“I crept inside the convent and poured gasoline along every wall,” I told her, my voice rough and the memory a mix of triumph and failure all at once because by doing what I’d done, I’d both gotten my revenge and had proven their fears about me true.
“You locked them in and burned them?” she breathed, turning her eyes up to meet mine as I looked down at her, her lips hovering just above the base of the scar right above my navel.
“I meant to let myself burn with them,” I told her, remembering the scent of the freshly struck match as I stood in the centre of the church and breathed it in. “I still don’t know why I walked away instead.”
That was the truth. Every piece of it. I had meant to die in that place with the founders of my nightmares, sick of waking in cold sweats and losing control of myself, sick of lusting after and hating women in equally powerful measures. But somehow, I’d found myself walking away after I’d set the place ablaze, locking the doors and standing outside as I listened to them scream for me.
I hadn’t felt anything as I claimed my freedom from those who had caused me so much harm. Nothing at all. And in that moment, I had realised that I couldn’t stay there. Couldn’t keep on living with nothing to live for, even if I had no idea where I would go or what I would do elsewhere. I’d slipped through the night and stolen from the man who everyone I knew feared far more than the Devil and had taken his riches with me when I ran.
“I know why you walked away, Dead Man,” Brooklyn said seriously, slipping from the table and dropping to her knees before me as her fingers hooked in the waistband of my sweatpants and my body filled with more lust than I trusted myself to control. “Because you were meant for me. And you hadn’t even met me yet.”
I frowned at the simplistic answer to a question which had haunted me endlessly, my lips parting on a refusal which wouldn’t come. How could I have been meant for her when I had never even known she existed? Then again, how could I have lived so long when I’d been born with the Devil in me, working for my destruction? My life had never made so much sense to me as it did when I was in the company of this wild, insane girl, so why should I deny that claim when she made it so freely?
Brooklyn made a move to tug my pants down, but I caught her hand despite the throbbing in my cock and the desire which seemed set to destroy me if I didn’t give in to it.
“I can’t control myself, mi sol,” I warned her. “And I don’t want your blood on my hands if the demon in me wins.”
“Oh,” she breathed, her eyes going wide before she knocked my hand aside and dragged my pants the rest of the way down, taking my cock in her hand and making me hiss out a curse as I made a move to catch her and drag her off of me. “I quite like the idea of me all bloody for you, Mateo,” she added.
I shook my head, catching her hand and pulling her up again, the heat in my veins making it clear that I would give in to her demands all too easily if she pushed me much further, but I couldn’t take that risk. Not with her. Not if she really was intended to be my salvation.
I lifted her up and placed her ass on the edge of the table, pushing her legs wide and dropping to my knees instead.
“When you come for me, I want to hear you calling out my name, mi sol. Let that bastardo in the other room know exactly who makes you feel the way only I can.”
She nodded obediently and my mind instantly filled with all the other orders I would love to give her if only I could trust myself to carry out my part in them. But I knew what I was and what I did to pretty little things like her and I refused to be the end of this light of mine.
I took her legs and pulled them over my shoulders, dragging her to the edge of the table and licking the sweet centre of her with one firm stroke.
Brooklyn cried out, trying to snap her legs shut against the suddenness of my touch and only managing to clamp her thighs tight around my head.
“Oh, fuck biscuits,” she gasped, her fingers knotting in my hair and I smiled against the sweetness of her pussy before continuing to devour it like a starved man.
Brooklyn ground herself against me as I fucked her with my mouth, and I licked and sucked at her while she moaned and panted so loudly that I knew we had to hurry.
I brought my hand up to help finish her, pushing three fingers deep inside her and loving how tight she felt as I stretched her, rolling my fingers along her g-spot and making her scream as I sucked on her clit.
Her heels drove into my spine and I licked her faster, pumped my fingers harder and she came so fucking beautifully that I almost followed her into her release from nothing other than how turned on I was by seeing her fall apart for me so easily.
She called my name like I’d instructed and I growled into her core as I lapped at her clit, extending her pleasure even as the sound of heavy footfalls approached from behind me and I knew our time was up.
“What the fuck have I told you about laying your damn donkey mouth on my Spider?!” Niall roared, his hand fisting in the back of my shirt as he tore me off of her and threw me to the ground.
I laughed loudly at his fucking insanity because if he seriously thought he could command me away from her, then he really must have been cracked in the head.
“Estas celoso, bastardo?” I taunted right before his booted foot slammed into my side.
“Stop it, Hellfire!” Brooklyn yelled, leaping from the table and landing on his back.
He started spinning around while she clung on tight, whooping and laughing and calling him a bucking bronco.
“Let’s go wrestle,” she called excitedly and he barked a laugh as if he hadn’t just been thinking about dismembering me right there on the front room floor.
I shoved to my feet as he agreed and he turned away from me dismissively, while Brooklyn yelled at him to giddy up and slapped his ass like he was her horse.
I spotted Jack standing there, come to see what the fuss was all about with Brutus at his heels, baring his teeth like he might just attack the guy from behind.
“Come on, Mateo!” Brooklyn called over her shoulder. “Oh hey, AJ!”
They disappeared into the kitchen and I cursed Niall, taking a step to follow just as a wave of electricity slammed through the collar and into my body, knocking me to the floor once more as I twitched and spasmed beneath it, the pain rendering my entire body useless.
“Oh dear, Spider, I think you wore Mateo out,” Niall’s voice came to me in the distance. “I guess we’ll just have to oil up and roll about on the floor without him.”
I cursed between my teeth as I fought to regain control of my body and the sound of the door slamming behind them reached me while I was left behind to face my new reality as I lay there on the fucking floor with Jack watching me curiously.
Though as I thought of the way Brooklyn had kissed me and banished some of the dark from my soul, I had to admit, it wasn’t all bad anymore.
I was in my jim-jam-jarmies AKA my snuggliest pyjamas which had two owls perching on my boobs with the words You Are Hootiful arching over them. It was movie night, and it was my turn to pick because last week Jack had chosen Up – although Mateo had been convinced he was just telling Niall to get up seeing as he’d sat himself right on the bag of popcorn I’d been eating. I knew better though. Angry Jack’s eyes had shimmered like little rhinestones when he'd seen that house take off into the sky beneath a sea of colourful balloons.