Going Deep Boxed Set (Books 1-4)

by DePaul, Virna

  Alec shook his head. “Not my problem. Not anymore.” Out front, they heard a commotion—the manager dealing with Colleen ranting and raving about Alec to her friends. Just on time, the waiter brought Alec his food, but he simply stared at it, his appetite seemingly completely gone.

  “She lied and betrayed you?” Ruby asked, leaning in. Why didn’t she know about this? And how come she wanted to know the details, not as his publicist, but because she cared? “Never mind. It’s not my business.”

  “Actually, it is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Alec sighed and looked at her with his soulful eyes. She felt a flutter inside her chest. “I mean I’m into you, Ruby. I’ve been into you since the moment I first met you. My relationship with Colleen was already headed toward a close, but I made sure it happened sooner than later because I wanted to ask you out.”

  She stiffened. “You did ask me out. Then you got engaged to her.”

  “Yes, but not because I wanted her more than I wanted you. I didn’t want her at all, in fact.”

  “Alec…” Ruby shook her head. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “I know. I’m going to explain. I wanted to wait to tell you, to prove to you that I was in a good place and had my shit together, but it doesn’t look like that’s the way to go. Because Colleen isn’t going to give up, and before she messes things up for us even more than she has, I want to tell you the truth.”

  Messes things up for us? What truth? “I don’t understand, Alec.”

  “I know you don’t, but you’re going to. It’s just that—we were having such a good time. And I don’t want Colleen to direct the show, if you get what I mean. I’ll tell you on my terms, not hers. Can we just have tonight?”

  Was this still a business meeting, or had Alec just turned it into a date? Because the truth was, Ruby would be perfectly okay with a date, except…she felt scared. Scared Alec would mess with her emotions again, claim to like her again, then run off when things got inconvenient again.

  “For what, Alec? Just tell me your intentions, please, and make them clear, and be honest,” Ruby said.

  “Fair enough. I want this meal. I want to talk with you. I want to enjoy your company, if you’ll let me. And then, I’ll tell you everything. The reason I’ve been acting strange. I just need…your trust. Does that sound okay?”

  Ruby stared at Alec, confused and her heart thumping, feeling as if something momentous was about to happen. She took a deep breath, then nodded. “Of course. You have my trust, Alec. But I have to say, this has been a crazy, wild-ass evening, and I’m going to need more than coffee.”

  Alec called the waiter over. “Hey, man, the lady and I will have a drink.”

  “Yes, sir. What would you like?”

  Despite the weirdness of the night, Ruby was having fun with Alec. She bit her lip and shook her head. Somehow, he’d snuck his way into her life and claimed his date with her, after all. Not a bad way to end the night.

  Or was it just beginning?

  Before Alec could reply to the waiter, Ruby ordered for them. “Two shots of your best whisky,” she said. “Actually, make them doubles.”

  Chapter 4

  Alec climbed out of the Lyft car and blinked up at the lights of the Bootleggers logo on the side of the stadium. Why were they here again? After his double whisky with Ruby, they’d talked, laughed, and had a great time, but when dinner was over, Ruby had bitten her lip in that sexy way she’d started to do since taking her first shot—since being confronted by Colleen—and said, “Want to get out of here?”

  He’d hardened at her words. “Fuck yeah, Red.” Though they weren’t exactly drunk after their one and only double shot, they were pleasantly tipsy. Enough to take the edge off of running into Colleen. At one in the morning, the night was still young, and he’d go anywhere with Ruby.

  He’d thought maybe she’d meant her place or somewhere sexier. He had no idea she’d choose the stadium on the Lyft app. Then again, they’d left their cars there.

  “The game was over hours ago, guys.” The driver poked his head out the window. “You sure this is where you want to go?”

  “Yep. My car’s still here,” Ruby replied. “We walked to the restaurant. Have a good night.”

  “You, too.” The man drove away, leaving them there alone in the cooling night.

  At first, Alec expected Ruby to start walking to her car, but instead, she turned on her heels and headed toward the side of the stadium. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” She smiled over her shoulder.

  Amazing that they were together like this after she’d ripped him a new one earlier tonight. Even more amazing that she wasn’t just okay with it—she’d instigated it.

  “I love coming here after hours,” she said. “But I can’t walk with these damn shoes right now.” She limped through the gravel and eventually gave up and took off her shoes, chucking them as far into the parking lot as she could.

  He laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the lot. “Nice! Not a bad arm.” Her shoes landed under the glow of a lamppost. Because he wanted to see her smile, he took off his own shoes and threw them into the parking lot as well. They landed a lot farther than Ruby’s. “There. Now we’re both barefoot.”

  She laughed then fished around in the jumbled contents of her purse for her badge. “I’m barefoot. You still have socks on.”

  “Fine.” Alec took off his socks one at a time then chucked those, too. He had no idea what the fuck they were doing, but it was fun. Besides, he’d rather be anywhere than back at the bar with Colleen stalking him. “So, you like coming here?”

  “Yeah. Brings me back to when I was a kid, when I used to come with my dad after games. Roquefort was quarterback back then.”

  “One of my heroes.” Alec smiled.

  He remembered as a kid always watching Roquefort play on TV. Every time it seemed the game was over, he’d pull some stunt in the last seconds in overtime and tie the game or win it altogether. He remembered the way he couldn’t breathe and his stomach would be in his throat and a single second would drag into minutes.

  That pins-and-needles drama was how he felt when he saw Colleen tonight. When he’d looked over Ruby’s shoulder and seen his ex standing there. What was she doing at Giraldi’s anyway? She hated that place, preferring the high-end hotel bars in the trendy areas of Savannah instead. He knew well enough. Eighteen fucking dollars for rosé wine. Bullshit.

  “Ruby? Would you ever pay eighteen dollars for rosé?”

  “A bottle?”

  “A glass.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Alec smiled to himself. Damn straight it was bullshit. I adore this woman, he thought. “Red?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Should we have done drinks together?”

  “It was just one drink, Alec.”

  “Yeah, one massive one.” He chuckled. Massive. Like his cock watching Ruby walk ahead of him, her ass swaying gently from left to right. That girl possessed talents she didn’t even know she had. Talents he wished she’d one day let him touch. And if it happened tonight, as much as he’d thought they should go slow, well, Colleen had changed all that. One thing was for sure, touching Ruby would certainly erase the Bootleggers’ loss. Would erase the whole Colleen fiasco, too.

  They turned down a hallway and unlocked a door with her badge. It was then he realized where she was taking him—the tunnel walk. It was the tunnel they ran through to get on and off the field. Normally, it echoed with the cheers of ten thousand fans cheering his name, but now it was silent. All he heard were his and Ruby’s bare feet against the concrete.

  They came out the other end.

  Out on the field, it was dead silent. No blasting out behind his teammates. No shoulder pads and gleaming helmets. Only Ruby’s dark silhouette outlined against the stadium flood lamps on the field. Pure female, he thought.

  His eyes moved with the sway of her hips. As she reached up and tugged a
t her hair, he watched the knot she’d tied in the car fall, allowing those red waves to cascade over her shoulders. Damn. He stared in amazement at her delicate fingers loosely at her side. How would Ruby O’Brien use those fingers? Would she be gentle and inexperienced, or aggressive and fierce? Either way, his body shuddered with excitement.

  Alec was used to his heart thudding in his chest as he made his way toward the field after coming out of this tunnel, but he was not used to it thrashing like it was about to leap out the way it was then. Ruby smiled at the edge of the turf, then stepped right onto the grass without hesitation. Like she played here every day. Like she’d been born on this field.

  He followed her all the way to the fifty-yard line, toes enjoying the cool grass, as he slowed his pace to watch her find her preferred spot. Staring up at the stands that stretched high above, Ruby beamed at the lights that shone down on her, at the dome of night sky arching over them. Alec had been on this field a hundred times but would never look at it the same way ever again.

  “I sneak in here sometimes when it’s empty,” she said. “I love it.”

  “Agreed.” Alec joined her on the white painted hashtag marking the middle of the field. “But why do you do it?”

  Ruby turned to him. Her lipstick—normally a glossy, vibrant red—had faded a bit. Alec liked it. It looked like he’d imagine it would if he’d been kissing her hour after hour, never getting enough of the taste of her. From the moment they were introduced, Alec knew he was going to have a hard time keeping business separate from pleasure. It’d been a year since they met.

  “I don’t know.” Ruby smiled to herself. “There’s just something powerful about having this place all to yourself. You know what I mean?”

  Definitely. So why had he never thought to come here after hours like she had? Funny that this woman, his publicist, loved the stadium more than he did. “If you were a guy, would you have played football?”

  “Oh, yeah. Yeah.” Ruby nodded. “I love everything about the game. As a kid, football, to me, meant having my dad all to myself on Sundays and Monday nights.”

  Alec could only watch her with a goofy smile.

  Nothing sexier than a woman who loved his sport. He wanted to take her hand, wanted to kiss her here underneath the lights. That was one thing he’d never done—kiss a woman in his team’s own stadium. Not even with Colleen. After the games, she’d take off as soon as she could.

  Ruby looked at him with hesitation. Big blue eyes debating how much to share with him. How far she should open the door into the deepest parts of her heart. Gauging to see if he was worth it. He wanted to be worth her time. He knew he’d have to drastically change his ways, but he would do it if it meant having a chance with Ruby.

  “It also centers me to be here,” she added after some time. “In some ways, I feel like I’m always under attack. Do this, Ruby. Do that, Ruby. Better control that guy quick, or you’re going to lose your job, Ruby.”

  It pained Alec to keep hearing he was almost the reason Ruby got in trouble with her father. But he also understood every word she said. He related to the voices, the yelling, the pulling and pushing in all directions except the one he wanted to follow. Coach wanted one thing from him. His agent wanted another. His fans wanted more, more, more. More catches. More yards. More fucking fantasy points. His friends wanted free stuff, season tickets, backstage passes, more and more free stuff.

  Even Colleen still wanted him.

  No fucking way.

  It might’ve taken him a year, but he eventually realized what she was all about—his money, name, and status. She wanted him badly enough to lie. Because of her bullshit, he’d lost Ruby. Lost her before they even got the chance to get started.

  “I know exactly what you mean, Red. We live similar lives. Just different sides of the same coin. Sorry for all the trouble I gave you. If you’ll let me”—he moved in closer to her—“I’ll more than make it up to you.”

  Ruby bit her lip, and Alec moved in a couple of steps closer, his hand reaching out to brush lightly against her forearm. She shivered under his touch. Maybe it was too soon, but it felt right. Here they were together sharing a moment. He’d do anything to taste those lips. Leaning his head down, he tipped the underside of his chin up toward her.

  “The, um, the lights,” she said, looking away shyly all of a sudden.

  “What about them?”

  “They’re…they’re pretty bright.”

  Alec dropped his hands and glanced up. He’d forgotten where they were, standing in the middle of a wide-open football field under the glare of a thousand bulbs. “I guess they are.” He chuckled, shaking his head.

  Damn, that was close. So close that now his body needed her, wanted her so badly. What was it about Ruby O’Brien that drove him this crazy? He caught a glimpse of Ruby’s eyes glancing up at him, as though gauging what he was thinking. His breath grew heavier, as he tried to force his heartbeat down.

  “So…it’s getting late,” Ruby muttered. “Did you still want to talk about…you know?”

  How fucking beautiful you are? Yeah, I do. And then I want to pull you into my arms, Ruby. Kiss you like you’ve never been kissed. Instead, all Alec could say was, “Yeah, sure. Let’s talk business.” He clasped his hands obediently, muttering in his mind.

  This was Ruby. He wasn’t going to be able to just say something suave to her then get her into bed. There was too much riding on this relationship. He’d have to play his cards right if he wanted this to ever happen.

  “No, not business, Alec. Colleen. You were going to tell me what happened between you two, remember?”

  “Oh, that.” He felt like an idiot.

  But Alec didn’t start explaining about Colleen and how she’d fucked him over. Because in that next moment, there was a hum and then all the flood lamps extinguished as one. Once the flare of the bulbs died above him, Alec blinked in the new darkness. He could just barely see Ruby’s shape still standing in front of him under the half cloud covered moon. He could hear her breathing, ragged and strained. Her chest heaved.

  They stood there, blanketed by inky night. If she hadn’t run screaming from him yet, he had no reason to believe she would. No, he wasn’t imagining things. She wanted him—he could feel it. Even in the dark, he knew Ruby wanted him now.

  Yes, finally.

  Alec couldn’t tell who crashed into who first, but they came together in a moment of pure release. Fuck it. All night, they’d been eyeing each other, flirting, and making their feelings clear. They’d talked about their current lives, about their work, and about their dreams. It had to come to this. They’d deal with the consequences, if any, later.

  Right now, he just wanted to feel the warmth of Ruby’s lips on his, feel her arms gripping his back, feel the swell of her ass, as he pulled her tighter toward him. Her gasp when she felt the push of his cock against her, proving how much he wanted her. The soft, loose strands of her hair caressing his hand as he touched her neck. Her tongue dragging against his bottom lip as he dug his thumbs across her hip bones.

  God, he wanted her. So fucking badly.

  Her moan drowned in the heat between them while his mind drowned in the intoxicating scent of her perfume that lingered just behind her ear. His hands felt every inch of her outer body, and hers explored his back and shoulders. When he panted, she pulled him closer, but there was no space left between them. That didn’t stop Alec from trying to fuse as one with her there in the dark.

  “Alec,” Ruby gasped, as he nipped at her earlobe. “What are we doing?”

  “Well, right now, I’m kissing the most amazing woman I’ve ever known.”

  “Alec, I’m serious.”

  “Red, I’m trying,” he growled, as her fierce grip yanked at his hair. “But I can’t stop. I just fucking want you so much. You don’t understand how long I’ve wanted you. I’ve dreamed of it for so long.”

  “We had our shot. You threw it away.”

  “No. It just wasn’t the rig
ht time.” It may still not have been the right time, but he had to find out once and for all how she felt about him. So far, the feeling was pretty much mutual.

  She kissed a line down the vein in his neck, kneaded his chest, and pushed up against him. Then, suddenly, she pulled away as if realizing this was all a mistake. They were a hot mess of heaving chests and lustful stares. Alec resisted the urge to draw her back to him, to his hungry mouth and growing erection. It took more strength than he’d ever expended in any weight room or on any field. His whole body was pulled taut like an arrow ready to be shot.

  “Alec, if we do this, we’ll have to deal with the consequences. This could be bad.” Her breath shuddered.

  “No. Nothing bad could come of us being together. Don’t you want to just live in the moment, Ruby? Because you can. I won’t let any harm come to you. Not because of me. I swear. Focus on now. Which is a pretty fucking sweet place to be, pressing my palm against your lower back.” Alec’s hand slid down her spine. “Right here.”

  Ruby looked up at him, and Alec thought he didn’t see any of the apprehension, hesitation, doubt he saw in them earlier. He saw only openness and willingness and, above all else, desire.

  “What else is happening now?” she asked in a whisper.

  “Right now, I’m unzipping the back of your dress, Red.” Alec’s hands quivered as they slipped the garment from her shoulders. “It’s a pretty sweet dress, but it’s got to go.”

  “What now?” she asked, once the dress had slipped from her shoulders and opened up her entire, slender back.

  “Now, I’m taking the whole thing off, so I can see your amazing body.”

  The black dress easily pooled at her still bare feet. Underneath, she wore a black lace bra and matching thong. Her body was tight, lean, with curves in all the right places. All he could do was suck in a breath at the sight of her, nearly bare for him.

  Ruby’s voice came from inside a dream. “And now?”

  Alec made sure Ruby’s eyes were on his, as he undid the button of his shirt and pants and let everything fall, one piece at a time, onto the turf below. “And now I’m getting rid of all this shit between us,” he said, thinking how much these clothes were a metaphor for all the obstacles in their way.