Page 62 of Invoking Ruin

Even so, I arch for him, eager for him to take me, to debase me, break me down and make me into something new. Something worthy of him.

“Fuck me,” I beg him, not even hiding my desperation now.

He stops just short of kissing me and pushes away, kneeling between my thighs. He strokes his cock, his darkened eyes trailing over every inch of my exposed skin.

“Say my name, and I will,” he replies.

My entire body burns. If I don’t get him inside me, I think I might die. Fuck the rift knife, it won’t take some relic to end me. I’ll just break into a thousand pieces.

But I won’t give him his name. If he knows, if he hears it, things will change forever.

I’m not ready for that.

Not ready for the hatred in his eyes.

“Sandro, please.”

He shakes his head. “Last chance.” His hand darts out, wrapping around my throat. He leans into it, the head of his cock sliding through my wetness, brushing my clit. I moan, trying to rock my hips, take him inside me. So close.

But he draws back, just enough.

“You’re so fucking stubborn,” he complains, but he sounds almost impressed.

But then the world hollows out, all the color fading from the gardens, from the pavilion, in a rush of sound and dread as he says, “Tell me my name, Atê.”

Chapter fifteen

Atê

Hearing my own name pierces me like a knife to my heart.

The room is spinning, my desire forgotten for a moment as it all clicks into place. His command, the ruthlessness, the cruelty…

Of course he’s seemed different. More confident, more powerful.

He’s not the mortal at all, anymore.

“Dionysus.” I breathe the name into the air, and his eyes flare in recognition, not surprise. He doesn’t try to deny his true name, and there’s not a single moment where he’s off-kilter. All I see in him is acceptance, like he’s shrugged himself back into his own skin.

Like he belongs in a god’s body.

It’s beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Dionysus.

Dionysus.

Dionysus.

“That’s it, little Ruin,” he taunts before he spears me on his cock.

I cry out as the stretch, the fullness steal the air from my lungs. Fuck, I shouldn’t want this, should want him to stop, but as he pauses, waiting, I don’t even let the thought materialize.

No. My lying, wild god is going to fuck my brains out. If this is the last time I have him, I’m not wasting it on any emotion besides pure pleasure.

I wrap my legs around him, dragging him in deeper, and we both groan. His head drops down, forehead resting against mine.

“That’s it,” he praises as he rocks his hips. “Take it, Atê.”

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