Chapter 26
Violet
The door clicking shut behind us was as loud as a siren, almost as loud as Ryder’s duffel hitting the floor. “There were no twin beds available,” he said, and it took me a moment to understand his comment.
The room was lovely, looking out over the city with a large floor-to-ceiling window. There was a living space made up of a small TV and two armchairs, broken up by a free-standing shelf that partially hid the unavoidable centrepiece. The bed.
But that wasn’t even my biggest problem.
I hated that I was forced to rely on Ryder. And now, with Cedric out of the picture and the price on his head possibly gone, I may have lost the only leverage I had over him.
If Ryder walked away, I had no idea what I’d do. The thought seeped deep in my chest, heavy and suffocating, desperation bleeding through me no matter how hard I tried to bury it under anger.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, but even that caused Ryder’s shoulders to stiffen. “I just needed help.”
“Oh, so we’re doing this right now?” He turned, his body remaining a thing of granite. “Please, give me your excuses on why you fucked everything up. I’m all ears.”
My eyes stung as I spoke. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I didn’t realise Cedric—”
“I don’t give a shit about Cedric,” he sneered, taking a step towards me.
“I’m not angry that you went to the fucking police, despite my warning.
” I steeled my spine, having to let my head fall back to maintain eye contact.
“I’m not even pissed that you’re so impulsive, you invited a literal assassin into my home. ”
“I didn’t invite him,” I bit out.
His jaw clenched, eyes flashing. “I’m pissed because I’ve lost all my fucking stuff.”
“You’re angry… over your stuff?” I blinked at him. “It’s just stuff.”
“It’s never just stuff,” he barked, his step forward driving me back. “Not when you grew up with nothing. It’ll never just be stuff, Violet.” Another step forward, forcing me to retreat like some deranged dance. “It was mine, and because you didn’t trust me, I’ve lost it.”
“Trust you?” I all but laughed, the words tearing out of me. “How the hell do you expect me to trust you?”
He loomed over me, those brown eyes blazing with rage as he kept pushing me back, step for step, until my spine hit the wall.
“I don’t know you, Ryder,” I spat, my fear and panic pouring out unchecked.
“You turned up out of nowhere, lied about who you were just to get close, and for what? To find my mum? To chase down some bloody USB drive that she doesn’t even—” The word caught in my throat, my fury cutting off as if someone had popped a balloon.
Ryder leaned in, so close his breath feathered against my lips, his voice dropping into a husky whisper that made my skin shiver. “Doesn’t even what?”
I couldn’t speak, the reply seemingly trapped.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Ryder’s fingers skimmed my jaw, deceptively gentle before hooking beneath my chin and tilting it up until I had no choice but to meet his eyes. “Doesn’t even what, Violet?”
“Doesn’t even have,” I finally said, refusing to back down. “She lost it.”
There was a second where his brows snapped together, and his eyes darkened to almost black. “Fuck!” he barked, so loud I jumped. But his fingers remained startlingly soft, which was a contrast to the fury radiating from him in waves. “Why didn’t you tell me she fucking lost it?”
“Because you’re one of them,” I shot back, my voice steady even though my insides trembled. “You’re one of the people trying to hurt me and my family.”
His jaw flexed, the lines of his face carved from stone. “I have no interest in hurting you. I’m the one who told you not to go to the police, remember?”
“They’re the police!” I cried, my throat raw. “They’re supposed to help. What else was supposed to happen? But he didn’t even listen to me.”
Ryder’s laugh was humourless, jagged. “Trust me, the police are the first to be bought for the right price. They don’t care who you are.
They see a woman bruised, and they’ll believe the man.
They see a kid begging for help, and they turn away because his mum’s a sex worker. So clearly, he must deserve it, right?”
My chest ached at the venom in his tone. “Ryder…”
“Don’t look at me like that,” he growled, stepping in so close his heat bled into me, suffocating and magnetic all at once. “This is your problem, Violet. You feel too much.”
I went to shove his chest, to allow myself some space. But instead, I found my fingers curling into his shirt, as if I wanted to pull him closer.
“Since when is caring a crime?”
He stiffened for a fraction of a second before his mouth twisted into something dark, dangerous, and unbearably raw. “Since your emotions ruined everything.”
That smile was destabilising, hiding his brutish nature beneath charm and arrogance. It was all an illusion, and it made me want to hit out. Push him away and…
“Don’t.”
A single word, whispered in warning that should have me running scared. Instead, heat uncoiled low in my belly, sharp and consuming, a reaction I couldn’t explain and didn’t dare name.
Clearly, I was looking for anything to keep me grounded while the rest of my world collapsed. That had to be it, because the alternative wasn’t possible. The idea that I could be reacting to Ryder, of all people, was absurd.
He was the definition of a walking red flag, the exact kind of man my mum had warned me to avoid. So why did the air between us crackle with tension?
“Oh, blondie,” Ryder mocked. “Look at you all hot and flustered, and not an ounce of E in your system.”
My eyes narrowed. “Shut up.”
He only smirked, his free hand settling on my thigh, fingers tracing upward with deliberate slowness.
“So what is it then? Me? Or is it the thought of giving up control?” His gaze burned, daring me to answer.
“I’d put money on the control. After all, you’ve spent your whole life with mummy dearest pulling the strings, haven’t you? ”
This time I did actually shove him, but he caught my wrists, tugging them until they were pressed above my head in one of his hands.
“Rule number one, you don’t get to touch me. Ever.” Ryder’s fingers traced a slow path down my throat, stopping at the curve of my breasts.
“Ryder…”
“Hmm, I bet if I told you to get on your knees, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?”
I shook my head, my dress suddenly feeling too tight.
“You’d suck my cock between those perfect lips like a good girl, just because I demanded.”
His thumb flicked over my nipple through the thin fabric, and I had to bite down on the moan clawing up my throat. His touch was confident and unapologetic, like he had every right to touch my body. To take without asking.
Shame twisted with heat at my own response. My body strung tight, thighs pressing together as if I could smother the ache building inside. I’d never reacted like this before. Probably because I’d never had this before.
The men I’d been with were kind. Considerate. None of them had ever taken. None had ever made me feel like my body was alive, and every nerve was on fire.
“Open your mouth,” Ryder demanded, and I did so without thought, only realising when he chuckled. “Oh, blondie, we really need to explore this little kink of yours.” His thumb came up to press against my bottom lip, so I bit it.
Ryder hissed through his teeth, then laughed, a dark, fleeting sound before something dangerous flickered in his eyes. I barely had a second to react, let alone resist before his lips claimed mine. A kiss that was both insistent and unrelenting.
His tongue pressed forward, devouring me with a hunger no other man had ever dared.All his anger bled into me, every ounce of tension and frustration burning through that kiss, and I accepted it.
Needed it, because at least it was something I understood.
That I could actually control, even if it was just me giving into him.
A sharp pain, my lip throbbing where Ryder tugged it between his teeth. I moaned when he pulled back, my breathing heavy. “You’re such an arsehole,” I rasped.
“Really?” he mused, those fingers reaching down to stroke beneath my dress until they met the lace between my thighs. “Then maybe you can tell me why you’re so wet for me.”