Page 62 of Red Ruin

Vhex stares up at me with soft, pink eyes, rimmed red in desperate lust.

I was expecting a battle of wills.

Vhex just…surrenders.

Goosebumps roll down my body.

I stroke the mole under his eye to hide the shake in my fingers. “You’re not going to fight me?”

“Fightyou?” He rubs his cheek against my hand. “How?”

Stars.

Please don’t let Vhex be a marshmallow under the madness. “I’ll be so gentle. Just let me draw off the worst of your poison.”

He laughs softly, crinkling his eyes. “It’s all poison, baby.”

I shudder.

I love aggressive, mid-battle sex that’s a contest of wills—a race to heal my Sentinel before he loses his shit.

But.

I think…

I likethisbetter.

The Vhex who doesn’t give a fuck about anything—including what I do to him—hanging on my command.

I think I like it a lot.

I lift my hips. “Help me take these off.”

Vhex pops my button. As soon as the pants are halfway down, he slips a palm between my legs and cups my mound.

“Vhex!” I gasp as a thick finger parts my wetness.

“You’re swollen,” he says darkly. “Doesn’t my venom hurt?”

His fingers don’t move, but I’m so turned on that the slight drum of his pulse almost gets me off.

“It doesn’t hurt,” I say raggedly, leaning away from the temptation. My heart beats in my clit and electricity pulses under my too-tight skin, but I can’t call the feelingpain.

“It’ll hurt later.” His tongue works the tip of his fang. “It hurts so fucking much.”

“I’m not afraid of a little pain.” I shift off my pants, then my panties as Vhex traces patterns on my skin.

When I’m straddling him in nothing but a bloody uniform top, I realize he’s fingering my veins.

It’s theweirdkind of possessive—Vhex isn’t even a vampire?—but the gesture mashes every one of my lonely buttons.

I’m used to doing the stroking.

Not being touched in return.

Vhex’s eyes glow neon pink. “Can you really fix me?”

I flinch at the magic words.

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