Darker: The Holidays: A Christmas Novella Read online

  Darker: The Holidays

  A Christmas novella

  M. S. Parker

  Belmonte Publishing, LLC

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 Belmonte Publishing LLC

  Published by Belmonte Publishing LLC

  Contents

  Free Book

  The Darker Trilogy

  1. Nyx

  2. Bradyn

  3. Nyx

  4. Bradyn

  5. Nyx

  6. Bradyn

  7. Nyx

  8. Bradyn

  9. Nyx

  10. Bradyn

  The Club Prive Series

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Free Book

  Get my new book for FREE! Click Here to subscriber to my newsletter and start reading the exclusive 200 pages stand-alone steamy romance, His Inspiration.

  The Darker Trilogy

  Thank you for reading Darker: The Holidays, the bonus novella to my new Darker Trilogy. I highly recommend reading the books in this order:

  Prequel – Darker

  Darker I: The Novice

  Darker II: The Inquirer

  Darker III: The Fugitive

  Darker: The Holidays Novella

  One

  Nyx

  Home.

  The crack of leather against skin.

  The low moan of pleasure that came from the very edge of pain, intensifying each delicious sensation. My nerves hummed with anticipation, the air thick with electricity and desire.

  The scent of spice and silk and leather surrounded me, filling my senses. For some people, the smell of fresh baked goods or flowers set the mood for their houses, but for me, home would always be spice and silk and leather.

  Because those were the scents, I associated with him.

  Bradyn Traylor.

  The love of my life. The man who had gone from boyfriend to fiancé last year and would be going from fiancé to husband in just eight days. Christmas Eve. One day short from being exactly a year since he proposed.

  We’d been through so much together that I still felt like pinching myself at times, needing to make sure all of this wasn’t a dream. Heaven knew I’d had enough nightmares in my past for a lifetime.

  With a flick of my wrist, I sent the nine leather straps of the flogger toward Bradyn’s back. It’d been a couple months since I’d truly been the Dominant to him, and I intended to enjoy every second of it. I loved sex with Bradyn in every way, no matter who was submitting or even if neither of us were.

  BDSM was a big part of our sex life, but there were occasions when we both enjoyed ‘vanilla’ sex too, neither of us finding it boring. Bradyn was the only man I’d ever had ‘normal sex’ with. Just like he was the only man I’d ever allowed to top me.

  “That’s four.” Licking my lips, I admired the pink stripes already lining his skin. “But you earned five. Do you want the last one on your back or your ass?”

  While he thought the question over, I walked around him, taking a moment to ogle the man I still couldn’t believe was mine. Golden blond hair. Dark blue eyes. Dimples. He’d turned thirty this year, but he had one of those ‘pretty boy’ faces that meant he barely looked like he was in his mid-twenties. It was half the reason he always kept some facial hair.

  I personally liked the way it felt on my skin, especially the insides of my thighs.

  “Ass.”

  My smile widened. His choice didn’t really surprise me. In fact, I suspected he’d asked for me to Dominate him and had intentionally ‘earned’ a punishment exactly for this reason. We were flying down to Savannah tomorrow morning, and it turned him on to have his ass a little sore when he knew he would be sitting for a long period of time, with no way to find relief.

  “All right.” Taking my time, I let the ends of the flogger trail across his broad shoulders and then down his spine as I walked back to my position. “Ass, it is.”

  I added a little extra strength to the swing, just enough that the crack was a little bit louder, the impact a little bit harder. He made a low sound, one that meant he was wound tight enough that he could come easily.

  Not yet.

  I put the flogger in the box of toys to be cleaned and then walked around to the side of the bed. I’d bought new lingerie for our trip and wedding, but tonight, I’d decided to wear an old favorite. Well, not that old. It’d been one of Bradyn’s gifts to me last Christmas. I thought it’d be nice to wear it for our last night in our apartment as an engaged couple. When we returned home after the first of the year, we’d be married. A family.

  As I climbed onto the bed, I let myself enjoy the front view of my gorgeous man. I had to admit, there was something I loved about being sexily dressed while Bradyn was naked. And what I was wearing was definitely sexy.

  The leather bustier went from just above my belly button to the bottom of my breasts, where it turned into sheer black lace. Supported by the leather and teasing with glimpses of flesh through the delicate fabric, this top made my breasts look fantastic. With the bustier, I wore a matching black lace thong.

  To top it all off – or more accurately, bottom it off – were a pair of six-inch boots that were pretty much useless to me outside the bedroom. They were leather as well, coming to two inches above my knee. Definitely not practical for a PI, but awesome for sex appeal.

  “Damn, firebird,” Bradyn groaned. “You’re gonna kill me.”

  I wasn’t sure which I liked more, the fact that he’d used his special nickname for me, or that he was worked up enough that his Georgian accent was thick as molasses.

  No, I decided. My favorite thing was the look in his eyes when they went to the darkest blue that could still be called blue rather than black. It was hunger and heat and lust and want and need…it was everything I felt for him reflected back at me. I’d never dreamed I’d have anyone look at me like that. Or that I’d ever look like that at someone else.

  “Nyx?”

  I gave myself a mental shake and moved up to the head of the bed. I settled in as I spoke, “Just thinking about how much I love you.”

  His face lit up, and my heart gave an unsteady thump.

  I didn’t let either of those things distract me, though. I had a scene to continue and orgasms to have and give. As I tweaked my nipple through the lace before cupping my breast, I kept my eyes on Bradyn’s face, loving the way he followed my fingers.

  My other hand did the same things to the breast on that side, and little zings of pleasure went through me. I enjoyed it, but I was more interested in watching Bradyn. The physical sensations were nothing compared to all the emotions building inside me. I loved this man so damn much that it was nearly overwhelming.

  While my right finger and thumb rolled my nipple, my other hand slid down my stomach and into my panties. I made a small sound as my fingers brushed over my sensitive skin, and Bradyn swallowed hard. I’d told him he wasn’t allowed to move from where he was, and I could see his fingers twitching at his sides, wanting to touch but also wanting to obey.

  I’d been wet from the moment Bradyn had stripped, and my fingers slid between my slick folds with ease. I moaned a little when my middle finger made a light pass over my swollen clit on its way down to my entrance. It wouldn’t take much for me to come. As the finger slid inside me, my palm skimmed my clit and a shiver raised goosebumps on my skin.

  “Fuck, Nyx,” Bradyn groa
ned. His hands curled into fists.

  “Soon,” I promised. “But first…”

  My fingers moved back up, working in quick circles over that swollen bundle of nerves. Each pass sent pleasure racing across my nerves like electricity, scorching a path through my body until I felt like I was on fire. My breathing quickened as I burned, and my teeth sunk into my lip, adding a slight edge of pain. My back arched, and Bradyn made a sound in the back of his throat.

  “So close,” I gasped.

  What I really wanted was to have him inside me, but it wasn’t the time yet. Being the one in charge didn’t mean I didn’t get impatient too, just that I had to be the one to maintain control.

  Just because I couldn’t come the way I wanted yet didn’t mean I wouldn’t get to come at all.

  My free hand grasped my breast, and I squeezed it tight. Almost too tight, but that was the little bit extra I needed to tip over the edge. I let my eyes fall closed, let the pleasure wash over me, let myself drift on that bliss for several long moments before I started to come down.

  The second I opened my eyes, my gaze locked with Bradyn’s. The heat and hunger I found there made me actually whimper. The past two weeks had been so busy that we’d only fucked once, and it’d been a quickie. Definitely more fucking than making love. I didn’t know how often other couples had sex, but for us, that wasn’t normal. Part of the reason we’d decided to go to Savannah a week before the wedding was for us to have the space to relax and spend time together.

  Starting tonight.

  “What do you want?” I asked as I pulled my hand out from under my panties.

  “You.” His voice was gruff. “Fuck, firebird. I want you.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Come on, you can do better than that. Use your words.”

  His eyes narrowed, and a thrill ran down my spine. Damn, I loved when he had all that intensity focused on me.

  “I want to taste you. Make you come so hard you forget your name. Make you scream.”

  I crooked my finger and gestured for him to come to me. He crawled up the bed until he was between my legs, but he didn’t touch me.

  “May I?”

  The second I nodded, he reached for my wrist. He drew my hand to him and slid my middle finger between his lips. Each pull of his mouth was a line of desire straight to my pussy, and by the time he was done, my self-control was wire thin. He released my hand, a smug smile on his face.

  I shifted my position and wrapped my hand around his cock, squeezing until the smile dropped away and he groaned. It was my turn to smile. Letting go, I lightly ran my nails over the sensitive skin. A shudder ran through his entire body, and his lips parted. His breath came in harsh pants as I kept my touch feather light, tormenting him until he was near the edge.

  “Fuck,” he ground out as I stopped. Every muscle in his body was tense, shaking.

  “Not yet,” I repeated.

  I reached up and put my hand on his shoulder. I only had to apply a little pressure for him to get the hint. After quickly removing my panties and tossing them over his shoulder, he went down on his stomach, wincing as his cock rubbed against the silk sheets. It was a testament to his self-control that he didn’t come from that alone.

  Shivering with anticipation, I settled back into the pillows. My eyes closed, and I focused on the nearly overwhelming sensation of his mouth on me. Tongue and lips and teeth with all the right pressure and friction pushed me into an explosion of white-hot pleasure that had me forgetting that our apartment wasn’t sound-proofed. I didn’t have time for embarrassment, though, because he didn’t let up, and another orgasm rolled over me before the first had faded away.

  Unable to take any more delay, I reached down and grabbed Bradyn’s hair. I pulled it hard, and he made a pleased sound as he raised his head to look at me.

  “Inside me, n–”

  The word got lost in a muffled scream as he drove into me with one thrust while covering my mouth with his at the same time. He was relentless, slamming into my body until I found that strange place where pain and pleasure merged into something more. I clung to him, my heels digging into his ass, his lips bruising mine as his tongue plundered my mouth. The scent and sight and sound and feel and taste…

  Overwhelmed, my mind went blank. I could barely breathe. All I could do was hold on and trust that he’d catch me when we both fell.

  And he did.

  Two

  Bradyn

  The only thing that could make a commercial flight from New York City to Savannah worse – right before Christmas – was how much my ass chafed, even if I had asked for it. At least we were in first class.

  We’d considered flying coach to save money, but Nyx had convinced me to splurge for our wedding. She’d said ‘we,’ but it’d really been her, even if the money had come out of the joint checking account we opened a few months after our engagement. Our incomes were pretty well matched, but the account had gained a significant boost when she deposited the settlement money she received from the civil suit Ambrose Check filed on behalf of the children abused by Art Check and Clancy Traylor – Nyx’s stepfather and my father, respectively.

  Art and my father were both dead and couldn’t be prosecuted for their crimes, and there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that anyone from either family knew about the men’s many offenses, so no criminal charges had been filed. A civil case, however, didn’t have the same burden of proof, so Ambrose had filed against certain family members with the claim that they had known and hidden facts.

  My father’s storage unit had supported that to some extent, especially for my sister and mother, and I’d volunteered to testify about everything I’d learned. He’d guessed that both families would rather settle with NDAs than take the risk of fighting the case in court and having their names dragged through the mud more than they already had been.

  He’d been right.

  My family had almost disowned me over that. Well, my mom, sister, and brother-in-law, anyway. My cousin, Perenelle, had been one of my father’s victims and had held her silence until after he was murdered. Actually, she’d kept quiet until she discovered who Nyx’s stepfather was, and then it’d all come pouring out.

  When her mother learned what her brother-in-law had done…I’d never seen Aunt Judith and Perenelle this close. And Aunt Judith definitely had never liked me as much as she did when she saw me go against my family and stand by Perenelle about the lawsuit.

  Fortunately, the family rift hadn’t lasted long. I was fairly certain it’d just been them processing their new reality, anyway. They’d barely had time to start moving through the stages of grief after my dad’s murder before they learned that he wasn’t the man they’d known.

  I still didn’t know how much Mom had known about the family’s real history or what Dad had done to protect our name. Ashley had known our dad was into some shady stuff when it came to the Calvert slash Traylor family secrets, but the depths of Dad’s depravity had stunned even her.

  The pedophilia had hit us all out of nowhere and was worse than anything we could’ve imagined.

  It had been a…difficult two years. Good things had come out of it, the best being Nyx, but it hadn’t made things easier, though I’d had it better than Ashley and Warren. I’d moved to New York, gotten lost in the sea of people who didn’t know who I was, who didn’t know what’d happened. My family, who’d stayed in Savannah, had already been known, recognized. They’d been in the epicenter of a shitstorm that was only just now starting to die down. While they hadn’t really talked about it, we’d known it’d affected them.

  This past summer, my oldest nephew, Les, had come to stay with Nyx and me for two months. He was twelve when all of this had started, old enough to have an idea of what was being talked about. Now, he was fourteen and definitely understood what his grandfather had done, as did most of his classmates. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids’ parents – and even some of his teachers – had felt the need to hold a teenager responsible for his
grandfather’s actions.

  It still pissed me off to think about it, and it took a lot for me to push it back out of my mind. This trip wasn’t about rehashing the past. It was about the future.

  And my future was sitting next to me, her head on my shoulder and a sleepy smile on her face. My ass may have still been sore, but I’d left my own mark on her, and not just the bite marks on the insides of her thighs from our third round or the faint bruises from where I’d grabbed her hips the second time we fucked. I’d worn her out, and the knowledge brought with it a surge of pride.

  It’d been too long since we’d taken the time to lose ourselves in each other like that, and I vowed it’d be the last time we let regular life get in the way of what we both needed. I wasn’t stupid enough to say that we’d never go that long without sex again, because shit happened, good and bad, but we needed to make that connection more of a priority however we did it.

  It wasn’t just about feeling good, either. So many aspects of the BDSM world we were both a part of affected how we were outside the bedroom too. It was a way we coped with life, released stress, either took or gave up control depending on what we needed.

  The pilot came over the intercom to let us know that we were starting our descent into the Savannah / Hilton Head International Airport, which meant it was time to wake the sleeping beauty next to me. I let myself have a few seconds more to admire how peaceful she looked before kissing her forehead and giving her a gentle shake.

  “Nyx, we’re almost there.”