Page 26 of Ravaged Devotion

“I won’t,” he insisted anyway. “Please, let’s just—”

“If you wanted to explain,” Ryker growled, “if you wanted me to understand, then you would have stayed. You would have been there for me, no matter what. Even if he meant more to you than I did. Even if you—”

“That isn’t true!” Rue didn’t want him to think that.

But somehow, his rebuttal only seemed to piss the Black Hart off more.

Rue’s pants were torn from his body, the material pushed down until they pooled at his ankles. He gasped as soon as he realized, picking up his struggles.

Ryker grabbed the comic book with his free hand, and a second later used it to whack him on the ass.

Rue froze, completely shocked, but the Black Hart didn’t like that either.

He spanked him with the book, the loud cracking of the glossy cover against his sensitive flesh echoing in the library. The surprise wore off quickly, and he registered the sting each time he was hit. The burn that spread throughout his body after.

Things with Ryder—when he’d thought it was Ryker—had never been like this. They’d been charged, sure, but not…intense. Not in this way. Rue would even go so far as to say the sexual encounters between them had been very vanilla, with Ryder acting as though he was afraid of breaking him.

Ryker wasn’t worried about that now.

With each spank against his delicate rear, he increased the strength, until he must have been using his full force to deliver each blow. He paused only long enough to switch, the book moving to his other hand, his left one capturing Rue around the nape to keep him in place as the abuse started up again.

Rue wailed, fat, ugly tears spilling from his eyes. The cheeks on his face burned almost as much as the globes of his ass, and he imagined he must look incredibly unattractive right now, as he sobbed like a baby and—

“You’re hard.” Ryker came to a sudden stop. “Light, Rue. Are you fucking serious?”

He made a sound—a pathetic, reedy noise in the back of his throat.

“Is this how he touched you?” Ryker demanded.

“No!”

“If you preferred it rough, you should have said so.” The book sailed across the table, hitting one of the bookshelves before clattering to the ground. Then Ryker’s free hand shoved the material of Rue’s shirt up, exposing his back, thumb tracing the length of his spine.

There was a familiar snick sound, and Rue went so still, it was a wonder his heart dared to keep beating. He felt the flat edge of the blade next, cold against his ribs as the Black Hart trailed it up his right side.

The switchblade had been a gift from Rue for Ryker’s sixteenth birthday, an item that was practically always on his person.

And now he was using it to threaten him.

“Don’t,” it came out in a whoosh of air, weak and quiet.

“Frightened?” Ryker taunted. “Like a little pain but not the fear? They’re similar receptors, did you know? All of it. Misattribution of arousal. Adrenaline and dopamine, that particular cocktail that signals our body to react to outside stimulus. I suppose arousal is preferable to you, that it? Better than suffering. You’d rather leak precome all over the carpet than piss yourself.”

“No,” Rue denied it. Even though even he found that stupid, when all the signs that what Ryker was saying was true were right there.

He was hard. His dick was against the edge of the table, forced in an uncomfortable position with it pointed down at the floor. His balls were tight, the vibrations from the spanking having gone straight to them in a way Rue had been previously unfamiliar with.

“Is that what happened between the two of you? You’ve lived a sheltered life. Did my brother come along and ignite some passion in you? Help you discover kinks you didn’t realize you had?” Ryker turned the blade, using the sharp edge as he eased it back down the way he’d come. He was careful not to break skin, but the threat was there.

If Rue moved even slightly, he’d be cut.

“That isn’t true,” Rue said. “That’s not what happened. He was—” A cry came out of him when the knife nicked him just over the rise of his right ass cheek. The pain was minimal, but the shock of it sent him reeling.

The actual danger he was in finally registered. A part of him had subconsciously believed that Ryker wouldn’t really hurt him. Had recalled how gentle he’d always treated Rue in the past.

He should have focused on the other side of the Black Hart.

The side Rue had witnessed breaking bones of people who’d crossed him.