Dark Signs

11

T he man behind me was tall and lithe, and moved with lyrical rhythm as we danced together. His knuckles and the backs of his hands were covered in tattoos. His fingertips calloused as they trailed up and over my leather clad arms. Each one of his fingers was adorned with a chunky silver ring and his fingernails were painted black.

Yes, this would work quite well.

We stayed dancing together like that for quite some time, my back against his chest as we writhed to the thumping beat of the music.

The alcohol was now swimming in my brain, my thoughts becoming more and more sluggish, the lights around me started to blur and soften.

I gathered up my courage, and made to turn around and pull my conquest with me into a quiet and dark corner, but those large hands gripped my hips and held me in place.

“Not so fast, poppet.” An East-End voice whispered against the shell of my ear.

That dark voice sent sparks through my veins and made my stomach drop to my knees.

I knew who that voice belonged to.

I'd been repeating that voice, that accent over and over in my mind for months now.

He started moving against me again, grinding in time to the thumping music, which now matched the thumping of my blood through my veins.

I made to turn around again.

I needed to see him properly.

“Ah uh. No poppet, you stay put and dance for me.”

I stuttered out a breath.

Caz's hands trailed up the length of my sides and back down again, his touch eliciting a plethora of goosebumps that pimpled my skin.

He groaned against my neck, inhaling deeply at my throat. “You smell even better than I remember.” His voice was thick and gravelly.

“What... What are you doing here?” I breathed out the question on a shaky, heated breath.

“I think the more important question is what are you doing in a place like this, poppet?” Caz retorted, grinding his already hardened cock into the soft flesh of my ass.

“I'm allowed to be here.” I fought back.

“Mmm, but this club is dangerous, especially for such sweet, delicious little poppets like you.”

“You cancelled our contract.” I stopped moving, dropping my hands to my sides.

“Mmm.” He continued his grinding. His hands were everywhere, his touch was scorching.

“Why? Was I that bad?” I continued, my stomach dropped as tears threatened to spill from my bottom lashes.

I wouldn't let them. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

This was supposed to be my night, I was supposed to be moving on, healing.

Why did he have to be here?

“Oh, on the contrary, poppet.” Caz sniffed my hair, a deep growl emanating from the depths of his throat. “We've been waiting for you.” His hands continued exploring.

His words made no sense. How had they been waiting for me?

“How?” I demanded.

“Dance.” Caz squeezed my hips in a tight grasp as he worked himself against me. He moved my hips, making me move, causing friction to build between the two of us .

If I weren't so annoyed and confused as to why they would cancel our contract and why now he decided to show up, this interaction would have made me unbearably wet and hot.

“Can you let me go, please?” I asked, trying to pry his hands from me

“Do you actually mean that, poppet?” He asked.

I didn't respond.

“Then absolutely not,” He whispered, his breath skating over the skin of my cheek. “You could have come and found me.” I retorted.

“That's beside the point, poppet.” He whispered, his tongue darted out and licked up the shell of my ear. “Look to your left, back corner against the wall.” He said as he started peppering my throat with lingering kisses and tantalising strokes of his tongue. His teeth nibbled my flesh softly.

Against my better judgement, my head turned as if on a swivel and searched the back left corner of the bar.

My eyes immediately locked with those of someone with tawny brown hair, a soft stubble coating his chin and deep green eyes. He was shorter than the man behind me, who was a good head and shoulders taller than I, but he stood out amongst the crowd for his smaller stature. He was wearing a black leather jacket covered in spikes and patches and pins and he was looking straight at me through his lowered lashes, those eyes locked on me and only me.

A feeling of warning raced across my skin. There was menace and hunger in that stare.

“You've found Nav.”

My breathing hitched. Fuck.

Were they all here?

“We're all here, poppet.” He whispered again as if reading my mind, his lips brushing the sensitive skin of my throat as he moved against me. He entwined our fingers, bringing them up and over the curve of my breasts in a seductive dance, performing for Nav.

The swell of his cock was hard against my spine.

My insides turned to liquid fire.

Were Kill and Val here too?

“Kill? Of course, poppet. Look ahead. ”

Once again my head turned, immediately locking upon the eyes that I wouldn't mistake anywhere. Wholly luminous and otherworldly as they stared straight into my soul. Picking me apart from the inside.

Kill was blonde, hair cropped short to his head at the sides and longer on the top, a few strands of it lay haphazardly over a raised brow. His jaw was now clean shaven, with only a moustache covering his upper lip. He had styled it into a clean, crisp shape with no stray hairs to be seen.

Kill was dressed a little more formal than Nav was, in a black button down tailored shirt, black tight jeans and a crisp black blazer. A thick silver chain hung from his neck which was adorned with a silver dual dagger and teardrop pendant. His chest and neck were covered in black ink, the delicate designs teased up the side of his throat.

His lips curled up on one side in a menacing grin as he twirled a switchblade between his fingers, his eyes locked on where Caz was trailing his hands over my body, watching our every move with hawk-like precision.

How did I miss these men earlier?

They were so obvious now. Larger than life, standing out so starkly within the throng of writhing bodies.

“And Val?” My voice was a whisper now, my heartbeat, chaotic.

“He's here, and watching our little pretty poppet so very closely, I might add. You’re extremely lucky he found you first and sent us after you before someone else got their hands on you. We would have had to… take extreme measures. Val doesn’t take lightly to others touching what is ours.” His words skated across the flesh of my cheek as he leaned in closer.

My stomach dipped at his words.

Touching what is ours.

“But I’m not yours.” I said, resigned, the tears I held back threatened to spill.

“Have I told you that you look utterly delicious tonight, poppet?” He leant in closer.

“Why are you ignoring me?” I asked, a little disappointed and more than annoyed now .

“And you smell even better than I remember.” He growled and thrust his hips so I could feel his hard cock firmly between the cheeks of my ass.

“And you’re an dick.” I bit back and struggled to get out of his hold.

“You are trouble, you know that?” His grip on me tightened, but he let my insult go, he just continued to move us to the music.

As we danced, I started searching the room again, eyes tracing over every darkened shadow, every corner, every other body in the room for any sign of someone out of place.

“You won't find him, poppet.” Caz responded as he grabbed me by the hip and spun me around until I was face to face with him.

Chest to heaving chest.

My words were long forgotten, lodged firmly in my throat as I looked my fill of him for the first time.

Even now, being up so close to him, I had forgotten just how tall this man really was. But it wasn't his enormous height that caught me off guard. It was the fact he was so unbelievably handsome but in the most unconventional way.

He was all sharp angles and lean muscles.

Caz was dressed for class.

Crisp black trousers and a black button down shirt that was undone to his mid-chest. His shoes were polished to a high shine, the toes pointed sharply and were tipped with a shimmering silver metal plate, the soles were blood red.

A chunky silver bracelet adorned his wrist and matched his glittering rings.

The entire expanse of flesh that was on display was covered in tattoos. The middle of his chest was adorned with slashes of ink that looked like macabre feathers.

His hair was a brilliant shade of dyed pillar-box red, which hung in an unruly mess down to his shoulders, the top half pulled back into a small bun on the crown of his head.

He was scruffy, but it worked in his favour. His chin and jaw was mottled with a light dusting of dark stubble.

This was my Blue Eyes.

The eyes that had torn me apart from that first glance. Now seeing him for the first time unmasked, those eyes were soft yet hard.

Wise yet cunning.

Kind yet oh-so sadistic.

He was chaos and class personified.

My heart beat harder in my chest as Caz pulled me closer into him, one of his hands finding my lower back, spreading his fingers across the expanse. We moved fluidly together, my body was soft and curvy against the hardness of all his sharp lines and angles.

“Do you like what you see, poppet?” Caz leaned lower, his forehead leaning in to rest on my own.

He inhaled me deeply.

I dragged my bottom lip between my teeth and nodded coyly.

A sharp growl ripped from his throat as he struck. A clashing of our lips and teeth as he took my mouth in more than just a heated kiss. His hands palmed the flesh of my ass, lifting one of my thighs up to wrap around his hips, he thrust the swell of his cock into me, eliciting a guttural moan from my lips.

Caz nipped at my bottom lip, drawing it into his mouth. His sharp teeth nicked the delicate skin there and a slight metallic tang coated my tongue.

“Oh fuck,” Caz moaned as he deepened the kiss, the taste of my blood mixing with his own spicy flavour on my tongue.

The thought of actually being able to kiss this man had plagued me for months, and my imagination did not do him justice. His lips were ferocious as they devoured me.

His scent of leather and sandalwood surrounded me. His hands were everywhere. In my hair, tracing the lines and curves of my body, gripping the flesh of my ass, and I wanted more.

The crowd around us seemed to disappear, their faces blurred into nothing but an unrecognisable haze as Caz’s kiss lingered.

Before I could beg him to take me right here in the middle of the dance floor, Caz released my lips, dropped my leg from around his waist and stepped back as he withdrew from me, gasping for breath.

“Fucksake.” He cursed abruptly and looked over my shoulder, there was malice in that stare.

“I'm sorry.” I said immediately.

“It's not you, poppet. It is I who is sorry.”

“Why?” I asked softly, those tears precariously close to slipping free again.

“Fuck.” He swore again. “I really do have to go, love.”

“Why?” I asked again.

“Fucking politics and business.” He spat, his voice was gravelly and harsh.

“Oh.” Was all I managed to get out.

“Don’t get into trouble, and remember, no one is to touch what is ours.” He finished with another lingering kiss to my lips.

His hand was a tender caress against my jaw as he stood to his full height, he towered over the rest of the club goers.

He sighed deep and long. “We’ll be watching.” He said before turning on his heel and melted back into the crowd. His bright red hair disappeared into the darkness of the club.

I stood in the middle of the dance floor, unblinking.

Searching the nameless faces that surrounded me, looking for my men.

They had all vanished.

Where they had been positioned, their heated gazes searing my own, were now just vacant spaces.

The crowd surrounded me once more. No longer was I protected by the bubble of space the crowd afforded me when Caz was close. Those bodies now clashed against mine in a throng of elbows and shoulders. Sticky, sweaty flesh slapped against my own.