Fallen: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 2) Read online

  Ethan reached for the cookie and waved it in front of her face. “Open.”

  Lily’s lips parted on command and he smiled as she chewed on the broken piece. She looked fucking delectable like that, in fact, only one thing could improve on the situation, and as his gaze fell over the earth-stained blouse, Ethan knew exactly what that was.

  His hands swooped to the pale fabric, and quickly, he unfastened the buttons. Lily gasped, her gaze lowering just in time to see her blouse being opened to reveal her pretty little bra. Ethan’s fingers traced a line over her tits, his cock hardening as her nipples tightened under his touch.

  Fuck.

  “Sir.”

  Lily’s voice was a throaty plea now, and he wondered if she even knew what it was she was asking for.

  “Shhh,” he commanded, easing the cotton cup of her bra down over her breast.

  She inhaled as her flesh met the cool air of the kitchen, reminding Ethan that he still hadn’t found those bar heaters, though as he took in the look of his bound little Lily, he had the feeling locating them wouldn’t be such a headache anymore. Lily wouldn’t be coming after him. She wouldn’t be locking him in. Lily was staying right here. Handcuffed around the chair, while he got to manhandle her fabulous breasts.

  He eased the other breast free of its soft prison before he sat back to enjoy the look of her. She was restrained and exposed and fucking hot, and if he knew Lily at all, she’d be relishing every second of it.

  “How about some tea?” he asked, as though drinking tea while you were handcuffed around a chair was the most normal thing in the world.

  Lily panted. “Sir.” Her chest heaved at the word, her face flaming at the embarrassment she was obviously feeling.

  “Not for you, yet?” he surmised, reaching for his own cup and taking a sip.

  This day was ending so much better than he’d feared only a few hours ago.

  “This is much more like it, Lily,” he told her as he placed the cup down on the table. “I’ve given you far too much leeway in recent days, little one, but I promise you one thing. I won’t be making that mistake again.”

  The quick flash of despair in her eyes as his words resonated, told him that apparently, Lily was finally starting to understand.

  “Now, once I’ve finished my tea, I’m going back into that cellar, and I’ll find those heaters.” He smiled as he laid out his plans to her. “You might be the most errant little one I’ve ever loved, but I’ll still take care of you. I’ll feed you, I’ll clean you and I’ll keep you warm, Lily, and do you know all you have to do in return?”

  Lily shook her head, and he laughed at her sorrowful little face.

  “Yes, you do. I’ve already told you the answer.”

  She bit her lip. “Obey you, sir?”

  Her voice was tentative.

  “Correct,” he replied as he reached for her cup and moved it toward her mouth.

  Lily’s gaze darted to his, but she drew her body as close as the cuffs would allow to take a sip of the dark fluid. Ethan’s cock strained at his pants at the way Lily could even make drinking tea look hot, and his free hand fell idly to play with her nipple.

  “Obey me. And right now, that means sitting tight while I work, and then—if you’re a good girl—I’ll get you in the shower.”

  She pulled in a shaky breath as he reached for her other breast. A soft groan escaped her lips as he tugged at the nipple.

  “What do you say, little one?”

  His question lingered in the air for a moment as her eyes fell closed. “Thank you, sir.”

  Chapter Six

  Lily

  The hot stream of water rushed from the shower head, temporarily mesmerizing Lily. In all her years, she’d never actually even seen a shower before, yet alone had the chance to use one. Her parents’ house had always had a large bathtub, but nobody she knew had a shower. Not even Jody. The sensation of Ethan’s hands around her naked body broke her train of thought and she twisted her head as he nuzzled in behind her. His cock was already throbbing at her hip, demonstrating its willingness to create a new union between them, and Lily had to say she agreed, but Ethan had made it clear that was not what this was about. Although she might have been forgiven for forgetting that point as his lips grazed over her nape again.

  “I thought we were having a shower, sir?” she murmured in a breathless tone as one of his hands grasped for her left breast.

  “We are,” he growled from her rear. “I need to clean you up before your punishment.”

  Lily shuddered at his answer, but in all honesty, she wasn’t sure how much of that response was due to the magic Ethan was creating with his lips, rather than his words. She supposed she probably should be fearful. He was going to punish her again, but she couldn’t think about that now. She couldn’t let anything taint this little moment of perfection. Heaven only knew how many more there might be.

  Quick as a flash, Ethan shifted his weight, capturing Lily in his arms as he lifted her into the small tub that housed the torrent of water. She yelped at the speed of the unexpected movement, turning unsteadily as he climbed in behind her.

  “I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” he said as he swept her long mane of dark hair to one shoulder.

  “Hmmm?” Lily just about managed in response.

  She was captivated between her reactions to his proximity and the allure of the water.

  “You shouldn’t be on that ankle,” he mused as one of his large palms reached around her to check the temperature of the water.

  Glancing down, Lily shifted her weight onto the ankle gingerly. It wasn’t swelling anymore, which was good news, but it still seemed weak. “Please, sir,” she implored him, trying to turn her body to catch his eye. Ethan’s free hand snaked to her middle at that moment though, effectively ending that plan. “I agree we need to clean up, and I have you here with me?”

  “True,” he breathed, guiding her gently toward the jets of water. “Under you get then. Let’s get you clean, Lily.”

  She closed her eyes as she stepped under the stream of water, exhaling as the warm jets cascaded down over her naked body. Lily didn’t think she’d ever experienced anything like it before.

  “You like?” he asked from behind her, and Lily could tell from just his tone that Ethan was smiling.

  “It’s amazing, sir,” she replied. “If only I had all my things with me, I could spend hours in here.”

  “Maybe not,” Ethan purred as he closed the distance between them again, pressing his hardness against her wet body. “I’m not sure our reservoirs would last that long.”

  Lily laughed at his mocking tone. He was probably right.

  “I only have this on hand,” he told her, thrusting an antique-looking bottle of shampoo into her palm. “But you’re welcome to use it.”

  She blinked down at the bottle thoughtfully. The label was faded, telling Lily nothing about whatever product it contained inside, but she knew there were few other options.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled as she squeezed some of the liquid into her hands, before rubbing it into her hair.

  “Here, let me,” he commanded in an unexpectedly sensual tone, and a moment later Ethan’s large hands were in her hair, massaging the shampoo into her locks.

  “That feels good,” Lily murmured, and it did.

  Too good, all things considered.

  “I like looking after you, Lily,” he explained as he worked the product into her roots. “But don’t be fooled. You have still got one hell of a punishment coming your way.”

  Lily glanced away from the torrent, sucking in a fast breath. There was the contradiction—her man was part paramour and part monster—and she could never keep up with whom she was in bed with. Or, in this case, in the shower with.

  “I don’t know how this is going to work out,” she admitted as he eased the warm water down over the length of her wet hair. “But I am sorry I locked you in, sir. I wasn’t thinking. I just woke up after the night
mare and freaked out.”

  “You had a nightmare?” he probed as he replaced the shower head back in its cradle.

  “Yes, sir.”

  She’d forgotten that in the drama of the last few hours there’d been no time to tell him any of this.

  “About what?”

  She swallowed at that question as he swapped places with her under the stream. Lily eyed his incredible body as the water washed over his pectorals and down his obliques. Just the look of him like this made her want to jump on him, but she knew she couldn’t—she shouldn’t—Ethan was still a killer no matter how good he looked.

  “Lily?” He stepped out of the water, edging closer to her as those piercing blue eyes pinioned her again. “What was the dream about?”

  “You.”

  The word was out there before her brain even had time to decide if it was a good idea to tell him the truth, but then, what was the point in lying? The man could quite literally read her mind, and could find out the truth for himself if he wanted to.

  “What about me?” His tone was low and knowing, as though he already knew full well what Lily had dreamed about, but still he was going to torture her. He was going to make her say it aloud.

  She gazed up into those deep blue eyes, his fingers reaching behind to cut the water. For a moment there was silence between them, as the steam of their shower filled the air.

  “What about me, Lily?” he demanded.

  “I dreamt that you throttled me,” she replied, pushing the words out in one long rush of air.

  One of his dark brows arched at her explanation, and he inched his wet body closer to the place she stood. “You know I would never do that, right?” he asked, seemingly throwing the full weight of his stare in her direction. “I could never extinguish a light as beautiful as yours, Lily.”

  She knew she was panting at his reply, though she tried with everything she had not to be swayed by the scintillating intensity of his eyes, or the flattery of his words. The man was still a murderer, Lily reminded herself. He did those things with his bare hands. The same hands that were right at that moment trailing a line up her left thigh, and along her midriff to her beading nipples.

  “It scared me,” she told him in a ridiculously breathy tone. “To know that’s the man I’m with—the man I love.”

  “I didn’t think you loved me,” he countered at once, twirling those long digits around her painful buds before they rose to her flushed face. “You were querying the idea earlier.”

  Shit, she had been, hadn’t she? she realized as those digits brushed her flaming left cheek gently. The feeling of his touch was almost magnetic, and Lily found herself leaning in toward his hand.

  “Of course, I love you,” she mumbled as she tried to get a handle on her thoughts.

  How could she not fucking love him when he could do this, and reduce her to a wet, needy thing with just a few words and gentle caresses? “But that doesn’t mean I love what you’ve done, Ethan. I still can’t wrap my head around any of that.”

  He nodded. “I get that,” he responded after a moment. “And you’ll probably love me even less once I’ve punished you again.”

  Ethan’s words seemed to suck the air out of her. “Wh-what are you going to do, sir?” she stammered.

  He flashed those blue eyes at her. “I’ve decided to leave it as a surprise, beautiful,” he replied with a dark chuckle that made the muscles of her sex clench. “Just wait and see.”

  Ethan

  It was the early hours of the morning by the time they were dried and stretched out in the master bedroom. Ethan tried not to think of it as his parents’ old room, but as he glanced around the place, that was what struck him. Even though he’d had the place entirely redecorated after his father had gone to prison in an attempt to wipe the man from his memory—from all of their memories—the presence of him lingered still. That was one of the ghosts he wanted to lay to rest now he had Lily here in real life.

  She was exhausted again, and if truth be told, they both were, so he allowed her to rest, but only after he’d combed her hair with one of his mother’s elaborate looking hairbrushes. Lily didn’t query the deed, or who the brush belonged to, and neither did she reject the toweling robe he offered her—another of his mother’s cast offs which she would no longer be needing.

  “When you wake up, your punishment begins,” he whispered into her ear as he flicked off the light and climbed into bed beside her.

  Her body trembled slightly, but she didn’t respond. His little Lily was already well on her way to sleep, but it didn’t matter. This was one promise Ethan fully intended to keep.

  He woke before her, the unusual bed disturbing his rest, and then the discovery of Lily’s hot body stirring his cock. He cursed the robe he’d made her wear, desperate to feel her soft, yielding flesh against his body, but drawing in the scent of her hair, Ethan was reconciled. He had all day to feel her naked skin; all day to torment her, and all day to make Lily truly sorry.

  Fuck, he couldn’t wait.

  Ethan slid from the bed, ensuring he didn’t rouse her sleeping form as he gathered up the few items he would need from the car and around the house. Setting up the electric bar heater in the corner of the bedroom, he laid out the bottles of water, snacks and other items he knew they would need for the forthcoming hours before he crawled back onto the bed. This time, he stirred Lily intentionally.

  “Good morning, my naughty little one.”

  His tone was deliberately edgy as he addressed her, and he watched with some glee as Lily’s eyes flew open in response.

  “Ethan?” she murmured, and then, seeing the way his brow arched instinctively at her mistake, she corrected herself at once. “I mean, good morning, sir.”

  Ethan’s cock throbbed as the word left her lips, but he ignored its plea. There’d be considerably greater tests than that one word for it to endure before today was out, although Ethan wasn’t the one who’d be going without…

  “Are you ready to pay the piper, Lily?”

  Those green eyes were like saucers now as she propped herself up at her elbows. “I guess so…” she replied with understandable trepidation. “Do you promise you won’t use your belt again, sir?”

  He lifted his chin at that. Somehow, Ethan didn’t like being the one made to make promises, but he could comprehend why Lily pressed the point. “Not today,” he told her in a softer tone. “Unless you piss me off and defy me, of course.”

  That made her sit up, squirming against her no doubt tender arse as she blinked at him wildly.

  “How’s that ankle now?”

  Lily’s attention shifted to her left leg as she pulled the cover back. Ethan could see the swelling was reduced.

  “It feels a little easier to move it,” she answered, making small circles with her foot.

  Ethan nodded. “Good, but you’re to tell me if it hurts, or if you need help to walk on it. Okay?”

  She swallowed. “Yes, sir.”

  “So, it’s going to work this way,” Ethan started. “You’re going to use the bathroom now and then grab a drink and some fruit.”

  Lily nodded her head as she took in the instructions. It was the first time he’d properly set eyes on her this morning, and she looked absolutely fucking adorable with her flushed cheeks and disheveled hair.

  “Go then,” he prompted her after a moment. “And don’t do anything stupid this time. You can be sure I have locked the front door, and just in case, I’ll be keeping a close eye on you, little lady.”

  She drew in a deep breath as she acknowledged his words, testing her ankle tentatively before she climbed from the bed and made her way toward the direction she knew the bathroom to be. True to his word, Ethan followed her, loitering in the tiny hall as she used the facilities, and shadowing her back to the bedroom where he offered her a bottle of water and a banana.

  “Will you eat something, too, sir?” she asked in a small voice as she peeled back the yellow skin.

  Her ga
ze skimmed over some of the other items that were laid out on the small dresser. She recognized the black ropes from before, but she didn’t seem to much like the look of the clothespins, and her thoughts told him she had no idea what the small black ball with leather straps was about. Ethan’s lips curled while he closed the bedroom door. He squeezed his eyes closed as she sunk her hot little mouth down over the fruit.

  Christ, he had never wanted to be a piece of fruit so much in his life.

  “Not now,” he replied as he moved back toward her. “I’ll eat later when you’re…” he paused, intentionally allowing his gaze to pierce her flustering face.

  “Well, when you’re busy,” he added with a fresh smile.

  Lily swallowed the banana in her mouth, running her tongue along her lower lip as his words resounded. “It sounds like I’m in trouble.”

  “Oh, you are,” he concurred as he fingered the long strands of black rope on the dresser waiting to be used. “Let there be no doubt about it, Lily. You left me here yesterday, and if I hadn’t had the fortitude to smash my way out, I could very well still be stuck in that cellar, while you froze to death on the roadside.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She sounded stunned by his explanation, and close to tears. Already.

  “It wasn’t your finest hour, little one,” he confirmed, lowering himself to his haunches as he addressed her again.

  Ethan wasn’t sure why, but he rather liked the sound of the new name he seemed to have invented for Lily. Somehow, it worked. She was his little one now, and he knew she always would be—his to love and his to abuse.

  “But we’re going to set the record straight today, and by the time I’m finished with you, you’ll be truly sorry, and that will be the end of the matter.”

  Lily’s lips pressed into a hard line at his verdict, but she didn’t counter him. Instead, she took another bite of the fruit, chewing slowly on the banana as she watched him rise and ready himself for the fun to begin.

  Chapter Seven