Page 89 of When Darkness Calls

“Sometimes. It depends.”

“You know I wouldn’t hurt you, don’t you, Dani?” He asks concerned.

My head shakes automatically, my grin salacious, and I’m not sure if he can see me or not from the bed. “Not even if I ask you too?”

Shadow’s quiet for a moment, breathing hard into the speaker before he groans loudly. “No, sweet girl. Not even if you ask me to. I could do something much worse that would have you begging harder for mercy.”

My thighs clench. I hum, leaning back onto my bed. “I think you’re talking a mighty big game, Shadow. What could you possibly do that would be worse than being painful?” My tone is skeptical, but I’ll be damned if I am not two seconds away from asking him to show me whatever he has in that beautifully twisted mind.

His chuckle is dark, full of promise. “I could make you feel so good, you’d be begging me for pain to take it away.”

A breathy moan tumbles past my lips. Through my tank top, my nipples have hardened into peaks, and there is a distinct slickness between my thighs.

But I laugh. “Hmm, I’m not so inclined to believe you, Shadow.”

“I think you’re scared to find out,” he taunts.

“Maybe. Or maybe I think I could make myself come harder than you could.” I say to him as my hand caresses the valley between my tits. A sigh is breathed into the phone.

“Would you like another show, Shadow? I could prove I’m right. You just have to watch.”

He makes a strangled noise in my ear before the line cuts.

I rise up, staring at my phone. Racing to the window, I looked out to the spot where he was standing just moments before, and my stomach drops. He’s gone.

“Fuck,” I mumble, defeated.

Inhaling deeply, I crumple into myself on the bed.

Of course, he wouldn’t want to do that. I’m so fucking stupid. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere, I fucked it up.

It takes everything to keep the tears pooling in my eyes from spilling over my cheeks.

Gentle fingers touch my chin. I jumped back to see him standing before me. Looming above, a direct reversal to our position earlier, the very one I had daydreamed about for days.

“Dani? Why are you upset?” He leans closer, thumb tracing along the high point of my cheek, sending a flash of heat through my body.

“I thought—”

“You thought I would walk away from the sexiest woman I have ever met offering to show me the most intimate moment she could share with someone?” His head tilts to the side. “My sweet girl, you’ve tempted me. Like the juiciest, ripest forbidden fruit. And I am nothing but a starving man.”

I glance down, tucking my hair behind my ear. My face is burning, and it trails down my chest, settling low in my belly. There is so much need coursing through my veins. Each word that spills from his mouth is a sinister promise that I want nothing more than to test.

“What’re you going to do to me?”

He chuckles, leaning closer to me, so our eyes are level. For the first time, I can see them. They are a startling blue in the dim light of my room. Almost white with how bright they glow. It’s nothing like I expected. I thought they would be so dark they would be nearing black, the same color as the voids painted on the face he wears each day.

“I’m not going to do anything. You promised me a show and I’m here to collect.” He stands straight, walking backward on silent feet to the desk chair near my window. He grips the back in one large hand, spinning it to face me.

His hands.

I never thought I would be a girl that would drool over something as mundane as a hand, but goddamn. They’re beautiful. Works of art. Thick veins run across the back, leading to lithe fingers. An artists’ hands. Only this artist uses the gleaming metal lacing each finger to paint his masterpieces. Love notes to me written in spindled writing and marred flesh.

“You,” I swallow. “You’re going to watch?” My brows furrow.

He hums, nodding. “Every fucking second. You said you could make yourself come harder than I can. I only believe when I see, sweet girl. And I’m going to watch it fucking all.”

My nod is jerky, but I agree.