Black Mark Series Book 3: Black Mark's Heart

by Ebony Olson

  "Mora!" Sophie called as we reached the cars. "We're going to head off now so we aren't on the road late."

  Zander, Warren, and herself were due back in London for Zander's girlfriend's birthday party tonight.

  "Okay, well, drive safe," I kissed her cheek.

  "Are you sure you want to stay? Sally invited you too." Sophie looked at me, concerned. "You haven't really taken the time to get to know her, and that's not like you."

  I tried not to wiggle my nose, but Sophie saw it.

  "You don't like her, do you?" Sophie asked, understanding that telltale sign.

  "Not really. She's a bit..." I couldn't find the right word.

  "Fake, bitchy, possessive?" Cassandra offered. She didn't really like Zander's new girlfriend either.

  "You forgot neurotic and high maintenance," Sophie whispered. "But, since she may be my future sister-in-law one day, I need to make the effort to be nice."

  "Have fun with that," I teased.

  "Sure." Sophie rolled her eyes.

  "There you are," Warren said as he and Zander approached and kissed my cheek. "Sure you don't want to ride back with us?"

  "I'm good. I prefer the party here," I smiled.

  "We'll see you next weekend for dinner?" Zander checked. He'd been trying to organize another group dinner with his girlfriend for a few weeks, but I'd been dodging them since the first. Perhaps I needed to give Sally another chance.

  "Of course," I assured. "It's in my diary this time."

  "I'll see you at the hotel," Cassandra excused herself, walking off to speak to family members.

  I farewelled my friends, then went to find Marshall, who was currently in possession of Jacob. I found him talking to Darius and Jeremy. I hesitated approaching, fearing the topic of conversation would be me.

  "Mora." Alex slipped his arm around my waist with a smile. "It's a nice church and the priest did an excellent job with the service."

  "Yes, he did," I agreed, letting myself relax against Alex. "It was nice of Cassandra and Jeremy to let me piggyback Ashelynn's christening."

  "I think Jeremy and Cassandra would do a lot to help you, Mora. You must have made one hell of an impression on them."

  I shrugged, "I just eat good pussy."

  Alex laughed. "I miss you. We don't spend enough time together anymore."

  "Well, you are now running a Fortune 500 company. You are living with your girlfriend, and I'm a few weeks away from a three-week long tour, which could potentially be a huge success or a massive flop."

  Alex kissed my forehead. "Let's have dinner after you get back, just you and I?"

  I smiled. "I'd like that." I stood up straight when Dad's phone rang and he forced Jacob into Darius's arms to hold while he answered. Jeremy was holding Ashelynn, so Darius had no choice but to assist.

  "Alex, go get the photographer and get him to take a photo of Jeremy and Darius with the babies please?"

  "Opportunist," Alex chuckled and walked off.

  I stood there watching while Darius quickly overcame the awkwardness of the situation and started talking to Jacob. I watched as Jacob put his hand to Darius's face and called him dada again.

  Jeremy and Marshall both stopped and stared, and then looked around to see if anyone else had heard. Dad spotted me and his face fell. I tried to discreetly wipe the tear that had escaped as Jacob called Darius his dad again.

  "He keeps calling me that," Darius considered. "Maybe he's trying to say my name."

  The photographer walked up and took a photo of Darius and Jacob; Jacob face to face with Darius, both of them smiling at each other. "That's a great father and son shot. Let's get the two dads together now," the photographer complimented.

  "What?" Darius asked, surprised.

  Jeremy stepped up beside him with Ashelynn, and the photographer took the photo while Darius was still fumbling over what he'd just been called.

  "Wonderful! Shall we get the mothers in the photos?"

  Darius looked around for me while Jeremy called Cassandra over. "Maybe later," Darius excused himself and made his way over to me. There was no hiding I'd shed a few tears. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend for that to happen," he apologized, handing Jacob back to me.

  "Not your fault. People would just naturally presume it." I took Jacob, settling him on my hip.

  Darius looked around. There were members of the Fehu here, and I had no doubt his talking to me would not go unnoticed. "What room are you in?"

  "Sixteen twenty-seven," I murmured.

  "We'll talk tonight." Darius turned to go, but stopped as another body approached.

  Dr. Lennon Brooks, the psychologist I met at my father’s, who pissed me off in two quick sentences, stepped up to us. "Darius. Mora," Brooks greeted. "It's good to see you two are able to be cordial towards each other again."

  "There is no reason for us to be anything else," Darius responded unhappily.

  Brooks stepped towards myself and reached out to touch Jacob. I automatically shifted my hip, moving Jacob out of reach. Brooks snickered. "Come now, Mora, I'm not going to hurt him. He does look like his father, doesn't he?"

  Darius's jaw fell open. "Wait, you know who the father is?"

  "It's kind of obvious." Brooks looked surprised. "Don't you?"

  "No," Darius growled. "No one will tell me."

  "That's because it's none of anyone's business," I grumbled.

  "I beg to differ..." Brooks started.

  I turned a harsh glare on him. "You can beg all you want. I'm not part of the brotherhood, and my life is none of your business."

  Brooks’s eyebrows shot up. "Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? You Ellis women..."

  I knew where he was going with it straightaway. I took Jacob from my hip and handed him off to Darius. Darius was too shocked by the conversation to object and took Jacob instantly.

  "...Really know how to hold a grudge, don't you? Should I call Children's Services now? Since it turns out you are just like your..."

  I swung and punched him in the face. Brooks fell on his rear, blood gushing from his nose. "I am not my mother, you fucking prick!" I raged at him. "Might I suggest you learn to hold your tongue about my business, Brooks, because if you decide to share my secrets, I might be just as inclined to share how you whore your wife out to pay your debts!"

  "Mora." Marshall clamped his hand over my mouth, moving me away. "Alex, get your sister out of here."

  Alex took Jacob from a surprised Darius; his other hand went around my shoulders and moved us towards the cars. "Come on, Mora, I think you need a drink." Alex looked back over his shoulder. "Or three."

  ***

  The knock on the door was soft. I checked Jacob was happy with his bottle in the port-a-cot I'd brought with me and answered the door. Darius half-smiled at me when I opened the door. "Can we talk now?"

  "Are you going to yell or cause me to yell?" I asked.

  Darius's smile dropped. "Not if I can help it."

  I stepped back, letting him in.

  "How's your hand?" Darius asked, collecting it in his after the door shut. He studied my knuckles.

  "Fine. A little tender, but I'll still be able to hold the bow." I carefully removed my hand from his grasp and stepped farther into the room. "Did Brooks talk to you after I left?" I asked, wondering if he'd been told.

  "No, your father dealt with him." Darius walked towards me. "Why won't you tell me who the father is? Why can everyone else know but me? It's obviously someone I know or you wouldn't be hiding it..."

  "Dare," I breathed his name in warning. "I'll tell you one day, I promise, but I feel like I'd be setting myself up for more heartache making it public knowledge right now."

  We stood facing each other for a good thirty seconds in silence while Darius weighed my response and decided to shelve it. "Should we talk about us then?" he asked instead.

  "Is there an us?" I asked unsurely.

  "There has always been an us, Mora." Darius sat on the end of the
bed. "I want to know how you see this working."

  I swallowed and sat beside him. "Being your lover?" I asked to clarify. Darius nodded. I cleared my throat. "Well, we both have busy careers now and I'm a single mom, so obviously both those things are going to take priority. Dad told me our affair can't take place in England, and that we need to travel to see each other."

  "Marshall knows?" Darius asked, annoyed.

  "He knows that we've had sex since Jacob was born," I cringed. There would be no hiding it in another few months. I bit my lip, seriously wondering what I was thinking. "You need to know, since Jacob was born, I've only been with you." I needed to say it, needed him to not even doubt for a second when I told him about number two that it was his.

  Darius's brows jumped. "Um, okay."

  I smiled at the blush of embarrassment rising up Darius's neck. "I'm not expecting you to have stayed chaste, Dare. I just wanted you to know that fact."

  Darius stood up, removing his jacket and putting it on the settee. "Okay, we both have rather large responsibilities and connecting our schedules might be difficult." Darius was in problem-solving mode. I'd seen it plenty of times while I worked for him. "Always leaving the country to see each other isn't going to work, Mora. I want to see you more often than I can get away."

  "Dare, if we are caught, you could lose everything," I reminded him. "You would have put us both through the last twelve months of heartbreak hell for nothing."

  Darius looked at me. "Might I remind you I wasn't entirely to blame for what happened, Mora."

  I stood up, glaring at him. "You chose money over me! Over your family!" I pointed to Jacob without thinking. I caught myself and pulled my arm back to my side. "I mean, what could have been..." I sat back down on the bed, my stomach dropping through the floor. "This isn't going to work. Just go, Dare."

  "No." Darius took two steps forward, pulled me up to stand facing him. "I'm not losing you again."

  He kissed me hard, holding my face to prevent me pulling away. His hands found the zip for my dress, tugging it down quickly before unclasping my bra. He pushed the dress from my shoulders, bra as well. The dress fell to my hips and he pushed it down, thumbs hooking into my panties to push them down as well.

  Heat suffused my body under the lashing of his tongue in my mouth, the press of his lips to mine exchanging our passion for each other. His hands caressed my body, learning the new contours that come with carrying life inside you.

  His touch was lightning to my system, branching from the single point of contact on the surface, to every lascivious receptor in my body.

  My fingers were popping the buttons on his shirt. For how frazzled my brain was in that moment, I was impressed how nimble they were with his buttons. I splayed my hands across his bare chest and felt like I'd finally come home.

  Tears fell from my eyes at the intensity of how much I'd missed his touch and the way he kissed across my collarbone. Darius stepped us back to fall upon the bed. I moaned at the feel of his monster pressing hard against my pelvis through his pants.

  "Dada," Jacob sang out. Darius and I both paused, listening to Jacob laugh. "Dada."

  We turned our heads to see Jacob standing in his cot looking at us. Darius laughed all of a sudden. "Great, I'm being cock-blocked by a baby now."

  "I need to get him to sleep, and then we can get back to your cock," I teased, pressing against his chest.

  Darius kissed me once more then rolled off me. He watched me with a large smile as I darted across the room to my bags and bent over to search for my iPod.

  "What are you looking for? Don't you just put him on the breast?" Darius chuckled.

  "I have some recordings of piano music with a male singer he's very attached to." I told Darius, then realized he might recognize himself singing. "Shit." I stood up, wondering how I was going to explain it.

  "Can't find it?" he asked.

  "I..." Crap, bollocks, and all the other curse words known to man.

  "What sort of songs does he usually like?" Darius asked.

  I turned around, watching amazed as Darius moved towards the cot. "Um, anything really. He just really likes a male," you, "singing to him."

  Darius picked Jacob up with a smile. "Okay, Jacob. Let's talk music." Jacob’s smile was large being in Darius's arms. I felt my legs wobble and quickly dropped onto the bed before I fell. "It's a pity your mother doesn't have her cello or she could have played accompaniment for me."

  My heart broke anew when Darius started singing to Jacob. Not only that he was actually fulfilling a dream of mine, quite literally, but that he chose that song. The song I wrote with Ethan, that we performed for the first time at the concert Darius came to; the song where Darius chose me.

  I covered my mouth to mute the sob that suddenly wracked my chest. I got up, quickly walking into the bathroom, shutting the door. I sat on the closed toilet lid and sobbed quietly while I listened to Darius sing my heartache. He knew it too well, every voice modulation, and every note perfect. He'd learned it by heart.

  The singing stopped. I took a deep breath, pulling myself together. I stood up and washed my face, using the cold water to try and clean the evidence of tears away. After a minute, I opened the door and stepped out. Darius was standing there holding a sleeping Jacob. I walked over, removed Jacob from his arms, and placed him in his cot. Darius's hands wrapped around me from behind to settle over my womb.

  "I want to be a dad, Mora," he murmured in my ear. "Be the mother of my children one day?"

  What did I say to that? I already was. Two of them.

  "He fell asleep quickly," I avoided answering, choosing to focus on my son instead. Jacob was smiling in his sleep, happy and content. "Usually it takes two or three songs."

  Darius kissed over my shoulder. "It's better in person. He could feel the reverberations in my chest at the same time."

  I nodded. Darius always was better in person. "Make love to me?" I requested, my voice on the edge of tears again.

  No further words were exchanged. Darius took me to the bed, laying me down and making me watch while he stripped naked. He climbed over me, spent forever preparing me for him, taking his time to feel, kiss, and adore every inch of me. When he finally slid into me, I could have died with how wonderful it felt. When we both lay panting and sated, I rolled to my side and asked Darius to spoon me. I slid his still-hard monster back inside me and got comfortable.

  "Sleep in me?" I asked.

  Darius chuckled, "You know I'm going to wake up hard and just start."

  "That's the plan."

  Luckily, Darius woke at four in the morning ready to go. I was on the brink of orgasm already when he woke me, shattering myself on him before I'd even opened my eyes. We snuggled back down to sleep afterwards, but Jacob woke us just after six, ready for his morning bottle. I yawned, climbing out of bed, pulling on my dressing robe and preparing the bottle for him. I handed it to him then fixed up his nappy while he fed.

  "Does he cry much?" Darius asked, watching as I did the mom thing. "He seems pretty happy every time I see him."

  I shrugged. "He has his moments. Mostly, he's been pretty good. When my milk dried up a few weeks ago, we had a rough week until I worked out what was happening."

  Darius considered me while I finished fixing Jacob up and went to wash my hands. When I came back in, Darius took my hand and pulled me into bed again.

  "You're an amazing woman, Mora. Everything you've been through, and you can still smile and be positive," Darius praised, holding me tight. "I own a brothel, several in fact, but one is a bit more elite and private than the others. When we are to see each other in town, that's where we will meet."

  I frowned, "I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable going to a brothel to have sex with you, Dare. For the obvious reason, but also because...well, that used to be your thing."

  Darius huffed, "I want to see you once a week, Mora, at least."

  I bit my lip. "My place has a discreet back entrance."

  "
Really!" Darius chuckled, his hand tapping my backside.

  "Pervert," I scolded. "I could give you a key to let yourself in the back door," I suggested. Darius chuckled and drew a deep breath to talk. "Don't even," I warned. "You are never getting my ass now, Dare. That was meant to be our wedding night remember? You blew it. Not going to happen now."

  "I'll win you around one day," Darius assured me confidently.

  "In the meantime..." I brought us back on track. "If you come to me, no one will see you and I don't have to worry about organizing babysitting."

  Darius planted a kiss on my mouth. "Lunch tomorrow?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Greedy much? I can't. I fly out tomorrow morning to start the Carnival tour."

  "It goes to Dublin this year, doesn't it?"

  I smiled, seeing where he was going with this. "Yes. We are there on Wednesday."

  Darius grinned. "Then I'll see you in Dublin on Wednesday."

  "Mama," Jacob called.

  "Duty calls," I announced, pulling away.

  "Mind if I use your shower before I go back to my room?" Darius asked, already heading that way.

  I took Jacob out of the cot and took him to the bed to play with me. There was a knock at the door ten minutes later. "I wonder who that is?" I picked Jacob up so he didn't fall off the bed. I opened the door and my eyes went wide. "Dad? It's really early."

  Marshall pushed open the door, taking Jacob as he stepped in. "I know, but I don't get to spend enough time with my grandson. I was hoping you, Alex, and Jacob would spend today with me."

  My eyes flicked to the shower and back quickly. "Um, yeah, but can we do that after breakfast?"

  Marshall's smile disintegrated as he spied something over my shoulder. I turned and saw Darius's clothes on the floor and the chair. Marshall's eyes flicked to the opening bathroom door and filled with anger as Darius stepped into the room.

  "Dad," I sighed.

  "Marshall," Darius froze.

  Dad turned his back on Darius. "I thought I was pretty clear about where you and your nameless lover should meet, Mora."

  I frowned, "Well, we actually discussed that last night, so it shouldn't be an issue from now on."

  Marshall took a deep breath. "How about I take Jacob down to the dining room, and you join us once you've showered?"