by Avery Flynn
…
Ruby ached with need, every nerve ending tingling and desperate for Lucas’s touch. Her core clenched as she lowered the zipper of his pants, slow enough to elicit a tortured groan from him. Good. This was how she wanted him, as lost in desire as she was.
Finally, when she couldn’t stand to wait any longer, she pushed his pants down and took the long, thick length of him in her hand. Pressing her thumb against the sensitive spot right under the head, she leaned forward and lapped up the glistening drop of pre-come on the swollen tip. She looked up at him as she slowly slid her tongue over her lips, spreading that first taste of him.
“Ruby.”
God, she loved the sound of her name coming from his mouth. Instead of answering, though, she went back to his cock, taking him inside her mouth and curling her tongue around his width as she sucked him deeper. Tasting him, stroking him with her tongue. Taking him as far as she could, even with one hand wrapped around the base of him and the other cupping his balls.
It shouldn’t be this good. He wasn’t even touching her. Still, she was slick with desire, and the demanding ache she’d had a few moments ago had grown to an undeniable need. She sat back and let him slip from her mouth.
“I need you,” she said, stroking her hand up and down his now wet shaft before giving it a quick kiss.
“Lucky for you.” He kicked off his shoes and took off his pants and underwear in one downward sweep. He reached behind his neck and tugged his shirt over his head, not even bothering to unbutton it all the way. “I’m here to serve.”
Thank God for big favors.
“Lie back on the bed.”
It wasn’t a request, it was an order delivered in a rough timbre that made her nipples pucker—and judging by the bad-boy smirk on his face, he knew exactly the effect he was having on her. Not doing it wasn’t an option she even wanted to consider. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give him a little bit of sass back.
She sat back on her heels then tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, reached behind her back, and unhooked her bra.
His cock jerked in response to her teasing act of defiance. “You’re not following orders.”
“I’m a very bad girl that way.” She folded one arm across her chest to hold the lace in place and then slipped one bra strap off and then switching, doing the same with the other.
A muscle in Lucas’s cheek twitched as he watched, silent and intense, but otherwise, he didn’t move.
She lowered her arm. The bra followed. Keeping her gaze locked on his face, she licked the tips of her thumb and first finger then used them to pinch her already hard nipples, rolling them and pulling them taut.
His hands fisted, but he remained still.
“Oh, you’ll give me nothing until I lie down, huh?” she asked. “Whatever will I do?”
She released her nipple and slid her fingers lightly down her stomach to the top of her panties. Raising herself up on her knees, she slipped her fingers under the waistband and between her wet folds. Even though the lace covered her, it was see-through enough for him to have a partially-obstructed view of her fingers circling her clit in unhurried strokes. She was so turned on that it wouldn’t take long, but she wanted to come with him so she stopped and lifted her slick fingers to his mouth.
“Taste,” she said.
The word hung in the air between them.
“I will,” he practically growled. “But not like that.”
He moved so fast she didn’t see it coming, grabbing her behind the knees and yanking so she flopped onto her back. Half a second later, her panties were sailing through the air to land somewhere on the clothing-littered floor and her legs were spread wide. She figured he would dive in without any hesitation. She was wrong.
Taking his time, he kissed, nipped, and licked his way down the inside of her leg, his grip an iron vise not letting her pull away when he hit a tickle spot or one so sensitive that her hips came off the bed, her clit vibrating in response.
“No escaping now,” he said. “You started this. It’s only finished when you come so hard you forget your own name.”
The comeback on the tip of her tongue evaporated the moment his tongue touched her in firm, unhurried licks so good they bordered on torture. The feel. The sound. The electric pulses jolting through her. They were as overwhelming as they were welcome. He lowered one leg to the bed, pushing it out as far as it would go, and began to stroke her folds, spreading her wide so she was utterly and completely open to him.
The vulnerability of it crept into her head, scaring her and tugging her away from the pleasure.
“It’s okay,” he murmured against her. “I’ve got you.”
And he did. She knew it the same way she knew the northern lights would send streaks of green across the sky in the fall—and tonight she’d pretend it could be that way forever. She pushed away the fear and relaxed.
“That’s it.” He lapped at her clit and plunged first one and then another finger into her, curling them so he rubbed against her G-spot. “So tight.” Another lick. “So good.” He twisted his fingers, stroking them in and out in a steady rhythm. “So perfect.”
The vibrations started in her thighs, ebbing and flowing like waves that crashed into each other.
“Lucas.” She could barely get his name out, it was too much.
“Let it come, I’ve got you.”
He sucked her clit into his mouth while pressing his tongue hard against its base, relenting and repeating it over and over again as the sensations increased and took her higher and higher until her orgasm broke her into a million pieces. And like he promised, Lucas was there for her as she came down back into herself, slowly, breath by breath. When she could focus again, there he was, wrapped around her and holding her close. His fingers traced the line of her hip and outer thigh, getting as far as her knee before making the feather-light journey back up.
A deeper desire took hold of her, one that didn’t call for an explosion outward so much as the aching need to be filled, to be completed. “I might still remember my name.”
His quiet laugh and increased pressure of his hard cock nestled against her ass were his only responses.
She rotated her hips, relishing the feel of him against her but needing to feel more. “You’ve made me greedy.”
“For what?” He reached around and cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb against her nipple.
Her breath caught. “You.”
He rolled her nipple until it peaked. “That I can give you.”
“Tonight.” There was something masochistic about her insistence on reminding herself of the temporary nature of this, but she needed to, because tomorrow was going to hurt enough without the little white lies meant to comfort that only delayed the inevitable heartbreak.
“Ruby, we—”
“Have only tonight.” She rolled so she faced him, pushed him onto his back, and grabbed the condom from the bedside table. “Let’s make the most of it.”
…
Already on the edge after watching her come, Lucas held his breath as Ruby rolled the condom onto his straining cock. That was bad enough. When she lowered herself down onto him, so tight, he had to do equations to keep from losing it right there. He clamped his hands onto her hips and held her still against him, loving that he had the taste of her on his lips even as his dick was buried in her.
“This is more than tonight.” It had to be. Something this right didn’t disappear when the sun came up.
She didn’t argue. She didn’t agree. Instead, she tossed back her head, planted her palms on his chest, and rode him hard, grinding her clit against his pelvic bone at the end of each downward stroke. It was almost enough to drive them both into oblivion, but he wasn’t going as a passive observer. Hell no.
He took one hand off her hips and wrapped her long hair around his fist, pulling her head back. She made that moan that just about killed him every time and increased her pace, arching her back even more. The
angle allowed him to hit the sensitive nerves just inside her entrance with each forward and retreat. It was beyond good, but he needed to feel her come all over him. He released her hip and reached between them so he could circle her clit with his thumb. She tightened around him and he nearly lost it. Keeping an iron grip on the last shreds of his self-control, he kept himself right on the edge, refusing to fall into the abyss until she did.
Her legs began to shake and she rocked harder against him, digging her nails into his chest. One. Two. Three strokes. She came with a harsh groan, squeezing him tight.
Only then did he follow her over, raising his hips off the bed and driving into her as deep as he could. Five rough, deep strokes and his balls tightened. The vibrations built at the base of his spine, and he made one final thrust before coming hard enough level a brick wall.
Ruby collapsed next to him, her chest heaving in time with his own. He closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath. At least that was what he tried to tell himself. The truth was, he didn’t want to let her go. It was idiotic. It was illogical. It was fact.
“I’ll be right back,” he said before taking a quick trip to the bathroom to discard the condom and then turn off the bedroom lights.
When he got back, she was curled up on her side. He got into bed beside her, pulling the covers over both of them, and tucked her in close to him. He stroked her hair, so smooth and cool, as she snuggled closer. With any other woman this was the moment when he snuck out, but there was nowhere he’d rather be than with the woman he loved, even if it was only until dawn.
“Love you, rainbow girl,” he whispered against her hair, the words coming from a place in him that he didn’t even know existed until he met her.
She propped her chin up on his chest, the look in her eyes as sad as it was wistful. “I wish it was a simple as that.”
He wasn’t a man for games or fantasies. Life had taught him long ago how stupid it was to lie to yourself, but he couldn’t help himself. For as long as he could make the night last, he’d do what he always seemed to do when it came to Ruby—he’d break his own rules because being with her was worth it.
“For tonight, let’s pretend it’s that simple.” He pushed a strand of blue hair away from her face.
“I love you,” she said, then brushed a kiss across his lips and laid her head down in the pocket of his shoulder.
What else was there to say? They couldn’t make plans for the future. They couldn’t commiserate about the past. They only had right now. So he held her close as she drifted off to sleep, but he couldn’t.
There was too much he wanted to memorize about her, the slope of her shoulder, the line of her neck, the curve of her hip, the feel of her fitted perfectly against him like she’d been made just for him. It was one of his life’s cruelest ironies that the only woman he’d even fallen in love with could never be his.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning, Lucas got dressed next to Ruby in silence. Everything left unsaid hung in the air between them, even though the time for talking had passed. The clock was ticking. They had to call off the wedding and he had to get Ruby off Fare Island so that whatever happened after the Silver Knights took Henriksen into custody wouldn’t blow back on her. Keeping her close to him wouldn’t be loving her, it would be signing her death warrant.
“Ready to go jump off the fjords?” Ruby asked, already heading for the bedroom door.
Lucas swallowed the protest building up inside him and gave her a curt nod. The urge to take her in his arms and kiss her nearly overwhelmed him, but he couldn’t give in. His part of the mission was complete. The Silver Knights were setting up in Luxembourg now, prepping the site for Henriksen’s arrival in a few days. He was needed back at headquarters, and she needed to be anywhere but here. The longer he kept her here, the more danger she was in, and he refused to leave her like that.
Seeming to understand the personal battle he waged, she gave him a trembling, bittersweet smile before letting out a deep breath and opening the door. They walked down the hall, stopping in unison at the top of the stairs.
There were people everywhere. The foyer was crowded with wedding guests, their chatter and polite laughter filling the air all the way up to the top of the cathedral ceiling.
“I didn’t realize everyone would be arriving en masse this morning,” Ruby said, worry forming sharp lines across her forehead. “So much for making a quiet announcement to my mom and Rolf before the guests arrived.”
The fact that more than one hundred people, coming in from all over Northern Europe, had ended up arriving at nearly the exact same time set off Lucas’s sixth sense. It couldn’t be a coincidence. What it was, he didn’t have a clue. He’d figure it out later. Ruby’s safety came first.
“This doesn’t make it any easier, but we’ve got to get you off this island.” He glanced around at the sea of people. “Do you see your parents?”
“Over there in the corner.” She nodded her chin to the right. “Rolf is talking to the short man in the navy suit with his back to us. Mom is listening to that woman wearing the purple fascinator.”
Hand in hand, they went down the stairs and wound their way through the well-wishers until they were right behind her parents still deep in conversation with the short man.
“Relax.” Rolf clapped his hand hard on the other man’s shoulder. “This was the perfect idea. The package arrived with thirty other yachts and smaller crafts. Even if they’re watching, they’ll never have any idea what’s on board. I’m telling you, the wedding is the perfect cover.”
Lucas jerked to a stop. All the little details about the short man came into focus. The faded scar above his shirt collar. His super-short blond hair. The chunk missing from the shell of his right ear where a stray bullet during the Elskov coup ten years ago had missed ending the man who would threaten her safety again to avenge his father.
Gregers Henriksen was on Fare Island.
An icy fury directed only at himself pricked every nerve until Lucas was so overloaded, he couldn’t feel a damn thing, and this was what let him clearly think for the first time since Ruby had walked past him into Moad Manor. Using the arrival of the wedding guests, a mix of the rich and reckless along with the criminal and shady, to camouflage the arms exchange was the perfect plan. One Lucas should have seen coming. Now there was no way to cancel the wedding, not if he was going to stop that exchange before Henriksen took off with the rest of the guests Sunday morning. Looking over at Ruby, he saw the same stark realization in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It comes first.”
Before he could form words, Ingrid pivoted and spotted them.
“If it isn’t the happy couple,” she exclaimed. “Ruby and Luc, come meet Annabelle DiStario, she is Mr. Henriksen’s guest and the only woman I’ve ever met who can do such a beautiful fascinator justice. Don’t you agree, Ruby?”
“Most definitely.” Her voice shook the slightest bit, but her gaze and welcoming smile held steady as she reached out to shake the woman’s hand.
“Have you met Luc Svendsen before, Gregers?” Rolf leaned in closer to the man. “He’s a friend of ours who carries secrets for the same reasons the other people carry cash.”
Rolf chuckled at his own joke. Ignoring his host, Henriksen narrowed his eyes and gave Lucas the kind of hard look that made every hair on the back of his neck stand at attention. Less than fifteen people in the world knew Luc Svendsen, dealer of information people would rather keep quiet, was Lucas Bendtsen, head of the Silver Knights. The chance of that secret getting out was minute, but who better than him to know that those were the exact kind of secrets that always managed to get out. In the blink of an eye, though, the questioning look disappeared.
“You do look familiar, but I’m having trouble connecting the name with the face.” Henriksen shook Lucas’s hand. “You’ll have to forgive me. I’m horrible with names.”
“It’s good to meet you.” Not wiping his palm on his p
ants took more self-restraint than he was used to exerting, but control was his best weapon right now.
More of the guests wandered over to extend their well-wishes. The conversation went on around him, and he was sure to make the appropriate responses and facial expressions, but he wasn’t really listening. Henriksen had disappeared into the crowd, but Lucas couldn’t shake the feeling that the man was somewhere watching him, biding his time. Rolf had already moved the exchange once. Lucas couldn’t take the chance that he’d do it again, not when Henriksen and the guns were on the island.
The guns.
It jolted through him. His team wasn’t here, but if he, Clausen, and Jasper could confirm their location, the Silver Knights could confiscate them and take Henriksen into custody. The fact that Rolf wouldn’t be sentenced to a life inside an Elskovian prison for his part in the plot burned a hole in Lucas’s gut, but the order had come down from the queen herself not to touch him. Before any of that, though, he needed to ensure he wasn’t sending his agents on another wild goose chase. He had to make sure the guns were here, somewhere on the island.
Ruby intertwined her fingers with his and squeezed. “Don’t be fooled by his silence, Ms. DiStario, I’m sure Luc has an interesting take on the latest wool crisis.” She looked up at him, tension evident in her strained expression. “Don’t you, dear?”
Of course I don’t. Who the hell cares about wool when there is an entire armory of guns secreted away somewhere?
And he knew just the person to help him figure out where.
Turning on the charm, he lifted Ruby’s hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “I hate to do this with all the guests arriving, Ingrid, but I have to sneak away with my bride to be for a little bit before you steal her away from me for all the last minute wedding preparations.”
“How romantic,” DiStario said with a sigh.
Ingrid’s face softened, and the underlying sadness that always seemed just under the surface and the spark of iron she’d shown the other night rose to the forefront for half a second before her usual half-hazy expression fell back into place. “You do that. I’ll try and hold off the horde for as long as possible.”
