Dahlia's Kiss

ACCUSATIONS AND ALIBIS

“Please, let me in, Dahlia.”Damian stood on the other side of the door. His words sounded slurred, as if his face were pressed to the wood. “Please, let me explain. I’m sorry I haven’t checked in with you for a few days. Things have just been pretty heavy, and I needed to take care of my shit.”

I hesitated since no one else was currently inside my apartment. After what I’d found in Cole’s car earlier in the day, I was having trouble trusting any of them. I still didn’t know what to do about Cole. Something inside of me told me I should relay the information to Sterling so he could be looked at more carefully, especially since Cole told me the man was following him. There must be something to that. Something else told me I at least owed him the opportunity to explain himself, as he’d been asking to do.

I was currently sending his calls to voicemail, and he hadn’t tried to come to the apartment. Now, there was a whole different beast to deal with.

“Please, Dahlia,” his strained voice pleaded. “Hear me out. That’s all I’m asking.”

Reluctantly, I opened the door and faced the baby-faced man. “Come inside. We can talk, but that’s all I can promise you. I’ve got too much on my plate at the moment for understanding and forgiveness.”

“I understand,” he said.

I took a seat on the couch and waited for him to join me. I eyed the door, trying to remember if I’d locked it after he stepped inside. When he sat down, I turned my attention back to him. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I know Sterling told everyone the police brought me in for questioning. I’ve been avoiding you because I know what you must think. I almost didn’t come back at all, but then I thought that would just make me look more guilty, and I couldn’t live with that.”

“Everyone says they’re innocent.” I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but pain. “Who am I supposed to believe when no one will take responsibility for anything?”

“I really am innocent, though.” Damian hung his head in shame.

“Tell me what happened then.”

Damian raised his gaze to me with hope glittering in his beautiful eyes. “I was only in the hotel where he died. I didn’t know who he was from anyone else. You have to believe me, Dahlia. I’d never hurt anyone. I didn’t know he was someone you fed from. How would I have known that?”

“Let’s start with why you were at the hotel.” I’d had enough with proclamations of innocence. I needed to get to the meat of the business.

Damian tried to take my hand, and I pulled away.

“I heard a rumor that there was another Incubus in town. Other than us three, that is. I heard Sterling say that he could smell someone at the crime scenes and the scent was similar to us, but not exactly the same. It made me curious, so I started asking people I frequently fed from if they’d come across any sexy strangers lately. All of them said there was a man who was staying at the Harriet Hotel who was sleeping around with the locals pretty heavily, so I thought it was a good place to start. I went to the bar area, and I had a few drinks and waited. But I never saw another Incubus. I never so much as smelled one, so I thought the info I got was bogus.”

“How come you didn’t tell this to Sterling?” I asked.

“Because I don’t really trust him. He doesn’t like the idea of any of us being around you. If it were up to him, he would have you all to himself and he doesn’t make a secret of that. He gives me bad vibes. I didn’t feel like it was my place to tell you that.” Damian sucked in a breath and stared straight ahead. “I forgot all about going there until the cops were knocking on the door to my apartment, telling me I needed to come with them. Apparently, it made me a person of interest because I had no business being there and I stayed for so long. It was clear from the footage that I never got into an elevator or entered the stairwell, though. So, I was eliminated pretty quickly. But they still thought I might have seen someone who did.”

“Did you?”

He shook his head. “I never saw a single person who I could have picked from a lineup. No one stood out. So, they thought maybe I was covering for someone. Like I was a lookout or something.”

“How come you didn’t just tell us all this when they let you go?”

He looked down at his lap, reaching forward to scratch the cat, who sat by his feet like a furry sentinel. “Because I thought you would already be thinking the worst. I was ashamed that I couldn’t help, and afraid you would believe I had something to do with the death. You’re all looking for a murderer, and someone is out to get you. I couldn’t live with myself if you thought that person was me.”

He took my hand again, and I didn’t stop him. “I would have believed you if you’d come to me.”

“I know. I was stupid to not trust you.”

He leaned in and pressed his forehead to my cheek. He encompassed my hand in both of his, and I felt the warmth seep into my bones. “Give me a chance to hear you out if anything ever happens again, please? I can’t handle my stomach being in knots over you guys. I need to trust you with my whole soul if you’re going to share my bed on any regular basis.”

“I promise.”

He kissed the line of my jaw, breaking my train of thought entirely. I closed my eyes and felt his mouth wander to my earlobe, sucking it into his mouth, before he moved to my throat. My body was opening to him, inviting him to take what he needed from me. His need to feed washed through me, and every inch of my flesh screamed, ‘I have what you need.’

“Dahlia, I can’t stop. I need to taste you. I need to feel you.”

He stood, looping his arms beneath my legs and arms. Lifting me from the couch, he cradled me against his chest. I felt so small, like a rag doll being transported by a much larger person. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave in, sighing when he settled me into the bed.

He undressed me carefully, baring my flesh to him as if it were a gift, kissing each place before moving to the next. He wasn’t nearly as gentle with his own clothes.

My thighs quivered as he parted them with an expert hand. When his tongue traveled down my slit, I arched into him, trying to increase the pressure against my sensitive nub. “Oh, God. I need you,” I mouthed with my hand in his hair. He lapped at me, starting at my ass and progressing to the top of my mound and back again, inserting his tongue into my holes on each trip until I writhed beneath his touch.

“You taste like honey,” he said as he sucked my clitoris into his mouth. “The sweetest honey ever created.”

I pressed my knees against the sides of his head, encouraging him to dive deeper.

He pressed a finger into my ass, and I flinched. Another went into my waiting pussy before I could offer a complaint, and he held me there. Pinching the two appendages together, he licked at my wetness that spilled out. “I could lick you all day.”

“Don’t you want to cum?” I asked. “I can feel your need for a release. When was the last time you fed?”