Chapter Ten: A Message and a Warning

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• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Sixty: Breaking Point

  Dominic’s POVThe city stretched out beneath me, a vast sea of glass and steel and light, but inside this towering sanctuary, everything felt like it was closing in. I sat behind the polished mahogany desk in my office, fingers drumming absently against the cool surface. The skyline was a blur beyond the windows, but my vision was narrow, focused inward where the real storm raged.The office, with all its sleek luxury and cold efficiency, offered no refuge today. The weight of expectation sat on my shoulders like a leaden cloak — the unyielding mask I wore every day, the ruthless billionaire, the untouchable Blackwood. But beneath that facade, I was unraveling, piece by piece, and the last night with Amelia was the catalyst.Her presence was a paradox — the bright flame that could either warm or consume me. She’d seen through the walls I’d painstakingly constructed, saw the fractures I refused to admit existed. The truth was, I’d spent years burying my past, the betrayals, the losses,

• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Fifty-Nine: Holding On

  Amelia’s POVThe soft morning light crept through the edges of the blackout curtains, painting faint patterns on the pale walls of Dominic’s apartment. The city was waking up outside — cars honking, footsteps echoing down distant streets — but here in the quiet sanctuary of the bedroom, time felt suspended, stretched thin like the fragile thread holding me in place.I lay still, the sheets tangled around my legs, my body warm from Dominic’s steady presence beside me. Yet despite the comfort, sleep eluded me. My mind was a battlefield of emotions—hope wrestling with fear, desire clashing with doubt.Last night’s revelations played endlessly on repeat. Dominic’s walls, so rigid and cold, had cracked wide open. His confession, raw and unguarded, had exposed the man beneath the billionaire mask—a man haunted by ghosts and burdened by pain. And in that vulnerability, something fragile and precious had been born between us.But the morning light demanded clarity, and with clarity came the h

• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Fifty-Eight: Walls Crumbling

  Dominic’s POVThe morning light was unforgiving, piercing the shadows of the study with brutal clarity. Jagged lines of sunlight cut through the blinds and scattered across the dark wood floor, illuminating the dust that danced silently in the air. I sat motionless in my leather chair, fingers tapping an uneven rhythm against the armrest, every tick of the clock syncing with the tempest inside me.Last night’s conversation replayed over and over in my mind. Amelia’s voice — calm, unwavering, and fierce in a way I hadn’t seen before — echoed like a lifeline in the storm raging inside me. She’d seen past the layers of control, the gruff exterior, and stared straight into the fractures I’d spent years hiding.“I’m done fighting alone,” I’d said. And in that confession lay a kind of surrender I’d never imagined possible. The walls I’d built so high around myself, the armor I wore like a second skin, were crumbling — and it terrified me.But it also felt like salvation.I let my gaze drop

• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Fifty-Seven: Finding Ground

  Amelia’s POVThe early morning sun filtered softly through the sheer curtains, casting delicate patterns of light and shadow across the room. It was a gentle reminder that the world outside was moving forward, oblivious to the tumult inside me. Yet here I was, frozen in a moment suspended between fear and hope, caught in the gravity of everything Dominic Blackwood represented.Last night’s conversation — raw, honest, and unlike anything I’d ever shared with him before — echoed relentlessly in my mind. His voice, usually so controlled and commanding, had softened. The hardness around his eyes had melted away, revealing cracks in the armor I’d spent so long trying to ignore. When he confessed his fear of losing control, of letting someone in, it wasn’t just words. It was a glimpse into the fractured man beneath the billionaire’s polished surface.I lay on the bed, tangled in the sheets, heart pounding like a wild drum. The memories of his hands on my skin, the heat of his gaze, the way

• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Fifty-Six: Breaking the Silence

  Dominic’s POVThe city skyline was painted in muted tones of early morning—the soft gold of dawn bleeding slowly over the jagged silhouette of skyscrapers. From my vantage point by the floor-to-ceiling windows of my penthouse, the world outside looked calm, serene even. But inside, my mind was anything but peaceful. It was a battlefield of contradictions, chaos wrapped in silence, and a storm of emotions I had no clue how to contain.Amelia’s presence lingered like a whisper on my skin, the memory of last night’s touch burned deep in my nerves. It was as if she’d lit a fire inside me—one I hadn’t felt in years, not since I’d buried that part of myself beneath layers of control, power, and ruthless ambition. Now, all that armor felt cracked and vulnerable, and instead of recoiling from it, I was drawn to the rawness, the aching need it exposed.She was in the living room, asleep on the couch, her breathing slow and even, the soft rise and fall of her chest the only sign that she was th

• Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Fifty-Five: Unraveling Control

  Amelia’s POVThe elevator dinged softly, a quiet punctuation to the long day that had left me drained yet restless. I stepped into Dominic’s penthouse, the door sliding shut behind me with a muted click that somehow made the world outside feel miles away. The city buzzed faintly through the windows, but here, in this space, everything was quieter, more intimate, and impossible to ignore.I dropped my bag by the door, my heart still thrumming from the conversation we’d shared earlier, the way his eyes had searched mine with raw honesty. Dominic Blackwood, the man who had always been the embodiment of control and cold precision, was unraveling in front of me—and somehow, I was the cause.As I moved into the living room, I caught sight of him standing near the floor-to-ceiling windows, shoulders broad and tense, jaw clenched like he was holding back a storm. He hadn’t turned around yet, but I knew he was aware I was here. Always aware.“Amelia.” His voice was low, almost a growl that sen