Murder/Love: A Dark Romance Page 8

  19

  Carrie

  After a restful day, I am in my room getting ready for dinner. I'm taking special care to put every hair in place and to arrange myself perfectly for Jeremy. I want to ignite that lust that I know he is constantly feeling for me. I want his eyes to take me in and devour me so that he cannot look away.

  I've chosen the long red Valentino dress that clings tightly to my every curve. The dress is on the bed as I'm sitting in my lingerie at the vanity provided for my comfort. I haven't seen Jeremy in a while and I'm antsy to just see his face and connect. When I'm not with him I feel a heavy sense of isolation and loneliness, especially when I consider my place in the world at this moment. It's so precarious, all I've seen and done, and I'm eager to be held by Jeremy. The weight of his sculpted arms will bring me back down to earth. He centers me. He's like my point of gravity and the world melts away and I melt into him. After applying extra eyelashes to make myself look fierce, I swipe on some crimson lipstick, and then step into the gorgeous red gown I've chosen. I hope Jeremy likes it. It fits like a glove and I idly wonder how he knew my measurements so perfectly.

  As I leave my room, hair swept up with a few loose curls cascading down my back, I can hear music playing. It's opera music, and I think how romantic it always is of Jeremy to set the scene in such a beautiful way when it's just us dining together.

  When I reach the dining hall, however, there is a man there but it's not Jeremy. I feel startled and I stand in the stone archway, waiting to be noticed. Notice me he does and he quickly rises and comes to greet me. This guy is hot, not as handsome as Jeremy, but close. He's probably a few years older.

  "Hi there." His voice is smooth, almost too smooth, and he takes in the look of me with not a hint of pretending. He's eyeing me up and down and I think how rude it is when I am a guest...or prisoner, of Jeremy's, not his.

  "I'm Carter. Won't you please come join me?"

  He takes my hand and leads me to a seat next to him. "Thank you," I reply a little stiffly. Who is this stranger?

  "Been here long?" He offers to pour me some wine and I allow it.

  "Not really," I say vaguely, wanting to cast his attention off of me.

  Just then, to my delight, Jeremy enters with some hors d'oeuvres. His eyes light up in a profound way once he realizes what I'm wearing. He stands next to me and kisses my cheek lightly all under Carter's watchful gaze.

  "So you've met Carter?" Jeremy says as he takes a seat at the head of the long dining table.

  "Yes, we met just a moment ago," Carter responds and his eyes are dancing and I don't know why. What is it about this guy that makes me so uncomfortable?

  "Yes, Carrie, he and I met in school a long time ago and Carter is really the only family I have left. I consider him friend and family." They clink their wine glasses together on this note. I find myself wondering what their history is. This is the first person of note that I've met who's a part of Jeremy's life. I want to make a good impression, but something about this man comes off cold and calculating like there is no depth behind his eyes, just a private reserve of something chilling, like untold secrets.

  "Oh, so you guys met in boarding school." I take Jeremy's hand under the table and squeeze it.

  "Yes," Carter responds easily. "We once knew a girl there that we both liked, didn't we Jeremy?"

  I cringe at the weird tone of his voice.

  "Yeah, um, we did." Jeremy is eyeing him cautiously and I wonder what's happened between these two and what the nature of their relationship is.

  "She was nowhere near as beautiful as you are Carrie. Isn't that true Jeremy? Wasn't she just not even close to this lovely relic we have sitting beside us here." Jeremy's gaze narrows and I can sense some kind of a competition going on here. For what I don't know. It can't be for me because I'm already won over, by Jeremy.

  I sit perfectly still in the uncomfortable silence. Jeremy exits to retrieve the main course. It smells really good and I'm trying to focus on superficial things like the food, instead of the tension in the air.

  As soon as he leaves Carter is all over me. He leans in close and whispers in my ear, "You know, you really do look stunning tonight." He bites his lip as if holding back an impulse. "I could help you too like Jeremy has. I have the means to support— "

  I cut him off right there. "You don't know anything about what's going on here."

  Jeremy returns. We sit and begin to eat the delicious presentation.

  Carter says, "I was just telling Carrie here how gorgeous she looks tonight. I mean she really is something."

  I'm dying to tell Jeremy about what Carter said when he left but I say, "Thank you," to his compliment and bite my tongue on the rest.

  Jeremy's eyes are intensified now and I know he's just waiting for one more comment about me to leave Carter's lips before he reacts. Carter creeps me out so much. Sitting next to him sends shivers to my spine, and not in a good way.

  "Mmmmmm, this food is delicious. Carrie, let me see you taste it. I want to see your face when you eat Jeremy's food. Let me see it light up."

  With that Jeremy is standing over me glaring at Carter. He says through clenched teeth, "Carrie, I need you to go to your room, now."

  I'm happy to appease him because Carter's turned out to be more than a little odd, he's downright scary.

  "It was nice to meet you," I mumble as I make my way out. That was the most awkward dinner table I've ever sat at.

  20

  Jeremy

  I'm just waiting for Carrie to make her full approach out of the room. I watch the final folds of her red dress disappear up the stairs. I want to follow her so badly and assure her that everything's alright, but I have some final words to say to Carter first. I definitely don't want her to hear this. I invited Carter over based on goodwill and he's acted in a totally obscene way. It looks like he's up to his old tricks and I don't know why I'm surprised. I'm gonna have to shut this down fast. Normally I would be a little more apt to indulge his dark fantasies but when it comes to Carrie I just can't. He better not ever lay a hand on her or he will cease to be. Family or not, Carrie's my property now and I will never give that up.

  "Listen, Carter, you asshole. This is not a game, understand? This is not like before. She is special. And she is mine."

  He laughs like he appreciates my anger so much. He laughs like he has not a care in the world about what I've just said. This makes me fume and I want to rage on him but I hold back.

  He says haughtily to me, "Come on old boy. We're practically blood. Don't let some virgin come between us. She is a virgin, right?" His lips peel up in a smile. "Or have you already undone that? I could help, you know. I could show her what a true man is."

  "Carter, I'm warning you. I regret that you're here okay? I regret ever showing her to you. You obviously can't handle yourself."

  He takes a nice sip of his wine and leans back into his chair. He's eyeing me, wondering if he can call my bluff. I normally let him get away with so much. But not this time, not with Carrie.

  "Oh, come on! You always let me play with your toys. I like them. You're so good at picking the right ones. Besides, you break them too quickly. I'll be careful. She's ripe isn't she Jeremy? Let me just finish her off. It would feel so good for me to do that. I could fuck her first."

  My eyes are full of anger and I hope he's reading them right. He's treading on dangerous ground. He continues to take this lightly as if we are meant to share everything like he has some entitlement to her.

  "She is not yours okay? Get it through your head right now, I am serious and this is different." I'm practically growling the words through my teeth.

  "Oh don't be jealous Jeremy. It does not become you. I will fuck her, yes, but I don't mind sharing. Unlike you, I like to spread the good around. I could fuck her nice and slow, and then hard until she's near coming, and then you could come in and take her from behind. That's how you like it, isn't it Jeremy? Don't you just love to take women that way? You lov
e to rip them apart with your cock. I imagine you're planning to do that tonight with her anyway, why not let me join in on the fun? Hmm? We could finish her off, kill her right there with our cum sprayed all over her face like we so often have done. Wouldn't that be nice?"

  I fly at him now. I pick him up by the collar and snarl into his face. "Leave her the fuck alone! And get out!"

  "Come on man, what are you going to do?" He spits the words out. "I will have her at some point. She's probably aching for it right now." He casts a wicked smile and laughs.

  I grab a steak knife from the table and stab him in a meticulous way. It's enough to hurt him but it won't be fatal. I know the anatomy of bodies well enough by now. He will be able to stitch it up at home.

  In fact, he laughs again as he steps back, holding his bloodied side.

  "Oh, you fucker. Now you've woken the beast. Now I want to see what has you all up in knots. You should know how to control yourself better after all this time. I will know this girl…intimately.”

  "Out!" I shove him towards the door and let him rot in a heap on the driveway. Fuck! I slam the giant entryway shut and lean up against it, breathing heavily from the adrenaline of the moment. What have I done? What if I've just revealed too much about how much I care for Carrie? I should never have shown emotion like that. I should've predicted that this could be dangerous. This man, who was once my brother has morphed tonight into my eternal enemy. I know he won't stop until he has his way. I sigh and run my fingers through my hair. I did not expect the evening to go this way. I thought that for once in his life Carter could act civil, but his savageness came out in full tonight and I fear I may have put Carrie's life in danger. The one life I care about, the most precious girl in the world to me, might be in mortal danger because I just don’t know how to be in love with Carrie, or what it is doing to my life. I need to protect her from the only person I used think of as family.

  21

  Carrie

  I've been trying to listen at the stronghold of my door for some evidence of what's taking place downstairs. I was thankful to leave the table but now I'm worried about Jeremy. If something happens to him I will be at the mercy of Carter and that does not bode well for me. He is terrifying and I doubt he'd be as gentle with me as Jeremy has been. Carter seems like a cold killer and I wish I had never made his acquaintance.

  I hear footsteps and I'm not sure if it's Jeremy or Carter. I back away from the door and sit on the bed, pretending to be absorbed in a magazine. Luckily, as the door creaks open I see the one face that puts my life at ease. Jeremy is standing there with an odd expression on his face. To my horror, I realize that his hands are stained with blood.

  I jump up to help him. I take his hands and lead him to my private suite. I run his hands under soothing, warm water.

  "Are you hurt?" I know I must have an extremely worried expression on my face because he's tender with me now. The adrenaline of the moment is pumping out of him and I hope that seeing me helps it to fade.

  "Jeremy, did he hurt you?" I am desperate to find out if he's okay. But he looks a tad shocked, instead of reserved and stoic like usual. He's very much in control but something about what happened with Carter seems to have put him on edge.

  "I'm so sorry baby," he says to me. "Are you okay? Tell me you're okay. I wanted to be here for you but I had to deal with him first. I'm so sorry that he insulted you and made you feel uncomfortable. I'm sorry about Carter. I'm okay though, don't worry. He didn't hurt me."

  He's planting kisses on my face, my forehead, and finally over my lips as though he's desperate to find me and to be reconnected.

  "You're okay?" I ask. "Then why the blood? Did you hit him and throw him out? Is that what happened?"

  "No, my love. No. I stabbed him." He looks at me, seeking to know my reaction.

  "What?" I fall back against the door. His clean hands come to run strokes across my torso, over my red dress. He is pulling my hips toward him. He's pinning me to the door with his weighty body. I'm stunned. I cannot move and it's as if he's trying to contain my confused emotions and he's holding me up with his body as my knees begin to waiver. For a second I think I might pass out from the shock of it all but it slowly dawns on me that Jeremy did this for me. That guy was vicious and he didn't let him get away with it. Something about that, in some twisted realm, turns me on. It confirms our love for each other or something. Every time Jeremy defends me I feel more like I'm his and more like I'm safe. And something about what he did makes me feel alive with pleasure. It scares me that I feel this way.

  "Is he dead?"

  "No, no of course not. I just wanted to warn him."

  "Warn him of what?" I find myself asking.

  He takes my face in his hands and looks at me in a way that makes time stand still. "I warned him that you are mine."

  My knees nearly give out now as the intensity of what he's saying hits me. There is something erotic and ferocious about his love. I know he loves me. And I love him, so much so that I'm willing to change sides. I'm changing from the side of freedom to the side of darkness. I am choosing for his darkness to overcome me. It feels so good that I let the thought of all his heinous acts run through my blood, making it pump harder and faster. This is love. It's different but anything less wouldn't satisfy me. This is what I want, to be with him like this into eternity. He makes me forget the world around me. The walls swirl and the past is so distant now, as I all I can focus on are those mysterious forest green eyes staring into my soul. There is no going back. I never want to be away from him and I would never breach his trust or confidentiality in any way, I am his forever.

  "He's right though Carrie. Carter's right that I tend to break my toys."

  I look confidently into his eyes. "Am I a toy to you?"

  "Do you think I'm just playing?"

  The thought of what he did to Carter turns me on so much and I know that he knows it.

  "I know you're not playing."

  Those eyes of his entrance me. "Do you miss your family?"

  I say as if in a hypnotic trance, "I have no family. You are my family."

  He pulls my arms above my head and pins my wrists to the door with one large hand. He pulls my dress up violently and uses his legs to spread me apart. His leg and rock hard cock are pressing up against me and I can't move. I am still. Just his. Waiting to be taken by the force of his desire. I want him to be fulfilled by me and anything he wants or deems to do is okay by me as long as I am his...forever.

  22

  Jeremy

  The feeling of Carrie’s body trapped against mine is intoxicating. She responds to my every touch, every word. I can feel her complete submission to me in the way she waits, helpless, for my instruction. My mind starts to run through all the things I want to do to her sweet little body, untouched by any man but me. With my free hand, I run a finger over her lips, and then make a trail down her throat, loving the whimpers that leave her mouth at my touch. I am tempted to take her right here against the door…But it will be so much sweeter if I bend her to my will and leave her begging first. Still holding both of her wrists in one hand, I pull her away from the door and open it, half-leading and half-dragging her through into her bedroom.

  A dark desire fills me as I pull her towards the bed. So what if I break my toys now and then? I know this one will withstand the test of my passion. She conforms to my whims so completely, so eagerly. She is mine to do with as I please, and no one, not even Carter, will change it. He’ll have a nice scar to remind him of that.

  A few steps away from the bed, I change my mind, and bring her to stand in the middle of the room.

  “Stay right here. Do not move,” I say to her as I let go of her wrists. She remains motionless there, her arms still in the air where I left them. I suppress a little smile and go to the bed, reaching under it for a box I left there. Inside is a collection of tools I thought I might need in the taming of my little beauty. It seems, however, that I only need one of them. I pull out two
lengths of soft silk rope and return to her side. Lifting her wrists up directly over her head, I take one of the ropes and bind her from wrist to elbow. Firmly enough to keep her from moving, but not tight enough to bite into her skin. The second I thread around and between her legs, weaving it from knee to mid-thigh.

  Admiring my work, I walk slowly around Carrie’s body, letting my eyes run over every part of her. My fingers stroke her spine, her ass, and her thighs as I pass around. She shivers under my touch, with her arms held high over her head. She is already struggling to keep her arms up, no doubt beginning to ache being held in that position for so long. No sign of strain shows in her face, she only looks at me with adoration as I stand in front and turn to face her.

  Sliding my knife out of my pocket, I cut the fabric of her clothes off of her body, letting the shreds fall to the floor around her as she gasps in shock. When she is finally down to no more than her panties, I pocket the knife and rip the pretty lace fabric off of her with my fingers.