Rip clears his throat. “Is that how the eating disorder started?”
Eyes narrowing, I push myself off the railing. “You think I have an eating disorder?”
Rip opens his mouth to say something, but shuts it. Eating disorder? An heir to one of the largest criminal empires in the country can’t have an eating disorder. My eating habits were another thing that changed, but it’s nowhere near bad enough to be what Rip is describing.
But an eating disorder or not, the social media marketer has observed more about me than those closest in my life, and I don’t know if I should be flattered or on guard. For my sanity, I’ll choose flattered.
What drives me to do this, I can’t say—maybe it’s the strangely comforting ease in my chest when I’m near Rip, or the way the moon seems to illuminate his big eyes—but I slowly raise my shirt. I only lift it slightly above my stomach, enough that anyone who saw my photos from a year ago would notice the lost muscle.
Rip barely reacts. He only mumbles, “Oh.”
I let my shirt drop and hug my torso. I’m back in the gym, pushing hard to reclaim the muscle mass I used to have, so there is no need to let him see how much I’d let myself go. There is genuinely something wrong with me. But then again, there always has been.
Sensing my discomfort, Rip reaches out. I shove him hard in the chest, but he barely budges as his hand snakes around my waist, drawing me closer.
He holds me tight against him. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I try to pull myself off him. “You don’t have to do this.”
Rip’s grip doesn’t loosen, and instead pulls me closer, the firm pressure against my chest as my head rests on him. I struggle in his arms, letting out a slew of curses for him to let me go, but I may as well be talking to myself. Eventually, I give in.His arms around me give a sense of peace that I can’t muster the strength to fight, even if it makes me feel like a little kid.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel truly like myself.
“I’m sorry about Sylvie,” he says, his voice low and resonant. “That was traumatic.”
Isn’t everything about my life? Why was her death the last straw that pushed me over the edge?
Rip pulls back, keeping me at bay while looking me dead in the eyes, serious. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you didn’t press the police for more about her. Anyone who thinks less of you for it can go fuck themselves. Revenge isn’t always the way.”
That hardened, gritty tone speaks like someone who knows what they’re talking about. It sounds like it’s coming from someone who has experienced it firsthand and isn’t giving bullshit advice. Someone who has dealt with something similar.
“Oh, about your muscles, my view of you is still the same, just so you know. Your body was beautiful then, and it’s beautiful now. You’re beautiful, Prince. Don’t even think about saying you’re not a woman, so I can’t say that. I know what you are, and the word isn’t only for women. I’m beautiful too.”
I stare at him, starstruck. My eyes blink like if I do it enough, I’ll unhear his words.
Rip Wright calling me beautiful shouldnotmake my heart do a somersault. I shouldnotwant to close the distance between our lips.
The universe says, “Fuck what shouldn’t happen,” apparently.
Who would have thought Rip would be the one challenging gender norms so forcefully? “Did you just call me beautiful, darling?”
“You heard me,” he states unapologetically. “Now, get on your knees and take my cock down your throat.”
My lips pull into a tight grin. Gladly.
I drop to my knees like it’s clockwork while Rip unzips his pants and pulls out his pierced dick. Fuck, I can’t wait to feel that in my mouth.
Rip grips the back of my head and tilts it up as he positions his length before my mouth. He fills my mouth with himself, and it touches the back of my throat. I have to will myself not to gag.
I suck once, hard, and Rip groans. With his hand still on my head, his hips buck forward, and he pulls me so close that my nose hits his pelvis.
“Shit, Kingsley,” he curses, exasperated. “You look so beautiful with my dick in your mouth.”
Tears brim in my eyes, but I don’t let up. I couldn’t even if I wanted to, since Rip is actively working my head back and forth on him.
His eyes meet mine, and the blue shines in the darkness. I let my tongue flick all over, and I find the piercing, no doubt making him more sensitive. Rip’s cock jabs me in the back of the throat, sucking and teasing as best I can.
Without warning, Rip’s head jerks back, and his hips give one good drive into me before he’s coming into my mouth, hot and fast. My first thought is to pull back, but Rip’s grip on me is firm, forcing me to let all the hit liquid fill my mouth.
