She’s quiet and I wonder for a minute if I’ve come on too strong. I’ve been accused of that before, but I’m an intense guy and I’m honest to a fault.
“Hopefully we can work that out for you soon.” She lifts her eyes up to mine. Blue meets brown, and I see something flare in hers. Her tongue sneaks out to lick her lips. “I’d like to know what it feels like to have your hands touching my bare skin.”
Her cheeks turn bright red, and as we come to a stop at a light, I reach over, dragging my finger down her cheek. It’s hot to the touch. “What’s wrong, Ruby? Embarrassed to admit that to me?”
“A little.” She ducks her head, breaking our gaze.
“Don’t ever worry about being embarrassed with me, Ruby Red,” I say the words, and I know this woman is always going to be my Red. She’ll be my passion, the desire to be around her, the color of her lips.
“Ruby Red?” She grins over at me.
“That okay with you?”
My dad’s always called Mom Rina, and I’ve wanted a woman who deserved a nickname since she came into our lives. I learned the specialness of it from their relationship, and I’ve wanted that for so long. The nickname for her rolls off my tongue, and I know it’s perfect. Waiting for her to answer is like waiting for paint to dry.
“I love it.” Her smile is white behind those red lips, and in this moment, everything is right.
* * *
“Why do they call you Cruise?” She grins at me, over the mouth of her beer bottle. We’ve had a good time people watching, eaten some bar food, and now we’re discussing our lives.
“How do you know my call sign?”
She shrugs, an impish look on her face. “Maybe, just maybe, I asked Karina.”
I run a hand through hair that’s a little shaggy. I’m at least three months behind on a haircut. Something my dad likes to bitch at me for every time he sees me. It’s a thing we have. “When I played football at the University of Alabama, I was a running back. At one point, when I ran, I kicked it into a gear that everybody called cruise control. Once I was there, nobody could stop me.” I shrug. “The nickname stuck, even if I haven’t played ball in six years.”
“You didn’t go pro? Everyone in this town knows how good you were.” She questions, her eyes bright from the liquor she’s consumed.
Swallowing my drink, I shake my head. I’ve been asked this before, but never by someone like her. “Nah, I was actually drafted, but I turned the contract down. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to do. I got the degree for my dad, but I never wanted to do anything other than be a cop. I was a good football player, but I think I can be a great cop. It’s taken me longer than it would take others, because I entered after I’d already been on the force for a year. Everyone else had been in the military before they got on the force, so they automatically went onto the Moonshine Task Force. It’s understandable, ya know? I don’t have that military experience and I had to do some specialized tests to show I can handle myself, but I think in the last five years, I’ve more than proven I can.”
“Hmmm.” She slides closer to me, putting her hand on my thigh, caressing it slowly. I take notice, and love that she seems to like to touch me. “Football player, cop, and now a member of a highly specialized task force? You must have speed, and an extremely motivated personality to go with the stamina we’ve already determined you have.”
Flashing her the smile that’s gotten me into a ton of panties, I play the bashful guy, ducking my head. Straight up though, this girl does make me blush. “Little bit.”
“Maybe one day I’ll find out all about it. After all, you’ve been my knight in shining armor since you rescued me at the restaurant.”
“Kinda my duty, ma’am.” I give her my full southern drawl. “Ya know, protect and serve.”
She leans in, whispering close to my ear. “How about you protect and I’ll serve?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ruby
He hasn’t gone home, and I haven’t wanted him to. We’ve been sitting on my back porch, watching the sun come up, talking about everything and nothing at all. Truth be told, I keep trying to come up with questions to keep him here. I don’t want this night to end, don’t want to let him go.
“You want kids?” I ask him, pulling a blanket around my shoulders that I went to get an hour and a half ago once it got too cold. My legs are in his lap and he’s still playing with the rip in my thigh. He hasn’t stopped doing it since we sat down, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling it in every part of my body. Each time he makes a trip forward and back, my nipples peak and my core throbs.
“At least two, probably three or four, if I’m given a chance. I want a family, something I didn’t have until I was eighteen, when Karina came into our lives.” His voice is deep with what sounds like the need to sleep. We’ve talked for hours, and even I have to lick my dry lips.
“I’m there for the two. I have a brother who’s two years older than me,” I reveal. “Our relationship isn’t like you and your sister’s, though. We’re tough on each other, and he’s a fuck up. I find myself cleaning up his messes, and my parents constantly make excuses for him. It drives me up the damn wall, but he’s my older brother and I like to give him chances.”
“Men mature slower than women.” He plays with the skin of my thigh again, causing my breath to catch and my thighs to press together.
I laugh loudly because that’s what my mom has told me almost every time I’ve complained about them coddling Preston. “Trust me, I know all about that. I hear it every time I complain about him.”
Caleb chuckles deep in his throat. “Look at that sunrise.” He extends his finger toward the sun coming up. I follow his finger, as it traces the horizon.
We sit there for a few more minutes, both yawning as we put our heads together. At this point I’ve been up for twenty-four hours and I’m pretty sure he has been too.
“I need to get out of here–” his words are broken up by a stretch, dislodging my head and legs from his grasp-“if I’m going to make it home before I fall asleep.”
There’s an idea floating around in my head, and I’m wondering if I want to ask it. Rejection is a thing, and I’m scared of it, but we’re running out of time because I’m tired, and I know he is too. I don’t want him to get hurt on his way home, so I go ahead and decide that it’s time to grow a pair. We turn quiet, each lost in our own thoughts. With a deep breath, I work up the courage to throw it out there.
“You can stay here with me, if you want to. We can sleep, and then when you’re rested enough, you can go home,” I invite him, almost cringing at the way I sound. Not confident at all.
His eyes are wide, like it’s the last thing he expected me to ask, and the silence stretches for too long. It embarrasses me and all my insecurities seep into my thoughts. If he’d really wanted to stay, he would have jumped on the chance. And now I feel stupid.
“Forget it.” I reach down, grabbing a bottle of water one of us has gone in and gotten during our long night of conversation. I’m getting it so that I have a reason to get up and leave. So he can leave me without having to save face and make a quick exit. “Bad idea.”
“No.” He reaches out, stopping me. “Great idea. I haven’t slept with a woman in a long time. I’d be honored to break that drought with you.”
Little does he know, the pleasure is all mine.
Cruise
“If at any time you don’t feel comfortable, just tell me.” I follow Ruby into the back of the duplex, and immediately I feel as if I’ve been placed in a time warp. Earlier when I came in, I didn’t pay much attention, but now I do, remembering us all moving Violet in when she’d been able to leave her husband. “Not much has changed since Violet lived here.”
“Is it weird she lived here and now you’re here with me?” She takes off her shoes, motioning for me to do the same and stick them next to the doorway.
“No, I wasn’t here very often. I helped her a few times, move in,
move across to Ace’s side, and then when they bought a house all of us moved them out. It’s been years since I’ve been in here, but I remember how proud she was of it.”
She turns toward me, holding her hand out for my jacket. “That’s kinda how I feel.” She shrugs. “I went from my parents’ house to the dorms, and now I’m here. I’m lucky though, so many of my classmates weren’t able to find jobs, and they’ve had to move back home. Even if Laurel Springs doesn’t pay a lot, I didn’t have to move back home. I’ll always be thankful that it worked out this way.”
“Oh my God, isn’t that the truth? I live in an apartment across town, it’s a really small two-bedroom, but I would rather live there than live with my parents again,” I commiserate with her. “I sleep naked now, and there’s no way I could do that under my parents’ roof.”
She laughs loudly, putting her hands over her face, as she runs her eyes up and down my body. “You sleep naked?”
“Well, once we get to know each other well enough, you’ll find out for sure.” I give her a wink. I’d like both of us to sleep naked right now, wrapped up in one another. After talking to her about anything and everything, I feel closer to her than I have anyone else I’ve been with in a long time. It’s just I don’t know how she’d handle the request. Soon though, we’ll know each other that well. Until then, I tell my wayward dick to calm down.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” She walks farther into the living room, and I follow her like a puppy.
“Just let me stick around. I’m gonna end up being one of those things you can’t live without,” I say, making her a promise.
“You think so?” Ruby asks, stepping close to me this time, hooking her arms around my waist.
“Count on it.” I loop my arms around her waist, holding her close.
* * *
“Sure you don’t want to take your jeans off?” she asks as we get situated in her bed. She’s changed into a pair of the shortest damn shorts I’ve seen, and a shirt that slips off her shoulder. When she moves a certain way, it shows the lace of a black bra underneath. I run my hand down my stomach, barely able to stop myself from reaching down and adjusting my package.
“I think they should stay on, I don’t want to pressure you into moving too fast, because of how I react to you.” I let my eyes do the talking as she flits around the room, closing the curtains.
“I kinda like how you react to me.”
When she gets done, she comes back over to where I’m lying and slides in next to me. “You set your alarm, right?”
“Yep.” I pick up my phone and make sure one more time I set it correctly. “We can sleep almost eight hours, then I have to get out of here and go change for work.”
Slowly, she scoots over to where her head lays on my chest. Circling my arm around her neck, I hold her close.
“You’re the first guy I’ve ever had in this bed,” she whispers softly a few minutes after we cuddle up with one another.
“What about in this apartment?” My voice is deeper than it should be, the answer she’s about to give me means more than it should.
I’ve always been the guy who’s taken my responsibilities seriously, and I’ve been accused of having a hero complex more than once. But the night when I saw her scared to death, it did something to me. The first glance I had at her, I saw a future. One I’ve never let myself think about, one I wasn’t really sure was ever for me. Everyone always told me when I met my match I’d know it, and damn if I don’t know it right now.
“No men besides family have ever been in the living room, much less the bedroom.” She scoots in closer to me. Maybe she’s like me, feeling more comfortable because of the darkness of the room, the quietness encompassing us.
“That makes me happy.” I run my finger up and down her arm.
“You should go to sleep,” she says quietly before tucking her face into my neck, hooking her leg over my abdomen.
Chancing her pulling away, I put my hand on her thigh, squeezing, where it lays against a cock that’s starting to pay attention to what’s happening between us. “I should,” I agree with her. My eyes are heavy, words a little slurred, because I’m starting to drift off. I have presence of mind to lightly push my fingers through her hair, and level her gaze to mine. “But what I really want to do–” I stop, letting her pull away if she wants. When she doesn’t I go forward with what I’ve been wanting to say all day. “–is kiss you. Is that okay with you?”
Her smile is lazy, and she doesn’t open her eyes, but she tilts her mouth to mine, letting me take control. Control is something I like, it’s something I crave, and her giving it to me so easily? Maybe Ruby’s made for me in more ways than one. Leaning slightly into her, I brush my lips against hers, slightly pressing for entry. When she allows it, I take. My tongue dances with hers as I slightly tighten my grasp in her hair. Slowly she melts into me, hugging me tighter with her hip across my waist. My hand there tightens on her thigh, and it takes everything I have not to pull her across me, sit her up, strip her of her shirt and bra, and end up with her tits in my mouth. She strains against me, digging her fingers into my skin, moaning softly in the back of her throat. When I pull away, she chases me, but I hold her back.
“As much as I would love to explore this mouth, and making out with you, I seriously gotta get some sleep.”
My voice is wrecked, deep and regretful.
“I know.”
“If I didn’t have to work tonight…” I release her hair from my grip and let my hand fall to the front of her shirt. Through the material, I cup her breast, running my thumb over a nipple that’s peaked against my touch. “I would explore all the ways we could both make each other feel good, but I do have to be decently rested to work a shift.”
She moans, easing back from me, grabbing my thumb. “Then don’t tease me, Caleb. Get some sleep so I don’t have to worry about you so much.”
“You gonna worry about me?” The thought spreads a warmth across my chest and into the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah, hot stuff,” she sighs as she situates herself against me again. “I’m gonna worry a lot about you.”
“I didn’t see you coming,” I whisper in the stillness.
“Didn’t see you coming either.”
And as I listen to the sound of her even breathing, I drift off into the best nap I’ve ever had before a shift.
CHAPTER NINE
Cruise
I’m dreaming, wrapped in the fogginess of whatever my subconscious wants me to know. My mouth is slanted, claiming the mouth of another, my fingers are thrust into hair I know, blonde and a mass of curls, as I tilt her face to the side so I can get in deeper.
“Caleb,” she moans, and as I feel her hands at my biceps, I know this isn’t a dream.
“Ruby,” I hiss as I feel her legs part, allowing me to slide in between them.
Sometime in the afternoon we’ve spent sleeping, we’ve rolled toward one another and started kissing. The kissing must have been going on for a while, because my cock is hard, pressing against the zipper of my jeans, and as I pry my eyes open I see love bites on her chest and neck. The belt at my waist is undone, and the button on my jeans has been popped. I’m thick against my boxers, searching for her core.
“Don’t stop,” she whispers as I lever myself away from her body. With the admission, she’s bold, reaching back for me. “I’ve wanted this all night while we talked. I initiated while you were asleep,” she admits as she wraps her legs around me.
She may have initiated, but I’m sure as fuck gonna finish it. I don’t have as much control as I like to have as I reach in between us and work on pushing both sets of clothing we’re wearing down. I may have teased her earlier, but now she’s teasing the fuck out of me. Somehow I strip us both of the barriers between us and manage to reach into my jeans to grab the condom I keep there for those “just in case” times.
“Take off your shirt.” My voice is strangled as I push the latex down o
ver my length. When she’s left in just her bra, I realize I want that gone, too. “Bra too, let me see you Ruby.”
Her gaze is on my thick hardness as she takes the bra off, licking her lips as she sees me give myself a few strokes. “God, I can’t wait.” Her eyes are hooded.
“I can’t either.” I push up on my knees, allowing her to fall back against the pillows. “How long has it been for you?” I ask her before I position myself at her entrance, my fingers in front of my cock.
“Few months.” She bites her lip as I slowly work a finger inside her. She accepts it, moaning as I push all the way in. “Keep going,” she begs.
With two fingers, and then three fingers down, I know she’s ready. And I definitely know I’m ready. Removing my hand, I slowly press into her, and we both moan, straining against each other. “Feels so good, so tight around me,” I pant against her neck.
Her nails score up and down my back as she pulls me closer to her, and as she opens wider, I know I’m completely lost to this woman.
Ruby
There’s a part of me that really should be ashamed. I knew he was asleep, knew I was playing with fire when I started kissing his neck and rubbing against his stomach. I’ve never been the type of person to literally take what I want, but I want Caleb, and I know he wants me too. So when he responded, I gave myself a small pat on the back.
Now though? I know I’m in over my head. No one else has ever played my body the way this man is. Ever made me feel like I could break apart with just a few thrusts, and here I am, opening wider, giving him more access to my body.
“Don’t stop,” I beg him. Most of the guys I’ve been with always stop before it feels really good. But with Caleb, it’s been feeling magnificent for a while. “Please don’t stop.”
“I’m not going to, Red, not until you come all over me,” he whispers darkly in my ear.
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