Alluring Darkness: A Dark College Bully Romance (Kings of Blackwater Book 1)

Three muscular men block my path. Slowly closing the front door behind me, I stop there in the hallway and sweep my gaze over them before arching an eyebrow.

“If I had known that I would be met by such an esteemed welcome wagon, I would have prepared a more dramatic entrance,” I say.

Rico, Kaden, and Jace look back at me with hard eyes. As usual, Kaden is twirling a knife in his right hand while Jace is resting a baseball bat on his shoulder. They’re flanking Rico, who is standing in the middle with his arms crossed. Even though Rico is unarmed, his entire body is still pulsing with threats. Even more so than the other two.

Their entrance hall is rather wide, but so are the three of them. Especially when they’re standing side by side. In their current position, they’re blocking the entire hallway, leaving me stranded there in front of the door.

I adjust the duffel bag I have slung over my shoulder while I shoot them a pointed look. But right before I can spit out the snarky remark on my tongue, they at last speak up.

“If you do anything to hurt Eli,” Rico begins, his voice low and dripping with threats, “and I mean anything, we will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

“And then you will die screaming,” Jace adds, a vicious grin on his lips.

“And begging for the sweet release of death,” Kaden finishes.

For a few seconds, I just look back at them in silence. Then a laugh erupts from my chest. While trying to suck in a breath between the fits of laughter, I point between the three of them. “Did you rehearse this?”

My stomach lurches as Kaden yanks my body sideways and slams me up against the dark wooden wall. I hit it hard enough to rattle one of the paintings to my right, and my breath escapes my lungs in a huff.

With his left forearm pressed against my collarbones, he raises his other hand and slowly traces his knife down the side of my face. Violence and a terrible coldness, like a merciless black sea in a storm, pulses in his eyes as he locks them on me.

“Careful with that tongue,” he says, his voice seemingly devoid of all emotion. “Or someone might decide to cut it out.”

“Careful with those threats.” I let a smile tinted with insanity spread across my lips. “Or someone might slip poison into your coffee one morning.”

A muscle ticks in his jaw, and he increases the pressure with his forearm, pushing me harder against the wall. I glare back at him. But before things can get out of hand, Rico places a hand on Kaden’s shoulder and gives it a firm squeeze.

After another second of staring me down with those cold eyes, Kaden drops his arms and steps back. I brush my hands down my shirt and adjust my bag again before starting forward.

However, before I can take so much as a single step, Jace plants the top of his bat against my chest and shoves me back against the wall.

Irritation flashes through me as I shoot them all an annoyed look. “Was there anything else?”

“If you hurt Eli—” Rico repeats.

“You’ll hunt me down and torture me to death and blah, blah,” I cut him off and then flick my wrist in a nonchalant gesture. “Yes, yes, I heard you the first time. Also, did he not tell you that he is the one who wanted me to sleep here?”

“He did,” Rico admits.

“Great. Then you already know that this arrangement makes sure that both of us get what we want. So trying to hurt him now would just defeat the point of that, don’t you think?”

All three of them look back at me in grudging silence, as if they know that I’m right but don’t want to admit it.

“Excellent.” I give Rico a brisk pat on the cheek. “But it is adorable when you all act like mother hens.”

Stunned surprise pulses across their faces, probably at both my words and my actions. It gives me a second to move before they can react, and I use it well. Slipping past them, I hurry down the hallway.

“Good talk,” I call over my shoulder as I start up the stairs.

I’ve only just placed my hand on the door to Eli’s bedroom when a furious voice splits the air from downstairs.

“Raina!”

Footsteps, fast and angry, pound against the steps.

I’m about to open the door and escape into Eli’s room when it’s shoved open instead, forcing me to jump back to avoid being hit by it. The move makes me lose precious seconds. I glance between Eli, who is scowling at me from the door, and Kaden who has now appeared at the top of the stairs.

Murder flashes in Kaden’s eyes as he stalks towards me.

“What the fuck is going on?” Eli demands, crossing his arms over his muscular chest as he watches his brother advance on me.

“I’m going to skin Raina alive,” Kaden announces in a terrifyingly casual voice as he casts a glance at Eli. “Wanna watch?”

Confusion pulses across Eli’s features, but he steps out into the hallway and raises his arm to block Kaden’s advance. “Why?”

Kaden grinds to a halt and works his jaw, his cold rage-filled eyes locked firmly on me, before he presses out, “She stole one of my knives. Again.”

Raising the blade I took from his holster when I slipped past him downstairs, I flash him a smile brimming with challenge and arch my eyebrows. “It’s not my fault that you’re so easy to pickpocket.”

Disbelief flickers in Eli’s eyes as he turns to stare at me. Then he gives his head a quick shake, as if to compose himself, before snapping his fingers and holding out a hand. I shrug and hand him the knife. Eli quickly gives it back to Kaden, who flexes his fingers on the hilt as if he is trying very hard to stop himself from gutting me with it. Which is probably the case.

“She—” Kaden begins.

“I know,” Eli interrupts. “I’ll deal with it.”

For a few seconds, it looks like Kaden is going to barge past his brother and murder me anyway. But then he just clenches his jaw and flexes his fingers on the blade again before abruptly spinning around and stalking back down the hall.

As soon as he is gone, Eli grabs me by the arm and throws me into his bedroom before slamming the door shut behind us. I stumble a few steps before managing to right myself. While shooting him an annoyed look, I unsling the duffel bag filled with clothes and toiletries and drop it on the floor.

“What was—” I begin, but he immediately cuts me off.

“You do know that Kaden kills people who touch his blades without permission, right?”

I lift my shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “I guessed as much.”

“And still you decided that stealing one of them, again, was a good idea?”

“But it’s so much fun seeing that cold mask on his face shatter as that beast beneath it appears.” A grin lifts my lips as I wiggle my eyebrows at Eli. “Oh come on, you can’t tell me you don’t also love to rile him up.”

Light dances in his eyes. It looks like he is trying very hard not to smile or chuckle or show any sort of approval. But I can still read it in his eyes, clear as day. He’s impressed by my actions.

With what looks like great effort, he forces those emotions down and instead lets an imperial mask descend on his features as he jerks his chin towards the large desk by the wall. “Bend over and pull up your skirt.”

I snort and raise my eyebrows. “How about no?”

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice. But for your sake, I would suggest picking the easy way.”

A wicked grin spreads across my lips. “Oh, but what would be the fun in that?”

Excitement flares up in his eyes, and a matching grin spreads across his lips as he takes a step towards me.

This is what I love about the bastard Eli Hunter. I love how he is when he’s with me. He never looks at me as if I’m crazy or unstable. He just meets me with the same chaotic and thrillingly destructive energy. I have never felt so understood by anyone as I do when I’m with him.

He lunges at me, and I leap back to avoid his right arm. But as I slip towards the other side, his left hand shoots out as if he was expecting me to go that way all along. A yelp slips past my lips as his fingers lock around my forearm. I try to yank my arm out of his grip, but he just forces my hand up behind my back before yanking me towards him. My back slams against his hard chest a second before he wraps his other hand around my throat from behind.

With an iron grip on me, he marches me over to the dark wooden desk by the wall. I try to fight him as he bends me over it, but I soon find my cheek pressed against the cool wood.

“Stay down,” he warns as he takes his hands off me. “Or this—”

The moment his hands are gone, I try to slip away.

I only make it half a step before I’m jerked to a halt by a brutal hand in my hair.

“Fucking hell,” Eli grumbles.

With his fist buried in my hair, he drags me over to one of the drawers. I stumble along while trying to bend his fingers back and force him to release my hair.

Metal rattles from the drawer.

Then he abruptly releases my hair.

I wasn’t at all ready for it, so I just blink in surprise.

Eli uses my second of stunned surprise to shove my hands behind my back and then snap a pair of handcuffs shut around my wrists. Reality crashes back into me, but it’s already too late. Eli pulls a leather belt from the drawer as well while gripping my hair with his other hand. Then he drags me back to the desk.

“Seriously?” I mutter. Since my hands are now locked behind my back, all I can do is stumble along beside him. “You just happened to have handcuffs lying around in a drawer?”

A chuckle rumbles from his chest. “You’re lucky we’re not in Kaden’s room. He has a much more extensive collection of… equipment.”

Before I can reply, we arrive at the desk. Eli uses his grip on my hair to pull me upright again. Then he loops the leather belt around my neck. I watch him through narrowed eyes. He smirks at me.

Once he’s done, he plants his palm between my shoulder blades and shoves me face down over the desk again. Grabbing the end of the belt, he efficiently ties it to the table leg below the edge. It leaves me bent over the table with my hands shackled behind my back and my hips pressed against the edge.

I try to pull against the belt in order to lift my head. Since Eli slid the leather through the beltloop before placing it around my neck, all my yanking does is to tighten the belt around my throat. With a grumble, I’m forced to admit that I am firmly trapped in this position now.

Resting my cheek against the smooth tabletop, I glare at the smirking man standing next to me.

Amusement dances in Eli’s eyes as he rakes them over my vulnerable body while he slowly slides his belt out of his dark jeans. I watch as he makes a show of rolling the leather belt around his fist.

“I promised Kaden I would punish you,” Eli declares. “So I won’t stop until you apologize for stealing his knife.”

A thrill races along my spine.

With a grin on my face, I retort, “Good luck with that.”

He huffs out a dark chuckle. Moving down the length of the table, he positions himself behind me instead. Because of the tight belt around my neck, I can’t see him from here.

For a few seconds, nothing happens.

A jolt zaps through me when his hands suddenly appear on my bare thighs as he shoves my skirt up to my waist. Then his warm hands brush along my spine as he pushes my shirt up too, exposing my back. I wiggle against my bonds as he then curls his fingers around the edge of my panties and slides them down over my ass.

My skin prickles at the exposure as they flutter down my legs and land on the floor around my ankles instead.

“Look at this ass,” Eli muses, a roughness to his dark voice, as he traces the curve of my ass with his hand. “Just begging to be punished.”

A shudder of pleasure rolls through me at his gentle touch.

It’s cut off halfway through as Eli quickly pulls his hand away and whips my ass with his belt instead.

I gasp and jerk instinctively against my restraints, but it only serves to restrict my breathing even more.

Eli brings the belt down on my ass again.

Pain pulses through my sensitive skin. I wiggle my ass to relieve the ache even as my thighs clench and my pussy throbs with the sensation as well.

“I love it when you squirm like that,” Eli says, and I can hear the smirk in his voice.

He spanks me with the belt again.

Heat floods my core, and I fail to bite back a small moan. Fuck, I’m so wet already. When I’m bent over a table like this, handcuffed and with a belt around my neck, Eli can do whatever he wants with me, and all I can do is to just take it. I can feel the sheer power pulsing from his entire being as his muscular body looms over me. He holds my pain, my pleasure, my very life in the palm of his hand.

Another moan rips from my throat as he brings the leather belt down on my naked ass again.

“I knew it.” His smug voice vibrates through my very bones. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I suck in a shuddering breath instead of answering him.

He draws his hand over my hip and then slips it down between my thighs. I squirm and shift my weight, but the restraints keep me mercilessly trapped while Eli cups my wet pussy.

“You are,” he announces, as if I didn’t already know exactly how much my depraved body is enjoying this. “Tell me, princess, were you enjoying yourself when I did this to you in the middle of the canteen too?”

Clenching my jaw, I refuse to answer.

Eli slides his fingers along my pussy before carefully circling my clit. Pleasure flickers through me, and I have to grind my teeth together to stop another moan.

“If I had put my hand between your legs that time, would I have found your cunt this soaking wet and needy that time as well?” he demands while he continues to tease my clit with expert strokes. When I still don’t answer, he flicks my aching clit hard enough to make me gasp. “Answer.”

“Yes,” I blurt out.

A satisfied chuckle drifts through the air. With his fingers still toying with my clit, he moves up farther behind me until he’s standing so close that I can feel the rough fabric of his jeans scrape against my sensitive skin. He leans over me, bracing his free hand on the table beside my hip, and grinds the bulge of his hard cock against the top of my ass.

I whimper. He rolls my clit between his fingers. I press my body harder against his forearm that he now has between my hip and the edge of the table, but he just continues torturing me with expert fingers. I force out a long breath as pleasure builds inside me.

“Apologize for stealing Kaden’s knife, and I just might let you come,” Eli says.

With him leaning over me like that, I can feel his warm breath against my naked back as he speaks. It sends a shiver of pleasure rolling through my body. I press my cheek harder against the cold wood.

Lightning skitters across my skin as Eli’s lips brush the top of my spine.

I suck in a gasp, and desire pulses through my body.

Tension thrums inside me as Eli kisses his way down my spine while his hand continues teasing my pussy. Every touch of his lips against my heated skin sends a burst of electricity through my body. I squirm against the tabletop.

Eli swirls his thumb around my clit while he traces two fingers over my entrance.

My heart pounds so hard against my ribs that I swear I can hear it through the wooden table. I drag in unsteady breaths as the pent-up release inside me reaches terrible intensities. I need his cock inside me. I need him to fuck my brains out until all I can feel is that sweet release washing through my limbs. I need it more than I need air right now.

“Eli.” His name falls from my lips like a plea. “Fuck me.”

“Tell me how sorry you are for stealing that knife,” he says, speaking the words directly against my skin as he kisses his way back up my spine.

“Eli.” It comes out as a growl this time.

He draws his thumb over my clit while pushing one finger inside me, barely more than an inch. Then he pulls it out again. A snarl of frustration rips from me, and I stomp my foot against the floor.

“Say it,” Eli commands.

The unflinching power in his voice pulses against my skin and makes my heart skip a beat. Straightening, he takes his lips from my spine and removes his left hand from the tabletop. His right continues teasing my pussy.

The sounds of a zipper being pulled down echoes into the tense silence. I draw in a shuddering breath. Eli responds by dipping a finger inside my pussy again. It’s barely in before he pulls it out again.

I yank against the belt in frustration, which only makes it tighten around my throat again and heightens the feeling of utter helplessness. My clit throbs in response.

A jolt shoots through me as Eli’s hard cock suddenly brushes against my ass. I try to push myself harder against him, but his free hand lands on my hip. Digging his fingers into my skin, he keeps me immobile while he tortures my clit and drags his cock down to my entrance.

Desperate moans drip from my lips. The tension pulsing inside me is so violent that I feel like I’m going to shatter if I don’t get release soon.

“Say it,” Eli orders, his voice brimming with absolute command and his words cutting through the air like a whip.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. “I’m sorry for taking the knife.” Another needy whimper rips from me as Eli draws his cock up and down my seam. “I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry. Now fuck me!”

“Good girl.”

A full-body shudder racks my frame. Eli removes his fingers from my clit and pulls his arm back. Gripping my hips with both hands, he angles my ass upwards so that he can reach my pussy better.

Then he slams his cock into me.

I gasp as his thick length at last fills my pussy.

He pauses for a few seconds, allowing me to adjust to his cock, then he draws out before shoving into me again. I moan into the tabletop.

Eli lets out a dark groan as well. “It’s as if you were fucking made for me.”

My hips slam against the edge of the table as he starts up a brutal pace. I draw in ragged breaths as my body jerks back and forth, pulling against the belt around my neck. He digs his fingers into my hips hard enough to bruise as he holds me firmly in place while slamming into me.

Pleasure pulses through me with every savage thrust of his hips.

I fucking love the brutal dominance of it. The fact that I am handcuffed and tied to the table. That he can just take and take and take until my body shatters around his cock.

It feels as if he’s claiming me. Branding his name into my body and breaking my soul so that the whole world will know that I belong only to him. And he only to me.

Release explodes through my body as his cock hits that perfect spot inside me.

I gasp as blinding pleasure ricochets through my limbs with enough force to make my legs buckle. I curl my fingers and pull against the handcuffs keeping my wrists trapped behind my back as I slide downwards, which makes the belt tighten around my throat and cut off all my air.

Eli tightens his already punishing grip on my hips, holding me up so that I can breathe again, while he continues fucking me with brutal force.

I melt into his hands as release washes through my body over and over again.

A deep moan tears from Eli’s chest as he slams deep into me.

My heart pounds against my ribs and my chest heaves as I lie there bent over the table while Eli spills himself inside me.

I know that our bargain only involves actual sleeping, but in all honesty, I would have eagerly agreed to his demands even if he had meant that he wanted me to fuck him in exchange for my brother’s life.

Because fucking hell, I could do this every day for the rest of my life and still never get enough.