Page 184 of King of Ruin

Xavier rested his forehead against hers for the briefest moment before finding her lips again, kissing her with quiet, aching hunger. His hand remained cradling the back of her head while the other held her securely against him, as though he feared she would disappear the moment he let go.

The image of her standing with another man, smiling at him, letting him stay by her side, had been burning through his mind ever since he had seen it. It had haunted every breath he had taken, making it impossible to think, impossible to find peace.

But she didn’t seem to care at all. And that’s what broke him completely.

As though losing him no longer mattered.

So he kept kissing her, slowly, tenderly, lingering over every kiss as if trying to erase every moment she had spent away from him, unwilling to let the distance between them exist for even another second.

The cold water continued to pour over them in relentless streams, drenching them from head to toe until their clothes clung heavily to their bodies.

Xavier never once took his eyes off her.

Still holding her against him, he reached up and shrugged off his suit jacket before carelessly tossing it onto the wet bathroom floor. His hands immediately went to the buttons of his shirt. One after another, he ripped them open with impatient fingers before pulling the shirt off and throwing it aside without a second glance. It landed somewhere beside his jacket, but he couldn't have cared less.

Nothing around him mattered.

The only thing his mind could process was Elise.

He needed her to look at him.

To see him.

Only him.

The thought of another man standing beside her, making her smile, hearing her laugh, had been eating him alive ever since he had witnessed it. Every second away from her had felt like torture, every breath weighed down by the fear that he was losing the woman he loved.

It was driving him mad.

If giving up everything he had could make her love him the way he loved her, he would do it without hesitation. Pride, dignity,reason—none of it mattered anymore. All he wanted was to reach into her heart somehow and make her choose him again.

Chapter 20

The water continued to fall over them, soaking them completely.

Without breaking eye contact, Xavier's hands slid to the hem of her dress. He slowly drew the fabric upward over her waist, then higher, until it reached her shoulders. Only then did he break the kiss long enough to lift the dress over her head before letting it fall carelessly onto the floor beside his discarded clothes.

"Xavier..."

Elise gasped, her hands instinctively pressing against his shoulders in an attempt to create some distance between them.

He didn't let her get far.

The moment she leaned back, he drew her right back against him, his hand settling firmly against the small of her back as he held her close beneath the stream of cold water.

"What are you doing? We broke up," she said again, her voice rising as the cold water streamed into her eyes, forcing her to blink. But he didn't seem to hear a single word. It was as though he had gone blind and deaf to everything around him, caring about nothing except kissing her.

She breathed heavily, struggling to catch her breath as he continued to take control, refusing to let her pull away. Gradually, everything else faded into the background. The sound of the water, the bathroom, the apartment—everythingdisappeared until all she could feel was him. Her thoughts became a blur, making it impossible to think clearly. She could barely breathe.

But it still wasn't enough for him.

He wanted her to break.

He wanted her to see only him.

It was as though he had been possessed by something far stronger than reason. The need to make her look at him, choose him, and feel only him burned through every vein in his body, so fiercely that he could no longer suppress it. The emotions consuming him had grown too intense, too overwhelming, until all he wanted was to drown her in them and make her feel even a fraction of what he was feeling.

His hand reached lower as he roughly pushed her panties down. The soaked fabric slid to her ankles before he lifted her by her hips, drawing her tightly against his body once more. Without ever loosening his hold on her, he nudged the discarded fabric aside with his foot, refusing to let her slip away for even a second.