Created in Chaos (Corrupt Credence Book 2), page 4
“Anytime.” He meets my eyes with his softer, cool blue gaze.
“Let’s just not make it a habit. I don’t ever want to see you in the hospital again,” Lucian grumbles before tossing a television remote on the bed near his brother’s hand. “I’m going to take an hour-long shower. I would invite you, lamb, but I’m not sure you could resist me, and I would be powerless to deny you.” He spreads his arms in a helpless gesture, and I actually burst out laughing and have to grab my ribs at the sharp pain.
Nox chuckles with me, burying his face in my neck. Goose bumps erupt all over my skin from his nearness, and the feeling of his warm breath steals the humor of the moment, dulling the pain in my side, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Lucian. I don’t utter a word when it’s his turn to laugh as he turns away, tugging his shirt over his head to toss onto the floor on his way to the shower. The huge skull on his back with gaping dark eyes seems to watch me just as keenly as he does.
NOX
“If you don’t let me up, Lucian, I swear to God I’m going to punch you in the junk.” Frankly, I’m surprised she let him baby her—her words, not mine—this long.
“Are we ready for foreplay, lamb?” The fool actually reaches down and grabs his dick to adjust it. Nova lets out a little growl, then shoulder checks him when she gets up from the chair.
“The only foreplay you’re getting is a bag of ice dropped down your pants to help with the swelling.”
“Awe, it’s not that big. I promise it will fit.” He continues to harass her, but she keeps walking away, flipping him off behind her back.
“I’ve jacked off so much, I think I’m desensitizing my dick,” he tells me conversationally once she’s out of the room. “I can’t seem to come unless I’m standing over her while she’s asleep or perving on the pictures I took of her.”
“Fucking hell, Lucian.” I laugh, even though it shouldn’t be funny. “You better aim that shit somewhere else, bro.” A disturbed smile distorts his features, and I’m not brave enough to ask why.
“The Umbras are demanding a meeting,” he grouses seconds later.
“And yesterday, and the day before that.” I shrug.
He looks over at the doorway to make sure Nova isn’t around to overhear him before saying, “This one came with an invitation we can’t ignore.” He produces a crimson envelope, sealed with the CC crest in black wax.
I lift my brows. “Is Nova’s name on the summons?” I pluck the heavy package out of his fingers.
“Nope.” He pops the P. “Why do you think they are excluding her?”
“I don’t know. You’d think they would have brought her into the fold from the get-go.” I break the seal, and small chunks of wax fall into my lap.
The weighty paper unfolds with a scratching sound, revealing flowing cursive penmanship scrawled across the page.
Morningstar,
Your presence is required this Saturday at 12am.
Refusal will mean forfeiting your founder’s duty and is punishable by the creed.
Rory Umbra
“They certainly mean business.” I toss the letter into Lucian’s lap, unimpressed with their summons. I’ve never cared about the Cadieux Creed the way my brother has, but they are doing a damn fine job of dragging me into the politics of it all and making me want to wipe the rest of the families from the island just like Lucian planned.
He snorts in amusement, then crumples the thick paper up in his fist.
“Are we going?” I question.
“Oh, we’ll be there,” he replies.
“What about Nova?”
Lucian strokes his hand over his jaw, thinking. “We should take her with us,” he says.
“What if they try to take her from us?”
“By force? It wouldn’t happen.” He’s so sure of himself, he answers almost before I’m done speaking.
“What if she chooses to go with them?”
“We’ll have to make sure she won’t.” Our eyes lock, and the thing that passes between us is dark. Both of us are willing to do whatever it takes to keep Nova Devlin, and that should be alarming, but it’s not.
NOVA
The days blur into a lazy haze of food, television, and flirting…not necessarily in that order. I’ve almost gotten used to the casual touches, but it’s kind of hard not to when you’re surrounded by two of the most tactile people I’ve ever met, and that’s not just with me. It’s like the brothers are in perfect sync with each other, moving in harmony and finishing each other’s tasks. Calling them close would be an understatement of epic proportions. It makes me wonder if Lucian’s thorny edges would have been a little less lethal if Nox had been with him the first time we met.
I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten caught staring at both of them, my mind going a hundred miles an hour as I try to reconcile how I could want to be here at all, let alone indulge in their banter.
Lucian is still bossy and crass, but seeing him interact with Nox in a similar fashion has proven it’s not always coming from a bad place. Nox, however, is charming and thoughtful, the kind of guy who’s dangerous to a girl’s heart because you know how easy it would be to fall for him just before you catch a glimpse of something lurking underneath all that charisma that makes you think twice, only to realize you’ve already fallen. At least that’s how it is in movies and books anyway.
Sometimes, when his guard is completely down, I think I might see a glimmer of Nox’s secrets behind his sweet veneer. It’s like a void, an emptiness that flattens his gaze with apathy, but then he snaps out of it just as quickly, and I’m left wondering if I just imagined it altogether.
The one constant, however, is Lucian. He’s still a jackass, albeit a little less of a hostile jackass, but I’m not sure how I would handle him any other way. Our battle of wills over the last few days has given me a strange sense of normalcy, which I’m craving, since it feels like everything in my life is in shambles.
I’m waiting for him to return now so I can press him to finally tell me everything he knows about what happened that day in the bathroom. I’m tired of being in the dark, being sheltered from my own life, and if he doesn’t confess today, I’ll probably lose what’s left of my sanity.
The repeated calls and texts from Astrid are only serving to confuse me more. She acts like she cares about me, but I’m having a hard time believing her, especially when I know she’s keeping so many secrets from me.
Nox told me about the meeting this evening. It all seems so ridiculous and overdone, like some made for television movie I’d catch on Lifetime about secret societies and people with too much time on their hands.
I can’t ignore the chill I felt when he showed me the robes they are expected to wear, and if I accompany them as they’ve asked—or demanded, really, in Lucian’s case—I’ll have to wear one too. The heavy black fabric gave me a flash of a memory, but I don’t know if it’s real or if my dreams are morphing my perception of reality. I do know that the fear that threatened to swallow me when I saw the cloak was very real. I made Nox take them out of the room as soon as Lucian went to the bathroom, and it wasn’t until then that I felt like I could breathe. I don’t know how I’m going to put that thing on without suffocating, or how I’ll be able to look at everyone else wearing them, but I’m going to force myself, because I’m tired of not knowing what the heck is going on around me.
A door slams somewhere in the house, and I jolt. My ribs ache, causing me to hold my breath for a long second. I listen for the pat-pat sound of Gertrude’s boots on the wooden floor, but it’s the heavier footfalls of Lucian approaching, so I pretend to relax into the couch. My eyes are already glued to the doorway, waiting like an eager puppy, before he breaches the entryway.
“Hello, lamb.” His deep, rich voice coils around the words in a familiar yet honeyed greeting.
“Pretty boy,” I reply in kind. The edge to my tone has long since left the words, likening them to a term of near endearment.
One side of Lucian’s lips curls, just enough to be noticeable, but then his features shift back to his placid expression and he lowers himself onto the sofa right next to me, all sinew and grace, filling my senses with the warmth of his skin and the smell of sunshine dampened slightly by the scent of his expensive cologne.
“Were you at the beach?” Do I sound sad? I shouldn’t be, but the thought stings a little.
“What makes you ask that?” he questions without giving me an answer.
“You stink,” I lie, which makes him really smile.
“You lie,” he counters knowingly, then decides to bring his face closer to mine, as if he may try to kiss me, but I know he’s only teasing. He hasn’t done more than a sweet brush of his lips against my forehead since the hospital.
I can actually feel the heat of his skin imploring me to touch him and risk getting burned. I don’t know how I resist. I watch, entranced, as he lingers mere millimeters away from me, but he displaces all the oxygen, making my heart thud. The desire to drag in a deeper breath so I can catch his scent again nearly overwhelms me.
“You smell delicious,” he rumbles, then licks his lips as if to prove his point. The answering flutter in my stomach has me letting out a shaky breath that he notices, and I’m rewarded with the brush of his nose along mine in a sweet nuzzle right before he takes a hold of my bottom lip with his teeth and nibbles.
The flutter shifts lower, and my nipples actually tingle with arousal. I like this so much, something has to be wrong with me, but I don’t really think I care.
He releases me too quickly, and I sway forward, caught up in his allure and presence. “Want more, lamb?” His eyes roam over my face. In the past, I would have assumed he was looking for a weakness, a soft spot to strike, but I can’t deny the heat in Lucian’s gaze and touch any longer. “Come and get it.” He leans back a little more, making sure I would have to put effort into seeking him out.
I almost lean away, putting that ever present space between us, but then I think about everything he’s done for me, about the meeting tonight, and how much could go wrong, and I decide fuck it.
Lucian’s eyes widen as I almost throw myself at him, pinning him to the couch with my body. I start to drop my mouth to his with the same urgency, but I pull back at the last second, ghosting my nose over his and just barely allowing our lips to brush.
Lucian inhales sharply, making our chests meet, and that’s the only warning I get before he reaches up, clamps his hand over the back of my neck roughly, and says, “Don’t stop now, lamb.” Then, he yanks me down so our mouths crash together.
Our kiss, if you can call it something as simple as that, is raw and completely unrefined. I swear I taste blood more than once, and I don’t know if it’s mine or his. When he jerks me into his lap, I let out a sharp cry from the ache in my chest.
“Fuck,” he whispers, stopping the kiss and lowering his entire face so I couldn’t reach his lips again if I tried, but his fingers knead into my ass over my hips as if he didn’t want to stop any more than I did.
“Sorry,” I tell him, because I don’t know what else to say, but that causes him to glare up at me, and the narrowing of his eyes makes me think he’s pissed.
“Don’t,” he warns. I start to lean back to put a little more distance between us, because I can’t tell exactly what irritated him, but he slides his hand up my back and applies a scant amount of pressure, making sure I can’t escape. “Don’t apologize for being hurt. It’s not your fucking fault.”
“Fine, I didn’t mean it anyway.”
One of Lucian’s dark eyebrows lifts. “Then why say it?”
I shrug, not wanting to admit the real reason I said it—I was sorry it interrupted the kiss.
“Not good enough.” He applies a little more pressure to my back while watching my face intently. I don’t resist lowering myself, and I end up plastered against him, chest to chest and nose to nose. The desire to bite his lip fills me, and I find myself staring at his mouth. When his tongue makes an appearance, I strike, sinking my teeth into his bottom lip and sucking.
Lucian’s chest rumbles with a groan that could almost be confused with a growl. I expect him to retaliate in some way, but he actually relaxes his body, which I take as his acceptance and continue kissing and nibbling him.
His hands stay locked on my hips and ass, even when he lifts his hips off the couch to grind up. The feeling of him pressing against me, as if he can’t get enough, sends a jolt of awareness through my mind and other places. I want him, all of him.
I slide my fingers into his dark hair, angling his head a little to better fit my mouth, then I slip my tongue deeper to twirl with his. When my nails graze his scalp, he bands his arm around my back and takes over the kiss in a bid for dominance, but I hate making anything easy for him, so I grab a fistful of his hair and jerk his head back.
His ice-blue eyes are wild as he glares up at me, causing a triumphant smile to curl my lips. I brush my mouth over his sweetly in an open-mouthed peck. He stills as if he’s afraid to move, and even his breathing has slowed. I take my time kissing him, exploring him, but it’s not the tenderness that has my heart pumping, it’s the thought of being in control of Lucian Morningstar and having him at my mercy.
“What are you doing?” he demands as he tilts his head back for me to kiss and nibble his neck.
“Do you need me to explain it to you? I thought you would know, but I can see I was wrong.” I slide my tongue up his throat, and I swear he shivers, to my utter delight.
He chuckles, maybe to cover how much I’m affecting him, or maybe because he actually found the comment funny, but I shouldn’t have gotten so cocky.
The swift crack on my rump comes as a complete shock, and my entire body jolts in surprise. Before I have time to recover, Lucian’s hand is on the nape of my neck, locking me in place. “When I find out who hurt you, I’m going to kill them slowly.” He pulls me down a little more, so his lips brush provocatively against my ear. “Do you know why, lamb?”
I manage to shake my head just enough to provide an answer.
“Because I can’t fuck you like I need to. I can’t be inside you, shoving myself so deep, you’ll beg me to stop because you’re afraid you’ll never get me out of you.”
I swallow thickly. I’m already afraid he’s sunk his claws too deeply into me, yet what frightens me more than my unhealthy obsession of wanting him is thinking about if he doesn’t.
“I told you that you can’t do that.” I muster up a response to his threat since I can’t seem to come up with a denial about what he wants to do to me.
“I can and I will. Will you pretend to hate me for it, lamb? Will you fight me when I come to you, smelling of death and needing to prove I got to them before they could hurt you again?” His words are spoken so softly, it’s almost hard to believe that he’s talking about killing someone. I don’t doubt the truth in his words, but it’s hard to wrap my head around the situation. There’s a big part of me that wants whoever did this to me to pay, but then I feel guilty for wanting that and what it really means.
Still, I answer his question. “No, I won’t fight with you.”
“Not even when I need to touch you after?”
“No,” I whisper, then I feel a shift of acceptance inside me. By allowing him this confession, I’m admitting that I’m an accessory and giving him power over me, but I don’t regret it. I have to acknowledge that I’ll be just as responsible for the person’s death as Lucian if it actually comes to that. Have they already changed me, or have I been this person all along?
I feel Lucian’s smile curl against the side of my face, but I choose to ignore it for my own sanity. “And here I thought I wanted you to say yes.” He slides his big palm down my back and cups my butt with both hands to pull me forward ever so gently, yet the hardness beneath me is anything but yielding. “It seems I like it just as much when you give me what I want, lamb.”
“Don’t worry, the newness will wear off, plus I like being difficult.”
He laughs freely, and it feels like a win for some reason.
NOX
“Do I really need to wear this?” Nova grumbles dejectedly.
“You won’t be allowed into the chamber without it,” I remind her.
“But why? It’s dumb.”
It’s not like her to be petulant. “They say it’s for anonymity or some shit, but mostly, it’s because these old assholes like to cling to tradition. If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to.”
“She’s going,” Lucian pipes up.
“Only because I want to,” Nova retorts. These two could argue over the color of the sky, but I’ve never seen my brother more content. That could have something to do with the hickey on the side of his neck too though. I haven’t gotten a chance to ask him what they got up to this afternoon while I was out. “The fabric is so heavy, I bet it’s hot as heck under that thing.”
“It won’t be hot where we’re going.” Lucian rises to get his own robe off the chaise.
“What’s really bothering you?” I question before this devolves into a real battle of wills.
“What if I don’t want to join your cult?” She plants a hand on her curvy hip.
“Too late, you’re already indoctrinated, and we have to sacrifice your virginity to my cock,” Lucian sneers with way too much enjoyment.
Nova flips him off without even looking at him, then sets her doe eyes on me, asking for help.
“It’s not a cult,” I defend.
“Yes, it is, but they like to think of it as a secret society, makes the old pricks feel important.”
“You’re not helping,” I tell Lucian as he picks up his robe.
“Do I ever?”
“No,” Nova and I say at the same time. Our eyes connect, and she gives me a sweet smile. The thought of her virginity filters through my mind unbidden. At least I know Lucian didn’t take it without me. I think I would strangle him if he did. I glance past Nova to my brother, and a silent exchange happens between us.
