Page 2 of Ruined

I turn toward him, and my breath catches. Not only is he shirtless, but his jeans hang low on his hips, revealing that perfect V-cut some men have. My gaze follows the length of his long legs down to his bare feet. Even they are sexy. As I drag my eyes upward, he moves his hand to adjust his impressive erection. I swallow the little spit in my mouth. Holy shit. For the first time ever, I feel my core spasm slightly. My clit throbs, and my panties dampen.

I want him, but I don’t know what to do.

When my hooded eyes meet his, he slowly moves toward me. I don’t step back. I’m not afraid of him. For once, I want to feel alive.

Just like the first time I met him, I’m biting my lip. He pulls on my chin gently with his thumb, freeing my lip from between my teeth.

“I’m so jealous.”

I rear back at his words. “What? Why?”

“Your teeth get to bite the flesh I’ve wanted to taste for so long. I’m afraid if I don’t do it now, I’ll regret it for the rest of our lives.” He lowers his head and stops, his mouth hovering over mine. “Tell me, baby doll.”

“Kiss me,” I say and close my eyes.

When his lips feather across mine, I reach up and pull him down to me. He groans and deepens the kiss, pressing his tongue to my lips, and I open for him.

This is the first kiss a man has ever given me that I wanted. But I don’t dwell on that. Instead, I focus on how soft his lips are, his overwhelming scent, and his arms wrapped around me. I jump up into those arms, and the next thing I know, I’m pressed into the bed with Dylan’s body over mine.

He continues to kiss me. His tongue exploring my mouth, and mine sliding against his. He sucks and bites my lips, causing me to cry out. My hands are buried in his hair, and I pull him closer. I wrap my legs around his hips, and his cock nestles against my core.

Dylan

She’s exactly where I want her, but I’m not going to push her further. I won’t ask for more than she’s willing to give. All I care about is tasting and sipping from her lips.

Minuet starts moving her hips, dry humping me, and I know what she wants.

I pull away from her mouth. “Do you need to feel alive, baby doll? To forget the nightmare?” I know she suffers from them. I’ve wanted to help, but I fear my own around her too.

What I saw overseas is more than most soldiers ever experience. I witnessed what criminals become when they are set loose on the enemies of our country. My job was to rein them in. I hunted down the serial killers and psychopaths our government was willing to let run free, simply because they weren’t harming Americans. Sometimes, I was judge and jury. The scars I bear, no one can ever understand. I had to put them down when they wouldn’t come willingly to face a real court.

Now, as a trooper, I see what society refuses to acknowledge. There are some sick fucks out there. Like the man who sold Poison and tried to rape Jinx. Or the men who kidnapped and raped my sweet Minuet. If I ever get the chance to kill Nesbitt, the man who so far has escaped justice, I won’t hesitate.

From the moment I saw Minuet sitting in the back seat of my truck, I knew I had to protect her. She’s a light that this cruel world tried to extinguish, and I won’t let that happen.

Every chance I get, I’m here by her side, letting her know I’m with her. That I want her, and I’m not going away. She moves against me, and I groan as I change the angle and press against her hot core. I can feel the heat coming off her, and I want it. I want to slip my cock out and pin her to the bed with it, but I know she’s not ready for that, so I work on getting her off.

I slide back and forth, against her core, fighting my mind when I want to slide my hand down and touch her. Instead, I focus on angling her head to take my kisses deeper. When she finally cries out, I can’t stop myself. I continue moving against her until I orgasm and make a mess inside my jeans.

Before she can rebuild those walls, I roll us so that she’s on her side and I’m wrapped around her. She drifts off to sleep right away. I fall asleep, holding her close.

When my phone vibrates in my back pocket, waking me, I know I have to leave but don’t want to. I pull away slightly and look down at her beautiful face. She’s relaxed and sleeping peacefully. The dark circles under her eyes are proof that she doesn’t get a full night’s sleep, but that’s going to change. I’ll just sleep with her if we can both get the rest we need.

When I finally pull away from her body, I reach into my pocket and pull out the necklace I got for her. The heavy pendant falls to the side when I slip the chain over her head, and she curls into the pillow I just vacated.

After taking a quick shower in her adjoining bathroom, I leave her a note and slip out of her room. My truck is parked out front, warmed up by the auto-start I triggered while getting dressed. It’s minus ten today—typical for February and January in the Interior of Alaska. I climb into my truck and grab the hat I left on the seat last night. I pull the knit cap down, plastering my damp hair to my head, then head into Fairbanks.

Along with Thad, I’m working on his sister’s case. The troopers didn’t want to let him onto it, but with too many active cases and not enough manpower, this one is fast becoming a cold case. The last lead we had was that she was being flown to Seattle, and then nothing. We don’t know where she was taken from there.

Today we are looking into unidentified female remains found in the Seattle area. It’s an unfortunate reality of the job. I’ve called in some favors with people I know there, but so far, nothing.

I pull up to the detachment off Geist Road and jump out of my truck. I unwrap the cord from my moose gooser bumper and plug it in. Because of how cold it gets here, vehicles are equipped with battery blanket heaters. Some, like mine, also have an oil pan heater and an engine block heater. My truck is a diesel, so it also has glow plugs, and the auto start is programmed to kick in every couple of hours when the temperature drops to a certain level.

The air quality sucks today, thick with ice fog. Fairbanks sits in a bowl, so all the exhaust and wood smoke just hangs in the colder air, unable to dissipate. I pull up the collar of my heavy Carhartt jacket and stomp through the entrance. As soon as I step inside, Thad is there, holding out a coffee mug.

“Saw your truck at the clubhouse this morning. Thought you could use this.”

I take the mug and a deep swallow of the elixir of the gods, then breathe in the warmth.

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