Page 105 of Ink Deep Devotion

One more time. I need to hear her cry my name as if I was a hero one more time before reality comes rushing back.

I keep her back to me as I slide my hand under her, cupping her breast, and knead her skin between my fingers.“You’re going to come again for me,”

She nods against the mattress, limp and satiated now.

“Say it first.” Slowly, I sink my still-hard cock into her again. There was nothing but us, this moment, the degradation of our love, the pain that I wasn’t brave enough to look her in the eye, the pleasure that she still craved me after all I had done and had yet to do.

“W… what?” she purrs as her small hips push back, meeting my thrust. I grab her hips, sinking even deeper. I’m gifted with more wetness as her muscles clench around me.

“Say you’re mine.” Jealousy drives me insane as I hold on to her. She is mine, and I will never allow another man to touch her again!

“Dash,”

“Say it!”

“I’m yours. Fuck... I’m yours. Let me come.”

Her pleads are a siren’s song to my depraved ears. We both come together with such a force I collapse onto her, sink into her so deeply that for one second, we’re one, melted into each other before the world forces us to separate again. I feel her heartbeat pounding into my flesh, pressing into my pores like ink clings to paper; I tattoo the melody onto my heart.

I want to stay with her, hold her in my arms, and tell her I’m sorry because this is all I can give you. I just want to keep you safe so that we don’t have to expose our love to the vultures of the world.

Instead, I jerk away and zip my pants up. She rolls over, face red, eyes glistening with tears. Her nipples are hard and rosy, pleading with my lips to caress them.

“Did I hurt you?” I whisper, eyes downcast, as I begin to be flooded with self-hate.

She doesn’t reply because she knows I’m about to leave her. Again.

I turn and leave as if she were nothing.

The fucked up reality is that she is everything to me.

Chapter 34

Mila

“I don’t know if this was a mistake.” I push back the recline button of the plane seat. One of my father’s guards glances at me to check that I’m okay. I nod, and he turns back around.

“Shopping in New York with a limitless credit card is never a mistake. We’re helping the economy.” Nova chimes as she slurps up the last of her cocktail.

I was wallowing in our dorm room, pining over Dash, when Nova spotted me and targeted me as her prey. The entire weekend he had all but ghosted me, not responding to my text. I curled up on the couch with my sketchbook as I tried to draw his face, thinking about his lips on me again. We were back to this terrible pattern. I didn’t know how to break it. Dash did warn me, and I accepted, but I wanted more. That was always my plan, to break him and get him to declare his love for me. I had to do something to change the monotonous repetition that always consumed us.

Nova yanked me up and somehow talked me into flying to New York for the afternoon to go shopping.Of course, I had three options. Flat-out deny her, which would have been next toimpossible; I could have texted Dash to tell him, but I wanted to piss him off, make him feel how I felt when he’d just vanish without telling me. So I called my dad and got permission, and within the hour, Nova and I were sitting first class on a commercial plane with my two bodyguards as we prepared to spend a ridiculous amount of money on designer clothes I’d never wear.

Four hours and ten designer dresses later, Dash finally replied to my text. Nova snatched my phone and turned it off, then we continued to shop until our flight back home.

Nova is the backbone I’ve been lacking, but it’s hard to deny Dash. At the same time, I need him to know what he’s been putting me through. If he will only love me in the shadows, then I will do the same until he changes his mind.

Nova shoves a drink in my hand,“I know you’re not used to feeling brave, Mila, so have some liquid courage.”I take a sip, and she grins.“If you don’t take a stand and hold your ground, he will walk all over you. You keep waiting for Dash to make a move, but maybe you need to make your own. You’re always there waiting for him, Mila. Don’t be.” Nova arches a brow, watching as the words sink in.

I take another large sip,“H…how,”

“Just ask. No more stuttering in fear.”

“How did you get this way? You’re so strong and sure of your every move.” Tell me so I can replicate it.

Nova’s gray eyes look straight ahead.What are you hiding from me, Nova?

Her eyes darken. They are a strange yet beautiful color or lack of color, I should say. Shades of gray in all different tones. They look like the pages of a coloring book waiting for someoneto pick them up and show them some love.Maybe once they were a crystal clear blue, but something happened to shock and smash the saturation out of them.

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