“We’re leaving in an hour,” he finally said, and let go of my hand.
“Where are we going?” I asked, suddenly panicked at the thought of leaving without seeing Battle. The thought that I might never see him again had been rolling around in my head ever since I’d woken up, but I’d tried to push it to the back of my mind. But now that thought was a very real thing.
“Home,” Ripped gritted out before turning away from me. He slid his cut off and placed it gently over the back of a chair and I frowned at his turned back, watching how his muscles moved beneath his skin.
I stood up slowly, careful with each movement because I wasn’t sure how he would be with me. Would he be the obsessive lover, desperate to inflict pleasure on my body? Or the monster that loved my tears more than my smiles?
I reached out, my fingertips gently touching his back, and he flinched away from me. “I’m sorry,” I said again, pulling my hand away.
I hated that I had done that to him—to us. But I hated him more for taking Battle from me. For taking Gracie and Bonny and everything good in my life. He’d destroyed everything, not me.
Ripped placed both hands on the back of the chair, his shoulders slumped like he could hear my thoughts. “Stop saying that.”
“I’m so—”
“Stop it!” he yelled as he turned to face me, his cheeks red with anger. “It don’t mean shit to me, so stop saying it, Quinn. I don’t give a fuck about your apologies.”
I nodded quickly, my hands clutching at the sheet. His gaze left my eyes to move over my body, flaring to life as he saw the curve of my breasts under the thin cotton, and before I could stop him he’d grabbed me and pushed me in front of him.
“Hold onto it,” he gritted out, pressing my hands against the back of the chair.
I looked over my shoulder as he dragged the sheet away from me, baring my body to him. I trembled under his heated gaze, my mind frightened, but my body needy and compliant.
He placed a hand at the bottom of my spine, holding me in place as he worked the zipper on his jeans and I heard them drop to the floor, and then he was pushing at my entrance and sliding inside of me, my body clamping down on the intrusion as he wrapped both arms around my middle and laid his body over me as his hips surged forward.
I gasped and closed my eyes, my head hanging in shame as his fingers strummed the sensitive spot on my pussy. I wanted to hate it—his body in mine, on mine, dragging pleasure from me—but it was hard to hate the way he played my body so relentlessly. The way he knew how to make me come in seconds, my body crying out for more despite my heart wanting nothing to do with him.
Ripped was relentless as he drove into me over and over, folding his huge body over my small one until all I could feel was him. All I could smell was him. And all I could think about was him. Ripped buried me under him until his name was being dragged from my lips and his cock swelled inside of me before filling me with his come, his growl of satisfaction loud in my ear as he grunted and trembled against me. Ripped took me, body and mind and he broke my soul, splitting me into two people. One I could barely live with and one I had to bury if I was to survive him.
“It can be like this again,” he said against my ear, his voice low as he caught his breath. “Need you, Quinn. I don’t wanna, but I do, and I fuckin’ hate that I do, but it’s never enough.” He squeezed my tender breasts and swiveled his hips. “This is never enough. I’m always gonna want more of you. One last time will never be that. I know, because I’ve fucking tried to let you go. To fuck you and walk away, but I can’t.”
Shocked was an understatement. I stared at the floor in front of me, feeling him still thick and hard inside me, and wondering why he was even giving me the chance.
“Say somethin’.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I replied truthfully.
“I fuckin’ hate you, you know that?”
“I know,” I replied instantly, nodding in agreement. I didn’t blame him. I hated me too.
“Fuckin’ hate that I wasn’t enough for you. That you destroyed everythin’ we had going.” He sighed. “But I hate treating you like this more; it’s killin’ me treating you like a whore. Want you to be my queen again.”
I swallowed. I was scared shitless of saying no, but I was even more scared of saying yes. I didn’t want to be with Ripped, not then, not ever. But it might be my only chance to get out alive and in one piece. But more importantly, it might be my only chance to keep Battle and Gracie safe and him away from Bonny.
I swallowed my fear and stared at the ground in front of me. “Is he alive?” I asked, and I felt Ripped tense around me. His body, still slick with our sweat, shifted and he gripped me tighter, protectively, declaring ownership of me.
“For now,” he finally gritted out through his teeth.
“Well, if he stays that way,” I said trying to hide the fear in my tone, “then maybe we can make this work.”
I said my words with as much force as I could muster, hating everything about them apart from the fact that they might save Battle. I could be with Ripped if it meant he would live.
“And you stay away from Gracie and Bonny. It’s as if none of these people exist to you. Okay?” I was surprised that my voice was so steady. Inside I was a wreck, quivering in fear of him and what he might do—how he might lash out. But on the outside I was firm and hard, declaring my promise.
Ripped pulled out of me so suddenly I gasped. He spun me around in his arms to face him. His gray eyes were cloudy with unease and distrust and I knew that I only had one chance to make him believe me—to make him trust that I would stay with him, so I reached up and soothed his doubts away by kissing him. A kiss that made me feel nauseous.
I put everything into that kiss, making it as believable as I could. Because if I had to be with Ripped to keep everyone I loved safe, then that was something I was willing to do. Ripped wasn’t a bad man, and another woman would have been lucky to have him. He just wasn’t the man I wanted. The one my heart beat for. The one my lungs filled for.
