Page 39 of Enemies in Ruin

“I won’t.”

He holds his finger still, and the wave recedes. I moan, my fingers scrabbling at his shoulders.

“Say it, and I’ll make you come, wild girl.” The knife dances along my flesh, the pressure a little harder. The steel blade is cold and steals some of my warmth. Luca’s gaze steals the rest.

I want to come. I want to come so fucking badly. I hitch my hips, trying to move, and he holds me still with a press of the knife, refusing me the ability to take my own pleasure. I look at him then, unashamed to openly beg. “Luca, please…”

“Careful, Carina…” He won’t move, instead holding me with infuriating stillness.

It’s me who makes the choice to take what I want, steal what I need and what he’s refusing to give me. I buck myself up against him, the blade nicking my skin. The resulting burn has me hissing, a bead of blood slipping free to roll down my skin to his thumb on my clit.

“Dammit, Carina—”

“Just showing you who’s on top here,” I mutter, holding his gaze without flinching. “Now make me come.”

After a shocked second, a grin replaces the fury on his face, and as if a dam has broken, Luca drops the knife and fucks into me hard and strong, his finger resuming the circling against my clit, which is guaranteed to get me off. “Come, then,” he says.

The wave breaks over us both a second later, pulling me into an inescapable current that leaves me shaken and gasping and ultimately spent.

Luca stumbles a few feet away to the kitchen table and pulls a chair out. After yanking his jeans up to halfway cover his ass, he sinks down into the seat and holds me to his chest, his arms tight around my naked back for a second until he pushes me away to inspect the cut on my stomach with worried eyes.

“We’ll do this together, wild one, I swear it,” he mutters, his mouth against my hair.

Chapter 15

Luca

Satisfactionrollsacrossmyshoulders as I hold Carina against me, her damp hair clinging to her flushed cheeks and neck. The swell of her breasts against my chest has my cock hardening again, and I know—I’ll never get enough of this woman.

She pushes her hair aside as I stand and finish buttoning up my pants and then make my way into the bedroom, where I retrieve a plain white button-up from the closet.

Returning, I see that Carina has her trousers back on and is trying in vain to fasten the bra that I sliced through. She glances at me and tosses the bra aside, and I hide a smile. It’s one thing I love about her—her boldness. She isn’t shy. She doesn’t get awkward after sex. I hold the shirt out to her.

“There may be something you can do to help.”

She takes the shirt, sniffs it, and, satisfied, slips it on.

When she finishes buttoning it, I continue. “But I need you to be careful.”

Already I’m regretting even considering giving her a task to do. But keeping a woman like Carina locked up isn’t possible. So, I need to give her something to do to keep her away from the Pits.

“What is it?” She straightens the shirt and pulls all her hair back as if she’s about to tie it up, but she releases the long strands instead. My fingers twitch, wanting to touch them.

“Did you notice the fighters in the Pits? I mean, the type of men they were recruiting.”

Fire lights up Carina’s gaze. “Yes, the vulnerable. The homeless. They were down on a lower level.” She folds her arms across her chest. “Fucking cowards.”

So much pain is held in the words, hurt for all the men like her brother, those who have died, and those who will continue to die if we do nothing.

“They’re gonna need fresh recruits for the weekend. They’ll either pull from who they have on that lower level, or they’ll start looking elsewhere to restock, so to speak. So, you could keep an eye on some of the nearby homeless shelters. You know the type of men to look out for.”

“Yeah, I know the ones. Hungry. Desperate.” Carina walks to the small loveseat and sits down, her jaw tight.

“What about you?”

“I have a meeting.” I check the heavy silver watch on my wrist. A meeting I will be late for if I don’t leave now.

“I’ll let you know what I find,” Carina says.

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