by Shania Tyler
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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Ruby
“Ruby,” a man’s voice whispered in my ear, and I fluttered my eyes open to realize that I was lying upon a man’s chest. My heart hammered as I tried desperately to remember the events of the night before, but nothing came to me. When I moved slightly in the bed, the sheets stroked against my bare legs, and I realized that I wasn’t wearing my dress. Had I really been that drunk that I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here?
Panic rose in my throat as I realized that I’d slept with someone. I couldn’t remember sleeping with whoever it was, but I had. I must have done at least something with the man who was currently lying next to me. How else would we have ended up in bed together like this? Please, don’t be Scotty. That was the last thing that I needed right now – to deal with Scotty hanging on and insisting that I had feelings for him when I surely did not.
I looked down at the man next to me and realized from the look on his partially-covered face that he must have still been asleep.
Recognition hit me like a semi-truck. I knew that hair, that face, that muscled upper body. It’s Major. For a moment, I was overwhelmed with the sweet sensation that he must have been dreaming about me to have spoken my name while he slept. Then I felt the rush of panic all over again at what I had done, and I began to clamber quickly out of the bed. Oh, God. How had this happened?
My heart raced as I looked around the room for my dress, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I’d taken it off. When I gazed down at myself, I realized I was wearing one of his t-shirts. One of Major’s t-shirts, a stark piece of evidence that it had happened. They’d officially crossed all sorts of inappropriate lines.
How the hell did I get into this? My head began to throb. I wasn’t sure whether it was the stress of the situation I found myself in or the fact that I’d had way too much to drink that made my head hurt but all I knew was that I wanted it to stop.
“Ruby?” Major’s voice hit my ears again and the questioning tone told me that he was awake this time. For a moment, I thought of ignoring him and pretending like I hadn’t heard him. I thought of slipping into the bathroom to pretend I was freshening up. I just needed a moment or two to process.
“Ruby, are you all right?”
He shifted in the bed, and I knew that it was too late to run now. I was a deer in headlights. I turned to face him and saw the look of concern on his face.
“No, I’m not all right,” I cried. “This was a bad idea. I should never have gone out last night. I should never have come back here with you. I should never have slept with you. Everything is ruined!”
I ran my fingers through my hair as I felt the headache worsening. I could do nothing but screw my eyes closed in an attempt to ease it off.
“Whoa! Hey! Ruby, calm down!” Major jumped off the bed. “This didn’t ruin anything. At least it hadn’t until you freaked the fuck out on me and made me feel like sex with me sucked.”
Just as my eyes flew open, he gripped my arms as though he wanted to steady me against my racing thoughts.
“Ruby, look at me,” he told me. I turned my face up to look at him, and he stared me right in the eye as he added, “Did sex with me suck? Is that what this is about? Because we can just pretend it never happened. Or we can try again…”
I bit back a laugh. I was starting to have flashbacks of last night and not a single one of them sucked. “Umm, I’m not sure. I don’t remember.”
He looked slightly irritated. “You don’t remember having sex with me? Me – Major Lawson.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded as I snapped myself away from him, suddenly offended. “Like just because you’re Major Lawson the sex had to have been great? Like I didn’t have anything to do with it? It wasn’t a team effort?”
“Damn it, woman, you are infuriating,” he growled at me. “A moment ago you were devastated because you remembered that we had slept together but now you are angry because I told you we could pretend like it had never happened.”
“I’m angry because you acted like a pompous dick about it!” I yelled at him and instantly regretted it as it caused my head to throb all the more. I pressed my hand to my temple and screwed my face up again.
“I’m sorry,” he shook his head and sighed deeply. “I said that because I’m trying to do whatever I have to do to make you understand that I’ll do anything to fix this. You had too much to drink and you were traumatized and it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have made a move at all. The truth is, when I thought about us having sex prior, I would have preferred it be remembered on way better terms than this.”
“I’m sorry,” I sighed as I continued to run my fingers through my hair. “I’m always a mess the morning after I’ve been out drinking. I wasn’t thinking clearly either”
“I can see that,” he looked me up and down and I was suddenly all too aware of the fact that I was stood in front of him half naked.
“Where is my dress?” I asked him as I pulled the hem of the t-shirt I was wearing down a little further so that he could no longer see my panties.
He was smiling as though he was pleased by my discomfort as he replied, “I assume you left it in the bathroom when you got changed last night but its ruined, so you’ll have to wear this over the top.”
He picked up a white t-shirt from the end of the bed and I distantly remembered him getting it out of the top drawer the night before.
“Thanks,” I told him as I took hold of the t-shirt.
“Why don’t you have a shower here to save you having one when you get home and I’ll run over to Tommy’s and grab my truck?” he suggested.
I was about to protest when he began to walk away, leaving no room for me to argue with him. When he stopped at the door and looked back over his shoulder, I knew there was no way I was going to persuade him not to help me. “I’ll be back in a few.”
With that, he disappeared from the room, leaving me feeling a whirlwind of emotions. I had no idea what I was even doing here. What the hell had I been thinking? That was just it. I hadn’t been thinking. I had been drunk and just went on feelings and emotions. Why else would I have spent the night with Major Lawson? My body clearly had taken hold of the reins and my mind had taken a back seat.
Determined not to think about it anymore, I turned and padded into the bathroom. Dropping the t-shirt he’d given me down onto the counter beside the sink, I stripped off the other t-shirt and my panties and flicked on the shower.
After waiting a few moments for the water to heat, I slipped under the jet and stood for a few moments simply enjoying the feel of the water rushing over my body. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I pushed my head back under the water and allowed it to soak into my hair.
After shampooing, I grabbed some shower gel and began to rub it all over my body. I needed to remove all the sweat and grime from the club. When I ran my fingers over my back, I felt pain shoot up my spine, and I gasped in surprise. I remembered suddenly the way that my attacker had forced me back against the wall of the alcove, and I realized that he must have pushed me hard enough to bruise. I wasn’t one for bruising easily, so he must have given me a real hard shove.
“Ruby? Are you okay?”
Major’s voice interrupted my reverie of the night before. I shivered, his voice running through me in a way that had nothing to do with the attacker or the heat of the water currently pouring over me.
Clearly, he didn’t want to wait for my answer and the door opened slowly, first a crack then wider. His head popped through, his gaze intense even through the steam of the shower and the glass. “Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Suddenly, everything from last night hit me at once. Not just the attack, but him. Everything that had happened. It was so much to take in. I felt faint. I let out a little mewl of distress, and he strode over to me in a flash
, ripping off his athletic shorts and cotton shirt in two moves that barely registered in my vision.
He opened the glass door, stepping into the large tiled walk-in shower completely naked. I gasped. “Major…”
His cheeks were flushed already, but whether it was from the heat, the attraction, or embarrassment, I’d likely never know. His voice was low when he asked, “Are you okay?”
I nodded, my wet hair sliding against my nude shoulders. “Yeah, it was just… everything, you know?”
He stayed silent for a moment. “You don’t always have to be so strong. You can lean on someone else for a few minutes if you want. I can do that for you.”
My heart flipped a little. The guy was actually kind of sweet, when he wanted to be. I laughed. “Thanks.”
“And if you need someone to help you rinse off…” he offered, looking at me intensely.
The giggle I was going to let go died in my throat as he looked at me. I didn’t really think he was kidding. Eager to forget the night before, I should’ve gotten out of the shower, but I couldn’t look away from him. Couldn’t walk away.
Instead, I reached forward, sliding wet hands up his shoulders, down his muscled ribcage and abs. When I hooked my hand around his hardness, he let out a groan that sounded a lot like my name. Biting back a smile, I enjoyed myself for a few minutes. Here, I was in power. I was in control. I rubbed him up and down, his member slick and so hot.
I was about to drop down to my knees to take him in my mouth, when he must’ve seen the bruises on me. He hissed. “I should’ve killed that guy.”
I motioned it off. “No, you shouldn’t have. And I’d like to focus on… other things right now.”
He let out a strangled chuckle, then dropped his mouth down onto mine. Our tongues fought for purchase, our make-out session almost desperate in its intensity. He reached down and sucked my nipple into his mouth, causing me to gasp. It was like a frisson of intense heat straight to my core.
Without preamble, he slipped his cock into me on a thrust that had me begging for something I couldn’t voice. He was so big, so hard, that all I could think about was having more. In any way possible. He started to thrust into me, his eyes flickering shut and his hands squeezing my breasts until I was a mess of emotions and feeling.
My orgasm came suddenly, rushing through me and causing my thighs to clench around him. When my pussy constricted, he groaned, and I felt him release into me. We both stayed like that, together, for a few minutes until I realized I probably looked like a drowned rat and needed to get out of the shower.
He reached forward, washing all the soap off me. We both slipped out of the shower, toweled dry with only a few inappropriate touches to our naked bodies. When I turned to take a look at my back in the mirror, I was stunned. The large purple bruise that covered my lower back was even worse than I thought but I was relieved when I examined the rest of my body and found that there weren’t any marks that anyone would be able to see. The last thing I wanted was to have to answer question after question on how I’d been hurt. That was definitely not a conversation I wanted to have with anyone.
I looked up at Major and he just looked pissed but didn’t say a word. He walked out the bathroom and disappeared to let me get dressed.
I brushed my teeth with his toothbrush, fixed what was left of my makeup, and peed. I was just about to pull on my dress again when I heard knocking coming from the bedroom. The sound caused me to jump, and I rolled my eyes as I realized that Major must have forgotten his key card.
I grabbed the towel I’d just used to dry myself and wrapped it around me before heading out into the room to let him in.
“You know you really shouldn’t be so forgetful,” I called to him as I headed down to the door. I pulled it open with a smile that quickly dropped as I found myself face to face with a woman. She was clearly half-African with tendrils of thick black curls dyed caramel at the tips but her skin was a pale chocolate color suggesting that at least one of her parents was white.
“Can I help you?” I asked, all too aware of the fact that I was standing in my towel in front of a woman I didn’t know.
The disgusted look she gave me as she looked me up and down told me all I needed to know. She clearly had some kind of relationship going on with Major and it was not something I wanted to get in the middle of.
“Who the hell are you?” She glared at me as though she wanted to fly at me, and I was instantly fearful for my life.
“I could ask you the same question.” I stood my ground. There was no way I was going to let this woman intimidate me, no matter what I had just walked into. I’d done nothing wrong and at least I could say that with a clear conscious knowing it was true. Major had confirmed as much before he’d left, “You are the one who just knocked on the door of a room I was already in, so maybe you would like to go first?”
I crossed my arms over my chest, still holding up my towel, all too aware of just how easily it could slip off. My heart was thundering, and I was more than a little on the spot but there was no way I was going to let her know that. I’d been in enough confrontations over the years in my line of work to know how to handle myself.
“Oh, damn it!” Major’s voice came from down the hall, and I instantly sighed with relief as the other woman’s eyes were drawn away from me.
“Major! There you are! Who the hell is this bitch?” the woman demanded, throwing her thumb in my direction.
“Excuse me?” I gaped at her. Under no circumstances had I been a bitch to her but I was beginning to feel the need. Had I been a less classy woman, I might have thrown myself at her there and then, especially had I not been wearing a towel that threatened to fall with the slightest of movements.
“Don’t speak about her like that,” Major insisted as he approached, and I was pleased that he defended me so quickly. “Ruby can be a little bossy sometimes, but she’s not a bitch.”
My cheeks instantly began to brighten at that, and I struggled to stop myself from yelling at him and proving just how bossy I could really be. When he turned to me with a deep scowl on his face and a look in his eye that told me not to say too much, I was more than a little wary.
“Why don’t you go inside and wait for me?” he said, and the woman only looked more appalled. “I can handle this.”
“Handle this? Handle me? You couldn’t handle me even if you tried!” the woman yelled at him, and I instantly knew that she was insane. Major was the type of man who could handle just about any damn woman he wanted. I could see it from the way he held himself, from the way he charmed every female in sight. Heck, he even made some of the men swoon.
“You sure you don’t need backup on this one?” I asked, looking the woman up and down, making it clear that she pissed me off just as much as I did her.
“Dream on, honey,” she threw at me, and I could feel my anger rising further.
Oh, hell, she definitely knows how to push my buttons. I bit the inside of my lip to force myself not to say anything out loud.
“I’ve got this,” Major insisted and I began to turn around to head back into the hotel room.
“That’s it, turn around and walk away,” the woman snapped at me, and I pausedwhere I was. For a moment, I thought of turning around and flying at her just like she had looked like she would do to me when I first opened the door.
“Shauna! Get out of here!” Major yelled, and I knew there was no need for me to do anything. The anger in his voice told me all I needed to know. He was definitely going to handle it. I pushed the door, leaving it open just enough for Major to enter once he’d finished throwing out the trash and stood back to listen. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I was too intrigued, too wound up not to. I needed to know what that was all about.
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17
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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Major
“Shauna, what the hell are you doing here? How did you even find out where I was staying?” I demanded as soon as Ruby had closed the door. I slipped in front of the doorway to block Shauna’s path into the room, knowing that Ruby hadn’t closed the door all the way. “You have no right to be here.”
“I asked around until I found you.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I needed to see you.”
“Like I said, you have no right to be here,” I reminded her. “What the hell do you even want?”
“I want you, Major.” She reached forward and took hold of my arm, but I quickly snapped it away. The thought of her touching me made me feel nauseous and it was the last thing I wanted. “I want you back.”
“You are crazy.” I shook my head and glared at her. “You need to go and get your head tested or something because we were never together.”
“Don’t talk like that, Major.” She sounded hurt, and the look in her eyes told me she really had gone off the deep end. “We were good for a while, weren’t we? We had fun.”
“Try telling that to your boyfriend,” I hissed at her in the hopes of reminding her that she had been with somebody else, definitely not me. “Try telling the guys who fired me because you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself.”
She paled then, and I knew I’d hit a nerve. Hopefully, that would be enough to put her off, enough to stop her coming back here again. The last thing I wanted to do was find another place to live because this crap just kept on following me.
“Stop it, Major.” Shauna shook her head and reached for me again. “I know you felt the same way that I do once. I know you want me just as much as I want you.”
“I want you like a hole in the head, Shauna,” I assured her. “I lost everything because of you, and I didn’t even do any of the things I was accused of so forgive me for wanting nothing to do with you. Why don’t you go back to your quarterback boyfriend?”
