Blackest Night (Shades of Death Book 3)

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Rough fingers dragged the straps of my bra down over my shoulders and then the cups were yanked down. I squeezed my eyes shut when I felt his lips close around one of the sensitive peaks. He sucked and teased it with his teeth and my body shuddered. He massaged and worked the other with his hand. I had to lock my fingers behind my back to keep from grabbing for him. His other arm wound around my back and held me tightly.

  The teasing nibbles became something more when his teeth clamped down on one nipple. Not hard enough to cause real pain, but hard enough to make my eyes fly open and a little cry fall from my lips. At the same moment, my eyes caught on something out the window.

  I let out a startled yelp and practically leapt out of Nikolai’s arms. I probably would have fallen backward and cracked my head on the coffee table if he hadn’t caught hold of me.

  “Did I hurt you?” He took my face in his hands, but I knocked them away and righted my bra as I climbed from his lap, my eyes searching the dark outside.

  “No. I saw someone outside looking in at us.”

  He looked over his shoulder and then back to me, a frown marring his brow. “I don’t see anyone.” He was right. They were gone now, whoever it was.

  “There was someone there,” I insisted.

  “Probably just someone walking by who caught us because we didn’t close the curtains,” he brushed it off, seemingly unconcerned.

  “They were in your yard, Nikolai, standing right in front of the porch. Watching us.”

  Nikolai pushed up from the couch and I reached for the blanket that was thrown over the back to cover myself since I had no idea where my shirt had landed. “You sure?” he asked as he padded over to the window and peered outside. I stood as well but remained where I was.

  “Yes. I know there was someone there.”

  “What’d they look like?” He was still scanning the yard, searching for the mysterious voyeur.

  “I don’t know,” I said exasperated. “It’s dark out there and I didn’t get a good look. I was a bit distracted.”

  One corner of his mouth turned up as he looked back at me over his shoulder. “But you’re sure you saw someone, and not just an animal running through the yard?”

  I glared. “I think I know the difference between a cat and a person.”

  He abandoned the search out the window and walked back over to me. “I’m just saying, with the woods around us, we get a lot of deer coming through here.”

  I hugged the blanket tighter to my chest. “I didn’t see movement. It wasn’t a deer. It was a person. They were wearing a hoodie, so I couldn’t see their face, but I know it was a person.”

  He reached for his phone on the coffee table and then brought up a picture of a middle-aged guy, with sandy, greying hair and pretty average features. “Could it have been him?”

  “I don’t know. Who is that?”

  “My ex’s husband. Eli’s stepfather. He’s still here and he wants to see Eli.”

  “Oh.” I looked at the picture again. The guy wasn’t bad looking, but Nikolai’s ex had seriously traded down. “I guess it could have been him then, but I don’t know. I couldn’t honestly say if it was a man, a woman, or a teenager. I only saw whoever it was for a second, and it was dark,” I reminded him for the third time.

  He nodded. “Could you tell how tall they were at least?”

  “No,” I huffed. “I mean, they weren’t Andre the Giant, and they were tall enough to see in, but that’s about the only size reference I can give you.”

  “Okay,” he said, seeming to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to provide a detailed description for a sketch artist. “It was probably nothing anyway. Just someone walking by, who caught our little show and wanted a closer look. They were probably startled when you caught them and took off.”

  I let out a deep breath and some of the tension that had collected in my shoulders eased. “You’re probably right. Sorry, it just freaked me out. Stupid pervert, whoever it was.”

  He chuckled and started to pull me into his chest, but froze when something banged against the back of the house. I looked at him with wide eyes. “Or maybe they didn’t take off,” I whispered, my heart rate spiking. I didn’t even realize I’d grabbed his hand and was squeezing the shit out of it until he pried my fingers loose.

  “Relax. That very well could have been an animal. We get raccoons and stray cats in the back yard all the time. I’ll go check it out.”

  My hand shot out and grabbed his again. “No. You can’t go out there,” I hissed.

  “And why can’t I?”

  “Have you ever seen any horror movie ever? Either the person who goes to check out the noise never comes back, or they do, and they find the person they told to wait behind with their throat slashed.”

  “You’re cute, but it’s going to be fine. I’ll be right back.”

  I threw my hands up and whisper yelled, “You’re not supposed to say that. That almost assuredly means you will not be right back.”

  “I promise, I will. And you don’t need to whisper.”

  “It’s dark and I’m scared and there’s possibly an axe murderer outside. It feels like a whispering situation to me.”

  He shook his head. “Just wait here.”

  He moved through the house, stopping to peer out the windows in the dining room and kitchen until he reached the sliding doors at the back of the house. He flipped a switch that cast light onto the deck and spilled into the back yard. Before hitting the lock and sliding the door open, I saw him reach for something on top of the fridge. When he pulled it down I realized it was a gun.

  Okay, that made me feel slightly better. If anyone was out there, they should probably be more afraid of him than the other way around. He left the back door open as he stepped out onto the deck. He disappeared from my sight a few times as he walked the width of the house and checked out the yard.

  “Nothing there, probably just an animal, or even the wind knocking something into the house,” he said when he returned, locking us back inside. “I’ll just take a quick look out front to be sure.”

  He did a check of the front yard and came back, reporting the same thing. He’d seen nothing and no one. I felt marginally better. At least if someone had been out there, they were gone now.

  My eyes lowered to the weapon still in Nikolai’s hand. “On top of the fridge?” I arched a brow at him. “Doesn’t seem like the safest place to keep that thing.”

  He shrugged and placed it on the coffee table. “It’s as good a place as any when I’m home. If you’re worried about Eli getting his hands on it, don’t be. He knows the rules about gun safety. I’ve had him handle it, and even shoot it before so that he understands it’s not a toy. Safety is always on, unless I mean to shoot something or someone, and when I go to bed, it goes upstairs with me.”

  “I always wanted to learn to shoot, but my Dad never took the time. Maybe you could teach me to handle a gun,” I suggested, biting my lip almost nervously. It was true that I had wanted to learn as a kid, and Dad always meant to take me, but never got around to it. Now, more than ever, seemed like a good time to remedy that. There was nothing safe about stepping outside your doors in today’s world. I didn’t want to carry a gun if I didn’t know how to use it, but if he would teach me, if I felt comfortable with one, it would give me a little extra peace of mind.

  “Maybe I could, but right now, I’ve got something else I’d like to teach you how to handle.” The look in his eyes was dark and the set of his lips wicked.

  The grin spread to my lips. “Oh yeah?”

  “I believe we were in the middle of something.” He stalked toward me and tugged the blanket from my arms.

  “Only a guy would still be in the mood,” I mumbled.

  He put his hands on my hips and spun me around, dragging my back up against the front of his body. “Are you saying you don’t want me to pick up where we left off?”

  One hand traced the curve of my back until it came to rest on the swell
of my bottom. He nipped at the crook of my shoulder and then slid it lower, grabbing a handful of one cheek as he stroked his tongue over the spot where he’d bitten. His breath was icy cool against my skin as he blew lightly on my shoulder. Shivers ran up my spine that left my entire body tingling.

  “Maybe,” I whimpered. “But what about the curtains?”

  “What about them? And I think you can do better than maybe.” He gave my ass another squeeze through my thin leggings, and then steered me around the couch and perched me on the arm. I brought my arms up to wrap around his neck, but he caught my wrists and unwound them. “No touching unless I give you permission.”

  His words carried the hint of a warning in them, and rather than put me off, because I’d never enjoyed being bossed around before, I found myself oddly excited. He released my wrists, letting them fall to my sides, and then he splayed his hand across my chest, just above my breasts. He pushed me gently back until my head was resting against the seat of the couch, my hips angled up on the arm and my legs dangling over the side. My heart drummed wildly against my ribcage in anticipation as his fingers hooked in the waistband of my leggings. He chuckled, and I pushed myself up on to my elbows to look at him.

  “Is Pac-Man trying to eat your pussy?”

  I glanced down at my leggings, where Pac-Man was indeed eating his way toward a certain place, grinned at Nikolai and shrugged. With an amused smirk, he told me to lay back as he dragged the buttery soft material down my legs. I tugged my feet free of them.

  “Sorry Pac-Man, buddy, but I’m not sharing.” I heard them hit the floor somewhere over his shoulder.

  With my head lower than the rest of me, I couldn’t see him knelt down between my legs, but I felt the graze of his stubble on the inside of my leg as he kissed his way toward my center. My thong was the next thing to go, and then I was bared to him.

  I pushed up on my elbows again in an effort to watch as he nipped at my thigh and hip, and tasted the crease of my leg. His mouth stopped, and his eyes lifted. He gave a little shake of his head. His hungry eyes conveyed his order without him uttering a word. I lay back, closing my mine, and sweet mercy, he was right. Once he started, I would have done whatever he said in order for him not to stop. I slammed my head into the cushions repeatedly, my hips bucked and my legs kicked until he wrapped them around his shoulders and pressed the hand that wasn’t torturing the pleasure out of me, over my lower belly, pinning my hips down. Still, I squirmed and mouthed breathy pleas, begging simultaneously for him to stop and keep going because it was too much, but felt so, so good. I moaned loudly and then had to press my lips together when he ordered me to be quiet so as not to wake Eli.

  I swallowed back every moan and whimper that tried to escape until only silent cries were falling from my parted lips. Those soundless cries became screams that only I could hear inside my own head. He worked me up over and over, using his lips, teeth, tongue, and fingers, finding all the right spots and the perfect rhythm to bring me to the brink, only to let up at the last second until everything receded, just so he could do it all over again. I think I was near weeping and completely out of my mind the last time. I didn’t care that he’d ordered me not make a sound. I begged.

  “Please, please, please,” the words fell desperately from my lips, “don’t stop.”

  His low chuckle rumbled through me, but he didn’t let up this time. He took me to the edge and it felt like every muscle in my body seized up just before he tipped me over it. And then I was falling. No flying. No crashing. Fuck, I was doing all three at once as wave after wave rolled over me. In that brief moment, caught in the tidal wave of ecstasy, I was nothing and no one and it was the most freeing thing I’d ever felt.

  And that was only the beginning.

  I thought I knew what kind of lover Nikolai was after our first night together in Spokane.

  And then after that night he made me come on his hand right here in this house against the wall of his living room, I’d thought, okay, maybe his tastes are even a bit kinkier than I first suspected.

  I’d had no clue then.

  We’d barely scratched the surface of the depths of Nikolai’s desires.

  He bound my hands and it should have terrified me. The loss of control, the inability to make him stop if I wanted, should have made me panic. It wasn’t like telling me to keep my hands behind my back. There’d been a level of security and comfort then that went right out the window when he had me shackled to his bed posts and blindfolded.

  I came even harder that time.

  And still harder after he flipped me onto my stomach, pressed the uninjured side of my face into the mattress, lifted my hips up and secured my still bound hands behind my back with one hand, using his hold on me for leverage as he took me from behind. Hard and fast and rough.

  I had to bite the pillow to keep from crying out.

  And that time he came with me. He sank his teeth into my shoulder as his weight pressed down on me and he tried to hold back the groan of his release.

  I think I passed out for a few seconds, or maybe a full minute. I don’t know. I was caught some place between asleep and consciousness, and when I became fully aware of my body again, my arms were no longer bound, and Nikolai was massaging the tension out of my neck and shoulders. It felt like heaven. Everything inside of me was all warm and gooey like melted marshmallows. I think I hummed in pleasure at his ministrations. Every once in a while, another tiny tremor would wrack my body like pulse waves of delayed pleasure. He massaged his way down, working every muscle, showing extra attention to the ones in my bottom. It seemed he didn’t care that it was a little plusher than I thought it should be.

  I felt my eyelids grow heavier. I tried to blink away the sleepiness that was washing over me, but it was no use. I was well and truly sated, not to mention completely depleted. He was massaging my calf and murmuring softly against my skin as he kissed all over my back and neck. I wished I could’ve made out what he was saying, but my mind was already slipping out of consciousness, the hum of his deep voice was the lullaby that rocked me deeper into sleep.

  ***

  Everything was not going according to plan,

  But it was okay. I could fix it. I could still get what I wanted. I just had to be more careful. I’d almost been caught by his little whore tonight. She was a filthy one, that bitch. I’d seen them together. I also knew who she was now. Cassie Rogers. I’d stopped by her work, but I doubted if she paid any attention to me. She likely wouldn’t recognize me even if she saw me again.

  She was The Strangler’s little whore too. And Nikolai was letting her near Eli. Not for much longer. Even though my original plan had gone to hell, I had a new one.

  You had to be adaptable. You always had to have several moves ready for any possible outcome. That’s what it came down to: moves and countermoves.

  Thirteen

  Nikolai

  I’d always been an ass man. Every part of a woman’s body was beautiful, and the more soft curves, the better, but there was something about a perfectly rounded rump that made me want to fall to my knees and thank the good Lord and then apologize for the wicked thoughts that were stirred up in the depths of my depraved mind. For instance, at this very moment, the most delicious ass was pressed up against me in a very precarious, almost painful position. It had me thinking filthy, filthy things.

  But what a hell of a way to wake up.

  Fragments of the night before started to come back to me and then I was even more awake. Certain parts of me anyway.

  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, was the only thought that came to mind as I replayed last night over and over in my head. Cassie was . . . she was . . . she couldn’t have been more perfect. Every command I gave her, every way that I stripped her of control and bound her to my desires only fueled her own. She needed to give up control almost as much as I needed to take it.

  The way she responded last night . . .

  I could still hear her little whimpers and breathy moans. I could sti
ll see the way her lips parted and made that “oh” when she threw back her head and came with me over the top of her. I could still feel her quivering beneath me, our sweat slicked bodies pressed together in the aftermath. I was already envisioning more ways I wanted to have her as she slept peacefully with me wrapped around her.

  All I could think about was waking her and having her again. She bewitched me. I blamed this for all the things that should have occurred to me when I woke but didn’t. Like the fact that it was Friday morning. And Friday was a school day. And there was a child in this house. One that would be wondering why I wasn’t up, making him breakfast and getting him ready for school.

  Those should have been my first thoughts, but instead, I thought only of the beautiful girl in my bed and keeping her there rather than trying to hurry and sneak her out the door before Elijah realized we’d had a sleepover in Daddy’s bed. One without clothes. One that I’d never meant to happen.

  My mind might have gotten there before it was too late if Cassie hadn’t started to stir, humming in satisfaction when she felt me against her back. She burrowed in deeper, pressing that unbelievable ass up against me even harder. I groaned and buried my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling the combination of her fruity shampoo and the lingering smell of sex that still coated her skin. My only responsibility in that moment, was to take care of myself and take care of her.

  I nibbled her earlobe and she let out a sleepy groan. I slipped my hand beneath the covers and found the lush curve of her hip. I stroked my hand up and down her side, reveling in the softness of her, caressing the swell of her bottom before straying my hand to cup her breast. I propped myself up on one elbow and tugged the covers down to expose the rosy pink buds I wanted to wrap my lips around. I traced a finger down, between her breasts, dragging the blanket slightly lower, revealing the gentle taper of her waist and her feminine contours.