Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

“…my theater room. We could get away from the noise.”

“No.” Kennedy’s voice sounded tight, like she was talking through clenched teeth. “I’m good.”

“Come on. Is this about the camera? I’ll buy you a new fucking camera, okay? I lost my temper.”

“It’s fine. Can you just let me go, please?”

“I get it. Your pussy is spoken for, is that it? Tristan write his name down there? Or maybe it was Logan?”

“Fuck you.” Finally, she didn’t sound scared. She sounded pissed.

I felt a little twinge of pride for her. As much as I wanted to burst in the room right now and pull him away from her, I wanted to know what she’d do. That, and I was curious if she could handle him on her own. Somehow, I had a feeling she could.

“Alright.” Cassian hardly seemed phased by her anger. “Tell me what you’ve got on Tristan to make him so interested. That’s what it is, right? I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you’re around us. Like he’s so tense he’s going to pop. What’s he so afraid you’ll tell us?”

“Nothing. He just hates me. I think it’s fun for him to screw with me. I don’t pretend to understand it. Can I go now?”

Cassian sniffed dismissively. “You’re protecting him. Why would you do that? I watched him lock your ass in a jail cell. He told all of us about how you were so eager to suck his dick. And you should hear the things he says about you to us when you’re not around, like how much of a whore you are when the doors are closed.”

Fucking liar. Well, at least about the last part. I really had been an ass, and I only had myself to blame for Cassian’s sick interest in her. Ever since I made that shit up about her sucking my dick, he had been like a blood hound.

“Maybe Tristan is more than people give him credit for,” Kennedy responded.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Cassian said. “And as soon as he gets his fill of you, he won’t give a shit which one of us takes a turn next.”

The door opened, and Cassian practically bumped into me.

He smiled knowingly, then walked past, slamming his shoulder into me.

“I thought you left.” Wheels was leaning heavily on the counter. She moved to the doorway, holding herself upright by using the wall.

“I came looking for you. I had a feeling Cassian was going to try something.”

“What, so you’re my knight in shining armor now? What happened to being the guy who made my life hell?”

“I still reserve the right to make your life hell.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand you. And I especially don’t understand why you pretend to be friends with Logan and Cassian. Gage is the only one you don’t seem to want to decapitate.”

“Gage isn’t trying to fuck you.”

She made a face. “Come on. Cassian is just trying to piss you off. And Logan? He’s just a nice guy. He’s not interested in me like that. Guys in general aren’t. I’m…” she searched for the words, then settled for gesturing to the wheelchair sitting beside us.

“So?” I asked.

“You call me Wheels.” She paused, like she wasn’t even sure if she was mad or amused. “That’s what’s ‘so.’ I’m not just a normal person to everyone. I’m the girl in the wheelchair. And if they got to know me better, I’d be the girl in the wheelchair with all the weird conditions.”

I shrugged. “You do write a damn good essay, though.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Let me know when the convention of guys who think essay writing skills are hot meets. I’ll make sure to wheel myself there as fast as I can.”

“You know, I could give you a ride home. You don’t have to go with Logan.”

She looked at me for a long time, then lowered her eyes, shaking her head again. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Anger pulsed within me. “Worried what he’ll think?”

“No. I don’t—” She took a deep, shuddering breath and then blew it out. “I don’t know what is going on here, okay? I’m not exactly the most experienced girl in the world when it comes to guys, and I don’t know what it means when the guy who acted like you were a shit stain on his shoe also tries to murder any other guy who so much as talks to you.”

I put my hands on her cheeks and bent my neck down, kissing her. She flinched back. Her tenuous grip on the wall faltered, and I had to wrap my arm around her waist, pinning her to me to keep her from falling. Her small body pressing into me felt good. Too damn good.

And then she kissed me back.

Her lips moved slowly at first—unsure, like someone who is feeling their way blindly through a dark room. But little by little, I felt her hunger for me bleeding into each kiss. Distantly, I realized she was probably the first girl I’d ever kissed who hadn’t wanted to kiss me, who was probably going to slap me as soon as this ended. It only made me want to devour every second I could steal from her.