My phone lit up the room, alerting me of the bell, which I always muted at night. I slid out of bed and tiptoed toward the front door. It was the middle of the night, and nobody ever visited at this hour.
I glimpsed through the peep hole, my fingers clutching my phone, ready to speed dial Nevio so he could come and chase away whoever waited in front of the door.
My lungs deflated, my heart beat tripled, and for a moment, I couldn’t move. I unlocked the door and opened it.
Nevio stood in front of me. A baseball cap was pulled down his face, and he was dressed in a long black coat which hid most of his body—a good thing considering what I saw beneath. He was covered in blood, from head to toe. Even his lashes were clumped with blood. He wasn’t wearing a shirt or shoes, and his skin and the clothes he was wearing were covered in blood too, though their black color made it hard to see.
Smudges of blood now covered my white door too and bloody footprints led from the elevator to my door. If Dad saw this on the security camera, we’d be in a ton of trouble.
“What happened?” I whispered. I couldn’t see any obvious injuries, nothing that would explain the amount of blood, except for a couple of bruises here and there. Tonight, hadn’t been a cage fight.
The stench of blood quickly became oppressing in the narrow hallway. Considering my line of work, I wasn’t sensitive about blood, but this was more than usual.
“I’ll grab a shower,” Nevio said, and I simply nodded, wondering why he was here. Maybe I should have sent him away. He had to be on edge. This was his doing, no doubt. He’d slaughtered one or more people tonight, and now he was here. Maybe I should have been afraid, maybe I had reason to be, but after the initial shock, my pulse was already slowing.
I stepped past him and opened the bathroom door for him so he wouldn’t have to touch it, then I did the same with the shower. Nevio came in and unbuckled his belt. He didn’t wait for me to leave. He simply shoved down his pants, and I merely stood in the middle of the bathroom, feeling a little lost. When he got out of his boxers, I didn’t blush like I usually did. Blood had trickled down even to his penis. It had gathered in the ridges of his six-pack.
Nevio stepped into the shower and turned it on. Soon, the water washed away the first layers of blood. I backed away, but I didn’t leave. I closed the door, in case Carlotta woke. If Battista started screaming, I’d hear him. I was glad he was too little to get up on his own and roam the apartment. He didn’t need to see the blood, even if he’d probably think it was paint. Nevio washed his hair but his eyes were on me as I leaned against the door. Steam slowly filled the room, creating a visible barrier in addition to the one I could feel between us tonight. There had always been a push and pull between us since that night, but no matter how hard I’d pushed the pull had always been stronger. Tonight, it felt different. It felt as if we were on the verge of a push that would pull us apart farther than ever before, and I didn’t think the push would be coming from me.
Maybe it should, maybe seeing Nevio covered in the blood of his victims should have been the final straw—and maybe in a day or two it would be, when it had sunk in—but right this moment, I felt drawn to him. I was attracted to someone whom many people would call a monster, and I feared it was his monstrous side that made out part of his appeal.
In less than ten minutes of showering, no trace of the carnage remained. Nevio was clean and he shut off the water, then got out of the shower completely naked.
Droplets of water meandered along his muscles, caught on them and the scars that covered his chest and stomach. One wayward drop traveled lower and caught in his trimmed pubic hair.
Nevio didn’t bother drying off. He stalked straight toward me. His hair dripped down his face, making it appear as if he were crying, but I’d never seen Nevio shed a tear, and I doubted anyone else had either. I wasn’t sure if he was capable of it. Nevio stopped close in front of me.
“You are pure light,” he growled.
I didn’t say anything.
Tears filled my eyes. Nevio brushed his thumbs along my cheeks, catching the droplets. “I don’t know why I’m crying,” I whispered.
His lips pulled into a bitter smile. “I think you do, Rory.”
I bit my lower lip, the tears now coming harder.
Nevio’s darkness was impenetrable.
I’d always known Nevio carried plenty of darkness. You couldn’t know Nevio and not know. But I’d always thought the darkness was a small part of him. Over the past year, though, it had become clear that the Nevio I loved was part of a dark even he couldn’t control. Or maybe he just didn’t want to control it. The dark meant freedom for Nevio. He didn’t try to control his nature, he lived it.
“I’m not made for companionship. I’m better off alone, free to go bump in the night.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true. Look at your bond with Alessio and Massimo. You’ve been best friends all your lives.”
“They joined me in the darkness but they never quite needed it as much as I did.”
“Nevio—”
His lips came down on mine. I opened up. I didn’t want any games, any push and pull, not tonight, not when this felt horribly final. I wasn’t even sure why I knew, and why did this make me so sad. I had tried to get Nevio off my trail for months, and now that it felt as if he might be backing off, it crushed my heart.
His fingers still lightly held my cheeks as we kissed, a slow, gentle kiss that accentuated the finality of this moment. Nevio pulled back an inch. Waters from his hair dripped down on my face and cleavage, droplets chasing each other down the valley between my breasts and soaking my camisole. The fabric clung to my breasts, and my nipples hardened.
“Rory.” The word was dark, almost agonized. Nevio gripped the hem of my camisole and pushed it up. I lifted my arms so he could pull it over my head. He tossed it to the floor, then cupped my cheek and pressed his lips to mine again.
His eyes were on mine as if he sought a connection to ground him. More water dripped down on me, and goose bumps rose on my skin. Nevio pulled back and lowered his face to my chest, his warm tongue chasing the drops along the swell of my breasts, then over my nipples.
I arched, my hand gripping the back of his head, fingers tangling in wet hair. His tongue meticulously licked up every drop of water from my chest. Every time he brushed my nipple, my core clenched. I felt on edge, oversensitive in a way I’d never experienced. A few drops of water escaped down my belly, and Nevio’s tongue pursued them. When the tip of his tongue passed my belly button, I tensed, my fingers flexing against his scalp. I knew this wouldn’t end where our last encounters had ended. This time, I’d give even more of myself to Nevio, physically and mentally, and I feared it would ruin me for good.
Nevio gazed up, part of his eyes covered by his dripping wet hair. A smirk pulled at his lips, reminding me of my Nevio, of the man I still wanted by my side.
By now several droplets had trailed down my thighs and over my pubic bone, some catching in my trimmed hair, others resting between my pussy lips or in the ridge between my labia and thigh.
My body was as taut as a bow, ready for Nevio to catch those wayward drops too, full of desire and longing but also apprehension. Kneeling in front of me, he slid his tongue along the groove between my thigh and pubic bone, then along my outer thigh and inward. His eyes caught mine again as he dipped his tongue between my pussy lips to catch the water that had gathered there. His hair kept dripping, and Nevio lapped up every drop that caught on my pussy.
“Water never tastes this sweet,” he rasped. He parted my folds with his thumbs and bent over my pussy so more cold water dripped on my heated flesh. Every drop against my clit left me shell-shocked and desperate for more. Nevio covered my pussy with his mouth and really dove in. His licks became almost feral as he gathered more than just water. My cheeks heated from lust and embarrassment as I watched him devour my pussy. I was close; my legs tensed but Nevio pulled away.
I tried to shove his head back, but he was too strong. His eyes made me shiver with lust. One of his fingers traced the seam of my pussy, far away from my clit.
“Do you ever fantasize about the feel of my knife? How it claimed the part of your innocence that my cock hadn’t?”
More heat raced into my face as it always did when I remembered that incident. I still couldn’t believe it had actually happened, and I had enjoyed it.
Nevio smiled when I didn’t reply. He gripped my thigh and shifted it to the side, then pushed two fingers into me. I let my head fall back but kept my head tilted down so I could watch. His forehead pressed against my lower belly, the cold a shock to my system. He fingered me faster and deeper, and his lips closed over my clit. I came with a violent shudder, my lips pressed together to stop myself from making a sound. He shoved to his feet and cradled my face, his dark eyes full of need. “Rory.”
It was all he said, but even that one word carried his desire. I met his lips, letting my own need take over.
He lifted me off the ground, and my legs came around his waist. He walked backward, then lowered himself to the ground with his back against the bathtub and me straddling his belly.
With his eyes locked on mine, he gripped my hips and guided me so his tip pressed against my opening. “Take all of me, Rory. I want to watch your face. Want to see the lust, the pleasure, the pain as my cock takes whatever innocence is left.”
I began to lower myself. The knife handle had been much smaller, and the memory from that first night had already faded. Tonight felt as if it was our first time. Nevio cupped my neck, his thumb on my throat as his other hand pressed down on my hip. I sank down despite the intense stretching sensation, my lips falling open as the air left my lungs. “To see pain mix with pleasure on your face is the biggest turn-on I’ve ever had. Nothing compares to it, and at this moment, I want to believe it could be enough.”
I sank all the way down until our pubic bones touched. My eyelids fluttered shut from the intense fullness and dull pain I felt. I didn’t want to think about his words, not now.
Nevio pulled me toward him, his lips claiming mine. His hand moved from my hip to my ass, fingers digging into my ass cheek. The kiss was unhurried, but I could feel the rising need in Nevio, and my own body called for more, even if it still hurt.
I rotated my hips, allowing Nevio’s cock to slide out halfway only to sink down fully again. Nevio brushed his thumb over my lips, his intense gaze making me shiver. He wanted—needed—more.
I moved faster as we held each other, as his lips slid over mine, and Nevio’s heart beat pounded against my chest. Slower than mine, and I wondered if the horrors of tonight had made his heart pound faster.
Soon, Nevio’s fingers dug harder into my flesh, and his hips jerked upward, driving his cock deeper into me. My core tightened as the first sparks of my orgasm lit up my body until a firework of pleasure took hold of me. I sank my teeth into Nevio’s shoulder to keep my scream in, and he let out a harsh groan. His own release was close.
Even as waves of pleasure still flooded me, my body still high on dopamine, the first dark clouds of regret and even shame overcame me. I had sworn to myself not to become Nevio’s babysitter with benefits, friend with benefits, whatever you wanted to call it, but I had allowed myself to be shoved into that mold, and I had no way of escaping it.
I needed to put a stop to this, needed to set firm boundaries. I didn’t want to lose sight of my own happiness and eventually of myself, but the path Nevio and I were on right now would ultimately lead to that result. It had to stop now.
