Ruin Box Set (14 page)

Kneeling before her, Ruin slid her panties slowly down, like a man who’d reached something sacred. “Isadore,” he whispered, staring at her privates as he gently lifted her leg along the wall. Jesus, could she come from anticipation? Her body said yes, very possibly. She held her breath, suddenly worried what he thought of her most secret parts. She’d shaved them. Done it at her last shower. To keep it cleaner, it was easier. It was
not
for this right here. She swallowed as he stroked his fingers softly over the bare folds until she strained for more of his touch. Then he turned his eyes up to her, the look in them drawing a whimper. The caramel flecks in the center seemed to glow, making the bright green look darker. But right there at the surface was an innocent and open hunger, the look of a man’s first time at the forbidden fruit. The idea that she was his only, slammed her with relief and joy.

His hand slowly moved over her abs, palm in full contact until he reached her breast. Keeping his gaze on hers, he leaned in and grazed his parted lips very slowly over her aching folds. As if it was more than he could stand, his beautiful eyes drifted closed and those black brows drew together hard. Hot shaky breaths preceded his kisses. Starting with her folds, he kissed innocently, with small nips, then he parted his lips more, nibbling with them, then gently sucking.

Isadore tilted her hips to reach more of his gorgeous mouth, her cries growing with the sudden grip he had on her leg, biting into her muscle. The hand on her breast kneaded with a perfect pressure, his palm a constant friction on the tip of her nipple, sending shards of heat through her body, and her poor mind into delirium.

“Ruin,” she gasped, need making her crazy.

He groaned on her, his tongue coming out to play finally, a wicked little fire at the tip of her clit.

“Oh God,” she cried. Yes, that, more, more.

With a growl, he abandoned her breast and clamped onto her other leg, lifting her a little so that her ass and upper thigh was in his strong hand, those fingertips biting hard everywhere the connected to her. “This is mine, Isadore.”

And then he dove on her. He thrust his tongue inside her body pressing his nose into her clit. Isadore thrashed her head, gasping
yes, yes, Ruin, yes.

It was unlike anything she’d ever felt or experienced, the sound and feel of his hunger, the way his lips and tongue moved like a fire storm over her parts, and God, the frantic pace in which he did all of it lit her body up with uncontrollable quivers. He made a groan right on her that said he felt it coming, knew it, and he craved it, fought for it like a warring lover, his hot white fire weaving strength and hope into her soul.

She came undone on his mouth finally, unashamed and very loudly. She came so very long, she’d never had such a long ecstasy before. She finally became aware of his hot breaths, blasting against her sensitive folds, followed with the softest kisses. While fighting to catch her breath and her mind, her body decided to become overrun in that second with estrogen and her breaths turned to gasps and soon sobs.

Ruin suddenly held her in his arms, held her entire body up, a large hand cradling the back of her head tight to his shoulder, his arm a band of steel around her. “Shhh, I have you Isadore. You’re mine. You belong to me.” He pressed his mouth to her ear as he said it and the estrogen suddenly morphed into need. The need to do the same to him. To be his first. To taste him. Bring him pleasure.

The notion that she was sinning lingered in the shadows but the need to obey the urge was too great. Too god blessed great. Even as she fought out of his arms and pushed him against the wall she knew there was no stopping her. He watched Isadore, his face hard and beautiful as she kissed her way down his body, her lips sucking, tongue lashing with hunger, nails raking. Oh dear God, he tasted so good that she wanted to weep.

On her knees, he let her do it all, and gasped when she finally got his pants down and set his erection free. “Isadore,” he choked as her hands went around it, “I don’t…”

She looked up at him, freezing on her knees at seeing his tattoos on fire. “Oh God,” she whispered, looking at him. “What…what’s happening?”

He shook his head, his hands braced against the wall behind him. “I don’t know. But don’t stop. Don’t stop.”

The desperate need in his words wiped her fear away and she took hold of him in both hands, her eyes on the heaving muscles of his torso. She wasn’t afraid. It was odd, like looking at a surreal fantasy. She closed her eyes and slid the head of his erection along her lips and Ruin growled. She looked up to find his head back and the muscles in his neck standing out. So beautiful. Every bit of him.

She filled her mouth with him and he erupted in choked groans his fingers tangling in her hair, stopping her. She turned her eyes up and found his mouth hard, clamped tight. She moaned on him and began sliding him in and out, licking slowly around the thick head. “Isadore!” he gasped, looking into her eyes now, holding her head between his hands. He pumped his hips and the way his mouth hung open and forehead crimped in agony, the way he watched her take him with an eagerness was insanely arousing.

She stroked his balls with her nails, hoping it was okay to do. He let out a sharp growl and removed himself from her mouth. “Stop!”

Isadore jumped. His angry tone shattered the mood and he suddenly put his hands on his head and paced, hissing like he was in pain, the tattoos on his body changing to nearly white.

Isadore slowly stood, a feeling of shame creeping into her mind at what she was doing. She’d done what she’d sworn not to do, she gave in to the flesh and—

“Stop it!” He spun to her. “I’m
begging
you.”

Isadore jumped again. He’d hissed the words right in her face. “What am I doing?” she barely whispered, so confused.

“You’re… making me need it, need to do what you don’t want to do.”

“What… don’t I want?”

“To
fuck
!” he said. “You don’t want to fuck me and yet you do, your mind and your body they don’t agree, Isadore, when your mind agrees, your body doesn’t, your body agrees but your mind won’t and never are either the same at the same time! It’s driving me
crazy!
” He paced again, grabbing handfuls of his beautiful hair. “And on top of that I seem to have this
need
to
not
give myself pleasure, it’s like…there is something that tells me to…
punish.
Something. Something is wrong and needs to be punished and my power nearly jumps out of my body at the point when I need to release and says
not you! Not you, you don’t deserve it!
” He gasped, looking at her, the face of a man who’d just witnessed a horrific tragedy. “Not me, Isadore.” He placed his hand on his chest, appearing so confused. “Who am I Isadore? That I need to be punished?”

“Punished?”

Chapter Fourteen

Ruin couldn’t believe she’d just repeated him. He reminded himself that it was just a habit she had. “Punish me!” he slapped his chest with his palm now, needing desperately for her to understand. “I need to punish me. It’s like I want you to want me only to use it to punish myself. I thought I needed to please you but…now I don’t know.” He looked at her, rage beginning to take him. “I don’t
know!
” And how sick he was of not knowing or knowing everything that wasn’t worth knowing!

“Good
God
man,
calm down
.” The shower curtain behind them yanked open then quickly shut back with Isadore’s scream. “My apologies Miss Isadore, please clothe yourself,” Caliber grumbled.

“Are you kidding?” Isadore gasped before scrambling for her robe hanging on the back of the door.

Ruin was torn between killing the man-being, and hugging him. He was there to help, he could feel it, thankfully for Caliber.

“She’s done,” Ruin said. “Why are you here?”

“I think you know,” Caliber turned and gave him a side glance with those gray eyes that matched his stringy silver hair. Ruin realized at that point its disarray. Like he’d been running.

“What’s going on?”

Caliber glanced at Isadore then him. “We have a problem.”

An emotion hit him that he recognized but wasn’t entirely familiar with, It made him want to shake the information out of the man instantly.

As though sensing it, Caliber leveled his gaze at him. “Best to not even
think
that if you value your human body functions.”

The threat registered loudly with his human instincts and he suddenly lacked the oxygen in the small space not intended for three adult bodies. “Outside. Isadore comes with us?” He had the sense to ask at the very least.

Caliber’s face erupted in a huge false grin. “Oh, of course.” He nodded too much it seemed with bright eyes. “Isadore most definitely comes with us.”

RUIN

REVELATIONS

By Lucian Bane

Chapter One

Caliber paced before them in the moonlight as they stood on the pier outside of Isadore’s home. It was better than the small bathroom the three of them had just vacated after Caliber had rudely interrupted him and Isadore, appearing out of nowhere like a lunatic tangled in the shower curtain.

But even now, Ruin found himself oddly distracted not by the lethal grooves lining Caliber’s face, nor the fact that he towered a head above him and two above Isadore, but rather the flush in Isadore’s cheeks. He wanted time to ponder all that it meant. The infuriating man loved showing up at the oddest moments, but this time, appearing in the bathroom with them when he was seconds from reaching a sexual milestone with Isadore had Ruin ready to hurt something. Him, preferably.  

Caliber came to an abrupt stop before Isadore and pointed at her while glaring at Ruin. The power rolling from the man’s body wasn’t dangerous as much as it was annoying. Like a lot of wind in Ruin’s face when he could do without the nuisance. “Look at her,” he growled before pacing again.

It was a clear directive and Ruin did as he was told and looked at her. She stared at him in a way that made him want to hurt Caliber. Her fear, guilt, and shame made the fire inside roil with the need to torch the entire vicinity.

“Are you looking?” Caliber still paced, annoyance making his voice nearly shrill. “Because you need to see it or this mission is
paused.
”

Mission.
Ruin looked at him finally. “What mission?” It was time he learned, wasn’t it?

Caliber’s face flashed with quite a few unspoken things, things he wanted to say but couldn’t and Ruin burned with curiosity. He jabbed a finger toward Ruin. “I’m The Chasm Guardian.” He placed his palms on his chest. “I keep the chasm free of crossover bullshit.”

“Why did you find me?”

“Because I was told to.”

“By who?”

“By your commander, the Seventh Carnificem of Daguires Guild.”

“Who is whom? Exactly?”

“The Seventh. Carnificem. Of Daguires Guild.”

The man’s exasperation hit Ruin’s last nerve. “I don’t know who that is!” Ruin stepped toward him, ready to blast the answers from him. “Why am I here, who am I, who is this commander—what is my mission? And why can’t I remember things, what about Isadore, what role does she play in my mission, my life?”

“I can’t tell you that!” Caliber roared then caught himself, giving a singular controlled sigh. “I cannot . . . tell you that. It is not my job. But you
can
figure that out. And you should. You
really
should.” His final words were light and came with a hand rake through that stringy gray hair then a soft command, “Look at her.”

His pressing insistence said there was something to see and Ruin needed to see it. Ruin turned to her.

“And I mean really look.”

Ruin stood just before her and was immediately drawn into the two glistening doorways on her upturned face in the moonlight. Focusing his supernatural vision, he searched for something, anything that would give him answers. Any answers.

A few seconds in, Caliber barked, “Well? Tell me you
see
it.”

“I see . . . ” he placed his hands on either side of her face only to provoke her arousal. He was soon fighting to hear, see, and feel, around her racing pulse.

“You see what, man!”

“A wall.”

Caliber growled loud enough to shake the air particles and startle Isadore. Her fear spiked the fire inside him and Ruin clamped his jaw, fighting the urge to retaliate. She grabbed hold of his hands, her pulse immediately calmed and Ruin stroked his thumbs along her face. 

“A wall,” Caliber muttered, still pacing, still angry. Maybe even more so now. “Well, there’s nothing else to do.” He yanked Ruin toward him and pressed various tattoos on his body, sending coordinates to flash in his brain. “You’ll have to take care of this before any more real business continues.”

“Your . . . ” Isadore angled her head at Ruin’s chest. “Light isn’t working.” She reached out and tapped the last rune Caliber had pressed and without looking, Ruin knew why it flickered.

“There’s more than one destination.”

She looked up at him with the curiosity of a child and Ruin had to resist the flyby urge to kiss her deeply.

“How many?” she asked.

“Three,” Caliber answered, clearly appalled with the high number.

“Three,” Isadore looked at Caliber. “Why three?”

“Because that’s what it’s going to take.” He nodded repeatedly.

“What is
what
going to take?” Isadore’s bold tone with the giant man flooded Ruin with a strange feeling; a good one. Caliber pointed at Ruin while staring at Isadore. “For him to
see.”

Ruin’s instincts said he was supposed to share the man’s frustration with this delay in the mission—that Ruin still had no clear understanding of apart from instincts driving him—and yet he wasn’t. Not even a little. 

“See what?” she said.

“See what is behind that wall in you.”

“What wall?” She looked from Ruin to Caliber. “What kind of wall?”

The spike of her fear in the air cut Ruin’s gut while Caliber muttered his eternal impatience with humans. “Now I have to tell Commander Athens that we’re on hold.” He aimed his words at Ruin along with a furious steel gaze, like that was the worst punishment. Ruin didn’t feel the emotions that sometimes produced the allowance for him to say the “sorry” word. He placed himself between the man’s energy pounding the air like an angry headache, and Isadore. This wasn’t Ruin’s problem or fault and judging by Caliber’s perpetual stare as he continued to pace, he was aware of that and it only added to his anger. Which was really beginning to bother Ruin. Rather quickly.

Caliber paused with wide eyes. “Ohhhh, you’re pissed? Good, good. I’m glad.” He nodded and faced him, hands on hips. “And I
see
your pissed and raise you a little
fury!
”

Power shot out with Caliber’s words and Ruin’s fire leapt from his pores to devour it like an explosion in reverse.

The man continued to bark nonsense, head bobbing, his every word a sonic boom of power that Ruin’s fire gobbled like a hungry fire dragon.

Caliber came to a halt and gave Ruin a cautious angled gaze. “Oh shit.” Then he vanished.

Ruin fought to contain what could only be described like the need to belch. The ice inside Ruin jerked out of his body just as his arms flew out with the blast, a huge wave of dense hot energy that exploded the trees around them like bombs.

Terror made him dizzy as Ruin spun around to meet a wall of ice. Relief hit him and the ice dissolved with a loud hiss of white vapor that Ruin swiped away.

Isadore stood there with wide, confused eyes, and Ruin pulled her into his embrace. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” He vaguely realized the words had come instinctively as he pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I didn’t mean it.”

She wrapped her arms around him, making sounds that brought an amused smile to his lips. She was consoling him. He’d never encountered a more disillusioned person than this woman. She should be angry with him for the dangerous act. Then he realized she didn’t know. She had no idea he’d nearly killed her. But the ice had protected her on instinct. A wave of emotion washed through him, causing his muscles to relax and the need to thank something came with the feeling. “Thank you.” She was responsible somehow for that protection. He wasn’t sure how, but she was.

She turned her face up and the urge to kiss her deeply hit him again. And with Caliber gone, he submitted with a reckless hunger, her lips suddenly the source of life. Even as she moaned right into his mouth, even as his tongue demanded things he didn’t understand, as his fingers pressed and molded her softness to him—he was aware that tasting her was an infallible law. And his every fiber raced to obey it.