Black Lace (Complete)

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

Chapter Thirteen

Escape.

I need to escape.

I tried to crawl from the sheets around me, but got my foot tangled in the process. One step and was sent plummeting to the floor. It was less of an escape and more a cry for help.

I hit the ground hard. Pain lanced through my arm and shoulder at a weird angle, eliciting a pained shriek from my lips.

Aziel bolted upright on the couch. Like magnet to metal, his eyes drew to me. Pigmented. Oil. Soot. Coal. They were all so dark, but Aziel's eyes? The darkest. They did not represent fear, for fear came in many colours. Rather the abyss, the unknown. What I did not have.

What I never would.

Rolling onto my back, I clutched my arm to my chest and mewled softly.

"Romina—what?" He rushed forward, bare chested as ever as he knelt by my side, eyes scanning over my collapsed form for injuries. His hands fell all over my body, checking for what? I didn't know. But when he touched my arm, I shrieked again. He winced.

"Your arm." He said.

I nodded, biting my lip through the pain. His eyes fell to the movement. There was a hot, searing pain in my arm. And yet nothing compared to the raw heat that came from Aziel. A tickle of fire. Ice so cold it burned.

He was ice. I needed ice.

His arms came around my body, under my legs and back. As he stood, I came with him. He made sure to not touch my arm. I was grateful for that.

"You should call a nurse." I said quietly, not wanting to leave his arms but not wanting to stay, either.

"The nurse won't know how to help you." He said surely, even though I highly doubted his words. "It's early morning, anyways. Let me help. I've dealt with injury before."

"...sure." I mumbled. With that I was carried to his en-suite bathroom. As I looked around, I marveled—but, with a hint of sheepishness, noted the fact that his bathroom was considerably larger than my own.

My ass was planted onto his marble counter. I felt the bottom of my nightgown swim around my ankles, silky and soft. Though I was safely deposited on the counter, Aziel did not leave me. Instead, he found himself standing closer to me. One arm on either side of me. Face close. Lip pulled between his goddamn teeth.

Oh lord, stab me with a butter knife.

"Where does it hurt, exactly?" He asked, grabbing my arm. He stretched it out straight as he looked at it. His brows pulled. "You landed on it...where?"

"My side. Uh, my shoulder." I blushed. Why? I didn't know.

"Hm," he paused, staring intently at my shoulder. "I need a closer look. Take off your dress."

"Pardon—what?"

He looked back at me, unfazed. There was no hint of teasing, no hint of underlying meaning.

"I need a closer look."

"We should go get a nurse." I said again, trying to keep my breathing even.

The man ignored my reply. "Take it off."

"My arm hurts." I said.

His lip twitched. "Yes, that's the point, Romina. Must I do it for you?"

Somewhere, deep, deep in my mind, a voice spoke up.

Hey, he's shirtless too. It's only fair.

I chewed on the inside of my lip for a bit. Paused. Felt my heart beat pound. Swung my ankles.

"Do it for me."

Something in his expression changed. "Undress you?"

My breath caught. "I—" Another breath. A pause. A shudder. "Close the door, Aziel."

Something in me shifted. That moment was inconsequential to all those around me—but to me? I had changed. Something inside of my very soul had become different. I could only ever blame the change on Aziel.

He closed the door. It clicked. It locked.

I swallowed. He returned.

"It might hurt at first." He said, fingers crawling up to my neck line. They ghosted my collarbones. My breasts heaved against my dress, spilling out further. His eyes dropped momentarily. He looked back at me. "Tell me if it hurts, okay?"

I sucked in a breath. Every nerve in my body was tingling and sensitive to his slightest movement.

His arm came around my neck, tracing my skin lightly. He grazed me. He set fires raging all across my body. I felt his finger tighten around the bow holding my dress together. I felt it pull taut.

And then it fell loose.

I wasn't aware I'd stopped breathing. I wasn't aware of much as my dress came loose and tumbled around my waist, leaving my bare tits on display for him. My nipples hardened in the air, in the moment, under his stare—whatever the cause, however many there were: it was entirely his fault. This was all his fault.

He moved closer. His bare chest pressed against my nipples. Heat was surging in my stomach at this point. I needed to be touched as I was in my dreams. I needed that darker side of him to come loose. The side of my fantasies, of my dreams.

The one I wasn't sure existed.

The one I would make exist for me.

His eyes didn't leave mine. He was staring at me so heavily, so intently, that if stares left traces behind, all that would be left was him.

"I won't look if you don't want me to."

I lowered my eyes from his. There wasn't much I could manage. I didn't even know how I got here. Nothing about this made sense. My hands lifted and touched his forearms, brushing the pads of my fingers against the strong, veined surface. They traced lower and lower until they found his hands. Slowly, so slowly I wasn't sure I was moving, my fingers laced with his. Only then did I return my stare to Aziel's.

When I looked back, his stare had changed again.

A sweetness.

"That's what this is all for though, isn't it?" My voice was devoid of quivers as I spoke. Even I didn't know how I managed to speak so clearly, so surely. Maybe it wasn't me speaking, but my soul. "To look?"

His jaw ticked. The sweetness disappeared. It was replaced by a ravaging hunger. A lust.

"No, Romina." He growled out. I gulped.

But didn't relent.

"I didn't take you for the type to lie," I said. I slid my fingers from his, drifting up to his chest. There I lay one pointed finger. I pressed down. Dropped. Felt him.

Now it was his turn.

"I'm hurt, Aziel." I blinked softly. "Make me feel better."

"You said you'd undress me. You did." I blinked. "You said you'd make me feel better. So do it."

His eyes cut into me.

"Don't just touch," my finger slipped into the waistband of his pants, dipping farther than I should have. And I felt it: him. His arousal, for me, all for me. "Look."

(a/n: editing this, i removed the line "his eyes were knives, and i was a melon" be glad or sad. i'm both, but iT COULDN'T STAY AIGHT?)