by C. Morgan
They were both beaming with pride and smiling broadly as they shook hands with Ruby’s friends. In fact, out of all the parents in the room, they looked the part the best.
Anyone who so much as glanced in their direction would’ve been able to tell that they were thrilled to be here with their daughter. They also didn’t look like they were in any hurry to get away from a couple of kids so that they could get around to networking.
In fact, they looked… normal. Like everyone else, they were in evening wear but theirs couldn’t even begin to complete with the designer ensembles most others were in. If my parents had just walked into a room and noticed that they weren’t dressed to the same standard—which had never happened—both of them would’ve been fidgety and unhappy.
Ruby’s parents, however, didn’t even seem to have noticed. They chatted away to Hadley, Dax, and a couple of other students who had joined them, and when some professors came into the mix, I could almost see the bubble of pride swelling around them. There was a lot of laughter from their group, but it wasn’t the polite, almost forced giggles and chuckles of the people who surrounded them.
They seemed genuinely amused at whatever Dax and the professor standing next to him were saying. If I hadn’t known how head over heels in love Daxton was with his girl, I’d have been ripping off his head right about now.
Despite knowing that he wasn’t trying to get into the Sprites’ good graces to move in on their daughter, my fists still clenched at my sides when they burst out laughing again. Fuck. Now I’m jealous because her parents are having a good time with her friends?
Maybe Emily had been right the other night and I had been bodysnatched. None of these pesky, shitty emotions were like me at all. I liked it better when I just didn’t give a fuck.
Finally, the emcee strode out onto the makeshift stage and asked people to start making their way to their tables. My parents said their goodbyes to the people they’d been talking to, then my mom took my arm and my dad took Emily’s as we strode across the room.
Ruby and her parents were already there, and I broke out into a wide grin when I realized I’d be able to say hi properly now. She was standing next to our table, talking to her parents and another couple who seemed to be seated with us.
As we walked up to them, she looked away from the woman she’d been chatting to and made eye-contact with me again. A smile spread on her face, and it was like every bit of menace I usually carried around with me vanished under the strength of that smile.
“Hey,” she said when I reached her, resting my hand lightly on her hip and bending down to press a soft kiss to her cheek. She blushed, but pulled away with her eyes just about sparkling as they looked back up into mine. “What was that for?”
“Just because you look beautiful,” I said sincerely, not giving a damn if my parents or hers overheard me. “You’re the most stunning girl in here tonight.”
Her blush deepened, but she looked me up and down anyway. “This might be a cliché, but you clean up pretty well yourself. I never thought I’d see the day that you actually put on a suit.”
I laughed and ran my hands over the lapels of my jacket. “This old thing? I wear it all the time. Especially when I’m doing laundry or having a quiet night in.”
“Since when do you have quiet nights in?” a voice piped up at my side, and I grinned as I slid my arm around Emily’s waist to tug her forward.
“Ruby, this is Emily,” I said. “Emily, meet Ruby. Ruby likes to torture me at physio a few times a week and to take long walks through the halls of hell with me hobbling along behind her.”
“So this is Ruby, huh?” My sister seemed a little flustered as she reached out to take Ruby’s offered hand. “It’s nice to finally meet the woman responsible for putting my brother through his paces. It’s not often that a girl puts him in his place.”
Ruby did a little curtsy, still smiling as she pulled my sister in for a hug instead of just shaking her hand. “It’s so good to know that he recognizes it, that I’m able to put him in his place. I’ve been thinking that he’s probably denying it to anyone who will listen.”
“Fat chance of that,” I grumbled, and both girls laughed at me. “Don’t even dream about teaming up on me.”
They exchanged a humor-filled look, then Ruby turned to introduce me to her parents. Smiling at me warmly, her father shook my hand and her mother surprised me by pulling me in a hug.
Evidently, she comes from a family of huggers. Strangely, I didn’t mind it as much as I thought it might. It certainly hadn’t seemed to bother Emily when Ruby had hugged her either.
Tommy and Alison did their usual tight smiles with their nice-to-meet-yous before settling into their seats. The other family at our table were the Bishops. Their son, Clark, was probably around our age, but I hadn’t noticed him around campus before.
The guy was a charmer, however. He zeroed in on Ruby almost immediately, and I bristled a little at how much attention he was paying to her. He also seemed super interested in her choice of physiotherapy, and got her talking about it a lot more than I ever had within a minute or two.
Right on cue, my parents’ behavior distracted me from the Clark and Ruby show at the other end of the table while their parents made pleasant chit-chat. The wait staff were making the rounds to top off wine glasses, but my parents were rude and dismissive of them while her parents were gracious and understanding of the long wait times.
Ruby’s father looked taken aback when Tommy barked at a waiter, then he leaned in and muttered a joke in her ear that made her laugh. Envy rippled through me as I observed the relationship she so obviously had with her father.
I’d been looking forward to spending time with her this evening, but between her parents and Clark, it seemed like I was going to have to compete for her attention. It wasn’t something I was used to having to do, but I wasn’t one to back away from a challenge.
Bring it on. I knew she wanted to spend time with her parents, but I wasn’t about to let Clark get one extra minute with her that could’ve been mine. And there it was again. That word. Mine.
I knew she wasn’t mine. So why does it keep popping up, and why does it feel so damn right every time it does?
Chapter 29
RUBY
Dinner was going exceptionally well. At least, I thought it was. Brysen’s parents were a bit abrupt with the staff and they’d been visibly surprised when they’d learned they were seated with a dentist and bookkeeper, but since they were all about keeping up appearances, they made polite conversation with my parents while paying just a touch more attention to the Bishops.
Apparently, they were an influential family in their own right, but I was too distracted to keep up with the ins and outs of it. Brysen in that suit was blowing my mind. He’d gotten the all-clear from Josh and Dr. Mansfield to ditch the cane. He still had to use it on days when he had lots of classes to walk to or if he felt like his leg was taking strain, but he was almost fully recovered and had been cleared to start going about things normally again.
While he was well within the expected six to eight week recovery window for femur injuries, I honestly hadn’t expected he’d be doing so well by this point. Josh had laughed when I’d mentioned it, but that leg had looked really bad to me at first.
As he’d reminded me, however, Brysen was a young, strong man who hadn’t had any other previous damage to the affected area. There was a possibility of pain or discomfort if he over-exerted himself and he’d have to be careful with the leg, but he was perfectly capable of doing normal, day-to-day things without worrying.
That was what my mind was stuck on. With him looking so good and being almost fully recovered, I couldn’t stop thinking about what the sex would be like now. As one of the day-to-day activities he’d been specifically cleared for, sex hadn’t been far from my mind since I’d accidentally seen the note in his chart saying he was good to go.
Tonight, with him in that suit, it was damn near the only thing on
my mind. Especially since I could only imagine how incredible it would be now that his injury wouldn’t necessarily hinder his range of movement.
It was making me all hot and bothered, and it was definitely making it difficult to concentrate on the presenters taking the stage when the fundraiser part of the evening began to get underway. Not even the iced water I was sipping could cool me down.
“So, Ruby,” Clark said from his seat beside mine. “What do you like to do when you’re not studying?”
I turned toward him, surprised again by the intensity of his hazel eyes. In the few hours I’d known him, I had decided that he was something of an enigma. With his slicked back, longish black hair, those eyes, and a body that seemed supremely fit beneath his suit, he was a sure head-turner.
And yet I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him before. He was flirtatious, goofy, and cocky, but he was mysterious at the same time. No one I’d asked seemed to know much about him at all. Okay, so I’ve only asked Hadley and Dax and it was only after I saw the Bishops’ name listed at our table, but still.
Brysen and I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk much, but he didn’t seem to know the guy either. It was rare that between all four of us, we didn’t know someone at all. It made me curious about him, but not so curious that I’d been flirting back whenever he tried to disarm me with those eyes and his charm.
I flashed him a polite smile. “I don’t have much free time at the moment, but when I do, I either read or spend time with my friends. You?”
“I like getting out. Going out of town. Exploring.” Leaning slightly into me, he grinned and bumped my leg with one of his. “Have you ever been on a Mountain Coaster and if not, do you wanna try it out with me sometime?”
Brysen glared at us from across the table, but he arched a brow at me like he was daring me to respond. I met his dark gaze for a second, then turned back to Clark.
“That sounds like a lot of fun. Thank you for inviting me, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to go.”
Why, you ask? Well, because it seems I’m now shooting down offers for adventurous dates from perfectly decent guys while holding out for the anti-hero across from me. Yes, I know I need help.
Thankfully, I didn’t need to give Clark that answer because he didn’t ask. He just shrugged and grinned at me some more. “The offer stands if you ever change your mind.”
“Thanks,” I said, picking up my glass to take another sip of water. It wasn’t much of a distraction, but anything was better than nothing at this point.
Clark cracked jokes while the presenters were busy doing their thing. I laughed at a few of them, but mostly I was aware of Brysen’s heavy gaze on me. There were green flames flickering in his eyes again and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t ignore the pleasant tingling sensation that traveled through me when I felt them raking across my skin.
He was sitting back in his chair with his legs spread and his arms loosely folded over his chest. Strands of his hair had fallen across his forehead, making him look darkly rakish as he moved his gaze from me to the stage, and back again.
Despite our parents being at the table with us, every time my eyes connected with his, it was like everything else just blurred into the background. I was coming to accept that there was nothing I could do to change that. It kept happening and frankly, I liked it. I liked him.
As the thought crossed my mind again, a secret smile tugged at the corners of my lips. He must have noticed it because he suddenly cocked his head in question. When I just gave him a small shrug in reply, he shot me a look that said he’d be demanding answers later and my smile just grew.
Bring it on, Brysen. Bring it on.
“We’ll take a break now,” the presenter announced. “Get up, mingle, challenge your friends to rival your donations, and we’ll be back shortly.”
Brysen was on his feet almost before the guy had even stopped talking, evidently taking the opportunity to steal me away from the table for a few minutes. He ignored his parents even though they didn’t look too pleased with him leaving, but flashed mine a dashing smile as he held his hand out to me.
“I’ll have her back in a little while,” he promised. “There are a few things we need to do to help with the event.”
Ordinarily, I would have frowned and it would have given away his lie within seconds, but I managed to keep a straight face as I let him help me to my feet. Smiling at my parents, I withdrew my hand from his once I was up, but stayed close enough that I could still feel his presence beside me.
“That’s right,” I said. “We’ll be back in a bit. See you soon.”
As we turned to walk away, he caught my eye from the corner of his and grinned slyly. “Looks like my bad influence is rubbing off on you if you’re lying to your parents now.”
“I know,” I replied, but couldn’t stop myself from grinning right back at him. “It was only a little lie, though. I figured it was safer to go along with it than to tell them that I wanted a few minutes alone with the boy I’ve been sleeping with.”
“Boy?” he repeated incredulously, trying and failing to sound offended. “I think I’ve proven more than once that I’ve graduated from boyhood. If that’s in question at all, then I guess I’ll just have to up my efforts.”
I flushed deeply, changing the subject as he led me out of the hall, down a corridor, around a bend, through a courtyard, into another hall, and then into a janitor’s closet. “What are we doing in here?”
Brysen shut the door behind us, then walked around me until we were chest to chest. There wasn’t much light in here, but the single exposed but yellowing lightbulb overhead made the intention written all over his features clear.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he murmured, his hands going to my hips as he walked us back until I collided with the wall behind me. “You look too good. Smell too good. And the way you were looking at me...”
He grinned as he dropped his head to kiss the side of my neck. One of his big hands came up to cup my jaw, and he angled it up to expose my throat to him. “What do you say, Ruby? You up for a little adventure? It might not be a mountain coaster, but I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy it more than a quick ride with Clark.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I teased, sliding my hands between us to curl my fingers into his shirt and hold him to me. “You’re going to have to show me what you’ve got, then I’ll have to take Clark up on his offer and—”
I got cut off when he sealed his mouth over mine. Grinning against his lips, I brought one of my arms up to wind it around his neck while keeping my other hand firmly over his pounding heart. The kiss was hard and dominant, more of a claiming than anything else.
If this was how I got kissed every time I provoked his jealous side, I was going to be doing it a lot more often. His body crashed into mine, pressing me up against the door as we made out like we’d never get another chance.
“Don’t fuck with me, babe,” he murmured between furious kisses. “I know you want me too. You hardly even looked at that asshole.”
Damn. Busted. But on the other hand, while it was fun to tease him, I wasn’t the type to play any real games. I took his face in my hands and pulled back just far enough to look into his eyes. “You’re right. I do want you. What are you going to do about it?”
Those wicked lips of his that could bring so much pleasure or cause so much pain depending on his mood kicked up into a smirk. His hands reached for the hem of my dress and pushed it up roughly, his eyes never moving away from mine.
“Anything I want, sweet Ruby,” he said, moving his head down to whisper the next words against my mouth. “Now that I don’t have to worry about having to spend the rest of my life in that chair if I hurt myself again, I can do any-fucking-thing I want.”
Part of me wanted to protest just for the sake of it, but also because there were definitely things I didn’t want him to do to me. I even opened my mouth to form the words, but the only thing that came out was a moan as he moved his hand and
placed it between my legs.
Actually, scratch that. He’s right. He really can do pretty much whatever he wants with me. As long as it’s him doing it, I’m sure he’ll find a way to make it good. Really good. Just like he always does.
Chapter 30
BRYSEN
Fucking her in the janitor’s closet wasn’t ideal. I doubted she was the type who often got it on in the dusty old corners of campus, but taking her back to my room or hers in the time we had just wasn’t possible.
Besides, Clark had offered her adventure. She’d turned him down gracefully, but it’d still inspired the need in me to one-up the ass. Sex was more my game than taking her out for the day, but either way, multiple orgasms in a janitor’s closet during a fancy fundraiser was sure to get her blood flowing more than some fucking rollercoaster.
As much as I’d rather have spent the rest of the night burying myself deep inside her, I was aware of the fact that we didn’t have that much time. Any extended absence on my part, and my parents were sure to come looking for me.
Tommy knew this campus inside and out. Much better than I did. While I’d done my best to find a spot that was hidden enough that we wouldn’t be easy to track down, there was still a chance he’d find us if he suspected why I’d really dragged her away from the table.
There wasn’t much he could do or say that would embarrass me if he caught us, but Ruby would be mortified if we got walked in on by my father. While I wouldn’t usually take the girl’s possible feelings on the matter into consideration, I’d long since established that I actually cared about this particular girl’s feelings. There wasn’t any point trying to overthink or deny it now.
With the time constraints we were facing in mind, I didn’t hesitate. There had been so much tension boiling between us since the last time we’d done this that there had never been a chance of going slow once I got my hands on her again anyway.