by Claire Raye
I smile against her mouth, my hand reaching for the box of condoms on the nightstand. “Oh, I have something in mind.”
A couple of hours and several condoms later, we finally drag ourselves from bed, Ruby taking a shower while I wander into the kitchen to make her some coffee and a late breakfast. Eventually Ruby walks in, sliding her arms around my waist from behind as she pushes up on her toes and leans her chin on my shoulder, chuckling a little when she sees I’m eating a slice of the cake she made me.
“That’s breakfast?”
I grin, taking another bite as I glance back at her. “It’s fucking delicious,” I tell her. “Just like you.”
Ruby smiles, her eyes lighting up as she presses a kiss to the side of my neck. “What are you going to do today?”
I finish my cake before turning in her arms and pulling her against me. “Take you to class,” I say, leaning down to kiss her lips. “And then come back and get you afterward.”
Ruby smiles. “You want to go for a run before you head to work tonight?”
I return the smile, my hands sliding down to her ass. “Or we could get our workout in other ways.”
Ruby raises a brow, her smile widening. “I could be up for that,” she says. “Reid and Sie will be back though. We still planning to fuck with them?”
“Oh yeah,” I say, laughing. “We are definitely doing that. Not that it means we’re hiding anything though, okay?”
Ruby nods. “I know. I get it. And besides,” she says, pushing up to give me another kiss, “considering the shit we’re going to get from them, I definitely want to milk this for as long as possible.”
After we’ve eaten and had our coffee, Ruby grabs her things and we head outside so I can walk her to class. I have no idea if that creepy professor of hers has still got a thing for her, but after running into him last night, I’m not taking any chances. We might have started off faking this whole relationship just to remind him that Ruby is off-limits, but that’s all changed now. And I’m all about reminding him to back the fuck off every chance I can get.
I slip my arm around Ruby’s shoulder, taking her bag and slinging it over my other shoulder as we head toward the campus. We chat about mindless stuff on the short walk, before someone calls her name. We stop and a girl I don’t recognize walks over and Ruby says hello to her before introducing me to her as her boyfriend, before they both chat about their weekend.
Hearing her say that about me, describing me in that way to her friends is kind of surreal, but in a really good way. I’ve always known this connection we share is something special and that despite our first meeting when she was drunk, which meant she forgot I was even staying in her house, that connection has only grown over the past few weeks.
I feel drawn to her in ways I can’t describe, ways that should scare me because all I want to do is tell her everything. Everything I’ve been through, everything I’ve seen and every dark and crazy thought I’ve had along the way.
I don’t know how it is that she’s worked her way into my life like this, but she has and now I can’t imagine my life without her. Besides getting out of Providence, she is literally the best thing that’s happened to me in ages. And I don’t ever want to lose her.
“Hey, you good?” she asks, as her friend waves goodbye to us and walks off.
I blink, stare down at Ruby who’s watching me with a worried look on her face. Smiling, I wrap my arm around her, drawing her close. “I’m good. So, boyfriend, huh?”
Ruby blushes, even as a smile tugs at her mouth. “Is that okay?”
I laugh. “Of course it’s okay,” I reply, kissing her. “I really like it.”
“Good,” she whispers against my mouth, before we continue walking toward her class.
When we reach her lecture hall, she turns to me, still smiling as I pull her into my arms. “I’ll meet you here after you’re done, okay?”
She glances at the classroom briefly before turning back. “You don’t have to,” she says. “I’m pretty sure he’s got the message.”
I lean down and brush my lips against hers. “I know I don’t have to,” I whisper. “I want to.”
She kisses me back, before slipping her bag off my shoulder and turning to head into class. I watch until she disappears inside, before my gaze turns to the windows of the classroom. The asshole is standing there watching me, an emotionless expression on his face and his gaze locked on mine.
As juvenile as it is, I’m tempted to flip him off, but I don’t want to create any more trouble for Ruby, so I turn and head back home instead.
An hour or so later, the back door opens and Reid and Sienna walk in, both of them talking and laughing. They stop when they see me sitting at the kitchen counter, eating another piece of cake as I go over the roster from the bar.
“Hey,” I say, lifting my head and smiling at them. “How was your weekend?”
“So good,” Sienna says, clearly excited as she walks over and hugs me, her eyes flicking to the cake. “We had such a great time.”
“Uh huh,” I reply, returning her hug. “And did you actually see any of San Diego or was it just the hotel room?”
Sienna swats my arm, but she’s still smiling as Reid chuckles. “We saw plenty of San Diego,” she says, heading to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. She must see the cake too, because she pulls it out before reaching for the knife to cut herself a piece. “What about you? How was your weekend? Did you have a good birthday? Did Ruby look after you? She made the cake, huh? Is it good?”
I laugh. “Geez, so many questions, Sie,” I say, holding up my hands. “But yes, I did have a good weekend, thanks. And yes, the cake is amazing.”
Sienna stares at me, her brows narrowed as she searches my face as though she’s expecting to find more of an explanation. “That’s it?” she asks, a note of sarcasm in her tone that I know means she doesn’t believe me and was definitely expecting more than that.
I shrug. “It was a good weekend,” I reply, trying not to give away how fucking awesome it actually was.
Sienna glares at me for a few seconds longer before muttering, “Ugh, I’m getting nothing from you. I’ll try Ruby.” And then she walks out of the room, a piece of cake in her hand.
When I turn to Reid, he’s leaning against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest and a smug look on his face.
“What?”
He laughs. “Good weekend,” he repeats, clearly mocking me.
“It was.”
“Right,” he adds, crossing his feet at the ankles as he continues to stare at me.
“What?” I ask again, wondering exactly what he’s getting at. I know we’ve been friends for most of our lives, but I’d like to think I’m pretty good at hiding what’s going on with me right now, especially given Sie didn’t cotton on.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he starts, arm out as he waves a finger in my general direction. “You seem different?”
“I’m a year older?”
Reid rolls his eyes. “Yeah, it’s not that dude,” he says sarcastically. “You seem…happy, like you…I don’t know, got laid or something?”
It’s said like a question, but it’s so fucking close to the truth that I can’t actually look at him without completely giving myself away. Instead, I push out my stool, making my way to the fridge to grab a drink as I try desperately to wipe the smile off my face because that’s exactly what’s happened. That and so much more.
“Caleb?” he says.
I shut the fridge door before turning to face him. “What?”
He smirks at me, not saying anything at first as he continues to look at me, searching for something. Eventually, he says, “So you and Ruby had a good weekend, huh?”
“Yep.”
“And there’s nothing else you wanna tell me about that weekend?”
“Nope.”
“No, so nothing I don’t know, special happened?”
I roll my eyes at him, taking a sip of water before saying, “Well
, obviously you and Sie had a weekend of that kinda shit, but no, Ruby and I had a good weekend, that’s it.”
It actually hurts my heart a little to say these words. Even though I know they are not true, and the plan was always to fuck with Sie and Reid for a while, there’s a part of me that feels like I’m betraying Ruby and what we now have by lying about our weekend together.
“Riiiiight,” Reid says, dragging out the word as he pushes off the counter. “Well, for the record, I totally don’t believe you, but I’ll let it slide for now.”
“Oh well, thanks,” I say sarcastically. “Why don’t you tell me about your weekend instead, minus the sex part.”
Reid laughs now. “Not much else to tell then really, is there?” he says, slapping me on the back as we make our way to the living room.
Ruby and I don’t end up going for a run after her class because the second she and I get home, Sienna is on her. I’d managed to fill her in on the grilling I got from both of them and we both agreed to continue the ruse of nothing going on between us.
Despite not feeling entirely comfortable about us hiding it, I can’t deny that the whole secretive, sneaking around thing is also pretty fucking hot. I kinda like the fact that Ruby and I are sharing a bed, but in a totally different way now and neither my sister or my best friend are any wiser.
It’s nearly eleven by the time I get home from work and as I walk up to the back door, I notice the two trash cans beside the house have been knocked over, their contents spilled all over the grass.
I glance around, wondering if this was done by an animal or some drunk college kids or something, but there’s no one around, the street quiet. After I clean up the mess, I cast one more look down the street and this time I notice a car parked by the curb.
It looks innocent enough except for the shadow of someone sitting in the driver’s seat. I can’t make out their face, but it’s enough that prickles of fear dance up my spine, my heartbeat kicking up a notch as a feeling of being watched comes over me.
I start walking toward it, but I’m not even at the sidewalk before the engine comes on and the car speeds off down the street, its headlights off.
I watch as it turns left at the end, before disappearing around the corner.
I glance back to where it was parked, the street now empty. I can hear the pounding of my heart in my ears, my breathing a little ragged as I try to decide if I’m overreacting to something as simple as a car driving down the street.
It could’ve been anyone sitting in the car, for any reason.
Maybe they were on a call or checking something on their phone before driving off.
But as much as I want to believe that, somewhere, deep inside me is a tiny feeling of doubt. A feeling that tells me this was more than that.
Exhaling, I shove a hand through my hair before turning and walking inside. The house is in darkness, the TV off and when I walk into Ruby’s room, she’s lying on her stomach on the bed, her knees bent and ankles crossed as she reads a book.
“Hey,” I say, immediately feeling better for seeing her. I walk over, leaning down to press a kiss to her lower back, just above her panties where her tank has ridden up.
“Hey,” she says, rolling over so she’s lying on her back, looking up at me, a smile on her face.
I hover over her, my arms on either side of her body. “No movie tonight?”
Her smile widens as she hooks a finger in the neck of my t-shirt and pulls me closer. “I kinda had something else in mind,” she whispers, before kissing me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ruby
I have a ton of work to do for my classes as the semester winds down. It’s nearly December and I’m sure my parents will want me home for Christmas too. The thought of leaving Caleb isn’t appealing and I wonder if he’d be able to get some time off to come up to Lake Tahoe with me, spend some time meeting my family and going skiing.
He grew up very differently than I did and it might be nice for him to get away and relax. Something he rarely gets to do now that he’s managing the bar. His schedule has changed too, and there are now nights that he’s off, which has made for some interesting sneaking around on our part.
Sienna and Reid are both onto us and it’s kind of funny watching them stalk us, waiting for us to slip up and do something that screams we are a couple. There’s also no way they haven’t heard us in my bedroom because we can certainly hear them.
My stomach growls and I look at the clock. It’s after seven and I’m obviously starving, but I’m trying to wait for Sie and Reid to get home so we can plan something for dinner. I shoot her a quick text to see where she is and when they plan to be home. It’s not like we had plans or anything, but sometimes I get tired of eating alone.
Me: Hey. Where are you?
Sienna: Just met Reid after football and we’re going to grab something to eat. You okay?
Me: Yeah, fine. I’m starving and was waiting for you to get home.
Sienna: Work up an appetite today, hmm?
Me: What’s that supposed to mean?
Sienna: Getting a lot of exercise is all I’m saying.
Me: Whatever
Sienna: Want to have dinner tomorrow?
Me: Yep.
Sie and I were always on different schedules during the week so this isn’t anything unusual. She likes to go to bed early and I’m generally up late. It was the weekend when we’d spend most of our time together at parties or the bar, but even that has died down in recent months. I think we’ve both grown tired of it and with her relationship with Reid dividing our time, this is just how things played out. It doesn’t mean we aren’t still close or that I don’t adore her. This is just how things change as we age and find that what was once important no longer is.
My guess is once Sie finds out about Caleb and me, double dates will become the norm and she’ll be squealing with joy. She sees the change in him already, but I’m sure she’s internally questioning whether it’s moving to California that’s helping him or if he’s definitely hooking up with me. I like to think it’s a combination of both.
I pull open the fridge and stare at it for a few seconds before closing the door. A moment later I open it again in the hopes that it will suddenly contain something I want to eat, but my plan fails. Same shit as before.
Flinging the door shut, I let out a bored and annoyed sigh as I grab my ID and some cash and walk down to the bar to see Caleb. I’ll grab something to eat there and cure my boredom by people watching and chatting with him until he gets off.
I walk in and find the place busier than I expected for a random weeknight, but I’m also not surprised. Caleb has worked really hard to bring new drink specials and food choices to the menu, and their advertising has also helped.
He always knew he had a talent in managing and running a bar, but never really got to showcase it with his family bar. He was thrust into an already failing business, plagued with a bad reputation, mounting debt and the fear of losing his life just like his father. What he has now is so far beyond that and it seems like he’s starting to put all of that behind him.
I pull out an empty seat at the far end of the bar and sit down. Taking a menu from the holder I begin to scan it to see if there’s anything new I’d like to try. I settle on the brisket tacos and a beer just as Adam walks up.
“Looking for your mate?” he asks, his accent heavy and like always it holds that flirty quality. Hard to believe a guy who looks like him doesn’t have every girl in this place pressed up against the bar vying for his attention.
He’s muscular and tall with tattoos covering his arms and peeking out from the collar of his t-shirt. His accent alone should be a draw, but he has these deep green eyes that are so unique you can’t help but look at them. He’s not someone I would be interested in, but I’m certain he’s Mila’s type— dangerous and hard to pin down.
“My mate?” I say back, wondering if in this case mate means boyfriend and Caleb has gone public with our re
lationship.
Adam snickers a little, his lips quirking up into a reserved smile as he shakes his head. “Your friend? Your buddy? Caleb?”
“You hitting on my girl again, mate?” Caleb’s voice says, a bit of a mocking tone and the mimic of Adam’s accent coming through as he makes his way down the hallway that comes from the stockroom and kitchen. He knows Adam isn’t a threat to what we have. Honestly, no one is.
“Oh, so now she’s your girl? That’s new, but not unexpected,” Adam responds, smirking at Caleb. It’s a smirk that could definitely be used to draw in girls from all around and I watch as Adam winks at me making me laugh.
“I had to make sure I got to her before you did,” Caleb retorts, facetiously glaring at him. “You’re supposed to be working, by the way, not flirting with Ruby. Have you even taken her order?”
Adam leans forward, his elbows now resting on the bar. “What can I get you?” he trills, his words playful.
“I’ll have the brisket tacos and whatever beer is on special.”
Adam now looks over at Caleb and then back at me asking, “Can I see an ID?”
This is clearly a game they have going because Adam knows I’m of age, but I still pull my ID from my pocket and hand it to him. He scrutinizes it for a few seconds before handing it back with a nod of his head.
“Turns out my new boss here is a bit of a hardass and a stickler for following the rules,” Adam tells me, totally giving Caleb shit, but there’s something playful about it.
“Call me whatever you want. It’s my rules that will keep you employed and this place in business,” Caleb shoots back, but his eyes wander away from us, looking over my shoulder at something happening behind me.
“Get her order in,” Caleb now says, stepping out from behind the bar. His words are directed at Adam, but then he looks over at me, smiling. “I’ll be right back and then I’ll sit down and have dinner with you.”
