Page 119 of Velvet Corruption

“You’re doing so good,” he murmured after a while.

“Shut up.”

That half-smirk returned. “Okay, boss.”

I cut the thread, my hands shaking now for a different reason.

“There,” I said, stepping back too quickly. “It’s done.”

Kieran exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders, like he was reorienting himself. Like he had felt all of that but just chose to deal with it later.

He looked down at the stitches, then back at me.

“I knew you could do it,” he said.

I hated how warm that made me feel.

I hated him.

I hated how he was still too close, too solid, too fucking alive in my kitchen, watching me like he knew what he was doing to me.

I turned away and washed my hands again.

This time, I could still feel him behind me.

Still feel the way his breath had hitched under my hands.

Still feel how fucking dangerous this was becoming.

I heard him get up and approach me. I felt his hands on my shoulders. Then I felt his breath on my cheek when he leaned down to whisper into my ear, his quiet voice sending a shiver down my spine. “Thank you.”

Chapter Twenty-Six: Kieran

For a long few seconds, we stayed like that.

I could hear her breathing quickening, I could feel the heat rolling off her skin. And then something happened—she looked away and the spell broke as her gaze found her phone, which had been left next to the uncorked bottle of wine she’d started before a man broke into her house to kill her.

“Okay,” she said, turning around to face me. I tried hard not to stare at the bruises on her face. “You’re welcome. I need to make a phone call. You’re right. I need to handle this.”

“Who are you calling?” I asked, though I had a feeling I knew the answer.

“Aleksey,” she replied. “He’s my…he’ll know what to do. He’s my campaign manager. My lawyer.”

“He can’t fix this, Ruby.”

“You don’t know that,” she said, taking a step closer to me and reaching for her phone.

I stepped in and caught her wrist before she could press the call button, my fingers just firm enough to stop her.

“Don’t,” I said.

She tried to wrench her hand away, but I didn’t let go. She stared into my eyes as she tried to fight me.

“Kieran—”

“Think, Ruby,” I said, voice lower now, steadier. “You call him, and now he’s part of it.”

She shook her head, her pulse hammering beneath my grip. “I told you. He’s my lawyer.”

---