Happily Ever After: A Romance Collection

by Amelia Wilde

  Sang right to me.

  It wasn't a coincidence. It couldn't be a coincidence that I picked this tape. My heart was beating faster now. Another tear tracked down Ruby's cheek and this time I didn't hesitate. I reached out and caught it at the edge of my finger.

  She looked at me now and I heard her suck in her breath.

  I brushed my finger on her other cheek, catching the wetness as Gideon strummed. She closed her eyes and another tear slipped out.

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips to her cheek, catching it before it fell. Her small sound made my heart beat faster. I followed that trail reverently up to her closed eyes which I kissed one after the other.

  "You gave me a chance, how many chances can I get?" wondered Gideon's crackling voice on the tape player. "Before I lose my last best chance at love?"

  28

  Ruby

  It was like Gideon was talking to us, urging us on. Telling me to take the chance. I could hear the warmth in his voice, like we were having coffee over the grand piano in the music room. He'd set his mug down, careful not to leave a ring and look at me. "Why would you give up your best chance at love?" he'd say.

  Just like he was saying now.

  I didn't know yet if Jonah was my best chance. But I knew I wanted to take this chance.

  I was startled when his lips found my cheek, but I wasn't surprised. What surprised me was how soft his lips were after yesterday's onslaught. What surprised me was the care he was taking, kissing away my tears until my cheeks were dry, then pressing his lips to my eyes like he was giving a blessing.

  I opened my eyes to see him looking at me, something new and strange in his expression. "Ruby, you're incredibly beautiful," he said like this was the most obvious thing in the world.

  I didn't know what to say. I started to say something but it was caught and swallowed when his lips brushed against mine.

  At once we moved against each other, already anticipating the other's desires. It was like yesterday had been a rehearsal, and today was the real thing. Today we knew exactly what to do.

  He cradled his hand around my neck, kissing me softly as Gid's guitar strummed. He took his time, nibbling and tasting, deepening by degrees. Waiting until I was right there with him, moaning into his mouth, arching myself against his body. I could feel his confidence, the self-assured way he bided his time until he had me panting for him and then, when I was finally trembling with a sweet, crazy need, he laid me down as the song faded out into silence.

  "Good," he breathed into my neck.

  "What?" I asked, running my hands up his back and feeling the way the muscles bunched with barely-held back power.

  He pulled up and looked at me with the wicked gleam in his eyes making them even greener. "Wasn't sure I could fuck you with my uncle singing in the background."

  I snorted. "You think we're about to have sex here?" He gave me a grin and I rolled my eyes. "Talk about romance. You're a real Prince Charming, you know that?"

  "I'm not Prince Charming, baby," he growled as he slammed his lips against mine. "I'm a King."

  His kiss swallowed up the smart remark I wanted to make and his hands erased all traces of it from my brain. Before I knew it, I was arching up into him, pulling him down to me and attempting to kiss every inch of his exposed skin "You're impossible," I moaned against his throat as his hands slid down. "You make me so fucking angry I want to throw things. I keep, ah!" I gasped as his hand slipped below my waistband, "thinking I've got you - oh my god - figured out and then you do something that totally throws me off and why? Why Jonah? This is crazy. What are we doing?"

  "Right now I'm trying to get your pants off," he growled.

  I smacked him in the shoulder, but then lifted my hips from the ground, letting him peel my morning yoga pants down off of me. He let out a hiss when he saw I'd gone bare underneath, but he didn't attempt to touch me. Instead he slid back over me and supported himself with his elbows as he gazed down into my eyes.

  "I know," he said, looking me full in the face. "You've got me totally twisted up, it's the truth. I'm hot and cold because my life is pretty screwed up right now, Ruby, but I can tell you that the best thing that's happened since I came home, hell maybe the best thing that's happened in a much longer time that that, was realizing who you were." He brushed his lips across my jaw. "You make me feel like I can start over again, be a better person this time." His kiss found my lips. "You make me feel brand new."

  A flush of warmth spread through my body, like I was melting from the inside out. I kissed him back, hard, not really understanding what he was saying but feeling the truth of his words right down to my toes. He was caught between two roads right now, but with a rush of power even more heady than his kisses, I realized that I could nudge him onto the one that made him a better person.

  I caught his lip between my teeth, hearing him hiss, but holding him there as I looked him in the eyes. He held perfectly still, but I could feel him lengthening under his jeans, the warm hardness pressing against my thigh, and the feeling of having this man, this rockstar who'd been the fantasy of every girl my age, belong to me had my head spinning like I'd been drugged. "I changed my mind," I told him as I released his lip.

  "About what?"

  "About whether we're having sex." I licked my lips.

  He groaned against my neck. "Is that a yes? Tell me it's a yes, Ruby. I've wanted you - ." He trailed off, groaning as my hand closed over his jeans, cupping the shape of him, and then widened his eyes. "Is that my answer?"

  "This is crazy, but we have to take a chance, right?" I asked, gesturing to the tape recorder. Then I grinned. "Yes."

  29

  Jonah

  She called it 'taking a chance' but I had never been more sure of anything in my life.

  She trembled just a little as I helped her lift her ribbed tank top over her head. She was bare underneath, reminding me once again that wasn't something we'd planned out. "You're right," I breathed, bending down to curl my tongue around her pretty little nipple. "This is crazy." I felt out of my head, outside of my body. I felt like I was floating away and the only thing that could keep me on the ground was clinging close to her.

  So I did. I clung to her, digging my fingertips into the soft flesh of her ass cheek and lifting her hips. I held her tight as I bent my mouth to that sweet soft mound and listened to her sighs. I made sure her legs were around my shoulders, clenched tight around me as I darted my tongue out to taste her sweetness, and I reached out and held on to her hands when her hips started to buck.

  She was so perfect this way, spread out before me like a buffet. I wanted to taste and nibble for hours, but I was also becoming quickly addicted to the sound of her moans and the way she whispered my name over and over as she squeezed her thighs tightly around my ears. The more I licked and sucked and swirled my tongue, the more she moaned and the more she moaned the harder I got, and when her orgasm took her and she jerked upward in a spasm, grinding herself against my face, I nearly came myself.

  "Ah!" she cried and then her chest hitched and her eyes flew wide open like she was startled. I could coming against my tongue, my mouth filling with her sweetness and then suddenly she was laughing, rolling her head from side to side with her hands clapped over her face.

  I leaned over her and grabbed them away so she had to look at me. "Ruby? What's funny?"

  She looked up at me, smiling so bright I was almost blinded. "Remember in the coffee shop? When I said you should take up knitting because you probably have skilled fingers?"

  "I remember very well," I said leaning down and kissing her so she could taste herself on my lips. "I kissed you for it."

  Her dark eyes were almost black with mischief. "You could also knit with your tongue," she said.

  "Damn, you know how to make a man feel good."

  "I know a few other ways too," she said, reaching for my jeans.

  I knelt up, letting her unzip me, loving how she was so eager she couldn't get my zipper und
one fast enough. When she got me free and her eyes widened, I chuckled. "Is that the other way you know to make a man feel good? Being impressed with my size?"

  "No," she grinned up at me cheekily. "This is the other way."

  I shifted, widening my stance, moving my feet to brace myself as she lowered her perfect little lips to my cock. Then there was a stabbing pain in my foot. "Ow!" I shouted.

  She jumped back. "Oh no! Did I hurt you?"

  "No," I groaned. "She did." I wiggled my toes and Ginger made another wild leap at them. "Your kitten is trying to kill my foot."

  "Ginger!" Ruby shrieked, covering her breasts adorably. "Stop it!"

  The little hellspawn puffed up and danced sideways. She sidestepped over to nip at Ruby's bare kneecap and then tore away like her fur was on fire.

  I burst out laughing.

  Ruby did too, burying her face in her hands." Oh my god, I am so sorry," she groaned. "She's insane."

  I pulled my jeans back up, shaking my head, then leaning down to kiss Ruby. "I'm glad for her. Getting herself wedged into the ceiling? I sort of think she played matchmaker."

  Ruby grinned. "Maybe. I'll give her an extra treat before bed."

  I let my eyes rake over her body. She sat, naked and uninhibited, in a patch of sunlight, her bright lips even redder from my kisses. "I'd like to do the same for you," I told her, reaching over to her and scooping her into my arms.

  "What are you doing?" she squealed, clinging to my neck.

  "Which way is your bedroom?" I asked, already mounting the stairs two at a time. "We need to go someplace where we can shut the door."

  30

  Jonah

  I woke up with a tiny paw in my eye.

  "Good morning, Ginger," I whispered.

  The small orange kitten puffed up for a second and I wondered if she was holding a grudge after I'd locked her out of the bedroom yesterday morning. And afternoon. Ruby had convinced me to open the door late last night, before we'd both fallen into bed, exhausted in a tangle of limbs.

  Now I wished I'd stood my ground.

  Ginger batted at my nose, then tried to attack my eyeballs. I winced as the tiny, needle sharp claw sank into my eyelid, but I managed to stay still and quiet because Ruby was still asleep.

  She slept with no trace of self-consciousness. Her arm was flung up over her head like she was surrendering, and her jaw was slack. The blanket was tugged down, revealing one perfect mound, her pretty nipple peeking at me like it had a secret.

  I felt my cock stiffening in a way that had nothing to do with morning wood.

  "Avert your eyes, Ginger," I murmured as I leaned over to kiss my girl awake.

  Her eyes fluttered open, and then widened. "Hey," she smiled sleepily, then looked alarmed and yanked the sheet up over her mouth.

  I chuckled and snatched it away - and of course Ginger attacked it as it moved - and leaned in to kiss her again. "Don't care," I told her. "And good morning."

  "I didn't think you'd stay," she said with a pleased little humming sigh.

  "You kidding? I'm moving into your bed permanently."

  She smiled and stretched again. "While that sounds like an excellent idea, you're going to be extremely bored if you do that."

  I reached out to tweak her nipple. "Not possible."

  "I have to do my lesson plans, I didn't get any work done yesterday," she said pointedly.

  I licked my lips, a little disappointed. I had thought today we might go over to my family's house, maybe let everyone know how things had changed. Then maybe we could play the tapes again and Ruby could tell me which songs were her favorite. A germ of an idea was starting to form in my brain, the first idea about music I'd had in a long time. I hadn't worked out all the details yet, but I could feel the excitement starting to mount and I wanted her there to cheer me along.

  But she rolled out of bed and picked a white terrycloth robe off of a hook on her closet door. "Oof," she said, wincing a little as she stood slightly bowlegged. "That last round was..."

  "Sorry baby," I said, but I couldn't hide my grin of triumph quick enough and she threw a slipper at me.

  "Let me make you breakfast at least, "I told her. "You can't work on an empty stomach." I pressed my lips together. "Okay I'm lying I can't cook for shit, but I can make a mean cup of coffee."

  "We didn't eat much yesterday," she said, looking shy all of a sudden. "Or sleep."

  I leaped up from the bed, inadvertently sending Ginger flying, and went to her side. "Can I see you later?" I asked, feeling hesitant for some reason. Ruby made me feel brand new, it was true, and part of that was I seemed to have forgotten how this whole thing worked.

  She kissed me and then smiled. "You'd fucking better," she growled and I laughed at the contrast between her dirty words and her sweet face.

  I made her the promised cup of coffee, chiding her for the state of her coffee maker and promising to bring over a French press as soon as she'd let me. She gave me a bowl of cold cereal, then laughed when I'd drunk the milk from the bowl. I kissed her goodbye with my milk mustache, and headed out into Crown Creek.

  A fresh coat of snow had fallen overnight, and the whole world glittered in the sunshine. I wondered if the world had always been this beautiful or if things were different now that I had Ruby in my world.

  When I got back home again, the first thing I did was cross the lawn and down to the creek where the shed sat. The snow had covered my footprints and where I had sat down in despair. But that wasn't why the shed looked different today.

  Hearing Gid's voice yesterday, knowing there was something left of him in this world, something left for me to pick up and hold and have and use, it made the shed feel less like a tomb and more like a memorial to who he was. "Thanks, Uncle Gid," I mouthed to the window. If he was anywhere, he was here and he probably heard me.

  For the first time in weeks, things felt settled. And it was all because of Ruby.

  Ruby.

  My girl.

  The soft babble of the creek, narrowed in by ice, whispered through the trees. I found myself following the noise, listening the song it sang. The idea I'd started having over at Ruby's house was a tickle in the back of my brain, propelling me forward.

  It was the first hike I'd gone on since coming back to Crown Creek, which was odd because I was a demon hiker back in the day. The quiet, snowy woods made it easier to hear my own thoughts.

  It was a little before lunchtime before I turned back and returned to our property feeling like the idea had solidified into an actual plan. A light glimmered through the trees. If I didn't know better, I'd think someone had lit a bonfire.

  Someone had lit a bonfire but that someone was Finn, and that meant I wasn't really surprised. "What's this?" I asked as I approached our fire pit.

  He looked up from where he'd been feeding papers into the flames. "A fire," he said, straightening up and wiping his hands on his jeans before taking a sip of the open can of beer by his foot. "I needed to burn some stuff."

  Every year my dad burned brush out here, but left the biggest logs lying in the grass as rudimentary chairs. I'd toasted a lot of marshmallows at this fire pit, but I'd never sat by a fire with a beer before. "Aren't you freezing out here?"

  Finn looked up and then gestured like it was obvious. "I made a fire."

  "It's November."

  "Fires are warm no matter the month."

  He was right. I held my hands out, letting the tips of my fingers un-freeze a bit. "You got any more of that?" I asked, gesturing to the cooler by his leg.

  Wordlessly he opened his cooler and handed me a cold can. "A nice cold one on a hot day," I deadpanned, opening the tab. "Can't beat that."

  "Mmm," was all Finn said, staring into the flames like they contained the answers to a question he'd been seeking forever.

  I looked down at my hands. The fronts of my shins were burning up but my back was freezing. "You know, we have a fire place. Inside," I said pointedly.

  "Too many peo
ple inside," Finn said.

  "Beau's inside."

  "Beau's not people."

  I cleared my throat. "Wanted to run something by you."

  "Me?" Finn raised his eyebrow and pressed a hand to his heart in a mock swoon. "To what do I owe the honor?"

  "The fact that you know Claire best," I said immediately.

  That seemed to give him pause. His face softened a little. Back when we were kids, Claire had been the third twin, almost their triplet. And in spite of his hair-trigger temper with everyone else, Finn had always been patient with Claire, who seemed to recognize and honor that special privilege by defending his tantrums at the top of her voice. "What's going on with Sissy?" he asked, a look of mild concern in his eyes.

  I took another drink and thought carefully for a moment. It was still so new, this thing with Ruby. Nothing might ever come of it.

  No, fuck that, I wanted something to come of it. I opened my mouth to ask him what he thought, how Claire might take it if I started dating her friend.

  "You guys okay?" Beau called from the deck.

  Finn looked up the lawn back to the house and raised his beer at his twin. "Thirsty?"

  "Course! But I'm cold too!"

  "There's a fire!"

  Beau seemed to consider this. I shivered and dragged my log closer to the fire. A light snow had started to fall, big, fat flakes that didn't so much fall as dance in the air, light enough to fight gravity and float upward in the wind like we were in the center of a massive snow globe. Beau disappeared back inside. Finn shrugged. "Guess he wasn't that thirsty."

  Then the front door slammed open and Beau started down the steep side yard lawn. He was carrying something in his hand that as he got closer resolved itself into a pile of brightly colored hats. "If you're gonna sit out here in the snow, cover your idiot heads," he grumbled, handing one to me and then chucking the other one full force at Finn who caught it right in the face.