Shadows of Ember

Chapter 2: Ember & Ash

The heavy obsidian doors of Ember & Ash swallowed Elowen whole. The club was a sanctuary for the city’s elite who wanted to sin without consequences with dim crimson lighting, velvet booths that whispered secrets, and a low thrum of bass that vibrated through her chest like a second heartbeat. The air smelled of aged leather, smoky whiskey, and raw desire.

She paused just inside, her heart still hammering from the image that burned into her mind: Victor’s c**k buried deep inside Lilith. Her stepsister’s mocking smirk. The way he had moaned like Elowen had never been enough.

Rage and humiliation twisted together into something sharper. She needed this. She needed to erase his touch with someone else’s hands. Someone who didn’t know her name, didn’t know her pain, and wouldn’t pretend to love her while f*****g her sister.

Elowen smoothed down her black pencil dress, the one she’d worn to surprise her husband and stepped up to the bar. Her auburn hair fell in loose waves over one shoulder, and her green eyes, still red-rimmed from crying, gleamed with defiance under the low lights.

“Neat bourbon,” she told the bartender. “Double.”

The glass appeared almost instantly. She downed half of it in one burning swallow, letting the heat spread through her veins. Around her, beautiful people moved like shadows, laughing, touching, disappearing into private alcoves. No one paid her much attention. Perfect.

Until he did.

She felt his gaze before she saw him. It dragged across her skin like rough silk: possessive, intrigued and dangerous. Elowen turned slowly.

He sat at the far end of the bar, half in shadow. Tall. Broad. Power radiated from him even in stillness. Black tailored shirt unbuttoned at the throat, revealing a glimpse of ink and hard muscle. Dark hair, slightly tousled, framed a face carved from sin itself: sharp jawline, high cheekbones, and eyes the color of storm clouds, grey with flecks of silver that seemed to pierce straight through her soul.

Draven Calder watched her like a predator who had already decided she was prey.

Their eyes locked. Heat flashed through Elowen’s body so violently she nearly gasped. He didn’t smile. He simply lifted his glass in a silent toast, then rose and moved toward her with the fluid grace of a man who owned every room he entered.

“You look like a woman running from something,” he said, with his voice low and rough, like gravel wrapped in velvet. He stopped close, invading her space without apology. The scent of him, sandalwood, spice, and pure masculine heat wrapped around her.

Elowen lifted her chin, refusing to shrink. “And you look like the kind of trouble I need tonight.”

A dark, approving smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Careful what you wish for, beautiful. I don’t do gentle.”

“Good,” she whispered, stepping even closer until her breasts brushed his chest. “I don’t want gentle. I want to forget.”

His hand came up, fingers tracing the line of her jaw with surprising tenderness before gripping her chin firmly. “Then let me ruin you for anyone else.”

The kiss was immediate and devastating.

Draven’s mouth crashed down on hers, claiming and devouring her. There was no hesitation or polite exploration. His tongue swept inside, dominating hers as one large hand slid to the small of her back, pressing her flush against his hard body. Elowen moaned into his mouth, the sound lost in the pulsing music. She could already feel him. It was thick, heavy, and growing hard against her stomach.

He tasted like whiskey and dark promises.

When he pulled back, both of them were breathing harder. His grey eyes had darkened to near-black. “My suite. Downstairs. Now.”

Elowen didn’t think. She simply nodded.

They barely made it into the private elevator before he was on her again.

Draven shoved her against the mirrored wall, his mouth attacking her neck while his hands roamed greedily. He yanked the zipper of her dress down in one smooth motion, exposing her black lace bra. His palm cupped her breast, thumb circling her already-hard n****e through the fabric.

“f**k, these are perfect,” he growled, pinching just hard enough to make her whimper. “I’m going to suck them until you’re begging.”

The elevator dinged. He didn’t bother fixing her dress. He lifted her instead, carrying her down the short hallway with her legs wrapped around his waist, her soaked core grinding against the massive bulge in his pants.

The suite door slammed shut behind them.

Draven set her on her feet only long enough to strip her completely. The dress pooled at her ankles. Bra and panties followed. He stepped back, eyes devouring her naked body: full breasts, narrow waist, the soft flare of her hips, and the glistening wetness already coating her thighs.

“On the bed,” he commanded. “Legs spread. Show me how much you need this.”

Elowen obeyed, trembling with a mix of grief-fueled lust and pure adrenaline. She lay back on the luxurious sheets, knees falling open. Draven shed his shirt, revealing a powerful, scarred torso covered in intricate tattoos. His pants came next. His c**k sprang free, so long, thick, veined, and intimidatingly hard. The head was already slick with pre-c*m.

He crawled over her like a beast, but instead of entering her immediately, he lowered his head and dragged his tongue slowly up her dripping slit.

“God…!” Elowen cried out, back arching violently.

Draven groaned against her p***y, the vibration sending shocks through her.

“So f*****g sweet and so wet for a stranger.” He licked her again, deeper, circling her swollen c**t before sucking it hard into his mouth. Two thick fingers pushed inside her without warning, curling ruthlessly against her G-spot.

She came embarrassingly fast,shattering with a broken scream, thighs clamping around his head as waves of pleasure tore through her betrayed body. Victor had never made her come like that. Not once.

Draven didn’t stop. He licked her through the o****m, then rose, positioning his massive c**k at her entrance. His eyes bored into hers, dark and intense.

“Last chance to walk away, little runaway.”

Elowen gripped his shoulders, nails digging in. “f**k me. Make me forget him.”

With a savage thrust, Draven buried himself to the hilt.

Elowen screamed in pleasure-pain as he stretched her wider than she’d ever been. He was so deep she felt him in her stomach. He gave her no time to adjust, pulling back and slamming in again, setting a brutal rhythm that had the headboard slamming against the wall.

“Take it,” he snarled, one hand fisting her hair, the other pinning her hip. “Take every f*****g inch like the desperate little slut you are tonight.”

The filthy words only made her wetter. She met his thrusts, hips rising to take him deeper, lost in the raw, animalistic f*****g. The sound of skin slapping skin filled the room, mixed with her moans and his low, filthy growls.

Draven suddenly pulled out, flipped her onto her hands and knees, and drove back in from behind. This angle was even deeper. He reached around to rub her c**t while pounding into her, his balls slapping against her soaked flesh.

“Come again,” he demanded. “I want to feel this tight cunt choke my cock.”

Elowen shattered a second time, vision whiting out as her walls spasmed violently around him. Draven roared, burying himself deep and flooding her with hot, thick spurts of c*m. He kept thrusting through it, pushing his seed deeper, as if marking her.

They collapsed together, panting but Draven wasn’t done.

He rolled her onto her back again, already hardening inside her. His grey eyes burned with something far more dangerous than simple lust.

“Tell me your name,” he rasped, starting to move again , slower this time, but no less devastating.

Elowen hesitated, the fog of pleasure clearing just enough for reality to creep in.

Before she could answer, his phone on the nightstand lit up with an incoming call. The screen flashed a name that made her blood run cold.

Victor Langford.

Draven glanced at it, then back at her, a dark, knowing smile spreading across his face.

“Interesting,” he murmured, still buried deep inside her. “Very interesting.”