Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)

by Nashoda Rose

  Then my body tensed.

  Clenched.

  Quivered.

  And I screamed as he made me come apart. Waves of pleasure shot through me.

  I released the edge of the counter and my body rubbed back and forth on the hard smooth surface as he continued to thrust inside my sated body until he groaned, shoving hard into me one last time.

  He stopped.

  Everything stopped.

  I lay silent and still, his hands no longer holding my hips, only his pelvis against my ass and his cock jerked a few times as it throbbed deep inside me.

  He pulled out and I heard the roll of the condom as he took it off. Then his footsteps before the cupboard opened and the bin lid opened and closed.

  I straightened and went to grab my boxers, but remembered he’d thrown them out. I wanted to dart for the cover of the washroom, but pride wouldn’t let me. I wasn’t running from my own choices. I never had and I wasn’t starting now.

  I’d fucked him.

  This was my deal.

  I made that choice.

  “Go shower, London.” He leaned up against the counter, his jeans zipped but the top button undone. His shirt was rumpled, but he still looked like he could walk out the door and attend an opera.

  I reached for the dish cloth hanging over the tap to clean up the orange juice, but his hand latched onto my wrist. “Do what I tell you.”

  My spine stiffened and I was about to tell him to go fuck himself when he gently eased the dish cloth from my hand. “Are you going to be here… after?”

  His eyes locked on mine and they were cold, unlike anything I’d seen in him before. Shivers raced through me and my stomach dropped. The fear that had been extinguished by the lust came alive again.

  Those piercing green eyes were the ones his victims witnessed before he… killed? Tortured? I didn’t know. Maybe both. Probably both.

  Jesus, I’d had sex with a killer.

  His brows rose as if he knew exactly what was racing through my mind.

  I was going to be sick. I spun around, ran into the washroom and slammed the door.

  HE WAS GONE by the time I came out of the shower. The orange juice had been cleaned up and my washing machine was running. I walked over to the laundry closet and opened the doors. My green sheets from my bed were covered in suds, swishing back and forth in the circular window.

  Why would he wash my sheets? I glanced over my shoulder at my bed and saw the spare white sheets now perfectly fitted onto the mattress. He had even neatly folded down the duvet on the side of the bed I always slept on.

  I could somewhat understand why he’d put the sheets in the wash if we’d had sex on the bed, but we didn’t. He’d obviously gone through my stuff to find the extra ones, then took his time fluffing up the pillows and tucking in the sheets.

  I noticed the noise from the city streets was gone and realized he’d closed my bedroom window. I always slept with it open. I had since the fire.

  I remembered the panic of yanking up on the window that night and it wouldn’t budge. I struggled and struggled until I collapsed on my knees as the lack of oxygen became suffocating. With the hallway engulfed in flames there’d been no other way out. I’d crawled across the floor to my desk chair thinking I could use it to smash through the glass.

  I never made it.

  I should’ve died.

  Ever since that night, I’ve slept with the window open. I’d never be trapped again.

  I walked over to the window to open it and a small piece of paper, which had been wedged between the window and the sill, fluttered to the floor. I bent and picked it up.

  My breath stopped as I stared at the neat handwriting. Kai.

  I peered out the window then turned and searched the shadows of the loft for any sign of him. But I felt the emptiness. Kai’s presence filled a room and that feeling was gone, just like him.

  Relief and disappointment rolled into a tight little package in my head. Logically, I was glad one night was done, yet the illogical side, which was my body, hung on to disappointment that one night was done.

  I crumpled up the note and tossed it in the trash, then walked to my bed, placed a knee on my mattress about to crawl into bed then hesitated. My gaze dropped to the crisp white sheets. Sheets he’d run his hands over while smoothing out the creases. Sheets his strong hands had gently tugged on before he tucked the excess material under the mattress. Sheets his palms caressed like he’d caressed my body.

  Damn it.

  I backed away from the bed, grabbed a throw blanket from the chair in the corner, walked to the couch in the living room, and flicked on the TV. I curled up into a ball and watched an old black and white movie until I finally fell asleep.

  I woke with a cramped neck and the enticing smell of coffee.

  Coffee?

  I threw off the blanket and jerked upright. My nose guided my eyes to the brown paper bag and steaming coffee cup, which sat on the granite island right where I had lain hours ago while Kai thrust inside me.

  I stood and walked over to the counter. No note. But I knew it was from him, although how he broke into my loft twice now was concerning. I’d have to speak with security.

  I opened the bag and the scent of a freshly baked cinnamon croissant wafted into the air. It was my favorite from the bakery a block away.

  How did he know it was my favorite? How did he know that was where I went every morning before classes and picked up my coffee and croissant? But it started to make sense. Kai did know me because he’d been watching me.

  I shivered, rubbing my bare arms. Why would he do that? I could understand my father, but why me?

  I crumpled the bag closed and shoved it away.

  I didn’t like it. I didn’t like any of this.

  But last night… I’d enjoyed it. Last night, he’d broken down my defenses. Last night, he’d made my body his.

  My gaze caught the blaring yellow on the microwave. Crap, it was already nine and I had a lab in fifteen minutes.

  I quickly brushed my teeth and hair, threw on my jeans and a T-shirt and was ready in five.

  I grabbed the coffee and brown paper bag, my laptop, and ran out the door. As I passed the security guard, Derek, I said, “I need to talk to you later.”

  “Sure thing, Miss Westbrook.”

  I hurried out of the building then down the sidewalk one block. I stopped at the corner where the homeless man sat with his empty cup begging for money. He was talking to himself like usual, and without looking up, he held out his paper cup.

  “Change for a…?” He tilted his head and his eyes met mine. He smiled. He had perfect white teeth which was unusual for many of the homeless living on the streets. “Mornin’, beauty.” I’d told him my name several times, but he never used it.

  I held out the paper bag with the croissant and steaming coffee. “Morning, Ernie.” I bought him a coffee from the bakery every morning since I moved here after the fire.

  His bushy salt and pepper brows lowered as he gave me a puzzled looked. He set down his empty cup and took the coffee and paper bag from me. “I was right here. Know I didn’t miss you walkin’ by earlier.”

  I laughed. “Don’t worry. You didn’t. Someone bought these for me,” I explained.

  He nodded with his lips pursed together as if he were thinking about something. Ernie was an attractive man, maybe late forties, but it was hard to tell with the layer of dirt on his face and hoodie he wore. Weird thing was his fingernails were always clean, except I’d noticed his hands were calloused as if whatever he used to do for a living had been rough on his hands.

  The man rarely said much to anyone except the same sentence over and over again, ‘Change for a coffee.’

  His eyes locked on me before he said, “Be careful, beautiful.”

  And that was it. He went back to rocking and holding out his cup to others who passed by and ignored me. I wondered what he meant, but Ernie could be cryptic with his words. Once he’d told me to ‘Stay a
way.’ I didn’t know what he meant, but the next day he was across the road and when I started toward him, he began ranting and raving about a devil following him.

  “I will. See you tomorrow,” I said then jogged across the street before the light changed, not bothering to go to the bakery and getting something for myself.

  All day.

  All day I was distracted thinking about Kai. I never saw him watching me, but maybe he was. Maybe I’d been so oblivious to my surroundings that Kai had been following me for years?

  I did hope he’d seen me give away the coffee and croissant this morning. It was my statement that I wanted nothing but to fulfill my part of the deal. It was a small inner victory on my part yet if he had seen, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t care.

  When I came home from school, the thoughts of Kai magnified. I paced my loft, pasta left untouched on the kitchen counter, bottle of red wine almost empty. Sleep eluded me, while my body betrayed me and my mind sparked with all kinds of irrational thoughts about him. I realized that any control I thought I had over this situation was false.

  Kai controlled it.

  Every sound made my heart leap as I waited for him. I was curious as to how he got in last night and again early this morning, and the security guard Derek wasn’t at the front desk when I came home from school, so I hadn’t been able to ask him if he’d let Kai in.

  Would Kai knock if he knew I was awake? No, I couldn’t imagine Kai asking for permission to do anything.

  It was two in the morning when I realized he may not come at all. We’d agreed upon a week, but we’d never discussed if it had to be seven days in succession. God, was he going to drag this out for months? Slip into my loft once a week… me never knowing when.

  My breathing picked up at the thought. Because no matter what my mind tried to fight against, he was right. My body knew the truth and it craved his touch.

  I climbed into bed, tipsy from too much wine because I rarely drank. I punched my pillow until it indented then curled my hands under my cheek and finally drifted off to sleep.

  I moaned, parting my legs further as the sweetness of his cock pressed into me, slow and gentle, agonizingly slow. I arched my back, tilting my hips to meet him. His scent filled my lungs with every ragged breath.

  “Kai,” I whispered.

  “Mmm.”

  My eyes flashed open to the deep, graveled sound of his voice right next to me and I met Kai’s piercing green eyes.

  He was fully clothed, lying on his side with the sheet pulled back and his finger lightly caressing the spot just above my breasts.

  I was so shocked, I froze for a second, my heart racing to match my breath. “What are you doing?”

  “Waiting for you to wake up.”

  Oh, my God. How long had he been here? And I’d been dreaming about him. Heat burned my cheeks at the thought of what I’d been dreaming.

  He moved, quick and agile as he straddled me, hands grabbing my wrists and pulling my arms above my head and locking them down. He tilted his head toward me, and his lips gently kissed where his fingers had been moments before.

  His hard thighs clamped my hips and with his weight there wasn’t a chance of getting him off me if I wanted.

  “Kai, please. I don’t like this.” It was scary to wake up with him in my bed. I had no time to get ready for him and it wasn’t a ‘put on makeup and look nice’ get ready, it was get ready as in prepare my mind, so I had some control over what was happening. Instead, my mind was still groggy from sleep and my erotic dream.

  He loosened his grip on my wrists, but he didn’t release me. “You will, baby. I promise.” He bent and licked my nipple through my T-shirt. “I want you naked when I come to your bed.”

  “I can’t. I can’t sleep naked.” I hated it. After the fire, I wanted to be ready. Be prepared to escape if I needed to.

  He raised his head and looked at me. The moonlight revealed the left side of his face, unshaven for a couple days, with brows low over his eyes—contemplative. But there was the intensity of a blazing fire of desire in the glass pupils staring back at me.

  It set me aflame to see that and my body relaxed into him. He must have noticed because he let go of my wrists, then took hold of the bottom of my T-shirt and slowly pulled it over my head and tossed it on the floor.

  “There is no debate here, London. Until we’re done, you’ll be naked when you slip beneath the sheets.” He cupped my chin, so I was forced to meet his penetrating green eyes. “And if you give away what I buy for you again, I won’t hurt you, but I will most assuredly hurt them.”

  I gasped, eyes widening as fear scintillated into me. “You didn’t….” Oh, God. Ernie. “Please, you didn’t hurt him.”

  “That was a warning.”

  He didn’t say anything more and instead, took my nipple in his mouth again. I couldn’t react. I was freaked out, scared at what I’d gotten myself involved with. Scared he’d hurt a defenseless man because I’d given him the coffee and croissant.

  I lay still as he trailed kisses to my other breast. My body reacted to his kisses, his touch, but my mind was elsewhere.

  “Fuck.” He pushed away from me and climbed off the bed. He tossed the sheet aside so it went up in the air like a parachute catching the air then collapsed on top of me as the air suffocated beneath it.

  I stayed where I was, not looking at him, but I heard him stride across the room then the light to the washroom blared and the tap turned on for a minute then shut off.

  I sat up as the light turned off again and his bare feet padded back toward the bed. I bit my lower lip when I saw his narrowed eyes and dipped brows. Angry. And he’d obviously washed his face because moisture clung to his skin. Water from a few strands of hair near his forehead trickled onto his shirt.

  “Get up.”

  I jerked at his harsh voice. I grabbed the sheet and held it to me like it was a shield against his anger.

  “Do you want to find out what I’m like when I’m really pissed off?”

  I didn’t. I really didn’t, but everything in me rejected the idea of being ordered around. My dad thought my stubbornness was cute. But at this moment, my stubbornness was going to get me hurt or worse, killed. No. That wasn’t true. No matter how dangerous Kai was or what this was, I knew there was something in him that was good. That Kai wouldn’t hurt me… at least not physically. Emotionally, I wasn’t so confident.

  I swallowed my pride and stood, taking the sheet with me.

  “Leave the sheet.”

  I clamped my teeth together and dropped it. I stood half-naked in front of him.

  I raised my chin and refused to cover my breasts with my hands as I faced him. His eyes flicked over my chest for a second before he held out his hand. When I didn’t take it immediately, his brows raised in warning.

  I put my hand in his and he led me into the living room. He lowered onto the couch, his back against the armrest, then he urged me down, so I sat between his legs lengthwise.

  He put his other leg up on the couch so I was trapped between his thighs. ”Lean back.”

  My heart slammed hard into my rib cage as I leaned against him, the heat of his chest instantly warming my back.

  “Lift your leg.” I did and he moved it so it rested over his and even though I wore boxers, I felt completely exposed.

  “Not fucking a girl who doesn’t want to be fucked. So, we’re not.” He leaned over and grabbed the controller and turned on the TV, flicking through channels until he found a late-night movie, an erotic late night movie. Jesus. He tossed the controller on the floor and I expected him to touch me.

  He didn’t.

  He did nothing. I lay with my legs slightly splayed, breasts naked, while he watched the movie.

  He had one arm around on my abdomen, while one hand rested on my inner thigh, doing nothing. Not even a finger twitch. Nothing.

  I lay stiff in his arms, his steady heart beating against my back and I listened to his calm, even breath, and on occa
sion, the mild chuckle when something funny happened in the movie. And the funny was some ridiculous bad acting. But I heard the moans. The slapping of naked bodies. The screams of pleasure.

  I shifted uncomfortably as mild tingles between my legs became intense tingles.

  His arm tightened. “Stay still.”

  I did.

  “Relax and watch the movie.”

  How the fuck could I? I sat on my couch with parted legs, his hand inches away from my throbbing sex while we watched a porno. I was tense, confused and desire pulsated through my entire body. I kept thinking about him holding me in his arms after the fire, and how it had been gentle, caring. Protective.

  He continued to ignore me and after a while my body grew weary from the constant tension and I slowly relaxed and stopped fighting the sensations tap dancing through my body.

  It was when the credits rolled that his hand moved and it was to cup me between the legs. The second he did, I moaned. The barrier of my boxers doing nothing to stop the intense pleasure.

  I was wet, throbbing. And there was no question I wanted him to fuck me. I was completely willing and wanted him to.

  He rested his hand on me for a long time. No words. Nothing.

  I breathed erratically. He didn’t. But I did feel his hard cock pressed into the small of my back, so he was turned on too.

  Just the touch of his hand cupping me was going to make me come. I’d been worked up sitting with him, his increasingly familiar scent in every breath I took and the fear I’d felt dissipating and changing to want, need.

  “Baby,” he whispered and I jolted with pleasure at the sound of his voice against my ear.

  His hand slipped inside my boxers and I gasped as he ran his finger through the wetness. He then withdrew it and brought it to my mouth. I eyed the pad of his glistening finger. “Taste how amazing you are.”

  I’d never tasted myself. I’d never even considered it, but with Kai, it was so hot that my insides clenched.

  He placed his finger on my lower lip and traced a slow path across the sensitive surface. He repeated the process with my upper lip. I tilted my head to look at him and my lips parted. But he didn’t put his finger in my mouth; instead, he slipped it into his.