Unraveling Darkness Read online

  “Behave yourself, Clay,” Isaac warned.

  “Aww.” He gave a mock pout. “Now, where is the fun in that?”

  I trapped a smile between my lips, though the tugging at my cheeks gave my true feelings away. I didn’t think Clay had any intention of behaving himself.

  “Okay, everyone,” Isaac said. “It’s about four hours’ drive to D.C., so we need to leave here by one a.m. to get there before it’s fully daylight, and take up position where we can’t be seen. Darcy, I’m hoping you can give us some ideas about the best spots to watch the house from.”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Try to get a few hours’ sleep, everyone. We’re going to need to be as alert as possible for tomorrow.”

  It was still early—barely after eight p.m.—but the day had been crazy, and I was beat.

  The guys let me use the bathroom first. I found some still-wrapped toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet, so I was at least able to brush my teeth. I guessed I’d just sleep in Alex’s t-shirt again, though I was going to need a change of clothes at some point. I reminded myself we’d be back at my house at the break of dawn tomorrow. If all went well, I’d be able to grab a change of my own clothes. The idea of putting on my own bra and underwear again was a ridiculous thing to look forward to, but I was.

  I finished up and slipped out of the bathroom to let Kingsley in after me.

  He dipped his head at me as he passed. “Good night, Darcy.”

  “Night, Kingsley.”

  His dark gaze slipped down my body to my naked legs and back up again.

  His massive body blocked the doorway to the bathroom for a moment, and then the door shut behind him. Voices of some of the others, still hanging out in the kitchen, filtered through to me, but I left them to it and went straight to the room with the double bed.

  Chapter Five

  I slipped between the sheets of the double bed and tried not to think about who might have lain here before me. It was barely dark outside, but I’d drawn the curtains before climbing in, wanting to shut out any remaining light so I could sleep. I also wanted to block out the sight of the forest beyond, my imagination turning the twisted branches of the trees into monstrous arms reaching out to snatch me from my bed.

  I didn’t have to wait long before the bedroom door opened and Clay walked in. Twisting, I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was utterly unselfconscious as he flipped open the buckle of his jeans, popped the button and let the jeans fall from his narrow hips. Then he tugged off his t-shirt and threw it to the floor to join the jeans. I guessed Clay wasn’t exactly a neat-freak, but my mind wasn’t on his tidiness. Instead, my gaze raked across the perfection of his body—the spatter of blond hair across the curve of his pectorals vanished as it reached the squared bricks of his abdominals.

  He looked toward me on the bed, and I quickly turned back around, hoping he hadn’t noticed me watching him.

  The bed dipped with his weight as he climbed in the other side. The bed covers lifted, wafting across my body, allowing cool air to touch my skin. My flesh puckered in goose bumps, and I shivered.

  “You’re cold.” Clay slid in closer, and the blankets settled down around us.

  “A little,” I admitted.

  Clay’s arm hooked around my waist, and he pressed his face against my shoulder, spooning me. “Tell me why you smell like Alex,” he said, his tone teasing.

  I wriggled away, creating some space between us. “Because I’m wearing his t-shirt.”

  “Damn, girl. You need to take that off and put mine on instead.”

  I laughed. “No, I don’t. I’m comfortable as I am.”

  Clay exhaled a sigh. “I guess I can live with you smelling like Alex. If I have to share to keep you around, then that’s what I’ll do.”

  I twisted to face him. “Share? Is that what’s going on here?”

  His eyes locked with mine, tumultuous thunderclouds passing across them. He pushed a hand through his hair. “What do you think is going on here, Darcy? You let Isaac touch you that way in front of us all, you kissed me before, and we all saw you kissing Lorcan.”

  “That was different,” I said, but my voice was barely above a whisper. The thought of being able to have all the guys made my nipples harden into pebbles, and a familiar tightening swirled at my core. It had occurred to me, hadn’t it? The idea of being passed around between them. When I’d been held down in the cellar, I’d even thought about how it would happen—one at a time, or with all their hands and mouths and cocks on me at once. The thought caused heat to pool between my thighs, my clit tingling with arousal.

  Clay was here, now, so close. I had a desire I needed to sate, and he was one very willing man. I could push him away, and tell him no, and I knew he would listen, but what would I be doing it for? The guys had all watched Isaac finger me, while I stood compliant, so who would I be trying to impress? Would it just be that I was trying to stand up to some moral code that I didn’t even care about? I didn’t belong to any one of these men individually. I belonged to all of them, and right now it was Clay here, and he wanted me.

  My lips parted, my tongue flicking out to wet them. Clay watched my mouth and then lifted his hand to place a finger on my lower lip. I went with it, allowing my tongue to snake out again and touch his finger with the tip. His breathing grew ragged, and though there was still space between us, I felt sure I could put my hand down the front of his body and find his cock, erect and begging for attention.

  “Ah, fuck, sugar,” he growled. “You have no idea how much I want that pretty mouth of yours.”

  His words made me hotter, and, without thinking any further, our bodies crashed together. Clay’s mouth crushed to mine, and I parted my lips, wanting him as badly as he wanted me. The kiss was a little too hard, stealing my breath, possessive, claiming me. Then his tongue was in my mouth, and I kissed him back with equal fervor, both of us hungry for each other. Every synapse fired within me, and I let out an involuntary moan, pressing my body up harder against him. Clay’s hands reached up the shirt I was wearing—Alex’s shirt—and his fingers found one of my breasts, pinching and rolling the nipple. The sensations made me gasp, firing sparks down directly between my legs, and I arched my back to push my breast deeper into his grasp.

  I slid my hand down the front of his body and discovered the bulge in his shorts I’d predicted. I wanted to touch him, to feel him, to give him the same pleasure he was giving me. After all, we could all be dead tomorrow, and then I’d regret not making the most of this now.

  He kissed down my neck, and his long hair tickled my skin. “Can I get rid of the t-shirt now?”

  I giggled. “Okay, but don’t tell Alex.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re wearing one of mine next time you bunk up with him.”

  I almost laughed again, but Clay’s mouth around my nipple stopped me in my tracks, and I let out a moan instead. I reached for his cock and slipped inside the front of his shorts, my fingers meeting with silky skin, hardness, and heat. I closed my fingers around him, and he let out a groan, the sound sending vibrations through the sensitive flesh of my areola. I moved my hand up and down his length, pumping him slowly as he bucked his hips into my palm.

  His hand moved between my thighs, pushing inside my panties, stroking me, so differently to how Isaac had done. Isaac had been firm and hard, as though he’d had a job to do, and he wouldn’t let anyone distract him from doing it, but Clay’s touch was slow and sweet. His finger caressed over the nub of my clit, making me gasp as electricity fired through my core. My hold on his cock tightened and I increased my momentum, and in return his hand moved lower, parting my swollen, wet folds, and then pushing up inside me.

  Two different men had put their fingers inside me in less than twelve hours. I was no innocent angel, but it felt insane. And the strangest part of it was that I didn’t feel any of the guilt I’d been expecting. I didn’t belong to any one of the guys more than the other; this was just how it was
when we were together.

  Clay hooked his finger inside my channel, feeling for the little bundle of nerves that would send me to a whole other level. My hips rocked against his hand, and my arousal built in a steady coil, rising from between my thighs and threatening to crash all through my body.

  His other hand moved from my breast to my hair, his fingers knotting as we kissed again, hurried and urgent, bites and licks, and hot breath on our faces.

  “Fuck, I want to be inside you, sugar. I want to know how it feels to have your pussy clamped around my dick as hard as it’s clamping around my fingers right now.”

  “Yes,” I gasped between hurried kisses. “I want you, too.”

  His fingers slipped from my body, and I could smell myself on the air.

  “Wait, we haven’t got anything,” I said.

  “What?” He looked up at me from beneath his curtain of hair.

  “You know, to be safe.” I lifted my eyebrows to make my point.

  “Shit.”

  He rolled out of bed, and then half-hopped, one leg half-in and half out of his shorts, his very firm backside on display. I cupped my hand over my mouth to hold back my laughter as he made it to the door and peered out to make sure he wasn’t going to be caught by any of the others.

  Clay vanished out the door, and I stayed propped up on my elbow anticipating his return. I hoped there would be some condoms in the bathroom. This place was pretty well stocked, but if whoever did the stocking expected only the guys to be here, we might be out of luck.

  But within less than a minute, he sauntered back in, looking at me as though I was a rib eye steak, and dangling a strip of foil packets from one hand. He wiggled his eyebrows. “Looks like someone anticipated us getting busy.”

  I grinned.

  He shucked off his shorts, leaving him standing there in all his beautiful nakedness. His skin looked about glued to the hollows of his abs, his navel a perfect circle with a trail of hair that led down to the promise of what was to come. I reached for him, and he climbed back onto the bed. Clay hadn’t lost any of his erection during the quick trip to get the condoms, and he sat back on his heels. He tore off the top of the packet, and I moved closer, crawling up to him. Before he got the chance to put the condom on, I leaned into his lap and closed my mouth around the head of his cock. He sucked air in over his teeth, as though he were in pain, and then his hand settled in my hair. I circled his dick with my lips and bobbed lower and then back up again, tasting the salt of his pre-cum.

  His voice came ragged above me. “Baby-doll, as much as I love you doing that to me, I’m going to shoot my load down the back of your throat any minute now, if you keep that up, and I sure as hell didn’t get those condoms for nothing.”

  I looked up at him, how he was looking down at me, his blond locks hanging in his face, his eyes turbulent with arousal, his lips slack with lust. I gave him a look that tried to be all innocent—who me?—fluttering my eyelashes while I still had my lips wrapped around his cock.

  But I released him from my mouth, and the moment I did so, he rolled the protection down his length, and then pushed me back on the bed. He moved between my thighs, and I spread them wide for him and then wrapped my legs around his body, hooking my heels into the hard muscle of his ass. It only took the slightest nudge, and his cock pushed inside me, stretching me. I cried out, bucking up against him.

  “Shh, sugar. You’re gonna wake the whole house up.” He placed his hand over my mouth, and I parted my lips, tasting his fingers and my arousal on his skin. With his other hand, he grabbed one wrist and then managed to snatch the other, and held them both above my head. He held me pinned to the bed, one hand covering my mouth to stifle my cries, the other holding my arms so I couldn’t move. The position flipped my mind back to how we’d first met, how I’d been held captive by the men, and how I’d believed this would be my fate. It shot an uneasy spurt of adrenaline through me, putting my body on high alert. It was different now, though—this wasn’t against my will, even if he held me as though it was.

  He fucked me, slamming into me, not fast but with slow, deliberate movements, pushing hard and deep so I felt him filling the whole of me, and then pulling back out almost to the point of slipping from my body, before driving back home.

  The sex wasn’t only about physical release. It was also a life affirmation after what we’d been through that day, and a way of forgetting what we still had to come.

  And as my orgasm took hold, making my toes curl, my breath gripped behind clenched teeth, I didn’t think of anything except the man losing himself inside me.

  Chapter Six

  “Time to wake up, guys.”

  Kingsley was at the bedroom door, already dressed. He was wearing different clothes from the ones he’d been wearing yesterday—a shirt and jeans combo that looked great on him. I guessed there must be changes of clothing for the guys in the other bedrooms.

  He looked between Clay and me, but didn’t comment on the way we were tangled together, my head resting on Clay’s chest, my leg hooked over his thigh. Thankfully, I’d managed to put Alex’s t-shirt back on before falling asleep, so at least he hadn’t found us naked.

  I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and Clay stirred beside me.

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “Waking up at this time is not natural.”

  Kingsley smiled affectionately at my reaction, flashing his white teeth. “Alex is making coffee. I’ll have a cup waiting for you when you get out.”

  “That would be awesome. Thanks, Kingsley.”

  He turned from the doorway and left us to it.

  Knowing I needed to get straight up or else I’d end up falling back to sleep again, I climbed out of bed, shivering against the chill of the night air. I went to the window and pulled back the curtains. Outside, the black silhouettes of branches waved across a night sky speckled with stars. There was no light pollution out here, and the stars stretched on forever. It felt like the middle of the night, because it was the middle of the night. We were driving back to my home today.

  The thought made my stomach churn with nerves. I wanted to see my house again, and most of all, I wanted to see Aunt Sarah safe and well, and to let her know I was okay, too, but it was who might be waiting for us that had me worried.

  “Have I got five minutes to grab a shower?” I asked Clay, twisting to look over my shoulder to where he was still sitting up in bed, the sheets wrapped around his narrow waist. “I need to wake myself up.” That and I could smell sex clinging to my skin. I wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed about spending the night with Clay, but I didn’t want the others to be quite so viscerally aware of it.

  A yawn crawled its way up my throat, and I put the back of my hand over my mouth, trying to hold it in.

  “Could do with a few more hours myself,” Clay said, noticing my yawn.

  He hopped out of bed and yanked his jeans back on. As he looked down to button them up, his blond locks fell over his face, and I took a moment to appreciate the outline of muscles of his abdominals and the little line of hair that disappeared into the waistband of his shorts. I know exactly where that trail leads, I thought with a secret inner smile.

  He glanced up at me through his hair and grinned. “The look on your face right now is absolutely filthy.”

  My teeth grazed my lower lip as I held back an even filthier smile.

  “Damn, girl. If we didn’t have to get out of here soon, I’d—”

  The door pushed open, cutting off his words, and Alex stuck his head through the gap. “Coffee’s ready. We’ve got to get a move on.”

  He vanished again, the door swinging shut behind him.

  I remembered my need for that shower. I picked up my clothes, knowing they were dirty, but not having anything to change into. They would have to do. Hopefully, I’d be able to grab something from my house at some point today, assuming all went well.

  I didn’t know what kind of direction I expected today to take. If I thought I was just going to be able to walk ba
ck into my home and start picking out my wardrobe, I was probably kidding myself. Things were almost certainly not going to run that smoothly, but I didn’t want to consider the possibility of them not going our way.

  I left Clay in the bedroom and headed out to the bathroom. I’d half expected to bump into one of the other guys coming out, but it seemed everyone was already up and ready to go. They were clearly more used to activity in the middle of the night than I was. I still felt half asleep, and deep down I wanted nothing more than to curl up back under the covers and sleep for another five or six hours. But that luxury wasn’t going to happen, and I didn’t want the men to think I was holding them back in any way. Just taking the five minutes to shower was probably delaying them.

  In the bathroom, I turned on the shower and waited until it ran hot. Quickly, I stripped off Alex’s t-shirt and the underwear I’d slipped back on, and then jumped underneath the flow of water. My body had that sensitive, slightly swollen, just-fucked feeling, and I squirmed as I found some soap and ran my hands over my skin. A part of me had been waiting for that to happen with Clay. My thoughts went to the others. Would they treat me differently now? Would I be off limits? I didn’t think so—after all, Isaac had put his claim on me before Clay had, and that hadn’t stopped what we’d done last night.

  The thought of getting intimate with each of the guys excited me, and if I hadn’t known we’d been pressed for time, I’d have allowed my hand to slip between my thighs and let my imagination run wild. But they were waiting for me, and it was important I didn’t become a liability to them.

  I switched off the water and towel dried, and then put my t-shirt on. I wrinkled my nose at my dirty panties, and decided to forgo them altogether. My jeans were enough to cover my ass, and so I stashed the dirty underwear in my pocket instead.

  Feeling cleaner and more awake, I headed out into the kitchen to find all five of the men waiting for me.