by HELEN HARDT
“So you really think he’s alive?”
“I think he has to be. We found the death certificate that was clearly tampered with, and none of us actually saw his dead body. Plus, my mother says so.”
I opened my mouth to blurt out that he couldn’t take anything his mother said seriously, but stopped myself. If what I suspected about Wendy was true, we needed to start considering everything she said more critically. We needed to figure out how to separate the lies from the truth and the reasons behind all of them.
Right now, though, we both needed a break.
“Look,” I said. “I’m exhausted, and I have work tomorrow. Let’s sleep on this.”
He smiled. “Is that an invitation?”
No, it hadn’t been. What was I supposed to say? Before I could think of something appropriate, my cell phone buzzed.
It was a text.
Don’t go home tonight.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ryan
Ruby’s rosy cheeks went white as she looked at her phone.
“What is it, babe?”
She cleared her throat. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit. Who texted you?”
“I don’t know, actually.”
I grabbed the phone out of her hands, not caring whether she liked it or not. The text was still on the screen.
Don’t go home tonight.
What the fuck?
I motioned to our waiter to get the check. “You’re coming home with me,” I said.
“Look, I’m sure—”
“Don’t even try to tell me this is nothing. Can you get into your office system from anywhere?”
She nodded.
“We’re going to trace this number, figure out who sent this and what it means.”
“I can do that right now,” she said, “if you’ll give me my phone.”
I handed it back to her. The waiter came by with the check, and I handed him a credit card while Ruby tapped away at her phone.
“Anything yet?” I asked.
“Nothing in the regular phone database. Which means it isn’t Wendy stealing an orderly’s phone again, unless someone at psych lockup has a privatized number, which isn’t likely. I’ll have to do a more in-depth search.”
“Which you can do from my office at my place.” I scribbled out a tip and my signature on the credit card receipt the waiter had set in front of me. “Let’s go.”
* * *
I poured two glasses of wine for Ruby and me and then looked outside. It was a nice night. Early November. Thanksgiving would be here soon. We’d celebrate at Talon’s like we always did, his being the biggest house on the ranch, and this year, we’d have two new family members to include.
Thinking of such a nice family time should have made me happy, but my nerves were jumpy. Ruby was in danger, and that didn’t sit well with me at all.
“Any news from the department?” I asked her.
“Not yet. They’re keeping watch. No one will get in or out of my place tonight.”
“I’m just glad you’re not there,” I said. “If something…”
“What?”
“Nothing.” I handed her a glass of wine and then took a sip from my own. “You want to sit in the hot tub? I need to relax.”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact. Relaxing sounds great.”
After we’d shed our clothes and donned robes, we headed out into the cool night air. I took the cover off the tub, and the steam rose up around us. We took off our robes and got in. I inhaled, remembering our times in Jamaica under the stars. Even though we lived in the country, so many more stars had been visible in the Caribbean. I inhaled the night air.
“Sometimes I wish we were still in Jamaica,” I said, “without a care in the world.”
“Jamaica had its own issues,” Ruby replied.
“Damn!” I stood and sat on the edge of the tub. “Can’t we relax? Can’t we just remember the good times? I’m so sorry about those two girls. I really am, Ruby. But my life has taken a one-eighty since we got back, and I just want to relax. To remember.”
She stood as well, taking my hand. “Get back in the tub, Ryan.”
I obeyed, sitting down next to her, her wet skin against mine. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I want to relax too. You have to understand, though, that I haven’t really relaxed in the last seventeen years. I even fought it in Jamaica, and then, after Juliet and Lisa…”
I turned toward her, cupping her cheeks. “We had some amazing times. Even after Juliet and Lisa.”
She nodded, though she didn’t smile. “We did.”
“Can we concentrate on those times this evening? So much has happened, and all I want to think about is you. You. Here. Safe. There was no way I was letting you go to your apartment tonight.”
She opened her mouth, but I shushed her.
“Let me finish. I know you can take care of yourself. I get it. You’ve been doing it forever, and you’re a cop, and you’re armed, and you know self-defense. I get all that, Ruby. I do. But goddamnit, let me protect you. I need to.”
I did. Talon had protected me all those years ago, and though I’d lay down my life for my brothers and my sister, a new surge was rising within me now. The need to keep Ruby safe was stronger than the need I felt toward my siblings.
That scared the hell out of me.
And that trust thing? When she’d given my siblings my hair for the DNA test without telling me? My love was stronger than that. We’d work through that issue. Together.
“I don’t need—”
“Christ, Ruby, did you hear anything I just said?”
She sniffled. I didn’t think she was crying. It was probably the heat.
“I did hear you, Ryan. I heard every word. I just can’t abide the idea of not protecting myself. It seems…unnatural to me.”
“Well, get used to it. You’re mine now to protect.” I grabbed her and smashed our lips together.
She opened immediately, accepting my kiss, though perhaps not my offer of protection. We’d work on that.
I needed to keep her safe. Needed to keep her with me.
I wanted her with me all the time. She’d have to move in. She was no longer safe at her apartment anyway. Someone was clearly after her, and someone else had sent that warning.
She’d have to—
My thoughts jumbled as she swirled her tongue around mine.
No more thoughts. Only emotion. Pure emotion and physical need. I needed this woman. Needed her in more than a physical and emotional sense. It had transcended beyond that.
This was what my brothers had found, and now I knew why they would never let it go.
I’d never let this woman go.
I groaned into Ruby’s mouth, trying to express all the feelings jumbling in my head with this one kiss. I ached for her, longed for her, needed her in the most visceral way.
Damn it, I would have her. I stood and lifted her, turning her so her back was to me. “Hold on to the edge of the tub,” I demanded.
With a swift thrust, I entered her, filling her balls deep. “Ah!” A groan of satisfaction left my lips.
This was what it felt like to be home. Home within the body of my love.
I had to tell her. Had to tell her I’d fallen in love with her. Had to tell her she was moving in with me, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer.
I demanded everything from her. Right now, and I demanded it as I pounded into her body, taking what was mine. For that’s what she was now.
Mine.
I plunged as deeply as I could, taking refuge in her tight little pussy, in her beautiful body. Away from the mess my life had become. Away…
And I came into her, making her mine as I filled her with my semen.
When the orgasm finally subsided and my flaccid penis slipped from her slick channel, I sat down into the water, bringing her with me onto my lap.
“I needed that,” I said.
She nodded, saying nothing.
<
br /> “I’m sorry. I didn’t give you a climax.”
“That’s okay.” She let out what sounded like a nervous laugh.
My heart was pounding so hard against my sternum. I had so much to tell her. So much to give her. So much…and I feared she wouldn’t be ready to receive it.
She’d have to.
There was no going back for me now.
I was all in.
I looked deeply into her blue eyes.
“Ruby. I’m in love with you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ruby
I’m in love with you.
I played the words over and over in my mind, the steam swirling around us, our skin slick from the combination of warm water and perspiration.
Those words I’d never expected to hear in my life…and they’d come from Ryan Steel. One of the Steel brothers, the best catches in Colorado.
This was surreal.
Had he really uttered them? Or had it been my imagination as we sat under the stars, steam enveloping us, warm water drifting over us? Fantasy churned in the air. Surely I could have created the words in my mind.
“Don’t say anything yet,” he said. “Come to bed with me. I owe you an orgasm. Or three or four.”
It hadn’t been fantasy.
He led me out of the tub, helped me put on my robe, and then escorted me back into the house, Ricky frolicking at our heels.
I’m in love with you.
And then, more of his words haunted my mind.
You’re mine to protect.
No. I wasn’t his. I would never belong to him or anyone else.
My independence screamed at me to tell him that, to say I wasn’t going anywhere with him, and I was certainly not his possession.
But the desire within me overruled my independence, and I continued following him to the bedroom where he laid me gently on his bed.
I’m in love with you.
I was in love with him too. I’d known it for a while, and I wanted to say the words—wanted to so much—but something held me back.
All this time, I’d never dreamed he could actually feel the same way I did. Never dreamed any man could feel that way about me, never dreamed I’d want any man to.
Ryan Steel was not any man.
He peeled the damp robe from my body, my skin still glistening with moisture. He stood above me, his dark hair wet and slicked back, his eyes smoldering, his pink lips so plump and full. His body… Those broad shoulders, perfect chest and abs, coppery nipples, and black hair smattered over his flesh.
And his cock. He was already hard again. It sprang from his black curls as beautiful as it always did. I took a moment to look at it, to truly examine it. It was a shade darker than his tan skin, and two purple veins marbled around and under the shaft. The tip of his head glistened with a drop of moisture.
I wanted to lick it off, but at the moment, I didn’t move. Even though part of me screamed to do what I wanted, to exert my independence, that other part of me, that part I’d kept hidden for so long, yearned to submit.
He leaned over me and brushed his lips against mine. Just a soft, sweet kiss. Then he moved over to my cheek, my neck, sending shivers throughout every cell in my body. He trailed his full lips over my chest, the tops of my breasts, until finally he reached a nipple.
My areolas were already wrinkled and taut, my nipples so hard they strained forward, searching for fingers, lips, a stubbled cheek—anything to brush against them and give them the attention they ached for.
Ryan didn’t disappoint. He flicked his tongue over one while thumbing the other. I moaned, straining, lifting my hips off the bed, aching for more of his kisses, his tongue, his touch. His everything.
“So beautiful,” he murmured against my skin.
I groaned when he tugged on my nipple with his teeth. I was wet for him, could already smell the earthy musk permeating his bedroom. I inhaled, savoring the aroma, letting it slide into the pores in my skin, making me warm all over.
Ryan continued with my nipple, alternating tugs and sucks with soothing licks while he twisted the other one between his fingers. I squirmed beneath him, undulating my hips, searching for his cock to fill me.
“What do you want, baby?” he asked, his breath warm against my breast.
“Mmm…you.”
“You’ve got me.” He glided his hand from my breast down my belly to my vulva and then slid his fingers through my labia. “So wet. God.” He pushed a finger into me while he thumbed my clit.
“Oh!” I nearly flew off the bed. The climax was swift and voracious. I moved my hips in tandem with the contractions inside my walls as they illuminated my body with fire and ice simultaneously.
“That’s it, my love. Come for me.”
My love.
Wow.
If possible, his words increased the intensity of my climax, and I soared even higher, grasping fists full of the silk covering Ryan’s bed.
As I came down, sinking into the mattress, he let my nipple drop from his lips and kissed me.
A long, sweet kiss. A kiss full of love.
I had to tell him. Had to tell him I was in love with him too. But right now, I wanted to melt into the amazing kiss he was giving me, show him without words what I was feeling. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer, as close as I could. Our tongues tangled and dueled, groans humming from our throats and vibrating against each other’s mouths.
I love you, Ryan, I said with that kiss. I love you so much.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ryan
The kiss went from sweet to primal in what seemed like an instant. Ruby deepened it, thrust her tongue into my mouth, and took from me, and I was only too happy to give. Our mouths were fused together, the energy between us sizzling so much that visible sparks wouldn’t have surprised me if I’d opened my eyes. But I kept them closed and melded into Ruby’s mouth, her body.
Here lay a woman who mere weeks ago had never been kissed, yet she was kissing me like the goddess of love herself.
I reveled in it, in her, as she exerted her strength and rolled us over so she was on top of me. My cock nudged against her vulva, her soft hairs tickling the head.
I had to have her, had to feel her slick walls suctioned around my cock. Though it pained me, I broke the kiss.
“Ride me, baby. Sit down on my cock and ride me.”
She slid upward, her skin sticking to me from the perspiration between us. Her scent hung in the air. That intoxicating mélange of female musk laced with vanilla. I could smell it forever and never tire of it.
She plunged down onto my cock, her plump breasts bouncing lightly against her chest. Her nipples were dark and ruddy from my attentions, still hard as little berries.
How had this happened? How had she come to mean everything to me? At a time when I wasn’t even sure who I was anymore, Ruby Lee helped to define me. I needed her. I could only hope she needed me.
She continued to fuck me, her hips alternating between pistoning and a figure eight that slowly drove me crazy. My whole body seemed covered in flames as my nerves raced around me, making me quiver. My nipples were hard as she brushed her fingers over them and then planted her hands on my chest to support herself as she rocked faster, faster.
I brought my hand to her vulva and fingered her clit as she pulled herself up and then sank down upon my hardness once more. I slid my hands to her hips, that beautiful feminine swell, and then cupped the globes of her perfect ass. I caressed her softness, gliding toward the crease. How I itched to finger her tight little asshole…and I would. But not yet. That would scare her.
She was mine. I felt it in the very depths of my soul. One day I would have all of her.
Just the thought of breaching that tight virgin ass, and I was ready to come, but I didn’t want to yet. I needed to have her under me, taking me in all the way.
I lifted her by her hips and sprang up, flipping her onto her back. In a flash I was back inside her, pumping m
y hard cock into her tight little pussy. I maneuvered her legs onto my shoulders—all that yoga made her extremely flexible, apparently—giving me the angle I needed. I looked into her sparkling blue eyes and was surprised to see a tear slide from one.
No, I couldn’t be hurting her. Could I?
“Baby?”
“Yeah?”
“You all right?”
She nodded. “Fine. Keep going. Please.”
She didn’t need to say any more. I continued my thrusting, taking her, making her mine. Protecting her. As long as I lived, no one would hurt her. Never again.
When her walls began to spasm around me and she cried out in climax, I plunged into her to the hilt, my balls slapping the crease of her ass. As I convulsed, as I emptied every last drop of myself into her body, I closed my eyes and said the words again.
“I’m in love with you, Ruby.”
Then I collapsed on top of her, a sweaty mess.
We lay there for a few moments, both breathing rapidly. I finally moved to relieve her of my weight. She was gleaming, covered in perspiration, her hair sticking to her forehead and shoulders.
She’d never looked more beautiful.
I waited. And waited.
Waited for her to return my sentiment. To say the words I wanted to hear.
She remained silent.
I wouldn’t pressure her. After all, I was her first relationship…ever. But one way or the other, she’d be moving in with me. For her own safety. It had nothing to do with how I felt about her.
That was a bald-faced lie.
These feelings were so new to me. During the few years that Anna and I were together, we’d spent many nights here, in this very bed. But never had I imagined her staying forever, moving in. Of course she’d never needed my protection either.
We still didn’t know who had texted Ruby and told her not to go home tonight. Yes, it could have been a hoax, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
I was wet with perspiration. “Shower?” I said to her.
