Page 8 of Ruined

“Well, this is nice,” Tristan drawled as he sauntered into the bedroom, a smirk tilting his lips. I scowled at him. “Ready to cuddle, Addy? It’ll be just like old times.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

My scowl deepened, only causing his smirk to widen.

This was about to be a long night.

“I’m not sleeping on that bed with you,” I snapped, pointing at it. I’d rather fucking sleep outside.

He clenched his jaw, his amusement quickly disappearing. “Oh, yes, you are,” he told me, his voice firm.

I clenched my jaw. I was just about seething, and he didn’t want to see how lethal I was when I finally lost my shit. “No, I’m not,” I snarled.

His eyes lit up with fury, and he stormed over to me in all of his dominating, masculine glory. I stood my ground becausefuck him. “Oh, yes, you are.” He gripped my upper arms and yanked me against him. My heart slammed hard against my breastbone at his proximity. I swallowed nervously. I hated not knowing what to expect with Tristan. “Your life is in danger, and I amnotletting you out of my arms while we sleep and are at our most vulnerable.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he put his finger over my lips, silencing me as his eyes bored into mine.

“You are the most important person to me, Addy, and I willnotrisk anything.”

As much as I hated it, my heart melted, my destroyed soul crying out for him to heal us and to put us back together again.

Chapter Four

Adelaide

My eighteenth birthday was when I first met Joey. It was the same night that Tristan decided to destroy my heart. Decided to leave me in pieces. I was at my birthday party that Tristan and Helene had organized at their place, and I was a fucking mess after Tristan had dumped me. I was drinking away my sorrows in a corner, crying into my hands when Joey kneeled in front of me.

He’d seen a broken girl filled with pain, and he’d wanted to help her. He wasn’t even supposed to be there because he was Tristan’s enemy. I had no idea what he’d up his sleeve that night, but instead of doing whatever he’d originally been planning, he took me in.

“Hey, gorgeous, aren’t you the birthday girl?” he asked me.

I looked up at him through my tears, sniffling unladylike. Nodding slowly, I answered him. “Yeah,” I whispered, taking another swig from the bottle of whiskey that I had snatched from the kitchen. His lips twitched, his eyeslighting up in surprise as the liquid burned down my throat, but I never flinched.

“Why are you crying on one of the biggest days of your life?” he asked me, taking a seat beside me on the floor. I flinched, casting my eyes to the floor as I remembered my heart being ripped apart not even an hour ago. “You’re too beautiful to be sitting here crying on your birthday, pretty girl.”

I blushed at his words even though my heart was filled with so much pain, I wasn’t sure if I was capable of feeling anything else. “My boyfriend of three years just broke up with me,” I confessed, more tears sliding down my cheeks. He frowned. “I don’t know what I did wrong,” I pathetically sobbed, everything suddenly spilling from my lips. “We were so happy earlier, and then, all of a sudden, he’s telling me he doesn’t want to be with me anymore and that he’s been miserable for the last year.”

“Well, he’s a fucking asshole,” the guy next to me admitted. I snorted. “Is he still here?” At my nod, he sighed. “Is that why you’re hiding in this corner when you should be enjoying your birthday party?”

I nodded again. He pursed his lips, then stood up, a smirk twisting his lips. My breath hitched in my throat. God, he was hot as fuck. He had inkeverywhere, and his dark eyes were filled with trouble that called to my soul. Dirty blonde hair flopped onto his forehead, and I just wanted to run my fingers through the soft-looking strands.

I was clearly a little drunk.

“How about this, pretty girl?” I arched an eyebrow at him, my tears drying up. “My name is Joey, and I think it’s time to let loose and forget about this asshole of an ex for a little while. What do you say? Want to get out of here?”

I nodded at him, desperate for some kind of relief from the pain in my chest. He held his hand out to me, and I placed my palm in his, letting him pull me up to my feet. He wrapped an arm around my waist, a mischievous twinkle lighting up his eyes that almost had me swooning. “It’s time to have some fun on the wild side, pretty girl. What’s your name?” he asked me.

“Adelaide,” I informed him.

“Gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl,” he commented, winking at me as he led me toward the door all while I still clutched the whiskey bottle in my hand.

That night led to many more nights filled with “fun” on the wild side.

But honestly, Joey might have saved my life because back then, I wasn’t sure if I could survive without Tristan to lean on.

I sat on the bathroom counter, trying to put off dealing with Tristan for as long as I could. I knew he was waiting on me to come out and come to bed before he went to sleep. But he was going to be waiting a hell of a long time. I’d sleep in the damn bathroom before I slept in the same bed with him again.

I stared down at Jessie’s name on my phone. She was calling me again, and I was sorely tempted to answer it. She and I had always been close, especially after Joey and I had started clashing heads a lot a few months after we first got together. She’d always had my back after one of our huge fights, and I knew at the end of the day, she was one of the people that I knew I could always rely on.

Then again, I’d thought that about Joey, too, and just that quickly, he’d turned his back on me just because I was with Tristan.

Sighing, I pressed the answer button on my phone, putting it up to my ear. “Hello, gorgeous,” I commented, a smirk twisting my lips, actually kind of happy that I would be hearing her familiar voice.

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