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There were moments in your life that changed everything. Sometimes they were planned. Sometimes fate dealt them. As I leaned back against the clubhouse couch and forced the club whore’s mouth down over my dick, I closed my eyes and drew in a long breath. This was a moment I would never forget.

Planned? Yes.

Life altering? Yes.

Fucked up? Fuck yes.

But then, fucked up was my style. So Ivy shouldn’t have ever figured me for anything else.

I’d spent nearly six months working up to this moment. After the night I almost forced myself on her. Hell, I’d tried to do this in a civilised manner, but she hadn’t accepted that. It turned out that although she’d thrown her walls up at me for months, she blanched at the idea of us walking away from each other. She’d refused to accept a break-up, declaring her love for me and promising to try harder. Never wanting to imagine a life without her, I’d allowed our dysfunction to continue. So here we were about to spiral into poison and a betrayal we were guaranteed to never recover from.

My only option to keep her safe.

Fuck.

Just the thought of what I was doing to Ivy caused my dick to shit itself and soften in the whore’s mouth.

I pressed harder on her head. “Suck it, bitch. If you can’t make me fucking hard, I’ll find someone who can.”

She glanced up at me with a scowl. “Screw you, King. I’m fucking trying here. It’s not my fault if you can’t get it up. How long’s it been since you’ve had a decent blow job anyway?”

I eased my body to a sitting position and wrapped my hand around her neck. Squeezing her hard, I snarled, “You wanna keep that shit up about my woman, and I’ll make fucking sure your ass is out of this club faster than you can open your fucking legs. I asked you to suck me off. I didn’t fucking ask you to argue with me or speak to me.” My fingers dug harder into her skin. “You think you can manage that?”

Fear crawled across her face. She nodded, but her previous confidence disappeared. When she answered me, her voice held the hesitation I could see in her eyes. “Yes.”

Thank fuck for that. I needed this shit to happen now. There wasn’t any time to fucking waste.

I let her go and sprawled back against the couch. I reached for the bottle of whisky that sat next to me, and took a long swig of it while she got to work.

Another club whore came into view, smiling down at me. “Sorry I’m late, King. I got sidetracked doin—”

I motioned for her to get her ass onto the couch next to me. “Just get your tits out and put them in my mouth.” I didn’t have time to listen to her bullshit.

The fact she didn’t argue with me made my fucking day.

By the time Ivy entered the clubhouse bar where I lounged with my dick in one whore’s mouth and my lips wrapped around another whore’s tits, I’d zoned the fuck out. I wasn’t getting off on any of it. Instead, I was counting down the minutes until Ivy found me.

My eyes met hers as she came to an abrupt stop. I didn’t move. I simply kept sucking the tit in my mouth. Kept fingering the cunt riding my hand. And kept fucking the mouth wrapped around my dick.

Seven years flashed right before my eyes, though.

Seven years of loving Ivy.

Fuck, if we were really counting the years I’d loved her, it was more like thirteen.

I watched as the shock, anger, and utter disappointment hit her. I took in the way her face contorted, and her shoulders slumped for a moment before she squared them again and prepared to go to battle with me.

Always fighting me.

“You fucking bastard!” Her pain screeched out of her, slamming into me. I was deeply intimate with Ivy’s pain, but this was a whole new type of hurt for her.

I had never once cheated on her. I knew she still wondered about it, because club whores could be summoned with the click of a finger, but I’d sworn my loyalty to her when I was seventeen. And I fucking lived by that loyalty. It was the one thing I believed in. The code I lived by. When I swore loyalty, I fucking meant it.

And yet, there I was.

Breaking that code and shitting all over the one relationship that meant the most to me.

Ivy’s madness consumed her as she ripped both the whores away from me. Her eyes dropped to my dick before straying to my hand that had just been inside a pussy that wasn’t hers. Her face curved in disgust and disbelief right before her hands pummelled my chest.

“How could you do this to us?” she yelled as she straddled me, still beating her hands against my chest.

Fuck, there was the fight I craved.

But it was also the fight that I knew would be the death of us eventually.

Ivy and I were on a path of destruction. We loved each other too much. Too fiercely. Too fucking savagely. We would never survive this kind of love.

Jethro had made me understand that. He’d shown me how I was slowly killing Ivy. We weren’t a match made in heaven. We were each made in hell—our parents saw to that—and we would burn there together if we continued pushing each other to the edge of crazy.

I allowed her to continue her tirade, only stopping her when she slapped my face and yelled, “I gave you everything. Everything! And you knew how hard that was for me. You told me you’d never fuck us up!”

I gripped both her wrists and stopped her. “I told you last week I wanted to end this, but you didn’t listen.”

Her eyes widened. “And I told you I was willing to change, to work on us, because I love you. I thought that’s what we were doing.”

“No, that’s what you were doing. I never agreed to that.”

She tried to wiggle out of my hold, but I tightened my grasp on her wrists and held her in place. I needed her to take this in.

Her breathing grew ragged. She blinked rapidly to stop tears from falling. Ivy hated crying. That she was close to it now told me I was on the right track. I just needed to push her harder.

“Why are you doing this, King?” she begged. “I don’t understand.”

My chest tightened at her plea. Fuck. This was more difficult than I’d prepared myself for. “All we do is argue. I’m sick to fucking God of it.” And I’ll probably kill you one day if we keep dancing this dance. No fucking way would I allow myself to kill the woman I loved. I needed to know she was safe. Safe from me.

“You’re not sick of it. There’s something else going on here. I want you to tell me what it is.” Her eyes implored me just as much as her words did. Ivy wasn’t giving up without a fight. Because that was what we did. We fought not only over random meaningless shit, but we went to battle for each other. For us.

Jesus, was the threesome not enough to make her walk? To make her hate me? I clenched my jaw. “Ivy. We’re done.” My tone was low, full of warning. I needed her to take note. I did not want to have to speak any more lies to force her hand. Lies that would, by necessity, shatter her.

She yanked her wrists from my hold. Her eyes flashed with the passion that called to me. Fuck, how I loved Ivy’s fire. “We are not done! We’ve been through too much together to ever be done, King. You might be an asshole and possessive as hell and fucked up, but you are also the man who has made me feel more loved than anyone ever has.”

“If you really wanna know what’s going on here, I’ll tell you.” Sucking in a deep breath, I steeled myself to inflict a level of hurt on her that would kill me to do. “I’ve spent thirteen fucking years propping you up, Ivy. You’re weak. I need a stronger woman by my side. So you need to pack your fucking bags and get the fuck out of my life. This thing between us is over.”

My words hit their intended mark. She froze as they sliced and suffocated her. And those tears of hers finally fell. She wasn’t done with me yet, though. In true Ivy fashion, she had to have the last say. “I tried hard to be the woman you needed, King. I wasn’t perfect, but I fucking tried. You are a hard man to love, let me tell you. Demanding, bossy, irrational, and I’m almost certain you’re half insane. And yet I still loved you through all of that. Even your fucked-up needs when it came to sex weren’t enough to push me away. I might have failed you there, but I fucking tried!” She jabbed a finger at me. “Fuck you for being a motherfucker who can’t keep his dick in his pants. I thought you were so much more than that.”

By the time she was done, black tears streamed down her face as her body shook with anger and hurt. She looked at me like I’d driven a knife through her heart. Like I’d pierced her soul and drained every last drop of love and trust she’d ever been able to find in her darkness.

The worst kind of betrayal comes from those you love.

I’d achieved my goal.

Ivy walked out of my life without a backwards glance.

I stood rooted to the spot watching her leave. Watching my reason for fucking living exit my life. And I vowed never to fall in fucking love again.