Hearts of Darkness: A Valentine's Day Bully Romance Collection Read online

  “Are-are you sure?” she mumbles.

  “Yes, I’m more than sure. You know why my girlfriend dumped me yesterday? Because I wanted kids and she didn’t. After everything that happened today... I’ve never had a better sign of who I should be with,” I whisper the next words against her lips, “you and that baby are it for me.” I kiss her just like I should have years ago.

  “How... how do we save my mom? How do we go against my father?”

  “Your father is nothing compared to mine.” I smile, knowing damn well that I’ll make certain that her father never has a chance to hurt her or her mother again.

  “We’ll call him first thing in the morning, and we’ll get everything figured out. Don’t worry. Right now, you need to get some rest. Are you okay staying here, or do you want to go home?”

  “Home? I don’t have a home anymore.”

  “I meant your new home, silly.” I gently kiss her on the forehead. “My home, which is now your home as well.”

  “You want me to move in with you?”

  “Did you not hear anything I said? You’re mine. The baby you’re carrying is mine. Why would you live anywhere else besides with me?”

  She curls herself deeper into my chest, burying her face in the crook of my neck.

  “I think I’m in love with you,” she murmurs against my skin.

  “Good because I know I’m in love with you.”

  Epilogue

  Daisy

  Six Weeks Later

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” I ask Carter for the hundredth time.

  “I wouldn’t have asked you if it wasn’t.”

  I look down at the giant engagement ring on my finger. “Are we not being crazy for doing this so fast?”

  “Fast? It took me years to build up to this. I am one-thousand percent sure. I want you. I’ve wanted you for a long time, and I am going to want you and that baby inside of you for the rest of my life. Marrying you is just the start of that journey. I want you and our baby to carry my name, so everybody knows who you belong to.”

  Crawling across the couch, I climb onto his lap. Straddling him with my legs, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him close.

  “I love you so much, and I can never repay you for what you did for me. My dad is in jail, I’m free, my mother is finally recovering.” Thinking of my mom still breaks my heart. It turns out I was right, he did drug her as well. He’d been adding it to her coffee every morning for the last twenty years.

  My whole life, I thought my mother was ill, but it was the drugs my father gave her that made her that way. She is better now, but because he gave it to her over such a long period of time, she will never be the same again. I was luckier in that respect. The doctors told me that I will most likely not have any long-term issues.

  “I love you too, and please stop saying that you owe me. I will never be able to make up for how I treated you in high school.”

  “How about this, can we just agree on the past being the past? Can we start our future today and not look back?

  “I can do that,” he nods, leaning forward to place a soft kiss on the tip of my nose. “Maybe we could celebrate our new beginning?” His voice turns low and seductive.

  “Mhm, what did you have in mind?”

  “Maybe we could go on a little trip... a trip upstairs to the bedroom?” He doesn’t even wait for my answer. He pushes himself up to stand, picking me up with him.

  I giggle the whole way up the stairs. When we get inside the room, he gently throws me onto the bed, making me bounce against the mattress twice before he pounces on top of me, tearing off my clothes like a starving man.

  My sex clenches with anticipation as he kisses me with both passion and devastating need. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be my life, but now I can’t picture myself living without Carter.

  “I need you,” he pants against my skin as he kisses me feverishly, his lips trailing over every inch of exposed flesh.

  Arching my back, I hold his head to my chest as he swirls his hot mouth over one of my hardened nipples.

  “You make me crazy,” I gasp, my heart is thundering inside my chest. Everywhere that he touches, burns, my body humming with foreign energy. I’ve never felt this way before, never been so crazed with need for someone.

  “No, you make me crazy,” he drags his hands down my body and cradles my stomach before moving his mouth lower, pressing soft kisses against it. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how crazy you make me.”

  Pressing one last kiss to my swollen stomach, he moves lower until he’s got my legs spread wide, and his hulking frame is between them. Pausing, he stares down at my folds, his eyes dark, burning with possession, with a need to stake his claim.

  Cupping me under my ass, he gives me no warning as he brings my pussy to his face and starts to feast on me like I am water, and he’s dying of thirst. He fucks me with his tongue, alternating between fast and slow strokes, bringing me to the brink of pleasure before pulling it away. I’m on a seesaw of pleasure, and Carter is in control.

  “You want to come?” He smirks against my folds.

  “What kinda question is that?” I growl, fisting the sheets beneath my hands.

  I can feel the pressure building in my belly all over again, and if my body was a rubber band, it’d snap.

  “Mmm, you taste so good... I can’t wait to fuck you here.” His mouth moves down to my ass as he licks the virgin hole, pressing gently against it with the tip of his tongue. All I do is whimper, wanting him to go back to my clit. “Will you let me have that? Let me claim your last virgin hole?”

  I’m panting now, my thighs quivering as he slowly drags his tongue back up to my clit.

  “Will you? Will you let me have every single part of you?” I’m on the edge of pleasure, trailing against the jagged rocks, and I’m ready to fall, to be set free.

  “Yes,” I gasp, squeezing my eyes shut. Frustration ripples through me when he pulls away and moves up my body. My eyes flutter open, and my lips part, a string of curse words seconds from coming out when he slams inside me, and my entire world fades away.

  Two deliciously hard strokes are all it takes for me to start coming, my body trembles, and color flickers over my eyes as I arch into his body, wanting him deeper, harder. His hands map out my body, molding me as if I’m a piece of clay. I shatter around him, gushing my release all over his cock.

  “Shit, shit. I’m not going to last. You’re too fucking tight...” He curses and with a roar, tips his head back, and starts to come inside me.

  Ropes of sticky hot come paint my womb, and I’ve never felt so satisfied in my whole life. Feeling him deep inside of me, knowing that he’s marked me as his. I feel cherished and cared for, and I know nothing will ever take me away from him.

  “I love you, Daisy. I love you so fucking much, and as soon as you have this baby, I’ll be putting another one in you. I’ll always love you, and I’ll make sure you never go a day without my cock being inside of you.”

  “I love you too,” I whisper with a sleepy smile on my face.

  Letting my eyes drift closed, I know that I can sleep soundly because, in the end, I hadn’t been crazy, and I got the guy of my dreams.

  The End

  Enjoyed this story?

  Be sure to leave a review! You can also read more about Blackthorn in our Dark Bully Romance Series the Blackthorn Elite.

  Hating You

  Breaking You

  Hurting You

  Regretting You

  About the Authors

  J.L. Beck and C. Hallman are an international bestselling author duo who writes contemporary and dark romance.

  Join our newsletter for MORE FREE BOOKS, as well as sales and updates.

  Signup

  Join J.L. Beck & C. Hallman Online

  www.bleedingheartromance.com

  Facebook

  Readers Group

  Read More of their Books

 
Bayshore Rivals

  (Reverse Harem Bully Romance)

  When Rivals Fall

  When Rivals Lose

  When Rivals Love

  North Wood University

  (Bully Romance)

  The Bet

  The Dare

  The Secret

  The Vow

  DARK MAGIC

  Summer's Harem

  Maggie Alabaster

  About Dark Magic

  Summer and Huon's relationship has always been tempestuous. When the crown prince starts to throw his weight around, Summer comes under fire. She gives as good as she gets, but how far can she push him before she goes too far and he forces her out of the fae kingdom.

  Or will their attraction create even bigger problems?

  Chapter 1

  I jumped as a book slammed shut behind me. Before I caught my breath, he laughed. I gritted my teeth and turned around.

  Huon stood with a book in his hands and a grin on his face. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." He gave me a look of pure innocence which made me snort. I wasn't born yesterday, or even in the last decade. He was about as innocent as...well...I was.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yes, you did. What do you want?" I placed a dried leaf in the page in front of me and closed the book.

  He shrugged. "Nothing. What are you reading?"

  "It's a book about an annoying fae who drove a beautiful young fae woman to stab him in the eye with a pine needle," I said sweetly, but with a healthy dose of venom. He just had that effect on me.

  Huon snorted and flopped into the chair beside mine. He draped his legs over the arm and steepled his fingers. "What is it really about?"

  I opened the book and kept on reading. After a moment I realised he was looking over my shoulder. For a prince, he was a royal pain in the ass. For a fae, he was young, like me, barely into his second century. That meant I had another hundred years of putting up with him. If I didn't strangle him first. To be honest, I wouldn't rule that out. Lucky for him I wasn't inclined toward violence. Yet.

  I closed the book again and sighed. "Do you want something?"

  He looked toward my breasts and licked his lips. "Why do you read so much? It looks boring." He raised his gaze to my face and cocked his head at me.

  "If it's so boring, then why are you here in the library?" Apart from irritating me. That seemed to be high on his list of favourite pastimes lately.

  "I am Crown Prince of the fae," he pointed out. "This library belongs to me. I can come and go as I please. And I can decide who is allowed in here."

  "I think you'll find that's up to your father," I told him. His father rarely threw his weight around and I didn't much appreciate Huon doing it. He was a big enough dick as it was.

  "Ah, but my father isn't here." Huon looked smug. "He's visiting the human realm, with mother. They left me in charge."

  He was right, worse luck. They wouldn't be back for days. "Are you going to kick me out?" I asked tersely.

  "That depends on you." He raised one hand. For a moment I thought he might place it under my chin to turn my face toward him. I wasn't beyond whacking him with the book in my lap if he touched me without my permission. Lucky for him, he was a dick, not an idiot.

  "Come to the ball with me tomorrow night."

  I wrinkled my nose. The fae are frivolous at times. We rarely needed an excuse to hold a ball, a feast, a party or whatever. In this case, my oldest sister, Zinnia, was celebrating her birthday. She was insufferable at the best of times. When she was the centre of attention, she was even worse. She loved it far more than I ever would.

  "I would rather stand naked in troll territory and let screamspinners climb all over me," I declared. The multi-legged arachnids loved nothing more than to lure fae into their webs and eat us. I shuddered at the thought.

  Huon grinned. "I can help with the naked part." He reached for the hem of my skirt.

  I pulled my legs away. "Not a chance. I'm perfectly capable of making myself naked if I need or want to. Which I don't, especially not with you."

  He his eyes snapped with annoyance. "That's a bit harsh." His tone was tight. He didn't like to be turned down, but I refused to appease his ego. I would leave that to the countless fae and human girls I had seen him with over the last few hundred years.

  He set his mouth in a tight line. "There are worse fae than me."

  Honestly, that was probably true, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. Well, apart from my sisters. And then then there was— Okay, he was right, but that didn't significantly change my opinion of him.

  "If you say so." I placed the book on the table in front of me and rose to my feet.

  He grabbed my wrist in a tight grip. "Maybe I should say you can stay the hells out of my library."

  I hissed and pulled, but he held me tight. "What are you, a forty year old?" I snapped.

  He gritted his teeth. "Gardenia—"

  "My name is Summer," I told him.

  He blinked in surprise and loosened his grip enough for me to slide my hand free. "Since when?"

  "Since yesterday. I never liked the name Gardenia. From now on, I'm Summer." I tilted my chin at him.

  He curled his lip. "That's the most ridiculous name I've ever heard."

  "Really? You've never met my cousin Forget-Me-Not?" I quirked an eyebrow at him.

  He did a double take. "You're making that up."

  I put a hand in the air, palm out. "I swear on the gods and all the seven hells. My aunt insists we all use her full name too, poor kid."

  Huon shook his head. "It still doesn't mean you should call yourself Summer."

  "Are you going to pass some royal decree that I can't?" I gave him a nasty smile.

  "If you want to call yourself something stupid, go ahead." He shrugged. "I meant what I said about the library. I'm only asking you to accompany me to one little ball."

  "One little ball," I said slowly. "Is that an event or a description of yourself?"

  His face turned pink and for a moment I thought he might hit me. Instead, he barked a humourless laugh.

  "That's hilarious. For your information I have two perfectly sized balls and a cock that makes the other girls pant." He squared his shoulders proudly.

  "Is that so?" I asked.

  "Yes," he said firmly.

  "Good. Then you won't have any trouble finding someone else to go with. Who knows, you might even go all night without her kicking you in those perfectly sized balls." I stepped out from behind the table and moved toward the door.

  His mouth set in a line. "You dare to disrespect your prince?"

  I stopped and turned around slowly. I had no answer for that. Huon and I had grown up together. Once, we'd played in the mud and splashed about in puddles. These days, we did nothing but clash. I had never really thought about him as a ruler. He was just—Huon.

  He frowned at my lack of response. "Very well then, you give me no choice than to ban you from the library. Come in here again and you'll be exiled."

  I shook my head slightly. "Exiled? This about more than me not respecting you. Are you really that petty you'd make me leave the capital because I won't spend a few hours hanging off your arm?"

  He closed the distance between us and looked down at me. His breath brushed my cheek. "I'm not that bad and you know it."

  "And yet, you're making ridiculous threats." I glared daggers at him.

  He hesitated. "I just want to spend time with you. Is that so terrible?"

  I replied to his question with one of my own. "Why won't you take no for an answer?"

  "Because no one else tells me no," he replied. "No one but you."

  "Because I'm not interested," I said firmly.

  He licked his lips. "See, I think you are interested. I think you like to play games." He moved toward me.

  I backed away. "One thing I don't do is play games," I told him. "You should know that by now. If I was interested, you'd know."

  "So go with me to the ball,"
he insisted. "I'll make you change your mind."

  I stepped until my back touched the wall.

  He smiled and placed his palms to either side of me. "See, isn't this nice?" His lips were so close to mine his breath brushed them. "Tell me you want me to kiss you."

  The stupid things was, part of me did. He might be the bane of my existence, but he was handsome, powerful and I was a hot-blooded fae woman. The rest of me, the bit that still had rational thought, wanted to knee him in the groin.

  I placed my hands on his chest and gave him a shove back. "Excuse me, I'm not allowed in here, remember?"

  Anger flashed in his eyes again. "Fine, but don't assume King Birch will take your side when he returns. I am his son."

  "Worse luck," I muttered. Birch was like a father to me, but I knew he wanted Huon and I to be together. This rejection would disappoint him. He might even want me gone so Huon wouldn't be distracted from pursuing someone else. Not even for access to the biggest library in the fae realm would I consent to spending further time with Huon if he persisted in throwing his weight around like this.

  Huon's face reddened. "I never took you for a fool."

  "I never took you for a guy who felt the need to bend others to his will," I said scathingly, "but here we are."

  "I don't—" He closed his mouth and exhaled forcefully out his nose. "I just wanted—"

  "I know what you want," I snapped. "You want to hunt me like humans hunt animals. You'll lose interest the moment you catch me. It's not me you want, it's the conquest. A word of advice, give it up. I will never let you conquer me."

  Rather than look angry, or even disappointed, he looked aroused. His pants tented and his eyes were full of fire. "I like a challenge."

  I made a sound of disgust. "I'm as stubborn as the next fae, but you need to know when to give up. What will it take for you to understand?"

  He licked his lips. "If you're right about me losing interest, then fuck me. If all I want is conquest, then I'll leave you alone after that."

  "So tempting," I said sarcastically, "but I doubt that would be enough for you."