Dark Obsession

by Sydney Somers

  “The journals Burke gave you?”

  He frowned. “Burke? I haven’t seen him in years. The journals are with my belongings that you put in storage.”

  “No, Burke broke in a few weeks ago, claiming to look for money. Two nights ago he told me he gave them to you.”

  “I haven’t seen him. I told you I’m not involved in any of this.”

  “Assuming I believe you.”

  “Why would I come here?”

  She was still trying to figure that out, and her little Scion-powered trip down memory lane wasn’t helping matters.

  “Rae, listen to me.”

  “If you’re innocent then come in with us. Talk to me. Talk to Adrian.” She stopped there, realizing that she was starting to sound like she believed him.

  “I can’t do that.” His gaze touched briefly on the Scion.

  “Because of her?” Because that was just fucked up.

  The blonde laughed. “Do you find her as amusing as I do?” The Scion directed the question to Parker.

  “It was you. You’re the one who keeps calling me.”

  Anger and frustration welled inside Parker before he got a hold of himself.

  He watched Hurst’s gaze snap to the Scion. “Amara?”

  She shrugged, slipping one manicured hand into her pocket. “You daughter trusts your precious network with no reservations. I knew he had good reason to doubt them in the past.”

  “Tell me what you know about my mother’s death.”

  “Perhaps you should ask your girlfriend.” The Scion’s smile was almost catty.

  “Leave Rae out of it,” Hurst snapped.

  Interest flashed in the Scion’s eyes. “Or?”

  Whatever issues the two of them had—one that clearly started and ended with banging a Scion for one thing—they could damn well work it out later. “Damn it, I need to know.”

  The blonde batted her big red-rimmed eyes at him. “You already know the truth. You’ve always known the truth.”

  Rae’s fingers curled around her weapon. “She’s playing you, Parker.”

  “Am I? Or maybe I’m the only one in the room that doesn’t really care enough to lie.”

  “Rae isn’t lying.” Something in Hurst’s tone sounded…off somehow. “We need to leave.”

  “No.” Rae planted herself between the Scion and the door.

  “Tell your daughter to get out of my way.”

  Hurst looked resigned. “I’m not turning myself in, Rae. I can’t.”

  Parker held up his hand. “Hold on a damn minute.”

  Whatever the Scion thought she knew, or wanted him to think she knew, it needed to end here, now.

  Rae glared at Amara. “No one is leaving until we get some answers.”

  “Or what? You’ll hurt me, Destroyer?”

  Hurst stepped in between them. “No.”

  Parker flinched at the mental invasion. Images hurtled through his brain, and no matter how hard he tried to shut them off, they kept coming. He dropped to his knees.

  Something moved to his right. Rae. “Stay out of his head.”

  The moment Rae engaged Amara, his thoughts began to clear. Master demon or not, the blonde wasn’t tactically strong. Rae nailed her with a vicious punch that snapped the Scion’s head to the right.

  And then everything went black.

  Chapter Sixteen

  His body was on fire.The heat pounding through his body was the first thing Parker registered as he came to and rolled to his side. Opening his eyes took more effort and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to if it meant sacrificing the images burned into his mind.

  Sucking in a breath at the flames licking under his skin, it took a minute to figure out where he was. The second he processed his surroundings and realized he was in Rae’s apartment, the floodgate on his senses shot open and the scent of her filled his head.

  His pulse kicked up and he rolled to his stomach, pressing his cheek to the cold floor. It helped, for about ten seconds and then it felt like his out-of-control temperature was heating the floor beneath him.

  “Tell me my head is still attached.”

  The sound of Rae’s voice made him groan, and he instinctively inched toward her even as his body seemed on the verge of going up in flames.

  “Parker?” Rae sat up and her leg brushed his hip.

  The brief touch crackled across his skin like an electric current. It didn’t stop him from moving so he could feel it again.

  “Hey. You okay?”

  Hell, no. He wouldn’t be okay unless she moved closer. Voicing that didn’t go much beyond a harsh whisper that was more growl than anything that made sense, but he did manage a nod.

  Shit, it was hot in here. He tugged awkwardly at his shirt, wanting it off.

  “It’s your head, isn’t it? I’ve never had a demon knock me out that way before.”

  That made two of them. How long had they been out? More importantly though, did he care? She moved again, closer this time, and his stomach drew tight in anticipation. When she bent over him, he swore he could still smell the scent of sex on her body from hours ago.

  Rae gently palmed his cheek, and he barely recognized the sound that hissed past his lips.

  “Look at me.”

  “Can’t,” he gritted out.

  “Whatever the Scion put in your head about your mother, it’s not real.”

  There were still at least a dozen or so images flashing through his brain that said otherwise. The worse of it was, that no matter how much he knew he needed to get up, he couldn’t let go of the images. Couldn’t stop thinking about them, remembering them.

  He rolled to his side, and his face brushed her jacket. He closed his eyes, the fabric cool on his skin even as her proximity made him burn hotter.

  “You’re going to be okay.”

  At least one of them thought so.

  Her phone rang, and she moved to her knees to dig it out of her pocket.

  Irrationally annoyed that she had moved away from him, he took the phone away from her, answering it himself. “Yeah?”

  Rae stared at him, either too concerned or surprised to react right away.

  “So you two are alive.” Drew sounded like he was talking in a tunnel. Or maybe that was just Parker. “What happened to you guys? You’ve been AWOL for a couple of hours. I’m outside Rae’s building and her crazy landlady is refusing to buzz me in. Figured I try calling again before I scaled the balcony.”

  “Don’t,” he snapped, the sharpness his voice surprising even him.

  “Are you guys okay?”

  “Yeah.” He would be when he got Drew off the phone. “Hurst was here.”

  Rae grabbed the phone away from him. “We’re both fine.” The look on her face said she wasn’t so sure about Parker. He wasn’t so sure either. The longer he lay there, the less he seemed to be thinking clearly.

  “You don’t need to wait for us. We’ll be right behind you,” she said into the phone. “But I need you to call Gage. I need him to find Burke.”

  She hung up and crouched next to Parker. “Talk to me.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head, his throat too tight and thick, and the heat… Fuck, she needed to open a window.

  Her fingers slid up into his hair, and he trembled from the touch. “Does it hurt?”

  “All over.” Even the feel of her breath against his cheek hit him at the cellular level.

  She dragged her hands down to his nape, and the wave of need that slammed into him made his jaw clench. He needed to get closer to her as much as he needed to breathe.

  Suddenly afraid that he’d do a whole lot more than just get closer, he forced himself not to move so much as an inch.

  “I need you to knock me out, Rae,” He spoke through his teeth, finally recognizing the razor-sharp edge beneath the heat.

  “What?”

  “I need you to hit me. Something. It’s not like you haven’t wanted to for weeks.”

  “That’s not funny.
You’re not making sense.”

  His eyes snapped open, no doubt revealing the arousal streaming through him in choking waves. “Now does it make sense?”

  Damn it she was too close. Within reach. He squeezed his eyes shut. “She didn’t put anything to do with my mother in my head. Pain is the only thing that might make it stop.”

  “Let’s just slow down a minute.”

  “Slow down?” He might have laughed if his body didn’t feel ready to spontaneously combust. “The memories she dragged out of my head are set on fast forward, and in them you’re naked and aroused. Sometimes I’m inside you. Sometimes I’m using my fingers to make you come. Sometimes I’m going down on you, licking and sucking until you’re grinding against my mouth.”

  She leaned back, just enough of a retreat to tear at his control. It took everything in him to roll away from her and sit up.

  “I need you to hit me. Use your fist, use the fucking frying pan. Just—”

  “No.”

  He clutched at his shirt, the fabric almost smothering him. “It’s burning me up inside, Rae.”

  “I can’t.”

  He pushed to his feet. Felt the world sway to the left before he caught his balance and turned toward the door. He didn’t know where to go, but he couldn’t stay, not when all he could think about was taking her. On the floor, the table, against the wall. He didn’t care.

  And that terrified him. He wasn’t that man anymore, wasn’t a slave to his lust, wouldn’t use her that way again. Christ, he needed to get out of there.

  Rae sidestepped to block his path. “You’re not leaving.”

  “Then hit me.” It was the only thing that would put him out of his misery at this point.

  “I can’t do that either.” She slipped her jacket off.

  “I—” He gaped at her. “What are you doing?”

  He had to ask, because he couldn’t be sure the fever overtaking him wasn’t screwing with his mind. It never had before, but he hadn’t tried to deny it, not when Rae was around. He’d indulged every carnal urge at the earliest opportunity, and the longer he stood there denying it now, the closer he came to giving in.

  “Unbuttoning my shirt. I thought it would be obvious, but I can supplement it with a diagram and written explanation if you think it will help.”

  Sheer disbelief was the only thing keeping his feet locked in place. “Why?”

  Another button gave way. Then another. Her cleavage was visible, the creamy swells rising above a black lace bra… Black lace bra.

  His mouth went dry and he didn’t even try to be subtle when he reached down and adjusted himself, aching to release his throbbing cock from his pants. “You need to stop.” Because soon he wouldn’t be able to.

  “No.”

  “Don’t,” he snapped, when all he wanted to say was do, do, do. “It can’t be like before. What I did…” He clung to those memories, willing the pain of how he’d taken from her over and over again to cool him down, to undo whatever switch the Scion had flipped in his head.

  “This isn’t like before.”

  Standing there, pulling her shirt apart, looking so damn soft and sweet and honest, she almost sounded liked she believed that. She took a step toward him, and despite the fever raging within him, he nearly took a step back.

  “You don’t want to do this, Rae. Not when I might lose control.” Hell, it was already gone. Long gone. The fever was hammering away at him.

  “You never worried about it before. You wanted me, you seduced me, you had me. But you never fought it for me. That’s what’s different this time.”

  It didn’t feel like he was fighting it. Oh, he was keeping his distance at the moment, but in his mind she was already on her knees taking him deep in her mouth. His fingers itched like they were already sliding through her hair, pulling her closer, letting him get deeper between her lips.

  Fighting it? She didn’t have a clue. “This is worse than before.” She needed to know that, needed to know the fever had all but eroded the last of his restraint.

  “Or it just feels that way because you know you can’t really lose control.”

  For the first time since their break-up, Rae believed that. Not even in the beginning when he’d begun to feed his growing need for sex, had he tried to hold back. His eyes might glitter with silver, but he hadn’t made a move toward her.

  And she knew he wanted her. Could feel it in the predatory way his gaze followed every move she made, every breath she drew. But beyond that, she saw how much it was hurting him to stand just out of reach, afraid to trust himself.

  Whatever the Scion did could be undone. Healed.

  She’d thought that she could heal him before, had even convinced herself that sex would be enough of a connection, a reason to hold on. But this wasn’t about fixing what was broken.

  He was right. He didn’t need her to save him, to pull him back from the edge. He could handle that on his own, even if he wasn’t convinced of that at the moment.

  “You don’t want to take that risk.”

  “Yeah, I think I do.” In fact she was down right certain of it, and if it took appealing to the hunger in him to prove it, she could handle that.

  What he needed right now was her trust. Trust that she had faith he wouldn’t surrender completely to the fever, trust that they could be together without fear of repeating the past.

  Her fingers moved to her shoulders, sliding beneath her bra straps. She tugged them halfway down her arm and stopped.

  He shut his eyes. “We need to go…your father—”

  “Has been gone for a couple of hours.” Later they could talk about whether or not Parker had his doubts about her father’s involvement. But they wouldn’t be having any kind of reasonable conversation until he took the edge off.

  “Besides, you’re not in any shape to go out, unless you’re planning on finding someone—”

  That was all she got out before her back hit the fridge. Magnets flew across the floor, but he only caged her in place, his arms planted on either side of her head. Fiercely intense, his eyes fastened onto hers.

  Although he wasn’t touching her, every cell in her body hummed as if he were. She hadn’t intentionally provoked him since the stairwell—she’d been too afraid of where it would lead—and the power in it washed through her like a riptide.

  “In case I haven’t been perfectly clear,” he murmured against her ear, “you are the only one I want.”

  “Prove it.”

  He dropped his head until his forehead touched hers. “You don’t know what you’re asking. You don’t know how hard—”

  She reached between them, closed her hand over his arousal. “You’re right about that.”

  He nipped her shoulder, the scrape of his teeth just shy of painful. “I don’t think you get it. It’s killing me not to touch you right now.”

  She barely recognized his voice. Because of the fever or because he was trying so hard to fight it?

  She trapped his face in her hands. “It’s killing me that you won’t touch me.” She brushed her mouth across his, tracing the seam of his lips with her tongue.

  Parker groaned, but didn’t kiss her back.

  “I trust you. I trust that whatever you’re feeling, the need—” she opened her mouth over his, “—the lust, you won’t let it take you away from me again.” She rocked up on the balls of her feet, getting so close only their breaths—hers slow, sure and his fast, shaky—separated them. “I trust you with my body, my life, my heart. That’s how much I love y—”

  He crushed his mouth down on hers, his tongue plunging between her lips in a kiss that devastated her right down to her toes. He wrapped one arm around her back, his hand sliding up into her hair and keeping her head from banging against the fridge when he pressed her back against it.

  She squeezed her thighs together, wanting to feel him inside her, instead of bumping against her abdomen. From the impatient rock of his hips, she knew he wanted that to.

 
Once he had dominated her mouth, each shivery stroke of his lips and tongue leaving her a mess of hot tangled nerves and weak knees, he moved down to her throat. His teeth scraped and his mouth sucked and by the time he reached her breasts, she hovered right on the edge.

  She thought at first he planned to torture her, to drag out the pleasure. He didn’t. He unclasped her bra, releasing her breasts and sealing his mouth over one aching tip.

  Her breath panted out, the sound almost a whimper when he pulled back, tugging at her hard.

  His hands went to her pants, and he dragged them down over her hips.

  “I need…I need to make you come, Rae. Need to get you off with my mouth, taste your release. Make you scream for me.”

  Every part of her was already screaming for him, and she could only sink her fingers into his shoulders as he dropped to his knees in front of her, stripping her from the waist down.

  The first pass of his tongue along her folds made every muscle lock up, then he did it again, and she widened her stance, trembling all over.

  He groaned in approval, his fingers digging into the backs of her thighs. All too soon the first threads of release coiled inside her, and she moved her hips to meet each flick of his tongue. He closed his lips over her clit, sucking softly and then pushed two fingers inside her.

  She dug her nails into his skin and cried out, riding the edge of release as he pumped in and out, his tongue swirling around and around. Her orgasm pulsed on and on, rippling up through her middle.

  And then she was on the floor, unsure if he’d pulled her down or if her legs had given out. The second he pinned her beneath him, she didn’t care. Didn’t care that the floor was hard and cold or that his jeans felt rough again her sex when he settled between her thighs. Didn’t care about anything but getting him inside her.

  Parker was losing his mind. Losing it in hot, bone-searing waves that slammed into him one after the other. He wasn’t sure how Rae ended up beneath him, and when she flexed her hips, rubbing against his cock, he couldn’t have made himself care on the best day of the week.

  He rocked against her, still lost to the rush of her release that pounded through his bloodstream.

  They both moaned, and he bent to catch her mouth in a fierce kiss. Her tongue met his and somewhere in the middle of it, she shoved his jacket down his arms and broke from his mouth long enough to drag his shirt over his head.