Page 124 of The Ripper

I pulled at the cord of the satin robe I was wearing and opened my legs, letting them hang over the edges of the seat as my head fell back and loudly banged on the window frame.

I closed my eyes to see him again.

It felt the same as it had in the years before we finally came together. His face was as clear as it had been in my memory from the first day, only now it wasn’t a fantasy anymore, now I felt what his hands could do, and that only pushed me further into agony.

I didn’t care if the guards could see me, because in my mind I was back on my balcony in Chicago, where he was still watching me.

I ran my palms over my nipples, which were already hard from the wind that kept whipping against them, almost as if mimicking Grimm’s bites, and I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and sank them in the soft flesh until the taste of blood exploded on my tongue.

It wasn’t the same feeling his hands offered, but when my own fingers snuck under my lingerie, my back involuntarily arched, and I sank two inside me without any restraint.

All I could hear was his breathing in my ear and the dirty words he whispered in that demanding, dominant tone that made me weak in the knees.

I took my breast in my hand and squeezed as hard as I could, moaning when the image of Grimm between my legs materialized in my mind. I felt the contractions as I remembered how I’d had him inside me, so big and ravishing. How his thrusts burned me and turned me to ashes.

I came with him in mind, just as I had in the last years, then I greedily licked my fingers, just as he always did, wishing I could feel his taste on my tongue instead of my own.

I was in love with a monster, a lethal weapon born for destruction, with a kind soul he revealed only to me, and I slayed it with my secrets. I knew I’d ruined him beyond repair, and that he was going to suffer and cause suffering in turn, all because I didn’t trust him, because I was stupid.

He had stripped off his armor for me, giving up on the hardness he had built, and showed me the abundance of gentleness a criminal could harbor, and I, like an assassin of hope, stepped all over it.

He wasn’t the demon of destruction.

I was.

The monster offered me his heart, and I ripped it out of his chest and went away with it.

Night soon turned to morning, and on the sixth day of not having him near me, I went out of my bedroom to look for my brother.

I found him in the kitchen, having coffee with one of his friends, turned associate. Their eyes settled on me, especially Raul’s, who had been one of the few people whom I used to be close to.

He looked different now, bigger, harsher, as though this life slowly took away his youth. His dark brown hair was slicked back, shaved on the sides and longer on top, some strands falling over his face, and he now had a thick scar that started on his cheek and disappeared into his hairline.

“My, my, as I live and breathe, ReinaSánchez, in the flesh,” he quipped as he rounded the kitchen island and stopped in front of me. “The princess is home.”

Raul opened his arms and waited for me to hug him, which I did rather reluctantly, and when he hugged me back, I cringed. Having another man’s hands on me, even through something as simple as a friendly embrace, made my skin crawl.

“Yeah,” I whispered, quickly stepping away from him. “Not because she wanted to,” I murmured, glancing at Julio over my shoulder, who just shrugged.

“You know, I didn’t believe this guy when he said you were back,” he laughed, then took a sip out of his coffee as my brother stood up and poured me a cup.

“Well, I’m here, and I’m bored,” I accentuated the last word as Julio handed me the mug, which I took without hesitation. “Can I go out today?”

He raised an eyebrow, then took a sip as he narrowed his eyes.

“What’s the catch,crazy?” Julio asked with a grin on his face.

“No catch, I want to visit our mother’s grave, then maybe go to church,” I said as I took a seat at the island, feeling both their eyes on me.

“You won’t try to run?”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you telling me you’re afraid I can escape you?” I turned my head towards him, a playful smile on my lips, as Raul started laughing.

“There she is,” he propped his elbows on the table. “I would bet on you, princess.” Raul grinned in a sadistic way.

“I’m not playing your sick games today, gambler,” I shook my head.

“Why? You used to love my games,” he smiled innocently, batting his eyelashes at me in a way that made me snort. “Remember that time he bet against me and said you would never go cage diving?”

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