1001 Dark Nights Short Story Anthology 2020

by Fiona Archer

  Fearful eyes meet mine. “He said they would be back.”

  When her hand begins to tremble, I snag the throw blanket draped over the couch. When I move to cover her, she lifts her hands to stop me.

  “Can I take a shower?”

  I’m still not sure I believe that nothing else happened, and not because she’s a liar. I know some trauma forms guilt in the victim.

  “You can tell me anything and I’ll believe you, you know that. I won’t judge you either. I need to know they didn’t hurt you in any way.”

  Slowly, she shakes her head. “Just the slap after they warned me they’d be back when the alarm sounded. I swear.”

  I nod.

  “Please? Can I shower? I just need to feel clean,” she pleads.

  “Just a few more questions.”

  Though the EMTs have probably already done it, I need to assess whether or not she has a concussion, and thankfully she passes. I point her in the direction of my tiny bathroom but follow her there. I turn on the shower and get her a towel. When the water is warm, I turn to leave, sure she can handle the rest.

  One last look back and I freeze as her gaze locks onto mine. Then she lets go of the sheet. I should be a better man and not look, but I give myself the excuse that she’d been fully exposed to me in her apartment as my eyes follow the fabric now pooled on the floor.

  The first time I’d seen her bare to me, I’d been clinically detached. My worry had been focused on her safety. Now I stand here, a man with a beautiful naked woman in reach with a body that could make a priest break his vows.

  “Tessa.” I say her name in warning. “What are you doing?”

  I have unbreakable rules, or so I thought. I’ve never slept with an employee no matter how tempting it was. Nor have I slept with anyone I’ve known since they were in diapers.

  Especially Tessa. My squad leader’s daughter. My best friend’s little sister. Though I’ve left the military, I still have rules.

  When she came back from college, that had been the first time I’d really noticed what a beautiful woman she’d become. I’ve actively worked not to let my head go there.

  Her father had asked me a favor to hire her, putting her in my sights. He didn’t have to tell me not to touch her. Though her brother had done that.

  I’ve spent many nights making sure the patrons of my sports bar kept their hands away from my girls, including Tess.

  And though I’d changed the waitstaff uniform from short shorts to jeans when I bought the place, it didn’t stop drunk assholes from copping a feel.

  Tess hasn’t made it easy for me either. She’s flirted like she could break me. A lot of my girls have. I’m used to the attention. I’ve even caught wind of a bet going around as to who could get me in bed.

  In general, women come easy to me. I can have my pick every night. But Tessa has always been different. I’ve tried to keep her in a box labeled little sister, but it doesn’t work. We aren’t blood. We didn’t grow up together. She’s several years younger than me, and I’ve done my best to stay away.

  Until now when she says, “Kiss me.”

  If I cross this line, I know there’s no turning back. She’s as sweet as homemade apple pie and just as hard to resist. Her eyes beg with a need that is growing fast inside me. I turn and step forward before I realize what I’m doing.

  She hooks her arms around my neck as I lean down for a taste. Though it’s not there, I taste the remnants of the strawberry gloss she loves to tempt me with. It’s flavored like ripe fruit and I plunder her mouth as if I’m a pirate searching for treasure.

  When she steps back into the shower, getting my hand wet, that’s what I need to pull back, remembering the line I swore I’d never cross.

  “We can’t,” I say.

  “We can,” she counters, taking a step forward, erasing the little distance I’ve put between us.

  My cock is bursting at the seams to free itself from my jeans.

  “What do you want from me?” I ask, my voice raspy as my need grows dark.

  The small part of me I could halfway consider good is already on the verge of surrendering to my baser side. If she dares to ask me to fuck her, I will give in. Damn the consequences. Her flirtations over the last few months have already cracked my resolve.

  “Kiss me,” she demands again.

  I give in and take her mouth as her nails scrape over my scalp. Soon, she guides my head down her neck to her breasts. I suck in a nipple, nearly groaning in the process.

  She isn’t done as she urges me downward. She doesn’t have to point to her pretty pink pussy for me to know what she wants.

  Damn me to hell, I think. I’m like a well-trained dog as I fall to my knees to worship that part of her. I’ve never been pussy-whipped. That doesn’t mean a thing when I move in and take my first taste. I’m pretty sure I’ve died and gone to heaven. No pussy has had me wanting to devour every honeyed drop until now.

  There’s more I need, and I take one finger and probe her entrance. What I don’t expect to find is a don’t pass go barrier.

  Fuck.

  Though she has my head locked in her hands, plastering my mouth to cover her mound as she moans, it doesn’t stop me from pulling free.

  Shocked shitless, I announce, “You’re a virgin” as I get to my feet.

  My motto since high school has been to never do virgins. In my experience, they become wanting and think of words like love and all mine. I’m not that guy. Yet with her, I still crave to be inside her like a man needing to stake a claim.

  She hasn’t completely lost the look of anguish, yet she straightens her spine.

  “If you don’t do it, Dad intends to sell my virginity to the highest bidder.”

  I grind my teeth. “What?”

  I can’t believe Sarge would do that.

  “I heard him on the phone. He said, ‘She’s a virgin.’ I didn’t get it until now. I want to choose who’ll be my first. And I choose you.”

  My mind churns with thoughts from the fact that she is still a virgin to her dad selling her virginity.

  First, she’s twenty. She’d been in college and dropped out after two years, which was why she needed a job. I find it hard to believe she’s still untouched.

  Then there’s the man I look up to in the absence of my own father. He’s been a role model to me. I’d followed him into the military, along with her brother. I can’t accept that man would do something as callous as sell his daughter’s virginity.

  I ignore that she’s wet and naked and get back to basics. “How much does he owe?” I ask.

  “One hundred thousand.”

  She answers far too quickly.

  “How do you know?”

  “They said. The guys that showed up.”

  I can’t reconcile this information and hold back an inappropriate laugh. She may be gorgeous, but no pussy is worth paying for, at least in my experience. It comes for free all too often. There has to be more to this.

  It can’t be just her virginity they are buying. My first thought is human trafficking. I remember one fire in an abandoned building. In a search for hot spots, I’d found a room with a girl. One no older than ten or eleven, filthy and dirty and on the verge of death. Her name was Lily. I’ll never forget her.

  “Never mind,” she says. “I’ll sell my virginity to someone I choose in order to pay my father’s debt.”

  It took a lot of courage for her to ask such a thing. I recognize that. But I make a mistake and speak before thinking it through.

  “Sorry, sweetheart, even your perfect cunt isn’t worth a one-time bang for one hundred large.”

  Her face falls, and she starts to cry. I’m not immune to women’s tears.

  “What am I going to do if you won’t have me? I don’t want to be raped,” she sobs.

  The idea of some other man touching her colors my vision in a red haze. I have to help her, but how?

  A plan begins to form in my head. Knowing I want her, but not just fo
r one night, I measure my words.

  Part of the reason Tess has remained off-limits is because I like my women submissive. She is headstrong most of the time, and I would break her. It’s also the reason I don’t do virgins. They need gentle handling, and I’m not that man.

  Yet I crave the woman before me like she’s my last meal. She needs out of this jam as much as I need her.

  “If I take care of your father’s debt, it’s not for one night with you. If I do, you’ll agree to be mine for however long at my pleasure.”

  Haunted eyes hold mine. She has to wonder if she’d be trading one monster for another. Maybe she has.

  Chapter Two

  Logan Matthews is a prick, just like his distant relatives, the notable King family. He might be unbelievably gorgeous to the point of obscene, and every woman who lays eyes on him wants him, but that doesn’t make me one of them.

  Okay, truthfully, I’ve wanted him for as long as I can remember, but now he expects me to submit to him.

  At the end of that thought, another fills my mind. The men back at my apartment had laughed as I’d taken off my clothes.

  In that moment, I’d hated my father for the first time in my life. He may have given up a lot to raise me when my mom walked out on him, but that doesn’t mean that I have to give up my freedom for him.

  “It’s not the time to act shy. You brought this deal up. I only modified it.”

  Stubbornly, I lift my chin. “I didn’t actually ask you to pay for me.” I put emphasis on you.

  “You’ve got a better offer?”

  I don’t and begrudgingly ask, “For how long?”

  His lips curve in a perfect smile. “However long I want.”

  If the way he kissed my pussy is any indication, I have no doubt I’ll be writhing underneath him. Rumors about his sexual activities run wild, and I’ve wanted him even before I was old enough to have him.

  Holding his gaze, I ask, “What will I be doing?”

  The way he’s speaking isn’t the man I’ve shared secrets with. The man that has been in my life for as long as I can remember. First, as a family friend, and then one of my best friends. This man is the one women talk about, calling him an asshole in one breath and the best fuck of their life in the other.

  “Anything I ask,” he says, so damn sure of himself.

  I narrow my eyes. “Specifically?”

  Something like a twinkle sparkles in his eye.

  “Cook, clean, and generally take care of my household and me.”

  Shocked, my jaw goes slack. “You want me to be a maid?”

  His dark chuckle creates an unmanageable frenzy at my core.

  “A maid won’t suck me off every morning and every night.” When my mouth hangs open, he adds, “That’s exactly how I want to see you when you’re on your knees.”

  I snap my mouth shut, exasperated at his audacity.

  “Don’t act like you haven’t tried your best to get my attention by prancing around in short shirts barely covering your tits and bending over to grab things so I can get a view of your sweet ass.”

  Okay, so I’ve totally done that. The man is walking sex. I got myself off the first time thinking about him, not that I’d ever admit that. I’ve compared him to every guy, and they were all lacking. That’s the main reason I’m still a virgin. So why am I hesitating?

  I sadly shake my head, more to myself. Out loud I say, “I don’t know.”

  When he moves closer, I hope he’ll kiss me again. Instead, he reaches beyond me to turn off the shower. Then I’m suddenly wrapped in a fluffy towel. Everywhere his skin makes contact with mine sends tiny shockwaves down my spine. It’s a good thing he’s a firefighter. My core has hit a critical point, total meltdown level.

  He nudges me forward, and next to him I feel tiny.

  “Tonight’s free. Then you can make up your mind,” he says, ending the silence.

  His words shake some sense into me. “Like I’m going to pay you for it?”

  He licks his lips, and I’m pretty sure I have a mini orgasm.

  “No. But you should know what you are getting into. That way you can make an informed decision with no hesitation.” His words are similar to the ones I’ve said to myself. “Besides, you said you don’t want to be a virgin anymore, and I need you to understand what I expect. I’d say that’s a win-win.”

  For a second, I almost buy in to his logic.

  “Say I give you my virginity and decide it isn’t for me. I’ll lose my only bargaining chip.”

  His gaze pins me in place.

  “True. Though did you really want to sell yourself to a stranger?”

  “No,” I blurt.

  “Personally, I think you’ll appreciate in value once you know what you’re doing.”

  “Who says I don’t? I may not have had sex, but I know how to do other things.”

  A muscle in his jaw ticks as I think about blowjobs. They came in handy while trying to keep boyfriends satisfied enough not to whine when they didn’t get anything else.

  “You’re free to go make a deal with someone else.” He holds out his hand in the direction of the door. “You’ll never have to worry that I’ll force you to do anything you don’t want to.”

  I can’t stop myself from eyeing the impressive bulge in his pants. There are rumors he’s huge, and now I can confirm that.

  Yet I can’t make up my mind. Probably because I am half in love with him. What will happen to me when he drops me like a bad habit? It’s bound to happen. His offer suggests as much.

  Then again, what can I do? If I go home and those men come back, will they rape me? Pimp me out like a common whore? I have no means to get the kind of money Dad needs. Vegas? I could be an escort. That had been an option when I came up short for paying for school and had to withdraw.

  Or I can accept Logan’s bargain. It’s not like it would be a hardship to screw him. Again, being honest, I’ve wanted that forever. My hesitation only comes from the open-endedness of it all.

  “Fine.” That one word sharply leaves my tongue.

  “Fine?” he repeats as his brow arches in question.

  He slides his hands into his jeans’ pockets, and I follow with my eyes. He’s still very hard and I feel powerful that I’m the reason for it.

  “I’ll give you tonight and see how things go before agreeing.” I glance back up at him. “What first?”

  His next statement floors me.

  “You’re fired.”

  I didn’t think it was possible that my jaw could open wider. “Wait—Why?”

  “I don’t fuck where I work.”

  “But,” I sputter. “What if it doesn’t work out between us?”

  “More the reason you can’t work for me. You’re a smart girl. You’ll land on your feet somewhere.”

  “You’re a bastard.”

  “It’s your choice, Tessa. What do you choose?”

  He sounds way too casual for my liking. It’s as if he cares little either way. Then again, he can have his pick of women. Why would he even want me?

  I straighten and agree. “Fine. Put up or shut up,” I say with more bluster than I feel.

  He smirks as he steps forward. His hands capture mine and pries them loose. I hadn’t realized that I’ve been clutching them across my chest to hold the towel closed until then.

  “Are you sure?” His whisper tickles my ear.

  I nod, unable to form a coherent sentence while he’s touching me. When he lets go, towel gone, I’m bare before him. He doesn’t look down. Not at first.

  “Last chance,” he says.

  I reach out and cup his hard cock through his jeans. He hisses as I say, “I’m sure.”

  He steps back and out of my grip. Just when I think he’s about to give me the once-over, he moves and turns me so my back hits the wall.

  He’s so close I can smell the spicy scent of his aftershave, and I want to taste him.

  His fingers begin stroking between my legs, and I’m alre
ady losing my ever-loving mind when he says, “I’ve wanted you since the first time you walked into my bar.”

  His voice is gruff like it traveled over hot coals.

  I’m so turned on, I can’t stop my panting when I ask, “Not before?”

  He pulls back with a sly smile plastered on his face and says, “You were too young and way off-limits.”

  Anything I could say is swallowed by his kiss. He captures my hands and lifts them over my head, still pressing into me. The pressure on my clit from his thumb is sending me into orbit. For a second, I’m sure I’m dreaming.

  Logan Matthews, certified bad boy, is going to fuck me. A thrill zings through my body, or maybe that’s the orgasm that he’s building.

  “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Any shyness I’ve held has fled the building. I don’t hesitate to do as he asks.

  Then there is a zip of pain, and I might have gasped, but he’s kissing me again. I’m drowning in lust as the pain disappears, and I’m not sure what it’s from as I’m lost again. I still feel his fingers working me to the edge again.

  “I’m close,” I say.

  “I know, baby.”

  Secretly I’m buzzing over him calling me baby until I tumble over into bliss.

  I’m so far gone I can’t be sure if I said I love you in my head or out loud.

  Chapter Three

  She’s broken all the rules, and I haven’t laid them out yet. Top of the list is no falling in love. Yet she said those very words, and I’m not happy about it.

  In fact, I’ve been a dick to her, hoping she’d tell me to fuck off. I never expected her to accept my deal.

  Little did she know, I would have paid her father’s debt without her bargain. I made a promise to him to look after her if anything happened to him.

  Had he known?

  That man would never sell his daughter. He would probably cut my dick off if he knew I expertly broke through his baby girl’s hymen with her barely taking notice.

  Something I had to do because I’ve had enough experience to know my dick is too big to break through that without major pain. As it stands, I would hurt her during sex. It isn’t ego but a fact that my cock is above average in size and length.