The Annihilator (Dark Verse #5)(49)

Home.
It still sent disbelief coursing through her when she said that.
The cityscape come across the view after a few minutes, the factories and warehouses falling away to show cleaner, taller buildings. The first glimmer of the black hole opened in her mind in months watching the city that had destroyed her.
“Where’s the Club District?” she shouted over the mouthpiece.
He pointed right. “Over there. You used to live farther in that direction.”
She touched her choker, taking a deep breath, and snapped her hair tie again, rooting herself in the present. It was fine. She was fine. She was not the same girl who had given in to the black hole. She was new and she would be fine.
Dainn circled a tall building, one of the tallest in the skylines, and she saw a helipad on top of the roof. “We’re going down.”
She gave a thumbs up sign, and held onto her straps, her stomach whooping as they descended. She regulated her breathing, knowing it would take some getting used to for this to feel normal, and they touched the roof.
Within moments, once the helicopter was set, he pushed more buttons and turned it off, the blades slowing down until they stopped.
Unbuckling himself, he jumped down from the pilot’s cockpit and came around to her, getting her out and on the roof in record time.
Her knees shook but she stood with his support, feeling the wind on her face, the sun on her skin, the view—although beautiful in its own way—marred by her memories. She hated this city and hated its people.
“Mr. Blackthorne, welcome.”
The voice from a woman on the side made her turn. A pretty woman in some kind of a uniform led them toward an elevator.
“Thank you, Fiona.” He pasted a charming smile on his face and took her hand. “I hope you have our suite ready? My wife is tired from the trip.”
For the first time, she saw why people fell for his facade without seeing who he was underneath. The woman ate it up, and to be honest, so did she, especially the ‘wife’ part.
“Of course, Mr. Blackthorne.” The woman pressed a keycard to a fancy, fancy elevator. “Should I tell Moonflame to expect you tonight?”
“Yes, please. Thank you, Fiona.”
The elevator doors closed and Lyla watched in fascination as his smile dropped, his usual, neutral expression back on his face, his eyes hidden behind the dark shades he had worn. He took his phone out from his suit pocket, the other holding hers, and operated it with one hand.
And she liked that. She liked that he was real with her, just as he was, no pretenses.
“Dainn,” she tugged his hand.
“Hmm?”
“Moonflame?”
He paused, looking at her, knowing she was asking him about the sex club they had met in once years ago, a sex club that had been a nightmare for her.
“Why are you going there tonight?”
He pocketed his phone, turning to her. “We are going there tonight. I bought the club after that night in the maze. Changed things up. We are going because I want you to experience what an actual sex club is like.”
She looked at his chest exposed by his unbuttoned shirt. “Are you... do you force people there?”
“Not if they don’t want to be forced.”
People wanted to be forced? What the fuck?
She felt his breath on her cheek. “Close your eyes.”
Her eyes shuttered immediately.
“Now imagine me,” his voice wrote seduction on her skin. “Imagine me pushing you down and you struggling to get away. Deep down, you know I wouldn’t hurt you, but this is a game, and so we pretend. I pretend and chase you, you pretend and run. I catch you—” her breath hitched as his hands skimmed over her sides “—and push you face down into the bed. You pretend to struggle, you want to get away from me, but I tie you up, you can’t move. So you scream.”
His hand suddenly covered her mouth, his voice in her ear as he came behind her. “I muffle your screams, take my hand lower, choke you until you stop.”
Memories collided with the fantasy inside her, her body trembling as he kept weaving the words over her. “So you stop screaming, stop struggling. And then I push my cock inside your tight little cunt—” his hand cupped her over her jeans “—and if you make one noise, I’ll choke you.”
She could hear her loud breathing, almost pants at the visual he created in her mind.
“Would you want this fantasy?”
Before she could say another word, the elevator doors opened and so did her eyes, flying to see the three people staring at her with wide eyes. She could imagine what they looked like—a small woman with a large man looming behind her, his hand over her mouth and between her legs.
The said hand gave her a little squeeze before he let go, twining their fingers together again and taking her with him.
He was rewriting her sexual experiences, and she trusted him to do it.
"With you, I would," she told him like always.
"There would never be anyone else," he promised as always.


Chapter twenty-twoLyla


At dusk, Dainn took her arm and led her to the parking lot of the hotel they were staying at. He’d rented the suite out on a permanent basis since the hotel was both upscale and close to the Club District, the place where he’d mainly needed to be when he was in town. Since he was a semi-permanent resident, the hotel had given him a permanent parking spot, the one where he led her to, a sleek black car waiting for them.
She didn’t know what the car was or the company but it looked fast, and she wasn’t surprised. Between his flying and driving, she’d understood he liked the rush.