Page 62 of Glorious Ruin
Silas was halfway down the porch steps when he realized I wasn’t behind him. He spun around, his chest heaving, his eyes locking onto where I was still standing frozen in the hallway.
“Callum! Come on!”
My name snapping from his lips broke the spell. I pushed off the wall, keeping my head down and avoiding Maverick’s eyes entirely as I hurried out the door, letting it slam shut behind us.
We didn’t speak on the short walk back to our house. The air between us crackled with electricity, the adrenaline from the altercation still humming in my veins. My chest ached where Maverick had pinned me, but my emotional ache was worse. I felt exposed.
The second we stepped through our front door, Silas turned the deadbolt with a sharp click, locking the world out. I expected him to pace. I expected him to scream or throw something, further fueling the rage he’d just unleashed on his dad. But as soon as the door was locked, he turned to me, and the fire in his eyes completely vanished.
The anger melted into a consuming desperation, softening his features. He closed the distance between us in a single stride, framing my face with his hands. His thumbs gently stroked my cheekbones as his eyes scanned every inch of my expression.
“Are you okay?” he shakily whispered. “Did he hurt you? I swear to God, I’ll go back down there and—”
“I’m fine, Si.” I breathed, closing my eyes and leaning into the warmth of his palms. “I’m okay. He just…caught me off guard.”
Silas let out a ragged sigh, stepping closer until our chests touched. Sliding his hands down to my collar, he gently adjusted the bunched fabric of my hoodie.
“You froze.”
I let out a dry laugh and dropped my forehead against his shoulder. “It’s embarrassing, honestly. In the ring, I can take a chair shot to the head without blinking. But out of there, when people come at me like that… It’s like my brain just shorts out. Turns out, I don’t like fighting when there isn't a bell.”
Silas’s arms wrapped securely around my waist to pull me tight against his body. He pressed a slow, fiercely protective kiss to the crown of my head. “You don’t ever have to be embarrassed about that.”
He was stepping fully into the role of my anchor, which was a necessary reversal. For years, I’ve been the one to pull him out of a panic attack and shield him from the noise. But right now, Silas wasmyshield.
“You don’t have to defend yourself physically. You hear me? Not against my family, the office, or anyone else."
He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye with a steady gaze. “I’ll fight for us, foryou. Anyone who tries to touch you, I’ll tear them apart. You’re my husband. My job is to protect you.”
A single tear slipped down my cheek, and Silas caught it with his thumb as my hands found his waist. “It’s still our day.”
His pupils blew so wide, his eyes looked entirely black in the dim light of the house as ragged breaths pulled the fabric of his shirt tight across his chest. He didn’t say another word. He just stepped into my space, hooked his fingers into the hem of my faded Philly hoodie, and hauled me toward the couch.
He moved with a frantic energy, pushing me down onto the cushions. Each movement was urgent and possessive, stripping away his composure until there was nothing left but the raw man underneath. He didn’t wait for me to get my heavy boots off. He climbed directly on top of me with his knees bracketing my hips in a straddle. The friction of our bodies pressing together was euphoric, sending a jolt of heat straight to my groin.
With shaking hands, he grabbed the hem of his own T-shirt, pulling it over his head and blindly tossing it to the floor. The late afternoon light caught a faint sheen of sweat forming on his golden skin, highlighting the coiled muscles of his abdomen.
“I love you,” he whispered. His voice was wrecked but beautiful as he leaned down to kiss me.
It wasn't like the soft, sweet, reverent kiss we’d shared at the courthouse just hours before. It was desperate,hungry. There were teeth and tongues and a bruising pressure that tasted of home and adrenaline.
“You’re mine.Myhusband, no one else’s.Neveranyone else’s.”
I groaned into his mouth, a deep, guttural sound that ripped from the deepest cavities of my throat. My hands slid up his bare back, heat radiating from him as my fingertips traced the familiar ridges of his spine. Beyond this room, this couch, the world ceased to exist.
He tugged my pajama pants and boxers off urgently, and my cock, which had already hardened at a painfully rapid rate, sprang free. My hands gripped the waistband of his sweats and yanked them down his muscular thighs to release him, his thick dick weeping with pre-cum.
Silas moved right back into my lap, straddling me again with more messy kisses. We devoured each other, biting and marking the other as if trying to be each other’s air. I reached around his waist, my hands finding the firm swell of his ass, and slid my hand between his cheeks, teasing his hole with the pads of my fingers.
Silas let out a whimper at the sensation, arching his back as his hips rocked into my hand. He was chasing the pressure, silently pleading with me for more. When he finally did pull himself from my mouth, he was a sight to behold; panting, breathless, and dazed with his hair strewn in a wild halo around his face.
“Lube,” he breathed, pausing to run his thumb against my lip. “In the…side table.”
I halted for a split second, glancing at the small wooden end table above my head. An amused smirk pulled at my lips while a wicked heat pooled within my gut. “Have you been casually hiding lube bottles throughout our house?”
Silas’s cheeks turned a seductive shade of pink, the flush spreading down his neck and over his collarbones. “I like being prepared.”
I stretched as far as I could, opening the side table drawer. Silas let out a frustrated growl, shoving my arm from around his waist. He snatched the lube bottle from my hands the second I retrieved it with a desperate kind of greed.Flicking the lid open with his thumb, he squeezed a generous amount of the cool substance into his palm. Grabbing my throbbing cock, he eagerly stroked with a firm, slippery grip that was just enough to drive me completely insane. My hips bucked upward instinctively, a sharp hiss leaving my teeth.
