Page 40 of Running on Empty

I spat that last word out with all the venom I could muster.

“I never asked you for safe. I wasn’t even given a chance to ask you for anything. You kept me at a distance, hurt me every damn time you turned up at my house, to fix the guttering or the back screen door, when all I ever really fucking needed was you.”

Jax flinched, his eyes going wide. He moved forward then but I shook my head sharply, before turning to Ronan.

His eyes were bright green and he stared at me then like I was the most perfect woman in the world and I soaked every second of that up.

“You’ll give me that, won’t you?” I asked him and my alpha gave me that same jagged little smile, before saying just the right words.

“Anything for you, omega.”

I turned then to face the two of them.

“He could drive this knife into my heart and it would still be preferable to what you put me through. I’d rather he killed me than put up with this… half life. So thank you for your concern.” Ash sucked in a breath as my spare hand went to the door. “But I don’t need it.”

I slammed the door in his face then, not allowing him the right of reply, just as Ash denied me the same, and I didn’t wait to hear his muffled shouts. I turned to see Ronan walking backwards towards the bed.

Good boy.

I looked down at the knife, moving it slightly so I saw the light dance along the polished blade.

“Strip down,” I ordered without looking to see if he did. “Get on the bed and then you are going to teach me just how you’d use one of these in the bedroom.”

Chapter24

“A tutorial on knife play, omega?” Ronan’s grin widened as he did as he was told. “You really are perfect.”

But so was he, I soon saw, as he moved to undo his belt. Ronan knew he had my attention and so somehow this became a performance. Long slender fingers working his belt buckle open, then yanking it free with one hand before dropping it on the floor, but then came the main event. My fingers twitched as his worked to open the button and then slid down the zipper, wanting to take over. Because underneath it, he was bare. No underwear to hide any part of his body away, he eased his jeans down over his hips, my eyes following the magnetic bob of his hard cock.

Before I’d seen them, heard them, felt their fingers on me, but the Spencers had no place here, not now. This was my space, my mate, and my wolf bristled at the thought of anyone or anything taking it away from me. So Ronan stepped free of his clothes, so fucking perfect and then he sat down on the bed, arm thrown up over his head, every muscle on display.

Mine.

I moved closer, not able to stay away any longer, to sit on the edge of the bed and stare.

“So how—?” I started to ask.

“Any way you like.”

“But with a knife—?”

“Doesn’t have to be with a knife.” The smile had faded and something real replaced it. “Doesn’t have to be with anything. Just you. No one’s ever touched me before.”

“No one…?” I breathed that out.

“Why do you think Ash is so grumpy?” He winked at me. “Been nursing blue balls for seven years.”

“No one…?” My voice took on a whole different tone then, searching his face for the lie before he spoke.

“We always knew you were the one for us.”

“But the girls at school—”

“No one, Stevie. I don’t think we could’ve gotten hard for anyone else.”

Which, of course, had my eyes sliding down, seeing the very obvious evidence of his arousal now. His cock curved to the right, the skin so tight over his shaft I could see every vein, and then there was his knot. Not every alpha I’d slept with could knot for me. Some got hard, but no knot, others had no problems, but Ronan? When I reached out and dragged the tip of my nail across the taut surface, he let out a helpless little hiss.

“Which is not a problem right now.” His hand snapped out, stopping me from doing anything else as his cock jerked, a small splatter of pre-cum shooting out. “Really, really not a problem.”

---