Shattered: Steel Brothers Saga: Book Seven

by HELEN HARDT

  “What are your feelings for Ryan?” Jonah asked.

  “Jonah…” Melanie began.

  “It’s a fair question,” Jonah said.

  “It is a fair question,” I agreed. “But I’m not going to tell you anything about my feelings before I tell Ryan. That’s what’s unfair about it.”

  “She’s right,” Jade said, “and both of you guys know it.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Jonah said. “I’m being overprotective of Ryan, I guess.”

  “Look, the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt Ryan. That’s why I gave Melanie the hair, if that makes any sense.”

  “It makes perfect sense,” Melanie said. “Don’t let these guys rattle you, Roo.” She smiled.

  Only Tuck ever called me Roo. It sounded good coming from Melanie, as if we were old friends.

  “No one’s rattling me. I just don’t want my involvement in this to be construed the wrong way. If I have a chance of Ryan forgiving me, I need to make it clear that I was trying to avoid hurting him.”

  “We’ll make that clear.”

  “Yes, you will. And I’ll see to it.”

  “What does that mean?” Talon asked.

  “It means I want to be with you when you talk to Ryan. I want to tell him I got the hair—” I stopped abruptly. I’d gotten it by accident. It was on my neck after our sweaty encounter. I didn’t really want to explain that to his brothers. “You know what? Never mind. You two talk to him.”

  “We don’t have to tell him you gave us the hair, Ruby,” Jonah said. “One of us could have easily gotten it.”

  I stood. “No, damn it. No more lies. Tell him where you got it, but tell him why I gave it to you. With the hopes that he could avoid being hurt. Please.”

  “We will,” Talon said. “Absolutely.”

  “Yes, absolutely,” Jonah echoed. His phone buzzed. “I’ll be damned. It’s Ry.”

  Chapter Thirty–Two

  Ryan

  “Hey, Joe,” I said when he answered. “If you’re not busy, would you mind coming over? I’m looking at these yearbooks, and I’ve come across something that intrigues me.”

  My brother cleared his throat. “Yeah. No problem. Talon’s here with me. I’ll bring him along.”

  “Great. See you soon.” I ended the call.

  I looked again at the photograph of the future lawmakers club. Damn. The magnifying glass I’d been using sat on the bar next to my now empty glass of wine. Okay, now empty second glass of wine.

  In less than fifteen minutes, my brothers arrived. Joe carried a manila folder. “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Some stuff we need to discuss,” he said stiffly.

  “You sound like you could use a drink,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “No drink, Ry,” Jonah said. “We need to talk.”

  “Yeah, we do. I need to show you guys something.” I grabbed the yearbook showing the photo of the future lawmakers club, all six members. “Check this out.” I picked up the magnifying glass. “Look at the fingers on their right hands. They’re all wearing identical rings. At least Dad, Simpson, and Mathias are. I can’t see the others’ hands.”

  “Let me see.” Jonah took the yearbook and the magnifying glass and stared at the photo. “Yeah. They are. That’s weird.”

  “That’s what I thought. There’s some kind of strange design on the ring that I can’t make out. Do you remember Dad ever wearing a ring like this?”

  “The only ring Dad ever wore was his wedding ring,” Talon said.

  “That’s what I thought too,” I agreed. “Maybe we should look through his old stuff and see if we can find this ring. We should talk to Bryce too. Maybe he can find Tom’s. There might be some clues there.”

  “Definitely. Good call, Ry. What made you think of looking at the photo with a magnifying glass?”

  “I don’t know. I just felt like we had to be missing something that was right under our noses.” The word “nose” hurled me back to the meeting with Larry. You have your mother’s nose. I still couldn’t get that out of my mind.

  “Did you find anything else?” Talon asked.

  “No. Not yet. But I’m just getting started. I plan to go through these with a fine-tooth comb. I’ve been AWOL on this stuff for too long. I know it was my busy season, but that’s no excuse.”

  “Ry—” Talon began.

  “No, Tal. It’s no excuse. You saved me all those years ago, and I should have been here with you, figuring this out. You can count on me from now on. I swear it.” I turned to the back of the book. “The only other thing I noticed so far is that Wendy Madigan’s parents are listed in the sponsor section for the yearbook. I thought it was weird that Grandma and Grandpa weren’t. After all, they had more money than anyone else’s parents could have.”

  I pointed to the entry. Mr. and Mrs. Warren G. Madigan, parents of Wendy Madigan, sophomore.

  “What about Simpson or Mathias? Are their parents listed?” Jonah asked.

  “Nope. Just Wendy’s. Probably not anything big. What was most noticeable is that our grandparents weren’t listed.”

  “That is weird,” Talon said. “Of course, no weirder than Dad lying to us that he went to Snow Creek High School.”

  Jonah shook his head. “I’m afraid Dad wasn’t the man we remember him to be. This is only the beginning, unfortunately.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. Joe had been acting strange since before we left for Jamaica. I was going to find out why. “I’ve had the feeling you’ve been keeping something from me for a while now. Both of you. I didn’t want to screw up your wedding, so I kept quiet. But now I want to know what’s going on.”

  “This isn’t going to be easy,” Joe said.

  My nerves jumped. “Okay. Now you’re freaking me out.”

  “Let me say something, first,” Talon said.

  “Of course.” I’d always listen to Talon. He was my hero, my savior.

  “You’re our brother, Ryan. Always. In every way that matters. I love you, man.”

  Now I was really freaked out. “Tal…I’m not sure you’ve ever said that before.”

  “It’s not what guys say,” Talon said. “But I love you.”

  “I do too,” Joe said.

  Jonah had said he loved me recently, and now Talon? Very odd. “I love you guys too, but you know that. What the fuck is going on?”

  Jonah grabbed the manila folder he’d brought with him and took out some documents. “We came into some information recently. Information we were hoping would be proved false.”

  “Yeah?” Icy fingers crept up my spine.

  Joe cleared his throat. “You know Wendy Madigan?”

  “Of course.”

  “While I was with her, after she kidnapped me, she made a claim. About you.”

  “What about me?”

  “God, Joe, how can we do this?” Talon asked.

  “We’re going to rip the Band-Aid off,” Joe said, and then looked me straight in the eyes. “These documents prove something. Something we hoped wasn’t true, but is.” He cleared his throat. “I wish I didn’t have to tell you this.”

  “Tell me what? Jesus Christ, Joe. What the fuck is going on?”

  Jonah exhaled. “Ryan, Wendy Madigan is your mother.”

  Chapter Thirty–Three

  Ruby

  I jolted as fists pounded on my door.

  “Damn it, Ruby. Open up!”

  God. Ryan. They must have told him. Why would he have come here?

  I opened the door, but what greeted me wasn’t the Ryan Steel I knew. His hair was unruly, his shirt untucked. He had a feral and crazed gleam in his dark eyes.

  “How could you?” he said. “How could you not tell me?”

  “I…” I had no words. He was right. I should have told him everything. “We didn’t know each other very well. We didn’t—”

  “Fuck that noise, Ruby. We had something special.”

  Had? Was it over? Probably. He had every right to en
d it. Every right to hate me. “Well…you know now.” What a stupid thing to say.

  “I know. What innocuous words those should be. Knowledge should be a good thing, shouldn’t it?” He waved the DNA test papers at me. “This is knowledge. Knowledge I never wanted.”

  “Ryan, come in and sit down. Let’s talk about this.”

  “I didn’t come here to talk.” He grabbed me and pulled me into him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This.” He crushed his lips to mine.

  I’d kissed Ryan many times before. Sometimes the kisses were passionate with ferocity, sometimes gentle and loving. This was neither.

  This kiss was punishing.

  While his urgency and physical manner scared me, I couldn’t pull away. Not now. Not after I was partially responsible for how he was feeling right now.

  After a few seconds, he was the one to pull away. “Goddamnit, Ruby, kiss me back.”

  Hadn’t I been?

  No, I’d been cowering, trying to release the tension, trying to resist the urge to pull away. Being forced into something did not sit well with me, given my history. Probably even not given my history.

  But this was Ryan Steel. The man I loved, though he didn’t know that yet. In my heart, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.

  So I opened to him, let him plow into my mouth with his tongue.

  Yes, this was punishment, as sure as if he were taking me over his knee and spanking me. He was blaming me for what he knew. Blaming me for my part in it.

  And he was right.

  I’d take his punishment. Endure what he had in store for me. And hope like hell we’d be okay afterward.

  He deepened the kiss, groaning into my mouth. It was primal, driven solely by instinct, and a few minutes later, when he broke the kiss with a loud smack, we were both breathless.

  “Bedroom?” he rasped.

  I pointed to the closed door off my living room. He pushed me toward it and opened the door. My double bed wasn’t made. I wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and my tiny apartment was smaller than his bedroom. But in Ryan’s current mood, he no doubt wouldn’t mind.

  He pushed me onto the bed. “Take off your clothes.”

  Rattling commenced in my nerves. I didn’t move.

  Show Daddy how much you love him. Now take off those clothes.

  “Did you hear me? I said take off your clothes.”

  I closed my eyes and exhaled. He’s not your father, Ruby. He’s the man you love. He’s hurting. He needs you. He won’t hurt you.

  I began to unbutton my crisp cotton shirt, my fingers shaking. You can say no, Ruby. You can stop this at any time.

  But did I want to? I could say no, and I felt sure he would stop.

  Sad truth.

  I didn’t want to say no.

  I wanted this as much as he did, maybe even for the same reasons. Anger. Punishment.

  I was angry at this outcome too, that Ryan Steel had been misled his whole life about his true parentage. I was angry at myself for not insisting he be told ahead of time.

  I was angry at my father for making me afraid of men for so long.

  Ryan Steel was not a man I was afraid of. He was a man I loved, and I would give him anything—anything—within my power if he needed it.

  Right now, he needed my body.

  I’d give it willingly, and I’d show him just how willingly.

  Instead of going to the next button, I pulled the two sides of my shirt apart, ripping the buttons and sending them flying through the air, clattering to the hardwood floor.

  Ryan’s eyes burned darker.

  I had pleased him.

  And that fact thrilled me.

  “Now the bra. Let me see those tits.”

  I couldn’t rip off my bra, but I unclasped it as quickly as I could, throwing it to the floor as my breasts bounced gently against my chest.

  Ryan sucked in a breath. “Your shoes. Your pants.”

  My sensible shoes were loafers, and I kicked them off and then removed my socks. As I began to work the button on my pants, I realized something.

  My pussy was throbbing. Throbbing in anticipation of being taken forcefully by Ryan Steel.

  It wasn’t just that I was in love with him, that I was attracted to him. It was the anger that was fueling our passion, our desire.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but it didn’t matter. I was all in. I’d been all in since I’d given Marjorie that hair sample.

  I slid my pants over my hips, following with my cotton panties. When all my garments were strewn on the floor, I sat in front of the man I loved, naked and vulnerable.

  Was I frightened?

  Hell, yes.

  But also turned on as hell.

  “Spread your legs. Let me see your cunt.”

  I resisted the urge to shudder at his graphic word. Instead, I obeyed, and he knelt at my bedside.

  He stuck his face in my pussy and inhaled. “I’m going to eat you out, baby. I’m going to suck you dry and make you come and come and then come again. You’re going to come so many times that you’ll be begging me to stop. But I won’t stop. I won’t stop until you can’t take it anymore. Until your body is so sated that you go limp. You got that?”

  I nodded, shivering…waiting. Waiting for his tongue, his fingers…whatever he wanted to put into me. I was up for it.

  “Do you know what a turn-on it is?” he said. “That I’m the only one who’s been inside this luscious pussy? That I’m the only man who’s taken you?”

  I nodded, not sure what else to do.

  “No one else will ever taste this pussy,” he said. “Not while I live.”

  What? I couldn’t make sense of the words. I was too busy waiting for him to lick me. I was on edge, so ready to come. It wouldn’t take much.

  “Tell me,” he said. “Tell me no one else will taste this pussy.”

  “What?”

  “Damn it, Ruby. Say it.” His eyes were dark, feral.

  “No one… No one else will taste…”

  “This pussy. Say it.”

  “Th-This pussy.” Though I’d thought it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever said that word aloud before.

  “Good. Now lie back. Get ready. You’re going to come.”

  And as soon as his tongue hit my clit, I did.

  Chapter Thirty–Four

  Ryan

  She tasted different. Even more delicious than usual. Or maybe it was the passion our emotion had aroused. I didn’t know, but I had to have her. Didn’t know what I’d have done if she’d sent me away.

  Thank God she hadn’t.

  Her climax happened quickly, more quickly than I’d expected. I shoved two fingers into her heat and rubbed at her G-spot, milking more and more orgasm out of her. She moaned, cried my name, and with each “Ryan” that came from her lips, my cock grew harder and my passion grew more intense.

  And the anger, the need to punish, subsided.

  I wouldn’t punish her. I would fuck her. I’d eat her and fuck her until I passed out next to her.

  I’d lose myself in her tight little body, her tight little cunt, and maybe she could take the nightmare away.

  I’d deal with the fallout later.

  I removed my fingers from her pussy and replaced them with my tongue, alternating between sucking her slick folds and tonguing her clit. I pushed her thighs farther apart, attempting to go deeper and deeper into her heat. Wanted—no needed—to get closer. To taste the deepest parts of her.

  Her pussy had never tasted so sweet. I devoured her as if she were my last meal, and when she claimed her second orgasm, I was rewarded with sweet nectar all over my lips and chin. Her moisture fueled my passions further, and I dived back into her heat.

  She cried out, another climax imminent, and I smiled against her folds as I sucked at them. Again, I said inside my head. Again. Come again.

  As if she’d read my mind, she shattered around me, and I forced my two fingers back inside, scissoring them, rubbing h
er anterior wall, trying to touch every part of her channel. Needed more. So much more.

  “Again,” I said against her wetness. “Again, goddamnit. Come again.” I nipped at her clit.

  “God!” she screamed. “No. Too soon. I can’t.”

  “You can,” I said. “Come. Now.”

  And again she unraveled, drenching me in her sweet cream. I lapped it up like a feline, still finger fucking her, still trying to touch her innermost parts.

  But my fingers weren’t long enough. I needed my cock now.

  But not until she came once more.

  I sucked at her, ate at her, drove her to the edge until she tumbled over the precipice, her cries a sweet symphony to my ears.

  I was still fully clothed, but I couldn’t take the time to undress. I unbuckled my belt, undid my jeans, and pushed them and my boxers over my hips. My cock jutted out, as erect as it had ever been. I shoved it into her swollen pink cunt.

  Ah, God, sweet suction.

  She cried out, her eyes squeezed shut.

  I wanted to milk another climax out of her, but I couldn’t. Not now. Not when I needed my release so badly. A release inside her tight body.

  A salvation.

  I thrust and I thrust. I fucked her and I fucked her.

  And when my balls tightened and I shot my semen into her, the freedom flowed through my veins into every cell of my body.

  I collapsed on top of her.

  Sated.

  * * *

  I awoke the next morning alone in a strange bed.

  Ruby’s bed. It was Sunday, so she wouldn’t have gone to work.

  A clock radio on the nightstand said ten o’clock. Ten? I’d slept until ten? That was unheard of.

  And then everything came crashing down again. What I’d learned yesterday, and how the world had tumbled down around me. My whole fucking world. My identity. How Joe and Talon had tried to talk to me, to bring me down from my rage. How I’d run out on them. How I’d come to Ruby’s, intent on having it out with her for her involvement.