Page 51 of Ruined (The Knights of Ruin)

I snatched it up.

Took Annie to school and you’ve called in sick. Back soon. Be ready.

Jesus, the bastard really was handling all this, wasn’t he?

A shiver snaked down my spine and it wasn’t fear. In fact it felt horribly like anticipation.

Irritated, I scrunched the paper up into a ball. Because there was no way. It wasn’t happening. I didn’t want some guy swanning in and taking over my life the way Justin had. Telling me what to do and expecting me to be grateful. Even if he was my best friend.

What was going to happen was me sitting down with Smoke and telling him the truth. That I couldn’t be more than friends with him. He knew my background...knew why my friendship with him was so important. He’d understand, surely? He had to.

Sighing, I dropped the balled-up paper and headed to the bathroom for a quick cold shower. Then I wandered back into the bedroom, wrapped in a towel, pulling open drawers and trying to decide what to wear.

It took me a moment to realise what I was doing.

I never stood in front of my drawers debating over clothes. I simply pulled on what was appropriate for work or what was comfortable for home. That was the extent of it.

Yet here I was, looking at the contents of my drawers with my head full of Smoke. Wondering what to wear that he’d like. Wondering what would make me look sexy.

Feeling like an idiot, I dropped the towel and reached for my usual jeans and T-shirt, pulling them on and resolutely not looking in the mirror.

Turning to the door to head out in search of coffee, I nearly had a heart attack when I found Smoke’s black eyes staring back at me, the length of his hard, muscular body filling the doorframe.

I blushed the moment I met his gaze, a wave of heat rolling through me as every single one of last night’s memories descended on me like a ton of bricks.

‘F-fuck, you gave me a fright,’ I stuttered. ‘I didn’t hear you come in.’

He lifted a shoulder. ‘Yeah, sorry about that.’

Resisting the urge to tug at my hair or my T-shirt, I stuck my hands in my back pockets. ‘Um...thanks for taking Annie to school. I guess I kind of slept in.’

He didn’t move, staring at me with such intensity it was like an X-ray, memorising me right down to my bones.

‘No worries. You seemed like you needed it.’

An awkward silence fell, which he made no move to break—the asshole.

‘I...I need to talk to you,’ I said, not knowing how to begin and irritated that he wasn’t giving me any help.

He didn’t look surprised by this. ‘Sure.’ He turned. ‘Come out to the living room.’

Pausing to grab a hair tie and put my damp hair in a ponytail, I followed him down the hallway, coming out to find him sitting in the middle of the couch with his arms along the back of it and his legs stretched out in front of him.

He was in his usual T-shirt and jeans, both black, his cut on over the top, and I could feel my heart literally slow and come to a dead stop because of the way he was sitting: his long, lean body all stretched out, so fucking arrogant. So fucking hot.

His T-shirt was pulled tight over his chest, highlighting the width and shape of the perfect musculature beneath. Tight over his shoulders, too, with the cotton moulding to the broad, powerful shape of them. He was strong enough he’d been able to lift me against the wall the night before like I weighed nothing...

My throat constricted, my breathing shallow.

I couldn’t stop staring at his body, at the lean hips and muscular thighs. I remembered what he’d felt like against me, how hot his skin had been...

Asshole. It was like he’d turned something on inside me and now I couldn’t turn it off.

He stared back, black eyes burning with the same dark flame I’d seen in them in that hallway as I’d knelt at his feet.

‘Strip,’ he said flatly.

I blinked. ‘W-what did you say?’

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