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The fire was going to burn him alive from the inside. Ever since being rescued from hell, Darlington knew he was fundamentally changed. Parts of himself that he’d kept repressed for his whole life had been lured to the surface and he couldn’t smother them again. All his life, he’d prided himself on his gentlemanly graces. He was above carnal desires. He governed himself strictly. Of course, he’d let himself dabble with women here and there, simply on a quest for knowledge. Late at night, perhaps, he would half-let his mind wander, so long as he didn’t allow himself to become fully aware of his own thoughts. Images would flash through his head of dark hair, tattoos, and piercing eyes that he would do his best to ignore over breakfast the next day. He would re-dress himself in his morals each morning. He’d tie back on his ideals along with his loafers. He’d become the clean-cut, gentleman of Lethe that both the world and himself expected him to be.
But now, now that his soul had been pushed, now that he’d had the first addicting taste of giving in to his baser instincts, they swelled up inside of him in broad daylight. The memory of a collar around his neck and Alex Stern holding the leash had triggered a cosmic shift inside his own psyche. Often, like now, he would catch himself staring at Alex’s lips as she spoke, imagining what sounds he could make come out of them. No longer was his driving motivation to explore the occult and to discover the hidden truths of the universe. Now, all Daniel Arlington could think of was serving this goddess standing before him in any way she’d have him. If she even gave him one look, he would fall to his knees in front of her in worship. But he was her mentor, her guide, her Virgil. He was a man entirely bewitched. He could almost imagine how soft her skin would feel beneath his roving hands, how warm she would feel. All he could think of was how he wanted to bury himself and melt into her until they were the only entity in the universe and everything fell away. But he couldn’t have her in that way; it wouldn’t be proper.
From across the table, Alex clears her throat and startles him out of his masochistic reverie. “Did you hear any of what I just said, Darlington?”
Daniel blushes in embarrassment, a habit of his since craving his teachers’ approval in elementary school. He hated being unprepared when called on in class. Shifting in his seat to regain composure and adjust his erection to be slightly more comfortable, he sends his mind frantically back through the last few moments trying to remember a word of what Alex had been saying.
Before he could cobble together a passing response, however, Alex rolls her eyes and reaches for her glass. “I swear sometimes I didn’t bring all of you back from hell. You’ve been so distracted these past few months.”
“Sorry. I’ve just felt… different in many ways. My thoughts wander much more easily...” Darlington replies.
“You don’t need to apologize, I get it. Help me clean up?”
Relieved to have something to do, Darlington stands and begins collecting dishes while willing the fire within himself to die down to embers once again. Walking into the kitchen of Il Bastone, he rinses off the plates and pans used to make their dinner. While it had nothing on Dawes’s cooking, he thought his homemade meatballs had turned out quite passable. During dinner, he had, however, made the mistake of asking Alex how she was finding them, which earned him a dirty joke about choking on his meatballs. Before everything, Alex’s jokes used to make him retreat into himself self-consciously while she smirked and gloated. Now, his eyes just darkened and his quietness was entirely different, earning a forced swallow from Stern while she looked away.
He finds Alex on the couch when he finishes washing up. She is curled up with a book, probably reading for a class. Not wanting to disturb her, Daniel picks up a book of poetry he had been reading and settles into an armchair with his drink and notebook. He becomes lost in the beauty of the language, swept up in the current of this melodic world. Turning the page, he finds a poem he had not read in years…
"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;"
The poem had come into his mind at that party over a year ago; seeing Stern in that mirror so dark and full of stars and himself as her loyal knight. Reading it now, with her so close by he can hear her every breath, is absolute torture. He risks a subtle glance up at her. His gaze traces down her neck, wanting nothing more than to bite and claim her. Dragging his eyes upward, he takes in her slightly chapped lips, her sharp cheekbones, and her eyes which are… staring right at him, with one eyebrow raised.
“You’re, uh, glowing again.”
Normally, Daniel would be embarrassed. He should be embarrassed. He should remember himself and his own propriety. But he is here alone with Alex and she looks criminal in her Lethe sweatpants and what seems to be one of his t-shirts. So fuck it, fuck all his self-restricting rules, and fuck holding back. He feels himself growing horns – the fittingness of which sends a small wave of bemusement through him.
“That’s probably because I am painfully turned on and can’t contain it, Stern,” he says with as much nonchalance as he can muster.
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These are uncharted waters. Alex has no map with which to navigate this situation. While she knew Darlington had been horny since she first walked into the ballroom at Black Elm and saw his massive glowstick of a dick, he has never directly addressed it since returning from beyond the veil. While he had been distracting to her before, there is some new magnetic force that seems to draw her to him. She’d been able to ignore any feelings she had toward him, attributing them to his being her first-ever real mentor. She can’t ruin this new life she’d finally started building. So, she danced around him and refused to let herself see the new confidence he holds himself with. He’d never been shy, but now he has an air of pure sexual charisma. Every movement he makes is gracefully fluid and painfully beautiful.
Alex glances down at his book and snorts, “Nineteenth-century British poetry really gets you going that bad?” expecting him to back down and let the topic go, as had always been their dance.
“No, but the thought of getting on my knees and eating you out until I don’t know my own name anymore does,” he replies, leaning back and smirking cockily while swirling the amber liquid in his glass.
The tension is stiflingly thick. Somewhere in her mind, Alex always hoped – or expected – this would happen. But she’d kept that part of herself under strict lock and key. Now, though, looking at this man across the room, she can’t remember why. Nothing sounds better to her at that moment than to let him do just what he said. Still, she doubts Darlington really means it. This boundary line has been in place too long, and he would never break rules, particularly his own. To call him on his bluff, Alex coldly retorts, “Then kneel.”
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Surprise ripples through whatever remaining human part of Daniel is still in control. As though commanded by magic itself, his body obeys before he fully realizes what he is doing. Striding over to her, his fingers began loosening the tie Alex had teased him for wearing just an hour earlier. He kneels before her with all the ceremony and reverence of a pilgrim, having, at last, reached the holy shrine for which he’d come through hell. Though he feels he will burst into flames soon with desire, he takes a moment to drink in her shocked expression and hear her breath hitch. His hand traces slowly up her arm, up her neck, and cradles the back of her head. He pulls her in slowly and stops right before their lips touch to give her time to draw away. To say he is a monster. To say she doesn’t want this. To say she doesn’t want him.
Instead, he feels her surge forward and push her lips into his. He explodes. How foolish he’d been to think himself on fire before. That was merely a shadow of what overtakes him now. He is no longer a man or even a demon, he is pure, hot need. He kisses Alex desperately, needing to devour her. Both their hands start roaming over the other’s body frantically. He can feel Stern’s hands tracing up and down his chest and leaving scorching trails in their wake. He breaks their kiss only to rip his shirt off, needing the oppressive layers gone. He pulls Alex roughly to the edge of the couch, pulling her pants off in one motion.
Glancing down, he pauses and stifles a groan at the sight that meets him. “Are those my boxers?”
Panting, Alex replies through gritted teeth, “I didn’t have time to do laundry and they’re comfortable, alright?”
Any last modicum of self-control he’d had vanishes in that instant. Diving down, he begins mouthing over Alex through his boxers, eyes rolling back in his head at how good she smells. Next thing he knows, the boxers are in two ripped pieces on the ground and he finally has what he wants. He promises himself that next time – and there will be a next time – he will take his time and fuck Alex Stern properly. He’ll spend hours in bed with her serving her in every way he can. But for now, he licks up her in only one long teasing stroke before plunging into her. He is barely even aware of himself. All he knows is hunger. He could do this for days without coming up for air.
Alex begins writhing beneath him and making the most sinful sounds he’d ever heard. He looks up at her and hungrily drinks in the sight of his dark queen losing herself to his efforts, gripping his horns for better leverage as she rides his face. Good. He will protect her, serve her, and make her feel pleasure and joy at every chance he gets. He is hers, and she is his. He will be her holy crusader. As though hearing his thoughts, Alex’s eyes flutter softly open and their gazes lock. He gives her a clit a gentle nip that sends her over the edge, her release flooding his mouth. Not breaking eye contact, he swallows down every drop, finally feeling an edge taken off his hunger. It feels so freeing to give his whole soul over to her. To have her in control and trust her completely. Sitting back on his heels, he licks his lips. “What now, mistress?”
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Well, fuck her. This was not how Alex had seen her night going. She was going to get a head start on this week’s homework, take a warm shower, and get to bed early before her 8 AM class tomorrow. But here is Darlington, kneeling before her looking absolutely wicked. His eyes are glowing, pupils blown out, gazing up at her with such lust and devotion. His markings begin to glow even more as energy thrums through him. Alex’s eyes catch on the gold glowing collar circling his neck. With a warm jolt, she remembers holding her blue hellfire leash and how good it had looked around his neck. She had felt so powerful, so in control of something for once. His calling her “mistress” had sent that strange, unknown feeling straight through her again. She struggles to catch her breath and return to her body.
“Now,” she replies, “you show me what you get so distracted daydreaming about.”
Not needing further encouragement, Darlington scoops her off the couch and carries her into the Virgil bedroom. He sets her on the bed with a mix of careful reverence and animalistic impatience. He quickly removes his pants, growling “It would be my honor, Stern.” This sends a new flush of arousal and anticipation through her body. Alex pulls off his old shirt she’d put on, noticing Darlington staring intently.
Darlington trails kisses up her legs and torso, as though he needs to taste every inch of her. Desperate for any friction, Alex tries to rub her legs together but is blocked by Darlington grabbing them to stop her. Instead, he lays down between her legs, grinding his erection into her core. She releases a moan so loud and lewd she should be embarrassed but she can’t seem to care right now. Nothing exists outside of this room, of this bed, of this beautiful boy. He mouths at her neck and she whines, needing something more. It’s all too much and not enough all at once.
As though sensing her urgency, Darlington pulls back and quickly pulls a condom out of the bedside drawer. He puts it on and lines himself up, teasing up and down her slit in a way that makes her painfully aware of how wet and dripping she is. “You have no idea how much I’ve thought about doing this every minute I’m around you. Just want to bury myself inside of you and fuck you so hard and make you mine. You’re my vice of choice, Stern.”
“So fuck me then.”
Slowly, inch by inch, he pushes inside of her. Alex has had plenty of sex before, but nothing has felt anything like this. This is divine. Despite his large size, there is no pain, only pure, exquisite pleasure. Alex’s vision begins to blur and when she closes her eyes it feels like she is falling through space and the only tangible thing in the universe is him. As he buries himself fully inside her, she wraps her arms and legs around him, squeezing and trying to merge the two of them into one entity. He isn’t close enough. Darlington lets out a sound that will keep her up for nights with her hand buried between her legs remembering it.
“Fuck, Stern, you feel so good,” he pants.
Alex is pulled from her reverie as Darlington pulls back slightly and buries himself back into her. Nothing had ever felt this good or this right. With every thrust, he pulls back slightly further and snaps his hips against hers a little harder. Alex can tell he is trying to hold back so as to not hurt her, but the idea of him doing anything but fucking her as hard as he could right now is criminal.
“Darlington. I’m not made of glass. I said to fuck me.”
With a growl and strength that surprises Alex, Darlington sits back and turns her over, pulling her up so her ass is on full display for him with her head pushed into the pillows. She feels his tongue hungrily fuck in and out of her, as though he can’t help but taste her again. Before she can complain, though, she is being filled back up and stretched just right. At this new angle, she feels even more full and downright filthy.
“Hang on, Stern,” Darlington says through gritted teeth as he begins to thrust into her with all the power he can manage. The bed is shaking so hard that Alex wonders if the neighbors can hear, which oddly turns her on more. She is aware of every thrust shaking her entire body and pushes up to her hands and knees to look back and watch the demon fucking her. This is so wrong, but nothing has been more right in her life. Darlington bends down, pressing his chest into her back while keeping up the punishing pace, kissing her passionately. A hand skims down her body and finds her clit, circling it so gently and teasingly and entirely at odds with his brutal rhythm.
After a minute, Alex feels herself teetering on the edge of a precipice. “I’m going to – “
“That’s right, come all over my dick and make a mess of it,” Darlington cuts her off.
Stars and night explode behind Alex’s eyes and she feels like she is falling while those strong arms encircle her. Time loses all meaning and Alex floats in pure bliss for what seems a small eternity before being drawn back into her body by Darlington gently fucking her through her high.
Once she catches her breath, Alex sits up and says, “Sit.” She smirks at the eagerness with which Darlington follows her orders. They have so much to explore. Alex quickly swings a leg over him, teasing him as she lines him up with her again. Slowly sinking down onto him, Alex releases a loud sigh which is met with a frustrated groan. She quickly picks up the pace, riding him for all she’s worth, dripping down the sides of his cock. When she looks down, she sees him looking at her with desire and devotion, her demon knight, hers. His eyes darken as they meet hers, and he grabs hold of her hips, pulling them down into his forcefully while he fucks up into her. In a matter of seconds, he releases an unholy groan as he spills into her, clutching her as close as he physically can.
They stay like that for a minute, breathing in sync as Darlington’s marks slowly fade and his horns retract. Alex is the first to move, pulling off him and dropping to the bed, her limbs unable to hold up her weight. Darlington quickly cleans up and joins her, drawing her close.
Alex is struck that this should feel new and awkward, but it doesn’t. Being wrapped around Darlington with his hand lazily stroking her hair feels like coming home.
Glancing down, Alex holds back a scoff as she sees him getting hard again.
“What? As I said, I have my appetites.”