King: Darker Than Romance Page 6

  Momma would definitely notice the damage in the resin. I sniggered.

  Not caring at the moment if we got caught or not, I went to him. He spread his legs to accommodate me. He pulled me to him. His hands went to my hips.

  “Kiss me, Eden.” He ordered. I hated kissing him after he’d been smoking but I did anyway. I always found it hard to say no to King. I leaned in, pressed my lips to his. He kissed me back, slow and soft at first. Then he kicked it up a notch. He ran his tongue against the seam of my lips, coaxing me to open for him, when I did, he delved into my mouth. It was a sloppy, nasty kiss, all teeth and tongue and lips. He pulled my arms to rest around his neck. I got lost in. He made me forget I was mad. I felt weightless, and seamless. My clit throbbed, my panties were soaked and clinging to my wet pussy.

  I moaned into his mouth. God, I love kissing him. I tried to climb onto his lap. He pulled away. “Please, I want to feel you,” I whined. I would have risked it all in that moment, just to ride his dick.

  His hand came up to clasp my chin, harshly.

  “What do you have on, Eden?” He didn’t raise his voice, but his demeaning tone caused the haze his kisses had me in to slip away, like fog clearing.

  “Clothes?” I answered, confused.

  He reached in between us, took my hard nipple between his two fingers and squeezed until it ached. I hissed and snatched away. My hackles rose.

  His jaw tightened. He set his mouth in a firm line as his grip on my face tightened.

  “These are not clothes. I can see your fucking tits through this thin ass shirt and where’s your bra? Who are you dressed like this for?”

  I glanced downed at myself. “Excuse me?” I was wearing a white T-shirt and gym shorts, what I usually wore around the house.

  He had to be joking.

  I went to snatch away, but he pulled me down onto his lap, trapping me. He arms were like twin vises wrapped around my waist.

  “Let me go.” I hissed at him from between gritted teeth.

  “I will, if you’re going to go change your fucking clothes.”

  “No. I’m not. I’m not a child and you should stop treating me like one.”

  “They talk about you,” he said.

  “Who?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “My father and his associates. They talk about how your ass and titties are always on display. They talk about how hard and in which positions they would fuck you. Do you know how that makes me feel, to have to listen to that when I can’t say anything?”

  I glared at him. I couldn’t believe he thought I would care.

  “Ooh, so what you’re telling me is… is some old men are talking about fucking a woman half their age. That’s so unusual.” I rolled my eyes and waved him off.

  “Nothing you said means I would allow them to touch me or that I should change my clothes.”

  “You want them to look, don’t you? You crave attention like a spoiled child.” He accused, but then to add insult to injury he said, “a child dressed like a whore.”

  My mouth dropped open. His ass had lost his mind. “Stop acting like my fucking daddy, King. You aren’t. As a matter of fact, you’re nothing to me, so go fuck yourself.” I said, purely out of anger.

  “Eden,” he said my name in a flat tone that warned me I was pushing him too far. I didn’t care. My momma had just told me she would not be paying for me to move to Georgia to attend Spellman like she had promised. He knew something was wrong. Instead of asking me what he could do to help, he wanted to bitch about my clothes. He was infuriating.

  I snatched away from the hold he had on me. I pushed myself up from his lap.

  His jaw tensed.

  “Go change, Eden.” His Adam’s apple bobbed.

  “No, Ashford. You don’t get to tell me what to do or what to wear.”

  He put the knuckles of his fist to the table and rested his weight on them as he leaned in. “I can tell you whatever I damn well please, Eden. You are mine.”

  It took me a moment to process what he’d said.

  I scoffed.” The whole “you’re mine” thing is getting out of hand.” It was only cute when he was fucking me. Ignoring him, I made my way to the kitchen counter. I snatched up my purse and keys.

  “Where are you going, Eden?”

  “Out, Ashford. “I snapped.

  “No, you’re not. “He stared with his lips drawn in a thin line, disapproval was written all over his face, but I couldn’t care less. I stared right back, our gazes held, both of us challenging each other.

  When he stood, I didn’t make a run for the door because I knew he could easily catch me.

  “Mom, James.” I smirked as I yelled for both our parents. They both came into the kitchen at the same time. My momma gave me that look that Black Momma’s give you, the one that says, “you better not start no shit, girl.” She was too busy glaring at me to notice the tension in the room or the fact that her husband was staring at my tits. “I’m going to the park to jog.” I didn’t wait for anyone to respond. I didn’t need their permission. I just needed them in the kitchen so King couldn’t stop me from leaving.

  When I got to my car, I started it up. As soon as I backed out of the driveway, I called the one person I knew would be there for me, Ellis. He answered on the first ring. He agreed to meet me even though I hadn’t answered hardly any of his calls in weeks.

  I told him to meet me at the park down the street.

  Ellis pulled up not long after I did. Soon as I opened my door the balmy Florida heat hit me right in the face. It wasn’t even June yet and it felt like mid-summer. I got out of my car and made my way to his side. His blue eyes were glued my thighs the entire time. He was obsessed with burying his head between them and wrenching multiple orgasms from me and I was obsessed with him doing it. I low-key felt guilty that I had given King my virginity instead of him.

  He got out, made his way around the car. Ellis was huge with a thick neck, muscular thighs and big broad shoulders. He looked like a whole Viking, with his long blond hair and ice blue eyes. The khakis and white polo he wore made me roll my eyes. They fit his personality to a fucking tee. Ellis was the type of white boy that the term, “white privilege” was made for. He was from old money; drove an expensive car no eighteen-year-old boy should have, and his future was set. He could go to any Ivy league school he wanted to even though he was graduating forty-second out of a class of one hundred.

  Despite all that, I liked him. But in the way a little girl likes her new puppy. As fucked up as it sounds, he was too easy for me. I wanted drama and passion.

  His thin bottom lip was trapped between his teeth when I reached him. I walked into his outstretched arms. He leaned down to meet my height and tried to kiss me. I turned my face in time for him to miss my lips. His kiss landed on my cheek. I didn’t feel right about kissing him on the mouth when minutes earlier I’d been kissing King.

  I nudged his head back, rose to my tip toes and pressed a soft kiss against his Adam’s apple, eliciting a groan from him. His big hands gripped my waist, massaging the soft flesh. I nipped at his chin and a groan I could feel reverberate throughout my body tore from his throat. He was so easy to please. Why couldn’t I have the same chemistry with him that I had with Ashford? I liked his kisses and personality. I even wanted to fuck him. But there was something about him that kept me from going all in, even before King was in the picture. Or maybe it was my own fucked up issues that kept me from being with him.

  His right hand slid under my shirt to palm one of my breasts. His free hand started to disappear under the waistband of my shorts. I shifted away. “Not now.” He pulled me back against him, but just held me, breathing heavy. He kept his hands to himself, though. His erection lay thick against my stomach. My insides tingled, but not like they did when I was with King.

  We sighed in unison.

  He dropped his forehead to mine, “What happened?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

  Right there, leaning into hi
m for support. I told him.

  “That’s not fair,” he said. “But I think I have the solution.” He righted himself. “Get in.” He opened the door for me to slide in then he made his way to the other side of the car, he opened the door and settled into the driver’s seat.

  We sat in silence for a while.

  “I’ll pay for it,” he said out of the blue.

  My mind had drifted so I was confused as to what he was talking about. So I asked him. “Pay for what?”

  “Your dorm and books, or better yet I’ll get us an apartment.”

  “An apartment?”

  “Yes, an apartment. You won’t have to stay in a dorm.”

  “But what about Duke? What about your football scholarship?”

  He grasped me by my wrist, ran his thumb along the sensitive skin underneath as he looked me in the eyes. He had the prettiest ocean blue eyes and longest lashes.

  “I already told you I wanted to go to Georgia with you. That I want to be with you… I applied at Emory. I got accepted. I don’t need the scholarship. I received my inheritance a few months ago when I turned eighteen.” He said.

  I gave it a moment’s thought. I didn’t want to say no, even though there was this niggling in the back of my mind saying I should.

  First, we were way too young to be making such rash decisions. My doubts also had a lot to do with King and how he would feel. I loved him and he said he loved me, but I knew us being together wasn’t realistic. I was just eighteen, my life was just starting. He was twenty-four, already living his. I knew he wasn’t moving to Georgia. I doubted he even wanted a real relationship. There was also the fact that I’d be totally dependent on Ellis. That never worked out for my momma. What if he decided he didn’t want me anymore? Did I really want to put my future on the line by depending on a man when I could simply go to school in-state?

  “Let me think about it.” I said.

  Ellis nodded but interjected “We only have two months to make the decision. I’ll need time to get everything together.”

  One moment we were talking about our future, in the next moment my chest was pounding the way it does when you’re awakened suddenly. My hair was snatched from behind. I screamed as I was dragged from Ellis’s car by it. It all happened so fast I didn’t get a chance to fight or react. My ass hit the ground hard. I thought I was being kidnapped to be sold into some type of sex ring or some shit. Then I heard King’s voice, I became even more frightened. I froze.

  Before he lifted me from the ground where I’d fallen, I could see him waving a gun at Ellis. He threw me over his shoulder. “If I ever catch you near her again…” I didn’t get to hear the rest of the threat because he shoved me into driver’s side of his truck. He slid in right behind me. He slammed the door so hard the car rocked.

  I scrambled into the passenger seat and dived for the door.

  “Don’t fucking do it.” His tone was deathly calm. I looked back just in time to see him slam the gun he had threatened Ellis with onto the dashboard.

  He gave me a dead stare. Every hint of human emotion had drained from his eyes. The darkness in them chilled my bones.

  My stomach tightened. My blood raced in my ears.

  “Don’t fucking test me, Eden,” he murmured with an intensity that rattled me.

  That’s when the scary thought came. I realized I knew very little I knew about the man I had spent months chasing. I sat back, fisting my hands in my lap. Trepidation had my heart beating a mile a minute. He peeled out of the parking lot. As he sped towards Ellis, it looked like he was going to try to intervene. I shook my head, “No.” I mouthed, “please don’t.” He angrily threw his hands up. I was okay with him being angry. I didn’t need him to help me, just to get hurt because of me.

  King’s foot was heavy on the gas as we soared down the street in the opposite direction of the house. I was so scared I felt like I would pee on myself.

  My heart hiccupped. “Slow down, you’re going to kill us,” I yelled.

  He kept his head forward, ignoring me. His knuckles were white from the grip he had on the steering wheel.

  He hit a corner and I swear the car tipped over onto two wheels. My eyes were probably the size of saucers.

  “Slow down,” I yelled again.

  He roared. “Shut the fuck up.” He pressed his foot further down on the gas. The car sped up.

  Not thinking straight, I reached over. I grabbed the wheel as we were driving onto the highway.

  The car swerved. King shoved me so hard I flew across the seat and my arm and side slammed against the door, hard.

  He pulled over on the shoulder of the road and exploded. “Are you fucking crazy?” he yelled at me, directly in my face.

  By that time, I was hysterical, shaking and crying.

  “You’re trying to fucking kill us.” My tone was frantic.

  He glared at me like he didn’t give a fuck if we lived or died. His eyes were pitch black.

  “Do that again and I’ll fucking hurt you. “He continued to glare at me until I could physically feel his anger. I sank back into my seat.

  He put his attention back on the road. He pulled off the shoulder and started driving again, but this time safely. Still my entire body trembled. I wanted so bad to ask him where we were going, but I was too scared. I cowered next to the door. Staring out the window helped dispel some of the panic that was fraying my nerves. What was he about to do to me? I wanted to ask him, but I was scared to set him off.

  He got on the Howard Franklin leading us out of St. Pete to Tampa. He drove in complete silence, anger radiating off of him in waves.

  Finally, he pulled up to a hotel across from the University of Tampa. I was relieved because I knew where I was and how to get home in case, I had to run away from him. He got out the car, taking the gun with him. Just watching him tuck it in the holster on his side paralyzed me with fear. He came around to the passenger side and snatched me from the car. He opened his mouth to say something but must have read the fear on my face. He took the gun from his holster, he shoved it in the glove compartment then slammed it, then the door.

  My relief was audible. I exhaled loudly.

  “Fucking behave, Eden. Don’t make me show you a side of myself you won’t like,” he warned before he intertwined our fingers and pulled me to one of the rooms. He opened the door with a key and shoved me in. “Sit your ass down.” He pointed the chairs in the corner of the room.

  Afraid, I did exactly what he had told me. I made my way over to one of the high back leather chairs and sat quietly while he removed his tennis shoes. The suit he had been wearing earlier had been replaced with black skinny jeans and a band t-shirt.

  My gaze travelled down the length of him. I dropped my head shamefully. Something was wrong with me. He had just dragged me out of a car kicking and screaming, pulled a gun on my friend and basically kidnapped me and my first thought when I got a good look at him was I liked the way his muscles looked pressed against his shirt, and the way he filled out his jeans.

  I looked around the room instead of focusing on him to calm my nerves. It was unlike any hotel room I’d been in before. It looked a lot like his room back at home. A platform bed occupied most of the space and a large black wood dresser sat beside it. A fifty-inch TV hung from the wall. The room smelled like him too. In that moment, I realized that probably was where he went when he disappeared.

  “You should have listened,” he said. I snatched my head in his direction. There was rage swirling in his eyes. That was the only warning I got before he charged me like a mad man, I barely had time to throw my hand up to block my face before I was being lifted from my seat. I thought for sure he was going to hit me. Instead, he carried me the few steps to the bed, then slammed me on my back down onto the mattress. I yelped. The headboard banging against the wall drowned it out.

  I tried to scoot back, to get away but King grabbed my foot and pulled me back to the middle of the bed., He snatched my legs open then dropped himsel
f, all two hundred of his pounds, landing directly on top of me. All the air left lungs like a deflating balloon. I had only a second to catch my breath before his fingers were clasped around my throat, squeezing. Breathing became hard. I was scared if I fought, I’d pass out, so I laid still concentrating on trying to breathe through my nose. He snatched my shorts and panties off. His nails dragged against my skin scratching my thighs. I winced.

  As soon as I was naked below the waist, he roughly pushed two fingers inside of me as if he was testing the tightness. What was fucked up was my body didn’t know whether to be petrified or aroused. I was scared, really scared, and a ball of humiliation sat in the cave of my belly. But my body was winding itself up to orgasm and my pussy was sloppy wet. I fought against the urge to moan. Fisting the sheets, I tried thinking of anything that would calm my body down, but all I could do is feel him fingering my pussy. I liked the ache, had been trained to like his roughness.

  Just as I was about to cum he snatched his fingers from inside me. My body ached for relief. I clenched my eyes closed tightly so he couldn’t see the lust swirling in their depths. I didn’t want him to think anything he’d done to me was right.

  “Did you fuck him tonight?” There was a menacing edge to his tone.

  “N- no, I didn’t.” I stumbled over my words, making them sound untrue.

  “Did you fuck him, Eden?” he roared as he grabbed my face with his free hand. “Open your fucking eyes, Eden, and answer my question.”

  I opened them. “No, I didn’t.” My voice shook as I looked him directly in the eyes.

  He must have believed me because he let me go all at once and stood.

  “Get your ass up and go fucking shower. I can smell his stench on you.”