Darkest Love Read online

  Sex with him is going to destroy my career for good. If the slutty rep doesn’t finish me, this inability to focus will. Annie couldn’t control it–the emotions she had for this man were too strong. Desire and rage and hate and love mixed together in a dangerous blend.

  Sex with Rain Mistern—which she had been having on and off for two years now—was painful. And not just because Rain was one of those men who changed the moment it was over, cooling like a hot stone dropped in a swimming pool.

  “He has…a sadistic streak,” she had explained to Lily, then cringed when a barrage of questions flooded in. People were way too interested in Rain, and any details of their trysts.

  Maybe that’s because he’s so gorgeous. His brows angled thoughtfully as he turned a rock over in his hands. Annie watched his lips murmuring as he examined the patterns in the sedimentary rock, and caught a few words: Clastic. Planar Splitting. Gondwana. Permian Period.

  “You know what they say about people who move their lips when they think,” Annie teased.

  Rain looked back as if he was startled she was still there. “Oh,” he said after a moment. His grin was so hot, Annie’s cheeks flushed. “I think it’s people who move their lips when they read. They’re the dumb ones.”

  “Ah yes. Correct, Mr. Mistern. You are even dumber, I suppose. You can’t even have a thought without moving that mouth.” He moved as if to throw the rock at her, giving her a great view of rippled triceps spreading like a wing, then tossed it in the air instead, catching the rock back in a tanned hand.

  “I’m taking this one back to New York,” he said.” The geologists will examine it. I’ll get someone to date it—the lines are really clear and curved.”

  He showed her, tracing a finger over the lines that bounded the sedimentary layers.

  “Clear indeed,” Annie gulped. Their bodies were so close she could smell the salty male skin under his silt-drenched clothes. Power and a touch of viciousness seemed to ooze from Rain, who always held his body a little tense. He was constantly poised, constantly ready to strike or react or make a move. It was as if there was so much force and power within him he struggled to contain it. Annie knew a secret about his body: that he ripped his body with weights and pushups and lifts just so he could sleep at night.

  He was a man on fire. It drove her crazy.

  She knew more than one secret, actually. Rain liked to release his fury and fire—his incredible energy—through sex. Sadistic, erotic, animal sex: it was another way to get him sleeping like a baby.

  “Sure is. I was trying to remember that Oxford lecture about Permian volcanic activity. If you made out any of my mumbling tell me later,” he winked. “Because I’ll probably forget.” His whispering was sounding more and more sensual. Annie pulled closer, relishing the power of her body to overwhelm this man, though he was made of stone and had a mind like a steel trap. The curve of her breast was right in his eye line. She watched his hand holding the rock, and saw the pulse in his wrist quicken.

  One time, after he came, she had seen his heart doing the same thing: his skin had pulsed as if a creature in his chest was trying to escape.

  “How have you been feeling?” asked Annie when his leer became so obvious there was really no denying it. She shifted, trying to get a look at his face–longing to see desire sparking in those blue eyes–and got a shock instead: her own body was so ready. The space between her thighs was slick. Pleasure rippled around her clitoris when she so much as shuffled her feet.

  Rain stepped forth. He charged, really–with all the ruthlessness she knew he possessed. Annie loved that about him: he knew what he wanted. He knew when he was wanted.

  Chapter 2

  Rain couldn’t take it anymore. Annie’s nipples were pricking through her kaftan, teasing him, daring him to come closer even as both their voices droned on about sedimentary rock. His head was filling with all the things he had done to those nipples, and wanted to do again: roll his tongue over them. Finger them as she moaned. Bite just hard enough that she screamed.

  He felt his erection growing. The heat pooled at the base of his abs–it was a hunger under his stomach that nothing else could feed. How does she do it?

  He had sworn that he would not do this with Annie again.

  Sex between them was like paper tearing. Sharp, furious, destructive. And the sounds from her were agonized as often as they were ecstatic. These sessions always happened despite his best efforts, taking them both to peaks of pleasure and dropping them–especially her–right back down.

  A cold feeling always filled his heart in the days after. Hard as he tried he could not summon any tenderness for this woman. This pained him, because he respected her so much as a scientist.

  Oh, but the sex. It was always better with slightly rough women. He examined Annie’s tattoo under her sleeve, licking his lips, and let his eyes climb up her arms to the corded, slender neck that was just begging for his hands around it.

  Our sex life is good; you have to admit, she had said once. Oh yeah! A little bit nasty, just the way he liked it. He was fond of Annie as a person and respected her, but Jesus–there was nothing better than that moment when he slid between her legs. He broke through her boundaries and her face sort of looked…fuller, for a moment. It opened, like a bloom: lips parting, cheeks flushing, and hot fragrant breath rising. Every pump of his dick was written on that face.

  He leaned in and covered her mouth with his, feeling her hands sliding to the back of his neck. The tent in his pants grew as she yielded, and the secret beast inside him gloried at the kill.

  Kill. More than one colleague had warned him that he was using Annie Childs as a chew toy.

  She quivered, pressing her breasts against his chest and twirling the curl at the nape of his neck with that girlish anxiousness that drove him crazy. Rain tried to start slow, parting her lips with his own and exploring the sweet hot pockets of her mouth. But it was no good. It was she who was eager–her hand moved down to cup his dick and a low moan issued from her throat, so lusty and ready, he almost started to grind right there.

  She always did it. She encouraged him to force his way in–she showed him that she was keen to play the same old game.

  Rain felt his penis climbing to a whole new level of hard as she worked him through the fabric with her slender digits. “Oh babe,” she whispered.

  Rain didn’t reply. He stared into her eyes as she caressed him, sliding a hand up and down. Annie’s eyes were full of warm submission: trusting hazel pools. Rain’s bicep tensed involuntarily, pulling her closer, so abruptly that she whimpered. The sight of those eyes made him greedy for the moment when they widened in shock, taking the fullness of him.

  “I need to get in,” he hissed.

  Annie squeaked. The small noise came involuntarily this time–he could tell. It was born somewhere in a deep pocket in her throat. As her head fell backward Rain got another look at that neck, stretching luxuriously. The skin was covered with a smattering of freckles that he knew well.

  I need to get in.

  Rain swore quietly and brushed Annie’s hand away, seizing his zip. She covered his hand with her own as the gold teeth ripped down. And then…Oh boy. Her wink was one of the sexiest he’d ever seen. She bit her own tongue, showing it to him between her teeth, then pressing just a little too hard so her nose wrinkled up in shock. What a naughty girl she was. Rain allowed the display, letting her fingers linger over his.

  The first sea breeze of the evening rushed over the sand that very moment, heading in from the cool center of the lake. Rain watched Annie’s hair move in the gust. She closed her eyes as the wind whistled around her head, lulling her with a gentler caress than she would ever get from him.

  He smirked.

  Rain popped his button through its hole and watched her head fly down. “Suck it.” His hiss was demonic.

  Annie took him all the way to her throat as he worked her head, alternating a massage with fist-locked twists of her strands that were just a
little too hard. He heard her squeak with every tightening of his hand on her locks and gag with every quick pump of his erection.

  His sense of power was almost too great. The wide muddy river stretched out ahead of him and the sun was burning the sky with the last brilliant orange shades of the day. The sphere was disappearing over the ferns on the horizon, just a tiny segment now–as low in the sky as Annie’s eager, slobbering head.

  Her tongue swept along the underside of his shaft and he moaned. The sound was so urgent the whole soundscape of the lake area rose around it–the lapping of the waves and songs of the parrot finches. Rain noticed them for the first time. When Annie squeaked again, more shrill and animal than the wildest bird or mammal, he started to pump harder.

  “You love it.” It came from somewhere beyond reason, deep in his chest and out of his mouth before he knew it. She swept her tongue in response, cleaning the underside of his penis with wet, smooth strokes. Rain lost it–his next pumps were so vicious Annie withdrew, gagging. He cursed himself for missing the view.

  “Oh, man.” He panted over the lap, lap, lap of the lake. Annie was gasping, too, her face red, breathing deep gulps of the salty air that was–he could only imagine–tinged with the scent of his dick.

  “You’re so hot.” He touched the top of her head, suddenly warm for this woman and her efforts and the sublime experience she had just afforded him.

  “I had to stop.” She forced a meek giggle that was pained as well–a testament to the size and power of his cock. Her blonde head was bobbing against the backdrop of the foamy, shell-covered shore. His hand rested on top of it.

  Rain kicked his trousers away. By the time he looked back she had raised her face–it was adorned with a smile and bisected by his pulsing, rock-hard cock.

  “It’s probably for the best,” he told the hazel puppy eyes. She was smoking. “I was about to come your brains out.”

  “With that, he pulled her to her feet and peeled her kaftan over her head, throwing it on the sand. Her breasts were as full as he remembered, tanned to a delicious caramel through topless mornings by the river.

  “We’re going to finish this. Out there.” Rain gestured to the waves. He took Annie’s hand, and they were off.

  * * * *

  Annie’s skin puckered as she waded in. The frothy water around her ankles was freezing.

  “No looking back now.” Rain was behind her. His shirt was off and that erection was still high and mighty under his abs. She poked her tongue out defiantly after she snuck her peek. I’ll look back if I feel like it.

  And with a body like that, I’ll probably have the impulse.

  She placed thigh after thigh, pushing ahead against the resistance of the water, aware of Rain’s eyes trained on her ass. She could feel them. A squeeze of her cheek as the water reached knee level assuaged any doubts.

  “I can’t wait to take this,” he whispered. Suddenly there were lips on Annie’s ear and wet fingers groping at her neck. She collapsed back into him, closing her eyes and sucking on the finger that Rain slid in her mouth. She relished his hot breath and the atmosphere of wind and Rain for a moment, then strode on, heart pounding and nose still full of the manly scent of him.

  The water spiked up in tiny waves, licking at her hips and sending flecks up her abdomen and chest. I cannot believe I’m doing this. Again. The thought came through her horniness and shocked her, just as the water was about to reach the hot space between her thighs.

  Oh God. I will regret this. Annie would have reached down and touched herself if he hadn’t chosen that moment to do the same.

  “Don’t go in any further. I want to feel how wet you are.”

  Before she could protest that the waves were smaller ahead, there was a hand between her legs.

  “Oh.” Annie moaned as the pleasure finally surged from that spot where it had been pooling for the last hour. Her vision starred up. Warmth flooded up her back, down her arms, and into the ecstatic, horny skull that had lost all power of thought, and sight, and wanted this man more than anything.

  Rain’s fingers moved in slow circles around her clitoris and his tongue licked at Annie’s ear. His arm locked around her waist and she gave in, letting another starburst fill her vision as a new hot tsunami rushed up through her body.

  “I’ve got you,” he whispered. The hiss of the waves and the whisper of this god made the orgasm sublime. Cosmic. Annie arched her back, guiding his hand to her nipples.

  He obliged, teasing the fine points, finessing all the pleasure out of the nerves. Annie cried out.

  After a new orgasm had simmered through her, she wriggled out from under his bicep and twisted to see Rain’s face. His eyes were sparkling and slitted in the wind. His lips were pursed in that way she loved, thoughtful and stubborn at once, and his jaw had never looked firmer, stronger, or more covered with sexy stubble. She had felt it grazing her cheek as he worked her clitoris.

  They both leaned in at once to kiss, making Annie’s heart leap with joy. They were in sync. His tongue played as his hands groped her ass. With a final firm squeeze–almost painful–and a final sweep of his tongue over hers, Rain pulled off.

  “Are you sure we can do the choke out here?” Annie asked. The vulnerability in her voice startled her. “If I black out…Rain, I’ll drown.”

  “You know I’ll hold you.”

  She did. She trusted him with that.

  The waves crashed harder, as if in sadistic excitement, as Rain’s hands finally encircled Annie’s throat. She saw his ecstasy. His handsome face twisted in a look of rapt eagerness.

  He began to apply pressure.

  “Ucch.” The water battered Annie’s back as pain started to fill her skull. Her throat and voice locked up. Just like that the hot pleasure was gone from her loins–her focus was urgently on her neck, on the glee in Rain’s face, and on the horrible feeling in her head. It was a dull agony–her brain felt like it was shrinking, blocked off from the blood pooling out of her heart, nourishing the rest of her body.

  Her whole body started to feel light. A final sharp pain pierced her forehead as she watched Rain lick his lips.

  “Stop. Stop.” They had both expected her to say that. Rain did not–his fingers kept pressing, locking tighter and pushing up towards her chin at the same time, to cut off the delicate passage that was hidden up there. An epic choke sound blasted from Annie’s throat as her whole body collapsed.

  The world went black.

  Annie was limp. She had gotten one last look at his open-mouthed ecstasy before she lost consciousness.

  * * * *

  Annie awoke to the sound of the lapping river, a more persistent breeze and the lock of the same strong arm around her waist.

  “How long?” she moaned. “How long was I gone?”

  “Just thirty seconds.” Rain replied. His heart pumped on her back. “Let’s do it.”

  Annie gasped as he entered from behind, bringing all the feeling back like a storm to her loins. His penis pounded in and out, brushing the sweetest spots in her most secret space–the part that she worked with her fingers at night, knowing exactly how to curve the digits and where to press. Rain’s shaft pressed her g-spot with every thrust, working it blissfully. After all that neglect. Her g-spot–her hungriest part of all–had been waiting there, positively pulsing for the touch of Rain’s penis. Annie screamed as her entire body came back to life–just a moment ago the world had been black.

  “Rain. Rain.” She called as the water churned around them. Rain kept thrusting, hands on her breasts. With every slam of his penis a new wave of pleasure was released. Her body was like a slow blooming flower, taking its time yielding scents and colors.

  Annie threw her head back as a final orgasm rocked her. She felt Rain explode too. He grunted in that familiar way she loved–she had taken him to the top. A million sensations had passed through him and now they were all connecting, land sliding gloriously into that final release.

  She felt him withd
raw.

  Then there was just the pounding of the waves, the call of a lyrebird on the shore, the bubbles around her thighs, and a sky that was darkening rapidly. Grey, shot through with red, Annie thought peering at the horizon. The sun was just a slit now.

  Grey and red is such an amazing combination.

  “Rain. Look.” She pointed. That sky was like as the sex they enjoyed together–soft pink spaces were shot through with streaks of brutal black.

  She let Rain carry her back to the shore and giggled as he tossed her on the sand, like a fisherman’s catch.

  Chapter 3

  “Why don’t people want to admit that it feels good?”

  Rain was spread next to her on the bed, legs so long his feet stuck out of the end of the quilt and scraped the dirt-packed floor of Annie’s hut. He grinned lazily, spent after the sex and the day of thrashing around in rivers.

  “Safety liability,” he murmured, taking a handful of soy crackers from the plate Annie had placed by the bamboo bed frame. She watched his hand enter the candlelight. The fingers were lit suddenly, all the creases and the lines of the knuckles defined. On the wall behind his fiddling fingers a shadow appeared, each hair defined so the hand looked like a monstrous spider.

  Annie’s eyebrows shot up. “People could just admit that it’s a guilty pleasure though. Like drinking and driving.” She nuzzled into him, both to drink up his yummy smell and to banish that sinister spider-hand from her sight.

  “Well, it’s easier just to not talk about it at all. Keep it taboo. Can you imagine how many divorces would go AWOL for the man if the wife claimed she was mentally disturbed? And that she got that way because he strangled her for both their pleasure?”

  “Ah. It’s another way to protect men in the courts. I should have guessed.” Annie giggled, giving his chest a lick. Rain twitched.

  “Stop that.” She laughed at his pec shifting like a tectonic plate before an earthquake. It always amused her that he was so ticklish.