Page 71 of Crush (Deadly Hearts 1)

ChapterThirty-Seven

Declan

“You watched me?” she asks, her voice tinged with a deep desire that fires up my engines in a big way.

I was skeptical about admitting to this, but, like I said, no more secrets.

“Yes,” I say. “Giselle always sent you to a voyeur’s room so I could watch you. It was part of our deal.”

“Of which, I need to know more, but later. Go on…”

I take a drink from the bottle of water I’m clutching and continue. “That day, the last time you saw him, I know what he did to you. He abused his power over you. It disgusted me. He degraded you in ways that made me want to kill him. You didn’t have to stand for it. You had a safe word, and you didn’t use it until it was too late. What he did was rape, and it sickened me…”

I see her about to protest and I hold my hand up to stop her. “I know you don’t think so. I know you believe you deserved the punishment he dealt out, but he abused you. Afterwards, when you were crying and cleaning up, he was bragging to anyone who would listen, what he did to you. What he made you do and that he fucked you until you wept and begged him to stop. I knew it was all true and I wanted to go to you, but I was a stranger. You would have run a mile from me and that was something that I couldn’t let happen. I went to Giselle and forced her to swap your play partner for me. I needed to know that you were safe in those situations. The only way I could ensure that was for you to be with me.”

I stop talking, feeling the rage all over again.

“And then what?” she asks carefully, knowing I’m not done yet. Instinctively, she probably knows the worst is yet to come.

“Then I followed that fucker home, took him by the throat and with my bare hands strangled the life out of him. I took great satisfaction in watching the light die in his eyes, knowing that I was the one who was giving him his final punishment for treating you so badly.”

She lets out a soft gasp, but there is no fear or revulsion in her eyes. If anything, she is turned on. “You killed him? For me?”

“I murdered him, and I’d do it again, and again as many times as it takes to keep you safe. I have killed to keep you safe, Ruby and as much as you appear to want to brush that under the carpet, seeing as you have thus far, ignored the fact that my man was killed watching over you, I will lose every bit of what is left of my soul to continue to keep you safe.”

“Murdered,” she murmurs, making the connection between that and killing.

Killing is my job. It’s faceless, nameless, a simple transaction, death in exchange for money. I have no regrets, no guilt over the lives I’ve taken this way. However, I don’t have guilt or regrets for murdering the pervert who abused her body, her mind and her trust. She is everything to me and I will do whatever it takes to make her happy and secure.

She nods, totally getting it and if it was at all possible, I fall even more in love with her. She has no judgement. It’s the opposite. It excites her. I excite her.

She approaches me stealthily, running her hands up my chest, a look of adoration swimming in her green eyes. She presses her lips softly to mine and murmurs, “Thank you.”

I almost weep with the sincerity, the surprise of those two words.

“I have more questions, but they can wait. I want you now. I want you to take me to bed as my lover, before you switch roles and punish me for my part in that.”

“No,” I croak out, gripping her fingers. “You have nothing to be punished for.”

“Please,” she murmurs, lowering her eyes. “I need it.”

“Fuck, Ruby,” I whisper, pushing her hair away from her face. “I love you.”

She smiles and it’s all I can do not to whisk her away to her bedroom and finally fuck her until I want to die in her arms. She needs more. Especially now that those ugly memories have been dredged up. I grasp her arms lightly and turn her, so she is up against the counter. I slide her dress up her thighs, taking the switchblade out of the holster on her right thigh and letting the dress fall back down.

I drop to my knees, hearing her sharp inhalation.

“I hope you aren’t too fond of this dress,” I say, picking up the hem and flicking the blade out.

She giggles. “Nah, not this old thing.”

I give her a slow smile and, keeping my eyes on hers, I slice the fabric of the dress slowly, deliberately upwards, letting it fall apart to expose her perfect body to me. I ignore the scant lace of her thong as I rise to my feet to keep slicing the dress away, all the way to the low neckline. It drops open and I breathe in through my nose as I catch sight of her red lace, strapless bra. I feel her breath on my face as she pants lightly when I lean closer to nick the straps with the sharp blade and the dress drops to the floor at our feet.

I look down and see the slight scratch across her perfect skin and frown, knowing that Layton has had his way with her. But it doesn’t matter. All that matters is here and now. I trail the point of the blade down in between her breasts and slice through the lace.

“Now that I did like,” she chides me as it falls off her.

“I’ll buy you a new one,” I murmur and slide the blade down the flawless skin of her stomach where I quickly cut the thin straps holding her knickers together, nicking her skin in the process.

She lets out a feral moan at the slight burn the blade causes, her nipples pebbling, making me want to bite them until she screams.

But I don’t. I toss the blade up into the air and watch it flick over. I catch it deftly by the handle and hold it out for her to take.

“Your turn,” I say and grin when she takes the knife eagerly, a vicious smile twisting her lips as I give her all the power now.

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