Chapter 6 #2
My knees nearly buckle. Shame and fury collide in my chest, tangled with something darker, hotter. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would.” His voice is quiet, deadly sure. “Because I’m done waiting. You belong to me, and you know it. So you’ve got two choices. Keep fighting me until I tear the whole town down around us or give me what I want.”
His hand slides from my wrist to my jaw, rough fingers tilting my face up until I’m trapped in his gaze.
“You’ll let me ruin you, Juniper,” he says, voice low, possessive. “Or I’ll ruin you anyway.”
My breath shudders, tears spilling hot down my cheeks. I should shove him away. I should scream. But my body betrays me, heat coiling low, shame flooding every nerve. Because part of me already knows I’m not going to run. Not when we both know that I’ve wanted to be his for a long time.
“Say it,” he murmurs, voice dark velvet against my skin. “Say you understand.”
I swallow hard, every bone in me screaming to deny him. To fight. To tell him I’ll never bend. But the words die on my tongue. Because deep down, I already know he’s right. He holds every weapon that could destroy me.
“I understand.”
“What’ll it be, Juniper? Do I ruin you now or later?”
“Later,” I spit back.
Rhett doesn’t give me a chance to breathe.
One second I’m shoving at his chest, the next he’s hauling me off the gravel, dragging me into the strip of shadows at the side of the church.
My back hits the rough wood siding, the hymnals inside muffled but still audible, like the whole town could hear if I screamed.
His hand clamps around my jaw, tilting my face up until my eyes catch the glint of his under the brim of his hat.
“You walked out of that sermon like you’d been flayed open. And you still don’t get it, do you? They’ll never forgive you. They’ll never let you be clean again. But me…” His thumb brushes my bottom lip. “I’d drag you deeper into the dirt. And you’d love me for it.”
A moan breaks loose, shame flooding through me as heat twists low in my stomach. He chuckles, the sound vibrating through me where his chest cages mine.
“You’re already burning, Juniper. I could make you sin so loud, right here, they’d hear it over their prayers.”
My pulse stutters, knees weak, breath coming in shallow gasps. He doesn’t touch me further, but he doesn’t have to. The picture he paints is enough to ruin me.
“Please,” I whisper, though I don’t even know if I mean stop or more.
His hand tightens, forcing my eyes to his. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
For one dizzy second, I think he’ll do it.
That he’ll drag me down into the shadows and prove every filthy thing he’s just promised.
My body shudders, caught between terror and the sick heat curling through me.
But just as suddenly he lets go. I stumble forward, nearly falling, catching myself against the church wall.
My chest heaves, throat raw, shame burning so hot I want to tear the dress off and scrub myself clean.
Rhett steps back, adjusting his hat like nothing happened, like he didn’t just unravel me without laying a hand where it mattered most.
“Go home, Juniper,” he says, voice low, satisfied. “And when you close your eyes tonight, you’ll know exactly who owns you.”
Then he turns and disappears into the dark, leaving me hating myself for the way my body aches.
I don’t remember walking home. My legs carried me on autopilot, my mind stuck back in those shadows, the rough scrape of the church wall against my back, the heat of his breath in my ear.
By the time I crawl into bed, the house is silent. I stare at the ceiling, the green dress heaped on the chair across the room like a corpse. My skin still crawls with it, every seam pressing into me even after I’ve shed it.
And Rhett’s words, God, his words won’t leave me.
I could make you sin so loud, right here, they’d hear it over their prayers.
I twist under the sheets, rolling from side to side, but no position eases the ache.
Shame twists tight in my gut, but lower, deeper, there’s a heat I can’t smother.
The same ugly, relentless want that’s been poisoning me since I was eighteen.
I clamp my eyes shut, fists tangled in the sheets.
I tell myself not to. That giving in means he’s won.
But he already has, hasn’t he? He left me shaking in the dark, ruined without even touching me.
And my body remembers.
I slip a hand under the covers, breath shuddering as I give in to the burn.
I work myself furiously, needing this high.
My hips jerk helplessly as I picture all the filthy things Rhett will do to me.
My release is fast and desperate, a collision of shame and release that tears through me.
When it’s over, I lie there trembling, sheets twisted around me, skin damp with sweat and self-loathing.
My chest heaves, but the only thing louder than my heartbeat is the certainty pressing cold against my bones.
I’m going to let him ruin me.
The words sit heavy in my chest, terrifying in their honesty.
They echo louder than the cicadas outside, louder than the creak of the old house settling around me.
Because deep down, I know it’s true. I’ll fight him.
I’ll cry. I’ll hate him. But when Rhett Slade decides to take me, I won’t stop him.
Because even now, after shaking apart under my own hands, I can still feel him. The rasp of his voice. The weight of his stare. The way my name sounds like both a curse and a vow on his lips.
I roll onto my side, hugging the pillow to my chest, and the tears come hot and fast. I bury my face to muffle them, but nothing can smother the truth.
He’s already inside me. Not just in my body, but in my head, my bones, the very air I breathe.
He’s been there since the first moment our eyes locked all those years ago.
And now that I’m back in Ruin Ridge, he’s not going to let me go.
No matter how hard I fight, no matter how deep I try to bury the shame I’m his.
And the cruelest part?
Somewhere in the wreckage of me, I want to be.
Sleep doesn’t come. I lie there wide awake, listening to the tick of the clock on my dresser, counting each second like a countdown to the inevitable.
To the moment Rhett cashes in on his promise.