Instead she sat where he indicated her to sit and helped herself to the vegetables he’d prepared, while quietly taking in how well renovated his half of the terrace was. Gone were the creaky wooden floors and the chipped paint she had on her side. Jake had put in polished concrete that felt warm under her feet and a modern kitchen with a caramel stone bench. Near the chocolate-coloured sofa sat several picture frames and Ruby itched to examine them to find out more about him. When Jake discussed his parents, she’d noticed it was in a flat distant tone. What kind of parents put their child in a boarding school at seven?
She cut into her steak savouring the flavour. ‘This is done perfectly. It’s the first decent meal I’ve had since I’ve arrived. I think my sister lived out of cans.’
‘Everything’s better fresh. What day do you close the shop? I’ll take you down to Watson’s Bay for a fresh seafood lunch and a swim.’
Ruby took another mouthful and swallowed. ‘Monday would be nice. I feel cooped up living here. I’m not used to it, plus it would be great to see more of the harbour. It’s not like I had an opportunity to go when I lived in Blackheath.’
‘So what did you do there?’ He put down his knife and fork on his plate and studied her. ‘I mean you told me Emerald did the designs but what did you do?’
‘Emerald was always the dramatic twin. The costume designer. She’d always push the limits and get herself into trouble. I’m the straight twin.’
His lips curled into a smile as he looked her up and down clearly taking in her off the shoulder top and tight pants. ‘That right? You don’t look so straight right now.’
‘Don’t be fooled by the outfit. Emerald made this to fit our dimensions.’ She finished off her meal and relaxed back taking a sip of her wine. ‘I did accountancy. I have my own business in Blackheath.’
‘You’re an accountant? Who would have guessed?’
‘Boring, huh?’
‘Not for me. I’d say you have a very useful skill set.’ His gaze moved over her as if taking in every curve, every line before he straightened, picked up his knife and fork and cut into his steak. ‘So this is a temporary move for you?’
‘It’s supposed to be. I was meant to be a silent investor. I can do a lot of my work online but I still need to meet my clients face to face.’
Jake leant forward and she noticed the blue of his eyes had darkened. ‘So when Emerald comes back, assuming she does, you’ll return to the mountains to live?’
‘It’s my home, Jake.’
‘So what about us?’
‘Us?’ She stopped. ‘This whole thing is so new.’
The muscles in his jaw hardened. ‘You don’t strike me as the sort of woman who invites a man into her bed easily.’
‘I’m not. You know I’m not.’ The space seemed to grow smaller.
‘But you asked me to spend the night.’
‘We haven’t slept together.’ Jake had a no nonsense way of getting to the point but Ruby wasn’t immune to the undercurrent. He was the most intense man she’d ever met and it scared her. She didn’t like being boxed into a corner so soon, not after years of feeling trapped living with an alcoholic father until she could move out and support herself.
He finished his meal, put down his knife and fork and reached for his wineglass. ‘We haven’t, have we?’
Why did she get the feeling that it was a loaded question?
‘Do you think about it? Me taking you?’
With a sharp breath she read the desire in his eyes and the way his large body seemed paused for action. The temperature in the room rose like a hot Sydney summer. ‘All the time,’ she admitted. ‘I can’t stop thinking about you. When you touch me, when you hold me. I’ve never felt like this.’
He moved from his side of the table, pulled up a chair and sat beside her, putting his arm around her shoulders. Although the wine had relaxed her, every part of her body was aware of the heat of his body alongside hers. ‘Ruby, I want to make this clear. I’m not interested in a one night stand.’
‘Nor am I.’ Once would never be enough with Jake.
He cupped her chin and traced his thumb along her bottom lip. ‘Which means we have to think this through.’ His hand moved down over her shoulder, sliding lower to rest on her hip.
‘What are you asking of me?’
‘Everything.’ He leant forward and grazed his lips over hers, the sensation so light, so fleeting, that her nipples tightened with hunger for him.
The man was a sexual drug consuming her thoughts and her life. ‘I don’t know you.’
Jake nuzzled her. ‘You will.’
She shivered as little tingles passed right through her.
He wound his fingers through her hair.
Her body melted against his. She looked him up and down. Was that the fascination? What was it about him that drew her? ‘I love the way you’re reliable and a straight shooter.’ So different from her father and the men she’d met. And he was so sexy. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.
Jake leant forward, picked up the bottle and topped up Ruby’s wine. ‘I do what I say I’m going to do. I dropped the surveillance side of my business because I was sick of tailing untrustworthy people, now I just focus on growing the business while Ghost installs the equipment.’ He stared at her intently with his piercing blue eyes.
Ruby wriggled on her seat thinking of what she had to do tonight.
His hand moved over her, stroking over her breast before following the curve of her waist to linger at the waistband of her pants. ‘I’ve had women in the past, but you’re different. I need you.’
She swallowed, her throat dry. ‘I want you, too. You make me feel safe. It’s like all the bad stuff goes away when I’m with you.’ The way he touched her made her very aware of him, but it was more than that for her. For the first time in her life, she thought she had found a man she could trust.
‘You need to be secure and I appear at your door.’
‘I was terrified last night,’ she said, reaching forward and picking up her glass. Her nipple tingled where his finger had casually grazed over it. ‘I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there for me.’ She sipped her wine.
‘You need an orgasm, I come knocking.’
Ruby spluttered. ‘You cheeky devil. I think it’s you who needs an orgasm. You’ve been touching me up all night.’
‘And I plan to keep touching you, but I’m not interested in a fling.’ He slid his hands between her legs rubbing up and down along the hot panty line of her tight trousers until a moan left her lips and her hips rolled to meet his rhythm.
Heat flooded her pelvis until she could barely think. She knew the sex would be explosive after what she’d experienced last night, but sex would change what they had. Jake was the most dominating man she knew and it made her cautious. She’d just taken charge of her own life in the last few years once she’d been old enough to move out of home. Her job paid well and the thought of being emotionally dependent on anyone other than Emerald scared her. ‘What happened to going with the flow?’
‘If we have sex, I’m not going to share you with anyone else,’ he said, his gaze hot with possession.
‘That’s a given. Anything else?’
‘You don’t leave if Emerald comes back. I’m not having you walk into my life to just waltz out of it as soon as you sort out Emerald’s problems.’ His thumb hovered over her clitoris and he moved it in circles caressing the fabric as if it were her bare skin. Her hips jerked to meet his thumb as heat flooded her pelvis.
‘Jake, I can’t make my whole life around you. I run a business back home. I have a life there and my house.’
He frowned and moved his hand from between her legs. ‘Guess this won’t be happening then.’
‘What?’ Ruby couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She pushed herself away from him. ‘You saying you don’t want me unless I make a full commitment to you even though we barely know each other?’
He reached over, pulled
her in tight again, put one arm around the back of her, his other hand on her hip and stroked the tight fabric of her pants. ‘That’s about right.’
‘Now look who is playing games,’ she accused him as the raw ache between her legs intensified.
‘Guess this is the most fun you’re going to have tonight.’
‘You think?’
‘I do.’
‘I’ll show you my idea of a fun.’ Ruby stood, peeled off her top leaving on her sheer, black, underwire bra and straddled him. She’d had enough of Jake calling the shots and telling her how things were going to be.
‘You have no idea how sexy you are but I’m not playing.’
‘That right?’ she challenged.
‘I have complete control.’
‘Oh sure you do.’ She reached up and stroked her nipples through the fabric of her bra. Heat zinged from them to between her legs at the first touch.
Jake moistened his lips.
‘Do you like it when I touch myself?’
His eyes widened and his pupils dilated.
She marvelled at her own response but she was close enough to Jake to smell him, touch him, lick him. Shifting position she rolled her hips against his erection. She closed her eyes, put her hands to his face, cupping his cheeks and rotated her hips so that his hardness rubbed her in the right place.
He moaned.
She let out a sigh.
His hands moved over her hips then slid down to cup her bottom. He pressed her in hard against his pelvis. ‘You are such a tease.’
‘You saying you still don’t want me?’ she said.
‘There’s no argument about me wanting you.’
‘Maybe we should compromise. I have an idea that I think you’ll enjoy.’ She moved her hands lower to the waistband of his jeans, undid the button and pulled down the zipper.
Jake sucked in his breath. ‘This is not going to happen.’ He went to sit up straight but she pushed him back on the chair.
Ruby ran her tongue over her lips to moisten them, slid off him and kneeled between his legs. ‘I’m testing your control and you’re so not going to win this.’
Jake sighed. ‘I have a feeling you’re going to get your way.’
She freed his erection from his underwear and ran her tongue around the head of his sex.
Jake’s hips jerked and he moaned.
She reached up and undid the buttons on his shirt, enjoying the sight of his firm, tanned chest. She rolled his flat man nipple between her finger and thumb before returning to focus on the exposed head of his sex. He smelled of soap and man and she clenched her inner muscles. She wanted him.
Jake exhaled with a soft sound and while he looked relaxed his pupils dilated. Ruby tugged at his jeans so they slid down exposing his full erection. He was big and thick and she hungered for him in a way she never had before. She liked this man. Really liked him, but she had no idea where this was heading. He wanted more of a commitment than she could give, yet she couldn’t resist him. She took his sex into her mouth savouring the taste and feel of him, sucking gently at first.
Jake rolled his hips forward and his eyes shuttered.
Taking still more of him into her mouth, she ran her tongue up and down his shaft before flicking the tip of it under his cock head.
Jake’s whole body stiffened so that she could see every ridge on his six pack. ‘That’s. So. Great,’ he said, his voice as soft as curling smoke.
Encouraged, she worked her way down his cock until her mouth reached the end and she took him in a long even motion. When the head of his sex hit the back of her throat he moaned. There was something so erotic about having this big, powerful man at her mercy.
Her own arousal made her sex clench and she shifted so she could get deep penetration with her lips. He was large and she knew it would feel great to have him inside her. As she moved up and down she could hear him breathing, the edges of his breath short and ragged. Glancing up she saw that his eyes were closed but both hands rested on his thighs, his fingers clenching and unclenching with her rhythm.
From the way his body tensed and relaxed, it was like she could read what he needed, just the way he had with her last night. How could it be this way with a stranger, okay, an almost stranger? They were so tuned in to each other’s needs. She put her hand on the bottom of his shaft, rose high on her knees and sucked harder, running her tongue around his head before taking him in as far as she could.
‘Just keep doing that. Just like that.’ He moved his hands to her head and guided her rhythm.
She loved that what she was doing to him was so personal, so intense, so sexy.
Jake groaned and shuddered his release and she stroked his balls with her free hand until he’d given everything he could. Finally, she sat back on her haunches watching him. His chest heaved and his eyes appeared glazed. ‘It’s never been that good for me.’ He handed her a serviette to wipe her mouth, followed by a glass of wine.
A wave of pleasure hit her. Magic. Just magic. That was what it was like being with Jake. She rested her hands on his knees to push herself up onto her feet.
‘Just. Wait. I have to get my mind back.’
Ruby swilled her wine around in the glass and drank fully. ‘I have to go.’ She put her top back on, walked to the other side of the table and picked up her handbag.
Jake pulled his jeans back up, zipped his fly and stood. ‘That’s it? How can you leave now?’ He had a bemused look on his face.
‘You’re the one who won’t have sex. Besides, I told you before. I need an early night. Last night was all about me. Tonight is all about you. Thanks for the dinner.’
He raised his eyebrows and she tried not to laugh. ‘I don’t want to let you out of my sight.’
She looked at her watch. ‘That’s why you have the cameras.’
Jake walked around, put his arms around her and drew her close. ‘Sure I can’t tempt you in to staying over? I know a sure fire way to make you feel secure.’
She pressed her hands on his chest. His shirt was still open and his whole torso was built and tanned. She loved the way his muscles bunched under her fingers and though her body told her to linger, the thought of her twin was ever present. ‘Goodnight, Jake.’ She slipped out of his arms and walked towards the stairs.
He sighed and followed close behind her.
She picked her way down the stairs careful not to trip in her high heels. Jake pressed a button, unlocked his front door followed her to her shop front and waited while she searched in her handbag for her key to the security grill. On finding it, she turned and stood on tippy toes to kiss him. ‘Good night.’
He bent and kissed her, all heat and musky sexual intent on his lips. He tasted of wine and him and she forced herself to ignore the hot sensation between her legs. Tonight couldn’t be about her. Tonight had to be about Emerald and finding answers before something terrible happened.
Jake stood back on the street watching Ruby’s shop light switch off and light glow from her stairway as she made her way up to her apartment over her shop. Content that she was secure, he checked out the streetscape. A man wearing bikie colours, Jake recognised, approached a group of young women standing in the line in front of Abe’s club. Jake sauntered down the road and stood, arms crossed, close enough so the dealer could see him.
‘Move on,’ Jake growled. Drugs. He hated them.
The dealer turned, his face a snarl, caught Jake’s gaze and walked away muttering.
The bouncer standing in front of Abe’s club, an out of work vet Jake had suggested Abe hire, nodded. ‘Nice work. Saves me getting rid of him.’
Jake nodded. ‘Bring in the druggies and the cops follow. Abe wouldn’t like that.’
‘No one in the club likes bikers bringing drugs into the club. Brings attention to all the other illicit stuff,’ he said, raising his eyebrows.
Jake waited until the bouncer checked the IDs of the young women for their age before admitting them entrance. ‘There was trouble la
st night. Guy with a spider tattoo on his face smashed in the window of the shop next door to me. See anything?’
The bouncer frowned. ‘What time?’
‘Eleven pm.’
‘That’s when I take my break. Ask the other bouncer, John. Big Maori guy. You can’t miss him. He’s working on the second floor tonight. Abe has put extra security on the dance floor. We had problems last night. Too many kids graduating high school, getting smashed and picking fights.’
‘And this is where they come to let off steam.’ Jake entered the club, headed straight to the stairway that led to the second floor scanning the writhing couples on the dance floor looking for the bouncer. Bad stuff happened to naive females in The Cross. At least Ruby was safely tucked up inside her apartment, hopefully getting some rest because at the moment she was like an elastic band pulled tight. In the field he’d seen hardened men snap and putting them back together proved impossible. That was something he wasn’t going to let happen to the woman he’d fallen for.
Chapter 6
Ruby slapped the wax stick onto her bathroom cabinet and switched off her wax pot wishing she’d thought to book an appointment with a beautician beforehand. Looking down, she was reminded that she was going to the Pink Pussy Club next door. How very aptly named that was. Ouch! It wasn’t easy doing a Brazilian on oneself, but when she thought about the teeny, weeny g-strings Emerald had designed, she’d kept waxing until she was completely bare.
If she had to demonstrate to strippers she needed to know exactly what they went through. ‘The things I do for you, Emerald.’ Something had to come out of this demonstration tonight because after this, she was at a dead loss on how to find out where her twin had gone. She returned to her bedroom and picked up another of Emerald’s products, a box containing two heart-shaped, red nipple covers with long tassels hanging off them. She peeled off the adhesive covering tape and stuck a heart on each nipple.
She swept her blonde hair off her face and tied it into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, then covered her hair with a black, bobbed wig. Leaning forward she applied Kohl to her eyes and followed it up with lashings of mascara and red, glossy lipstick on her lips.
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