Chapter Ten #2
He snapped off his clothes and positioned himself between my legs. Staring at me dead-on, his glinting jeweled eyes taunted and dared me to remain silent as he drilled and struck that spot dead-on, his other hand rolling my right nipple between his fingers as he did so.
I should’ve been a moaning, shuddering mess... but nothing. As he got more insistent, and angry, the vision of him turning his back on me as Bruno, Pravat, and Kazuya leched over me just got more vivid.
I was right back in that room.
Ronin kissed me hard—scrambling my mind like eggs—and sending me down the twisted stretch of our short time together.
Ronin ripping my mole off. Ronin putting me under the desire spell and making me have sex with Tristan in the middle of class.
Ronin using Kazuya and his buddies to trick me into the sub bond.
Ronin pushing Nik and Santino out of my life. Ronin drugging me with an aphrodisiac.
For all that there had also been pleasure, every single minute of my time with Ronin was filled with pain.
Down Ronin went, dropping soft, nipping kisses over my chin, along my neck, and between the valley of my breasts.
His sudden switch from rough to soft surprised me, but didn’t sway me.
His mouth closed around my nipple, sucking the soft nub into a hard, little pebble.
He pounced on the other one and worshipped it in kind, making my core melt under his expert ministrations.
My body was giving him everything he expected of it, but my mouth, my expressions, my face, my heart... nothing.
“Hunter?” He released my nipple and frowned at me, frustration warring with the confusion on his face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me.” My voice was as flat and dead as the one I heard in that room. “So let’s just get this over with.”
“Over w—?”
Grabbing his head, I shoved him down between my legs—all talking over.
I could still see the confusion in his eyes as he picked up the pace—fingers plunging in and out of my hole while he sucked on my clit.
Bolts of electricity shot through my veins, tightening me around him. All the emotions. All the sensations. All the pleasure.
And I was completely cut off from it.
Ronin’s moans and grunts filled the room, but mine did not join him. He stretched my hole past its limits, scissoring me open and then plunging himself inside—tongue-fucking me with abandon.
I fisted the sheets, clenching my teeth hard, but I didn’t break.
I came hard—jerking and flopping on his mattress, and it was like it was all happening to someone else. With each resounding shock wave that rocked my body hard and harder—my hatred grew.
“Charlotte, I know what you’re doing.” Ronin’s words reached me from far away. “It’s not going to work.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Flipping over, I rose on all fours and presented my ass. “What are you waiting for? Do it already.”
“Dammit, Hunter,” he snapped. “If you’re angry, say it. You’ve never had a feeling that you’ve had to hide.”
My fingers curled into the blankets. “Every woman’s had a feeling that she’s had to hide.” I shoved my ass back. “And you don’t like my temper, remember? Far be it for me to subject you to it anymore.”
“I never said—”
“Are you done?” I moved away. “If you are, I’m leaving.”
“Char— Fuck’s sake!” Snarling, he grasped my hips—pulling me slowly, but firmly down on his cock.
I winced, the tiniest grunt escaping me. Ronin was just so big. The man filled me to bursting, and then some.
Ronin started pumping—first slowly, then quickly devolving into a wild, animalistic pace that squeezed grunt after grunt out of me, but nothing else.
I wouldn’t moan for him. I wouldn’t scream. Making a creature your pet and taming it were two different things.
My brows popped as a wet finger pushed past my puckered entrance. I opened my mouth to tell him to cut it out when I remembered the day I did much the same—shoving my finger up his ass to piss him off and make him get rid of me.
I wanted to believe that Ronin was the toxic one, but my need to give as good as I got was dragging me down along with him.
Would the old me have manipulated five women eager to get out from their misogynistic fathers’ thumb by putting in their heads that they should pressure a guy into marriage?
Would the old me have traded my blood and my body to a vampire tortured by hunger in exchange for him being my personal bodyguard?
Wasn’t it true that a small, secret part of me liked that Santino slobbered and nipped at my heels like a... pet?
The thought rocked me to the core. No wonder Ronin’s so determined to have me. It’s because he found his soulmate.
“Agh!” Ronin grunted, spilling inside of me.
I kicked him off and scrambled off the bed, taking a throw blanket with me.
“Wait,” he called. “You haven’t come yet. At least let me—”
Pushing into the bathroom, I shut the door and climbed into the shower—washing his corruptive, addictive touch away.
There was nothing more for Ronin and me to say to each other.
“AHAHAH! HAHAHA! HA!”
I held the phone away from my ear, sighing deeply.
“Hahaha!” Lucifer guffawed, legitimately sounding like he was busting a gut on the other end of the phone. “Oh, sweet Charlotte, I do so enjoy you. Goodbye.”
Click.
I flashed Ronin a mirthless smile as we entered the mess hall. “Luce says he’ll think about it.”
Ronin’s eyes narrowed. He heard Lucifer’s response just as well as I did. Even if that raucous laughter was translated into words, those words wouldn’t be I’ll think about handing you the keys to my kingdom in exchange for the hallows.
Dora trailed behind us—dancing and skipping along to music only she could hear.
I veered right toward the kitchen.
“No,” Ronin said. “Come with me.”
Confused, I hesitated, but Dora didn’t—marching right after him like he was the mama to her duck. I ended up following behind just to keep an eye on her.
Ronin parted the crowd like a hot knife through butter.
That morning, he forewent his usual leather on black on leather, and dressed in a soft, blue cashmere sweater that should’ve clashed with his ruby eyes, but instead made them impossible not to look at.
His pants clung to him in all the right ways from hugging his shapely bottom, to doing nothing to hide the bulge in the front.
As always, he looked like he just stepped off the runway, but while everyone was looking at him, he just kept looking back at me.
I frowned the fifth time he glanced over his shoulder as if to check I was still following him. What’s with him? He’s been strange all morning.
That morning, I woke in Ronin’s bed after getting out of the shower and walking right past him out of my bedroom door.
Dora was fast asleep under Ronin’s sheets, and since I wasn’t going anywhere without her, I just climbed in and drifted off.
When I woke up, Dora was dressed and sitting by the fireplace, sipping on a mug of hot cocoa while she flipped through the journals Mother sent.
“Dora?” I called. “Where’d you get that drink?”
She perked up. “Ooh, Berneice, you’re up!” Setting down the book and the mug, she raced over to me and planted herself beside the bed. I goggled at her as she broke into a jig—kicking her feet, jumping up and down, waving her arms, and making insane faces at me at seven o’clock in the morning.
“Dora, are you okay?” I cried. “What’s wrong with you?”
She stopped, a slight pout stealing over her face as she planted her hands on her lips. She leaned over and stuck her face in mine, making me squeak as she studied me.
Just as suddenly she popped up and tore into the other room. “Sorry, Ro-Ro. It didn’t work.”
I glared at the back of his head as I obsessed over what happened that morning all over again. Neither one of them would explain Dora’s sudden fit of insanity. Her because she forgot the reason. Ronin because he wouldn’t give a straight answer even if you paid him.
Ronin climbed the steps of his platform, then snapped his fingers. Two thrones appeared beside his usual one. “Sit.”
Dora ran right up and grabbed a seat, as carefree as a pure soul curse would make her.
I didn’t move.
The tips of my shoes touched the bottom step as a million refusals sprouted on my tongue.
I didn’t want to hear the noise Eris, Raven, and the other women would make when they found me sitting in the spot reserved for the heads of the Sins Gang.
I wanted to enjoy my breakfast in peace in my bedroom away from any drama. But most of all—
I cut eyes to Ronin.
—I don’t want to eat anywhere near you.
Lifting my feet, I climbed the steps and took the seat next to his, saying nothing. My stomach churned when he grabbed the foot of my chair and pulled me closer still. Sweat broke out on my palms as I turned my head away from him, avoiding his nearness as much as possible.
Dead, empty eyes dismissed the naked fear in mine, and it was still a better sight than those eyes turning away from me... leaving me behind.
“The nightmare’s over, Hunter. You can now remain in the company you prefer.”
“Yo.” I jumped when a plate of food clanked down in front of me. The aye-aye demon dropped a mug of tea in front of me too. “There. Don’t choke on it. Or do,” he drawled. “I don’t give a shit.”
With that, he moved to the side so that the guy and the gal coming up behind him could serve Ronin and Dora.
Ronin reached across, picked up my plate, and smashed it on the floor. The tea mug went after it to the tune of my screaming.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Ronin growled at him, standing my neck hairs on end.
“She doesn’t drink tea, you ignorant fuckwit.
Bring her coffee with two spoonfuls of honey, no sugar.
She also wants the hazelnut chocolate biscuits, eggs with hollandaise, and a side of mixed fruit—diced, not sliced. ”
I stared at him, my shock overcoming my discomfort. How does he know how I like my coffee? Nobody’s ever guessed that I prefer honey over sugar.