by Tessa Bailey
God hates a coward, Ruby.
With a steadying breath, she reached for the hem of the borrowed shirt and drew it up over her head, tossing it on top of a nearby clothes hamper. She took a final look at herself in the mirror, naked except for her silky blue underwear, and opened the bathroom door.
Troy stood in the kitchen with his back to her, cleaning the pan he’d used to make her omelet. For a moment, she simply watched him perform the domestic chore, enjoying the sight of his forearm muscles flexing as he dried a plate. Marveling over how masculine he made it look.
Troy’s shoulders bunched, as if he’d sensed her standing there. As if he knew exactly what he would find once he turned around. She shivered in apprehension, resisting the urge to run back into the bathroom and lock the door. Troy tossed the pan onto the counter with a clatter and turned. When his hot gaze landed on her mostly naked body, he sucked in a breath. She forced herself to stand still, keep her hands from covering her breasts like they were tempted to do. Let him look his fill. Finally, when she thought she might catch fire under his heated gaze, he stalked toward her.
Troy kept coming until he’d forced her back up against the hallway wall. His arms shot out to rest on either side of her head, his gaze burning a path from her breasts down to her bare legs and back up again.
Her skin felt bathed in fire everywhere he looked.
Her nipples puckered for his attention. Goose bumps broke out along her arms. She couldn’t take it a second longer.
“Are you going to spend all night looking? Or are you actually going to do something about it?”
He took another step closer, bringing their bodies flush, growling deep in his throat at the contact. She watched as a transformation took place in him. Gone was the man concerned for her safety who’d cooked her an omelet. He’d been replaced by someone raw and assertive. The change should have intimidated her, but she couldn’t deny feeling a rush of excitement.
Anticipation. “You might get away with running that smart mouth to other people. But you won’t get away with it here. If you continue to challenge me with every word out of your mouth, I will fuck you repeatedly until you learn to play nice.”
Part of her screamed in offense, the other half wanted to beg him to do it. In this moment, with a thousand sensations pouring through her, the latter half won hands down. “You’d better get started, then.”
“You’re going to regret that.”
His mouth descended, hard and punishing, on hers.
Her desperate moan collided with his as he forced her lips open and licked into her mouth. Ruby immediately went light-headed, her balance deserting her. She clutched the front of his shirt to ground herself, give herself the leverage to return his kiss, but his mouth dominated hers, rebuking her for challenging him. She fought back, pulling him closer to suck his tongue, bite at his lips. He sunk his hands into her hair, tugging just enough to let her know how close to the edge she’d pushed him. Finally, he pulled away for breath, air racing in and out past his lips.
When he spoke, his voice sounded raw. “What changed your mind?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.” He leaned in and nipped the underside of her jaw. “It damn well matters.”
Heat pooled between her legs, stealing even more of her breath. She couldn’t think of anything but the truth. “Maybe I just decided to live in the moment.”
Troy pulled back to study her, scrutinizing her expression. Base hunger clouding his features, he shook his head once. “No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?”
Using his teeth, he scraped a path up the side of her neck. “I mean, when I sink my cock between those insane thighs, I need to know you’re not going to regret it afterward.” He dropped his hand to the underside of her panties, where he palmed her roughly. “I need you right there with me, loving every second of me riding you. Knowing I’m going to do it all over again within the hour.”
She bit back a moan as he applied pressure right where she needed it. “You’re turning me down? It doesn’t feel like it.”
“I’m not capable of turning you down,” he said on a pained laugh, gaze devouring her breasts. “I’m going to take you to my bed and pleasure the fuck out of you. But the panties stay on. It’s nonnegotiable.”
Her entire system rebelled against his words. How could he touch her, kiss her like this, and refuse to take it all the way? It didn’t make sense. Men didn’t have that kind of willpower, did they? She certainly didn’t have that kind of willpower.
“W-what? Is it too late to give a different answer about why I changed my mind?”
“Yes. But don’t worry, baby.” Before she could register his intention, he’d swung her up into his arms.
“Even with your panties on, it’ll still be the best sex of your life.”
He laid her down on the bed of his darkened bedroom, illuminated only by the light filtering in from the kitchen. His body came down on hers, pressing her into the mattress as their mouths met in a heated exchange of seeking tongues and matching groans.
Desperate to feel his hard chest against her breasts, she reached down and curled her fingers in his T-shirt, then dragged it upward between them. Troy broke the kiss long enough for her to pull it over his head. Even in the dim light, she could see the tight muscles of his arms and stomach, flexing as he held himself off her.
She had the sudden urge to lick every one of those muscles.
Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Troy made a hungry noise. “Like what you see? Good. You’re going to be seeing a lot of it.”
He edged down, sliding lower on her body until he found her breast with his mouth. As he took her nipple between his lips, he shuddered as if drugged by the taste of her. Ruby whimpered, gripping his hair with her fingers to encourage him. He suckled her until the rosy peak stiffened, then pulled back to flick it with his tongue, watching her expression.
“Every man watching you tonight wanted your tits in his mouth.” He moved across her chest to give a long lick of her other nipple. “But they’re in mine. My mouth. Aren’t they?”
“Yes.” Her answer ended on a moan when he sucked her between his lips. Ruby could feel every movement of his mouth deep in her belly and lower.
She grew increasingly damp with each tug of his mouth on her breasts and couldn’t stop herself from parting her legs, sliding them up to cradle his hips. The feel of denim scraping along the soft skin of her inner thighs felt incredibly erotic, and she wanted to feel it everywhere. She rolled her body beneath him, silently asking for more.
“Tell me what you want.”
“You know what I want.” She pulled his head toward her for one hot, openmouthed kiss. “Don’t make me beg for it.”
He laughed under his breath. “Oh, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Breaking her hold, Troy crawled down her body until he knelt between her thighs.
Strong hands gripped her knees, squeezing as if in anticipation. “Show me how far you can spread them.”
She propped herself up on her elbows. “What?”
“I’m not going to ask twice.” His expression was one of challenge. In the short time he’d known her, he already had her pegged, didn’t he? She’d never walked away from a challenge in her life. Ruby let her legs fall open until they nearly reached the mattress on either side. She felt a surge of gratification when his gaze dropped to her still-hidden core and his breath roughened. With a knowing tilt of his lips, he ran his knuckles over the silky underwear, up and down, shifting the material over her achy, sensitive flesh. Her back arched on the pillows, and she whimpered.
“Soon, there won’t be any barrier between us,
Ruby. Just skin on skin. It’s going to be so fucking sweet. But tonight I’m going to make you regret saying no.”
“Who said no?” She shook her head once. “Not me.”
Laughter rumbled in his chest. “You said no matter how good the
omelet tastes, the answer is no.”
One knuckle pressed and held firm against her clitoris.
“Next time, maybe you’ll say yes.”
Then he bent down and ran his tongue up the center of her panties, leaving damp silk in its wake.
Ruby dug her fingers into the comforter, her teeth clamping down on her bottom lip. Troy eased back and huffed a single, hot breath over the wet fabric, making a pleased noise in his throat when she trembled in response. When his head dipped down once more, Ruby ceased to think, could only feel as he kissed her through the silk, using tongue, teeth, and lips. She writhed on the bed, her hips bucking and twisting in an attempt to get closer to his pleasure-giving mouth.
“Is this the kind of kiss you wanted?”
How he could pummel her senses without even making direct contact, she didn’t know. Didn’t care.
But apparently, he hadn’t even gotten started. Once he’d thoroughly soaked her underwear, he stiffened his tongue and began torturing her throbbing clitoris with tight, concentrated circles. Ruby shouted something unintelligible at the ceiling, but he didn’t cease his skilled torture. The hands resting on her knees pushed even wider, opening her for his hungry mouth. It felt as though the damp silk had disappeared, leaving only his tongue against her skin, even though she knew the barrier remained. Every single one of her nerve endings were firing, her thighs quaking on the bed. She tried to tighten them around his head, but he wouldn’t allow it, keeping them open wide with firm hands while his mouth worked her. Ruby’s release crashed through her like a hot, molten wave, burying her underneath a crushing awareness of her body. Conscious thought fled her mind, leaving her only the capability to feel.
“Troy,” her voice shuddered out. “Oh my God.”
He growled against her navel. “Goddammit, Ruby. I’m not happy that I didn’t get to taste the first orgasm I milked out of you. Do you know what that means?”
“What?”
He dropped his hands to the button of his jeans, flicked it open with ease. The zipper came next. “It means I’m not done. It means you’re about to be even more sorry.” One hand disappeared inside his jeans.
Breath hissing through his teeth, he freed his massive erection. Ruby’s lips parted on a gasp at the sight of him gripping himself in a tight fist. Her body responded immediately, writhing on the bed. Just moments before, she’d felt completely fulfilled, but now she felt a powerful, driving need to take him inside her body.
Her tongue licked out to wet her lips.
She reached down and hooked her fingers in the waistband of her panties, attempting to draw them down her legs. Before she could make any progress, he stayed her hand with his free one, shaking his head.
“They stay on.”
“You can’t be serious,” she cried. “I want you. I’m begging, okay? Is that what you want?”
He wedged his big body between her thighs, making her gasp when his hardness pressed against her soaked center. “Yes. Beg me to fuck you.”
Ruby’s breath shuddered in and out. She tightened her legs around his waist and bowed her back in an age-old method of temptation. “Fuck me, Troy. Please.”
Troy brought his hard body down on hers, grinding his hips against her. He swooped down to swallow her moan with his mouth, pumping his hips into her at a punishing pace. “What would you do for it?”
“Right now?” She panted. “Anything. Anything.”
“Would you bend over a pool table for it?”
“Yes!”
Troy altered his angle, so each forward push of his hips placed pressure right over her swollen nub, the wet, silky friction once more sailing her toward incredible pleasure.
He leaned down and scraped his teeth along the skin of her flushed neck. “Would you get on your knees for it? Take me into that smart little mouth of yours?”
Another blinding orgasm within reach, she rolled her hips frantically, working her fevered core against his thick erection. “Yes. I would. I would.”
Without breaking his devastating rhythm, he shook his head. “No.”
A frustrated sob broke from her lips. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“What am I doing, baby?” He hooked his arms under her knees and pushed them up and back toward her shoulders, opening her for his continued assault.
“Making you come?” With a final push of his hips, Ruby spiraled into another release, legs and stomach vibrating as it mowed through her. Troy dipped his head to bite the inside of her thigh, unbelievably prolonging her tremors longer than she thought possible. Struggling to find purchase, she sunk her fingers into his hair and pulled him toward her mouth for a long, hot kiss. He returned it hungrily, sucking at her tongue with a growl.
Without breaking their kiss, Troy grabbed her hand and brought it down between their sweat-slicked bodies. He wrapped her fingers around his straining erection as far as they could go and pumped into her fist. “Stroke me. Now, Ruby. Tight and fast. And remember that’s how I like it for next time.”
She didn’t think. Simply obeyed. Her hand worked him how he wanted it, loving the weight of him, his gruff moans against her ear on the pillow. Knowing he’d gotten to that deeply aroused state by looking at her body, touching it, made her desperate to fulfill his needs. The feel of his barely leashed restraint in her hand sent a rush of power through her. She felt consumed with the need to give him the same pleasure he’d given her. He swelled in her hand. His hips bucked into her fist wildly.
“I’m going to come on your panties. And the next time I see them, I’m going to rip them off with my fucking teeth. Is that clear?” Her breathy reply was lost in his groan of completion as he finished in her fist. She could feel the heat of his release on that part of her still shielded by blue silk and closed her eyes to revel in the decadence of it. She’d done that to him.
Driven him to this point. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the fact that he’d maintained his self-control the entire time turned her on even more. This man wasn’t typical, in any sense of the word.
Possibly, he’d been right in waiting to go any further. Because tomorrow, inevitably, she would look back on tonight and regret letting him order her around, arouse her to the point that she’d begged.
But right now, she felt depleted. A foreign sense of contentment that should have alarmed her, but she couldn’t find the strength to battle with. She felt… conquered. If she’d stopped to ponder an hour ago whether or not she’d enjoy being dominated in bed, she would have laughed until her ribs ached. Now? If she had a tiny, white flag in her hand, she would be waving it in the air in surrender.
Troy rose from the bed and walked to his chest of drawers. He pulled a pair of black boxer briefs from the top drawer and handed them to her, watching her warily for some type of reaction to what they had just done, before turning his back. She shimmied out of her underwear and slipped on his, glad for the warmth they provided. After a minute, he climbed into bed and pulled her back against his chest to plant a kiss on her shoulder. Ruby automatically stiffened at the tender gesture.
He laughed under his breath. “Now you’re shy? What happened to the girl who walked out of my bathroom naked?”
When Ruby didn’t answer, Troy sighed. “Sleep now, hustler. You can go back to being your difficult self in the morning. I’ll even let you run your mouth as much as you need to. All day long. But when the time comes where I take you to bed, that’s when I put a stop to it. Can you live with that?”
“I’ll tell you in the morning,” she whispered, grateful for the darkness.
“Fine. Good night, Ruby.”
“’Night.”
Chapter Five
Troy pulled his collar up to block the cold wind as he ducked into the police station, cursing under his breath.
God help anyone who got in his way today. His mood could only be described as black, and it would still be a vast understatement. He’d woken this morning to an empty bed.
No sign of Ruby. Not a trace of their crazy-hot night together. No note. Nothing.
As a law-enforcement professional and a light sleeper in general, the fact that she’d managed to sneak out on him, over countless creaky floorboards thanks to the ancientness of his apartment building, irritated the shit out of him. Infinitely more irritating than that, however, was the fact that she’d left at all. He didn’t need her reassurance that they’d set the sheets on fire.
They had. And he’d been more than ready for a repeat performance this morning, without the panties to get in his way. But she’d been long gone, her side of the bed barely slept in.
One worry in particular ate at him, burning a hole in his chest. Had he misread her enjoyment and pushed too far? Been too forceful? His usual need to take control in bed had been compounded by her challenging attitude. Her penchant for putting herself in danger had heightened his need to dictate her actions in the only way he could. With his body.
He hadn’t been able to help himself. Add in her unrestrained response to his touch, the mewling noises coming from her throat, and he’d been lost. It had taken every ounce of his discipline not to shove aside the silk between her legs and sink deep enough to lose himself. Forget his pain and responsibilities. Focusing on only her would have been so easy.
Another reason he’d held back.
If she’d been a different woman he’d brought home from the bar, one who didn’t inspire the same possessive instincts in him, he would have had no problem removing the tiny patch of silk barring his entry. But he’d brought home Ruby the skeptic. Ruby the untrusting. She’d made him want to earn her confidence, exercise his self-disciple, and prove he was worthy of it. His restraint had been rewarded by her pulling a disappearing act, making him wonder why he’d bothered in the first place.
Luckily, Ruby wasn’t the only one who made a habit of looking through people’s wallets. When she’d gone to the bathroom to change into his shirt last night, he’d flipped open her wallet to find a student identification card for Baruch College in Manhattan, which had surprised him. As he’d suspected, there was much more to the sexy pool hustler than met the eye. He intended to find out just how much more. She wouldn’t walk away from him quite so easily.
