Page 30 of Kiss of Ruin (Brutal Empire)

His words go straight to my heart, healing the cracks, but not yet making it whole. There’s more to this story I can just feel it. I don’t know if I’m ready to let him all the way in.

“And Elena?” This is the answer I need more than any other. How could he let me go around thinking she was dead. If I had known, I could have been prepared.

“That’s a little more complicated. I’ve kept so many of Luis’s secrets, it’s become a habit. Not to mention the fact that she’d kept herself in the shadows for so long, I never imagined she’d resurface, much less take this fight on herself. If I thought for one minute she would, I would have told you.”

I want to believe him. Want more than my next breath to be able to trust him. The man I love is sitting in front of me, opening himself up to me. A voice in the back of my head screams there’s more. That this isn’t the entire story. I know the voice is right. My intuition is screaming at me to listen.

Right now, I don’t want to. There’ll be time to find out the rest later. Right now, I want to be in the arms of the man I love. Nico pushes my chair back and kneels on the floor in front of me. “It broke me to tell you those lies in the hospital. To pretend that I didn’t care when all I wanted was to climb into that bed with you and hold you until you were healed.”

He reaches up and caresses my cheek. I don’t flinch away from his touch like I did the night before at the pool. “I called my mom for updates on your progress every single day, sometimes 2-3 times a day. I had to know you were okay. Leaving you alone in that hospital was not my choice. They weren’t willing to risk anyone else.”

I lean into his touch, letting his words heal what’s been broken inside of me for the last two months. I finally let the words I’ve been waiting months to say leave my lips. “I love you.”

Nico leans up and presses his lips firmly against mine. I wind my arms around his neck and tug him in closer. I need to feel him against me. To know that this isn’t another dream that will taunt me in the morning.

When his tongue slips into my mouth, I moan, leaning farther into his touch. When he breaks away, I recoil back, waiting for the dream to end.

He stands and reaches his hand out to me and I know this is real. The deep, chocolate brown of his eyes are molten. I put my hand his, letting him pull me up from the chair. He takes a step back, my hand still firmly gripped in his.

“This dress looks like fucking perfection on you,” he says as his eyes run down every inch of me.

The desire to rip it off and let it fall to the floor increases tenfold when he traces the line of my breasts through the opening in the front of the dress. I take a step forward and mold my body to his.

It doesn’t take long before takes the hint and holds me tightly to him, devouring my mouth. I reach up and run my hand along the short hair on the back of his head. It feels weird not to knot my fingers in his long hair.

He hasn’t lifted his mouth from mine when we’re suddenly moving across the floor. My legs bump against the back of the bed and I expected him to shove me down on top of it.

The connection of our lips is broken and he takes hold of my shoulders, gently turning me around. I hear the zipper lowering down my back at the same time the fabric of the dress falls from my shoulders, eventually pooling on the floor at my feet. Nico’s fingers trace the line of my spine, stopping right above where the scar from the surgery begins.

The warmth he spread across my back is gone when I feel his lips softly graze the line of the scar. “Shit, Scarlett.” There’s a hoarseness to his voice, he can’t hide.

I will not allow him to dwell on the past and quickly turn around and kneel on the floor in front of him. “I’m fine. You can look at me and see I’m okay.”

“I wish I was here to make sure of that.”

“We can’t change the past. Just be here with me now.”

He crouches down and crushes my mouth to his. As he does, I reach for the buttons of his shirt. I want to relive my dream, here now, in the present. I finish with the buttons and push it off his shoulders, letting it join my dress on the floor. When I reach for his pants, Nico goes wild. He tugs me up to standing and scoops me up into his arms.

Next thing I know, I’m laying across the cool silk of the sheets. He hooks his fingers into the waistline of my panties and glides them down my legs tossing them over his shoulder.

It doesn’t take him long to discard the rest of his clothing and climb onto the bed with me. His mouth covers my nipple, sucking the taut bud between his lips until I shriek between pleasure and pain.

I quickly clamp my mouth shut. His mouth moves up to my ear and whispers, “No one is anywhere near your room, I want to hear you scream my name as I fuck you.”

The dream flashes before me and I realize that the reality is much, much better.

He returns to my breast sucking hard until I’m crying out in pleasure. My pussy is practically dripping. I need more than his mouth on me. I need to be touched. I reach between my legs and flick at my clit. I’m so in tune to the electricity that shoots from my clit to the rest of my body, that I don’t immediately realize that Nico’s tongue is no longer tracing my body. He’s sitting up and his eyes are glued to where my fingers continue to give me pleasure.

“Fuck, that’s hot.” His eyes are wild when they move to mine. Nico is normally so controlled, so calm that seeing him lose control is its own turn on. “My turn.”

I let my legs fall open farther and Nico doesn’t waste any time burying his head between my legs. It’s only the second time he’s tasted my pussy, but this time I’m not shy when his tongue flicks across my clit.

Fire shoots through me. I reach for the nipple that got less attention from Nico’s mouth and pinch it, rolling it between my fingers. With my other hand I grip for purchase on the sheets while Nico flicks his tongue in exactly the right spot. My legs tremble beneath him and this time, unlike my dream, the orgasm slams into me hard enough to make me scream.

“Nico.” His name echoes off the walls of my room.

He doesn’t stop there. His lips clamp hard around my clit and the edges of my vision blur. I can’t take anymore. My entire body shakes with need until I scream out once again.

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