Silence hung following her words and I looked into her big blue eyes as I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from reacting to her words, from trying to rebuke them or refuse them or showing her that they’d held even the smallest drop of truth. And who gave a shit if they had? So what if she could tell I was empty inside? It wasn’t like I tried to hide it.
I let her stiffen up as she waited to see if I’d flip on her for several seconds before I finally barked a laugh.
“Not quite, baby, but keep on guessing for next time. One or two of those potshots got close to the mark even if you didn’t score a bullseye,” I teased, as I pushed her words from my skull and pointedly forgot about them.
Tatum bit her lip on a reply, her gaze sliding over my features for a long moment before she accepted that I wasn’t gonna lose my shit.
“Do I get to do you now?” I asked.
“Do I actually get a say?” she ground out.
“Sure you do, baby, this is just a conversation between…well I would say a bitch and her owner but I feel like you might take offence.”
“Fuck you,” she hissed.
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think you could take the heat, rich girl.”
“Fine. Let’s hear it then, if you think you know so fucking much about me,” she said, folding her arms and pushing her tits up in the process.
I made no attempt to hide where my gaze had landed and she snarled as she sank further beneath the bubbles to cut off my view of the goods.
I rubbed a thumb over the corner of my mouth to hide my smirk at her reaction and decided to keep playing this game. There weren’t many people who could actually hold my attention for this long and I was beginning to wonder how much longer she’d stay interesting.
“Let’s see then…” I dragged my eyes over her and grinned as I began. “You grew up well off but not with the kind of money most of the kids here had so you’re used to a good enough quality of life, but not so good that you’re an entitled brat. Mommy ditched out on you early on so you spent your formative years looking up to Daddy who was a few screws loose of the whole package if we’re to believe the newspaper articles about him. I also read about all of the different labs your daddy was employed in all over the country which means you moved from place to place a lot. That explains why you make friends easily but keep your emotions out of it. With a single male role model, you learned the way to talk to men better than women and as you grew into that body – which is fucking sensational by the way – you figured out that you were pretty much the complete cock charming package. That meant that in the last few years, you’ve worked over several guys, taking just enough from them to satisfy you without giving much back in return so that when you up and leave there’s no wounds to worry about healing. It also explains why you’re going to be so damn hard to break in. You’ve grown a thick skin and you know how to shield yourself just as well as you understand how to dust yourself off after a kicking and come back fighting. How did I do?”
“You missed the part where I was trained in kickboxing and advanced self-defence,” she said cockily. “And despite all of those showy muscles you’re so proud of, I’m pretty sure I could put you on your ass one on one.”
I gave her an honest to fuck, real smile. No smirking, no taunting, no bullshit at all. The kind of smile no one but Blake or Saint had earned from me in years. “Well, fuck, baby,” I purred. “That sounds like a date.”
“In your dreams, mutt,” she snapped.
I laughed at that and ran my tongue over my bottom lip, remembering the paint on my flesh as I tasted it. I dragged a thumb across my jaw and glanced at it as it came away red. Tatum followed the movement with an assessing expression.
“I can’t believe you all painted yourselves up like a bunch of fucking make-believe playing kids,” she growled, her tongue getting real loose now that she realised I didn’t mind it.
“Scared you good though, didn’t we?” I taunted.
Tatum pursed her lips, her gaze slipping over the paint on my body like she was searching for an answer in it.
“Why?” she asked in a low voice. “I get why you all hate me. I just don’t get why you want me to be yours? Is it just so that you can humiliate me? Destroy me? What?” Her voice broke on that last word and I decided to give her what she wanted. At least in part.
“Because we’re monsters of a particular kind,” I breathed, watching her across the water. “And we feast on things that others don’t understand.”
“Like pain and suffering?” she breathed.
“Yes.”
Silence fell between us as she processed that and I watched her as she watched me. I could see that ache in her too, that need for something…more.
“Come here,” I said in a low voice which held no room for argument.
“You promised no sex,” she growled and I snorted a laugh.
“You need to get your mind out the gutter, baby. I gave my word along with the others. None of us will force you to do anything like that. That’s not the kinds of monsters we are anyway. Now, come here.”
She slipped off of her seat and slowly moved through the water towards me, her breasts lifting above the surface as she walked so that I got a view of her pink nipples through the black lace. It was a test, she wanted to know if I was going to keep my word or not. But she wouldn’t be disappointed in that. My word was law. Same went for all the Night Keepers. There wasn’t a single thing in this world which would make us break it.
She hesitated as she came to a halt before me, standing between my open legs as her gaze drifted over the paint on my flesh again.
I reached for her slowly, grabbing her perfectly round ass I lifted her to straddle my lap and she gasped in surprise, bracing her hands on my shoulders.
My dick twitched as those pink nipples brushed against my chest through the lace.
Tatum’s big blue eyes found mine and I could see an ocean of uncertainty in her gaze.
“You have to do everything we say,” I reminded her, leaning forward so that our breath mingled as I released my grip on her ass and laid my arms over the edge of the hot tub either side of me again. “But it doesn’t have to be all bad.”
“You are all bad,” she replied. “Bad to the bone, every one of you.”
“Rotten to the core too,” I replied darkly. “Now, wash this paint off for me, baby.”
Her eyes widened and her gaze dipped to take in the paint once more.
“I don’t have a sponge,” she said, defiant as always. And I hoped we wouldn’t succeed in breaking that. There weren’t many things that lingered on my conscience, but that definitely would.
“Then improvise,” I said simply.
A long moment passed before she reached up to my cheek, cupping my jaw in her wet hand as she used her thumb to wipe the paint away.
My heart pounded to a dark and steady rhythm as she worked, my skin tingling beneath her fingertips as she moved them over my face.
She shifted forward in my lap to get her balance and my cock was suddenly wedged right between her thighs. I was hard as fuck which really shouldn’t have surprised her but she gasped like a virgin all the same.
“You said-” she began, but I cut her off.