Page 23 of Ruined (The Knights of Ruin)

‘Oh. But I thought...’ She trailed off, frowning.

‘He told me he wouldn’t protect you as things stand. So I asked him outright if he would if you were mine, and he said yes.’

I paused, wanting to make sure she understood exactly what I was going to ask from her.

‘If Justin makes a move and the club has to respond, it’s going to put us at risk with the police. And Keep won’t want to do that if he thinks you’re faking it. In fact if he realises that, he’s going to be pissed.’

He wouldn’t just be pissed; he’d be furious. And I’d seen him furious. If I hadn’t done my old man in, Keep would have, and it wasn’t anything I wanted directed at either me or Cat.

Her frown deepened. ‘So we have to pretend it’s real? Is that what you’re saying?’

‘Yeah. He’ll remember the conversation I had with him and he’ll be suspicious, no question. We’ll have to convince him we’re the real deal.’

Cat dropped her attention to the pavement, studying it like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. And...was she blushing?

She’d done that a couple of nights earlier, avoiding my gaze, staring at anything other than me. Then there had been her weirdness about discussing that blow job and her furious denial that she’d been checking me out.

The electric thrill intensified.

I knew when a woman wanted me.

I knew when a woman wanted me and didn’t want me to know.

Cat definitely didn’t want me to know.

Fucking finally. After all these years...

Triumph surged like gas down a fuel line, lighting me right up.

She wanted me. She really did.

I couldn’t help myself. I reached out, took her chin in my hand and tipped her head back, forcing her gaze to mine. Her eyes were dark and shocked, the green lost in the night.

‘Is that going to be a problem?’ I asked roughly.

She’d gone very still. Even in the dim light of the street I could see the fire in her cheeks and the quick beat of her pulse at the base of her throat.

The space between us had got thick, like the air before a thunderstorm.

I could hear my own heartbeat, loud and heavy in my head.

‘I don’t know...’ She stopped. ‘I mean, I don’t...’ She stopped again and cleared her throat. ‘What exactly are you saying, Smoke?’

Her skin was soft under my fingers and I wanted to stroke her with my thumb, run it along the line of her lower lip, test how soft that felt, too.

‘What do you think? We have to act like a real couple—know what I’m saying?’

She blinked, her attention dropping to my mouth. And staying there.

Holy fucking shit.

I was getting hard now, and my instinct was to push her against the brick wall and fuck us both into oblivion. But hard and fast up against a wall wasn’t the way I wanted to do it—not with her and not after so many years.

No, I was going to take my time, make it last. Make her scream. Make her beg for me the way I would have begged for her if she’d only asked.

Maybe she could see that in my eyes, because she jerked her chin out of my grip, giving an abrupt, nervous-sounding laugh.

‘That better not include sleeping with you, because you know that’s not going to happen.’ She was trying to make it sound like a joke and failing miserably.

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