Library
Search
Home / Romance / Ruin Me, Blackwood / Chapter Forty: Nightfall

Share

Chapter Forty: Nightfall

Author: Hallie Hart
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-29 18:34:03

Dominic’s POV

I wasn’t a man who believed in peace.

Not anymore.

There was a time, long before boardrooms and blood-stained contracts, before Marcus Keller’s threats and my father’s cold, unforgiving hands, when life was simple. When it was just summer nights at the Carter house, Ethan daring me to climb trees too high, Amelia chasing after us with grass-stained knees and that bright, fearless laugh.

Back when I thought the world was something I could control. Before I learned it was the other way around.

I watched her now, standing barefoot in my living room, framed by the city lights. She looked so fucking breakable, her hair spilling down her back, the curve of her bare shoulder catching the glow from the windows. But there was a steel in her too. A stubbornness that matched mine.

And it terrified me.

Because I’d made a mistake letting her in. I knew it. But the second I’d touched her, tasted her, felt her fall apart in my arms, it was already too late.

I didn’t know how to let go
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter One Hundred and One: Still Him, Always Him

    Dominic’s POVI didn’t know what I was expecting when I texted her. Maybe silence. Maybe another one-word answer like before, something sharp and dismissive, something that matched the cold distance I’d forced between us.But she replied.See you at eight.Those four words had no right making my chest tighten the way they did. I sat in my car across the street from the café, fingers tightening around the steering wheel as I stared through the windshield like a coward. She wasn’t even inside yet, but I already felt like I was being dragged backward — pulled into a memory, into a version of myself I had spent years trying to bury.Amelia Carter had always been the soft spot I tried to ignore.Even as a teenager, when she was just my best friend’s little sister, always lingering around with too-wide eyes and too-curious questions, I’d known she was dangerous. And now? She wasn’t just dangerous.She was devastating.I ran a hand through my hair, sighed, and checked the time again. 7:58. T

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter One Hundred: Crossroads

    Amelia’s POVThe soft glow of Dominic’s message blinked insistently on my phone screen as I lay in the darkened silence of my apartment. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the words. Too late. Simple. Cold. Yet somehow, weighted with so much meaning.Was it really too late?I curled into the familiar ache settling deep in my chest. For weeks now, I’d been walking a tightrope between desire and doubt, between hope and the harsh reality of everything Dominic Blackwood represented. He was a man built of contradictions — ruthless and vulnerable, commanding yet uncertain, the kind of man who could make you feel like the only person in the world one moment and then push you so far away the next, you weren’t sure if he’d ever let you in again.I swallowed hard and let the phone slip from my fingers onto the bed beside me. The silence that followed was deafening. My mind raced through memories — the way he’d looked at me during that last meeting, how his jaw had tightened every time I challeng

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Ninety-Nine: All the Things I Shouldn’t Feel

    Dominic’s POVShe left her coffee cup in the sink, her hair still damp from the shower, wearing that soft green sweater that somehow made her look both fragile and untouchable. She smiled at me before heading out the door like she hadn’t just completely upended my world.Like last night hadn’t meant something.But it had. It meant everything.The second the door clicked shut behind her, the silence came crashing in. Loud. Suffocating. Heavy in a way that hit straight in the chest.I leaned on the edge of the counter, staring at the doorway like she might walk back through it if I stayed still long enough. She wouldn’t, though. Because she trusted me now. Trusted me not to run, not to lash out, not to push her away again. And that trust was a fucking weight I didn’t know how to carry.I had no blueprint for this—whatever this was. No manual on how to let someone in when I’d spent years locking every door inside me shut.And still... she’d slipped in.Amelia had waltzed into my world wi

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Way He Looks at Me

    Amelia’s POVI woke up before the sun, the early light just beginning to stretch through the curtains, casting soft shadows across the sheets. The air was warm and still, and for a moment, I didn’t move. I stayed curled in the same spot I’d fallen asleep—wrapped in Dominic’s arms, my cheek resting against his chest, his heartbeat steady beneath my ear.It felt safe here. Real. Like the kind of moment you hold your breath in, afraid to break the spell.But then reality started to creep back in, curling under the doorframe, whispering all the reasons this shouldn't feel like home.He stirred beneath me. His hand moved slowly across my back, as though he was trying to remind himself I was still there, and I felt the tension return to his body as he woke.“You’re awake,” he murmured, his voice deep and rough with sleep.“Yeah,” I whispered. I didn’t move away.“Me too.”I lifted my head, resting my chin on his chest so I could see his face. His hair was a mess, eyes darker than usual in t

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Ninety-Seven: Fractures and Fire

    Dominic’s POVThe silence in the apartment was deafening. Thick. Suffocating.I stood in the kitchen, leaning against the marble counter, staring at the untouched glass of whiskey I’d poured over an hour ago. The ice had melted, watering down the fire I thought I wanted. But I didn’t want the drink. I wanted her.I wanted Amelia.I’d spent the last few hours in the dark with only the hum of the refrigerator and my own guilt to keep me company. Guilt for pushing her, for needing her, for not knowing how to love her without breaking her in the process. Every time I got close, something inside me recoiled—like love was a threat I couldn’t outmaneuver.And I hated that.I hated myself.I pushed away from the counter and ran a hand through my hair, the tension in my body coiling tighter with each passing minute. She was in my bed. Sleeping, maybe. Hating me, probably. And I deserved it.I padded through the apartment barefoot, the weight of what I’d done following me down the hall. My fing

  • Ruin Me, Blackwood   Chapter Ninety-Six: I Want to Believe Him

    Amelia’s POV I woke up to the sound of rain tapping against the windows — soft and rhythmic, like a memory trying to crawl back into my chest. His arms were still around me. Not in the accidental, half-asleep kind of way. But the kind where every inch of him was pressed against me like he was afraid I’d disappear in the space between blinks. And maybe he should have been. Because that’s what I’d planned, wasn’t it? To go. To walk away before the damage became permanent. Before my love for him left me hollow. But then he whispered it. I love you. And now I was stuck in the limbo between wanting to believe him and knowing I probably shouldn’t. I kept my eyes closed, listening to the steady beat of his heart beneath my cheek. He was warm. Solid. Real in all the ways that had always made it hard for me to stay mad at him for long. But real didn’t mean safe. Real didn’t mean enough. Dominic Blackwood was the kind of man who could destroy a woman just by staying. Not by being

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status