Ruined: A Dark Bully Reverse Harem Romance (Beautiful Tyrants Book 1)

by Vanessa Winters

  He stared in surprise at seeing me up here with him as his blonde hair blew in the breeze, which seemed much stronger at this height than it had when we were first coming into the aquarium. I turned to try and open the door again, but it was locked.

  “Why in the hell can’t I seem to get away from you?” he growled at me.

  Since there was nowhere else for me to go, I walked over toward him. I held my free hand up to my shoulder as the cold air bit at my skin.

  “What are you doing up here?” I asked.

  “Gathering my thoughts,” he grumbled as he turned to look back out over the city.

  He took a long sip from his glass and let out a powerful exhale into the wind. I stood next to him at a careful distance away and looked down at the city below. It was freezing, and the first snow of winter was just starting to fall. I took a sip of wine from my glass, hoping that the alcohol might warm me up a bit as I started to tremble in the cold.

  “It was stupid to come up here without a coat,” he said as he looked at me. “Your lips are turning blue.”

  I nodded. What was I going to say? He was right. It was stupid.

  He set his cocktail glass down on the ground and took off the dark, charcoal gray jacket that he was wearing, which matched his pants. He looked every bit as handsome as Adam did, with the exception of a white button-down shirt instead of black, and the evil demeanor that made him much less attractive to anyone with a heart.

  “Here,” he said as he shoved his jacket at me.

  “Why are you giving me your jacket?” I asked in surprise.

  I didn’t think it was possible for him to do anything out of compassion or consideration for someone other than himself.

  He practically spat the words at me. “So you don’t freeze to death.”

  “Isn’t that what you want?” I asked. “Don’t you want me to die?”

  He laughed as though I’d said something so wrong that it had to be laughable. “Just take the damn jacket,” he said as he held it in his outstretched hand.

  I took it from him and put it on. It was still warm from his body heat and immediately made the temperature outside more bearable.

  My voice fell flat. “Thanks.”

  “Why did you come up here?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Same reason as you, I guess. I wanted a quiet place to gather my thoughts.”

  We both stood silently, looking out at the city for a while. Then I decided that I didn’t really have anything to lose by asking him a question that had been rattling around in my head since it had happened.

  “Why didn’t you tell Adam about the stone room?” I asked him.

  Michael didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at me. But I could see his shoulders and jaw tense up.

  “And why—”

  “Why can’t I get away from you?” he interrupted with a yell as he lunged at me and wrapped his hand around the back of my head and yanked me half-over the side of the railing. I tried to scramble back to solid footing on the roof and to grab the railing with my hands, but he was dangling me too far over the edge to be able to reach onto anything.

  My backbone was pressed against the railing, and my feet were off the ground as Michael held onto me with one of his hands behind my head and one arm behind my back. His pelvis pressed against mine and kept me from dropping over the side of the building. I felt the rush of wind around me, and the fear of free falling to my death became a very real possibility as the scenario flashed across my mind.

  “Michael, please!” I exclaimed as I looked into his feverish eyes. “Let me up. I’ll stay away from you, I promise. Just let me up, and you can pretend like I never existed.”

  I tried to grab onto his forearms as the wind pulled his jacket off me and sent it hurtling down toward the streets below.

  “That’s the problem,” he said. “I can’t pretend you never existed.”

  His look intensified, and I stared at him in horror as I knew that he was about to drop me over the side of the building. But instead of letting me go, Michael pulled me up over the edge and into him. His arms held me like a strong cage as he kissed me, and even though I wanted to hate him more than anyone else in the world, I couldn’t help but kiss him back.

  Just like it had been in the stone room, my body felt like it was igniting with a heat that defied the cold outside. We pushed our bodies together and pulled each other closer. As my heart pounded in my ears, I found myself wanting him more than I had ever wanted anyone before.

  It didn’t make any sense, the relentless longing that I felt for this man that I hated so passionately. I had Julian and Adam, two men that wanted and protected me. But right then, all I desired was the one thing that I shouldn’t have…the man that might have been at the heart of my mother’s murder.

  Michael kissed me with a fury that pushed everything else from my mind. I drank in the taste of his tongue and ran my hands down his torso and into his pants. He shook as I touched him and then lifted me up to set me onto his waist. I wrapped my legs around him and felt his hands press against my bare back as he carried me toward the glass-enclosed greenhouse in the gardens.

  He kicked open the door, and we stumbled inside together, a mess of roaming hands as we tried to get closer despite our clothes. The little greenhouse was warm and carpeted with soft grass that he knelt onto as we both started to remove our clothes as quickly as we could possibly get them off. There was no teasing this time, no hesitation or waiting.

  Only a burning, confusing wantonness deep within the pit of my gut.

  And it seemed it was at the pit of his gut, too.

  There was only a nameless, impassioned and unquenchable need that rose between us without a moment to wait. When he climbed over me, I spread my thighs and pulled his mouth back to mine. And as his tongue swept inside my mouth, I arched my back, and he pushed inside of me until he could go no farther. Taking what I had willingly given this boy I hated too much for words. I gasped into his mouth as he moaned. While the conflicted emotions inside my head fought with each other for control, I willingly and blissfully let go of my virginity as Michael moved inside me.

  And the electricity that sizzled through my body would forever hold me hostage.

  The way his cock stroked every single part of me at once left me breathless. The pain mixed with pleasure as he tore through the one thing I had held onto since my childhood washed over me and pulled me into another realm. His hands pinned me down. My legs locked around his waist. His growling and panting caused my nipples to pucker as his lips attached to my neck. I felt his girth thickening. I felt my walls pulsing. His tightly-wound curls raked against my swollen clit, which peeked out from between my dripping wet lips just for a taste of the action.

  I never wanted it to end.

  There, on the rooftop of the aquarium, beneath the light of the stars, I made love to the man who I knew in my heart was responsible for my mother’s death. Maybe tomorrow I would go back to hating him, and maybe even trying to kill him. But tonight, all I wanted was to feel him inside of me. All I wanted was to kiss him and stare into his tortured blue eyes and pretend that none of the rest of it was real except this moment.

  “Sweet holy fuck,” he grunted.

  My fingers intertwined with his. “Don’t stop. Please.”

  “Couldn’t stop me if you tried.”

  He moved faster and faster, his pace furious as the sounds of skin slapping against skin filled the space around us. Pleasure wafted through my body, curling my toes in my heels and brushing goosebumps all across my limbs. My jaw unhinged to cry out in pleasure, but his mouth captured my own. His tongue owned me, sliding over the roof of my mouth and causing my pussy to clamp around his dick.

  And when he growled down the back of my throat, I felt myself unwinding.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” I chanted against his lips.

  He sucked on my lower lip as my breasts jumped with his furious movements. He released my hands and wrapped his own around my throat, pressing
against my pulse points. My eyes bulged. The world began to fade around me. For the smallest second, I thought this was it. That he’d kill me while taking what he thought he had a right to.

  What I had freely given to him in a moment of weakness.

  “Come with me,” he commanded. “Do it now, beautiful.”

  And at his words, my eyes rolled into the back of my head.

  Fireworks exploded behind my eyelids as his movements became stuttered. My pussy milked his dick, pulling him deeper as his hands tightened on the sides of my neck. The heady sensation that rocked my body made me feel as if I were floating. I was no longer in control of my movements, or my sounds, or even my own mind. I lost control of my own body, succumbing to Michael’s powerful presence.

  And when I felt him filling me, my body collapsed in glorious exhaustion.

  When our trembling bodies were satiated—and the line between enemies and lovers had been crossed with a single act of ecstasy—Michael laid his body against my own and looked into my eyes with the same equal measure of turmoil that I felt.

  Yet, when he smoothed my wild hair away from my forehead, I could’ve sworn I saw something akin to tenderness behind his eyes.

  “I couldn’t stay away from you,” he croaked. “I tried.”

  I swallowed hard. “I know.”

  His eyes danced between my own. “Lisette, I—”

  I lifted my finger and put it over his lips before he could finish talking. Then I leaned up to kiss him and felt him surge against me. I felt his cock stiffening once more as it grew against my walls again. His cock, still sheathed within me, rising and ready for another round. He wanted more, that much I knew. The kicker was, I wanted more as well.

  But, his voice pierced the moment.

  “I need to tell you something,” he said. “Please.”

  It was the first time I had ever seen him look remorseful instead of arrogant. “I’ll understand if you don’t ever talk to me again. I’ll even understand if you do something horrible to me. But I can’t keep it from you now any longer.”

  You killed my mother.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” I said. “I already know.”

  And even though I expected to see a look of guilt, or sorrow, or possibly even relief, all I got was a growing stare of wanton lust as he slowly pulled his cock out.

  Then slammed it back inside of me, claiming what I had openly given him without a shred of hesitation.

  15

  When I asked Adam to arrange another meeting with Julian, I told him that I wanted him to be a part of it this time. I needed to tell them both what I had overheard at the aquarium gala.

  Adam had been worried about where I had gone during the gala, but I managed to convince him that I was sick to my stomach and needed to walk outside for a while until the feeling had passed. He was upset that I risked walking alone, but at least I was able to lie convincingly enough that he believed me.

  I was becoming a bit too good at lying, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. It was especially hard to sit up in the tree with Julian and Adam and to know that I had promised them both the intimate moment which I had just given away to Michael.

  Michael, who killed my mother, and yet who I still couldn’t believe was responsible for her death.

  There was more to it; there had to be. I wasn’t giving up on my plan to dismantle Lineage. I thought about what Adam had told me; that the person who killed my mother hadn’t wanted to do it. There was more to the story. I couldn’t think about Michael right now; I had to stay focused.

  “Did you know anything about this?” Julian asked Adam quietly.

  Without a lookout on the ground, we were really taking our chances. It was winter, and the trees didn’t have the same amount of foliage to conceal us as they did in the fall.

  “I knew that there was someone else involved in their leadership besides just Marta. I had heard people talking about him, but they never mentioned a name,” he answered. “I never realized it was going to be a new Headmaster.”

  “I bet this guy is the one who’s leading the entire drug-ring from behind the scene,” Julian said.

  “Do you think it’s someone who’s been around the whole time?” I asked. “Or someone new?”

  Adam shrugged. “No idea.”

  “Regardless, the charity event is when they’re going to be bringing him out,” I said. “That’s my chance.”

  “Your chance for what?” Julian looked at me as if I were crazy.

  “I want to take the whole drug operation down. Lineage will be brought to its knees.”

  “You can’t be serious?” he asked.

  “Trust me,” Adam huffed. “She is.”

  “Lisette, be real. What are you going to do against a building full of drug leaders posing as school administrators? These people are dangerous, murderers even. Are you planning to go in there with a live stream on your cell phone to rat them out? Do you think you’ll even make it out alive if you do something so foolish?”

  “If that’s what will work, then yes,” I said. “Video feed, pictures, mics, whatever it takes. Hell, maybe I’ll even take a weapon in there and try to knock off one or two of them.”

  “I know you think you’re super tough,” Julian said. “And trust me, I think you are too. But that is just not realistic. These guys will kill you. Even Michael will kill you.”

  “Michael won’t kill me,” I blurted out a little too quickly.

  I don’t think Julian noticed the defensive look on my face, but Adam definitely did. He looked at me as though he could tell I was keeping a secret. “I’m going,” I said. “That’s final.”

  “I’ll be there too,” Adam said.

  “Well, if you’re going,” Julian said to me with a heavy sigh. “Then I’m coming with you.”

  I smiled at him, knowing that the chances of talking him out of going were about as good as the chance he had of talking me out of it. But Julian wasn’t going. I would make sure of it. There was no need to put him in danger too.

  When Adam and I got back to the apartment, Michael was there. I hadn’t seen him since the rooftop at the gala. He looked frantic, and I was scared to find out why.

  “Someone saw you,” he said as soon as we stepped through the door.

  “What are you talking about?” Adam asked.

  “Someone saw the two of you talking with Julian,” Michael said.

  The look of panic now spread to Adam’s face as well as Michael continued. “They’ve already ratted you out to the administration. You’ll only get a slap on the wrist, but there’s a target on Lisette’s back now.”

  “What do you mean a target?” I asked, thinking he was overly dramatic. “Won’t I just get expelled?”

  “No.” Michael stared at me with some of the same intensity as he had the night before. I knew that Adam could see it. Anyone with eyes could see it. “They heard you. They know what you’re trying to do.”

  “And so, by target—” I started to ask again.

  Michael nodded. “They’re going to try to kill you.”

  “I’ll just go back to stay with Julian for a while,” I said. “I’ll stay away from here until things die down.”

  “Lisette, you don’t understand. They’re going to try to kill him too. They’re going to kill anyone from Goldshire who has raised suspicion against Lineage,” Michael paused for a moment. “It’s the same reason your mother was killed.”

  Adam looked as though he couldn’t believe what Michael had just divulged to me.

  “We need to get out of here. Now,” Adam said. “I’ll take you somewhere safe; you won’t be safe with Julian.”

  “The three of us will go together,” Michael said as he grabbed his leather jacket and an extra hoodie off the chair for me to wear.

  Adam looked at him in surprise. “You mean you aren’t going to join in the hunt?”

  Michael stared him straight in the eyes. “No.”

  I don’t think Adam expected Mic
hael to go against his mother and all of Lineage. The shock was written all over his face. It didn’t shock me, though.

  Not after what Michael and I shared together.

  “We’ll go to Julian’s together. She’ll stand a better chance with all three of us there to protect her,” Michael said. He tossed the hoodie to me and grabbed me by the hand as he went out the door. When we got outside, and he saw Adam looking at our clasped hands, he dropped my hand at my side and led the way for us off-campus.

  “What was that about?” Adam asked me as we ran behind him.

  “Change of heart, I guess,” I said. I wasn’t ready to get into any of it now as we were running for our lives.

  When we showed up at Julian’s apartment, he was already aware of what was going on. He was, however, incredibly surprised to see Michael with us.

  “He’s here to help,” I reassured him as we walked inside.

  Julian gave Adam a look of confusion, but Adam just shrugged his shoulders before locking the door behind us.

  “What if we just leave the city?” Julian suggested. “We can hop a train and get the hell out of Charleston for good.”

  “I’m totally down with that,” Adam said. “I’ve never really liked it here.”

  “No,” I said as I shook my head. “I’m not leaving until I do what I went there to do.”

  Michael was the only one who knew that I knew about him killing my mother. Adam knew what Michael had done, but he didn’t know that I knew about it, too. And Julian was basically completely in the dark about it all. The entire thing was one giant, convoluted mess.

  But I was not leaving until I exposed Lineage.

  “Lisette is right,” Michael intervened. “If we all just bail now, then there’s nothing to stop Lineage from continuing what they’re doing, and more importantly, there’s nothing stopping them from following us wherever we go and still trying to get at Lisette. These people have serious money, the kind of money that can make things happen anywhere around the globe. She’d be constantly looking over her shoulder.”