Wicked Ways (Dark Hearts Book 1) Read online

  Mister Black had tricked me... No. I recognized he’d used his will on my mind, to make me say a truth that I would never have told Reuben. My hands were shaking where I clasped them together, but I whispered out my question. “Are you going to kill me?”

  “Why would I? No.”

  I wasn’t sure I should believe him.

  “If that’s the worst Reuben does, I should be done with you. I’d like to keep you but I shouldn’t. You are not to tell him of me. Or anyone about me.”

  That statement was final: Word. Lock. No key.

  But, he’d like to keep me? Why did that sound enticing? He said he was as bad as Reuben.

  Mister Black stood and walked to me, until his big black shoes were there, beside my folded leg.

  “Will you tell anyone?”

  I sighed, wanting to bang my head on that floor beside his shoe. God help me. These men were like sticky gum. I couldn’t get rid of their influence no matter how I tried.

  “No. I won’t.”

  “Imagine a policeman, in front of you, asking you questions. Could you tell him, phone him, write it down? What has happened to you – any of it? About Reuben or myself?”

  Commanded, I imagined. My toes curled and for a second I wondered. Maybe... But, no. “No. I couldn’t.” My head lowered as I was stricken by the horrible finality of this. “No.”

  “Good. Not many women succumb to this ability we have. I know Reuben found you in Darwin.”

  “Yes,” I said softly. I’d just admitted to never being able to tell. I had clung to the hope that my compulsion to lie would one day fail.

  “Am I going to kill you? No. I might’ve made use of you. I’d never kill you. I’m sure Reuben doesn’t deserve you. Give me your hand.”

  Said so smoothly. It was a compliment, I supposed. What did he mean by make use of? That sounded ominous, like keeping me, only worse. Without looking up from his shoes, I raised my arm. I felt him take my hand, turn it over, and place his thumb on the palm.

  The shock rolled in, as overpowering as when Reuben touched me. I closed my eyes and let it run its course.

  “I’d like to see you.” He released my hand. “Take off your dress.”

  The sexual miasma these men wielded shuddered through me, invading every atom of my body.

  Mr. Black’s will was so quiet I had trouble telling when he used it on me, but my fingers were already pulling at the sides of my dress. Me dangerous? Mr. Black was far more dangerous than I could ever be.

  With my dress pulled over my head, I put the garment to one side and stayed there, kneeling, with my hands in my lap. I could feel his eyes upon me. A shiver built and my nipples became hard little buttons beneath my bra. My breathing turned ragged.

  “Reuben is definitely lucky. You’re very desirable. Even to men like me, and I’ve had hundreds of lovers.”

  His words swept me like a perversion of a sigh. If ever a man could be a siren, this was he. Where Reuben’s words and will were blunt hammers, Mister Black’s were scripture written on the wind.

  Was he trying to make me feel good? Because he had. That awful tightness had lifted from my chest.

  This man was nice. Too nice.

  The air in the room became sparse. My breasts rose and fell so rapidly it demoralized me. Concealing my arousal was impossible, but in this moment, I wished I could’ve hidden it more than anything in the world. I knew what men like Mister Black liked to do.

  He walked a half circle around me. I heard the distinctive scrape then slide and musical tinkle of a belt buckle being slipped through the loops of pants – a herald as ominous as the slither of a snake. My dress slid away from me as he picked it up and tossed it onto the chair. My handbag, he knocked it with his foot then pushed it aside. The leather flap uncurled and opened, revealing the dark insides of my bag and a hint of gun metal.

  I bowed my head, looked away, and swallowed my misgivings.

  “What was that?” Swiftly, he arrived beside me, on one knee.

  A tinny sound keened in my ears.

  “What do you fear?”

  Nothing, nothing, nothing. But my eyes were disobedient and slowly turned to focus on the bag that held the gun.

  “This?” His hand, like some independent creature, searched in the bag and came out with my gun. He showed it to me, letting me see every part while that fear plucked at my throat. “You brought a gun with you? Look at me, Zorie.”

  I met his eyes then played with my lips with my tongue, nervous as hell but not ready to leave this earth. Not yet. Not yet. I had bad men to kill.

  “Yes.” I was going to die, after all. Reuben would’ve fed me to dogs for this, I was sure, after making them fuck me. “Yes. I did,” I whispered.

  Not being able to lie was such a curse.

  “I see.” He straightened and placed the gun on the sofa beside my dress. If I lunged, I could get it. “Thinking about grabbing it?”

  Fuck. I nodded, blinking crazily as I tried not to speak.

  “And could you use it on me?”

  Ahhh. Bastard for exposing this. I needed something secret at my core. Some rebelliousness, some magic. My thighs suffered as I bunched my hands into fists, scraping my nails along my upper legs. “No! Fuck. I couldn’t.” I sobbed, swiped at my eyes. “I hate you.”

  “Don’t hurt yourself.”

  I nodded, and hated that I’d done that too.

  “I think you hate Reuben and your need to obey. Not me.” Mister Black placed his hand on my head and patted me gently. “The lust we create is addictive. Anything entangled with that lust becomes a priority for you. The compulsion to obey grows. It will become a part of you, forever. That need to obey can mean not telling anyone about the arrangement you have with us. No matter how badly you’re treated, as long as the lust has you, you stay loyal.”

  Did this power they had create bad men, or were they born that way?

  “Most accept it. I don’t know if you ever will. You’re an odd one, Zorie.”

  He thought there was a way around this though, that he could teach me to kill men like him. That was stunning.

  The end of his freed belt swayed and bumped against his pants.

  “Bend over more, with your head low and your hands at your back.”

  Shit. I tried again, tried and tried to resist, and failed.

  Trembling, I did as he asked until my face was a foot from the rug and my hands clasped behind me. I felt the toe of his shoe press on my skin, just above my panties, and nudge my fingers. Bent over as I was, the split of my ass would be showing above the elastic. His shoe scraped lightly downward, dragging my panties with it. Lower, lower still, until he shuffled my panties all the way down and they only clung to me at the front where the cloth was caught by my body.

  “Nice,” he murmured.

  I felt on display, in a way Reuben had never managed. My slit moistened. This was like the moment before Godzilla stomped on a city.

  When would he stomp on me?

  When, would he...

  The buckle end of his belt grazed my shoulders, clicking, clinking lightly then the cool metal travelled over my back and along my spine. As my awareness heightened, my skin seemed to rise above itself.

  “We gather power and wealth as well as women. It seems to come with the ability to control. The temptation of power... Does it corrupt? Yes. For some more than others. I’ve seen it happen.”

  Mister Black didn’t seem to care if I spoke. Already I knew so much more. If only I could use that information.

  “Why are you telling me all this?” I lifted my head a little.

  “To reassure you. I see no reason to keep you ignorant.”

  He could tell I was worried? How far could he look inside my mind?

  One finger touched me at the angle of neck and shoulder. I gasped. My mouth stayed open and my eyelids fluttered.

  Sensation kindled from the mere brush of his skin on mine.

  “Head down more. Keep your hands where they are.”


  He’d segued into the instruction so fast I was flustered. My desire and his will laced through me in skeins of elegant fire. I did as he asked, kept wrist to wrist, and also pressed my thighs together, hard enough to squeeze my clit.

  It centered me.

  Here.

  Now.

  I needed him...

  And didn’t want to.

  Mister Black squatted beside me. His scent fell through me like jungle rain. He put his hand on my shoulder, one finger sliding beneath my bra strap.

  “Tell me, did you like what Reuben did to you? Have you ever had dreams about being fucked by men like what he did?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “Because I’ve found all susceptible women have such erotic fantasies.”

  Oh, he was a monster after all. I shook my head. Not that. Being screwed by three men with my face tied to metal bars? That would be insane, liking that for real, but my clit, which was already in a happy state of early arousal, swelled more.

  “I... Not... Not...”

  “Truth!”

  The no I wanted to say was so concrete it lodged in my throat, solid.

  His hand screwed into my hair and he hauled my head back at an angle until my neck muscles protested. My scalp on fire with pain, I squeaked.

  He smiled down into my eyes. “Tell me.”

  “Fuck.” The truth was... It was... “Yes,” I croaked. “I loved it and I have had fantasies like that.”

  “Thank you.”

  Except I hadn’t admitted that to myself until he made me say it.

  “Erotic fantasies aren’t meant to be real,” I blurted.

  That smile of his made my consciousness swim away.

  Then he released my hair, letting me collapse and swing my head down onto my thighs. My hair made a cave as it fell about me, a red cave where I could hide from the monster. He gripped my wrists and roughly laced them together with the belt.

  “Please,” I whispered, half to myself. “Don’t take it all. I need some of me...”

  Chapter 14

  Mister Black

  Her small plea drifted.

  Leave some of me.

  I had no doubt she barely knew she’d said those words aloud, though I could tell she tried to keep herself from succumbing to me, her own make-up defied her.

  I didn’t need to tie her but I loved the look of a woman bound, my belt about her hands. With her head down, her body curved into the exquisite shape of a woman presenting herself for sex or for inspection. Miss Zorina Brown was near irresistible.

  “Stay there.” I went to sit on the curved four-seater sofa opposite to where I had been – a much better view.

  Her rear end was in the air, enticing me, exposed. With the down-lighting, I could see her moisture gleaming between her pussy lips. I rubbed my chin, considering what to do. Her ass swayed, slightly, from side to side. If I sat forward, I could reach her. My erection was begging me to do just that, pressing enthusiastically against my boxers.

  Unbutton, unzip, and I could be inside her in seconds.

  I shouldn’t. She belonged to another mesmer. If I took her, mightn’t he know? It was such a strong connection, fucking a woman, that I wasn’t sure. I lay back and sucked in air through my nose.

  Why did she call to me like this?

  I thought perhaps it was because she wasn’t simply susceptible – it was because she was able to resist. That potential I saw in her, to thwart mesmer commands, was what I’d hoped to use. I might’ve trained her to resist even harder. Except Reuben was a run-of-the-mill pervert and didn’t need killing.

  I leaned forward anyway. Even if the evidence wasn’t before me, I could taste her arousal in my mind. She was frightened, terrified of losing her self, of being forever enslaved, and she was craving what I could give her.

  I should wait and take her when he tired of her.

  Right now, in this instant, her plump, reddened labia needed a man’s attention.

  “How are you feeling, Zorie?” I grinned at her huffed exasperation. “Tell me precisely. What do you want?” Then I said the word that would frustrate her the most. “Truth.”

  A few seconds later, her muffled reply reached me. “Horny. Scared.”

  I was sure there was more. Another female would have trotted out every detail by now. She was indeed a challenge.

  I’d not had a challenge from a woman...since forever.

  That was such a weird fact that I paused to think it through.

  I couldn’t take her but there were other possibilities that would amuse me.

  Playing with her would lessen her fears as well as satisfy my need to mess with this little defiant woman.

  I loved the idea of making her mine without, quite, making her mine.

  Slowly, I leaned forward. With one elbow on my knee, I reached out and put my finger on her where her lower lips joined below her asshole, she flinched. A second later, I began to weave my fingertip downward, toying with her lips as my fingertip descended. My finger roved over hill and dale, almost fucking her, then not. I could see every clench of her cunt and the slow seepage of wetness from her entrance.

  That and a woman who groaned whenever I found her hole but journeyed onward?

  Fucking gorgeous.

  “When I first began handling women like you...”

  I played some more, as I spoke, sliding my finger in her moisture, painting her inner thighs, going around her anus but ignoring her protruding clit, except to circle it, once or twice, at a distance.

  “...I used my will like stone. With you I’m using enough to keep you kneeling. Only that. I want to see your animal responses. With your clothes on, you can pretend to be polite and naive, but with me, naked and with your cunt in my face, you’re going to be my whore, and all because you want to be.”

  This time I thought I caught the twist in her mind that seemed to signal oncoming resistance. I’m sure my eyes widened.

  She choked as she said her words. “I’m not. Your whore.”

  Was that a fluke? That I felt that in her mind?

  “No?”

  I focused on her ass, on the delectable swell of her butt and I ran my unoccupied hand down her side. Smooth, pretty skin. The awesome soft give of female flesh.

  Without warning, I worked two fingers into her. Her walls clamped down, but I burrowed them in, fucking her sopping wet cunt ever-deeper.

  Her little grunts and whimpers were music to my neglected cock and it pulsed. “One day, Miss Zorie, I’m going to fuck you properly.”

  Another whimper, and a squirm of her ass, made me smile.

  “Changed your mind? Would you like my cock now?” I said that quietly as I squeezed a third finger inside. “Answer me.”

  Already she was shoving herself backward onto my fingers and shuddering as she did so. She sucked in a few more gasps, before grudgingly answering me.

  “Yes.”

  “Uh-uh. My name. Say thank you for fucking me, Mister Black.”

  Her head lowered all the way to the floor before she muttered it, muffled by the rug and her body. “Thank you. For fucking me. Mister Black.”

  A hot thrill ran all the way to my balls. That sounded good, coming from her. With her, getting obedience was like extracting information under torture. Sweet torture.

  Though Reuben had left a few bite marks and bruises on her back and stomach, they were nothing more than what fierce lovemaking might cause. Her cunt was aroused, she was aroused, and she was showing no signs of pain despite having the wedge of my three fingers residing in her to a depth that stretched her severely.

  That mind jump happened and her hands twitched. Though the belt around her wrists stopped her, I thought I knew what she wanted – the gun on the sofa.

  “Damn. You are a one of a kind. No.”

  I clamped down with my will, removed my fingers from inside her.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  I could read her. What if Reuben could?


  Either way, I smiled, this was strangely satisfying. Life was far more interesting when you had to struggle for it.

  I undid my belt from her hands, then retrieved the gun and put it at the very end of my sofa.

  “Up here. Lie across my lap, stomach down, with your head toward the gun.” There was plenty of room for this. I wanted more of her, more skin, more of her feel. More possession.

  I should’ve sent her away. Should’ve kept the gun to keep her away from temptation.

  Not today. I had a fierce need to see how far I could go.

  When Zorie climbed to her feet, there was a hint of fire in her expression, but she came to me and positioned herself as I asked. Stomach down, on my lap, her ass was just where I wanted it, where everything was visible.

  She’d pulled her underwear back into place when she’d stood. I tsked at the sight of the mauve satin and lace, even though it clung to the contours of her pussy, revealing all. Dampness darkened the crotch of the panties.

  “Reach back and pull aside the crotch so I can see your cunt.”

  As before I kept my will cranked down to almost nothing. My reactions were fast.

  When her arm moved, she wriggled against me, making me grunt at the pressure on my cock. Her fingers found the strip of cloth between her legs, rolled it aside, and held it there.

  “Good.” I unclipped her bra and let the straps fall to the sofa. “Push your fingers into your cunt.” A lot of women hated that word, which only made me enjoy using it more.

  Watching her finger vanish into her cunt up to the second knuckle was the best magic trick, ever.

  The bite mark Reuben had left on her right buttock annoyed me.

  “Don’t move.” I bent and deliberately took a large chuck of her left ass between my teeth then slowly increased the pressure until she shrieked. A little more pressure had her gasping and begging. Her finger though, stayed inside her. I reached beneath and began to toggle and press on her clit.

  Being a mesmer gave me a certain magic with my fingers. I could bring a woman to orgasm, or to the brink of one, quickly...even with my teeth painfully sunken into her butt.

  Should I?