Page 111 of Ryker

Be still my falling heart. “Why not?”

“As an escort, I’ve always done whatever my partner asks of me. The few women I’ve fucked since owning the Monarch, I treated the same way as all my past clients. I gave them the fantasy they asked for. Let them have whatever they wanted from me. I didn’t care. I’d share them with anyone because they didn’t matter to me. But you?” He crawls closer and gives me a hand necklace. “I want to keep you all to myself. The thought of sharing you with anyone, even my best friend, makes me want to set the world on fire.”

Talk about feeling special.

He shakes his head. “You have no idea how hard it was to watch you go from room to room in my club, always holding my breath to see if you’d take someone into a bedroom. The way my heart would race each time you talked to anyone. Including Sophie.”

My eyes widen. “Sophie?” Why would he bring that woman up?

“She’s the best Fem Domme I have,” he explains. “That woman can likely bring pleasures to you that no one else, including me, could give you.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” I tease.

He doesn’t find it funny.

This conversation’s become too heavy. It’s hard to move and breathe in here. The intensity between us is crushing my heart. “Why did you bring me here, Ryker? What makes me so special? A week ago, you were doing all you could to get me out of your hair, and now you’ve brought me home. Why?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Why?” I yell a little louder.

He swallows hard and still doesn’t respond.

Damn this man. He keeps giving me breadcrumbs, leading me down a path that will ultimately bring me to a cliff. When we get to the edge, will he push me off or will I fucking jump?

Chapter 37

Ryker

“Why did you bring me here, Ryker?”

I still haven’t answered her.

I’ve always given my partners exactly what they want. Groomed and trained early, I will always be a motherfucking sex worker in some capacity. Tara’s gaze drifts to the date tattooed on my chest and the ragged, thick scar just under it only emphasizes the severity of that night for me. All because I became a new man the night my life tumbled into total darkness does not mean I turned a new leaf.

I’m more depraved than ever.

I’ve spared the world of my volatile nature as best I can, and Tara keeps yanking the chains of my leash to pry the links apart and break me free.

Damn this woman for trying. And damn me for allowing her.

“I’m supposed to be untouchable.” My cold words slither out with a hint of venom. “I’ve built my empire around being the one thing everyone wants and can’t have.” To go from being used like a toy to what I am now isn’t something I’m willing to give up. Ever. “But I…” My voice cracks. “I wanted…”

Tara’s gaze softens. She’s waiting for me to come out with it, and I don’t know if I can. It’s too despicable to admit.

Her head tips back and she says, “You wanted to be the one who pays to have the pleasure for once.”

If I could jump off a bridge right now, I would. Shame rides up my back and neck, heating my face. “Yes.”

She should slap me. Punch me. Beat me to death for admitting that I wanted to be on the opposite end of my past for a little. There’s no sense in trying to explain that I can make it good for us both, or that I respect her and want her to have nothing but pleasure out of me, too. But what would be the point? My actions have been nothing but cruel and contradictory since the beginning.

Dmitri was right, I sabotage myself in epic ways. My volatile behavior has nothing to do with Tara as a woman, and everything to do with me as a fucked up bastard.

Tara’s not a whore. No Butterfly is. And my feelings for her have transformed into something wicked. I don’t know what to do about it. She’s everything I could want and more. I don’t deserve her.

“Use me,” she says, cutting through the prickly silence between us.

My eyes snap to hers. “What?”

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