A Love So Dark by Rien Gray

Author:Rien Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary, romance/ noir, suspense, nonbinary, queer, bisexual, interracial, established couple, assassin, artist, Mafia, imprisonment, courtroom drama, FBI agents, revenge, graphic violence, #ownvoices
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2023-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Justine

THIS ISN’T MY bed.

The sheets are too smooth, made from satin that hasn’t warmed to the presence of bodies yet, folded lines lingering from the box. My wooden enclosure of a frame melts into the dark, making hard shadows, a void between body and floor. Even New York’s famed city lights dull in winter, streaks of yellow trying and failing to reach through the window, cold clouds choking out the stars. Too many sterile scents collide, trying to outdo one another: lemon’s acid touch in the floor wax, freshly opened plastic, hypoallergenic fabric softener exuding from new curtains. A hotel isn’t a home, but it’s lived in, countless fingerprints of existence worked into the clay of every room. Here, I’m lying on a blank slate, empty of meaning.

Every noise is a touch too loud, lack of familiarity turning up the volume. Latent drops of water from the sink drive my shoulders up to my ears because they’re coming from the wrong angle; wind whips a line of cables strung between buildings, and I twitch. The apartment breathes slowly, out of sync with the anxious heat building in my chest. I’m half tempted to reach for my phone, even if the screen would white out any ability to sleep for the next few hours.

Wood creaks, close and sharp. A single solid step, discordant with the rest of the apartment. The knob of the door turns with ease, silenced by practice.

I didn’t lock it. I didn’t—

The intruder moves before I can react, making contact as a smothering weight, one hand hot as a brand over my mouth. The other is heavy and cold, pushing in against my ribs. My hips are pinned, but even though my arms are free, fear is another set of shackles, stealing my will to struggle. When I draw breath to scream, gray eyes pierce my lungs; the sound emerges as a faint whimper.

“Shh,” Campbell whispers, “this has to be our secret. You know that.”

But I’m afraid.

“What are you afraid of?” they ask, like I spoke out loud. “Is it this?”

The algid presence along my ribs moves lower, slipping under the subtle boundary of the sheets. Smooth steel meets the inside of my thigh; I choke back a moan behind Campbell’s palm. They drag the barrel of the gun across naked skin like a caress until it reaches the crease of my hip, letting the muzzle rest with anticipation against my stomach.

Arousal throbs between my legs, electric. I shake my head.

“Because you trust me?” they ask. “Or because you want me to pull the trigger?”

Don’t ask me that.

“You can still run,” this handsome ghost tells me. “They’ll forgive you. You haven’t promised them anything, not really.”

Isn’t love a promise?

“It’s a line we draw.” The gun shifts, a metallic threat brushing against black curls, lingering until the heat pouring through me leaches the chill away. “A line that says, this is how far I’ll go for you. Sometimes it’s short. There are limits. But sometimes it goes on forever.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.