Page 45 of Ivory's Ruin Romance

When she’d knelt in front of Jace in his dingy frat room, a dark void of the unknown loomed overhead and threatened to swallow her whole. She didn’t know what Adrian would ask for if she handed over control, but she had no doubt he respected her. He’d give her the space to speak her mind instead of enforcing his will alone. Without question, she knew he could take her to hell and bring her back in one piece. The thought itself was all too tempting, too good not to consider.

He’d been nothing but honest, and this was her chance to do the same. She couldn’t expect to learn his truths if she hid hers, especially the ones involving him.

“I think,” she whispered, delving into that part of her that she hoped out of all people, he would understand. “I could take anything if you asked me to.” She hesitated but continued under her breath. “I’d want you to ask me for the things not meant for a friend or a stranger. Things you’d ask from one of your arrangements.”

Her very existence hung in the air, and she stopped breathing altogether. Surely, this time, she’d gone and said too much.

Adrian’s movements paused. “You mean that?”

Glad her eyes were closed and sealed off from his reaction, she admitted the truth. “Yes.”

“Oh, Iv,” he murmured, tone warm and low as his fingers resumed stroking her scalp. “My sweet little witch.” Her heart hammered at his words, begging him to say more. Then, his hand tightened around the roots of her hair. “Hold still for me, sweetheart.”

Moving wouldn’t be an option even if she wanted—tilting her head to the side was impossible with his iron grip, harsh enough to ensure control yet attentive enough not to cause damage. It made more heat flush through her veins, and adrenaline quickened her pulse. She was sure he saw the flutter of her heartbeat on her neck, though that wasn’t the only place she felt his effects. Her jeans felt as thin as lace as her sex swelled, spread open and slick.

“I’d like nothing more than to teach you how much you can take for me,” he rasped in a whisper. “To ask and know you want to obey, no matter the cost. Would you want that? Would you let me?”

She would—she knew in an instant. Even if what he asked for was difficult, even if he offered her as much pain as pleasure, she’d take it. “Yes,” she said. “I’d want to obey, to please you. I’d do my best to follow all your rules.”

Except for the part where she’d already fallen for him, but that thought didn’t have time to take root as he released one hand and reached across her chest to the counter, letting cold droplets of water run from his fingers onto her chest. They dripped down her shirt, rolled over her breasts, and pooled in her navel.

Her lips parted in a silent gasp. A prayer of gratitude to her dark, godly knight. The ache inside her grew almost unbearable, and she reveled in it. She wanted to be on edge, to be held there at his command.

“I promise to give that to you,” he said, retracting his hand and relaxing his grip on her hair. “To give you everything I can—but first, I need to take care of some things.”

Everything.

The word echoed inside her, expanded until she all but burst. He’d promised her everything when before he’d mentioned his partners could ask for anything. The shift in words was too significant to ignore. Maybe that meant she could ask for something he hadn’t been willing to give before.

“Until then, will you do me a favor?” he asked. His fingers began to work another liquid into her hair, making suds and filling the air with a sweet aroma. Must be the conditioner he showed her earlier.

“Of course,” she whispered. Her desire went beyond fulfilling their pleasures; she wanted him to find happiness. To be as whole as he made her.

When he didn’t respond after a moment, she opened her eyes and focused above her head, his hands rinsing her hair for the final time. Something in his expression looked soft—maybe it was how his mouth didn’t tip down in a frown or how his eyelashes fanned over his irises and left thin lines of shadow over his cheekbones. Maybe because he wasn’t thinking about all the things that dragged him down.

“Don’t stop believing in me,” he murmured at last.

She smiled, grateful his request was so easy. “I could never.”

He brushed his thumbs over her temple to wipe away traces of the conditioner, then bent down, warm lips hovering over her chilled skin.

“Don’t stop believing in yourself, either,” he whispered, and kissed her forehead.

She crumbled beneath him, overwhelmed by the too-good-to-be-true promises in his words and the confidence he not only personified but built inside her. She’d wanted all of it from the beginning—and he was willing to give it to her.

Believing in both of them was the least she could do in return. “I won’t,” she managed to whisper back. “Promise.”

TWENTY-TWO

This feeling…a lightness eerily similar to hope.

It was too soon to be giving out promises, too soon to pretend to be someone he wasn’t, but he couldn’t leave Ivory with nothing when she’d laid herself bare.

When he truly wanted to give her everything.

It’d been so long since he looked forward to something like this. To be done with his past. To remove the lurking presence of an unknown killer in the corner of his thoughts and replace it with someone as good as her. With someone as sweet and responsive and beautiful beyond words arched underneath him as if it were the most natural thing in the world. If it came down to it, he’d burn down the world to earn his place at her side.

For now, at least she’d been upfront about her desires. Showing her the kind of pleasure she asked for would be all too easy and more than rewarding. Ivory was too compatible, too eager to be molded into a perfect doll, one he’d make sure to shower with praise well into the night.

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