the
spot I’d just vacated and smothered it with his large body. I ran my gaze over
the muscles in his back, the thick scars crisscrossing his skin and then lower
to his high, firm ass. His thighs were slightly parted, giving me a glimpse of
his testicles, the same ones I’d had in my hand only a few hours ago. Dante
rubbed his face against my pillow, inhaled once, mumbled something and promptly
fell back to sleep.

Sexy and cute. A damning combination to my fluttering heart.

I rose from the bed and when my inner thighs, the skin
slightly abraded from the stubble on Dante’s jaw, rubbed together, stabs of
pleasure moved through the center of my body. I replayed each delicious and
arousing second he’d spent licking, nibbling and sucking on the tender flesh
there.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Jeeze. Persistent much?
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I
groaned and picked up Dante’s shirt off the floor.

I stumbled, more than walked, to the front door as I
dressed. Sunlight streamed in through the windows and those little beams of
light speared right through me. I blinked, lifted my arm over my eyes in a poor
attempt to block the brightness. Jesus, I felt as if I had a hangover.

Through the small, round hole in the door I looked out to
the other side and found a bored-looking guy in a tan uniform holding a box.
The label affixed to his shirt read
Express Delivery
.

Knowing I looked like I’d just stuck my finger in a light
socket and not really caring, I unlocked then opened the door. I squinted at
the obnoxious rays of sunshine.

“Dude, when no one answers the door after the tenth knock,
leave the package,” I grumbled.

Package boy, no longer shrunken and distorted by the
peephole’s concaved glass, looked younger than I was. He stared slack-jawed at
my mouth for a few seconds before his gaze almost comically dipped. Breasts.
Legs. Breasts. You’d think he’d never seen an almost naked woman who’d spent
the entire night being pleasured before.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Eyes up here,” I
chastised.

“Right, sorry.” He cleared his throat and thrust the box at
me. “I didn’t mean to wake you, ma’am, but I was under strict orders not to
leave the package on the doorstep. If I fuck up one more time, they’re gonna
fire me. I need this job.”

I took the box, found it to be heavier than it looked and
glanced at the printed label. Who was Kyle Maddox?

“Here’s a tip, don’t use the word ‘fuck’ when you deliver
packages. Want another one?” I didn’t wait for his response, only shoved the
package into his chest. “You’ve got the wrong house. No one named Kyle lives
here.”

The man-boy, who had kind of a cute blush coloring his
cheeks, shook his head. His shaggy black hair swept across his forehead. He
stepped back and left me holding the stupid box. He unhooked an electronic
tablet clipped to his belt and hit a few buttons.

“This is the right house, so this is where I’m leaving it.
What’s your name so I can note who signed for it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hannah Grey—that’s Grey with an ‘e’.”

“Got it, thanks.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and
smiled up at me.

I felt like an Amazon compared to him.

“Ah…” I looked around the front yard, grass cut short. My
gaze skittered over the blue and yellow van in the driveway before I turned to
meet his eyes. “Is there something else you needed?”

He leaned against the wall outside of the door as if he were
settling in for a while. “You got a boyfriend?”

I looked down at myself and shook my head. I was used to
being hit on, just not when I looked so damn horrible. My hair was a mess,
shadows ringed dark circles under my eyes, I had no makeup on and I was only wearing
a shirt.

I frowned at the delivery guy. “Are you serious?”

“You’re like superhot. You a model or some shit? Can I get
your number?”

Had I really used to date guys like this moron? I stepped
back and slammed the door in his face. Still shaking my head, I wandered into
the kitchen, set down the package and rummaged around in the refrigerator for
something to eat.

Eggs, cheese, bacon and tortillas. A bag of potatoes sat on
the counter. I smiled and decided to cook, something I hadn’t done since before
Lizbeth. Thirty minutes later, I had breakfast burritos, hot sauce, toast and
fresh-squeezed orange juice for two set out on a tray. I would have made
coffee, but I’d known from my previous sleepover Dante didn’t operate on
caffeine.

I placed my bounty of food items on the nightstand and
leaned across the bed to press my lips against Dante’s ear.

I nipped his ear. “Time to wake up, sleepy head.”

He mumbled something into the pillow he slept face first
against, hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me into bed.
Omph.
I
was on my back with his large body looming over mine before I could blink. The
thick ridge of his morning erection unerringly found its way between my legs I
spread to accommodate his hips. Dante’s weight pressed into me, warming me from
head to toe and I smiled up at his sleepy, relaxed face. I adored his immediate
need to hold me.

He shifted his pelvis, rubbing first the tip, then the
length of his cock against my pussy. The metal ball of his barbell applied just
the right amount of pressure against my clit. Pleasure spread through my
abdomen. I cupped his ass and rocked my hips against him, coaxing a moan from
both of us.

We hadn’t had sex. Yet. In a way, I was kind of glad we’d
waited. In another way, I really wanted him to fully claim me as his.

“Mornin’, darlin’.”

“Mornin’.” I pushed back the riot of curls falling in front
of his eyes and tucked them behind his ears.

He drew his nose down my cheek, and when I curved my head to
the side, Dante trailed his tongue across my jaw, throat and then collarbone.
He nuzzled me. “Something smells good.”

I shivered and rubbed my leg against the soft, spongy hair
on his calf. He gripped my thigh in his big strong hand and lifted my leg to
wrap it around him. The cotton shirt I wore slithered across my skin and
bunched around my waist. He slid his cock through the lips of my pussy, coating
his thickness in my arousal. He didn’t enter me, only teased the opening with a
slow back-and-forth rhythm.

I could hardly find the words to speak through the teasing pleasure
coaxing me into a stupor. When I did, it came out hitched and uneven. “I made
you breakfast in bed.” I barely heard my voice over my pounding heart. Would he
press inside? Make me his?

“Yes,” he rumbled, opened his mouth against my neck and
nibbled. “That also smells good, but not nearly as appetizing as you do.”

My pussy clenched and I scratched a hand down his spine.
“Ummm…”

“‘Ummm’ is right. You’re so wet and warm.” He flexed the
hand that held my hip, fingers digging into my skin. The crown of his cock
bumped against the pearl of my clit and sent bolts of pleasure through me. “You
have no idea how bad I want to slip inside you, feel your snug heat wrapping
around me when you come.”

My stomach chose that exact moment to let out a hideous
growling noise. My cheeks heated. Dante chuckled against my throat and pulled
away to grin down at me.

“No!” I shouted and cupped his massive shoulders. “Come
back. More sexy talk. More rubbing. Don’t listen to my belly.” In response, my
stupid stomach gurgled.

“My woman needs to eat. My da, before he died, drilled in
the basics. Women have three basics needs that need to be met—protection,
pleasure and food.”

A smile, probably stupid and ten times too big, spread my
lips. He referred to me as his woman. No one had ever claimed me before.

I spread my hands on his shoulders, down the thick, rippling
muscles on his upper arms. “I hope you don’t mind I cooked. Breakfast
burritos—bacon, egg, potatoes and cheese.”

He cupped the back of my neck, brought me forward and pressed
his lips against mine for a slow, lingering kiss that stole my soul and
tethered my heart to his.

“I don’t mind, not in the slightest. It’s the sweetest thing
anyone’s ever done for me,” he said when he released my mouth.

Turning and settling next to me, he pulled the blanket
across our laps and reached for the tray. He set it between us and handed me a
plate. We both dug in as if we hadn’t eaten in days. For me, that might be
accurate.

“This is really good.” He moaned, the same sound he made
when he came unglued.

Pride filled me. I nodded, took another bite of my burrito.
“Oh,” I said with a mouth half-full. “You got a package. Well, not you but
someone.” I swallowed. “Do you know who Kyle Maddox is?”

Dante picked up his juice and downed the entire thing in one
gulp. “That’d be me.”

I stared at him. “Huh?”

“More accurately, it’s who I used to be before the attack. I
haven’t gone by Kyle in a really long time.”

“I should have guessed Dante wasn’t your real name.”

He grinned. “Castro started it. He liked to compare my
journey through his dimension of hell to Dante’s Inferno. One day I was no
longer Kyle, just Dante because that’s what he kept calling me. Kind of like
how he calls you Kitten. One day, it’ll be your name.”

I laughed. “I’m not cut out to be Kitten. Dante suits you.”
I sipped my orange juice. “Will you tell me about who you were, before the
attack?”

“Not much to tell. I was boring, repressed and unhappy,” he
said and it didn’t sound like he regretted the changes in his life. “I’d been
going to school in Boston, working on my dissertation to get my PhD in
Sociology because that was what my girlfriend at the time, Marisa, wanted.”

“What did you want?” I leaned my head on his shoulder and
picked at my burrito. Whoever this Marisa girl was, I hated her already.

“Honestly, I had no idea. I met Marisa in college. She was
ambitious, beautiful and cold as fucking ice. Once we settled into our
relationship, we only had sex on Sundays. Even then, she had to control every
single aspect. She hated oral sex, hated being on top, hated me coming up
behind her. Got to the point I couldn’t even kiss her because she had all these
rules.

“After six years, two living together, it was either time to
propose or move on. Even though I knew she wasn’t the one, I bought the ring
anyway and prepared for a lifetime of jacking off. I came home early one
day—found her in bed with one of her professors. She’d been fucking him for
months behind my back. Come to find out he wasn’t the first.”

What a bitch. I hoped he’d never think I would ever do that
do him. “Ouch.”

“Didn’t hurt, not really. It was a relief. After that,
things fell into perspective. I quit school, travelled the world,” he flashed
me a naughty grin, “and set about fucking as many women as I could on any day
of the week I wanted.”

“Charming.”

He shrugged. “One night my buddies and I decided to go
camping in the Everglades. Even though we were all shitfaced, we somehow made
it there. Not long after we set up camp, a naked man covered in blood attacked
us. He was a damn maniac. Four on one and we got our asses kicked. Had no idea
he was a shifter, not until his skin exploded and in its place a huge-ass lion
took form. I was the only one who made it.” He stopped and drew in a deep
breath, as if he still mourned the loss of his friends. After a moment, he
shook his head. “I probably would have died if Castro hadn’t been after the man
in the first place for a debt he was owed. He opened a portal, took me with him
and patched me up.”

I laced our fingers together, giving him silent support.
“That’s brutal,” I said.

He squeezed my hand. “The details are a bit fuzzy. My body
resisted the change. Had a fever of one-oh-five for seven days. When I did wake
up it still felt like I was in a dream. You grew up immersed in the shadows,
knowing vampires, shifters and demons existed. Me, not so much. I was
completely ignorant. To say it was a rough adjustment would be an
understatement.”

I toyed with the hem on the blanket. “Just because I grew up
in the life, doesn’t mean I was immersed in it. After my parents, first my mom
then a few years later my dad, were murdered, my uncle and sister went to great
lengths to shelter me. You have no idea how annoying it is to walk into a room
and have everyone stop talking. They pretty much just silently stare at me
until I turn around and leave. I’m twenty and they still do it.”

He cupped my cheek. “They just want to protect you, darlin’.
There’s something about you, something innocent and fresh that brings out the
protective instincts. I took one look at you, covered in blood and crying, and
knew I was a goner.”