Dark Temptations, Dark Desires Ch. 03

Cortana groaned in frustration as she read the message from John.

How much more obvious can I make things for him, she thought angrily.

Cortana had hoped telling John that she would be having a few drinks with Locke would arouse enough jealously in him to get him to leave Infinity. Apparently though, that had been an incorrect assumption.

I have never met a more oblivious, hard headed man in my life, Cortana thought furiously as she reread his message again.

In response to her telling him that Locke was buying her a few drinks at a bar, John had simply responded with...

Okay. Have fun.

The next message he had sent her made things a thousand times worse.

Since you're okay without me, I'm going to spend an extra day on Infinity. I'll meet you groundside tomorrow evening.

"That's most of our weekend together you jerk!" Cortana nearly yelled into the datapad. "Another man is hitting on me, and all you can think about is more training?"

Her voice was a low growl, and for a brief moment she considered going back into the club and taking Locke up on his offer.

Reason regained control after Cortana took a few moments to calm down.

That's alright, Cortana said to herself. It's just one more day, and in the mean time I'll get home and finger myself into oblivion.

Cortana messaged back, hitting the screen perhaps a little harder than she meant to.

Just make sure you don't miss our reservations for tomorrow.

Cortana closed the messages, mumbling a few choice words about John underneath her breath as she pulled up the app for the cab company.

"Come on," Cortana mumbled to herself as she was waiting for an automated message to be sent to the cab that had dropped her off.

But fate decided to take another turn. A turn that would change Cortana's life forever.

The app sent back a message.

We're sorry, but the automated taxi you have reserved as encountered some mechanical difficulties and is currently unavailable. Would you like us to find you another automated taxi near you?

"Yes, yes fine," Cortana grumbled, jamming her finger at the screen. It was an agonizing two minutes before the app finally messaged her back.

We're sorry, but there are currently no available automated taxis near you. The current estimated wait time is one hour fifteen minutes. We are apologize for any possible inconvenience this might have caused.

"Oh that's just perfect," Cortana groaned. She felt like throwing the datapad on the ground for all the good it was doing her. She was mentally calculating whether it would take longer to walk back to the apartment or just wait, when a midnight black luxury car pulled up in front of her. The paint on the car was shiny enough for Cortana to see her reflection in it. When the window rolled down, Locke was smiling at her from inside.

"Having a bit of trouble there little lady?" he asked. Cortana was so annoyed with his smile that she felt like hitting him.

Cortana crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "My taxi broke down, I have to either walk or wait over an hour for another one, and my Spartan boyfriend has decided to be the most thick headed man in the galaxy. On top of that, I'm currently being stalked by his smooth talking rival who's determined to get into my panties. Does that sound like enough trouble for you?"

Locke nodded his head slowly. "So I take it you need a ride?"

Cortana rolled her eyes. "What part about being stalked by a horny Spartan IV did you not get?"

"Well its either hitch a ride with me, wait an hour, or take a hike." He shrugged. "But I suppose that's your choice."

Cortana tapped her foot several times, and made a wayward glance up the street, again making a mental calculation of just how far of a walk it could be.

"Well?" Locke asked.

"Fine," Cortana said in a huff. Her heels clicked sharply on the pavement as she walked around Locke's car. The passenger door unlocked as she approached, and Cortana slid into the vehicle, her soft blue dress sliding pleasantly along the black leather seats. She stared straight at the road ahead, not daring to make eye contact.

"So..." Locke started. "Where to?"

"Home, I guess," Cortana said unconvincingly. "Not that it makes much of a difference now."

Locke seemed surprised. "Would have thought John would be waiting for you there."

"You would think," Cortana spat. "But apparently, he cares more about training than he does satisfying me."

"What happened?" Locke asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

Then Cortana told him. She told him everything. It simply slipped out of her in one long angry rant. How John had decided to stay on Infinity. How her hormones had been running rampant for days and she was anxiously desperate for sex. How she had cooked up a plan to make John jealous and simultaneously humiliate Locke. How John had completely ruined those plans by not getting jealous and deciding to spend another day on Infinity. Most of all, Cortana talked about how Locke had completely invaded her mind.

"Then there's you," Cortana spat at him angrily.

Locke cocked an eyebrow, taken aback by the sudden and seemingly inexplicable accusation. "What about me?"

"It's like I'm going rampant again," Cortana said, a hand gently pulling on her short dark hair. "I just can't stop thinking about you okay? Every time I close my eyes. Every time I try to get off, the only person that comes to my head has been you. That was the whole point in all of this. To get you out of my head. Give John a chance to show me just how much better he is than you, but instead he decides to blow it."

Cortana seethed. Perhaps it was the alcohol. Perhaps it was the hormones, or perhaps Locke's words at the bar had affected her more than she was willing to admit.

"You've been swimming around my head all day long. Ever since what happened on Infinity..."

"When we bumped into each other," Locke offered.

"Yes," Cortana said, but then changed her mind. "No, not exactly. Not completely. It started when you won the match."

"What about it?" Locke asked, though it seemed like he already knew the answer.

"The way you completely over powered John," Cortana said quietly. "How you dominated him. Pushed him into the mud. It was..." Cortana cut her sentence short, afraid of what she might say next.

"It was what?" Locke asked firmly. There was a command in his voice, and a subconscious part of Cortana responded to it.

"It was the most erotic thing I've ever seen in my life," Cortana whispered. It was something that she had not wanted to admit to herself, but once spoken Cortana felt a huge weight lift off her.

Everything Locke had said about her. About who she really was, Cortana realized it was all true.

Suddenly the path was clear. Cortana knew what she had to do.

"Well," Locke said, putting the car in drive. "I guess there's only one other thing to decide now." He nodded his head at the road in front of them. "Your place or mine?"

Cortana glanced down at her datapad which was sitting in her lap, the screen blank. She bit her lower lip, considering. "He did tell me to have fun." She looked at Locke. "Alright Spartan, let's see if you're more than just talk. Take me to your place."

Locke grinned broadly from ear to ear. A devilish grin of victory.

"Yes ma'am."

...

Not much was said on the car ride to Locke's apartment. Instead they sat there in semi comfortable silence as rain began to pour gently on the windshield.

"Lucky thing I pulled up when I did," Locke said, turning on the wipers.

"We'll see how lucky I am shortly," Cortana replied, her mind a swirl of thoughts, and her stomach a tight knot of nervousness.

That was all they said until Locke pulled into the parking space in front of the apartment building. It looked nearly thirty stories tall. Filled top to bottom with luxury apartments. It was clear just by looking at the building how much money it must cost to live there.

"You don't believe in Spartan living do you?" Cortana asked.

"I get enough of that on Infinity," Locke replied. "I prefer something a little more comfortable when I'm Earth side, and the UNSC does pay Spartans well."

"I think you just like showing off," Cortana said bluntly.

"Well you aren't the first woman I've brought here," Locke admitted.

"I'm shocked," Cortana said sarcastically. "Though I guess from your view I put them all to shame don't I?"

Locke smiled. "If I'm lucky enough, maybe you'll be the last."

"We'll see," Cortana said carefully in a measured tone. Every rational bone in her body was screaming at her to leave, to ask Locke to drive her home and end this crazy night. But a darker, more primal part of herself knew that she wouldn't. Cortana had crossed the moral Rubicon a long time ago, and there was no turning back.

Just one time, Cortana told herself. Just one night to work it out of my system. John doesn't need to know.

The doorman nodded to them as they walked into the main lobby, and the nervous knots inside Cortana tightened even more. There were four elevators in the main lobby, but Locke guided her past all of them. He took her down a short hallway, through a door on the right, and towards a separate elevator marked private.

"This is us," he said. He pressed the call button and the elevator doors slid open immediately.

The elevator ride up was even more quiet than the car ride. Cortana stared blankly at the top of the door where the floors were displayed, counting as they rode farther and farther up the building. When the past floor twenty-nine the display change, now reading Penthouse Level. The doors slid open, and Cortana found her mouth hanging open in spite of herself.

"There's wanting to be comfortable," Cortana said. "And then there's this."

From back to front the entire Penthouse was covered in hardwood floor the color of red cherry. Except for the bathroom and bedroom, there were no walls to speak of, the entire luxury apartment giving the feeling of a wide open space. Cortana spared a glance at the kitchen area which occupied the far corner of the apartment, but what caught her eye immediately was the wet bar situated right next to it.

"From one bar to another," Cortana muttered underneath her breath as she continued to wander around. There was a piano in the middle of the room, and Cortana ran a finger down the keyboard, smiling at the nonsense tune that suddenly filled the apartment due to her gentle caress. Several couches surrounded the piano, and a coffee table made out of hard mahogany sat in the middle of two of them, making the entire space appear as some sort of parlor or living room.

Cortana's self-led tour led her to what she could only describe as the entertainment area. A large sofa and several reclining chairs drew her eyes first to the area, but so did the large box like column that seemed to grow out of the middle of the apartment from floor to ceiling, breaking the illusion of open space.

When she rounded the corner, Cortana found that the column was actually a gas fire place, with a beautiful wood mantle adorning the area above. As Cortana ran her hand along the smooth wood, the fire place suddenly turned on, bright blue flames appearing to snatch at her dress.

Cortana jumped backwards with a small squeak. When she turned around she found Locke grinning evilly by the wall, his hand on a switch.

"Like I said, show off," Cortana huffed. She set her purse on top of the mantle and finished up her inspection. There would be time enough to view the bedroom, but for now Cortana was curious about the placement of one particular chair. The large sofa facing the fireplace was a warm scarlet, but the reclining chair was facing the opposite direction, towards the huge window that took up most of the wall.

"Any particular reason you have this facing that way?" Cortana asked. "Besides the view of course."

It was an incredible view, the city at night stretching out before them in all its sparkling glory.

"Touch it and find out," Locke offered.

Cortana looked at him skeptically, but did as he said. When she did, the window appeared to shimmer. The view of the city night light blurred out of existence, and was replaced instead by a solid blue screen.

WELCOME

The word disappeared, and the window went black. Then green displays came up, basking Cortana in a faint glow.

"An entertainment system," Cortana muttered. "Not bad at all."

She flipped through the options. Phone, messages, video chat, news, sports, chatternet, Waypoint. Finally her finger landed on music, and Cortana smiled impishly. "You know we never got to dance in the club," she said. "Let's see what kind of music Spartan Locke listens to."

Cortana swiped at the music option, selected favorites, then hit random. A smooth beat of slow jazz filled the apartment. Bedroom music Cortana had heard it called. She looked at Locke incredulously. "Really?" she asked.

"You don't like?" he asked, moving closer to her.

"It's a bit cliché don't you think?"

"It'll do the job won't it?"

"We'll see," Cortana said teasingly. "Be a shame to get this far just to turn me off with your poor taste in music."

"Now that's a little cruel," Locke said.

"It is," Cortana agreed. She slipped off her heels, and extended a hand towards him. "Care for a dance Jameson?"

Locke's smile was like that of a shark circling around its prey. It was enough to send a shiver down Cortana's back.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said, taking Cortana in his arms and letting his hands rest upon her hips as they swayed back and forth slowly to the music. Cortana tried not to look it, but her heart was thumping loudly in her chest. She wanted him, and that's what scared her. Everything about this flew in the face of her own morals. It flew in the face of years of loyalty and commitment to a man who loved her. Yet somehow, betraying John, the taboo immorality of it, only served to turn her on further.

Was this always a part of me? Cortana asked herself. Just waiting for the right man to bring it out?

"What are you thinking?" Locke asked, noticing Cortana's pensive expression.

Cortana shook her head. "About how incredibly wrong this all is." She made a move to pull away from him. "I'm sorry. I should never have come here."

Locke pulled her back into him, pressing Cortana close against his chest. "But you did," he stated firmly, gazing deeply into her eyes. Cortana quickly looked away, afraid that she might get lost in them. "Why?"

Cortana closed her eyes. "I don't know. I know how wrong this is, but somehow that makes me want to do it more. That makes me a bad person doesn't it."

Locke shrugged. "Maybe, but I wouldn't have you any other way." He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head up to look at him. "You're beautiful," he muttered. Locke was staring deeply into her eyes again, and this time Cortana did get lost.

Over the next several years when Cortana tried to remember this moment, she was never quite sure who moved first. Perhaps they both moved at the same time, as improbable as that might be. Regardless, Cortana found herself kissing Locke, and he kissing her passionately in return. It was not chaste kiss in any way, nor was it romantic. The lust which they had been slowly building up over the course of the night came exploding forward. Any self control Cortana had left was lost once their lips touched.

Cortana was about to learn more about herself in the next hour than she learned throughout an entire lifetime.

Their tongues tangled violently with each other as Cortana's hands groped blindly at his pants. She managed to undo his belt and pull down the zipper. Her fingertips just managed to graze something large, throbbing, and hot, when Locke unexpectedly pulled her hand away from his crotch.

His eyes mocked her as Cortana groaned in annoyance. "Not yet little lady."

"What do you want?" Cortana asked breathlessly. "An engraved invitation?"

"Something like that," Locke said with a smile. He moved into to plant a line of kisses along her neck and Cortana melted in his arms. "I also like a little foreplay."

"I thought the drinks were the foreplay," Cortana shot back. It was getting harder to keep her composure. Her pussy was burning. Throbbing, almost to the point where it hurt. Why couldn't he just fuck her good and proper so she could get this damn itch out of her system?

Apparently Locke was more in the mood to try and torture her, and Cortana was in no position to resist.

Locke's hand was between her thighs before Cortana even realized he had moved.

"No," he said, brown eyes staring deep into hers as he moved her panties out of the way with a flick of his thumb. "This is foreplay."

Then he was inside here. Well, it was not the part of him that Cortana wanted inside of her, but she cried out in relief nonetheless as Lock slipped two of his thick fingers inside the pink folds of her pussy.

It became immediately obvious that Locke knew what he was doing, his invading fingers finding Cortana's most sensitive areas almost immediately as his thumb massaged her swollen clit, rotating clockwise and then counter clockwise as his fingers thrusted in and out at an ever increasing pace.

Cortana gasped out loud and her knees buckled underneath her. Instinctively she wrapped herself around Locke's offending arm in what was close to a death grip, moaning softly into his shoulder as he brought her closer to climax.

"I take John has never fingered you like this before," he said with a tone that verged on arrogance. Cortana would have snapped back with a retort, but was too caught up on her own pleasure to think of any kind of snarky reply. Quite frankly, Locke wasn't wrong either. John had always done his best to try and please Cortana, and though he was more often than not quite stiff and hesitant during sex, always asking every now and then if he was hurting her of if she liked what he was doing, he still always succeeded in bringing Cortana to orgasm.

But none of John's gentle fumbling could quite measure up to what Locke was doing to her now. Whereas John would have asked permission before putting even a single finger inside her, Locke simply did it. Where John had to ask what pleased her, Locke knew already, and he was much better at it.

Perhaps it was Locke's own skill that brought Cortana to a climax so quickly, or just as likely it was because she had been sexually frustrated for so long. Probably it was a mixture of the two, but regardless of the reason Cortana suddenly felt herself on the verge of orgasm. Her fingernails dug deep into Locke's muscular arm as her whole body shook, a loud involuntary moan escaping from her soft lips.

Her pussy began to spasm as she grinded herself onto Locke's hand, but the Spartan gave her no respite. He pressed his attack further, flicking her clit with the tip of his thumb as her cunt clamped tight around his intruding fingers.

"God," Cortana managed to whimper as the orgasm subsided. She muttered more curses underneath her breath as Locke chuckled. Cortana shot him a deadly glare. "You find this funny?"

"I do," Locke said simply, flashing her yet another cocky grin. It was more than Cortana could bare.

She nearly attacked him, her feet leaving the ground as she unexpectedly jumped into Locke's arm. For once it seemed like he was not fully in control of what was happening, even a little surprised at the sudden ferociousness of Cortana's attack.

She bit him, left long scratch marks along his back, called him every insult and filthy name she could think of.

But most of all, Cortana kissed him. She kissed him with a level of passion and intensity that the woman had not even known she was capable of.

For a few frantic seconds Locke was caught completely off guard. The woman was relatively tiny when compared to his massive Spartan frame, but the sheer vicious and passionate nature of the attack briefly rang alarm bells in his head. Cortana could just as easily have been trying to kill him rather than kiss him, and with the way she was biting his neck Locke would not have been surprised if it turned out she was attempting both. However, when Cortana forcefully thrusted her tongue deep into his mouth all doubts vanished from his mind.