Page 125 of Ravaged Devotion

“Don’t look.” Ryker turned Rue’s head away and kept stretching him open on his fingers. “Are you mad that I killed your friend, little brother? Want me to stop?” Despite his offer, he pounded into him with more force, twirling his digits within him.

Rue moaned as zaps of pleasure traveled from his core to skitter up his spine and down to his toes, and he shook his head. He wanted to tell him to keep going. Wanted to say he understood why Bowie was dead. But the words wouldn’t come, and he gave up on trying to speak, too overwhelmed by the knowledge that Ryker was here with him.

That Ryker was alive.

And about to fuck him.

To urge him to hurry, Rue lifted his hips suggestively, earning a dark chuckle from his stepbrother.

It wasn’t natural, to be this desperate when the body of his ex-best friend was still cooling on the floor. When he’d just lost his family and discovered how truly messed up the whole lot of them had really been.

When the annoying reporter’s voice on the tv was still yapping away, and Ellery was still happily answering questions like he needed more fame. The whole damn planet already knew who he was—the reporter had even asked for his autograph—yet there he was, taking over screen time, flirting with the male reporter who appeared to be only a few years older than them.

Oh.

Well if Ell could think about sex at a time like this too, maybe Rue wasn’t so messed up after all.

Or maybe comparing himself to Ellery Norwood was Rue’s way of mentally hitting rock bottom.

Who knew.

Who cared.

Ryker entered him in the way he started most things. Aggressively and without warning. One second there were fingers in his hole, and the next Rue was being filled with thick, burning cock that seemed to set his insides on fire.

He fucked him hard against the pod, the two of them rocking the machine, their bodies slapping together lewdly, so that the sounds of their joining echoed in the room, almost loud enough to drown out the voices on the tv. He wasn’t gentle because of everything they’d been through, didn’t give Rue a moment to come up for air. His cock drove into him repeatedly, fighting against those constricting muscles working so desperately to cling onto him, dominating Rue’s entire being in a way only he could.

“I heard what you said.” Ryker growled the words against the curve of his ear, then dropped his mouth to his throat and gave a hard suck that had Rue jerking under him. “You should never have left me the first time.” His hand slipped beneath his chin, and he hauled him back against him. “There most certainly will not be a second.”

“I wouldn’t,” Rue somehow managed to say over the sensation of having his insides rearranged in the most delicious way. “I’ll never leave you again. Thank you.” He was crying. “For not leaving me.”

Thank you for not being dead, was what he meant to follow that up with, but then Ryker adjusted his weight and altered the angle, and when his cock tore through him again, the whole world came to a stuttering halt.

Through the glass at the end of the pod, Rue watched as his dick unloaded, come splattering against the slick surface and all over the plush pad they were kneeling on.

Ryker took a little longer to get there, pounding Rue for another five or so minutes, whispering how hot he was all the while. The dirty talk was so affective, Rue ended up coming a second time just before Ryker reached his orgasm.

He thrust in deep and went still, pumping Rue full as he held him close and breathed against the spot just below Rue’s nape. He’d rested his forehead there and stayed in place while they rode their release out, as though needing to touch him in as many places as he could to be convinced this was real and they were both still breathing.

That they’d made it off that damn mountain and through the horrors they’d endured there.

Thanks to Rue’s mother.

And his best friend.

“What’s wrong?” Ryker sensed the second the change came over him. He allowed Rue to sit up, but kept his arms banded around his waist, pulling his back to his front. His lips found the sensitive spot beneath his ear and he licked and sucked at him, cock still buried in his warm heat despite the fact he was no longer hard. “Don’t be sad. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

Rue couldn’t hold back anymore. It was like someone had blown the dam.

The Black Heart held him close as he sobbed.

* * *

Fifteen or so minutes later they were both standing next to the pod, Ryker having used the switchblade to cut through the tape binding Rue’s ankles and wrists.

Rue’s eyes strictly on the ceiling, unwilling to look at Bowie. As soon as the tape was gone, he yelped when he found himself caught up in the Black Hart’s arms in one swift move that sent his head spinning.

Ryker carried him from the room to the one next door. When they’d been younger, they used to sequester themselves away there on rainy days and read comic books while they gorged on Ryder’s hidden stash of candy. There were still yellowed paperbacks stuffed in the line of shelves beneath the window.