Ruby
“Did you know that Seattle was the home of the first gas station in the world when it was built in 1907?” I asked Jett as I got ready to put a pan of lasagna in the oven.
He’d mentioned that the Italian dish was one of his favorites, and had asked if we could hit a restaurant that served it. I’d insisted on getting the groceries and making it myself now that my foot was completely healed. If nothing else, I could at least feed Jett since I had the skills.
I’d been through four sessions of counseling with Dr. Romain, and I’d been doing my homework every single night. I couldn’t say I’d seen a ton of improvement, but I was slowly losing my fear of something bad happening. Slowly, I was just allowing myself to enjoy the time I spent with Jett without questioning it.
He looked up from the laptop he was using at the kitchen table. “Exactly how many facts do you have in that head of yours?” he joked.
“About seventeen years of them,” I answered. “I started going to our local library in Ohio when I was five, and I never stopped.”
“I live in Seattle, but I had no idea the first gas station was built there,” he answered.
“But you didn’t grow up there, right?” I asked curiously as I turned my back to him while I put the final layer of cheese on top of the mountain of meat, pasta, and cheese I’d prepared.
“I grew up in Rocky Springs, Colorado,” he verified.
“What’s it like in Colorado?”
He chuckled. “Rocky Springs is quiet. Pretty much a night and day difference between Seattle and Rocky Springs.”
“Why did you leave?” I asked curiously.
“When my parents died, I guess all of us wanted to get away, and my company was getting too big to stay away from a big tech city.”
“But Harper and Dani are there now,” I mentioned.
“Both of them were wanderers. Harper is an architect, and she moved around building homeless shelters. And Dani was a foreign correspondent who was covering mostly the Middle East. So they never really made a home for themselves anywhere else.”
“So you knew the Colter family from childhood?”
I was aware of the Colter family, even though I didn’t exactly follow the news of the super-rich. I recognized the Colter name because Blake Colter was a senator, and he was vocal about his opinions.
“Yep,” he affirmed. “I was friends with all of them, and my parents were friends with their mom. But I mostly stayed in contact with Marcus, and then we were even tighter once he formed PRO.”
I put the lasagna in the oven and grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge, setting one in front of Jett before I sat in the chair across the table from him. “Do you ever regret it because of your accident?” I asked. “Do you wish you’d never gotten involved in PRO?”
“Never,” he said as he closed his laptop. “We saved a lot of lives, many of them women and kids. If I had the choice, I’d do it all over again. I lived through the accident, and they would have died if Marcus hadn’t formed PRO.”
“Wouldn’t somebody else just have taken your place?” I popped the top on my soda and took a sip.
He shrugged. “Maybe. But they wouldn’t have been as good as I am, and they may not have been successful at locating those women and kids. Marcus asked my brother Carter to sign up, too, but it wasn’t his thing. I did fine solo.”
I thought it was interesting how Jett brushed off most compliments, but he was pretty damn cocky when it came to his technical skills. He always claimed to be the world’s best hacker.
Since he was gifted, he was probably right.
I leaned back in the chair and crossed my arms. “So you’re the best? There’s nobody better than you are?”
Jett and I had recently fallen into a pattern of challenging each other, and joking around about little things.
He shot me a mischievous grin. “Without a doubt. I’ve never met a system that I couldn’t breech. Which is why I’m so good at designing systems to protect from a cyberattack.”
I felt his brash smile way down to my toes, and everywhere in between. My heart skittered, and I tried to ignore the flutter in my stomach as I looked at him.
Jett was still an enigma to me. He was unlike any guy I’d ever met.
“When are you going to start teaching me about what you do? I’d like to get familiar with your company if I’m going to help you.”
“We’ll wait until we get back to Seattle,” he said.
“I started researching some basic programming on the computer. Maybe if I can learn some of the basics, it will help.” Computers weren’t exactly one of my strong areas since I’d had very little time to work on them as an adult. But I already knew the basics, and I could learn.
“Ruby, I want you to do whatever you want to do. Once you get a GED, you’ll be able to go to college if that’s what you want, and that should come first,” he grumbled as he popped the top on his soda and took a gulp.
“I can handle both,” I argued. “And paying you back for what you did for me comes first.”
“I don’t give a damn about the money,” he rumbled as he met my gaze.
“It matters to me, Jett,” I answered honestly. “I need to feel good about myself, and that won’t happen unless I do something to pay you back.”
“Can’t you ever just let somebody do something for you and just say thank you?” he asked gruffly. “I’m not keeping track, Ruby. And I wouldn’t take it even if you tried to pay me back.”
“Then I just won’t draw a paycheck, and I’ll eventually work enough to pay you,” I answered stubbornly.
“You’re cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking me meals. I hope you’re deducting all of those hours as work,” he snapped, sounding slightly injured.
“That’s nothing. It’s something I’d be doing if we were roommates or if I had my own place.”
“Add it to your hours worked,” he demanded in an irritated tone. “You’re going to need those hours because I suppose you’re going to throw this in my face, too.”
He reached into his pocket and tossed me a small book the size of my hand.
I picked it up, recognizing the object immediately.
“I found it on the kitchen counter,” he explained. “Since it’s a national bank, all I had to do was drop in and make a deposit.”
I turned the worn paper book around in my hand. Even though I was pretty sure the bank no longer issued the books, I’d had it since I was a kid. “It’s my savings account book, but there was nothing left in it.” I’d drawn every penny I could from the account when I’d left Ohio. It had only been a couple hundred dollars, but it had helped in the very beginning to buy food and a few other things I’d needed.
“There’s money in there now,” he muttered.
I opened it, but I didn’t see a recent deposit, which made me more certain that the books were obsolete. All he’d probably needed was the account number.
I looked at him, astonished. “Why?”
He stood up, but his emerald gaze was still pinning me to my chair with its intensity. “Because if something should happen to me, I have to know that you’ll be okay. Your days on the streets are done, Ruby. If I get hit by a truck tomorrow, you’ll still be okay.”
I wanted to tell him that I wouldn’t be okay if something happened to him. I’d be devastated. Because he was more important than his money.
“I’m not your responsibility, Jett. I’m a grown woman.” My reply came out harsh because I was still not good with thinking about his demise.
“I’m making you my responsibility because I want to,” he answered in a graveled tone. “And I need to know you’re going to be okay even if I’m not around.”
“Why?” I asked hesitantly, not even wanting to consider any day that didn’t have Jett in it.
“Because I fucking care about you, Ruby. Don’t you get that?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think that I do understand.”
What Dr. Romain had said during our first day of counseling drifted through my mind.
My uncle hadn’t protected me. He’d hurt me. And we were related.
But Jett, somebody who had only met me several weeks ago, was concerned about my future?
I wasn’t sure how to reconcile that.
But I finally answered, “Please understand that nobody has ever cared about me since my parents died, Jett. Nobody has ever tried to protect me over the years that I’ve been homeless. Nobody really cared.”
“I fucking care,” he answered in a clipped baritone. “You can accept that or not. You don’t have to spend the money if you don’t want to. But keep it because it means something to me. It gives me peace of mind.”
I looked at his tense expression, the muscle in his strong jaw twitching with irritation right before his face went completely blank. He started to walk away from the table, probably headed for the office where the computer equipment was set up.
I’d hurt him.
I knew it.
And that was the last thing I wanted to do to Jett.
My heart was aching as I cried out, “Wait. Please don’t run away.”
I jumped up from my chair and moved in front of him. My pride and confusion wasn’t nearly as important as what he’d done for me.
My vision was blurred as I looked up at him, but I refused to cry. “I admit that I’m not sure how to deal with somebody who cares, but what you did—nobody has ever done something like that for me except my parents who opened that account for me a few decades ago. Thank you.”
“Is that the end of your protest, Cinderella?” he asked as he raised my chin gently with his fingertips.
“I won’t spend the money unless I need to,” I warned him.
He nodded curtly. “I can live with that.”
“But please know that it means a lot to me,” I requested as I took his hand from my face and held it tightly.
He twined our fingers together. “I also did it so you’d feel safer. I guess I wanted you to know that you’re always going to be okay. Nobody can take that security away from you, Ruby.”
My heart was racing as I felt his warm breath on my face. I wanted to sink into Jett and stay there, absorbing his strength.
One of his motives in depositing money in my account had been just for me. So I’d realize that even if something happened, and he wanted to get rid of me, I’d always have funds.
Yes, getting dumped back on the streets was a really big fear for me, but I was getting more and more comfortable with the fact that Jett was never going to do that. “You didn’t have to do that,” I said in a whisper, my voice failing me as I looked into the eyes of the kindest man I’d ever known.
“I wanted to,” he corrected hoarsely.
His whiskey-smooth baritone skittered down my spine and landed directly between my thighs. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to have Jett kiss me.
His lips were inches from mine, and I was mesmerized by being so close to him. We stood like that for a moment. When I realized he wasn’t going to make a move, I made one of my own.
I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet me as I rose up on my toes.
Our lips met awkwardly, but Jett immediately took control. Pulling our fingers apart, he wrapped both arms around my waist, bringing me closer while he ravaged my mouth.
I moaned against his lips as I put my arms around his neck, needing to press my body against his to become submerged in his heat.
I was disappointed when he finally pulled his mouth from mine, but when he started to explore the sensitive skin of my neck, I let out an animalistic sound of need that I’d never heard come from my lips before.
“God, Ruby, I want you so damn much,” he said huskily, his breath wafting over my ear, and making me ache for so much more.
“I need to touch you,” I pleaded, tugging at the hem of his T-shirt.
All I wanted was to explore his bare flesh, and I yanked until he finally pulled the T-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor.
My hands were all over him, running over every gorgeous muscle of his torso, getting drunk off the feel of his hard body before he pulled me against him again.
His hands stroked down my back until they landed on my jean-clad rear and squeezed.
I froze, my mind suddenly flooded with memories I’d just wanted to forget.
“Don’t,” I said in panic. “I can’t do this. I can’t look at the scars—” I broke off to twist my body away from his, desperate to get out of his hold.
He let me go the moment he realized that something was wrong.
We were both panting as we stared at each other.
“I’m sorry,” I said breathlessly right before I sprinted toward my bedroom so I could be alone to try to clear my head.
But I was afraid that I couldn’t outrun my thoughts, and no amount of time alone would ever get them out of my mind.