Page 117 of Theirs to Ruin

Kage drew closer, his chest almost touching my back. "Interesting, isn't it?" he murmured, his voice gravelly, sending shivers down my spine.

My voice trembled as I responded. "I've... I've never seen anything like this before."

"You like it, though, don't you?" he said, his lips barely an inch from my ear.

I hesitated before nodding. "It's strange, dark, almost twisted, but it’s beautiful.”

Kage nuzzled my neck. "That's because there's beauty in surrender, in giving someone that power over you. And in taking it."

"Have you done anything like this before?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

The brief pause before he responded was filled with a weighty tension. Finally, he said, "Yes."

I held the book out to him. "Show me."

He took the book from my hand, swiftly flipping to a page that depicted an intense bondage scene. The painting showed a woman, her body splayed out and restrained, the ropes digging deliciously into her flesh.

I swallowed hard. "Is this what you meant by the kind of sex I'm not ready for?"

"Part of it," he murmured.

The sting of jealousy hit me harder than I expected. How did he get under my skin this fast? “Are you doing this with anyone right now?” I asked. Despite him telling me not to talk about women in his past, he’d never said he wasn’t sleeping with anyone else or that he wouldn’t in the future.

“No. Ask me why.”

“Why?” My voice was sharper than I intended.

“Because you’ve consumed me,” he said, his voice raw. “Every dream, every touch, every goddamn thought I have—it’s you. You, Camille, are all I think about. You’re the one I fantasize about. I don’t know how or why, but you own me. And you have for quite a while.”

Before the weight of what he'd just said could fully sink in, his fingers wrapped around the spine of the book I held. Witha quick movement, he wrestled it free, letting it drop with a pronounced thud that echoed in the otherwise silent room. It was a sound that seemed to sever the final thread of restraint between us.

He moved swiftly, pulling me into the cage of his arms, drawing me into a kiss that was all-consuming. His lips met mine with a fire that left me breathless, a blend of tenderness and wild hunger. His tongue, warm and insistent, coaxed open my lips and plunged in between them.

His fingers threaded through the strands of my hair and he tugged gently, angling my head to deepen the kiss. His other hand slid down the curve of my back and pressed our bodies together so tightly I felt every rise and fall of his chest, as well as the hard swell of his cock.

When he lifted me up, it was with a suddenness that left my head spinning. My legs automatically coiled around his waist, my heels digging into the small of his back. He pinned me to the bookshelves with a force that made them wobble and tilt. Any anxiety I felt that we might knock the shelves over was overshadowed by the hard pressure of him against my core.I buried my hands in his hair, breathed his name into our kiss, and surrendered to the moment. To him.

By the time Kage broke the kiss I was dazed and shaking. He buried his face in neck, squeezing me close before he finally set me down. I stumbled when my feet hit the ground and he caught me.

“Let’s go.” He picked up both our bags and threw them over his shoulder. When he grabbed my hand, I reached up and pulled his head down so I could whisper in his ear.

“I want you to tie me down when we get home.”

He hissed in a breath and looked at me, his eyes burning with intensity. “You’re not ready.”

I frowned. “You get to decide that?”

“Yes.”

I trembled at the authority in his deep voice. Then I wondered if there was another reason he didn’t think I was ready for being tied down. I hadn’t seen anyone back here in a while but I kept my voice low just in case. “Kage…the books on BDSM. Do you—” I cleared my throat. “Do you like inflicting pain during sex?”

Something dark flickered over his face. “No. I like restraints. Would love to have you bound and helpless in front of me. My life away from here… I inflict pain because it’s deserved, because I need to. But every time I do, it stains my soul. I can only hope that by the time I leave this earth, there’s some part of me that’s still clean. So no, I don’t get off inflicting pain on women.”

I stared at him, shocked at his revelation. Here was the heir to the Irish mafia, a guy who’d killed before and crushed the bones in the hands of the guy who’d roofied me…

“Billy,” I choked out.

He shook his head. “That was different. That was personal. I’d do it again.”

---