Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ruin Me, Blackwood: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Dominic’s POVI didn’t go home.I couldn’t.Instead, I found myself driving aimlessly through the city, the roads blurring past me in streaks of harsh streetlight and shadow. The ache in my chest was a steady, suffocating thing — one I hadn’t felt in years. Not since my mother died. Not since I learned how to build walls so high no one could get close enough to see what was breaking underneath.But then there was Amelia.And she wasn’t just inside my walls.She was standing at the goddamn epicenter.I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ached, jaw clenched as I replayed every second of tonight in my head. The way she’d looked at me, eyes wide and shining, as if she saw something worth saving in a man who’d spent years convincing himself he was beyond redemption.I hated how much I needed her.How much I craved the sound of her voice, the softness of her touch. The way she challenged me, pushed back when everyone else cowered. She was stubborn and reckless and entirely to

Dominic’s POVI shouldn’t have come here.I knew it the second I sent the message. Knew it when I stood outside her door at two in the goddamn morning, listening to the muted hum of the city beyond the hallway, knowing there was only one thing I wanted — one thing I couldn’t have.Amelia Carter.My best friend’s little sister. The one woman who was completely off-limits.And yet, here I was. Like a fucking addict, chasing a high I had no business wanting.When the door finally opened, and she stood there in nothing but a silk robe that clung to her body like a second skin, hair tousled from tossing and turning, eyes wide and uncertain, I felt something inside me snap.I didn’t wait for her to speak. Didn’t give myself time to second-guess it.I crossed the threshold and kissed her like a man starved.And she let me.She tasted like sleep and sin, like something forbidden and necessary, and I didn’t give a fuck about consequences. About loyalty. About right and wrong.There was only

Dominic’s POVI couldn’t stay away.I told myself I wouldn’t go to her. That after I left her apartment, I’d get in my car, drive back to my penthouse, pour a glass of something strong, and remind myself why this was a bad idea. Why Amelia Carter was the one line I could never afford to cross.But logic meant shit when it came to her.Every mile that stretched between us felt like a weight pressing on my chest. Every breath without her in the room felt too fucking loud. Too empty. I tried drowning myself in work. Emails. Contracts. Anything to distract myself from the way her voice still echoed in my head, from the taste of her still clinging to my mouth.It didn’t work.It never fucking worked.I stared out the window of my office as the city bled into night, the lights of Manhattan flickering like a thousand untouchable stars. Somewhere out there, she was probably curled up in bed, sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of the war I was fighting inside my own head.I should’ve stay

Dominic’s POVThe moment I stepped inside Amelia’s apartment, the air shifted. It was like the space itself held its breath, waiting for something—waiting for us to decide what we were going to do with the weight between us. I closed the door behind me quietly, but inside, my heart hammered like a war drum, every beat loud enough to drown out the silence.The apartment smelled faintly of vanilla and something fresh — a contrast to the cold, sterile environments I was used to. It was hers, unmistakably. Warm, lived-in, with the subtle chaos of a woman who didn’t care to make everything perfect but still kept it beautiful in her own way. She stood by the window, framed by the fading light of dusk that spilled across the room in a soft amber glow. The city buzzed faintly beneath us, oblivious to the storm building inside these four walls.I studied her from across the room—Amelia Carter, the woman who used to be my best friend’s little sister, now standing in front of me, no longer a gir

Dominic’s POVEvery instinct in me screamed to keep my distance. To guard the walls I’d built around my heart like a fortress—unyielding, impenetrable, safe. But the second Amelia looked up at me with those wide, uncertain eyes, vulnerability radiating from every trembling breath, I realized something terrifying: those walls were already crumbling. Brick by brick, piece by piece.I sank down onto the edge of the sofa, fingers tracing the worn fabric absently while my mind spun a thousand directions at once. Amelia wasn’t just my brother’s best friend anymore. She wasn’t that carefree, laughing girl I’d once teased relentlessly. She had grown into something fierce and complicated—beautiful in a way that made my chest tighten with a mix of desire and protectiveness. She was the only person who ever truly saw me. The man beneath the cold, ruthless CEO exterior. The man beneath the gruffness, the anger, the power.And now she was here. Right in front of me. Willing to risk everything—even