Page 29 of Ruthless Lord

Stefano

T he sound of breaking glass wakes me. I stare at the ceiling, frowning to myself, waiting for more noise. There’s nobody in the bed beside me. I reach out and don’t feel her, aware that I’d break the rule if I touched her. But not caring.

Something’s wrong.

There’s a thud. Followed by another. Slowly, I kick the sheets off, listening.

Something’s fucking wrong.

It’s late. A little past midnight. Charlie should be asleep beside me. Was that really glass? Or was it part of a dream? I drift toward the bedroom door and find it’s slightly open. Like someone didn’t close it all the way.

Something’s wrong.

I drift into the hall, listening. I’m almost about to go back to bed when there’s another thump. Weak this time. Barely audible. But it’s definitely coming from the back of the house. I hurry toward my office, heart racing, adrenaline hitting my veins.

There’s a light on inside. Nobody should be in there.

What the hell is happening?

I grab the knob, and that’s when I hear a whisper.

A man’s voice.

Fuck. Rage hits me like a hurricane.

I rip the door open, not sure what I’m going to find.

And stare at a stranger kneeling on my wife’s arms, pinning her to the floor, his hands wrapped around her throat. Her face is twisted, her lips blue.

“Charlie!” I scream and throw myself at the man.

He grunts in surprise as I slam into his back. I tear him free of my wife and my whole world goes red. Violence, blood, death, pain . That man was trying to kill my wife. He was strangling her, staring into her face, murdering her in my own fucking house.

He tries to fight back but I’m an animal.

I can’t think, can’t breathe. All I know is pain.

I smash my fist into his face and feel his nose break.

Blood splatters down his mouth and chest. I hit him again and again, until his blood splatters my face, my bare chest. I’m in a pair of boxer briefs.

I don’t care. I hit him until his teeth cave in.

Until his face is pulp and he’s not resisting anymore.

I keep hitting him, and soon my fist hits the floor, straight through his completely ruined skull.

Bits of his brain and nasal passages are scattered in a smear underneath me and he’s a bloody wreck. Barely recognizable as a human anymore.

I sit there gasping for air, sweat and blood drenching my bare chest, and only then do I have enough humanity left in me to turn and look for her.

Charlie.

Fuck. Charlie!

I find her leaning back against a chair. Her eyes are bloodshot and she’s got one hand pressed to her chest, but she’s breathing. She’s conscious.

God, she’s alive.

I grab her and pull her against me. “Are you okay?” I snarl, checking her over, lightly touching her throat. “Fuck, baby, are you okay? Talk to me, please.”

Her voice is hoarse as she lightly touches my chest. “You’re breaking the rule.”

“Fuck the rule.” I hug her close, relief flooding through me.

I could fucking sob right now. Emotions swirl in my chest, and I didn’t even know I had this much feeling left in me.

But seeing her there under that bastard, that blood smear on the floor, her face blue and clearly dying, broke something in me.

I lift her into my arms and carry her into our bathroom. I draw a bath, getting the water warm and stripping her down. She lets me without complaint. I get her into the water and join her, blood sloughing off my skin as I drag her into my lap, holding her tight.

“You need a doctor.” I breathe in the smell of her hair. I revel in the beating of her heart and the steady rise and fall of her chest.

“I think the guy in your office needs a coroner.”

“A coroner’s too good for him.”

“At this point, we’re going to need dental records to identify him.”

I can’t laugh at her jokes right now. “What happened? What were you doing in there?”

She’s quiet. Her head leans against my chest, her eyes closed, until she shifts slightly and turns to face me. Bruises are forming on her neck.

“I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

“Charlie—”

“Fuck the rule, okay? Fuck everything else.” She touches my chest. Her hand moves up and touches my cheek. “I almost died in there. And you know what I kept thinking? I was pissed I’d never get to kiss you again.”

“Charlie…” My heart stutters as I grip her hair and pull her close. “There won’t be a last time.” I crush her mouth to mine, tasting her, losing myself in the bliss of her whimpering moans.

I know we should get her to a hospital. I’m dimly aware that I’m missing something right now. She’s not telling me the full story.

I don’t care.

I have to kiss her.

Her taste is honey and her light gasp is music.

I pull her into my lap and feel her grinding against my already stiffening cock.

Water drifts down her breasts as I cup them in my hands.

I tease her nipples, letting them pebble under my fingers.

My tongue invades her mouth, and this should be a dream, but it’s not.

This is my nightmare and also what I deserve.

I’ve been a violent man all my life. And now the first woman I’ve ever truly cared about is going to suffer for it.

I don’t know who that man was. I don’t even care. Right now, there’s only Charlie.

She climbs into my lap, wrapping her legs around my hips. I groan as she guides my cock against her slit, her kisses getting more intense and desperate as she slowly lowers down and lets me fill her to the brim.

We stay like that. My dick filling her, hard and pulsing, her tight warmth gripping me.

I growl low into her mouth. She starts to ride me, so fucking slowly it hurts.

Up and down again, slick and wild, her groans edged and rough from the injury to her throat.

Fuck, this is wrong, she should be at a hospital, and I don’t care.

She rides me harder and I grab her ass, losing control.

I pound into her. She throws her head back, crying out in bliss. I rip into her pussy, tearing her to pieces, marking her, owning her, breaking her so I can put her back together again. “I need you, I need you, don’t ever do that shit ever again,” I snarl desperately in her ear.

“I promise… I won’t… ever get strangled, ever again…” She grins, eyes bright with desire. “Now shut up and fuck me.”

I give her what she needs. I fill her again and again, kissing her mouth, nibbling her lips, sucking her nipples and squeezing her ass tightly.

She grinds down tighter as she screams, and when I pull her hair and graze a thumb over her clit, it finally shatters her.

She stiffens and comes, back shaking, legs splashing in the water as the orgasm takes her, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

It’s life, it’s good, it’s pure, and it kills me.

I finish inside her. Fuck, I don’t care about anything else. I hold her down and pump myself deep between her legs, kissing her, telling her how beautiful she is, how perfect she is, how I’ll kill a thousand men to keep her safe. Nothing matters but her. Nothing else matters at all.

We finish in a gasping mess. Water’s splashed all around the tub. It’s all pink and swirling from the blood that washed off my chest and hands. My knuckles are bruised and broken from that dead fuck. I’ll have to scrape him from my floor.

Good goddamn riddance.

She sighs, leaning against my chest. I love how pink her cheeks are. I love the little satisfied smile on her lips.

“Stay in here,” I whisper, pecking her neck. I climb out of the tub slowly, water dripping from my skin.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m getting you some clothes and calling our doctor.”

“Stefano—”

“No arguments. He’ll make a house call. I need to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Honestly.”

“I’ve been injured enough to know sometimes you can’t tell. Just stay there.”

I quickly towel off and leave her in the tub. I head into my office and find the corpse where I left it. His face looks like someone went berserk on him with a sledgehammer. I’m about to use my office phone to call the doctor when I notice something on the floor.

It’s a keycard.

I frown and stoop down. It’s near the doorway, like someone dropped it. I slowly lift it up and study the front.

It’s Giorgio’s from the depot.

A cold chill fills me. I look at the dead body. Could this man have taken it? But why would he have brought it back? I’m disturbed, but I still manage to make the call. The doctor promises he’ll show up in the next hour.

I feel leaden and exhausted, all my old wounds acting up again. The keycard is a weight in my palm. I carry it into the bathroom and find Charlie already out and getting dressed. She looks at me, then down at the card in my hand, and the look on my face tells me everything.

The color drains away. Her eyes go wide. Her mouth opens and she looks at me like she’s going to cry.

“What’s this?” I ask her, holding it out.

“I can explain.”

“Where did it come from?” I’m dizzy and shaking my head. This doesn’t make any sense. “Charlie, tell me that dead fuck in my office brought this in here.”

Tears streak down her face. “Stefano…”

“Tell me it wasn’t you.”

“Please, just listen, okay? I’ll explain.”

I throw the card at the mirror. It bounces into a sink. She flinches and stares at the floor, her shoulders shaking. I feel sick to my toes.

“You stole it, didn’t you? Were you planning on handing it over to him tonight? It went wrong somehow?”

“No!” She shakes her head. “No, that’s not it. Stefano, it was a mistake?—”

“You betrayed me. You stole Giorgio’s keycard. It’s all been you from the start, hasn’t it? The GPS, the motion sensors?—”

She looks confused, chewing a fingernail, still crying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But I don’t believe her. The keycard is real. It’s solid and it’s proof. Whoever broke into the depot used that exact card to get through the gate, and suddenly it appears in my home office. Charlie’s not even trying to deny she took it.

None of this makes sense.

I turn my back on her, cold all over.

“The doctor’s coming.” I leave the bathroom and start getting dressed.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“I’m going to get rid of the body before he shows up.”

“But, Stefano?—”

“No more.” I stare at her, bleak and unfeeling. “No more bullshit. No more half-truths. I’ve been nothing but honest. I followed the rules. I did right. And now you do this.”

“It’s not what you think.”

But we both know that isn’t true.

“Make sure you open the door when the doctor shows up.”

I leave her alone in the room, unwilling to be around her a second longer, filled with a black dread thick like fresh oil.