by Amelia Wilde
“Nobody hates steak.”
“Not true.”
“I don’t hate steak.”
“See? That’s one thing I didn’t know about you. What else don’t you hate?”
“Apple pie.”
Ruby makes a face.
“You don’t like apple pie?” I look at her with mock horror.
“I don’t. I really don’t. Any fruit pies, really.”
“I will never order that for dessert.”
Ruby reaches across the table and takes one of my hands in both of hers, her expression sincere, right on the edge of being teary. “Thank you. Thank you, Levi. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
A bubble bursts between us, and all at once everything feels right. There’s no doubt in my mind that I made a good choice. The sound of Ruby’s laughter wipes away that flicker in her eyes, making it forgettable, meaningless, and I laugh along with her.
We go back and forth for the rest of dinner.
“Favorite color?” Ruby looks at me with one eyebrow arched.
“Orange.”
“Orange? Okay. Mine is…” She has to stop and consider. “Pink. This week, anyway. We had a book cover come in that was just this unbelievable shade.”
“There’s not one you’ve loved forever?”
She smiles, a wrinkle in her nose. “Oh, there is one. My grandmother’s china. I was obsessed with it as a kid. My mom would only ever bring it out for holidays—we had other china for regular meals—and I loved it. It had this pattern of little flowers…” Ruby traces a fingertip around her dessert plate like she’s seeing the pattern against its white surface. “They were this lavender color. If I had to choose one favorite, it would be that.” She nods firmly. “That specific shade of lavender.”
Her face falls, and my heart sinks. I know exactly the china she’s talking about. I know, because it was among the items the team packed up last week for the auction. It’s from a rare manufacturer, and I expect it will bring a great price. “Ruby…”
She looks back up at me and purses her lips. “You know, the thing about all the china…the thing about most of those things, actually, is that they’re hellish to store.” When she laughs, it’s not quite as lighthearted as before. “Even if I could keep everything from my parents’ house, I’d need an actual house to put all of it in.” Her blue eyes meet mine, like she’s determined not to be upset about this, to keep it cool. “I don’t know that I want a house of that size any more. I used to think I’d be happy with keeping their estate—you know, when it was time for me to take it over—but I don’t know. It seems risky either way.”
“I know what you mean.” I don’t—not fully—but I also don’t want the sadness about the auction to creep back in. Not now. Not when we’ve just broken through some invisible barrier. Not when the rest of the evening is about to begin. “Are you ready to go?” The bill has been paid from the moment we walked in the door in preparation for just this moment.
Ruby gives me a grin. “Yes. Are you—are you taking me back to my place?”
“Only if you want to go there.”
“I don’t.”
“That’s a relief. I have lots of other plans.” I stand up from my seat and move around the table to offer her my arm.
“Lots of other plans? And you’d have let me go home?” She takes my elbow and stands up. She moves so easily in the gown that I chose for her, so elegantly. It’s hard to take my eyes off of her and focus on where I’m walking.
“I might have given you a hint.”
“Give me a hint now,” she says.
“Not a chance.”
Chapter 31
Ruby
Levi wasn’t exaggerating about having other plans. And even if he’d told me what they were beforehand...
Well, I wasn’t picturing this.
I was picturing his penthouse. I was picturing his bedroom. I was picturing a quick stripping of clothes and a mad dash for a horizontal surface—any horizontal surface. The moment we climbed into the back of his town car, that’s where my mind went. Not that it hasn’t been lingering on his body underneath that flawless tuxedo all evening. I just kept it under control because it’s generally frowned upon to straddle your new boyfriend in the middle of an upscale dining establishment. Any dining establishment, really.
Every time I think about what just happened—the step we just took—my heart leaps into my throat. Oh, my god. Levi Blake is my boyfriend. I can’t even fathom what that’s going to look like. I’m going to have to ride it out and see. I’ve had other boyfriends before. I was hardly celibate in high school and college. Not all of them were wealthy, but some of them were.
Levi is on another level from all of them. He might as well be on another planet.
Which may be why I’ve still got that icy twist in the pit of my gut.
Why? Why? I need a few moments to breathe, to figure it out.
Levi doesn’t take us to his penthouse, or to my apartment. He takes us to the Plaza Hotel, and in true Levi style, he didn’t just book a suite. He booked the Grand Penthouse Suite.
I thought the view of Central Park was stunning from the restaurant. I had no idea what I was talking about.
When he opens the door to the suite, my eyes go wide.
I’ve stayed in opulent hotels in my life. My mother loved to stay at the Plaza, and when we traveled as a family, she always chose places with sterling reputations—places that offered service that you could comfortably call world class. But we never had a suite like this. Everything has a gilded touch. The blaze of the sunset sparkles off the chandeliers.
“Will this do?”
I have no words for Levi. I just nod.
“Thank God.” He grins at me, then starts to unbutton his jacket. I want to slide my hand under his collar on the back of his neck and pull him down for a kiss. Now that we’re here, I can lose myself in the taste of him, in the feel of his hands on my body, and I’m desperate for it. Desperate. But before I can move, he speaks again. “I’m going to help you out of your clothes, and then we should both step into the robes in the bathroom.”
“The robes?”
He laughs out loud at my expression. I must look horrified. “Yes. It might have been a poor decision on my part, but I wanted you to have a little bit of everything this evening.”
“What does that mean?”
“Turn around so I can unzip your dress.” I turn around. He tugs at the zipper, then helps me step out of the gown. “I’ve arranged for a couples’ massage.”
I spin around to face him. He’s arranging the gown over his arm. “That’s pretty gutsy.”
“You can have a couples’ massage without being an official couple.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I step toward him in my bra and panties, a black set that thankfully matched both outfits today, and his eyes drop to my shoulders…then lower. “It’s a gutsy assumption that I’d want a massage first thing after looking at you across the table all night.” He leans down to kiss me, and I wrap my arms around his neck. He tastes like sweet wine and frustration, and his hands go around my waist with a frantic urgency.
Levi’s lips against mine are insistent, passionate, and I press the length of my body against his. He’s hard underneath his clothes, and when I pull back he groans. “It was foolish as hell.”
“What time are they coming?”
He raises one hand to check his watch. “Ten minutes.”
“That’s enough time.”
“I want more than ten minutes with you before—”
“This isn’t about me.”
I drop to my knees in front of him, the polished hardwood cool on my skin. It takes less than a second to unzip his pants, and his cock springs out. I wrap my hands around it, giving him one firm stroke, and he sucks in a breath.
Levi has spent all evening building a fantasy for me without knowing if I would even accept it. I need him so much that my skin is tingling with it, but he’s planned th
is, too, and I’m not going to turn him down. I’m also not going to leave him like this. The massage would be wasted on him.
His hand goes to my hair when I swirl my tongue around the head of his cock. “Mmm.” The sound is a low rumble in his chest, and it sparks a wild desire in my core. I love having this effect on him. I could do this all night.
But time is ticking. I work my way down his shaft, licking and tantalizing. By the time I take him into my mouth, his legs are trembling with the effort of standing upright, and I wrap my hands around his firm ass, bracing against him.
“Fuck, Ruby.” I increase the pressure, sucking harder, drawing him into the rhythm, and his hips rock forward, pressing the full length of him into my mouth, so deeply that my eyes start to water. But I’m not about to stop. I’m not about to give in. Instead, I relax and swallow, taking him in deep.
His grip tightens on my hair as he fucks my mouth. Juices collect between my thighs. I never imagined in my life that I could be so turned on by kneeling in front of a powerful man—in front of my powerful boyfriend—and taking him into my mouth so fully that I can’t speak. I can only give him pleasure. And judging by the sounds he’s making, it’s intense.
Levi’s hips jerk forward on the next stroke and he explodes into my mouth.
I take every drop.
He disengages slowly, drawing himself out, his breath slowing. Then he reaches a hand down to help me up. His eyes burn into mine, a grin spreading across his face, and my entire body goes hot. Levi opens his mouth to say something.
Just then, there’s a knock at the door.
Time’s up.
Chapter 32
Levi
It’s dark when I wake up, and my heart is pounding.
I don’t know what woke me. Is it just the different silence of the Plaza? That doesn’t explain the rush of adrenaline in my veins.
It also doesn’t explain why the bed next to me is empty, the blankets folded back. I stretch out one arm. The sheets are cold.
I prop myself up on one elbow, my eyes adjusting to the moonlight, my heart in my throat.
“Did I wake you up?” Ruby’s soft voice comes from behind me, and I turn over with a start. I rub a hand over my face. The fog of sleep is still competing with the sharp tang of the adrenaline, and at first her words don’t make any sense. Then they resolve themselves.
“No. I don’t know.” I peer across the room at her. She’s wearing a black silk robe—I had it brought up for her along with other wardrobe pieces for our weekend stay—and it’s like a dark waterfall over her curves. I want her to take it off. What is she doing over there, anyway? “Come back to bed.”
Her face is pale in the moonlight streaming in through the door. Ruby’s movements are slow, as if the air is heavy and thick, but she turns away from the terrace and comes back toward the bed, her footfalls soft on the carpet.
There’s something thoughtful, something worried, in her expression. I reach a hand out to her before she can step around to the other side of the bed. “Are you alright?”
She takes my hand and lets me pull her to the edge of the bed, where she sits, her eyes moving over the wrinkles in the comforter.
“Ruby?”
The blue of her eyes seems almost gray in the moonlight. “Isn’t it too soon?”
“Isn’t what too soon?” We’re both speaking in quiet tones, as if anything louder might disturb the other guests. Impossible, since we’re on the very top floor of the hotel. We’re even on the top floor of the suite itself.
“Being together.”
I blink at her. Where is this coming from? “If I rushed you, if you didn’t want to jump into this, I hope you know that—”
She cuts me off. “You didn’t rush me. I was surprised, but I wanted…I wanted to belong to you.” Her forehead wrinkles. “I still want that. I just don’t know if it’s all…too soon.”
“By whose standards?”
“We only met two weeks ago.”
I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her farther onto the bed. “A lot has happened in two weeks. But if you’re not happy with the pace, I’m happy to slow things down. We can…” I cast around for a solution. “We can meet once a week instead of twice.” I laugh a little, but she doesn’t smile. “I’m serious, Ruby. If you want to step back—”
“I don’t.”
This isn’t about timing.
“What is it you really want to ask me?”
She bites her lip. The question settles into the air while she takes three long, slow breaths. “What is it about me?” There is not even the slightest hint of a joke in her voice. Ruby clears her throat. “What is it about me that makes you want to be with me? Because I can’t—” She straightens up, squaring her shoulders. “If this is just…entertainment for you, just a fling for the hell of it—”
“It’s not.”
“—then that’s fine. I can understand that. I just don’t know what you’d want, long-term, from me.”
“Ruby.” She raises her eyes from her lap to mine, and even in the dark I can see that this is eating at her. I have no idea how long she’s been awake. “Where is this coming from?”
“I don’t have anything to offer you.” Her voice drops to a strained whisper. “I don’t have any money. I don’t know what I’m going to do to dig my way out of the situation my family is in. And I can’t help but think—”
“Tell me.”
Her laugh is incredulous. “I mean, you’re not in this for the money, right? This isn’t some ploy to profit from my parents?”
I shake her a little. “Ruby, wake up. You’re having a nightmare. A ludicrous nightmare.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” I force myself upright and wrap both arms around her. “I’m interested in you, and it has nothing to do with that. In fact, interested doesn’t do justice to the way I feel about you. I’m captivated by you. I’m a little bit infatuated with you.” I take a deep breath. “I’m falling for you, Ruby. Why else would I have made such an incredibly risky move at dinner tonight? The last thing I want to do is chase you away.”
“You seemed pretty…” She presses her lips together like she’s trying not to smile. “You seemed pretty cutthroat when we first met.”
“And you seemed pretty determined to have nothing to do with me. Things change.”
“Things do change.”
I reach for the sash at her waist and tug at it until the robe falls open. She’s not wearing anything underneath, and the moonlight against her creamy skin has my cock at attention in an instant. I kiss her just below her ear. “Come back to bed.”
“I want us to survive this.”
“Survive what?” Another kiss, this time an inch lower than the first.
“The fact that—” Ruby tilts her head toward me, darting her tongue out to lick her lips. “The fact that you’re selling all the things that I want to keep. Most of them, anyway. You’re my only hope for—” Another kiss. “—for any kind of relief for my family, and it’s just a strange thing, being your boyfriend’s client—” At those words, a smile finally flickers across her face. “I don’t want this to end.”
“It’s not going to end. Come back to bed.” I slip the robe off her shoulders and run my hand down her back, over the curves of her hips.
“I don’t think I could fall asleep.”
“I didn’t say you should come back to sleep.” I stroke one hand down her leg, watching the goose bumps rise behind my touch, and apply a gentle pressure to the inside of her knee, spreading her open. She braces the balls of her feet against the floor, and her head falls back against my shoulder. Ruby doesn’t gasp until I start brushing my fingertips up…and up and up. “I said, come back to bed.”
Chapter 33
Ruby
“If you’re just going to ignore me, there’s no point in visiting.”
Henry’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts. Shit. What were we talking about? He was saying something about accessible apart
ments for when he gets discharged. Yes. And then he made a joke about a penthouse, which sent me straight back to last weekend at the Plaza.
I resist the urge to drop my face into my hands. It’s bad enough that I’ve been caught in the middle of having a sex fantasy in broad daylight when I’m supposed to be having a conversation with my brother. It’s made twice as bad by the fact that every time I think about the Plaza, I also think about that embarrassing display in the middle of the night. Of course Levi wants to be with me. This isn’t about money.
It’s not about money, and it’s not about the auction, it’s just about us.
What do I have to do to convince myself of that?
Nothing so far has worked.
“I’m sorry, Henry. I got distracted.”
“No shit.” My brother’s eyes, blue like mine, dance in the light coming through his hospital room window. “Anyway, I was saying that there’s a building in SoHo that has accessible apartments. I should be out of here within a month. That’s the first place I want to look.”
A spike of worry charges through my throat. “You’re not just going to live with Mom and Dad?”
He rolls his eyes. “They don’t even have a place to live. How am I supposed to move in with them?”
“They do too have a place to live. It’s five blocks from here. You know that.”
Henry laughs. “They live in a third-story walkup with one bedroom. Am I supposed to roll myself up three flights of stairs?” He raises his arms in the air, flexing. “I’m lifting weights like a fiend, but there’s no telling when I’ll be ripped enough to do that.”
“That’s a temporary situation.”
He sweeps his hands down over his shirt like he’s a model on display. “This might be a permanent one.”
“Do you have the money for one of those apartments?”
Henry shrugs. “One of my gigs came with insurance. I can swing it for at least a few months. By then, I’ll be able to go back to work.”