When she straightened up and started running her hands over her wet body, Jaime decided that maybe he needed to leave.
“I’ll wait for you out here,” he said, rushing to get out of the makeshift shower. Jaime stood outside, near the faucet and watched the soapy water running off the cement and into the dirt to the side of it. Once the soap stopped, it was a few more minutes before Ruby called to him. “Is it okay if I take a few minutes just to stand here and enjoy it?”
“Absolutely. Take all the time you want.”
“Thank you, Jaime. Oh, and Jaime?” she yelled.
“Yeah?” he yelled back.
“I don’t have anything to put on when I’m done.”
“I’ll get you a towel or something. Just stay in there and enjoy for a minute.”
“Thank you!”
Jaime went back into her room and came out a few minutes later with a towel in his hands. It was the same one she’d used the day before, but it was hung over a chair to dry, and it smelled like her, so he was sure it was clean enough for her to use again. When he came out, Clarence and Francis were standing outside her shower.
“Told you I heared water running, Francis. There ‘tis, right there,” Clarence said.
“What the hell? Get the hell away from there!” Jaime bellowed at the two old men.
“Oh, hey, Jaime. What cha doing, boy?” Clarence asked, grinning ear-to-ear like he didn’t know.
“I’m helping my woman bathe. Now get the hell out of here and don’t let me catch you out here again when she’s showering!” Jaime shouted.
Ruby was still standing beneath the shower. She smiled to herself when she heard Jaime shouting at Clarence and Francis. She kept telling herself that she wanted no strings. But damned if her tummy didn’t tingle and her heart didn’t leap when Jaime called her his.
Ruby looked down at the hickeys that he’d placed down her entire body, still very evident and easily seen. She ran her fingers across one. He’d said he didn’t share. That if she had a need, as long as she was there, he’d be filling that need and no one else. “I wonder how long that invitation covers,” she whispered aloud.
“What, Ruby? You got everything you need?” Jaime called, from his place by the faucet. He was standing guard, having decided that no one would interrupt a very naked Ruby while she was showering.
“Nothing. I’m done. Can you turn off the water?”
“Yep. Just give me one second and I’ll be right there with a towel.”
Chapter 9
Jaime turned off the water faucet, then stepped inside the shower to hold out a towel to Ruby. He dropped her flip flops on the cement as well.
Ruby came to him and slipped her wet feet into her flip flops, reaching out to take the towel from him. “Jaime, I can’t thank you enough.”
“You don’t need to. Just glad it works for you.”
“I feel like a new woman. It’s amazing what a little soap and water can do for you.”
Jaime chuckled. “It is indeed.”
Ruby stepped out of the makeshift shower when he held the tarp open for her and paused, glancing over Jaime’s shoulder at the diner. “Want to have dinner with me?” she asked, then looked down at her towel wrapped body. “After I dry off and dress, I mean.”
“I’d love to. But, rather than have to share you with everyone in there,” he jabbed his finger toward the back door of the diner. “Could we eat in your room?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
Jaime smiled at her. “I’ll go get us some food, you go get dried off. Deal?” he asked.
“Deal,” Ruby answered.
Jaime watched to be sure she was in her room with her door closed before he headed inside the diner to see what he could put together for them to eat.
Mildred had already put everything away for the night and was finishing her cleaning, wiping down the tables and all the counter tops.
“What are you doing back in here?” she asked, barely glancing up.
“Came to get some food for me and Ruby.”
Mildred didn’t miss a beat. “Look in the walk in, first shelf to your right. Take that.”
“I need to warm it?” he asked.
“Nope. I put it together just a little while ago. Should still be warm enough.”
“Thank you, Aunt Mildred.”
“Don’t mess it up, Jaime.”
Jaime stopped walking toward the walk in refrigerator. “The kitchen?”
“No. I couldn’t care less about the kitchen. This thing with Ruby. Whatever it is. Don’t mess it up because of some stupid confusing words scribbled thousands of years ago on some crumbling pieces of paper.”
“I can’t see how…”
“Jaime, tell her the truth, son. Tell her about your parents. Tell her about you. Warn her about that damned stupid piece of paper and trust her. Give her the chance to make her own choice.”
“I won’t share her with him.”
“Maybe you won’t have to. And worst case, you can always walk away.”
Jaime looked down at the floor, then, sadly up at her. “I’m way past that point, Aunt Mildred. Way past that.”
Mildred nodded. “I figured. Tell her. I think it’ll be a good thing. I like her.”
Jaime jerked his head back. “You don’t like anybody!”
“I like you!”
“I don’t count. I’m family.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like people just ‘cause they’re family. Some are a pain in my ass.”
“Now, go. Get your food and go feed your woman. Do what’s right, Jaime.”
Jaime started to speak again, but Mildred held up her hand to silence him and went back to wiping down the tables.
Jaime went into the walk in and found two huge plates covered in foil. They were as tall as they were wide. They were already sitting on a tray with utensils and a couple of smaller bowls, so he just took the entire tray and closed the walk in behind him.
He walked past Mildred on the way out and paused beside her to drop a kiss on her forehead. “Love you, Aunt Mildred.”
She smiled up at him. “I love you, too, Jaime. You’re a good man, just like your dad was. And you were a good boy. Don’t you let none of that other bullshit leak into your life. Ain’t your fault what happened. Truth of it is, we don’t know what happened. Just that you're here, and we’re blessed that you are.”
Jaime nodded. “I know. It could be a lot worse.”
“It could. You could have been raised by Clarence alone. Just imagine what you’d be then? At least he had the good sense to bring you to me.”
“He loves you, too,” Jaime said.
“Nah, he just loves irritating the hell out of me.”
Jaime hugged her to him with one arm, then, left the diner and headed to Ruby’s room out back with their meal.
He used the toe of his boot to kick lightly against her door. “Ruby? It’s me. You decent?”
Ruby didn’t answer.
“Ruby?” he called a little louder, his stomach beginning to churn. She should be in her room. He’d just watched her go inside before going for their dinner.
Just when he was about to set the food down and barge into her room, the doorknob turned and she stepped back, opening the door and waving him in. She had her phone against her ear and was listening to someone on the other end.
Jaime followed her in and she closed the door behind him. He placed the food on the table, and she wandered over to the bed, still listening with an occasional, ‘yeah - unhuh, really?’. A few moments later she finally ended her call and smiled at him.
“Sorry. That was my sister. She rarely calls, so when she does I don’t like to ignore her.”
“No problem. You can call her back if you want to, no need to rush her off on my account.”
“It’s okay. She’d finished what she wanted to say. So,” she said, walking toward the table. “What are we having?”
“I don’t know. Let’s check it out,” Jaime ans
wered, removing the foil from one of the dishes.
“Ohhhhhh! Is that a taco salad?” she said, practically salivating.
“I don’t know. Is that what it is?” Jaime asked.
Ruby leaned over and pinched a couple of crumbles of what looked like taco meat between her fingers, popping it into her mouth. “Yep. Taco salads! Oh my gosh! I can’t wait to dig into this.”
Jaime uncovered the other dish and found the same thing.
“You sit down, I’ll serve it,” Ruby said.
“I’m already uncovering it,” Jaime objected.
“Yeah, and you went to get it, so sit down,” Ruby answered.
Jaime sat, and Ruby finished laying out the dishes, and each of the smaller dishes. There was one of guacamole, one of sour cream, one of salsa and one of some kind of sauce she wasn’t sure of. It looked like mayonnaise, but was a little orangey with small bits of green in it. “This smells wonderful,” she said.
“Aunt Mildred doesn’t serve these, she must have made them special for us.”
They each piled some of every condiment Mildred included and opened the bag of tortillas she’d also included. Jaime scooped some of his up on a chip and took a bite, but Ruby grabbed a handful of chips and held them over her salad, crumbling them over the top. Then she dipped her finger into the orange colored sauce and sucked it clean. “Yum!” Some kind of creamy jalapeno thing. She spooned some onto her salad and spent easily five whole minutes cutting up the lettuce and stirring and adding and stirring again.
“You ever gonna eat that?” Jaime asked around a mouthful of his own.
“Yes. I am. I’m prepping it. Leave me alone. It has to be all perfect before I start so that I don’t have to stop and prep it again in the middle of trying to eat my dinner.”
Jaime chuckled and shook his head. “I understand.”
“Good.”
Once Ruby started eating, he couldn’t help but smile while watching her. She loved to eat. She sucked the sauce from her fingertips, she licked the fork, she savored every single bite, yet still managed to do it gracefully.
He watched her eat for a little while, enjoying his own meal as well before deciding to ask about her family.
“So, you said you have a sister. Are there any other siblings at home?”
Ruby stopped eating and looked up at Jaime, her first instinct to avoid the subject, but she felt like this was his attempt to really talk to her. She shook her head, looking down at her almost empty plate, then back up at him.
“No. Just the two of us,” she said quietly.
“So no big family at home wondering why you’re out searching for bats?” he pressed.
Ruby shook her head again. She took a few more bites of her dinner, and scooped up the last of the taco meat that had fallen to the bottom of the bowl with a chip, before laying her fork down and sitting back with her iced coffee, to regard him thoughtfully.
“Why do you want to know?” she asked, before pressing the bottled coffee to her lips and taking a long drink from it.
Jaime shrugged. “Because I like you. I want to know about you.”
Ruby seemed to think about it. She looked around the room, and kept her gaze off somewhere over his shoulder, then, finally she answered. “My family is very, very wealthy. It’s been handed down from generation to generation. My parents raised my sister and me with the belief that children should be seen and not heard. And even the seen part is questionable. Young ladies should always wear dresses, never perspire, never raise their voices, and learn to cook and play the piano to keep their husbands fed and entertained. We both attended finishing school after high school, then went off to college after convincing our parents that we needed higher education in today’s world to be an asset to our husbands. It took my sister about two weeks to run off with a grunge rock band. She plays keyboard for them when she’s not off primitive camping in some new wilderness she’s discovered. They tried to make me come home where they could once again control me and save me from the fires of hell that had consumed my sister, but I convinced them that if they forced me to come home, I’d follow Pearl and they’d lose both of us. So, they agreed to let me stay. I focused my studies on bats. I have gradually managed to continue to get support from them to pay for my studies by threatening to join Pearl on tour. It’s not right, I know, but I feel that after the hell of a childhood they put us through, the least they can do is pay for my college. Once I’m out of college and working, I plan to repay every penny.”
“Do you miss them?” Jaime asked.
“My parents or my sister?”
“Either.”
“I miss my sister. She makes me look tame,” Ruby said, smiling while she thought of her sister. She laughed. “That girl is wild. But I love her.”
“And your parents?” Jaime asked.
“They are very staunch, very holier than thou. My father decided after attending a particularly strict boarding school that the only way to offset his sin of too much money, without giving it away of course, because lord forbid he ever do without, was to become a pastor. He has quite a faithful following, and they believe that women are to serve their husbands. Children are to be silent unless spoken to. They think anyone who doesn't believe exactly as they do is damned to hell. And they find every available opening to remind me of my poor choices and lack of intelligence.”
Jaime sat up straight in his chair, pissed off at her parents and he’d never even met them.
“Apparently, I’m a very ungrateful, very, very stupid girl, who will fall flat on my face and come crawling home begging for forgiveness as soon as my chosen path fails me.”
“You are no such thing!” Jaime growled. “You are smart, and funny, and strong, so damn beautiful. And to hell with them! You don’t owe them anything!”
Ruby smiled at Jaime. “Well, actually, I do. I want to pay them back for my college years. I’m almost done. This last bit of research and I’ll turn in my final dissertation, then hopefully graduate with my doctorate degree. I hope to get approved for a research grant, some of that will be my salary. I plan to send it to my parents, and continue to do so for the next several years until I’ve paid back all the money they’ve wasted on my poor choices.”
“Ruby, you haven’t made any poor choices.”
“We shall see,” she said, stretching her arms above her head. She reached down and grabbed the edges of her teeshirt before pulling it over her head and dropping it to the floor.
Jaime watched her, his eyes now pinned to her breasts.
“Is that a poor choice?” she asked.
Jaime didn’t answer, but he shook his head.
Ruby reached behind her back and unfastened her bra. “What about that?” she asked him.
Jaime licked his lips. “Great choice.”
Ruby stood and shucked her shorts and panties, leaving them on the floor and stepping out of them. “And this?” she asked.
“Best fucking choice yet,” he answered, reaching out and pulling her toward him. He stopped just before he had her in his lap and looked down at himself. He was covered in dirt and oil from his work day.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” He set her away from him, stood and dropped his own clothes to the floor. He ran out into the dark and she giggled when she heard the water from the shower he’d made for her turn on.
Not even five minutes later and he was running naked and dripping water back into her room. Ruby snatched up the towel and hurried over to Jaime, using it to pat dry his skin.
He shook his hair like a dog, splashing everything within a short distance.
Ruby squealed and laughed. “I’m all wet again!”
“Ain’t seen nothing yet, baby. Come here,” he said, low and seductively.
Chapter 10
Ruby didn’t hesitate, she went to him without pause.
Jaime pulled her close, lowering his mouth to kiss her lips, while his hands gently gripped her hips to keep her in place.
Ruby drove her fi
ngers into his wet curly hair, holding his head to her as she kissed him back, giving him as good as he gave.
“I want to be inside you again,” Jaime whispered against her lips.
“Yes,” she answered on a breath.
Jaime lifted her off her feet and took her to her bed, standing her on the mattress. He leaned over and took first one nipple in his mouth, suckling and nibbling, then the other.
Ruby held his head to her. “Please, I can’t wait.”
“Lie down,” he ordered.
She did, sideways across the bed, flat on her back, with her legs in the air, her feet pressed against his chest.
There was just enough room for Jaime to crawl onto the bed on his knees and lean over her. He almost had her completely bent in half.
“You don’t mind if I play a little bit, do you?” he asked, teasing her with the head of his cock, running it up and down her slit.
“Depends on how long you make me wait,” she answered truthfully.
“You’ll love it, trust me.”
Ruby looked deep into his eyes, and though it wasn’t the exact outcome he planned for his teasing question, she gave him the answer anyway, hoping he’d see the sincerity in her words. “I already do, Jaime.”
Jaime caught it. She’d just told him she trusted him. She trusted him. It was the best feeling in the fucking world. This woman. The only one he’d ever wanted, the only one he’d ever been drawn to, trusted him. He would not ever break that trust.
Jaime leaned closer to her and kissed her lips. Then he started kissing a path down her body, nibbling, suckling, even giving stinging tiny bites that he soothed with his tongue until he was kneeling on the floor, with her thighs on either side of his head. He looked down at the soft, swollen flesh between her legs and blew a warm breath of air across her skin. Instantly her skin pebbled with goose pimples. He grinned and swiped his tongue across her, using one hand to hold her very small patch of bright red curls out of his way.
Ruby moaned and lifted her hips toward him again.
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