Page 180 of Ruin My Life
“Good,” I reply, my voice thin. “Relaxing.”
He nods, eyes still on me.
“Good.”
Silence follows.
Sharp. Suspicious. Like a tightrope stretched between two cliffs.
I feel it in the way my fingers tighten around my clothes. In the way I shift my weight from one foot to the other.
I’m bracing. For what, I don’t know.
Then he speaks again, in that same low, teasing drawl that disarms me every time.
“Are you sure it was relaxing? Because you look about ready to bolt, little rose.”
“I donot,” I snap back, even as my body betrays me—clutching my bundle of clothes tighter as I desperately avoid his eyes.
He raises an eyebrow, swings his legs off the side of the bed.
“No?”
His bare feet hit the floor with a quiet thud, and I feel the air shift as he approaches. Heat prickles across my skin when his shadow stretches toward me.
And then he’s standing in front of me, our feet nearly touching.
His fingers brush my jaw. Gentle, but firm. Tilting my face up until I meet his eyes.
I expect cocky. I expect smug.
But instead, I see something else entirely.
Vulnerability.
He’s searching for something in my expression, and I don’t know if I can give it to him. I don’t even know what it is he’s looking for.
“Are you done running from me, Brie?”
His voice is low. Unarmoured.
I blink, my throat working around a lump I didn’t know was there.
There’s no joke in his tone. No sarcastic curve to his lips.
Just quiet sincerity.
Just him—Damon—offering me something real, and asking if I’ll ruin him with it.
“It’s okay if you’re not,” he murmurs. “But I need to know. Please don’t give yourself to me again if it’s only temporary.”
His fingers drift down my neck, creating a path of goosebumps, and catch a damp strand of hair that clings to my skin. He twirls it softly between his fingers, like he’s remembering something I haven’t said yet.
“Because you’re it for me. And once you’re mine, you’re mine. The only way this ends will be in tragedy.”
My heart stutters painfully in my chest.
He doesn’t say it outright, but I hurt him. I know I did.
