Page 27 of Ivory's Ruin Romance

Close enough to kiss.

She took a step back, remembering exactly what happened the last time she thought Adrian was going to kiss her. “No, I wasn’t trying anything. I promise.” They didn’t need things to get awkward between them when they’d just managed a normal conversation. “I really didn’t think about what I said earlier. We can just be friends, and if you want, I can forget—again.”

She wouldn’t force him to keep rejecting her. He obviously didn’t need a woman fawning over him. He didn’t want that. These stupid feelings that kept flaring up only got in the way—but she was more than a girl with overactive ovaries, and she’d prove it.

Adrian stepped inside and turned to close the door, cutting off the flow of cold air. Goosebumps still clung to her skin.

“Unlike some men, I care about what you say, so I’ll take your word for it.” He looked at her reflection through the glass, golden eyes dark and murky. “I’d be a terrible friend, so don’t think of me as one. But you don’t have to think of me as a stranger, either.”

Somehow, that felt like a big step for him.

“I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. I just—” She paused. “I can’t not care, even if you ask me not to.” Her fingers twined in a knot behind her back.

“I know,” he whispered, then walked past her to the kitchen, pausing in front of the counter. “You’re too good for me, anyway.”

She followed, wondering how he could say that. He was her black knight. She was the one who needed his rescue.

“I’m not,” she whispered, lowering her gaze.

Thinking back to that night let in a slew of emotions. The night she admitted to Jace what she could’ve never told her straight-laced ex-boyfriend. The night she agreed to submit. In her drunken logic, she had thought it would feel like freedom, embracing the hidden parts of herself, maybe even dull the ache of her breakup.

When Jace asked if she liked it rough, she said yes.

She told him to take control. That she wanted it.

But she didn’t want her windpipe blocked off. She didn’t want to choke on salty tears and a foul dick and stomach acid mixed with all the drinks she’d downed in the past few hours. She didn’t want the night to end in her running away, too scared of what he’d do if the rest of her clothes came off.

Her desires had been wrong, so wrong. They were so pitch black that she hadn’t seen what asking for them could lead to.

“Jace may be a jerk, but—”

“Iv.” Adrian’s voice cut her off, and she bit her lip. “Don’t believe for a second whatever you were about to say. His behavior has no excuse.”

She sucked in a breath and nodded.

If he knew all of what happened…If she wore her darkness as plainly as he wore his, would he still care about what she wanted? Or only what he could get from it?

“Can I explain something to you?” he asked, tipping her chin up to look at him.

The overhead light shone through his eyes, illuminating them like sun rays that chased away her memories. She wasn’t in a dingy, dark room with a man who would abuse her.

She was with Adrian. She was safe, and that knowledge warmed her to the bone—calmed her heart and wound into her being enough to reignite her fire.

“Sure,” she said, standing with more confidence.

“You don’t need to hide. Nothing Jace did or said justifies being ashamed of yourself, even if you think it does.”

She swallowed. “I’m not as sweet as you think I am.”

“Oh, Iv.” He smiled, tone tender yet rough around the edges like every other part of him. “I could show you exactly how sweet you are.”

Her breath caught, and the familiar skip in her pulse spiked her senses. The room didn’t feel cold anymore, and she didn’t feel shy. She didn’t want to hide from him.

Especially if what he said was true. “Show me,” she whispered, the pounding of her heart loud in her ears.

“It won’t be very friend-like of me,” he warned.

“Just this once,” she breathed.

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