Page 21 of Ruthless Commander

My heartboomed.

He. Was. There.

And as Mateo turned, that raw, unmerciful agony ripped through my chest once more. The stranger glanced from me to Mateo, his eyes widening.

“Xael,” Mateo groaned, flinching as though I'd hit him.

But it hadn’t beenmewho'd done the hitting, had it?

It had been him.

And his aim was still on-fucking-point. That dark, unflinching stare ripped through me like the blast of a shotgun, taking out my heart like he had twelve months ago, leaving me hollow and empty…and bleeding all over the goddamn floor.

8

Mateo

Jesus Christ…

I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t do a damn thing but stare at her like a fucking idiot. In a blinding second, all that rage came roaring back.

Rage I'd felt when I broke her heart.

Rage when I'd ripped my own from my fucking chest.

I lowered my gaze to where the new guy’s hands touched her arms. In my head, all I could see was his fingers skimming her bare skin, reaching to drag her bra strap low, his mouth on those breasts…breasts I’d tasted.Soft, supple.Those peaks hardening as he licked and reached between her legs to her sweet fucking pussy. A pussy I’d had…a pussy I wanted again,like it was my next fucking breath and I was drowning.

“BLAKE!”I barked.

In an instant, I was the killer, the savage who strode into a house in my hometown and walked out wearing someone else’s blood.A lot of someone else’s blood. I forced my gaze from his hands on her arms, and Blake slowly stepped away. “Yeah, Commander?”

Komandant.

The name resounded, echoing from the past and slamming into my present. “Mind where you fucking step in future.”

Still he touched her…he touched her. Did he know her? Did he…fuck…her?

“You just can’t help but make a fool of me, can you, Mateo?” Xael strode toward me like wrath itself. Pain moved behind her eyes…cold and vengeful.Fuck, she was beautiful.

My body reacted, hardening as she closed the distance, as though it sensed what it craved.Taste her…have her. Lose myself in her over and over again. Need her…need her so fucking bad.

“Do you like to embarrass me?” she snapped, each word a lash of a whip.

“No,” my voice was void of emotion, belying the hurricane in my head. “Ms. Davies.”

“Ms. Davies?” Her lips curled with the formal use of her name before she shoved past me and stormed through the terminal.

Jesus…

Jesus…

“Commander, you okay?”

I wrenched my gaze from her as the new guard strode toward me.

“Totally my fault,” he muttered, his gaze taking in every fucking flinch on my face as though he saw me.

But he didn’t see me…no one did.Except for her, right?That voice rose inside me.She saw you, saw the man and not the monster.She wasn’t afraid of me, not like everyone else. “It won’t happen again.”