Page 31 of Sophie’s Ruin (Crimson and Shadows #2)

“Come here,” Henry said, his voice lush and smoky.

When I rose to my feet, he captured my mouth, kissing me until we were both breathless.

He broke the kiss first, tugging on my lower lip with his fangs as he pulled away.

I let him turn my back toward the bed and lower me to the soft mattress.

His dark eyes locked on mine, he prowled up my body, muscles shifting and flexing, and a soft gasp escaped me when he settled between my thighs.

I welcomed the weight—it felt like coming home.

“Tell me how much you missed me,” Henry rasped, hovering over me.

Before I could respond, he reached up and began gliding his fingertips down my chest, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

“I missed you with everything that I am. I felt it in my bones. I had dreams about you. About this.” My breath caught as he ran a thumb over my nipple.

“About this?” he asked, as he lowered his head to my breast and swirled his tongue over the hardened peak.

“Yes,” I gasped, my eyes drifting closed.

“And this?” He grazed a fang over the nipple.

My back arched as I breathed, “Yes.”

“What about this?” His hand dove between my thighs, his finger parting the soft flesh there.

A throaty moan was my only reply as my hips rolled into his touch.

“Fuck,” he growled, his finger sinking in deeper.

His mouth returned to my breasts as he slowly worked another finger in, stretching me in the most decadent way.

Ripples of acute pleasure darted through me as he began gliding his fingers in and out while teasing the sensitive bundle of nerves with his thumb.

Panting, I moved on his hand, meeting each plunge of his fingers.

I quickly got lost in the pleasure as the tension inside me built, but what Henry was doing wasn’t enough, not tonight.

I needed to feel him inside me, all of him, and I didn’t want to wait.

“You know what else I dreamed about?” I asked, opening my eyes to look at him. He lifted his head from my breasts, his gaze hooded and dazed. His lips parted, revealing the hints of his fangs. “This.” I reached up and wrapped my hand around his thickness.

Henry groaned as his hand stilled between my thighs. Slowly, he withdrew his fingers, slick with my desire, and brought them to his lips. The sight of him sucking them clean sent another rush of damp heat to my core, and I whimpered as my hold on him tightened.

“I will always give you what you want.” His words were a dark, sensual promise. “Anything you want,” he added, a second before he thrust in, slamming in to the hilt.

My head fell back against the mattress, my mouth parting in a silent scream as Henry moaned against my neck.

I’d been wrong before—this was home, with him buried deep inside me.

Clasping his shoulders, I wrapped my legs around his hips, urging him to move, to give me what I wanted.

What I needed. With a low growl, he complied.

He began sliding in and out of me, one hand fisting in my hair while the other one gripped the underside of my thigh.

The world faded away as all my senses zeroed in on the feeling of him moving inside me, hitting the spot where the pressure built, curling tighter and tighter.

My body began to tremble, on the brink of release, but I refused to give in to it, trying to prolong the pleasure.

Henry trembled, too, snarling as his thrusts became wild and erratic.

I was teetering on the edge, barely holding on, when he pulled on my hair, exposing my neck.

He struck fast, his fangs piercing my skin, and I cried out as powerful release crashed into me, pleasure rippling wave after wave.

With one last deep thrust, Henry roared against my neck as he came, in between taking draws of my blood.

I felt weightless, my body floating as sparks of pleasure slowly flickered out, my limbs becoming limp and boneless as I sank into the mattress.

Henry’s draws on my neck slowed, and he ran his tongue over the puncture wounds that were already healing, before lifting his gaze to mine.

My breath caught because there was so much in his intense stare.

Raw vulnerability invaded his eyes, which were gradually turning bluer.

Passion and yearning and…love. My heart swelled in my chest, making it difficult to breathe.

I was drowning in what I was feeling, wondering how I would ever be able to put what he meant to me into words.

My eyes pricked with tears as the emotion overwhelmed me.

Henry was everything to me, and I’d almost lost him.

A cold feeling crept into my chest at the thought, wedging itself next to my bursting heart.

My gaze dropped to Henry’s chest, where the wounds were still healing, turning to angry-looking welts.

Would they turn to scar tissue? Could vampires have scars?

Even if they didn’t, there would be scars on the inside because of what the clans had done, the suffering they’d put him through.

“We have to make them pay,” I said low, as ice filled my veins.

“What?” Henry’s brows knitted as he peered down at my face.

“We need to make them pay,” I repeated, looking up at him.

My voice sounded strange to my ears as the ice in my veins spread to my entire body, making it cold and heavy.

I shivered as the darkness draped over my heart, craving retribution.

The oily feeling was nothing new. It had stayed away while Henry and I had showered and made love, but it was back now, hungry and demanding.

It urged me to get out of bed and go on a hunt for the remaining clan leaders, to spill their blood and break their bones.

“Revenge? Is that truly what’s on your mind right now?” Henry asked, staring at me in disbelief.

“How can it not be when I’m looking at the remnants of the savage wounds on your chest?” I asked, my voice rising.

“Then you should focus on my face instead. What do you see in my eyes?” he demanded.

Heart pounding, I refocused on the emotions shining in his gaze.

What I saw almost crowded out the darkness, but the oily feeling remained, pushing back, growing roots, and establishing its presence.

I tried to pull the black drape off my heart, but it clung to it, wrapping around it, sealing on tight.

When I didn’t respond, Henry stared at me for a moment longer as if not recognizing who was in front of him before he shifted off me and left the bed.

Immediately missing his weight on me, I brought my thighs together and lifted my burning eyes to the ceiling to keep the tears at bay.

I was still cold, but now it wasn’t just from the darkness but also from missing Henry’s closeness.

How had we ended up like this? We’d gone from being as close as we could possibly be to having this abyss between us.

The bed I was lying on felt like an island, and I was completely and utterly alone on it.

Henry was still in the room, pulling on some clean clothes he’d retrieved from the dresser, but it felt like he was hundreds of miles away.

Refusing to linger on this lonely island, wallowing in my misery, I drew in a shallow breath and got out of bed.

Moving with supernatural speed, I grabbed the Tear from the pocket of my pants lying in a heap on the floor in the bathroom and swept from the room.

Henry didn’t try to stop me, and I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disappointed.

I dashed through the empty house until I reached my bedroom, where I quickly got dressed in black pants and a matching tunic, before hanging the amulet around my neck. A knock sounded a moment later.

“Can we talk?” Henry asked when he walked in.

I stilled before the vanity, my features turning harsh in the mirror. They softened slightly when I glanced at him and saw the raw vulnerability return to his face.

“Sophie,” he said low, closing the distance between us. I turned from the mirror, and he stopped before me, lifting his hands to cup my face. The gesture was sweet and tender, thawing some of the ice that had coated my insides. “I love you.”

Everything stopped as if Henry had frozen time with those three little words. He had uttered them so simply, as if saying them was the easiest thing in the world. And perhaps it was for him. But not for me.

I love you, too, danced on the tip of my tongue.

Yet, I didn’t open my mouth to let the words out.

I just stared at Henry, his deep-blue eyes drawing me in.

I wanted to drown in them, in him. But I couldn’t.

Not until the clans had paid for what they’d put us through.

I did love Henry with everything that I was, and it was because I loved him that I couldn’t let what the clans had done go unpunished.

Henry’s eyes shuttered as the silence between us stretched.

He wanted me to tell him—to say the words he’d just told me, but I couldn’t.

Not yet. For I knew if I said them, I wouldn’t want to follow through with my revenge.

I would want to stay by his side, right here in this room, wrapped up in our love and in him.

Those stormy blue eyes searched my face as his dark brows wrinkled. “What happened to you while I was gone?”

“Gone?” An unexpected laugh burst out of me, but there was no humor to the sound. “You say it like you went on a trip. Henry, you were tortured and starved. You weren’t gone. You were held captive at the clans’ mercy.”

“It’s over now,” he said vehemently, his eyes fastened on mine. “I’m back here. With you.”

“But the others are still on the loose. We have to hunt them down and make them pay,” I said just as vehemently.

Henry recoiled from me. His hands dropped from my face before he dragged them through his tousled hair.

“I don’t want to make them pay. I just want to stay here. With you. Sophie, I just told you I loved you. I am in love with you. Isn’t that enough?”

“No.” The word was out before I could stop it.

Henry bristled as if I’d delivered a physical blow. At once, I wished my magic could turn back time so I could go back to a few seconds ago and undo the damage I’d done.

“No?” he whispered, his expression one of impossible sadness and loss.

And we had lost something, hadn’t we? From now on, our relationship would be defined by before and after.

Before Henry had confessed his feelings to me, and I’d told him they were not enough, and after our beautiful bond had become irrevocably tarnished.

I wished I could go back and change the past, but I couldn’t; I could only move forward.

“Nothing will ever be enough until we make them pay,” I said with a surge of determination.

Henry’s eyes glistened as his throat worked on a swallow. “There is no we, Sophie. You’re on your own.”

Now it was my turn to bristle. “You’re not coming with me?”

Henry shook his head instead of replying.

Shocked, I stared at him. He stared back as neither of us spoke for a few seconds.

“I don’t want you to go,” he finally said, breaking the tense silence. Hope flared in his eyes as he reached up and gently pressed his fingertips to my cheek. “Don’t go,” he added softly, resting his forehead on mine. “Stay with me. Please.”

Please. The word nearly undid me. Closing my eyes, I took a breath, wanting to give in. The muscles of my neck and back relaxed at Henry’s proximity as I breathed him in. Perhaps he was right. We were back together now. He was safe.

Safe? the darkness whispered. How can he be safe when they are still out there?

My heart sped up in my chest as my eyes flew open. I stepped away from Henry, and his fingers, which had been brushing my cheek, curled into a fist around thin air. His blue eyes dulled, and he looked defeated, his mouth wan and his face ashen.

“I have to go,” I told him, my voice cold and detached. “And if you’re not going to help me, I know someone who will.”

That got Henry’s attention, and his head snapped up, his eyes boring into me.

“Who?”

“I’ll be back as soon as it’s over,” I told him, as I called upon the magic in my blood.

“Wait, who is going to help you? Answer me, Sophie!”

Sensing that I was about to make my escape, Henry lunged for me, but it was too late.

My entire body tingled, wreathed in obsidian flames as my magic pulled me from the bedroom.

I felt weightless for a moment, floating in the void, before I came out on the other side—in the Black Forest. Glimmering had come easier this time, but I was still unsteady on my feet after they’d hit the solid ground in the woods.

Bracing my hands on my knees, I focused on my breathing as I tried to tame my frantic thoughts along with my racing heart.

How could Henry not want retribution for what the clans had done to him?

I don’t want to make them pay. I just want to stay here. With you. His words floated up in my mind.

He loved me…I closed my eyes, my heart sinking. I loved him, too. I hadn’t said it back, but actions spoke louder than words. I would prove my love to him by making the clan leaders pay. I’d claimed him as my own, and I would stop at nothing to protect what was mine.