Page 74 of Ruined (The Knights of Ruin)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Cat

HISHANDIN my hair hurt, but that was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.

I looked up into Smoke’s beautiful face and saw my own agony reflected in his gaze along with the rage I’d seen as he’d launched himself at Justin.

That rage was mine, too, because I knew what had changed. Why he’d wanted this relationship to be permanent only to change his mind a couple of hours later.

Beating Justin up had brought back old memories. Memories of his father’s death and his own role in that. And sure, that was hard. It wouldn’t ever go away. But surely he knew what happened all those years ago didn’t define him? That it didn’t change my feelings about him?

He couldn’t leave me. He couldn’t alter our friendship forever, tell me I was his, promise me he’d always be there, only to walk away.

He couldn’t make me fall in love with him, give me everything I’d ever wanted, only to take it all away.

I knew what he was going to do because I knew him. I could read it in those searing dark eyes as he bent me back over his arm, winding my hair around his wrist, making my scalp prickle with pain.

‘You’re going to try and distance me, aren’t you?’ The words were shaky and rough as he lifted his hand to the front of my blouse. ‘You’re going to try and show me exactly how bad you are for me. How much you could hurt me.’

He said nothing, his mouth closing on my throat, his teeth grazing my skin.

I trembled. Then trembled harder as he simply tore my blouse straight down the middle, the fabric sagging open.

‘You’re forgetting something,’ I went on, my voice getting ragged as he nipped at my throat. ‘I know you, Dane Kingsolver. I’ve known you since you were seven years old. And you’ve never once, not in twenty-odd years, ever been bad for me.’

Again he didn’t reply, grabbing the delicate lace of my bra and jerking hard.

My bra ripped apart, and then his big, hot palm was cupping my bare breast, squeezing it, shaping it, his thumb flicking over my rapidly hardening nipple. I gasped, pleasure arrowing through me, getting sharper as he bit the side of my neck. Then he pinched my nipple—hard.

The pain made my eyes water, yet at the same sent a jolt of excitement right through me. A throb had started up between my thighs and when he pinched me again, twisting my nipple in his fingers, I felt that same jolt deep in my pussy, too.

He pulled my hair harder, arching my back and pressing my body to the furnace of his, lifting my breasts so he could bring his teeth there, too, licking the aching tips. I squirmed against him as his hot mouth closed around my nipple, sucking rhythmically, nipping at it, biting at it.

My breathing had become ragged and I was shaking, and then he yanked my skirt up, his fingers sliding into the lace of my panties, grabbing a handful of the material and tearing them away as easily as if they were tissue paper. Once they were gone his fingers pushed between my thighs, sliding over the bare, slick flesh of my pussy, massaging my clit roughly.

Pleasure cut me like a knife.

‘Smoke... Oh, God...’ My voice was as ripped and torn as my clothes.

His scorching dark gaze was on mine as he slid one finger into me, keeping his thumb pressed hard to my clit, staring at me as another finger joined the first, pushing deep. Then he separated both fingers, stretching me, making me groan and tremble and burn. Crushing me with pleasure.

I knew what he was doing. He hadn’t wanted me to fight him so he’d taken control, the way he always did. But I couldn’t let him do that—not today. He was trying to leave me and I’d be damned if I let him go. I couldn’t stop him physically—not when he was so much stronger than me—but, as I’d learned over the past couple of weeks, I wasn’t exactly powerless.

I knew what his weakness was.

Me.

I looked up into his face as his fingers worked in a short, hard rhythm that made my hips lift and jerk, building the pleasure relentlessly.

He wasn’t untouched by what he was doing. I could see the black flame in his eyes, the darkness burning, searing. The lines of his face were taut and hungry, something like a snarl twisting his beautiful mouth.

I stared into that heated darkness, let myself melt into him.

Maybe he knew what I was trying to do, because he pulled his fingers from my body and brought them to my mouth, shoving them between my lips, a feral look on his face.

‘Lick them,’ he ordered. ‘Taste how wet you get for a fucking killer.’

I obeyed, keeping my gaze on his as I licked his fingers, tasting my own musk and the saltiness of his skin. Tasting us. Together.

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