It’s dark when I wake up, and my heart is pounding.

I don’t know what woke me. Is it just the different silence of the Plaza? That doesn’t explain the rush of adrenaline in my veins.

It also doesn’t explain why the bed next to me is empty, the blankets folded back. I stretch out one arm. The sheets are cold.

I prop myself up on one elbow, my eyes adjusting to the moonlight, my heart in my throat.

“Did I wake you up?” Ruby’s soft voice comes from behind me, and I turn over with a start. I rub a hand over my face. The fog of sleep is still competing with the sharp tang of the adrenaline, and at first her words don’t make any sense. Then they resolve themselves.

“No. I don’t know.” I peer across the room at her. She’s wearing a black silk robe—I had it brought up for her along with other wardrobe pieces for our weekend stay—and it’s like a dark waterfall over her curves. I want her to take it off. What is she doing over there, anyway? “Come back to bed.”

Her face is pale in the moonlight streaming in through the door. Ruby’s movements are slow, as if the air is heavy and thick, but she turns away from the terrace and comes back toward the bed, her footfalls soft on the carpet.

There’s something thoughtful, something worried, in her expression. I reach a hand out to her before she can step around to the other side of the bed. “Are you alright?”

She takes my hand and lets me pull her to the edge of the bed, where she sits, her eyes moving over the wrinkles in the comforter.

“Ruby?”

The blue of her eyes seems almost gray in the moonlight. “Isn’t it too soon?”

“Isn’t what too soon?” We’re both speaking in quiet tones, as if anything louder might disturb the other guests. Impossible, since we’re on the very top floor of the hotel. We’re even on the top floor of the suite itself.

“Being together.”

I blink at her. Where is this coming from? “If I rushed you, if you didn’t want to jump into this, I hope you know that—”

She cuts me off. “You didn’t rush me. I was surprised, but I wanted…I wanted to belong to you.” Her forehead wrinkles. “I still want that. I just don’t know if it’s all…too soon.”

“By whose standards?”

“We only met two weeks ago.”

I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her farther onto the bed. “A lot has happened in two weeks. But if you’re not happy with the pace, I’m happy to slow things down. We can…” I cast around for a solution. “We can meet once a week instead of twice.” I laugh a little, but she doesn’t smile. “I’m serious, Ruby. If you want to step back—”

“I don’t.”

This isn’t about timing.

“What is it you really want to ask me?”

She bites her lip. The question settles into the air while she takes three long, slow breaths. “What is it about me?” There is not even the slightest hint of a joke in her voice. Ruby clears her throat. “What is it about me that makes you want to be with me? Because I can’t—” She straightens up, squaring her shoulders. “If this is just…entertainment for you, just a fling for the hell of it—”

“It’s not.”

“—then that’s fine. I can understand that. I just don’t know what you’d want, long-term, from me.”

“Ruby.” She raises her eyes from her lap to mine, and even in the dark I can see that this is eating at her. I have no idea how long she’s been awake. “Where is this coming from?”

“I don’t have anything to offer you.” Her voice drops to a strained whisper. “I don’t have any money. I don’t know what I’m going to do to dig my way out of the situation my family is in. And I can’t help but think—”

“Tell me.”

Her laugh is incredulous. “I mean, you’re not in this for the money, right? This isn’t some ploy to profit from my parents?”

I shake her a little. “Ruby, wake up. You’re having a nightmare. A ludicrous nightmare.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.” I force myself upright and wrap both arms around her. “I’m interested in you, and it has nothing to do with that. In fact, interested doesn’t do justice to the way I feel about you. I’m captivated by you. I’m a little bit infatuated with you.” I take a deep breath. “I’m falling for you, Ruby. Why else would I have made such an incredibly risky move at dinner tonight? The last thing I want to do is chase you away.”

“You seemed pretty…” She presses her lips together like she’s trying not to smile. “You seemed pretty cutthroat when we first met.”

“And you seemed pretty determined to have nothing to do with me. Things change.”

“Things do change.”

I reach for the sash at her waist and tug at it until the robe falls open. She’s not wearing anything underneath, and the moonlight against her creamy skin has my cock at attention in an instant. I kiss her just below her ear. “Come back to bed.”

“I want us to survive this.”

“Survive what?” Another kiss, this time an inch lower than the first.

“The fact that—” Ruby tilts her head toward me, darting her tongue out to lick her lips. “The fact that you’re selling all the things that I want to keep. Most of them, anyway. You’re my only hope for—” Another kiss. “—for any kind of relief for my family, and it’s just a strange thing, being your boyfriend’s client—” At those words, a smile finally flickers across her face. “I don’t want this to end.”

“It’s not going to end. Come back to bed.” I slip the robe off her shoulders and run my hand down her back, over the curves of her hips.

“I don’t think I could fall asleep.”

“I didn’t say you should come back to sleep.” I stroke one hand down her leg, watching the goose bumps rise behind my touch, and apply a gentle pressure to the inside of her knee, spreading her open. She braces the balls of her feet against the floor, and her head falls back against my shoulder. Ruby doesn’t gasp until I start brushing my fingertips up…and up and up. “I said, come back to bed.”