Jett
I knew I was totally and completely fucked.
For me, once I’d made Ruby mine, there was going to be no going back.
I lifted my head, my body still tense as I sat back down on the couch and pulled Ruby’s soft, feminine, and willing body onto my lap.
It wasn’t going to happen tonight, and it may not happen for weeks. But eventually, Ruby Kent was going to be mine.
“I don’t want to squash your leg,” Ruby squealed as she made herself comfortable, trying to make sure she wasn’t on top of my bum knee.
My leg didn’t hurt nearly as much as my engorged, aching dick right now.
“You’re fine. Keep still,” I demanded. If she didn’t stop grinding her beautiful ass against my hard-on, I was going to have a harder time being patient.
And Ruby was going to require all the finesse I had.
My first objective was just to make her comfortable with being touched and sharing her personal space with me.
After that, I’d have to play it by ear.
All I knew was I wanted her to trust me, and that wasn’t going to happen by me bending her over the nearest object and fucking her until my gut-gnawing need for her was satiated.
I wished her uncle was still alive so I could make him die painfully for all that he’d done to hurt Ruby, but this wasn’t about me. It was about her, and what Ruby needed now was somebody to trust, and somebody who cared about her.
And she had both of those things with me.
Just the thought of somebody hurting a hair on her head made me crazy, so I couldn’t even think about what had been done to her as an innocent child.
She’s so fucking beautiful!
If I wanted to be honest, I’d admit that I’d been screwed since the very first time I’d seen her, and it was about time I got totally real. And it wasn’t just because her beautiful body had been on display. What had grabbed my balls and squeezed them until it was painful was the way Ruby had been able to keep her chin up, and was unwilling to let no one see her emotions. She had been terrified, but she didn’t give anybody the satisfaction of knowing just how scared she was.
I’d admired her courage since day one, and I still did. But now I also loved her intelligence, her humor, and just about every damn thing about her.
She could probably tell me to fuck off, and I’d love that, too.
“Are we going to have sex tonight?” she asked.
I loved her newfound candor, and my cock was beyond ready to have sex with her. But my brain definitely wasn’t.
Putting my hand behind her head, I pulled her down to kiss the gorgeous lips that had been tempting me all damn night.
A tiny squeak of pleasure vibrated against my mouth, and all I could think about was making her crazy with need. I wanted to hear her moans as I drew her closer and closer to climax.
As I released her mouth, I said, “We’re going to take this slow, Ruby. There’s so much more to being pleasured than just a fuck.”
She didn’t have a clue how good an orgasm could feel, and I wanted to teach her every way she could get there.
“I’ve read books,” she said with a sigh. “But it only explains the physiological things.”
“You still don’t touch yourself?” I asked.
“Only a few times while I’ve been with you. I feel like my body is waking up to sensations I’ve never had before. But I’m not quite sure what to do.”
“No foreplay in high school? Not even first or second base?”
“I never even got into the stadium,” she said unhappily. “I wasn’t the pretty, cheerleader type, so most guys gave me a wide berth. And even if they hadn’t, I wasn’t allowed to date until I was sixteen, and that was the year my parents died. And honestly, I had no desire to get close to anybody male except my dad.”
I started thinking about her uncle again, but I shut the thoughts down so I could put my attention where it needed to be—on her.
Ruby shifted off my lap, but plastered her body against mine and put her head on my shoulder.
“I guess I still don’t understand how nobody noticed the fact that you were being abused. There had to be signs, Ruby.”
“People see what they expect to see. Our home was outside of the city, in a smaller town. My uncle was an expert manipulator. For the most part, everybody liked him.”
She was right. Abuse went undetected a lot. I’d made a point out of studying it since I’d met Ruby. I was pretty sure that Ruby had kept a low profile in school, and the only one who might have been able to save her had been her parents—had they known about it.
Unfortunately, it sounded like her uncle had struck terror in Ruby’s heart about her family being broken up and harm coming to her parents if she told.
I wrapped my arms tightly around Ruby, glad that she had crossed my path, even if it had been traumatic for her. I didn’t want to think about where she might be if she hadn’t.
“You’re safe now,” I told her after I’d swallowed the huge lump in my throat.
She rubbed against me like a kitten. “I know.”
Ruby had answered without hesitation, and it humbled me to know that she felt safe with me. She’d been through so damn much. I wasn’t so sure I could be as trusting as she was if I’d lived her life.
“How much work do you have for me tomorrow?” she asked.
“Honestly?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Not much,” I confessed. “Shirley helps me when I need it. I have a lot to do, but most of it is technical. I only offered you the job to get you here. I wanted to help you get on your feet and decide what you wanted to do with your life, but I knew you’d refuse to let me just help you out.”
She looked up at me with a frown. “You lied to me?”
Dammit! I couldn’t believe I actually felt guilty about bullshitting her so I could help her. “I stretched the truth. And I could actually use the help you’ve been giving me by cooking. I suck at it, and fast food gets old.”
“I know I haven’t exactly been reasonable, Jett. But it’s hard for me to take anything from anybody. I want to make my own way.”
“I get that,” I answered. “But you have to learn that sometimes you have to take the help you need along the way to get where you want to be in life.”
“You’re right,” she capitulated. “But be patient with me. I’m not used to anybody wanting to help me.”
When I looked at Ruby, I saw a gentle soul who had been abused and hurt so badly that she wasn’t quite sure who she was anymore. But in just the short time we’d been together, she’d changed. Ruby was rapidly righting the wrongs in her life. And I didn’t want to fuck that up. “I shouldn’t have lied to you,” I confessed. “But I was pretty desperate.”
“Don’t,” she said, putting her fingers over my lips. “You’re a good man, Jett. I know you don’t just lie for no reason. So you want me to cook. What else?”
I shrugged. “We’ll make the rest up as we go along.”
“I’d really like to get a driver’s license, and I want to schedule my GED.”
I nodded. “Those should both be a priority. What have you always wanted to be, Ruby? If you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it be?”
“I guess I’ve never really thought about it because I’ve always wanted to be a pastry chef.”
“I think we have culinary schools here,” I mused.
Ruby punched me lightly on the arm. “Of course you do. There are some good ones here.”
“And I definitely recommend working for yourself,” I told her with a grin. “Working for other people sucks.”
She rolled her eyes. “Says the tech giant who has more money than he knows what to do with. I might have to start small.”
I didn’t tell her that I was more than willing to be her partner if she wanted her own place. Hell, I’d give her a bakery, but I knew she wouldn’t accept that. “You can figure out your plan while you’re going to school, if you decide that’s what you want to do. You have time.”
“I’m going to work, even if I decide to go to school,” she said firmly.
“You’re working for me,” I reminded her.
“I need to start supporting myself, Jett,” she said stubbornly. “And cooking for you is not working for you. I have to eat, too. And I need to find my own place once I get my inheritance.”
“Don’t go there, Ruby,” I growled.
I understood the fact that she wanted to feel valuable by working and taking care of herself, but it was a hell of a lot more important for her to figure out what her goals were first.
“Okay. We’ll talk about it later. We could have sex instead,” she teased.
“Don’t go there, either,” I warned.
“Will you kiss me then?”
Every muscle in my body was tight as I looked at her sultry, hopeful expression.
There was no damn way I was going to say no.