For a long time, I just sat there with my hands on the steering wheel, staring at the swirling dust from the road between me and Main Street.
Then, I fished my cell phone out of my purse and texted Annie.
Mom sprung something on me, we’ll have to reschedule our super fun centerpiece building day. See you at church tomorrow.
As soon as the text went through, I turned my phone off, put the car in drive, and floored it across town.
* * *
Noah
“Just a minute!” I called from the bathroom, cursing under my breath as I ended my shower prematurely and yanked a towel off the rack. I’d debated ignoring the knock at my door altogether — mostly because I was pretty sure it was someone trying to sell something or convince me to switch religions. But, there was a chance it was one of my brothers, or my mom, since all of them liked to stop by unannounced.
The knock came again, a little louder this time, as I swiped a pair of sweatpants from my bed.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming! Hold your horses.”
I grumbled, putting on the first white t-shirt I saw hanging in my closet, even though I was still a little damp. As soon as I was dressed, I stormed across my house to answer the door, frustration boiling even more when yet another knock came. I frowned, blowing out a hot breath and ready to let whoever it was on the other side have it — unless it was Mom, of course.
When I swung the door open and saw Ruby Grace standing on my front porch, all the frustration died.
And was immediately replaced by the most powerful sense of protectiveness I’d ever experienced in my life.
Her fiery red hair was tied in a messy bun for the first time since I’d met her, little tendrils falling from the hair tie and framing her long, worn face. Her eyes were puffy and red, mascara smudged beneath them, bottom lip trembling as she watched me.
She looked so small — her arms folded over her middle, shoulders slumped, head hanging.
Someone had hurt her.
I swallowed, fists tightening at my sides, before I slowly pushed open the screen door between us. I didn’t chance a single word when she stepped inside, and as soon as she was in my house, I shut both doors behind her, folding my arms over her like I could protect her from whatever or whoever had hurt her.
Ruby Grace melted into me, a little sob muffled by my t-shirt as she buried her face in my chest and twisted her hands in the fabric covering my abdomen. She pulled me closer, trying to fold in on herself as I surrounded her, hugging her tight, one hand finding the back of her head. I ran my fingers through her hair, pressed her closer to my chest, my lips finding the crown of her head as I forced a calming breath.
“It’s okay,” I assured her without knowing what it even was. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
She cried harder at that, pulling at my shirt again like she needed me closer. There wasn’t an inch of us that wasn’t touching, but I tried, anyway. I tightened my grip, pulled long, calming breaths through my nose before gently releasing them, helping her to do the same.
It felt like hours that we stood there, just inside my front door, her wrapped up in my arms as I rocked her. With each passing minute, her sobs softened, her breathing quieted, and finally, she pressed her hands into my chest, lifting her head from that spot to lock her eyes on mine.
Her devastated, tear-glossed, achingly beautiful golden eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her bottom lip trembling with the apology. “I… I didn’t know where else to go.”
I ran the pad of my thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away the salty streams there before I framed her face in my hands. “You never have to apologize for coming to me. Ever. No matter what.”
She closed her eyes, releasing two more parallel tears before she buried her head in my chest again.
I had so many questions — namely, who the fuck did I need to kill — but, I knew she’d tell me what happened when she was ready. So, instead, I held her, walking her over to my couch and pulling her down into the cushions with me. She curled up in a ball in my lap, and I covered us with a blanket, rocking her gently in my arms until her breathing quieted again.
“Do you want some water?” I asked after a while.
She nodded, sniffing and running the back of her wrist under her nose before crawling off me. I squeezed her knee before I stood, making my way into the kitchen.
Once I was alone, I cracked my neck, forcing a calming breath that was more for me than for her. I had the bad habit of jumping to conclusions, of letting my temper get the best of me, and I knew it was going to take every ounce of willpower I had to be calm and cool and collected when she finally did tell me what happened.
If it was Anthony, if he had cheated on her or broken her heart in any way, I also knew that “staying calm” would be a nearly impossible goal to accomplish.
With two glasses of water in hand, I made my way back to the living room. Ruby Grace hadn’t moved an inch. Her eyes were blank, bottomless holes as she stared at my coffee table.
“Here,” I whispered, handing one glass to her and setting the other on the table. She wrapped her hands around the glass, taking one small sip before resting it in her lap, her eyes focused on the liquid inside.
“Anthony doesn’t love me.”
She whispered the words, and not a single shadow of emotion passed over her face when she released them.
I didn’t know how to respond. Half of me wanted to say I fucking know that, I’ve been trying to tell you. But, the other half of me knew there was a reason she thought he did before this moment, and there was a reason she thought he didn’t now.
“That’s not true,” I finally offered, against the internal rolling of my eyes.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It is. I heard him…”
I frowned, not understanding.
She closed her eyes, forcing a long breath before she spoke again. “He was talking to his dad on the phone, he didn’t know I could hear him. And he… he said some awful things about me, about my family.”
My throat tightened, and I reached for the other glass of water, taking a sip to cool myself down before I spoke. “What did he say?”
“That I was right for their plan. That I was pretty and I don’t have any aspirations of my own and I’ve been trained well to be a politician’s wife.” She scoffed, eyes floating up to the ceiling as she rolled her lips together. “He doesn’t want to marry me because he loves me, he wants to marry me because I fit the role.” Her eyes fluttered shut again. “I’m a pawn in a game I didn’t even know I was playing.”
“He didn’t say that.”
Ruby Grace’s eyebrows bent together in confusion, her gaze leveling with mine. “What?”
My jaw clenched along with my fists at my side. “Please, tell me he didn’t say any of that. Tell me, so I don’t get in my truck and drive across town and beat in his fucking face until no one recognizes him.”
“Noah,” she gasped, reaching out for me. “Please, don’t. Don’t hurt him.” She swallowed. “Don’t leave me.”
The breath I blew out through my nose felt like fire and smoke, black invading my vision. That son of a bitch didn’t deserve her in the first place, and now?
Now, he didn’t deserve to breathe.
“Please,” she said again, scooting closer to me. She placed her water on the coffee table, leaning into me, her small arms wrapping around my middle as she rested her head on my chest. “Please.”
I blew out another breath, but this time, I let it out slower, wrapping my arms around her in return. There was nothing I wanted more than to drive across town and give that motherfucker exactly what he had coming.
Nothing, except to hold Ruby Grace and be the one who made her feel better, the one who showed her that what he did to her did not define who she was.
“I feel so stupid,” she said after a while, her head still on my chest. “All this time, I thought I’d hit the jackpot. I had the perfect guy, the perfect ring
, the perfect future. I didn’t mind sacrificing my own dreams for his, because I knew he loved me. I knew that I’d be his partner, standing by his side, and he’d bend for my wants in the future.” She paused. “I thought I’d found what my parents had. And that was all I’d ever wanted.”
My heart broke with that admission, because I knew the feeling all too well. Ruby Grace had watched her parents grow in love just as I’d watched mine, and it was what we had pictured for our futures.
Now, her picture had been shattered.
I tilted her chin up, leveling my eyes with hers. “He’s an idiot,” I stated simply. “And I know that doesn’t fix anything. It probably doesn’t make you feel better, either. But, he is. And he’s going to regret the day he lost you. He’s going to regret that he didn’t realize what he had when he had it.”
She sighed, leaning into my hand. “I doubt he’ll even care. He’ll find someone else who can play the part, and he’ll run for office just the same.”
“He’ll care,” I promised her. “Trust me. And he’ll regret it. There isn’t a man alive who could be loved by you and not kick himself every single day for fucking it up.”
A steady silence fell over us, her eyes on mine, those words between us.
“I don’t even know how to begin telling my mom,” she finally said, and those eyes watching mine welled up with tears again. “It’ll break her heart.”
“She’ll understand. She loves you.”
Ruby Grace shook her head, letting out a long, heavy breath. “Everyone is going to be talking about this, Noah. Everyone. Forever.”
“Let them talk. They don’t know you or the situation, and their judgment doesn’t affect who you are.” I held her gaze, running my thumb down the line of her jaw. “Do you hear me? What they think of you is not who you actually are. They do not have that power over you.” I smirked. “Plus, someone else will fuck up and give them a change of subject. I mean, just leave it to me and my brothers. We’ve been doing it all our lives.”
She chuckled, but it died quickly, sadness washing over her again. “I feel like a fool.”
“It’s him who’s the fool,” I assured her, searching her eyes with my own. “You are, without a doubt, the most caring, loving, passionate, intelligent, and classy woman I have ever met. You walk with a confidence unparalleled by anyone in this town, and you give without ever expecting anything in return, and you’re brave.” I shook my head. “You are so fucking brave.”
Her eyes softened, her voice just a whisper again. “You didn’t mention the way I look in any of those bullet points.”
“You’re beautiful,” I said easily. “But that’s not what makes you the woman I l—” I swallowed, throat constricting like her eyes held it in a vise grip. “That’s not what makes you the woman you are. You are more than your eyes, and your hair, and your strawberry smoothie lips and long, lean legs. You’re not meant to be a puppet in some man’s sideshow, Ruby Grace. You’re meant to be his entire world.”
Ruby Grace let her eyes wander over every inch of my face, as if she was just noticing me for the first time.
And maybe she was.
“I love the way you see me,” she whispered.
I swallowed, heart picking up speed as she leaned in closer, her hands fisted in my shirt, her eyes on my lips.
“I just see you with my eyes.”
“No,” she argued, her lips centimeters from mine, her sweet breath invading my senses. “No, you see me with your soul.” She swallowed, eyes flicking up to mine before they fell back to my mouth. “And I feel you with mine.”
Her lips touched mine tentatively at first — feather light, each of us releasing a shaky, anxious breath. I felt that tiny, almost non-existent touch in every inch of my body. A wave of chills rushed through me, our lips hovering, breaths hard and heavy with want.
With need.
Then, my hands slid into her hair, and I pulled her into me, claiming her mouth like it had never touched another man.
She moaned, melting into me as I deepened the kiss, my lips hard and hot on hers. Her hands twisted in my shirt before she let it go completely, sliding the warmth of her palms beneath the fabric and over my stomach. I shivered at the touch, groaning against her kiss and pulling her closer.
I felt stupid for ever thinking I could know, could fathom, what it would be like to kiss her, to have her in my arms like this.
Kissing Ruby Grace wasn’t like kissing a normal girl. It was like kissing royalty, like kissing a goddess, like being hand-picked by the heavens to surrender your heart forever in exchange for just one, tender, earth-shattering moment.
I surrendered to that moment, to that sacrifice, letting my hands wander her curves, my lips savoring the pressure of hers, my tongue tasting the sweet taste buds of her own. I pulled her closer — tugging, reaching — until she straddled me on the couch.
But when the heat of her center rubbed against my hard-on, I bit her bottom lip, sucking in a groan and releasing her mouth on a panting breath that felt like I’d been sucked back down to Earth and landed flat on my back.
“Stop,” I breathed, pressing my forehead against hers.
Ruby Grace’s chest heaved, her hands still under my shirt, lips parted.
I swallowed. “I don’t want you.”
Her face crumbled at that, brows bending together as she pulled back to look at me.
“Not like this,” I clarified. I reached under my shirt for her hands, folding them in mine and bringing her knuckles to my lips. “I have thought about kissing you since the day you showed up at the distillery, Ruby Grace. And I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought of doing more. But, I… I can’t. Not now. Not when you’re torn up over another man.”
The level of hurt on her face in that moment was enough to make me wish I’d never opened my door in the first place. I knew that kind of hurt — it was rejection. And God, it killed me that I’d been the one to put it there.
But I couldn’t lie to myself, or to her. I wanted her more than I could say, but that didn’t change the fact that she still wore another man’s ring on her finger.
I waited for her to curse, to slap me, to crawl off my lap and slam my door in my face as she stormed out of my house and maybe even out of my life completely.
Instead, she let out a relieved breath, shoulders folding forward as she squeezed my hands that held hers.
“Tonight has nothing to do with him and you know it,” she breathed.
My heart was a stallion in my rib cage, thunderous and powerful, steady and strong.
“We’ve both known it,” she continued. “And I’ve tried to fight it, tried to convince myself that what I felt when I was with you was wrong, that it wasn’t real.” She shook her head. “But it is real. I’m just sorry it took me so long, that it took this, for me to finally admit that to myself.”
I searched her eyes, and when I found nothing but sincerity there, I didn’t know if I wanted to jump and throw my fist in the air or curl into her and fucking sob.
Because I felt it — right then and there on my couch on a normal, summer, Saturday afternoon in Stratford, Tennessee — I felt it and I knew.
The ring on her finger didn’t matter anymore.
She was mine.
And I was hers.
As if to hammer that point home, she kept her eyes locked on mine as she reached down, slipping the ring off her finger and leaning back to deposit it somewhere on the coffee table before she slipped her hands back beneath my shirt.
“Now,” she said, rolling her hips just enough to elicit a stiff breath from me. “I’m going to ask you to kiss me again, Noah Becker. And I won’t ask you twice.”
My lips were on hers before she could even say the words.
Chapter 14
Ruby Grace
Dark.
Everything was dark.
Outside, the sun was shining, another bright summer day in Tennessee. But inside Noah’s bedroom, where he was currently kissing me a
nd backing me up — slowly, step by step — it was all dark.
Dark walls. Dark comforter. Dark curtains covering the window and blocking the sun’s light from sneaking through. Blind caresses in the black space between us — lips and necks and hands and sighs. Dark intentions, dark promises waiting to be fulfilled.
His dark hair in my hands, my dark heart in his.
He was just a shadow as he held me, his kisses touching me like a sweet, soft, summer midnight on a tropical island.
I didn’t realize how much a kiss could feel like a vacation.
I didn’t realize how much a person could feel like home.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long,” he breathed against my lips, breaking contact just long enough to whisper the words before his mouth claimed mine again. “And now, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.”
Every breath was a trembling, shallow sip of air. My body didn’t know how to react with new hands on me, with new lips, a new tongue, a new feeling. I didn’t want to think about another man in that moment, but I couldn’t help it. Because I remembered my first kiss with Anthony.
And it was nothing like this.
Noah’s hands held my face like I was the treasure he’d hunted for his entire life and finally found. He peppered me with kisses before holding me to him longer, slowing it all down, caressing my lips with passionate, silky kisses. He’d slip his tongue inside my mouth, taste me, draw my bottom lip between his teeth and release it on a groan that I felt all the way to my toes.
This wasn’t just a kiss.
This was a dream, a fantasy — and every part of my body surrendered to the impossible realism of it all.
Noah backed me up farther, his hands sliding down to the small of my back to guide me, and when the back of my legs hit the edge of his bed, he stopped, holding me steady.
“Ruby Grace,” he whispered, kissing me again before I could answer.
“Yes,” I barely breathed in return.
“Can I take this dress off you?”
Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set Page 296
