Page 21 of Duke of Ruin

“Someone saw us together the other night,” Eli says, and my blood runs cold.

“Who?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I denied it of course, but I don’t know if they believe me.”

“They?”

“My father and uncle.” He pulls in a shuddering breath. “Noah, I think…” His voice catches, and I fight a sudden panic in my chest. “I think we need to put some space between us.”

Suddenly, the world seems to crash down around me. Is he trying to end things with me? “No,” I whisper. He lifts his eyes to mine. This is stupid and selfish and completely irrational, but I don’t want to end things. If we did then most of my problems would be solved. I wouldn’t have to worry about Eli becoming a target, I wouldn’t have to help Rossi anymore, and I could just disappear and all of this would go away. But I won’t, Ican’tleave him.

“No?” Eli lifts his eyebrows.

“No, I don’t want to put space between us. I don’t want to end things,” I say quickly. The logical, self-preserving side of my brain is screaming at me to run, to get away, to justleave. My words say the opposite, and they fucking feel right.

“Noah, I can’t be the person you need me to be,” Eli says, his face wracked with pain and guilt.

“I don’t need you to be anyone other than who you are,” I challenge. I cup his cheek in my hand and force him to look at me. “The thought of not being with you at all is something I can’t handle.”

“Noah…I can’t…” Eli starts, then leans into my hand and closes his eyes.

“Eli, we all have secrets. We all have issues, and I know they feel insurmountable right now, but don’t just cut me off, please,” I say. He opens his eyes and looks at me, his green irises piercing me to my soul.

“I really hoped you were stronger than me,” Eli says, and closes his eyes again.

“What do you mean?” I ask, and take a step closer so that our bodies are only inches apart.

“I can’t handle the thought of being without you, either,” he whispers. I press my lips to his and he wraps his long arms around me. I run my fingers through his hair, holding on for dear life. This is bad. How can this man mean so much to me? I kiss him harder, and he pulls me against him. The bulge in his pants presses against me, and my cock hardens in response. I break from his lips and kiss softly along his jaw until my lips brush his ear.

“I love you, Eli,” I whisper. He turns and crushes his lips against mine until I’m struggling for air. My heart pounds as the full weight of what I just confessed crashes down on me, and I can feel his heart pounding in time with mine.

I pull his shirt over his head and kiss him again, harder this time, as I run my fingers over the smooth skin of his chest and back. I pull back to remove my shirt before we crash into each other again. He pushes me backward until I fall into a sitting position on the couch, and when he pulls back and looks at me, his emerald eyes flash with lust and hunger. He pulls my pants off and then removes his own, climbing onto the couch to straddle me. He lifts himself onto his knees so that his hard dick brushes against my chin. I take my own dick in my hand as I kiss him everywhere I can reach—his abs, his hips, the insides of his thighs. He grips the back of the couch on either side of my head and groans. I stroke myself as I touch him, rolling his balls in my hand and licking at them until I can feel his cock straining to hold back.

I wrap my fingers around his length and he moans. Just the sound is almost enough to send me over the edge. He shifts his hips forward and I take him into my mouth, stroking him at the same time. I let go of his shaft and grab his hips as he thrusts himself down my throat. I gag and my eyes start to water, but I take it again and again, using my hand to guide his hips as he thrusts into my face. I approach my own climax, winding tighter and tighter as I stroke myself. When I groan against his cock in my throat, it sends him over the edge. I choke as he spurts into my throat, gagging and relishing the taste of his cum. I crash over the edge of my own orgasm, spilling myself against the backs of his thighs as he shudders against me.

He finally relaxes and settles around me, resting his head against my shoulder. I wrap my arms around him and pull him flush against me. His dick twitches in response, and that almost makes me hard again. I kiss the side of his neck and then his cheek before whispering again, “I love you, Eli.”

“You shouldn’t,” he mutters against my shoulder.

“But I do,” I say, pulling him tighter into my embrace.

“I love you, too,” he says, and my heart feels like it’s going to burst.

“We’ll figure this out,” I say.

“We have to,” Eli answers, then shifts his weight to settle next to me on the couch. “I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to you because of me.”

“I know,” I say, and lean over to lay my head against his shoulder. “You won’t ever have to, trust me.”Because I’ll be the one responsible for that, not you, is what I don’t say. I also don’t tell him that he’s in just as much danger from me as I am from him. I want to tell him, Ineedto tell him, but I can’t bring myself to. I told him that I loved him, and I meant it. I just hope he believes me when all this comes crashing down.

We spend the rest of the night in Eli’s apartment, lost in a cycle of sex and showers and the occasional break for food. Neither of us wants to face the real world, so we don’t. We just hide. The next morning, though, I wake up to a note on his nightstand. All it says is that he’s out on family business and that he’ll call me later. My heart sinks as I realize that I’m going to have to go back out into the real world, and soon. I take a quick shower and get dressed, prepared to head out to my classes.

* * *

I close and lock the door behind me, but when I get to the garage, my senses are on alert. I press my lips together when I spot Rossi’s beat-up sedan parked next to my Camry. I meet his eyes and he jerks his head to the passenger side. Against my better judgment, I get in the car with him.

“I’m glad you didn’t do something stupid like confess to your boyfriend,” Rossi says, and it takes all my restraint not to punch him in the jaw.

“What’s it to you?” I ask through gritted teeth.

---