Page 157 of Ruthless Savage

She bucks and moans, her back arching as I lower down her stomach, pulling her thighs apart, needing to taste her.

“You smell so fecking good, baby, and you taste even better.” My tongue sweeps up from her opening to her clit. “All feckin’ mine.”

“Oh, God!” she whimpers, thrashing beneath me, the desire tethered to every inch of her flesh.

I live to make her happy.

“You’re mine. You hear me? Mine to love. Mine to take care of. And I will do that for the rest of my life.”

She’s beyond the ability to speak, her body lost to the things I make her feel. When I roll the tip of my tongue around her clit, she cries out, gripping my hair hard.

I grunt, enjoying her brand of pain, sucking her into my mouth, needing her to come undone, to let me have it all just so I can do it all over again.

There’s no way I can stop, not until I have her screaming my name. Not until she forgets what happened, forgets the ugliness, even for a moment. Because later, she’ll remember it all over again, and I won’t be able to do a thing about it.

When her release comes, shattering with my name branded on her lips, I flip her over and force her knees up, thrusting all the way inside, until we’re both lost to it. Lost to the feeling when the world disappears and it’s just the two of us to hold on to.

CHAPTER 38

ERIU

TWO WEEKS LATER

We’re almost at my father’s estate, minutes remaining until I have no choice but to face my entire family. Their looks of pity. Or worse, walking around me on eggshells, like one wrong step and I’ll crack.

Maybe they’re used to death, the betrayal of others from being who we are. But I’m not. I’d like to say the time has helped somehow, but that’s a lie.

I don’t know if anything will erase the pain I feel every moment I think about Karen. I try to pretend I’m okay, but I know Devlin sees right through me.

Unfortunately, I had to return to school. They wouldn’t allow me to take courses online mid-semester, and switching to a new school would’ve been even more of an issue for my credits, so I decided I had to go back. I can’t allow my grades to plummet.

Those first few days I was back, students would come up to me and tell me how sorry they were about Karen. They’d cry and hug me while I had to stand there and console them. It was awful. Luckily, over time, they forgot about me. Karen didn’t really mean anything to them. Not like she did to me. I was her actual friend.

Sure you were, you idiot.

Feeling like a fool, I bite down so hard, my jaw aches.

She was never my friend.

My knee bounces, and Devlin’s palm is there, squeezing my thigh as we pull up to my father’s estate, the guards letting us through the gate.

“It’ll be okay,” he reassures me.

But I don’t know if I believe him.

He parks in the driveway beside one of my father’s old-fashioned cars, and when I open the door, my stomach knots. I’ve never dreaded seeing my family, not until now.

Devlin comes around to take my hand, bringing my knuckles to his lips. “Your father assured me no one will talk about what happened.”

I purse my mouth. “Okay.”

He pulls me to my feet, and together, we make it up the cobblestones, where two more guards are nodding to us in greeting before letting us inside.

Noise carries into the foyer, laughter and the clinking of glass reverberating.

He clutches my hand as he leads me toward my family, and when we enter the twenty-seat dining room, every pair of eyes lands on me. Even the Messinas are here, and why wouldn’t they be? We’re all one big, happy family now.

I instantly want to run, to escape this awkwardness, but Devlin simply squeezes my hand reassuringly, and I feel a fragment better.

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