Page 59 of Beautiful Ruins
Sadie pinned him with a glare next, eyes narrowed. “Don’t even get me started on you, big guy.”
Bear clamped his mouth shut, rubbing his jaw like that would hide the smirk. “Noted.”
He didn’t fight back. He’d just let her put him in his place without argument. He easily had a foot on her and could have snapped her like a twig, yet the way he shrank under her glare made me question why I chose pussies for friends.
Even the kid, still lingering by the door, had fear in his eyes.
What the fuck was happening? Was I the only one unaffected by Sadie’s attitude? No, that wasn’t true, either. I’d just had plenty of practice hiding it.
I leaned on the edge of my desk, crossing my ankles as I pressed my hands flat against the top. “Pretty sure if it wasn’t for your stupid stunt the other night, we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Yep, I went there. I went there and didn’t look back.
“My stupid stunt?” Sadie scoffed. A breath passed between us. “You’re unbelievable. We wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t kissed me.” She threw the words at me like they were bullets.
They hit like bullets, too. Except they didn’t pass through. Just lodged deeper in the wounds she’d already left bleeding.
A warmth spread up my chest, my fingers wrapping around the edge of the desk. It was all I could do to ground myself in that moment, otherwise I was tempted to drag Sadie out of the room and punish her in private.
This time Scout let out a laugh he clearly didn’t mean to. I flicked my gaze towards him, and he held his hands up in surrender like the little shit he was. Talk about insubordinate arseholes.
I let out a slow breath and then turned my attention to the scowling woman standing in front of me. “You put yourself in danger by doing everything I told you not to, Sadie. What would you have had me do? Let Snake wrap his slimy arms around you and devour you whole? If it wasn’t for me and my protection, you’d likely be dead by now with the way you’ve been digging into club business.”
“Don’t act like this is all on me, Rowan Knight. You want to know what happened just as much as I do.” Sadie slammed a small stack of papers against my chest, hard enough to leave a bruise. “Here. This is what the mayor was planning. And did you know that people died in that house fire? Nora from the council office thinks that’s what my mother was looking into. Apparently.”
Laughter drifted in from the bar. Smoke hung in the air. One of the guys slammed a cue ball into the wall like the whole fucking club wasn’t about to implode. Sadie had scrambled my brain, and now I was putting everyone in more danger by talking about this shit at the clubhouse.
I handed Bear the documents. We’d deal with that later. Sadie was about to ruin everything by spilling what we’d just uncovered. There was only one way I knew how to shut her up, and based on the conversation we’d just had, Sadie wasn’t going to be thrilled about it.
I pushed away from the desk and stalked towards her.
The look on her face was worth every ounce of her wrath.
Her eyes went wide, and she took a step backwards. “Wh-what are you?—”
I grabbed her face between my hands and crushed my lips to hers. Her breath caught. Vanilla and the hint of mint hit my tongue, and it was all I could do not to devour her. It was the only way I could feel sane again. Our last kiss had been all I could think about.
I was doing it for show, right? For the cover. But it didn’t stop the staggering heat that surged through me. Didn’t stop the way I dragged her closer and drowned in her like I always did. This was supposed to be pretend.
But nothing I felt for Sadie had ever been pretend. That was the fucking problem.
Sadie placed her hands on my arms. At first, I figured she was going to push me away, fight me off. Maybe even slap me. But she didn’t. Instead, she melted, just like the last time. And it was fucking perfect.
A hundred different emotions slammed into me, each one fiercer than the last. Possession. Anger. Desire. The need to keep her safe, the need to protect her, to protect what was mine. But more than anything, I just wanted to keepher. That terrified me more than losing her.
A throat was cleared—Bear’s, I think. Sadie pulled back, breathless, her hazel eyes piercing into mine, searching for answers I didn’t have.
“Now,” I said, leaning in close to her ear as Eddie stepped up beside Scout. “Are you going to be a good girl and behave?” I stood to my full height, motioning to our company with a quick glance over her shoulder.
Sadie stiffened and glanced back. Then her upper body deflated, and she exhaled sharply. “And here I was thinking I’d earned the right to choose.”
I shook my head, my expression neutral, the exact opposite of how I felt. “Nope. Afraid not.”
“Fine,” she said, the smallest hint of defeat in her tone.
But she wasn’t stupid. The stakes were bigger than any single one of us, so she played along, her obedience hitting me harder than her disobedience. With a snap of her fingers, Scout jumped to attention. She had him wrapped around her little finger—he either didn’t notice or didn’t give a shit.
“Let’s go,” she said, glaring at me, but obviously speaking to Scout. “We have errands to run.” The words rolled off her tongue sweetly, but her eyes warned me she’d never stop chasing the truth.
