Page 23 of Ruined
Kain paces four steps away, shaking out his hands at his sides and muttering something under his breath. He turns around, locking his eyes with mine, and returns quickly to where he left me standing. Placing a hand on either side of my head, he leans in close to whisper, “Because you’re fucking mine. Mine to protect. Mine to ruin. Just, fucking mine.”
My heart beats wildly behind the confines of my ribs, threatening to shatter them. I should be terrified of this man. He’s unhinged and dangerous. I’ve seen him come home covered in other people’s blood. I’ve seen the way he reacts to the violence. I’ve seen the hunger in his eyes when he looks at me, the desire for more.
But a deeper, more primal part of me calls to him, desires to be near him, to love him. It’s that part of me that has me leaning in, closing the distance between us, and sealing my lips to his. I grab the front of his shirt, high on his chest, and pull him closer, not wanting a breath of air between us, and deepen the kiss. It isn’t sweet and loving. It’s violent and demanding, each of us demanding the other’s submission and neither of us willing to concede.
Kain rips his mouth away and rests his forehead against mine. We’re both panting heavily.
He cups my cheek in his hand, his eyes searching mine, and whispers, “What are you doing to me?”
“Nothing you aren’t doing to me.”
“And what I am doing to you, sweetheart?”
“Consuming me.”
His lips tip up in the corners into a grin so wide it crinkles the corners of his eyes. The look promises wicked things ahead. “Not yet, I’m not,” he says and takes a step back. He holds out a hand to me, and I place mine in his much larger one. A blank canvas being swallowed by a beautiful work of art. “Come on, I have a gift for you.”
“Gift? I can’t remember the last time someone got me a gift,” I say, smiling up at him.
An almost sadistic chuckle leaves Kain as we walk across the parking lot to a smaller outbuilding behind the main warehouse. “These can’t be returned to their senders, so I hope you like them.”
“If you got them, I’m sure I’ll love them.”
Kain lets go of my hand and enters a code in the keypad beside the door to the building. A buzz sounds, and he pulls open the door. “Ladies first.”
The room is dark, not a single light illuminates the space. A muffled groan comes from somewhere deeper inside. I squint trying to adjust my vision so I can see into the obscurity.
Kain steps in behind me, closing the door. He places a hand on my hip and tugs me back into his side, holding me to him.
One by one, the lights turn on, starting in the back of the large building. Metal walls and concrete floors. Metal tables with various tools are revealed under the florescent lights. A long black hose snakes along the floor. I follow the line of the hose with my eyes, and an audible gasp leaves me when I reach the end.
The man who’s haunted my nights for months is bound, naked and bloody, to a metal chair in the center of the room. A ball gag stuck between his teeth and belted around his head. Black tasseled clamps are firmly in place on his nipples.
One slow step after another, I approach the man. His eyes widen, and he shakes his head as I approach, but I know it’s not me he’s afraid of. No, he fears the shadow at my back. A dark corner of my soul wants that fear to be of me, though. It demands it.
Little nicks litter his body where the blood trails started running from. Nicks in his arms, his chest, his thighs. My eyes get stuck on the deep purple mushroom resting between his thighs and the bright silver ring at the base restricting the blood flow.
“Well, that looks painful,” I say with no humor and zero sympathy.
“I promise you, it is,” Kain says, wrapping his arms around me from behind and resting his chin on my shoulder. “This isn’t the only gift I have for you.”
He takes my hand and leads me to a metal table lined with sharp instruments. Various knives, hand saws, surgical scalpels. In the middle of the table sits a wooden box with a flip latch. Kain picks up the box and holds it with the latch facing me. Red dots one corner of the box, and I trace a finger over the darkened spot.
“What’s this?” I ask, my hand resting on the lid, my thumb toying with the bronze latch.
“My gift to you. I made you a promise, and I always keep my promises.” The uncertainty written all over his face belies the serious tone to his voice, which makes me swallow hard. Kain made me one promise, vengeance. Excitement and trepidation course through me as I consider the possibilities of what I may find inside this box.
I flip the latch and, with two hands, I ease the lid open. Sitting on a pillow of black silk fabric are at least twenty greyish-red ovals made of flesh. I tilt my head, studying the objects. Studying the obvious veins that run through each one.
Shock floods me, and I have to force my face to remain natural. I need to be careful of how I react, Kain is just letting me in, and I don’t want him to shut down again already. “Are these … testicles?” I nearly release a hysterical laugh mixed with something akin to affection and horror at the last word but manage to maintain my composure.
“Yes, from all the men who regularly visited you at the club, except for one. Him. I brought you the man relatively intact. Do you like them?” There’s a softness to his eyes that has me choking back tears.
I sniff back the affection I find myself holding for this gruff man who obviously has lived a life surrounded by violence and abuse. It’s unconventional, I know, but his gift shows just how much he does care.
“It’s odd because I shouldn’t find this endearing, and, yet, I do. These men hurt me; they took what they wanted from me repeatedly, regardless of the fact that I wasn’t willingly giving it. You promised me vengeance, and you delivered it in a beautiful wooden box lined with black silk. Best of all, you delivered the one who hurt me the most so I can carry out my own vengeance on him.” Standing on my tippy toes, I place a kiss on Kain’s cheek, and his face flares rosy pink. He releases a heavy sigh as though he wasn’t sure how I’d react to his brand of gift giving and was preparing for the worst.
I smile at the adorableness of this tattooed dark knight in leather. “Thank you, Kain.”