Page 14 of Keeping Ruby

“You know, Artyom,” Kirill drawls lazily. “I think I’ll be keeping Ruby, after all.”

Artyom starts to speak, rage spewing from Russian curses before the line goes dead.

“Tell me, Little Ruby, is that your final answer?”

Seven

Kirill

It almost hurts me to see her like this. So broken.

I’ll put your pieces back together, little princess.

“Do you still wish to go with him? Your loving brother?” I force the hard in my voice, my body, to remain. Before I can begin to show care, she needs to know that I am not a soft man.

She shakes her head. It’s a small, defeated motion.

“I need to hear it, Princess.”

Her eyes flash to mine. Fuck, but they are a lovely shade of liquid gold honey. Wet like they are, they’re even more pretty. Amber diamonds. Even distraught as she is, she’s exquisite.

If Artyom ever got his hands on her…

The thought has rage unfurling inside me. A murderous thing. Something dark and dangerous begins to grow inside that rage. Something capable of a destruction the likes of Ilya. A destruction I’ve always thought myself incapable. Because I want to destroy Artyom and his cruel operation. And I want to do it with a gruesome dramatic the likes I’ve known only from my brother.

Artyom deserves it, the way he made the blood drain from her face.

I’d known exactly what he’d say when I called him, baited him into it, even. Because I need her willing to be mine. I’m too public a figure to have an unwilling wife, after all.

If fear was the only way to accomplish that—well, my hands were tied.

Her puffy, pink lips, part. I swallow hard around my anticipation.

I’ve wanted to taste those lips for the last two months. I’ve dreamed about what they might feel like around my cock.

“I want—” She sniffles. “I would rather be yours.”

“Is that so?” I can’t help myself. I’m an asshole, I know.

She frowns. “It’s one of those ‘devil you know’, things.”

“I’m a devil, now, am I?” I’ll have to give my youngest brother, Kane, a call. The kick he’d get out of that.

“I’ve thought of you as a devil and a monster. Nothing else.”

I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Her body. Her mind and secrets. Her love. I’m going to possess it all. Everything.

“Yes, well, I suppose we should get down to business, then.”

Her frown deepens. She’s still in shock. Even in shock, even broken and in tears, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever beheld.

“Business?”

“Yes. There’s this matter of you agreeing to be mine, and me needing a wife.”

Her lips part, and then her mouth well and truly falls open. My cock twitches.

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