Cupid (13 page)

This wasn’t his first time.

He’d had several drinks with Len this past summer, watched the man walk off with young girls a few times, and did his best to keep himself on the bar stool, night after night, and not do anything about it.

He had to be careful then, but not tonight.

Things had changed.

Diana had come to his life, and named him something more.

I’m Cupid, and Cupid would’ve never sit around for this long, as little girls got their innocence taken away from them, night after night. Diana would approve of this kill.

Shadows danced all over the walls as he traveled through. Men wore masks like him, as well as the women. No one wished for their identity to be known. Too many bad things happened there. Too many naughty men filled the empty spaces of the house. There were so many secrets that could get out and no one wanted that.

The brothel had been designed like the ones of western days. Satin draped all of the rooms. Candles seemed to be the only way light could be used. Piano music played everywhere.

In minutes, he arrived at the back of the house where a small bar rested. One big fat man with a huge black mask sat there, guzzling down a small glass with brown liquid, and talking to a female that couldn’t have been more than fourteen.

Hello, Len.

Although a lace disguise covered her face, her arms were tiny as well as the rest of her body.

“And so I signed the merger.” Len slammed the glass on the bar and returned to the tiny girl. “That’s life. Some people get money. Others have to sacrifice so that those people can get it.”

“You’re not worried about what this could do to your worker’s families?”

Maybe, this girl is older than fourteen. She sounds smart.

“Sometimes the blood of others can bring pleasure to a few. Is that so bad?” Len asked.

She just gave him a weak smile and sipped her water.

Asher tapped Len’s shoulder. “Speaking of blood and pleasure.”

“Is that you, buddy?” Len turned to him.

They didn’t use names here. It was always a
buddy
here or a
friend
there, nothing more. Besides, no one ever took off their masks.

“We should go upstairs and talk.” Asher waved the bartender away, when she approached.

“Upstairs?” Len whispered.

“I have an interesting business endeavor, something you would definitely be interested in.”

Len considered Asher’s words for a few seconds and got up from his seat. They’d hung out by the bar many nights. There’d be no reason for Len to be alarmed.

“Will this make me money?” Len asked.

“Would I bring something to you if it didn’t?”

Len chuckled and hit Asher’s back. “Yes, you are correct, buddy. I only go into things unless it makes me cash. That’s the only way.”

They walked away from the bar together. Asher glanced over his shoulder to check the girl. She remained behind and was no longer looking their way, probably happy to be rid of the fat man.

Through another darkened passageway and then up the stairs, the walked together, side by side, and whispered.

“These other men here,” Len gestured at a few walking by, “They were born with money. They’re not like us. We worked hard to get here.”

“Well, you are the only one who worked hard. I got my share through my mother’s marriage.”

“Trust me. I know that racket. Surely, you had to grin when told and suck in any discomfort around dear old step daddy.”

“Something like that.” Asher thought back to all of his stepfathers and stifled a laugh. All of the men had feared him. They probably didn’t know why, but it was something in their guts. None of the his mother’s husbands could sit around Asher for too long, no matter what his age was.

Had they smelled the blood on his hands? Did they see the horror in his eyes?

Asher and Len arrived at the last room on the third floor. No guards existed this high. There was a special price to pay for this access. This floor was for people who loved to do bad things. Cameras were shut off, at least that was what the establishment promised.

It didn’t matter to Asher.

If they recorded what he was going to do with Len, then let them.

They didn’t have his identity, and even if they somehow figured it out, they knew he would expose them all. He had the money.

And besides, Len’s death wouldn’t be the first one on this property. Others had killed here before. Rich men had stabbed competition among this hallway. Celebrity actors had mistakenly gone too far with some of the girls.

Secrets remained here, while the corpses were delivered in neutral tone boxes at the doorsteps of the dead person’s home, with no explanation to how or why it had gotten there.

This has to give me more than two days. Hopefully, if I make the crime scene gruesome enough, they won’t put Len in a box. They’ll get scared and call the cops to come. Maybe even pretend like the establishment is on the up and up, if they’re not already bribing the police.

They stepped inside Len’s personal play room. The fat guy had boasted about it when he purchased it last summer.

“Oh the things that I’ve done in that room.” Len had laughed. “It will keep me out of heaven for sure.”

“Do you really believe there is a heaven?” Asher had asked.

“God, I hope not.”

And then both men laughed, one found his own ironic joke funny, the other chuckled at the image of killing the comedian in his head.

Only moonlight seeped into the room and gave the space a little light.

Len walked in. Asher closed the door. Both of their images stared back in the mirror across the room. Chains and leather straps dangled from the ceiling above his bead. A table sat on his right, stacked with wooden paddles..

“I think there’s a lamp over here.” Len got ready to head in that direction.

Asher grabbed his fat arm and stopped him. “No. We don’t need light.”

“What?” Len chuckled and stared at Asher’s hand on his arm. “Hey, buddy. You’re acting a bit weird.”

“Sorry about that.” With his free hand, Asher grabbed the knife and pulled it out of his pocket. “By the way, how many girls have you had up here?”

“What?”

Asher brought the knife to Len’s view.

Could the man see it? Probably not.

Asher hoped he could.

Hoped the man was pissing in his pants.

“What’s that in your hand?” Len asked.

“Your destiny.”

“Wha—”

“Destiny.” Asher slammed the sharp end of his knife into the bottom of Len’s chin. The blade sliced through his flesh. Blood sprayed onto his mask.

“Sorry, buddy.” Asher leaned back so it wouldn’t get in his eyes. “What a mess.”

Len struggled as he died, jerking his arms and lazily fighting to get out of Cupid’s arms. It was no use.

“This is why I hate using a knife.” Cupid slid the knife out and hammered it into his chest over and over. Each time, the sharp edge met bone, a bang sounded.

“It’s so loud too.” Cupid let go of Len.

The fat man fell to the ground.

Cupid crouched down. “You were supposed to feel the pain of my arrow, but I had to improvise tonight.”

Len’s body violently shook.

In the shadows, dark liquid gurgled from all of the holes that Asher had made.

“You see. There’s a girl, but isn’t that always the case when someone dies.” He dropped the knife onto the carpeted floor. “She’s more than I thought she would be.”

He grabbed the dying man’s shirt and snatched it open. Buttons flew. A few hit Cupid’s chest, but he paid them no mind.

“She’s beautiful, but that’s not why I like her.” He ripped through Len’s holy and blood-stained undershirt. “She’s smart, but seriously, the world is filled with smart and beautiful women. It’s why I can’t read those god awful romances.”

Len’s head bobbed a little, his hands lay limp on his sides, while his legs jiggled every few seconds. The odor of death filled the air and Cupid inhaled it all.

“I mean. Isn’t the world filled with beautiful people? And any reasonable man or woman could argue that at least half of these gorgeous individuals are smart.” Asher tore away more of Len’s shirt and stared at his chest.

The moon bathed the punctured skin in a glow of light.

“Plus, most of those chick flicks are boy meets girl, boy does something stupid, girl finds out and leaves, boy somehow gets her back.”Asher picked up his knife and studied Len’s chest as it slowly rose up and down.

Somehow the fat man still held on. He had a few breaths in him. His heart continued to beat just a little bit more.

He’s still alive, a little. Good. I’m going to enjoy this. Can he hear me? Too bad all of the little girls he stuck his prick in, couldn’t see his death.

“But then I met Diana.” Asher found bare and un-punctured skin at the area right above Len’s fat pecks. “Our boy meets girl story was very different than the norm. She happened to stumble upon me doing my night time pleasure. The sort of hobby that you sadly happened to stumble upon tonight.”

He brought the sharpened edge of the knife to Len’s chest and carved out a C. The body shook, but there wasn’t much energy or life left in Len to stop Asher.

“So now we have me dropping right into some sort of romance story.” He finished the C and went to the U to continue spelling his name in Len’s chest. “I’m the boy. Diana is the girl, but what I will not have is that same formula. No. Our story will be something more.”

He drew the P, I, and D. “The girl will fall in love with the boy and not get mad. Personally, I doubt the boy will take her being mad at all.”

In the moonlight, he gazed at his bloody name on Len’s chest. “I haven’t figured out how I’ll keep her, but, tonight, I think I just realized I want the girl around me more.”

Maybe, more than a week.

Finally, the body went limp with death.

Asher gathered up some of Len’s blood, went to the door, and wrote:

Thinking of her, he dragged Len’s heavy body to the door and propped the man against it.

“There we go.” He sighed. “That has to give me another week at least.”

His phone buzzed. It was probably Diana, wondering where he was. Next time, he’d have to make sure he had a good albi.

He took off the gloves, stuffed them in his pocket, and answered the phone, “Hello?”

“Are you standing me up again?” she asked.

“Again?”

“You left after our kiss. I’m counting that as a stand up.”

“I don’t think that’s fair.” Smiling, Asher headed over to the window, lifted it up, and climbed out.

How many times had he left this way? For weeks, he’d planned how to take Len’s life. Things had gotten in the way. Other men’s murders came easier, and then there was his mother.

“Are you coming?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m on my way now.”

“Good.”

He paused on the window’s opening. It would take him time to climb out and then connect to the tree that leaned toward it. The branches were an even harder trick to accomplish, although he’d done it many times, ripping his pants and getting a cut here and there on his leg.

“Diana?”

“Yes.”

“Tonight, I’m going to kiss you.”

Although he couldn’t see her, he knew she was grinning when she said, “And should I attach a rope to you just in case you run away?”

“No, My Love. But we can use the rope for other things.” He hung up before she could reply, stuffed the phone back in his pocket, and got ready to climb down.

Wait a minute.

He froze right there in the moonlight.

Did I say. . .my love?

D
iana wasn’t
sure what came over her. The minute she stepped foot in the Bishop mansion, every secret desire she’d buried deep in her subconscious burst out of her. She felt as if she’d been living as a subdued, cocooned version of herself but then Asher came along and…

What was it about that man that changed her? He was sexy and delicious but it wasn’t his looks that did her in. It was more, the way he dripped with intellect and secrets with the curving of his lips.

Perhaps it was the way he demanded control from her in the most pleasurable of ways.

How could he leave her with only the whispers of his cologne and the heat of his hand on her cheek? He wouldn’t get away with it again, she would make sure of it.

Every thought she had about Cupid ceased to exist the moment she decided she would fuck Asher and get it out of her system.

If she could just satiate the hunger blazing through her, then maybe she could focus on more than the way Asher’s voice made her want to explore what was beneath his expensive suits and shiny ties. She wanted to know everything she could about the man sworn to protect her. The man who told her exactly what he was going to do to her and when.

“Tonight, I’m going to kiss you.”

She’d bitten her bottom lip and touched herself then, though she worked very hard to keep her voice calm and steady on the phone. She’d made a joke to keep the playfulness going, but then his comment about the rope threw her off and she was thankful he hung up, because she cried out in fervor.

“No, My Love. But we can use the rope for other things.”

She sincerely hoped he had a rope on a standby, because suddenly the idea of being tied up while Asher thrust into her over and over again gave her shivers.

Diana slipped out of her clothes, every last stitch of fabric. She picked up the phone extension in her room and pressed 0 for house management, as Asher had instructed her last night.

“Miss Carson, what can I do for you?” a woman asked.

“Um, yes, I need you to bring me one of Asher’s most expensive button downs. White, please.”

“Oh. . .his button downs? Mr. Bishop?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure if we’re authorized to do that.”

“Trust me, when I tell you this. You’ll be making Mr. Bishop a happy man if you do this for me.”

Silence hung on the line for a few seconds, and then the woman replied, “Okay, Mrs. Carson. We’ll get the shirt for you.”

“Please, hurry.” She hung up the phone and checked her watch.

Asher would be home any minute and she was going to surprise him.

Maybe, I should’ve asked house management for a rope.

A few minutes later, a knock came.

Excited, she opened the door a crack to hide her nakedness.

A short red-head woman handed the shirt through the small place. “Here you go, Mrs. Carson.”

“Thank you so much.” Diana grabbed the shirt, shut the door, brought the button-down to her nose, and inhaled.

Jesus, the man has refined taste.

His signature cologne teased at her nose. If she had to guess, the fragrance was made from some earthy scents, like teakwood and bergamon oil.

She closed her eyes and let the soft fabric glaze over the flesh of one arm. Then the other.

“Let’s see what I look like with it on.” She closed the shirt around her, and stepped in front of the mirror.

Her dark skin shone brilliantly beneath the white of the shirt and she admired the desire oozing from her. This was a Diana she hadn’t seen in a long time, and she welcomed her home.

Lust boiled inside of her and she couldn’t wait to see what Asher did when he saw her.

Sorry, Cupid. You’re hunt will have to wait till tomorrow.

She considered all of the many reactions that Asher could have to her nakedness under his shirt. Would he devour her right there on the spot? Would he freeze her burning veins with slow, tepid kisses down her torso until she begged for his cock?

She shivered and slipped into her heels.

There you go Cupid. You get one more day to be free of my investigation. This is my gift to you. You did me a favor. You led me to Asher, and no matter whatever comes from him and I, I know it will be interesting at least.

A half hour passed, and Diana waited for Asher in the foyer with one leg crossed over the other. She’d arranged herself enough to hide all her juicy bits and when the time was right, Asher would see her as everything she was.

The ancient clock in the foyer ticked by and chimed at nine o’clock on the dot, and not a minute later, footsteps sounded down the hall. Asher’s voice came next, as he talked to one of his staff members, told them goodnight, and then rushed toward his grand, spiraling staircase.

Diana cleared her throat. “Good evening, Asher.”

He snapped his head in her direction and she wasn’t sure if it was lust, pride, or greed she saw in his eyes, but he froze right there in his spot. “You’re. . .”

“Gorgeous? Witty? Brilliant? The queen of your existence?”

“Yes. All of those.” His gaze moved down to the gap in the shirt, where Diana’s breasts were on full display. Again, her hungry nipples hard craved his attention.

She gestured to the sneakers at the end of the step. “You see those?”

“Yes.” He studied them for a moment, and then returned to drinking her in, his gaze plastering in seconds to her bare thighs. “Those shoes aren’t my size.”

“The sneakers are for me.”

Inch by inch, he glided his tongue along his bottom lip. “I prefer the heels that you’re wearing.”

“Good. Besides, the sneakers are only for my back-up plan.”

“Back up?”

“Just in case, you run off. I’m going to kick off these heels, put on my sneakers, and race after you. I’m not going to let you run away this time.”

“Trust me, when I say this. I won’t be running anymore.” He pierced her with his gaze. “You know the problem with that?”

“What?”

“I won’t let you run away from me either.”

“I’ll never race away from a man that takes care of me.”

He flashed her a wicked smile. “Never say never, Diana.”

She opened her legs and exposed all of the lush, warm flesh in between her thighs. “I’ll say whatever I want to.”

“Interesting,” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “And is that my shirt?”

Diana opened her mouth, but Asher didn’t wait for her to say another damn thing as he rushed toward her. She shrieked, unprepared for him to launch her way.

“Asher, what are you—”

He picked her up before he could say anything else, and cradled her in his arms. “I swear I would take you right here if I didn’t have half the staff on duty.”

She nuzzled into his chest. His suit smelled fresh, like he’d just picked it up from the launderer. She ran her fingers through his damp hair.

He just took a shower? Did he do that just for me?

Asher carried her up the stairs and through the main hallway, until they ended up in his bedroom.

“Take the shirt off.” Asher set her down on the floor and shut his door.

“What shirt?”

He lifted the ride side of his lip up into a sneer. “Don’t play with me, Diana.”

“What happened to
my love
?”

“Take off your shirt, and I’ll tell you what happened to my love.”

Diana opened it, and let the shirt slide down her body.

“Fuck.” He grabbed her waist, pushed her up against the door, and pressed his lips against hers.

“Jesus,” she mumbled.

“You’ll be calling for more than him by the end of the night.” He wove his hands through her black curls and she gasped at the electric charge, at the power that came when his mouth moved against hers.

Diana panted beneath Asher’s tender touch and rough kisses. “Asher?”

He hadn’t heard her, he moved his hands to hers, held them up over her head against the door.

“Asher,” she said louder.

He pulled back, his expression full of concern. “I’m sorry. What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “No, don’t be. I just want to know why you’re clothes are still on.”

Asher smiled and it was enough to get Diana wet for him. She couldn’t explain why something so simple as a grin from him made her want to do something crazy.

Asher stripped off his suit and shirt but he went at a snail’s pace and Diana ached for his touch. His mouth on her skin. His dick inside of her.

She sauntered over to him and pushed his hands aside. “Let me do it.”

He arched his eyebrows. “You’re bossy when you’re—”

“Shut up, Asher.” She placed kisses down his chest, until she reached the top of his slacks. Slowly, she left soft, wispy breaths on his flesh as she undid his button and unzipped him.

“Yes, definitely bossy.”

“Not bossy, but I am a boss of some sorts.” She wriggled the pants down his muscular legs. Those thighs bulged with strength, and she hoped, she’d get a chance to decorate that sexy flesh with her teeth. “Be careful, you don’t want me to fire you, do you?”

“No,” he said in a low voice. “I need this job.”

She wanted to eat him, devour this man, until he was nothing but an empty shell that she could pass out by, and lay next to.

With her fingertips, she traced lines up his legs, thighs, and stopped short of his soft, plump sac. “Have you come to work, prepared, Mr. Bishop?”

“Yes, Mrs. Carson.” She pulled his boxers down with her teeth.

Asher moaned.

She kneeled before him, his swollen cock hers for the taking. Her pussy dripped with desire. And Jesus did she want him. She reached around and stuck a manicured finger in his puckered asshole.

He groaned, “You’re a naughty girl, Diana.”

“No, I’m a boss.” She grabbed the base of his dick with her other hand. Leaned down and took him into her mouth. Her hair fanned out around her and between his moans, he brushed it out of her way.

“Let me show you what I’m talking about.” Inch by hard inch, she licked up his shaft, sucked the tip, and rotated her hand around his dick while she took him even deep.

He tugged at her hair and gently pressed the back of her head, pushing her down a little bit more. A pleasure moan escaped her wet lips as she sucked down hard on his cock, taking it far into her throat, and wishing she could swallow it whole.

“Fuck. . .” He thrust into her, clenching his ass cheeks to feel every part of her mouth. “God, yes, you are a boss. My boss.”

Diana wanted him to come, but she couldn’t bear the thought of not having him release inside of her first. Shivering with lust, she pulled away from him and stood up. “Fuck me hard. Don’t you want to be the employee of the month?”

Although a chuckle left his mouth, he did as he was told and pushed her to his bed. She fell back with a shriek, her full breasts bobbing from the reaction, her pussy throbbing to be filled, and every inch of her flesh vibrating with the call to be ravished.

He pinned her arms above her head. “Look at me.”

She stared at him.

“I don’t ever want you to turn away or close your eyes, when I fuck you.”

She widened her gaze. “Okay.”

“I want to see every second of what’s going on in between those beautiful eyelids, I want to see my face in your eyes as you scream my fucking name.” He pushed into her, hard.

It was thunderous thrust, more pleasure than pain.

She bit back a yelp, and almost turned away, before stopping herself.

He filled her so completely, right then. With every thrust, he brought her a little closer to the edge.

“I think I’m going to—”

He bit at her erect nipples. “No thinking. And you’re not going to come yet. It’s far too soon. I have so many things planned for us tonight.”

Asher pulled out of her. Her desire dripped all over his length. He loved her wetness on him, relished in the slickness. “You’re so wet. I wonder how you taste.”

Falling to his knees, he brought his mouth to her wet pussy, parted those moist lips with his tongue, and lapped up her wetness. “Diana, you taste… amazing.”

She arched her back and melted into him. She’d been fucked, sucked and made love to before, but she’d never felt the intensity of the moment as she did with Asher.

He delved his tongue further inside of her, touching the spot that made her toes curl and her hands grasp at the sheets.

As if Asher couldn’t get enough desire from her, he took a finger, massaging her wetness from her cunt down to her asshole. He circled around the hole and she cried out.

“You like this, Diana? Do you want me to be naughty?”

She could barely form words together.

“Remember,” he whispered. “You’re the boss.”

She just nodded and looked into his eyes as our whole body raged with lust.

“Yes, ma’m.” He went back down, licking her inner thighs and moving over to her clit. The moment he sucked that throbbing bud into his mouth, she bucked up her hips and he slipped his finger into her hungry hole.

“Oh!” she moaned, overwhelmed with it all. Her appetite for Asher grew with every twitch of his tongue, and every flick of his finger. “I want you in me, Asher.”

He brought his head up and shook it. “Not yet, my love. You’re going to come in my mouth until your juices drip from my chin.”

“Oh,” was all she could mumble.

He thrust his finger in and out of her while his tongue searched for the part of her that would give him what he wanted. She was certain his tongue was a weapon of mass destruction, set on destroying her completely.

He bit at her clit and it was the proverbial foot on the grenade.

She gasped and an orgasm rock through her. “Asher. Oh God. I can’t…”

Asher didn’t stop though, he kept his tongue at the base of her cunt, lapping as she came in his mouth.