by Em Petrova
“I can make out some letters on the side. Not all,” Winston informed him.
“Good—we can use them to find out where the barrel’s from.”
“Got eyes on your girlfriend, Jack.”
Gasper’s chest tightened. While she wasn’t his in any way, he couldn’t help but wish he could get her the hell out of this place, far from whatever was going down on a daily basis.
At that moment, she moved across the short loading dock into the downpour. Her hood hid her hair as well as her face, but she walked up to a delivery man and shoved him in the shoulder.
“Oh fuck. Shit’s about to get real.” Gasper wanted to go to her.
“Should we put a stop to it?”
“Wait for my call.” He stared at the pair. The man’s mouth opened and closed in quick snaps, indicating to Gasper he was arguing. And Ruby slashed a hand through the air.
The man made a quick move, and Gasper half rose from his crouch, prepared to jump in if he raised his hand to Ruby. But the guy stepped away and yanked down the lift gate of the box truck. Without a backward glance at Ruby, he jumped to the ground, walked to the passenger side, and climbed in.
Ruby watched them go for a second before she vanished inside. The door closed, cutting off their view.
“How many women do you think work here, Jack?” Winston’s question caught him off guard.
“Too many for a small-town bar with little business.”
“Affirmative. I’m going to request that I remain in position, put eyes on the building. See who’s coming and going.”
“Good idea, Winston. Call for backup too, because I’m not waiting out here in the rain any longer.”
“What are you gonna do?” Winston’s voice held a trace of amusement.
“I’m going to knock and see if I’m granted entry.” He straightened to his full height of six-two.
He raised his fist and knocked. Only a few heartbeats passed before the door flew open. Ruby stood there, still clad in the rain slicker, her thick red waves tumbling over the wet black cloth and her sweet lips twisted in anger.
“What are you doing here!” She glanced over her shoulder.
Gasper crowded into the opening, causing her to step backward. He glanced around the kitchen and saw they were alone, but a few boxes were on the prep table, a box cutter next to them.
“You invited me to the garden, remember?” He stepped toward her.
She backed away. “You’re soaked to the skin. Did you walk here?”
“Only a leisurely stroll through the hurricane rain seeing what White Fog has to offer.”
“And what did you see?”
Was it his imagination or had a worried light hit her eyes?
“White fog.”
The corner of her lips twitched, but she dipped her head to hide her smile. “Well, take off your clothes. You know where the laundry room is. Stick them in the dryer.”
He reached for his shirt buttons. Her gaze fixed on his fingers, and his insides clenched at the thought of what he could do to this woman simply by being himself. Plenty of women liked his appearance, but none smiled at his jokes.
Once he’d peeled away the wet outer shirt, he tugged off his black T-shirt. The instant Ruby’s eyes landed on his bare torso, her teeth came down to sink into her plump lower lip.
“You don’t even look chilled.” Her voice came out a bit raspy.
He shrugged and bent to remove his boots before going for the waist of his pants. He never was a man for showing off to women, but he was aching and hard by the time he let his jeans puddle on the floor.
He stepped out of them. Ruby dipped her stare over his abs, stopping at his bulging erection tenting out his boxer briefs.
“I’m soaked to the skin.” He reached for the elastic of his briefs.
Her gaze flew up to his face. “Don’t strip down here! Go to the laundry room! You’ll…find a clean blanket folded on top of the dryer. Wrap up in that while your clothes dry.”
The corner of his lips quirked at how flustered she was becoming. And how cute she looked with that pink in her cheeks.
He bundled his wet garments into the crook of his arm. “Care to show me the way?”
“No, I do not care to. You shouldn’t be here at all, Elias.” The way she spoke the syllables of his name, all soft and whispery, left him no question that he’d thrown her off balance. Her kisses revealed how affected she was, and so were the tiny moans she issued each time he put his hands on her.
He lowered his stare over her body. Even in that wet slicker, she was gorgeous. Maybe a bit too thin—those curves would fill out to fill up his hands just right if he could alleviate some of the stress this woman was under.
Which was why he was here.
She bore the long, inviting stare he gave her, but not for long. She darted her attention to the box on the counter.
“Got a liquor shipment, I see.”
“Yes.” She forced strength into her tone.
They stared at each other for a long minute. He knew there was more, and she wasn’t going to say. He knew when to back down from a standoff.
As he started past her to the laundry room, he paused and placed his mouth next to her ear. “What if I don’t know how to work the dryer?”
“And here I thought you were a smart one. Guess you boys only get brains or looks.” She clicked her tongue. “A shame.”
Chuckling at her sassy retort, he strutted to the laundry room. But as soon as he entered, he found he was not alone. A young woman he hadn’t seen before in the bar or restaurant stood there, leaning against the wall, watching the clothes spin in the washing machine.
She glanced up. Seeing him, she jerked from the wall and then struck a seductive pose with her breasts pushed up and her leg arranged like a model for a photoshoot, showing off the length of golden flesh.
He watched her for a second before opening the dryer. It was empty, and he tossed his clothes in, choosing to remain in his underwear even though they were wet too. He wasn’t about to strip in front of this woman.
“Hello.” He spoke out of the need to fill dead air space.
She only smiled and nodded at him.
He peered at her closer. It was impossible to make out her nationality—there were pretty brunettes like her all over the world. But the fact she wasn’t speaking made him think she didn’t speak English, or understand it either.
“Jenicka!”
The girl snapped to attention as if she’d been shot when Ruby’s voice rang out.
The pair looked at each other. Ruby waved to the exit, and Jenicka ran through it.
No words had been exchanged, which only solidified his belief the young woman didn’t speak English.
“Sorry about that. She tends to show up in places she isn’t supposed to be.”
“She’s your employee?”
Ruby nodded. “She’s still learning.”
Since this didn’t seem like a moment to share with the team, he removed his earpiece and set it aside. He edged up to her and pinched a lock of thick red hair between his finger and thumb, following the wave down to the end. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on here, sweetheart?”
“Why don’t you kiss your own ass?” she whispered in a seductive tone.
He grinned. “Because I’d rather kiss your lips.” He leaned in, letting his mouth hover over hers, giving her the choice. And when she closed the gap between them and crushed her plump lips against his, he felt the sweet surrender of the moment.
Growling low in his throat, he he dragged her into his arms. She’d removed the slicker in the kitchen, and the fitted white blouse underneath was low-cut enough to show off the creamy tops of her breasts and a hint of what he knew would be ample cleavage once he peeled the top away.
She slipped her arms around his neck, and he molded her curves to his body, plundering her mouth without remorse until she trembled.
He ripped his mouth away, staring down into her eyes. A s
torm lived in the gray-blue depths.
“Take me, Elias,” she whispered with a knife edge of desperation. “Make me feel like a woman.”
“Sweetheart, you’re all woman,” he drawled.
He shouldn’t lay a hand on her, but damn if he could walk away from that invitation. The hum of the machines provided cover for the small squeaks she made as he captured her mouth and her nipple with his fingers at the same moment. Her small nipple bunched beneath his fingertips, and he swallowed her cry when he applied even more pressure to the needy tip.
He couldn’t get enough of her sweet taste and sounds. When he pressed her up against the wall, kneading both breasts at once, he watched her glow of desire creep from her breasts, up her throat, then settle in her cheeks.
“You should be made to feel good every minute of every single damn day,” he rasped, watching her face mirror the pleasure she was feeling.
“You make me forget who I am.”
He bent his lips to her throat and sucked at her pulse point. She writhed, arching into his hands as he pinched and teased her nipples through her bra and top.
“Who is the real Ruby?”
She sucked in sharply when he nibbled at her earlobe.
“I don’t think I’ll receive any answers from you, not in this aroused state,” he grated against her ear.
She shuddered.
“And the only thing I want to know from you right this minute is whether or not you’ll let me go down on you and eat your pussy.”
She went dead still. He leaned away enough to see her pulse going crazy beneath her skin. Her flush intensified.
Then she grabbed his face and kissed the hell out of him. The little wildcat had him at her mercy, for damn sure.
His balls gripped tight to his body, and if they were blue, it wasn’t from the chill.
He pulled his mouth free. Before he could issue a word, she planted her hands on his shoulders and shoved him to his knees.
He grinned up at her. “That’s the answer I was hopin’ for.”
Ruby was melting into a puddle, even though Elias was at her feet and not the other way around. Each swipe of his hot, rough tongue through her slick folds had her gripping the appliance behind her for purchase.
Still, she nearly buckled when he spread her thighs wider and ducked to thrust his tongue into her pussy. She cried out, flooding him with juices of want. When was the last time a man made her feel this way? Unraveled, undone…un-everything.
Her mind was blank to all her cares waiting for her outside of this room and she didn’t give a hot damn about anybody right now besides the man sucking her clit like he’d made it his life’s work.
He wrapped those magic lips around her nubbin and with soft pulls drew her to her tiptoes. She tossed her head with a cry of ecstasy. The stubble on his jaw drove her crazy and at the same time raked against her sensitive inner thighs. His tongue, long and perfectly skilled in the art of giving great cunnilingus, might be Elias’s best feature.
Right after his deep eyes, hard lips and harder body.
When she looked down at him, she found him looking back, his eyes pinning her. As if she ever wanted to slip away. Her grandmother’s legacy could go up in flames, but she’d never walk away from how Elias was making her feel.
Like a woman. Part of the universe of flesh and blood humans who actually allowed themselves things like emotions and pleasure.
He snaked his tongue through her folds to sink into her cavern once again. She widened her stance and grabbed the back of his head, forcing him deeper. His approving growl was enough to make her lose it.
Shocks of electricity hit her core. She bottled a scream, not wanting a bouncer to come running, rocked her hips forward, and came on Elias’s tongue.
“Mmmm.” He bathed her clit with her juices, spread by his tongue, and sucked the bundle of nerves as waves beat at her system. She twisted her fingers in his short hair and rode her orgasm to the last shudder.
But he didn’t immediately draw away as most men would. He continued to watch her face and lap at her pussy. When he reached up and latched on to her nipples, white-hot need hit her for a second time.
She didn’t expect this orgasm. It hit out the blue. It rocked her world and pulled his name from her lips. Maybe it was the roughness of his fingers and the hard tug on her nipples or the fact he wasn’t walking away from giving her pleasure until he was damn well finished that sent her sailing over the edge.
Gasping, trembling, she hung forward, hands still clasped around his head. Slowly, he brought his long, slow, thorough, insanely hot licks to an end and drew his tongue from her drenched folds.
“Feelin’ good, sweetheart?”
She couldn’t find any breath to respond with.
With a touch much gentler than a man should be capable of with those big hands, he eased his fingertip over her slit, up to the bump of her clit. As he pressed down on it, she jerked upright, her toes curled again.
“Oh my God! You’re driving me crazy!”
“Good,” he murmured, shifting her ultra-sensitive flesh under his fingertip right and left, dragging more moans from her. She wanted him to pick her up and carry her to bed and keep her there all night long.
She wanted to explore his body with her fingers and tongue in the same manner he was learning hers. And she wanted to watch his face as he came apart for her.
“That first day in the laundromat…”
She met his heated stare. “Y-yes?”
“I wanted to do this. I wanted to watch you come for me. To let go. But my first thought was to hold you against the corner of the washing machine and see you get off that way.”
Shock hit her system at his dirty words.
“After you were soaking wet, I wanted to lick you right here.” He licked her from hole to clit.
She cried out.
“Lick you clean. Make you come on my tongue. My fingers. Then start over.”
She couldn’t think or breathe. What was he doing to her? A complete stranger, yanking things from her she never knew existed. She was like that sea out there off the coast of White Fog, the depths unknown even after years of exploration.
“Elias!”
He latched on to her nipples again, pinching hard enough to make her cry out. How did he own every part of her without knowing her? Hell, he didn’t even know her real name—and never would. He’d be gone soon, and she’d return to the dull monotony of daily fear and bullying by the Russian mafia.
But for now…she had this big, beautiful god of a man wearing an expression of determination on his handsome face.
He pulled a third orgasm from her. As the dizziness of bliss blanked her mind, she realized he’d lifted her. He caught her lips. She tasted herself there and kissed him back, holding on to his broad shoulders.
She yanked free of the kiss. He’d set her on the top of the washer and dropped his briefs. The veined length of his cock made her shudder with desire.
First, Elias cupped her cheek in his hand. “Will you have me, Ruby?”
The intimacy of meeting his eyes and saying yes almost broke her. She mentally floundered for a moment while he waited for her answer.
“Condoms are in the cupboard over the dryer.”
If he was surprised she stored them in the laundry room—or that there were a dozen boxes there—he didn’t reveal it. He pulled a packet out and deftly tore open the wrapper. With a hard jerk of his fist over his impressive girth, her eyes threatened to roll upward.
She’d never had a man like Elias and never wanted one as much. And for the first time in ages, she felt alive. Like more than just a survivor.
She hooked her ankles around his body and pulled him close. Cradling her face, he met her stare as he fit his cock head at the quick of her. In a slow, easy glide, he filled her, stretched her and stole the last remnant of her mind.
With each pass of his cock through her tight, hot walls, another rumble filled his chest. No sooner did he release the an
imalistic noise than another took its place.
She rocked into him, and he ground his hips in the rhythm of the machines around them. Right now, the only drive in him was to keep her safe and make her happy. Surely that was odd, right? He’d barely hit White Fog before some immediate need to protect Ruby had taken hold.
He twisted his tongue against hers, collecting each and every moan she made to store away in his memory. This may never happen again. A woman like her might only give herself once and then walk away without a backward glance.
Hell, he hoped that wasn’t the case. Now that her flavor lived in his memory, he wanted more of it—and more of this clenching heat from the base of his cock to the tip.
Gathering her to his chest, he cuddled her close, absorbing her tremors of pleasure that rocked him to the bone.
“You’re a…damn pervert…Elias.”
A laugh bubbled from him. “Why is that?”
He didn’t know he loved a woman who talked during sex until this moment either.
“Thinking of me getting off…oh God, that feels good…on the washing machine.”
He angled his hips to hit her G-spot. “We can try it next, sweetheart. Right now, cum is boiling in my balls and I’m about to blow.”
She dug her blunt nails into his shoulders and rocked faster, taking the lead while the explosion coiled at the base of his spine. When it rocketed up from his balls to jet out in long, thick spurts, he locked eyes with Ruby and let go.
While he caught his breath and stabilized his mind, she shoved her hands into his chest, moving him an inch. But he refused to budge from his position with his arms around her and his cock still buried inside her.
“You shouldn’t have come tonight, Elias.” Her sweet voice was quiet.
“You invited me, if you’ll remember.”
“It was pouring rain. What man comes to a date in the garden when it’s pouring?”
“I do. You’ll find I don’t walk away from any challenge.” He caught her eyes. The inner depths shimmered with something he wanted to examine closer.
She managed to shove him away from her and hopped off the washing machine. “You guys need to leave White Fog.”
Still humming from his fucking amazing release, he eyed her. “Is that a warning?”
