Page 103 of Ruin Me, Daddy

ICE

For the first time in nearly two months, he slept deep and he slept well. There were no screaming nightmares, for him or Silver, and he woke with a sense of hope he hadn’t felt in far too long. Years, probably, if he was being honest with himself.

He’d showered the night before, as Silver slept, so there was nothing keeping him from his guitar this morning. The words she’d whispered, just before she’d tumbled into slumber, had followed him into his dreams, joining there with the music he’d already written so that he woke with the song in his head. That had never happened to him before, so this was either going to be the worst song he’d ever written or the best.

When the words were on paper, he sat back with his guitar, and sang.

Ruin me, with every touch of your skin

Every kiss, every breath, a storm’s raging within

This wall around my heart is crumbling in

So ruin me, ruin me, and let us begin

“Is that for me?”

His fingers slipped, and the discordant notes peppered the air around them, drawing a girlish giggle from the woman standing in the middle of his living room. “Ah… I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was. But I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry.” Setting the guitar aside, he reached for her, pulling her down onto his lap. With a soft sigh, she curled into him, nuzzling against his throat like a kitten. “Better?”

“Yeah. You didn’t have to stop for me, though.”

“Looking for a sore bottom so early in the morning?” he teased, running his hand up her thigh to give said bottom a firm squeeze.

“No! I didn’t even do anything.”

“Hmm. I think implying that you aren’t the most important thing in your Daddy’s life is definitely a spankable offense.”

Her glare was ruined by the twitching of her lips. “I think you’re just looking for a reason to spank me.”

“Always, baby.”

To his surprise, a pink flush rose to her cheeks and she shifted nervously on his lap. “Um, in that case, I might actually have a reason for you to.”

Tightening his grip on her ass, he raised an eyebrow. “Uh-oh. What has my naughty little girl been up to?”

“Nothing recently. It’s just, now that things are kind of getting back to normal, I realize I owe you the truth. The whole truth. About what happened with me and Ace, before our night at Black Light.”

With everything else that had happened, he’d all but forgotten that he’d never actually learned what lead to their last breakup. “I’m listening.”

“Do you remember our last night in London? We’d been touring for what? Almost a year at that point?”

“Yeah. That was a brutal one.”

“Seriously.” She let out a short, bitter laugh. “I was so fucking tired, Ice. All I wanted was to go home. But you know how Ace is. He wanted to party.”

“Yeah. I know how he is.” Except, he hadn’t known, had he? If he’d known Ace half as well as he’d thought he had, Silver wouldn’t be in fucking therapy recovering from having her hands sliced to ribbons.

Pushing those dark thoughts to the side, he pulled her closer, and some of the knots in his stomach loosened when she dropped her head onto his shoulder. “So he wanted to party. You didn’t. Is that what you fought about?”

“Yes, but that wasn’t why things ended. We had a big blow-up fight, he called me all manner of unflattering names. Implied that if I lost some weight, I wouldn’t be so tired all the time.”

“Fucking Christ, Sil.”

“I know. How pathetic was I, that even that wasn’t enough for me to end things? Don’t get mad,” she said, her tone turning pleading when he let out a low growl. “I felt pathetic, even then. I still do. But I thought I was in love with him, that nobody would ever want me the way he did. So I put up with it, and him, because I thought that was what love looked like. I know better now.”

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