Ascending Darkness (Shattering the Darkness) (6 page)

He looks magnificent.

A few seconds later the lights come on again, but this time they are low; leaving the room almost dark. My Adonis is no longer on the dance floor and my eyes search the space frantically for him, wondering if I just hallucinated his image.

I feel someone take my hand and my head snaps around as I’m pulled to stand up.

There he is.

Looking down at me with warmth and love shining from his eyes. I find my breath and take in the smell of soap, Armani and Breccan. I feel my eyes and nose start to sting and there is no
stopping the tears this time, so I let them pool in my eyes. He pulls my hand to his mouth and softly kisses it, while looking me in the eyes.

With his mouth against my skin he quietly says, “Dance with me, dove.”

His voice washes over me like a tidal wave, pulling me under. I don’t even fight the waves of the deep rumble caressing my skin; I just let it beat against me.

Suffocating me.

When I emerge, I know everything has changed. The whole that is my being… has shifted. Everything that once mattered… no longer does.

Once again there is no way I can say no to this man. The one and only man I have ever fallen in love with. He’s everything I never knew I wanted and everything I could ever ask for.

It feels as if everything I have ever fought against is pointless and all the words of my friends and family penetrate my brain making complete and utter sense.

I need him.

I slowly nod my head to answer him. He walks me out to the floor and pulls me into his arms. His left hand wraps around my right and curls it up to rest against his chest, while his other arm wraps around my waist. My body conforms to his; every inch of mine connecting to his. I lean my head back to look into those ocean blue eyes and allow myself to drown even more. The rest of the room and guests fade away and it is just me and my Adonis.

Breccan slowly leans forward and presses his cheek to mine. His scent envelopes me. I’m totally lost in him now. There is no coming back. My soul fills up and the ache in my body vanishes. Tingles rush across my skin, pooling to warmth in my core.

Breccan’s mouth brushes my ear and he quietly sings the lyrics to me in his deep voice, “You can’t feel me, no…” a lump forms in my throat, “like I feel you…” my eyes start to sting, “I can’t steal you, like you’ve stole me…” I burrow my head in his chest to muffle the choked sob that escapes my throat. “And I, want you in my arms… and I, need you in my life…”

The velvet timber of his voice rushes the blood through my body at an alarming rate and I feel my knees give out. Breccan takes the extra weight effortlessly and I feel him smile against my neck.

“Did you catch on to the theme?” he asks while his mouth trails along my skin, setting me on fire. All I can do is shake my head ‘no’. I feel him smile again. “It’s you and me,” he explains.

I
lift my head back up and look at him, “What?” I manage to get out a little more than a whisper.

“The blue: how you described my eyes to your friends. The green: your eyes. The white is how pure your heart is. The gold is to symbolize that you are the greatest treasure I’ve ever had and no one could measure up. No matter what.” His eyes burn into mine with the conviction of his words.

“Oh…” I breathe out, stupidly.

I really don’t know what else to say to that. Warmth, happiness and love fill my chest and
the tears sting my eyes again; I rest my cheek against his shoulder to hide them.

We continue to dance slowly around the floor and he continues to sing to me until the song comes to a soft and alluring end. He stands up straight and looks down at me. He stares at me for so long, I feel my heart rate kick up another notch and my breathing becomes shallow. He brings my hand, still in his, up to his mouth and kisses it again.

“Come with me,” he whispers and it’s like a switch has been flipped on, drawing me to him like a magnet.

My body leans in and he smiles his slow, sexy half grin. He pulls me to his side and wraps his arm around my waist, while still holding my hand so that it is now behind me.

I’m in such a daze I don’t realize that I should have said good-bye to everyone as Breccan leads me out into the lobby and over to the elevators and pushes the ‘up’ button.

I also don’t realize that everyone in the room was smiling huge and couldn’t have cared less if I had remembered my manners.

I lean heavily into Breccan as we wait for the elevators. My mind and body slowly start to come back to me and I stand up a bit taller.

“There are things to be said
,” I tell him quietly.

“I know, dove. Not here, though.” My heart trips at hearing his nickname for me.

I don’t know if I am capable of walking away again. He’s here and I don’t know if I have the strength to do it again.

The elevators
ping
and we step onto them. Breccan swipes a key card into the panel and presses the penthouse button. We are the only ones in the elevator and my body continues to heat while my blood and heart race. My nipples pucker as his scent takes over the confined space and liquid pools in my center. I close my eyes and try to calm my body’s reaction to him.

His arm
slips around me and pulls me deeper into his side as he lightly trails his fingers up and down my arm. My nerve endings come alive and my whole body starts to tingle again; quivering to his touch.

The doors open and Breccan leads us out and to the left.
We enter into a lobby with one door and Breccan pulls out a key card, unlocks the door and guides us inside.

We walk down a hall that opens up into a seating area. Off to the right is a small kitchen. There is a hallway down to the left and at the end of it, through the doorway, I can see a massive bed.

The seating area is done in white and deep blues. There are lime green, blue and yellow accents all throughout the suite it looks like.

Behind the seating area is an amazing view of Paradise through massive windows and a glass door that leads to a balcony. I make my way out
there and take in the spectacular city view. The balcony wraps around a corner to face the ocean.

I hear Breccan step
out and then feel him behind me.

“Come inside so we can talk?”
his voice is quiet and cajoling.

He wraps his arms around me and I lean back into him. Not breathing would be easier than not leaning into his strong frame. He turns me and walks me back to the door keeping his arms around me. He guides me to the sofa and I sit down.

Breccan walks over to the bar and pours a couple glasses of alcohol. He hands me a glass and says, “Ellipse,” before sitting down next to me.

“Dalwhinnie?” I ask, nodding to his glass.

He smiles at me as we both take a sip of the first drinks we ever shared together.

“So, dove…”
he pauses, takes a sip of his scotch and looks back at me, “I’m not going anywhere this time. I tried to give you time to come to me and you didn’t.”

I blink, a little confused. “What? Why would I come to you?”

“Harper.” He closes his eyes, lets out an exasperated breath and opens his eyes back up. “Did you really think that I accepted you breaking up with me?”

“Well… yeah.” I can feel my brow furrow in confusion.

Breccan shakes his head before continuing, “There is no way that I would let you go. I thought that if I gave you time to cool down, that you would come to me. I needed you to realize that you want this and open up to me. For you to realize that you can trust me.”

“Breccan, we hardly know each other. We only dated for a few weeks
,” I point out.

I can feel irritation rise in me. He’s speaking to me like I’m a child who just didn’t understand the rules of a game.

His eyes flash at my statement. “Harper, you know me. You looked into me. You know every dirty secret, I have.”

My eyes widen. “How did you know I looked into you?”

“You think I don’t have people who inform me when someone goes digging into my past?” he asks with a patient smile on his face.

“Breccan…” I feel horrible. How do I convey how sorry I am about what happened to his
brother? “I… I’m so sorry about Mark…”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

He waves his hand
, stopping my apology. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if you looked into me. That was a long time ago and my whole family and I came to terms with it years ago,” he tells me then moves closer to me and drops his voice, “I would have told you everything anyway. But when you did it, we weren’t exactly on speaking terms and I figured you did it to see if you could trust me and that’s okay. It’s not hard to find that information out. I thought that had helped and that you did trust me, but apparently, I was wrong. You never did open up to me.”

“That’s just not true. I told you things
,” I defend myself.

“You told me a small part of a story. I can understand you not wanting to talk to me about the details at the time. I can’t imagine what actually happened. What I want… what I deserve, Harper,” his blue eyes burn into me, showing me the gravity of what he is about to say, “is to know what happened after your parents died. Where did you go? Why is there no record of that time?”
His hand gestures out as he speaks.

My mind whirls, trying to think of a way to answer this question. I don’t know if I am ready for him to know yet. My heart starts to race
with my instinct to shut down and I am almost certain he can hear it pounding against my chest in the quiet of the room.

“I didn’t want there to be
,” I decide to be honest without revealing too much.

“Can you elaborate on that?”
his eyebrows raise as he pushes.

I take a deep breath to try to calm my nerves and look him in the eye, “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.” I look away from him, down to my glass.

“Will you tell me? Eventually?” he presses.

“I… I don’t know
,” I mumble, taking a sip of my drink and reveling as it burns down my throat, warming me from the ice that has started to shoot through me as the montage of images from my past assault me.

“Harper
,” he says softly and my eyes look up into his. “You have to know… there is nothing that could have happened that would change the way I feel about you.”

“There might be
,” I say just as softly, barely more than a whisper.

“There isn’t
,” his voice is strong and confident.

“What’s the worst thing you can imagine?” I ask.

“Murder?” he asks gently, not sure.

“Worse.”

He swallows hard and slowly closes his eyes. His voice is so quiet I almost miss it when he says, “Rape.”

It’s a statement. He is sure he’s found the answer.

“Worse,” I choke out and look away as tears start to well in my eyes.

I feel nothing but shame, having him know anything about this.

“Worse?” he responds his voice is stronger and full of astonishment.

I look back at him to see those amazing eyes drilling into me. I make the mistake of blinking and a tear
escapes out of each eye.

“Yes
,” I answer.

Confusion takes over his features and he scoots
even closer to me. He grabs my drink and sets it on the small table in front of us along with his.

“Okay, dove
,” he says gently and gathers me in his arms. More tears escape from my eyes. “We don’t have to talk about it yet. But I need to know. Let’s just have tonight, yeah?” I nod my head in agreement. “Okay,” he whispers reassuringly, kisses the top of my head and holds me a while longer.

After a few minutes he places an arm under my legs and keeps one at my back
, then stands, taking me with him.

“Let’s go to bed
,” he whispers softly.

He carries me down the hall and butterflies
assault my stomach as my skin begins to come alive with anticipation. My clit starts to throb and my nipples pucker.

We make it to the bedroom and he sets me down gently on my feet. Breccan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a remote, pushes a button and
the sound of Barcelona’s “Please Don’t Go” fills the room.

My hands rest on his biceps and I slowly raise my head to look up at him
with heavy eyes. He tosses the remote off to the side and his hands come up and cup my face. He slowly leans his head down to mine, keeping my eyes locked with his the entire time.