Chapter 25 #2
“It feels like my fault.” If Rue had never befriended Bowie, or if he’d at least realized sooner how unhinged he secretly was, maybe all of this could have been prevented.
No, that wasn’t right either.
“If I’d been stronger,” he said, “and stuck around instead of running that day, none of this would have happened. I should never have left.”
Ryder had been lying about the two of them hooking up.
If Rue had only been more confident, he could have confronted Ryker and uncovered the truth immediately.
Then Ryker wouldn’t have hated him, and the two of them would have fought together to clear his name and keep Vadim Enterprise running without his mom needing to grovel for Rhys’ help.
Sure, Bowie’s uncle probably would have still lost his job, but Ryker also had influence. He would have helped if Rue asked. Maybe they would have had to explain to Uncle Marx he needed to be patient for a bit, but they would have gotten him a position in another company eventually for sure.
“If you won’t come with me,” Bowie said then, “I won’t make you. But I am shooting Ryder.”
“Wait—”
“In a miraculous turn of events, we’re being told that there are in fact survivors!” the news reporter exclaimed, catching both of their attention.
Bowie turned around with a gasp just as Ellery’s face appeared on the screen.
“Can you tell us what happened?” the reporter held a microphone out to Ell.
“The whole place came down. There was fire everywhere. It was terrifying.” Ellery did not sound even remotely like he’d been afraid. He even flashed the reporter a flirtatious smirk.
“How did you manage to make it out? So far, you’re the only known survivor.”
“Oh, I didn’t do it alone. I’m just the one who stayed behind,” Ell said.
The reporter frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Ellery looked directly at the camera, expression morphing to one of pure loathing, “it’s Game Over.”
Rue barely had a chance to process those words when movement from within the pod came.
As if in response to the comment, Ryder immediately sat up, arm slashing across the space between him and Bowie. It happened too fast for anyone to react, and neither of them even realized the extent of what had happened until a thin line of red appeared across the center of Bowie’s throat.
He coughed and then gurgled, retreating from Ryder, only managing a couple of steps before he dropped onto his ass. His hands wrapped tightly around his own neck, clearly trying to stop the bleeding, and his panicked and pleading eyes landed on Rue, silently begging for help.
But Rue didn’t look back. He was too distracted by Ryder.
“How…?” Since he hadn’t been around for Uriel’s awakening, he had no clue if this is how it went down, but it didn’t feel right.
“Quit gaping,” the Black Hart’s arm dangled over the edge of the pod, the switchblade he’d just used to slit Bowie’s throat dropping to the ground with a loud ping, “and help me out of this thing, sweetheart.”
He knew that weapon.
And only one person had ever called him that before.
“Ryker?!” In his excitement, Rue completely forgot about the bindings, getting to his feet too fast. He instantly lost his balance and toppled forward, catching his breath when Ryker’s arms wrapped around him, preventing him from falling.
Rue opened his mouth to say…he wasn’t even sure what, there were too many questions all swirling through his mind at once, but Ryker didn’t give him the chance to ask any of them.
The Black Hart captured his mouth in a possessive kiss that had Rue’s brain misfiring. Somehow, without breaking it, he managed to pull Rue over the side of the pod and into it with him.
“We’re going to have to have a talk about why situations like this turn you on,” Ryker breathed against his lips. “Later.”
Rue realized with a start that he was in fact extremely aroused.
He was turned around and bent over the end of the pod, his pants roughly yanked down.
A startled sound escaped him when his knees were forced as far apart as they were able to be in the confined space, but then Ryker’s fingers were there, touching him between his cheeks, prodding at his entrance, and all else was forgotten.
There was a gurgling noise and he turned his head, making the mistake of latching eyes with Bowie.
Bowie was sprawled out on his side facing them. A tear rolled down his cheek, but he took his last breath and went still almost as soon as their eyes met.
“Don’t look.” Ryker turned Rue’s head away and kept stretching him open on his fingers. “Are you mad that I killed your friend, little brother? Want me to stop?” Despite his offer, he pounded into him with more force, twirling his digits within him.
Rue moaned as zaps of pleasure traveled from his core to skitter up his spine and down to his toes, and he shook his head.
He wanted to tell him to keep going. Wanted to say he understood why Bowie was dead.
But the words wouldn’t come, and he gave up on trying to speak, too overwhelmed by the knowledge that Ryker was here with him.
That Ryker was alive.
And about to fuck him.
To urge him to hurry, Rue lifted his hips suggestively, earning a dark chuckle from his stepbrother.
It wasn’t natural, to be this desperate when the body of his ex-best friend was still cooling on the floor. When he’d just lost his family and discovered how truly messed up the whole lot of them had really been.
When the annoying reporter’s voice on the tv was still yapping away, and Ellery was still happily answering questions like he needed more fame.
The whole damn planet already knew who he was—the reporter had even asked for his autograph—yet there he was, taking over screen time, flirting with the male reporter who appeared to be only a few years older than them.
Oh.
Well if Ell could think about sex at a time like this too, maybe Rue wasn’t so messed up after all.
Or maybe comparing himself to Ellery Norwood was Rue’s way of mentally hitting rock bottom.
Who knew.
Who cared.
Ryker entered him in the way he started most things. Aggressively and without warning. One second there were fingers in his hole, and the next Rue was being filled with thick, burning cock that seemed to set his insides on fire.
He fucked him hard against the pod, the two of them rocking the machine, their bodies slapping together lewdly, so that the sounds of their joining echoed in the room, almost loud enough to drown out the voices on the tv.
He wasn’t gentle because of everything they’d been through, didn’t give Rue a moment to come up for air.
His cock drove into him repeatedly, fighting against those constricting muscles working so desperately to cling onto him, dominating Rue’s entire being in a way only he could.
“I heard what you said.” Ryker growled the words against the curve of his ear, then dropped his mouth to his throat and gave a hard suck that had Rue jerking under him.
“You should never have left me the first time.” His hand slipped beneath his chin, and he hauled him back against him.
“There most certainly will not be a second.”
“I wouldn’t,” Rue somehow managed to say over the sensation of having his insides rearranged in the most delicious way. “I’ll never leave you again. Thank you.” He was crying. “For not leaving me.”
Thank you for not being dead, was what he meant to follow that up with, but then Ryker adjusted his weight and altered the angle, and when his cock tore through him again, the whole world came to a stuttering halt.
Through the glass at the end of the pod, Rue watched as his dick unloaded, come splattering against the slick surface and all over the plush pad they were kneeling on.
Ryker took a little longer to get there, pounding Rue for another five or so minutes, whispering how hot he was all the while. The dirty talk was so affective, Rue ended up coming a second time just before Ryker reached his orgasm.
He thrust in deep and went still, pumping Rue full as he held him close and breathed against the spot just below Rue’s nape.
He’d rested his forehead there and stayed in place while they rode their release out, as though needing to touch him in as many places as he could to be convinced this was real and they were both still breathing.
That they’d made it off that damn mountain and through the horrors they’d endured there.
Thanks to Rue’s mother.
And his best friend.
“What’s wrong?” Ryker sensed the second the change came over him.
He allowed Rue to sit up, but kept his arms banded around his waist, pulling his back to his front.
His lips found the sensitive spot beneath his ear and he licked and sucked at him, cock still buried in his warm heat despite the fact he was no longer hard. “Don’t be sad. I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Rue couldn’t hold back anymore. It was like someone had blown the dam.
The Black Heart held him close as he sobbed.
* * *
Fifteen or so minutes later they were both standing next to the pod, Ryker having used the switchblade to cut through the tape binding Rue’s ankles and wrists.
Rue’s eyes strictly on the ceiling, unwilling to look at Bowie. As soon as the tape was gone, he yelped when he found himself caught up in the Black Hart’s arms in one swift move that sent his head spinning.
Ryker carried him from the room to the one next door. When they’d been younger, they used to sequester themselves away there on rainy days and read comic books while they gorged on Ryder’s hidden stash of candy. There were still yellowed paperbacks stuffed in the line of shelves beneath the window.
Rue was placed in the armchair he’d always favored, the one in the corner, where he could enjoy the view from outside as well as catch a glimpse of anyone coming down the hall. His hand shot out when the Black Hart took a step away, the panic instinctual at this point.
“It’s okay.” Ryker settled his hand in his lap and smiled softly. “I’m just going to the door. I’ll only be a second, and I won’t leave your sight.”