‘Protection?’
‘Don’t worry, you’re mine to look after.’ Jake swept low and took her mouth in a swift, claiming kiss.
There was something utterly intoxicating in his kiss. Her heart was fluttering with fear and she clung to him. What had Emerald been thinking of when she’d set up their business on the strip? No wonder the shop had been cheap. ‘I had no idea The Cross was still so bad. I thought it had become gentrified.’
‘Only outsiders think that. I grew up in the Eastern Suburbs, but my grandmother lived here and I stayed over on weekends a lot before I went into the army. I learnt how to fight and I learnt how to stay alive on these streets.’
A white and blue police van zoomed into view, mounted the gutter and parked on the pavement. ‘Good, the cops are here.’
‘That was quick,’ she said.
‘Yeah, well, the police station is right next to the Archibald Fountain, plus I have buddies on the force. Don’t walk in here until I’ve cleaned up the glass.’ Jake released her, slipped his leather jacket off and put it around her shoulders.
She slid her arms into it, conscious of the smell of leather, spicy cologne and him. His scent turned her on and breathing it in, despite the distraction of the police appearing, an image of Jake naked in her bed, hard and waiting for her appeared in her imagination.
The police checked out the shop and talked to Jake who knew one of the policemen. While she gave her statement, Jake found a broom and was already sweeping up the debris. She marvelled at just how familiar he seemed to be with the shop and everything in it, even though it had only been open a week. How long had he known Emerald?
Thanking the police and promising to call in at the station the next morning if she remembered anything else, she walked back into the shop to see that the glass had been piled in one area against the wall, so that the floor was clear.
‘Why didn’t you pull down your security screen like you normally do at six o’clock?’ Jake asked.
She had been too entranced by meeting him to think about it. She paused, aware that his gaze had become piercing as his blue eyes narrowed. ‘Um…I’ll never make the mistake of leaving it up again.’
He walked outside to roll it down so that the shop was closed off from passersby. Then he came back in and locked the front door. The space between them seemed quiet now that the noise from the busy strip outside no longer blared.
‘Thank you for being there.’ She wasn’t used to it, having a man to protect her.
‘Princess, dressed like that I’ll be wherever you want me to be. You could have me on my knees.’ He raised one wing-like eyebrow.
Ruby swore her blush must have started somewhere just above her collarbone because she could feel it gathering heat on her neck and cheeks. The image of him hot and naked kneeling between her thighs besieged her. Her mouth went dry.
His gaze lingered on her face and moved lower. ‘Let me know if you want me to tuck you in tonight.’
‘Yes! No. I don’t want to be alone.’ She folded up the arms of his jacket. Every time she shifted, it smelled of his body. It was like being enveloped by him.
He walked over to her and put his arms on her waist. ‘Which is it, Princess?’
Her heart made a leap. She wanted him so badly, yet a myriad of thoughts snapped through her mind. She’d always depended on herself, determined not to be the simpering kind of woman her mother had been, pandering to her father’s every need before she had run off.
‘How did you appear so quickly like that?’ she asked, pulling away from his arms and walking across the floor. She grabbed the broom where he’d left it leaning against the wall. ‘I mean one minute I hear glass smashing and the next you’re climbing in the window like Rambo.’
He gave her a long, penetrating stare before picking up the clothing sale bin that stood in the middle of the shop floor, so she could sweep away any residue glass. ‘I was next door.’
Pausing, she reached up and rubbed the frown between her eyes. He worked late but then his business probably ran all hours.
‘Come on, let’s fix the last of this mess before we go to bed,’ he said.
Bed! She watched with longing as his arm muscles bulged and flexed when he replaced the clothing bin. He had to have the hottest, most finely tuned body she’d ever seen. ‘Thanks for your help. I planned to rush the intruder with the bat. Goodness knows if it would have worked. I think you scared him off.’
He flashed her one of his smiles that made her go weak at the knees and stepped up onto the window box. ‘Want to help me tidy up the mannequin, Princess?’
Did she want him touching the sexy satin and lace material? She knew what lingerie did to a man. Instantly, her gaze flicked down to his jean level. He was hard.
He caught her gaze and shot her a wolf-like grin.
A yearning sensation rose in her, so intense that her throat dried. ‘Don’t you know how to arrange a corset?’ she asked.
‘I know how to take them off.’ He pulled at the silk ties on the corset with big fingers, but they bunched on the mannequin’s torso.
Under her own nightgown, Ruby felt her nipples harden to stiff peaks. ‘That’s not how you do it.’
‘Come teach me,’ he growled.
Heat seared between her legs. She put the broom aside and climbed onto the window box, pushed aside the robe to tidy the lingerie. A stone wrapped with white paper dislodged from the robe and rolled across the window box.
Bending, Jake picked up the stone and extracted the paper and flattened it out.
Ruby stood close to him so she could read the words written in blood. Die Bitch!
She gasped. Black spots of panic flickered in front of her eyes. Turning, she stepped off the window box, miscalculated the depth of the step and fell forward. Thump! Her knee hit the floor but she saved herself by slapping her hands down hard and breaking the fall. A sharp pain pierced her foot. Looking around she saw blood and a splinter of glass. When she pulled it out bright beads of blood welled on her instep.
‘Princess!’ In a moment Jake was by her side, his hands moving over her, checking her limbs until he caught sight of the blood. He took her foot in his hand, a frown creasing his handsome face as he examined it. ‘There could be more glass in there.’
‘I have tweezers in the first aid kit upstairs,’ she said. With him so close, his strong fingers examining her foot, she felt safe. Yet she wasn’t foolish enough to know she was safe.
Someone wanted her dead. Correction—someone wanted Emerald dead. Dread froze her heart until her blood turned to icicles.
‘Let me get you into better light and I’ll take care of it.’ Jake bent and scooped her into his arms as if she weighed nothing. ‘And while I’m doing it you can tell me who you really are.’
Chapter 3
When Jake scooped the woman up into his arms, the guilty expression on her face said it all. This woman wasn’t Emerald. Sure, she was identical in looks to her twin, but she exuded a fascinating combination of innocence and sexuality that appealed to him. The sexy nightgown that had slipped open revealing her long, slender thigh was a turn on too. ‘So what’s your real name, Princess?’
He felt her hand grip into the back of his neck. ‘Ruby.’
‘Just when were you planning to tell me you were Emerald’s twin?’ he asked, before mounting the stairs two at a time to her apartment. Once upstairs, he walked through the open door up the hall and into the kitchen. Depositing her on the kitchen table, he spotted the red first aid kit on top of the refrigerator. He strode over, picked it up and put it on the table next to her.
‘How did you know?’
Jake took a deep breath. ‘In the military we were trained to watch how people move. You walk differently from your sister. Your hips sway; your twin marches.’
Ruby grinned so that her lips widened and he noticed she had beautiful even teeth and very kissable lips even though they were pale at the moment.
‘That’s true. She’s a
lways in a hurry.’
He reached up and stroked the top of her lip where there was a little scar. ‘Your twin doesn’t have this.’
Ruby touched the skin, which tingled after his touch. ‘I had a fall when I was young. I had two stitches there. No one ever notices it.’
‘Your sister’s erratic in her time schedule, too. She never pulls the safety screen down at six o’clock. You didn’t question it when I said it.’
‘You don’t miss much,’ she said, her eyes appreciative.
‘I did ten years in the army, a lot of them on covert operations. Noticing details kept me alive.’
She took his hands in hers. ‘Are you mad with me?’
‘I don’t play games.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘So why play them?’
‘I’m worried about my sister. Someone frightened her. I don’t know where she is and she’s left her mobile phone here. I wanted to test the waters. I thought you might—’
‘Be the man who scared Emerald?’ Jake loosened his hands from hers, pulled a chair up, sat on it and took her foot in his hand so that he could look where the splinter of glass went in. It made him sick to the stomach that she could think that he was the sort of guy who would terrorise a woman, but it paid to be wary in The Cross, a place where trusting the wrong person could get you killed. He sized her up. Against him, she seemed petite in build. Even her foot was delicate looking. He turned it to the side, noticing how her toes curled when he touched her instep and the way her extravagant nightgown split all the way up to her creamy thigh.
‘I thought you could have been the guy who scared my twin. At least, initially. I mean you’re tall and big and you look like you could take on anyone.’
He glanced up at her. ‘What changed your mind?’ He knew he loomed over most people. Even in The Cross, people on the sidewalk parted to let him pass. Yeah, he could take care of himself and others if he needed to.
‘You’re so sweet.’
‘Huh?’
She smiled and gave a little shiver as he split open a saline ampoule and poured it over her foot.
He straightened thinking of the action he’d seen in Afghanistan. Sweet. Who would have guessed? ‘That’s not something I get called a lot.’
Ruby laughed and the tinkling sound of it washed over him. ‘Well I know you’re a big, tough guy but you’re sweet with me.’
He felt his cheeks crease into a smile as his gaze met hers and held it. He opened an antiseptic swab and cleaned away the blood on the underside of her foot. The wound had stopped bleeding and there was only a little pinprick where the glass had entered the sole of her foot.
So she found him hot. He was glad the chemistry wasn’t one sided because he wanted to take her to bed and stay there. He checked to see if there was any more glass.
‘Jake, can I ask you something?’
‘Shoot,’ he said, giving the wound another wipe down.
‘Were you and Emerald lovers?’
His hand paused mid air. Looking up into her eyes, their pained expression caught his attention.
‘Because I kissed you and I shouldn’t have, that is…if you’re Emerald’s man,’ she ran on. Her cheeks had turned pink and she was staring at him expectantly.
‘Your sister’s fun. She’s got a big personality but she’s not for me.’
‘You don’t find her attractive?’
He straightened, leant forward and kissed her on the lips. ‘I’m not interested in your sister. I want you.’ At twenty-eight years of age and after what he’d been through in Afghanistan, he was ready to settle down. Ruby was the one. He felt it with a certainty that went bone deep. The thought might seem crazy to some but his instincts honed on survival had kept him alive in a war zone where others had died. He trusted his gut.
Ruby was not the type of woman to play games with. Ruby was forever, even if she didn’t know it yet.
He raised Ruby’s foot to his lips, kissed the underside and was rewarded with her intake of breath. ‘You’re all better now, Ruby.’
‘You’ve sent shivers all over my legs,’ she said rubbing the top of them.
‘You’re very responsive to my touch.’ He noticed that her nipples had tightened under the silk of her nightgown. He kept her foot on his lap and her sky-blue eyes widened when the pad of her foot rested against his erection. He was hard with wanting her, especially as the fabric of her nightgown had slipped open at her hip and he could see delicious silky skin where her underwear should have been.
‘What’s happening between us, it’s very fast.’
‘Too fast?’
‘I don’t usually get personal so quickly with a man. I dated my ex for years before anything serious happened between us. When I’m with you, I can’t think straight but I’ve had a pretty wild night.’ She leant forward and her breasts strained against the fabric. ‘I just know I don’t want to spend the night alone. I’m scared.’
‘I won’t let you. You’ve got me now.’ If he had his way, he’d never spend another night without her tucked safely in his arms. The very air grew steamy between them. Her foot was warm against his jeans. He wanted her with a sure fire heat that scolded his blood, but she was right. What was happening between them was fast and that’s the way he liked it.
Ruby slipped her foot from his lap. When she moved the delicate straps of her nightgown slid from her shoulders so that the fabric revealed the curves of her breasts just above her nipples.
His eyebrows rose. ‘Stay just like that. I’m going to distract you from what happened downstairs. I’m going to take any fear you have away.’ He rose from the chair and moved between her legs.
Her heart was pounding with excitement, desire and trepidation. She’d never been reckless in her life, yet his closeness brought on a sexual rush that she couldn’t control. She’d never had a quick fling but she was in Emerald’s place and if ever she was going to find out what it was like to really let go, she’d find out with Jake. Then once she sorted out her sister’s problems, she’d go back to her small accountancy practice in the mountains. Jake would have fun. She’d have fun. There’d be no hurt feelings. Sure. She never normally thought this way, but she was in a different place and state of mind. This was the big city.
Jake leant over her so that she wrapped her legs around his waist while he planted kisses on the tender skin where her shoulder met her neck and she wriggled.
Already her nipples tingled and when she put her arms around his back, the sensation of her nipples rubbing through silk against his hard chest was so intense she could barely draw breath.
When his hand moved lower he cupped her backside, pulling her close so that she could feel him straining against his jeans. He wanted her. She widened her legs and rolled her hips, rubbing herself against him.
‘I need you,’ she said.
‘You’ll get all of me. That’s a promise, but this is going to be all about you.’
Ruby froze. What did he mean? She’d never had an orgasm with a man. That was the problem. ‘Jake…I…’
‘Shh. Don’t talk. Just enjoy.’ He planted a hot kiss on her lips before taking control, by nipping her bottom lip so that she opened to his urgent demands. His tongue teased hers, dancing over the tip, testing, titillating before he crushed her to him so that her body moulded against his, releasing her only enough to kiss down her neckline to her silk-clad breasts. ‘You are so beautiful. So perfect.’
The word ravishment came to mind. She’d seen it on old-fashioned movies like when Rhett Butler had taken Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, but she’d never thought that kind of thing was real.
It was real.
When Jake reached her nipples she gasped. The things he was doing with his tongue. And he’d barely got started.
He licked the nipples through the silk, first one and then the other and she moaned as her nipples contracted. The world outside with its cars and traffic no longer existed. There was nothing but her and him and the exquisite sensat
ions he aroused in her.
She moved her arms behind her, arched her back, pressing her breasts towards him.
His hands brushed her arms, pushing her nightgown straps downward so that it pooled around her waist. Cupping her breasts, he drew one into his mouth and sucked on the teat swirling his tongue over the tip. Wetness pooled between her legs and for the first time, she understood the searing sensation of wanting a man inside her.
A groan, deep with intensity escaped her lips.
She shifted position and moved to unbuckle the belt on his jeans, desperate to see him naked, but he took her hands and kissed the pulse point at her wrists.
Flicking his gaze up to meet hers, he gave her hands a gentle squeeze. ‘Don’t touch me.’
When she looked down into his face, she saw hunger, raw and wild in its intensity.
What kind of guy put a woman before himself when he was clearly just as needy as she was?
The opposite of her ex. That was for sure.
Jake ruffled up her nightgown, exposing her, leaving her wide and vulnerable, then moved between her legs. His tongue flicked over her clitoris, lightly at first. Her hips jerked and she was surprised by her own reaction. He made little circles around her nub, his tongue pointy and wet. With any other man, she would have been embarrassed that he was between her legs in the first place, with Jake, it felt like he belonged there.
He stroked up and down with his tongue until a fluttering sensation started in her belly. She rocked and groaned. Little shivery sensations ran from her sex up her spine. Her body was on fire.
Then he took her into his mouth and sucked. He did it so well, with so much enjoyment that she relaxed into the sensation made by his mouth, lips and tongue. Her sex clenched and released as her orgasm built. She couldn’t believe she had such a hot, built man between her legs, lapping at her.
She shattered, her groans deep and primal. Her cries seemed to rise from the base of her spine, zing upward and out through her throat and lips. He pushed her thighs wide and devoured her, inserting his fingers and curling them forward at the same time. Her next orgasm slammed into her and she rocked and arched pressing herself against his mouth. She held his head between her hands and he supped on her, her hips jerking with every lick until finally he pulled away.
Ruby's Fantasy Page 3
