Chapter 4
Antoine
Behind the safety of my bedroom walls, I jerked at my tie with more force than necessary.
Things were spiraling out of my control. I was the head of my household, I should have a better grip on things than I did. Worse yet, the moment my master stepped in, I was back to being at his beck and call. It was like I hadn't made a stand all those years ago.
I let my tie hang loose and worked on my cuffs as I stared hard at the bed. My bedroom was the same as it had been fifty years ago. Same comforter and sheets in a dark crimson color—one I had made sure never graced my bedroom back at Durand manor. The mahogany bedposts taunted me with all the dark and awful memories from this room. One would think that being my master's favorite would save me from his depravity, but it only seemed to make him more set on molding me to be like him.
Back then, I'd done a fine job pretending he was changing me. Warping me the way he had warped Valentine. Though, I had a feeling Valentine was already fucked up before he was turned.
I didn't want to be back in this room. I certainly didn't want Piper in here with me. I let out a dark chuckle, thinking of how she was going to react when she realized she had to share my room with Darrenand me. Darren was used to it. We bonded because we wanted to, not because I was forced to. I certainly didn't think Piper would take sharing my room in stride the same way Darren did.
My human servant in question moved around my room, putting up our things without a word. His emotions were harder to read today, but I had a feeling he was holding back his feelings more for my benefit than anything. Piper sure as hell wasn't.
From the moment I bound her to me, I knew she was going to be different. She felt everything so much...more.Every emotion was heightened to the billionth degree. Her confusion and hurt at my not being there when she woke, to the anger at my blatant dismissal of her, was broadcasted loudly. I didn't want to hurt her. It wasn't my intention, but I had to build a wall between us if either of us were going to survive this visit. My brothers already showed their feelings for her too easily. Boris had no doubt picked up on it the same way he had picked up on my mark on her. After thousands of years, I would think that he would have lost some of his strength, but if anything, time had done nothing but make him stronger and his outsides more grotesque.
Hands touched my shoulders and I allowed Darren to help me shrug out of my jacket. I worked on the buttons of my white shirt while Darren hung my jacket up to be cleaned later. My eyes followed him around the room, waiting for him to say something. I knew he wanted to. He might keep his opinion to himself in front of others, but behind closed doors he didn't usually wait too long to let me have it.
"You need to talk to her." Ah, there it was.
"Why?" was the only response I gave him. I knew my reasons, but I wasn't going to tell him. He might seem like the obedient servant, but Darren defied me more than anyone knew. He was just good at hiding it.
Darren paused in his smoothing of the jacket’s sleeve, his gloved hands hovering in midair. He had taken to wearing them after we were bonded. Darren had told me the change had made everything feel different, more, just more. It was hard for him to cope with the new sensations and so I bought him a pair of gloves to deal with it. I thought eventually he would stop wearing them, but it seemed to have turned into more of a habit than anything else.
"I'm sure I do not need to tell you that Piper is confused and hurt by your behavior toward her." Darren slowly turned around to face me. His face a mask of indifference although his words were laced with disapproval. "I remember how it was when I changed. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like if you had treated me the way you are treating her."
My lips ticked up at the sides. Oh, I remembered as well. Almost the moment after he woke up, we found ourselves with an appetite for each other we couldn't quite slake. I felt it for Piper as well, my cock hadn't softened since the moment I'd been inside her, both fangs and cock. Remembering how she felt, how she tasted, and how she sounded as I took from her and then poured myself into her was torture. All I wanted right now was to find her and drag her back to this room to take her again and again, until I could get her out of my damn mind and veins.
No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't. She wasn't mine. Piper had my mark and to everyone who wasn't us, she technically belonged to me. But she didn't, not really. She was ours. My brothers and mine. If anyone had claim to her, it wouldn't be me.
"I am doing what is best for us all," I finally replied to Darren, before taking a seat on the bed to remove my shoes. Darren beat me to it, kneeling before me to unlace my dress shoes. My cock twitched in my slacks at the sight.
"Best for her? Or best for you?" Darren didn't look up from my shoes as he removed one and then the other. My socks were next, but he didn't move from the floor. His hands moved up my legs until they rested on my thighs. Those dark eyes met mine with an intensity I hadn't seen in a long time.
My mouth watered at the same time that my brows furrowed. "You care for her?"
Darren's face softened. "I would be remiss if I didn't."
He shifted to leave, but I grabbed his hand, keeping him before me. I held him by the wrist and pulled his glove off one finger at a time, loving every gasp he let out as I released him from the white cloth. "Do not try to hide from me, Darren." Tugging him closer by his hand, until he was a hairsbreadth away, I searched his face. "I see you." My mouth captured his, causing him to grunt but not in protest. He pushed back just as fervently, his teeth nipping at my lips. The first time we'd kissed like this he'd bit me, and I had ended up rolling on the floor laughing, unable to continue. For a human to be the one to bite during a simple kiss had been too much for me. Even now it made my lips twitch.
"Stop it," Darren grumbled against my lips, his hands going to my shoulders before pushing me back. I fell onto the bed, and the mattress sunk, air puffing up around me from the lack of use. Darren straddled my lap, his hands going to where my shirt, previously unbuttoned, fell open. Using his teeth to remove his other glove, he settled his hands on my stomach. My abs twitched beneath them. "You forget, I see you as well."
I groaned as Darren rolled his hips, our cocks rubbing against one another. I was too close to the edge already, and without much more stimulation and I would burst.
Placing one hand in the middle of my chest, Darren leaned forward until our noses brushed. "You are scared."
"N—" I tried to argue, but Darren pressed his finger to my mouth.
"I'm talking."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. Darren was not a top. He'd never be one, but when he wanted something, he definitely knew how to play the part. So, I waited for him to get to the point so I could sink my cock into him.
"Piper makes you feel things you've never allowed yourself to feel before." He paused for a moment, a pensive look crossing his face before he continued, "Even for me." I stared up at him, looking for some kind of hurt in his expression, but there was none, even the feelings he was projecting were content. The way he was acting made me think he was going to act like a jealous lover, but it seemed I didn't quite know my servant as well as I thought.
He ground his hips against me again. "You want her." I grunted but didn't deny it, setting my hands on his hips and encouraging him to keep going. "More than you want to admit to yourself. But from the moment she walked into our house, you couldn't keep your eyes off her. Even now. This," he reached between us to cup my hard cock in his hand, "isn't for me, it's for her. The bonding might have been made to protect her, but you wanted her and felt for her long before you sank anything into her soft flesh." There was something in the way he said it that made me pause and really look at him.
I opened my mouth to comment on what I saw, but Darren had pulled me from my slacks and jerked his hand up my length. My eyes closed briefly, and my hip thrust up into his hand. I was strung too tight. Hard for too long. I exploded into his hand after only a few strokes.
Darren moved to get off me, but I grabbed him by the lapels of his perfectly ironed suit and pushed him down onto the bed. With a fang-toothed grin, I growled, "My turn."