Page 128 of The Ruthless Note

“Is being empty that terrifying?”

Rather than answer, I hook her other leg around my waist until she’s wrapped around me like moss on an ivory pillar.

Her gaze is hazy, but she fights through it, eyes sliding lazily to the phone as if she can’t remember why it’s important, only that it is.

I drop my face close, my lips hovering over hers. She pulls back at the last second. “T-the shallows.”

My temper spikes. Even now she’s still thinking about what she can take from me.

The smile I offer her is cruel. “Swim there if you want.”

Her fingers tighten around my neck. Her heart is pounding against mine.

I keep my face over hers, staring at her. Daring her to let me go.

She doesn’t.

She can’t.

She’s trapped.

The air brims with the same heated magnetism that threw us together in the theatre.

“Don’t you get tired of fighting me, Dutch?” she whispers, her eyes dropping to my mouth.

It takes effort not to let my smile unfurl. She’s trying to seduce me into doing what she wants.

For the briefest of moments, I consider giving in. I consider waltzing right into her phone’s line of sight, pretending that I never noticed and giving Jinx the show she probably demanded.

Cadence kisses me softly. Her mouth is hot against mine. Softer than silk. A convincing argument.

I cradle her back, pulling her closer.

She pushes away, her eyes dark liquid. “I’m curious about something.”

“What?” I growl. I’m not really in the mood for talking right now.

“Why does it have to be me?”

I hold her eyes hostage. “What the hell does that mean?”

“There are tons of girls who would willingly give up their V-card to you. Hell, they’d line up and wait their turn. Why go through the trouble of choosing me when I don’t want you?”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” I growl, everything wicked and sexual and insatiable simmering in my blood. “Whether you want me or not doesn’t matter. Either way, you belong to me.”

Her eyebrows tighten.

Enough talking.

I ram my mouth against hers and sweep my fingers up her inner thigh. The water laps at my hand, trying to push me away, but I overcome it to stroke her silken flesh, working closer and closer until…

There.

I plunge into her.

She lets out a breathless gasp and I swallow it, tasting the earthiness of the pool mixed with the sweet honey from her mouth.

We might as well be in a freaking Jacuzzi for all the heat that’s exploding around us.

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