Page 100 of Ruthless Reign

He was failing miserably.

I squeezed my thighs, swallowing against his palm.

“Because I don’t think you really want me to go.”

“Why not? Why not just get it over with, hm?”

His lips brushed mine and I felt the rumble of his deep voice all the way to my toes. I gasped, not understanding how only his touch, his voice, could turn me on like a light switch. From ice cold to searing hot. From barely conscious to fully alive.

“Get what over with?” I managed as I squirmed against the swell of something deep in my core, feeling his hips press into me.

“You were never going to stay with someone like me, Hawk,” he said and his grip on me loosened. His tone shifted. So soft. So unlike him. It was pained, almost, and I hated it.

“And I don’t think I can force you to stay anymore if you wanted to g-g-go. I c-c-care too much—fuck.”

My eyes burned.

“Fuck.”

He released me.

I shoved him back with everything I had, catching him off guard snapping him out of whatever bullshit thought had him breaking on the inside.

“Is that what you fucking think?” I couldn’t keep the venom out of my voice. “That I’ll what? Choose Aodhán? Just up and go? Run away into the sunset with him and forget you ever existed? Glad to hear you think so fucking little of me.”

“Hawk,” he warned as I stepped closer and he stepped back. In the cramped space there wasn’t anywhere for him to go. All around us shelves of spray paint and oil and other random garden tools and chemicals cased us in and there was no way in hell I was letting him get past me. We needed to hash this out. Now.

“You”—I poked him in the chest—“Hardin St. Vincent, are a monumental idiot.”

His shoulders expanded with a deep, angry intake of air.

“But you’re my idiot.”

He deflated, a muscle in his jaw flexing.

“Haven’t I made it fucking obvious that I’m not going anywhere yet?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Haven’t I?”

His gaze hardened.

“Don’t go quiet on me now, Hardin. Fucking talk to me.”

He licked his lips, gaze dragging over the floor. “Tell me you don’t want him, too.”

I closed my lips and all the embers that he’d stoked into a growing flame in my chest were smothered in an instant.

“I’m not blind, Hawk.”

He waited for me to reply and it took me longer than it should’ve to give him a reply. “I’m not going to tell you something I’m not even sure is true myself, yet,” I said, finding the words. “But if this…this thing with Aodhán doesn’t sit right with you then nothing will ever happen.”

Something shifted in his expression.

“I don’t trust him, Hawk.”

“I know.”

---