by J. S. Scott
Putting my hand behind her head, I pulled her down to kiss the gorgeous lips that had been tempting me all damn night.
A tiny squeak of pleasure vibrated against my mouth, and all I could think about was making her crazy with need. I wanted to hear her moans as I drew her closer and closer to climax.
As I released her mouth, I said, “We’re going to take this slow, Ruby. There’s so much more to being pleasured than just a fuck.”
She didn’t have a clue how good an orgasm could feel, and I wanted to teach her every way she could get there.
“I’ve read books,” she said with a sigh. “But it only explains the physiological things.”
“You still don’t touch yourself?” I asked.
“Only a few times while I’ve been with you. I feel like my body is waking up to sensations I’ve never had before. But I’m not quite sure what to do.”
“No foreplay in high school? Not even first or second base?”
“I never even got into the stadium,” she said unhappily. “I wasn’t the pretty, cheerleader type, so most guys gave me a wide berth. And even if they hadn’t, I wasn’t allowed to date until I was sixteen, and that was the year my parents died. And honestly, I had no desire to get close to anybody male except my dad.”
I started thinking about her uncle again, but I shut the thoughts down so I could put my attention where it needed to be—on her.
Ruby shifted off my lap, but plastered her body against mine and put her head on my shoulder.
“I guess I still don’t understand how nobody noticed the fact that you were being abused. There had to be signs, Ruby.”
“People see what they expect to see. Our home was outside of the city, in a smaller town. My uncle was an expert manipulator. For the most part, everybody liked him.”
She was right. Abuse went undetected a lot. I’d made a point out of studying it since I’d met Ruby. I was pretty sure that Ruby had kept a low profile in school, and the only one who might have been able to save her had been her parents—had they known about it.
Unfortunately, it sounded like her uncle had struck terror in Ruby’s heart about her family being broken up and harm coming to her parents if she told.
I wrapped my arms tightly around Ruby, glad that she had crossed my path, even if it had been traumatic for her. I didn’t want to think about where she might be if she hadn’t.
“You’re safe now,” I told her after I’d swallowed the huge lump in my throat.
She rubbed against me like a kitten. “I know.”
Ruby had answered without hesitation, and it humbled me to know that she felt safe with me. She’d been through so damn much. I wasn’t so sure I could be as trusting as she was if I’d lived her life.
“How much work do you have for me tomorrow?” she asked.
“Honestly?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Not much,” I confessed. “Shirley helps me when I need it. I have a lot to do, but most of it is technical. I only offered you the job to get you here. I wanted to help you get on your feet and decide what you wanted to do with your life, but I knew you’d refuse to let me just help you out.”
She looked up at me with a frown. “You lied to me?”
Dammit! I couldn’t believe I actually felt guilty about bullshitting her so I could help her. “I stretched the truth. And I could actually use the help you’ve been giving me by cooking. I suck at it, and fast food gets old.”
“I know I haven’t exactly been reasonable, Jett. But it’s hard for me to take anything from anybody. I want to make my own way.”
“I get that,” I answered. “But you have to learn that sometimes you have to take the help you need along the way to get where you want to be in life.”
“You’re right,” she capitulated. “But be patient with me. I’m not used to anybody wanting to help me.”
When I looked at Ruby, I saw a gentle soul who had been abused and hurt so badly that she wasn’t quite sure who she was anymore. But in just the short time we’d been together, she’d changed. Ruby was rapidly righting the wrongs in her life. And I didn’t want to fuck that up. “I shouldn’t have lied to you,” I confessed. “But I was pretty desperate.”
“Don’t,” she said, putting her fingers over my lips. “You’re a good man, Jett. I know you don’t just lie for no reason. So you want me to cook. What else?”
I shrugged. “We’ll make the rest up as we go along.”
“I’d really like to get a driver’s license, and I want to schedule my GED.”
I nodded. “Those should both be a priority. What have you always wanted to be, Ruby? If you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it be?”
“I guess I’ve never really thought about it because I’ve always wanted to be a pastry chef.”
“I think we have culinary schools here,” I mused.
Ruby punched me lightly on the arm. “Of course you do. There are some good ones here.”
“And I definitely recommend working for yourself,” I told her with a grin. “Working for other people sucks.”
She rolled her eyes. “Says the tech giant who has more money than he knows what to do with. I might have to start small.”
I didn’t tell her that I was more than willing to be her partner if she wanted her own place. Hell, I’d give her a bakery, but I knew she wouldn’t accept that. “You can figure out your plan while you’re going to school, if you decide that’s what you want to do. You have time.”
“I’m going to work, even if I decide to go to school,” she said firmly.
“You’re working for me,” I reminded her.
“I need to start supporting myself, Jett,” she said stubbornly. “And cooking for you is not working for you. I have to eat, too. And I need to find my own place once I get my inheritance.”
“Don’t go there, Ruby,” I growled.
I understood the fact that she wanted to feel valuable by working and taking care of herself, but it was a hell of a lot more important for her to figure out what her goals were first.
“Okay. We’ll talk about it later. We could have sex instead,” she teased.
“Don’t go there, either,” I warned.
“Will you kiss me then?”
Every muscle in my body was tight as I looked at her sultry, hopeful expression.
There was no damn way I was going to say no.
Ruby
I was getting bold.
But I was desperate.
I held my breath until Jett’s mouth came down on mine, sending a spark to every cell in my body.
Jett didn’t just kiss me. He owned everything he touched. I sank into his warmth, and opened to him because I wanted everything he was willing to give me.
He devoured me like a man who had been hungry for way too long, and I felt the same urgency as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
I needed him to give me something because my body was urging me to seek more.
Heat flowed between my thighs, and something inside me clenched, begging for something elusive I didn’t understand.
“Jett,” I gasped as he released my mouth and started nipping and licking at the sensitive skin of my neck.
I fell back on the couch as he moved next to me and over me with a powerful presence that made me even more desperate for him to make the painful need I was experiencing go away.
“I need…” I whimpered, my voice trailing off because I didn’t know exactly what I had to have.
“I know what you need, sweetheart,” he said in a husky voice beside my ear.
I shivered as his hand moved under my dress and up my thigh, making my skin burn with heat everywhere he touched.
I almost jumped out of my skin as his fingers moved my panties aside and met my wet sex.
“Look at me, Ruby
,” he demanded.
Not realizing I’d closed my eyes, I opened them and immediately met his steely gaze.
“Don’t look away. I want you to remember who you’re with and not the past.”
Every touch, every word he spoke was so intense that I didn’t think my mind was going anywhere else. It couldn’t. I was mesmerized by Jett.
“Show me what I need,” I pleaded.
“This,” he rasped.
I moaned as I felt his strong fingers stroke over my clit.
“Oh, God,” I whimpered.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he demanded.
Instinctively, I wanted to escape in the sensual world he was building, so it was hard to stay focused on his face.
His touch was gentle, but demanding. He explored me, and I let my legs fall apart, silently entreating for more.
My body was restless, searching for something just out of my reach as I lifted my hips and rubbed hard against his marauding fingers.
“I think I need you to fuck me,” I said in a breathless voice.
“No, you don’t,” Jett answered in a graveled voice. “Do you trust me, Ruby?”
“Yes,” I whimpered as I felt myself quivering with need. I had faith that Jett could take care of almost anything, including the fire he’d started inside me.
“Then close your eyes, remember that I’m right here, and let yourself feel everything. Don’t think about anything else except pleasure.”
My eyes slammed closed, thinking that if what he was doing was less intense, maybe my body would stop aching.
It didn’t.
I fell into a darkness that only allowed me to feel the madness even more.
His strokes grew bolder and harder, giving me some of the rougher pressure I instinctively knew I needed.
“Please,” I cried out.
“Relax,” he crooned. “Just feel.”
“I feel too much,” I gasped out.
“Because it’s new. It’s not too much. You’re wet and you’re so ready to come.”
I felt him penetrate me with one of his fingers, and I mewled, my head starting to thrash with frustration.
“You’re so tight, sweetheart,” he said gently.
I let out a loud moan, and lifted my hips again urgently.
I wasn’t too sure how long I could handle the pleasure and torment of what he was doing to me.
He retreated and completely focused on the tiny bundle of nerves that were throbbing for attention.
Harder.
Faster.
And so mind-blowing that I felt the tight ball in my belly start to unfurl and shoot straight between my thighs, intensifying an ache that was almost unbearable.
“Yes. Yes, please,” I urged him on mindlessly.
My body started to tremor and I experienced nothing but pleasure waving over my entire body as I helplessly tried to hold onto my sanity.
“Jett!” I screamed as I reached some kind of pinnacle.
His mouth slammed over mine as though he wanted to swallow my gratification. I kissed him roughly as my body started to wind down, never wanting to let my beautiful man go.
I was panting as he finally moved his hand from my sex.
I watched as he put his fingers into his mouth one by one and sucked my juices from the digits.
“Someday, I’m going to taste your pussy, and lick every sweet drop,” he said gruffly as he looked into my eyes.
I shivered, and my body went taut all over again. Yeah, I knew about oral sex. I wasn’t uneducated about the human body—not in theory. But after what had happened, I couldn’t imagine how intense that experience would be.
My mouth was suddenly dry. I licked my lips before I asked, “Will I get to do that to you?”
His eyes grew fierce as he answered, “Maybe. Some women don’t like to do that.”
“I think I’d love it,” I answered eagerly, wondering what it would be like to pleasure Jett until he lost control.
He smirked at me as he made us comfortable lying close and face-to-face, his arm tightly around my waist. “Baby, there aren’t many guys who would turn it down.”
“Is it better than having sex?” I asked curiously. Now that I had somebody who had a plethora of knowledge, and wasn’t shy about talking about sex, I wanted to know everything.
He shook his head slightly. “Not better. Just different.”
“I want to do everything with you,” I confessed.
He stroked my hair back from my face as he said, “We need to take this slow, Ruby. It’s not easy because I want you so bad that my balls are constantly blue, but I need to get this right. Did what we did scare you?”
“I think it’s a knee-jerk reaction to be alarmed for a second,” I explained. “But I think I want to be with you so much that it goes away before I ever really acknowledge it. I want to know what I’ve been missing, and what I never got a chance to figure out because of my past. And somehow I know I can only do that with you.”
He ran a hand through his hair in what appeared to be frustration. “Nothing needs to happen fast, Ruby. And I need you to tell me if something feels wrong.”
I smiled at him mischievously. “What you did felt pretty damn right to me. My only regret is that you didn’t get anything out of it. It doesn’t seem fair.”
I wanted to please Jett, too. I didn’t want my sexual introduction to be entirely one-sided, and I knew how it felt to need.
“It will happen eventually,” he promised. “And don’t ever think that I don’t get anything out of hearing you scream my name while you come. It gives me satisfaction, and it’s pretty damn good for my ego.”
“I’m sure you already knew that you were good in the sex department,” I said drily.
“I do,” he agreed arrogantly. “But it’s been awhile for me, Ruby. I haven’t been with anyone since the accident.”
I frowned at him. “Why?”
“Lisette’s rejection destroyed my confidence, I guess. I didn’t want to get naked because of my scars. And I’m not as athletic as I used to be because of my leg.”
My heart ached, and once again, I really wanted to hurt Lisette. “I wish I could bitch-slap her,” I said angrily. “Honestly, Jett, I understand that you lost some of your confidence, but you’re still drop-dead gorgeous, ripped like a male model, and you’re in incredible physical shape except for your leg. And I still want to take a bite of your ass every time I see you. Who cares about a few scars when you have so much to offer any woman? You’re special. You said that finding pleasure is much more than just a fuck. I don’t think many men really think that way.”
Jett chuckled and kissed me on the forehead. “You are good for my ego, Cinderella,” he said, his voice overflowing with humor.
“You should already have a healthy ego about everything,” I insisted. “You have everything a woman could ever want, and I’m not talking about all the money you have. That’s just a bonus.”
“Most women don’t think like you do, either,” Jett said in a more serious tone. “Not in my world.”
“Then you need to find another world, because I think yours is full of silly, superficial bimbos,” I told him emphatically.
I couldn’t see how any woman could look at Jett and not want him.
He grinned at me. “I guess there are a few good ones, like Dani and Harper. But they never really lived in our world. Harper made a career out of building homeless shelters all over the country, giving away her skills as an architect, and you know what Dani is like.”
“Did you love Lisette?” I asked, knowing I’d asked him about that before, but hoping I might get a more thorough answer this time.
“I thought I did,” he explained thoughtfully. “But when I look back on our relationship, she pretty much orchestrated everything. And I just accepted it.
I went to engagements and events that she thought were important, and I can see now how we really didn’t spend any time together alone. I don’t think we ever truly got to know each other. I didn’t see anybody else, and when she hinted that it was time to get married, I just went along with it. I was so busy all the time between volunteering for PRO, and working my part of the business to keep it growing. I guess I never questioned my relationship because I’d gotten used to Lisette. Now, I wonder how I never noticed that she’d never even said that she loved me.”
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. “I know she hurt you, but you’re so much better off without her,” I said softly as I stroked his jawline. “You can rebuild your ego.”
“I think you’re doing that for me, Cinderella,” he said with a laugh.
“And I’ll keep on doing it until you think the same way as I do about yourself.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t think I’m ever going to want to take a bite out of my own ass.”
A laugh escaped from my lips before I replied, “But you’ll know that you deserve the best.”
“I wish you knew that, too,” he retorted. “Then maybe you wouldn’t argue about taking things that you need right now.”
“I’m working on it,” I said. “I’m just so used to struggling alone. It’s hard for me, Jett. I went for a very long time not feeling like I deserved anything.”
“But you’re technically mine for now,” he said thoughtfully. “If we were really a couple, would it be so difficult?”
If Jett was mine, I’d feel like the luckiest woman in the world. “But we aren’t, really.”
“We could be,” Jett suggested. “And I’d feel a whole lot better about being your sexual education teacher if we were trying to build a relationship. I care about you, Ruby. I want to be your guy. All you have to do is say yes. I have no idea where it will all go, but we have more than some couples do. We’re attracted to each other, and we’re friends.”
I looked at the sincerity in his gorgeous eyes. “You can’t possibly mean that.”
“I’ve never meant something more,” he argued. “I value our friendship, but I think both of us want more. Let’s figure out how much more together.”