Author's Note: A major NSFW warning. And another one for the story being angsty and dark. It was supposed to be a lot longer, but I got depressed halfway through and I couldn't continue.

It's long enough to post on its own, but I can't do it. I'm hiding it in here and hoping that the next story will be fluffy and cheerful and counteract the bitterness in this one.

-=oOo=-

Maybe Next Time

The blonde giggled and leaned on him as they came to the door. They didn't have that much to drink; she was obviously putting on a show, not that he was complaining. He grinned playfully at her in appreciation.

Encouraged, she ran her fingers though his hair and pulled his head down so she could whisper a question into his ear. He lifted an eyebrow, enjoying the suggestiveness in her eyes and her smile.

"Everywhere!" he confirmed, his grin widening roguishly.

"I can't believe that!" she made a fake pout, the saucy game they were playing making her giddy.

"I can show you…" he teased, eliciting a fresh giggle out of her.

They reached the door. She released him so he could fish the keys from his pocket and waited until he unlocked and opened the door.

The door swung inwards. "Here we are –" he began, then an all-too-familiar scent filled his nose and exploded in his brain in a blinding flash of ecstatic agony. His claws slid out, his lips curled back in a snarl and his muscles cramped into painful rigidity while he stood motionless and voiceless. The only movement he was capable of for the next few seconds was the steady flaring of his nostrils as he breathed deeply of the addictive, exhilarating, painful essence that he knew so well.

The blonde sensed something was wrong. She peeked around him and frowned. It was difficult to tell in the gloom, but it looked like there was a person sitting cross-legged at the end of the entry hallway, wrapped in a midnight-blue cloak with a hood over the head. The face was hidden in the shadows; the only discernible details she could see were a sharp, delicate chin and a finely formed mouth, its pale but full lips twitching into a tiny smile.

Suddenly he turned to her. "Go," he growled. The blonde's teeth clacked together in frightened surprise at his tone and she took a step back before anger flared up in her.

"Gar, who is that? Are you –"

His face was stony and his eyes hard and reflective like polished malachite. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled bill, pressing it into her hand.

"Take a cab. Go home."

She placed her fists on her hips and glared at him. "Who's that woman? Don't tell me you're kicking me out because –"

His eyes narrowed and he stepped closer, the talon on his forefinger lifting to dig gently but dangerously into the soft skin beneath her jaw. It was razor-sharp.

"Go. Now."

She stumbled back from the quiet, terrifying menace in his voice. Her instincts shouted at her to run and to keep running until she could run no more. She swallowed, retreated a few steps, picked up her composure and her wounded pride and stormed away leaving a dissipating scent of fear and fury behind.

He walked in and closed the door, forgetting immediately everything about her. He turned to the dark visitor, his insides clenching in a mixture of love, want, rage and hurt.

She floated up and her long, shapely legs straightened slowly until they touched the floor. Their creamy paleness glowed in the darkness, making his claws twitch, before the cloak settled and enveloped her, hiding her from view. But the image was burned into his mind already; he felt the muscles in his hips and his ass tighten as a wave of fierce lust crashed into him, erasing everything from his mind but for the wish to pounce on her and ram himself into her again and again and again until she moaned and sobbed and screamed out his name, until he knew she was his.

She always had that effect on him. He ground his teeth and pulled himself together with difficulty, then took a deep breath.

"What do you want?"

"That's a dumb question, even from you!" she spoke in a forced monotone that trembled slightly. She stepped closer, letting his powerful, primeval feelings wash over her, drinking them in and diving deep to drown in them.

"Raven…"

She shuddered at the sound of his voice and looked away, biting her lip. "I'm sorry, Gar. I… couldn't resist." She gazed at him again, her eyes a deep violet, reflecting the shame and the guilt and the desire that burned in her. "I tried… I swear I tried…"

A dangerous growl came from his throat as she moved up to him. She paused for a second, the need burning in her fighting with fear. She knew how volatile and unpredictable he was right now, poised ready to erupt in a blast of rage and lust that could have disastrous consequences for both.

In the end, it only fueled her hunger.

Her hands went up and rested gently on his chest, the nails scraping ever so lightly against his shirt. Her head tilted to look up at him and her body came closer, still not touching him anywhere, and yet his skin burned from the unnatural heat that poured out of her.

"Don't… do it," he muttered hoarsely. "Rae, please…"

Every breath he took brought more of that wanton scent crashing in successive waves against his restraint. His mind desperately struggled to stay afloat, like a shipwrecked man trying to swim away from the maelstrom and only succeeding in prolonging the inevitable for a few seconds.

"I have to," she whimpered, her eyes half-closed and watching him with a famished, almost greedy expression. Her lips parted and her tongue flicked quickly over them, leaving behind a wet gleam that seared his mind and burned the last remainders of his self-control into a handful of smoldering cinders.

A rumble that grew quickly into an inhuman roar tore itself from deep in his chest. He seized her throat and slammed her against the wall with one hand while the other tore her clothing away. He yanked his belt off and ripped his pants open while still holding her pinned helplessly, then forced her legs apart with his knee and moved between them. He released the strangling hold he had on her and his hands descended to grab her ass and lift her up, his claws digging deep into the pliant flesh. She fastened her arms around his neck, locked her ankles around his waist and mashed her lips on his, whimpering as she felt him and tasted him and bit him and drank him, her soul parched for his love and her body starving for his touch.

He jerked his head away furiously and sank his teeth into the smooth skin of her shoulder while he plunged roughly into her. She cried with the pain of his harsh thrusting and moaned with the exultant frenzy it woke up in her. Her hips heaved greedily back against his pounding, her nails sinking deep into the flesh at the back of his neck and tracing crimson furrows down to his shoulders, her head falling back, releasing an unbroken, euphoric whine as her craving was finally satisfied and her need was at last fulfilled.

Her climax approached with astounding swiftness. Her moans became louder, cut short only by her quick, gasping intakes of breath. Her fingers convulsed and her nails dug even deeper; his teeth released her shoulder and bit into her neck savagely in response, the fangs piercing her skin and drawing blood. The sharp pain zapped her brain and rebounded to crackle down her spine until it burst in her loins, and she shrieked his name while the orgasm wracked her body.

The feeling of her walls clenching around him, the taste of her blood in his mouth and the sound of his name being wrenched out of her throat in a shuddering wail sent him over the edge. He groaned and drove in deeper, mashing her against the wall, his hips jerking in spasmic movements as he buried himself to the hilt. A voracious howl squeezed itself through his tightly-clamped jaws, his eyes squeezed shut and all muscled convulsing.

The intensity of his own climax crashed into her, all his emotions and sensations surging over her already dazzled mind in an unstoppable tsunami that tore her away from the descending spiral she was falling into and catapulted her up, making her come yet again. Her eyes were already rolled up and her orgasmic cry had turned into a long, drawn-out, exhausted mewl, but the pleasure was still flooding and drowning her in an ocean of rapture, her breath now coming out in short, choked gasps, unable even to whimper or moan any more, just cling on to him for dear life and sanity.

He felt his knees buckle. They slumped to the floor, with him on top of her. They were still joined; Garfield would remain hard until utterly exhausted. It was a perk of the forced mutation he went through, and it combined perfectly with Raven's demonic heritage. There was nobody else that could sate the lust he felt for her, and there was nobody else that could fulfill the craving she felt for him. They were literally made for each other. And they both knew it.

As soon as his gasps relaxed into deep breaths he began moving again. A hoarse purr of sheer bliss rewarded him and he growled in response, nipping every part of her skin he could reach, his bites now hard but not vicious any more. Her fingers tugged at his hair and her nails scraped over his shoulders and back and hips. He hissed sharply as she dragged them over the deep, bloody grooves she tore up just a couple of minutes ago. He ground his hips into her vindictively and rumbled at the sight of her eyes losing focus and closing in ecstasy while her mouth opened in a silent, breathless shout.

This time it took a lot longer, but soon enough he sped up, his feet and knees slipping on the rug as he tried to thrust deeper inside, her hips bucking demandingly against him, both of them groaning and whining and moaning and growling in a quick crescendo that turned finally into a joint cry of unbridled delirium.

He rolled off her, completely dazed. But awareness returned eventually and he looked up, staring at the ceiling, chewing the inside of his mouth. The anger that smoldered in him flared up again; the rage at her behavior and the fury at himself for being so weak. He closed his eyes and scowled; deep inside he knew it was useless to berate himself. He simply could not resist her. He was enthralled, and would remain so forever.

"Gar…" he heard her soft call and opened his eyes. Her head was floating above him, soft strands of silky hair tickling his face, her beautiful mouth smiling and her deep, amethyst eyes shining with love.

"Shower first," she whispered. "Then to bed. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"No!" he tried to fight back. "Not again. Not any more! I won't be your plaything, Raven!"

"You never were," she hummed into his ear, nipping it gently. "You know how much I love you."

"Then why do you do this to me?" he tried to shout at her, but it came out as a choked sob. "Why won't you ever stay?"

"You know why," she breathed, nibbling and licking and kissing her way down over his neck to his throat. "Because I can't."

He shuddered and groaned, and his hips rocked involuntarily. She knew his body well, knew exactly what to do, where to do it and how.

"Rae, please…" he whimpered pleadingly. "I don't want this any more. I can't…"

"Hush!" she lifted her head and silenced him with a finger on his lips, then kissed him lightly. "Don't speak. Don't think. Enjoy it."

"Just… just promise me you will be there when I wake up." His voice was broken and his will was crumbling. "Promise me you won't leave me again."

She paused in her caressing to press her face into his chest and hide her eyes. "Maybe next time," she murmured, just like she did every time before.

He sighed deeply and surrendered, as he always did. The anger in his mind and the pain in his heart were smothered yet again by the impossible love that would not let him break free.

He rose on one knee, then bent and scooped her up. She gasped in surprise, then clasped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest. As he did so many times before, he pushed away and locked up his despair and his anguish deep in a remote corner of his soul and focused on the present. A grin spread over his face and he carried her to the shower.