Page 59 of Burn Me Down

“Yes, it does. Fire, heat, all of it.” He shifted in his seat, obviously uncomfortable with the topic, but I needed to understand him.

“Okay,” I said. “Do you have to be hurting someone to like it?”

He rubbed his hands on his jeans, and I could almost see him fighting with himself. “Not always, no. It’s dark and powerful. It’s tied to the revenge in me, so it hasn’t been as strong since I…well, since I killed everyone I was after.” He shifted in his seat again, and I could feel him pulling away and shutting down. If he had any hope of reconciling his past and for us to have a future, then he needed to find a balance between all the parts of himself. “It’s different than how I feel about you. You are the complete opposite, but just as potent, and…shit, please don’t think that it means I need to hurt you or…shit, this is coming out all wrong.”

I kissed him and stopped him from trying to explain. “Let’s go inside.”

Derek pulled me out of the cab and slammed the door. I gasped as he pushed me up against the truck. His kiss was desperate, his muscles flexing under my hands, and I ate it up, loving the feel of the wild need flooding my system like he was feeding it to me.

He took my hand and marched for the house, and I had to rush to keep up with his long strides. I wrapped his shaking hand in mine as he tried to get the key in the door. He took a deep breath and slipped the key into the lock.

As soon as we were inside, Derek pushed my jacket off my shoulder and pulled my shirt up out of my jeans. I could feel his body shaking with every touch, and I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to lose you,” he said.

“Why do you feel like you’re going to lose me?”

“Once you see what Violet sees, you’ll run, and you should. I’m not a good person, Beck. I have a darkness that lives in me, and it’s quiet right now, but…you won’t want me once you see it, and I know you will. I can’t stop it from taking over. It scares me, and I feel like I’m clinging to a ridge about to crumble away under my fingers.”

“Come here.” I pulled him across the floor to the living room and pushed him down on the couch. Walking over to the switch on the wall, I turned on the electric fireplace. It was a rare treat to have one of these in Florida, but I’d spent hours sitting in front of these flames as a kid.

“What are you doing?” Derek pushed himself up on the couch, his eyes locked on the dancing orange and red that erupted behind the glass.

“You can’t shove the parts you don’t like about yourself away and pretend they don’t exist,” I said as my fingers slowly undid the buttons on my blouse. “It will come back and take over, and you will end up doing something that you regret. You need to find a compromise.”

His eye were fixated on the glass, the glow casing dancing shadows on his face. “What do you suggest?”

“I think you need to find a new way to express and feed the dark you feel without it pushing you to do terrible things. It has to be something that fills your desires but isn’t toxic like before.” I tossed the blouse at him, and he caught it out of the air. Derek brought the material to his nose and took a deep breath. Undoing my bra, I dropped it on the coffee table, and the flame reflecting in Derek’s blue eyes made me shiver.

“What do you have in mind,” he asked, pulling his shirt off and tossing it away.

“Do you have candles?” He nodded. “Grab them and a lighter.” He didn’t even ask why as he jumped up and disappeared down the hall. I got rid of the rest of my clothes as I waited and turned at the sound of him coming back into the room. My mouth fell open as I stared at him standing in the doorway with four candles, already lit, in one hand, the little flames flickering. Derek was naked and it seemed every flame in the room was drawn to and became a part of him. He was magnificent and terrifying, and he was all mine.

I held out my hand, and he moved as smoothly as fire traveled and was just as deadly.

“I love it when you stare at me like that, Cookie,” Derek said, and I smiled. It was such an adorable nickname out of someone so dangerous, and it made me feel special.

“I love staring at you, so we are even. Just keep walking around naked, and I will stare at you like this all the time.”

Derek’s smirk was deadly sexy. I’d only seen it a couple of times, but as the side of his mouth pulled up, a dimple appeared, adding to his dark and devilish look. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to his body as he held the four candles away with his other hand. I gasped as his cock pressed into my stomach, making me rub my legs together.

“What do you want me to do with them,” Derek asked and then sucked my lower lip into his mouth, his tongue tracing the shape. I tried to form logical words as he kissed along my jaw and down the side of my neck, but the growing need between my thighs was making it difficult to add one plus one.

“Give me a sec.” I pulled the cushions off of the second couch and laid them on the floor near the fireplace. “Put them on the coffee table and sit down.”

He never glanced away from my eyes, and by the time he sat down in front of me, I was the one shaking inside.

“Before we do anything else, I need to taste you.” Goosebumps rose on my body as he lowered down and held out his hand. “Come here. Sit on me.” Nervousness held me back from moving until Derek sat up, his eyes firm as he ordered me to come to him. “Kneel on either side of my head facing the wall.”

I sank down slowly and hovered over his mouth. “I don’t want to smother you,” I said, wishing that I was a size zero.

The growl that came from him as he grabbed my hips had my pussy clenching and the rest of my body tingling with anticipation.

“When I say sit on my face, I mean sit on my face.” I gasped as he pulled me down onto his awaiting mouth.

“Oh dear God,” I said, my eyes rolling back into my head as his tongue worked me over. I leaned forward, placing a hand on his broad chest to keep myself from simply falling over with the intense pleasure. Moaning, I fondled my breasts, pinching and rolling my nipples between my fingers. “Fuck, Derek,” I said, shuddering.