Page 50 of Ruthless King

“Nico.”

“Let me take you home,” he says, already walking out the door.

“What did you do?” Beatrice asks after I show up at her hotel and tell her Nico wants to put the brakes on our relationship.

Nico let me leave the house with a new guard—Jeremy. Thankfully, Jeremy doesn’t ask a million questions like Enzo did. He also doesn’t look at me with suspicion. On the drive over to the hotel, I got the sense Jeremy was just happy to have a job.

“I didn’t do anything,” I say to my aunt. “We ended up in a car accident, which was not my fault, and now, Nico has pulled away from me. He thinks it’ll be easier to keep me at arm’s length.”

“You can’t let that happen. You need to be as close as you can be with him so he’ll trust you. I have the plan in place to get you out. All you need to do is kill him.”

There’s no point in arguing with Beatrice. If I tell her I’m having more doubts about killing Nico, she’ll probably just punch me again. And after my whiplash, I can’t afford that right now.

“But how am I supposed to get him to come back to me?”

“You haven’t slept with him yet, have you?’

“No,” I whisper.

“Then there’s your answer. Have sex with him. Make it so good he craves you forever. He’ll never push you away again.”

Easy for Beatrice to say when it’s not her body.

I hate the idea of using sex as a bargaining chip. I also hate the idea of having sex with Nico because I know it’ll make me grow even closer to him.

I also love the idea of having sex with him because my body is desperate for his touch.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but on the drive back home, I know I need to decide soon.

Chapter

Ten

AURORA

Nico is in his office as usual. I spend most of the day pacing the house, working up the courage to go see him. I can’t lose him.

With a sharp inhale of breath, I burst into his office, walk right up to him, grab his face, and kiss him.

Nico doesn’t object. In fact, he grabs me around the waist and stands up, pushing me against his desk. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of welcome,” he murmurs against my lips.

“I don’t want you to push me away after what happened. You don’t need to.”You can’t.

“I thought you wanted to take things slow.” His hands squeeze my hips, sending a flood of desire through me.

“I did. But I want to be with you, Nico.” I’m tired of pretending I don’t want to be.

And I’m willing to do what it takes to get Nico to fall in love with me.

He stares at me for a moment before kissing me deeply. I grip his arms, pulling him in closer. I gasp as he kisses down my neck. It reminds me of when he used his mouth on me. The memory of that lights my skin on fire.

He picks me up in his arms and carries me to our bedroom. “I want this to be good for you.”

There’s that guilt again. Here Nico is trying to do right by me, and I’m trying to seduce him into caring for me. I don’t have to do this, I realize. Nico has already shown me he cares.

I just can’t have him push me away again. I want him to love me because … I might be falling in love with him.

“I want you to take me,” I say, gripping his shirt and pulling him toward me. “I don’t need you to be gentle.” In fact, I would prefer him not to be. I need to be punished for trying to hurt him.