by KB Winters
I hesitated for a moment, wringing my fingers together. “Doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of room for much of a personal life in all that.”
Steven dropped his head back and laughed. “Yeah, not so much!”
I smiled along with him, but couldn’t ignore the way my stomach knotted up. I knew it shouldn’t matter to me. The idea of Steven and me together was nothing more than a lust-fueled fantasy. The desperation of my situation causing me to look for an escape route. But still…
“I’ll confess, this is my first date in quite some time, Rubes.”
I nearly tripped over a patch of sand. “Date?”
He chuckled again and unpocketed his hands, letting them swing freely for a moment. “Well, drinks, walk on the beach under the stars. Kinda seems like a date.” He gave me a lingering side glance and our pace slowed.
“I tried to pay for the drinks…” I protested, trying to keep my voice steady.
He smiled and came to a stop in the sand. “Well, if I’d let you do that, then we couldn’t call it a date, and then…” he paused to smooth a strand of my hair away from my face. “Then, I couldn’t do this.”
His lips moved to mine and I instantly melted into his soft kiss. Steven’s hands went to my waist, his thumbs pushing past the edge of my shirt and finding my bare shin all too easily. My thoughts swam and then vanished as the kiss deepened. I could feel Steven’s immediate excitement pressing against me and moaned just as Steven’s tongue prodded past my lips and tangled with my own.
Heat blossomed in my stomach and quickly traveled south, settling between my legs. Steven pressed in closer and I ached at the way my breasts felt against his solid chest. It would be even better if there weren’t a barrier between us. A problem that Steven appeared to be remedying as his fingers slipped up under my shirt and traveled over my stomach in a soft caress.
A car horn honked in the distance. Three, clipped beeps.
“This is a family beach! Get a freakin’ room!”
Steven groaned as he pulled away from me. A man in a red lifeguard Jeep rolled by. He honked three more times and then drove off laughing.
Steven glared after the departing Jeep but then his lips turned up into a playful smile. “Family beach, huh? Yeah right, like he’s not jerking off in his lifeguard shack watching all the bikini babes all day.”
I snorted into my hands. “How embarrassing!”
Steven laughed and rubbed his hand at the base of his neck. “Guess we got a little carried away.”
I nodded down at my bare feet. With a smooth motion, I reached over and pulled my sandals from their place on the beach and pointed back up the beach toward the little bar we’d stopped at. “Rick’s probably already home. We should probably get back and say hello.”
“Yeah, your right.” Steven agreed, though I caught a glimmer of disappointment in his eyes. “Come on, let’s get you back home.”
Chapter Six
Steven
Damn it. I hadn’t meant to kiss her. Well, okay, I’d meant to. But it was wrong. A mistake.
But one I wanted to make again. Desperately.
Hell, if not for that damn lifeguard, we’d probably be rolling around in the sand, half-naked.
Which would have been hot as hell, but completely the wrong thing to do. We’d gone too far as it was. I had no right kissing Ruby, let alone dreaming about what she’d look like naked, lying in my bed.
She appeared to be just as shocked by our sudden kiss, because as I drove us back toward her parents’ house, she stared out the passenger side window and didn’t say a word. My own thoughts were so jumbled and confused I didn’t even bother trying to make them coherent enough to start a conversation.
As soon as I pulled into the driveway, I wanted to turn around and speed back to my own parents’ house, just a few streets away, and spend the rest of the evening trying to forget about the way Ruby tasted or about her silky smooth skin against my fingertips. Most of all, I needed to find some kind of mental delete button to rid my ears of the echo of that hot little moan she’d done as my tongue slipped past her lips. Fuck, that’d been too much.
Great, Maxwell, another fuckin’ boner.
That’s just what I need, seeing Rick for the first time in over four years, and meeting his new wife and baby for the first time. Not to mention Watson and Leah, Rick and Ruby’s parents. “Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Westin, don’t mind my stiffy, just been thinking too much about getting a taste of your daughter’s sweet little—”
I suddenly wondered if Mr. Westin was a gun man…
“Looks like they’re here,” Ruby said, although she didn’t make a move for her door handle as I brought the truck to a stop.
I followed her gaze and saw that there were four adults on the other side of the thin curtains that covered most of the front room window. “Looks like it. You mind if I come in?”
She whipped around to stare at me. “Mind? Why would I mind?”
I licked my lips. “I didn’t know if it would be awkward.”
She arched a brow, apparently still not following me.
I sighed and rubbed a hand over the two days of stubble on my jaw. “Listen, Rubes, about what happened on the beach—”
“Oh, Steven, good grief. I know it was nothing.” She looked away, back at her family gathered inside. “Besides, Rick’ll kill me if he knows you were here and didn’t come in and see him.”
She started to push open her door but I reached out and grasped her upper arm, stilling her before she could hop out. She turned to look at me again, her expression a strange mix of confusion and sadness. “What’s wrong now?”
“Ruby, it wasn’t nothing.” I paused, watching her eyes dart back and forth between mine. She was spooked. I traced a finger down the side of her cheek, following the soft curve. “I want to see you again.”
Her pillow soft lips parted and I damn near got hard again. “You do?”
I nodded. “Fuck yeah, I do. How long are you in town?”
“Till New Year’s. I booked my plane tickets before—” she stopped herself and sucked in a deep breath. “Well…before everything went to shit. I was originally supposed to be back to work on the second. But now…I guess I’m winging it.”
I smiled. “Good. I’m here for the next three and a half weeks.”
A flicker of a smile crossed her lips and I leaned across the center console, unable to stop myself, before kissing her softly.
When we parted, Ruby gave a soft sigh. I smiled and traced a finger down the side of her face as her lashed fluttered open again. “Come on, let’s go see the fam.”
Ruby led the way this time and let us both into the house. “Look who I found out on the porch!” she announced as she rounded the corner into the large, open living room. I followed her a few steps behind and the room smiled at the sight of me.
“Steven? Oh my goodness, Richard, it’s Steven!” Leah raced forward to embrace me. She’d always treated me like a son. Watson extended a hand. Rick came next and we embraced like brothers. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as we parted and I blinked quickly to clear them away before Rick introduced me to Vanessa, his exotic-looking wife, and their small daughter who looked like a baby model with long dark lashes, caramel colored skin, and her mother’s almond-shaped eyes.
The tears returned as I glanced down into the small face. “She’s beautiful, man. Absolutely perfect. Congrats.” I clapped Rick on the back.
“What about you, Steven? Any young ladies on the horizon?” Leah asked, offering me a serving tray loaded down with crackers, gourmet cheeses, and assorted olives.
I resisted the urge to glance over at Ruby, but felt her eyes on me all the same. “Not right now, Mrs. Westin.”
“Oh, Steven, please, call me Leah.”
I laughed softly. “All right, Leah. I don’t get out much. Well, at least not to the places where I would meet a nice young lady.”
Everyone laughed at this and I dared to sneak a peek at Ruby. She wa
s sitting on the floor, her little niece gathered in her arms. My heart twisted inside of my chest as I watched her eyes sparkle and gleam as she smiled at the baby. She was completely lost in the small face in front of her and likely hadn’t even heard her mother’s question—or my answer.
Rick slapped me on the shoulder and I jolted upright. He laughed. “Take it easy there, Trigger,” he said, reminding me of one of my childhood nicknames. “I told Vanessa you might try and steal me away for a drink.”
I smirked at him. “Aha.”
Vanessa shot us both a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She was a beautiful woman. Stunning, really. But there was something cold about her that had me on edge. She sat too closely to Ruby and shot her hawk-like glances as she played with her niece and something about it riled me. Sure, she was a new mother, but what did she think Ruby was going to do? Run off with her child? Drop her?
I offered the woman a smile, not wanting to pass judgment too quickly. Maybe she was just tired from traveling with a newborn and not her normal self. “Would that be all right, Vanessa? I promise I’ll keep him in check.”
“One hour,” came her clipped reply.
Ruby glanced up at Vanessa’s sharp tone and I noticed her eyebrows rising on her forehead. She’d heard it too.
I cut away, looking back at Rick, who seemed oblivious to his wife’s disdain. “Okay, one hour.”
“See ya in a little while, Mr. And Mrs. Westin.” I glanced to the floor. “Ruby.”
“Will you stay for dinner?” Leah asked.
I tore my eyes from Ruby’s and returned them, along with an easy smile to Leah. “Wish I could. But my parents are expecting me. I’m crashing with them for the duration of my leave.”
“Of course. Well, tell them hello for us. We’ll plan another night for dinner.”
“Sounds great.”
* * * *
By the time I fell into bed that night, I was more conflicted than I’d felt in quite some time. Everything had changed so much since my last visit home. Most of my old friends were gone—moved out and on for different reasons. The stores and houses had changed. Even my best friend had changed on me when I wasn’t looking. Drinks with Rick ended up being a complete 180 from the crazy nights out we’d shared the last time we’d seen each other. Granted, that was before he’d met Vanessa. It appeared that not too long after they’d met, Vanessa had confiscated Rick’s balls and plopped them in a little jar she probably kept in her purse.
The man who’d shared a beer with me—only one, Vanessa’s other demand—was barely a ghost of the Rick I’d known in school and over emails and texts and occasional visits over the years. He was a married man now. Very married. That was all he wanted to talk about. His wife and his daughter, his job and his 401K.
As Rick droned on and on, I was mentally reliving the kiss on the beach. It was wrong, thinking of kissing Ruby while sitting across the table from Rick, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was lost, remembering the taste of the sugar and tequila on her lips. The smell of her shampoo mingling with the salty air.
Damn. Ruby had changed too, but in a really good way. It was all I could do to keep myself from running into the house and dragging her out when I dropped Rick off after our drink. Instead, I’d gone on home, had dinner with my folks, and then retired to my childhood room that my mother had converted into a sewing room with a pull out couch about a week after I left for boot camp.
I stared up at the ceiling, following the shadows with my eyes as I wondered what Ruby was doing. The voice in the back of my mind telling me that lusting after Rick’s little sister was asking for trouble was starting to get fainter and fainter. Besides, what was Rick gonna do about it? Sic Vanessa after me? I laughed—that might actually be scary.
I chuckled to myself and rolled over, away from the window, to try and get some sleep, when there was a thud outside my room. I bolted upright, every nerve automatically switching into SEAL mode, and hopped out of bed. I went to the window, peeled back the green curtain and spotted a pair of eyes staring at me.
“Ruby?”
Sure enough, it was her, perched on the roof right outside the dormer of my window. I threw the window open and leaned out, throwing her my hand in case she slipped.
“Hi,” she whispered. She took my hand and I gently tugged her toward the window.
“How did you get up here?” I asked, grinning at her red cheeks.
She smirked. “You’re not the only one who can do badass shit.”
I laughed. “And climbing a tree is badass?”
“Hey, it impressed you.”
What Ruby didn’t know, was that everything about her impressed me.
Chapter Seven
Ruby
There was something exhilarating about sneaking up to the roof of Steven’s parents’ house to visit him. “You all alone here, Sailor?”
Steven smirked at me and hauled me into his room. It was different than the last time I’d seen it. Apparently, his parents had converted it sometime after he shipped out. A long utility table was covered in bolts of fabric and a hulking sewing machine sat in the middle. “Yeah, my parents had a Christmas party to go to tonight. They left right after dinner.”
“Aha.” A shiver ran up my back knowing we were alone. “So, what you’re saying is that I could have used the front door?”
Steven laughed and kissed me. “I don’t know, I kinda like this way better. Something hot about you sneaking in like this.”
His lips crashed back onto mine and my brain short circuited before I could come up with something intelligent—let alone flirtatious—to say.
Steven wrapped his arms around me, his hands gripping me with a desperate urgency. As though we’d been separated for months instead of a handful of hours. Something about the way he held me made me feel safe, secure, and incredibly wanted, all at once. The combination was intoxicating.
My own fingers wandered up to explore his back and shoulder muscles I’d spent all afternoon drooling over at the storage locker. Spurred on by the hot kisses, I slipped my hands under his shirt and nearly melted at the smooth expanse of warm skin. Steven had a swimmer’s body, angular and strong but still lean. And those shoulders…
“Rubes,” he growled, his breath hot against my ear.
“Hmm?”
The tip of his velvet soft tongue skimmed the edge of my ear, and I squeezed my thighs together trying to take the edge off the intense pressure building between them. The idea of his tongue sliding between my thighs got me hotter and wetter faster than I’d ever experienced. He’d barely gotten started and I was ready to climax on the spot.
“Are we crazy?” he whispered, his lips still dangerously close to my ear.
I shuddered, as his hot breath turned to a trail of even hotter kisses as I tipped my head back, allowing him greater access to the side of my neck. He pushed my hair out of the way and applied his hot tongue to tracing the sensitive spot behind my ear, before sliding down my neck and going to explore the hollow at my collarbone.
“Crazy? Maybe…but…this is what I want,” I finally managed to choke out.
He pulled away for a second and his eyes locked onto mine, sending a lightning bolt of heat from my collarbone to my lady bits. He wanted me.
Hello?
He.
Wanted.
Me.
His eyes always reminded me of a storm at the beach, a soft blue-grey, but in the low lights they were even darker than normal.
“Is this what you want?” I asked, a nagging worry growing as he hesitated.
A smile tugged one corner of his lips up. “You have no idea.”
I dropped a glance to the evident bulge in his athletic shorts. “I kinda think I do…”
He groaned and kissed me again. He backed me up a few paces, my back toward the window I’d crawled through. The chilly night air breezed in, sweeping over us as we crashed against the wall beside it. “I’ve been thinking about fucking you since the moment you opened
that front door,” he confessed, his tone deep and gravely.
I met his eyes and smiled. “Really?”
He rolled his hips against mine and my eyes squeezed shut at the hard length of him pressing against me. I wanted out of my jeans and soaking wet panties. I wanted him inside of me. Deep and relentless.
“Well, I’ll tell you a secret, Steven…” I whispered, smirking up at him. “It’s been way too damn long since I was good and properly fucked. But, you look like the right man for the job.”
He chuckled and grabbed my hips. “Damn straight, baby.”
Time froze for a moment and a twinge of panic skittered across my heart. Was this really happening? Me and Steven? Max?
Steven’s fingers slipped over my hips and under the edge of my long sleeved shirt. I gasped as his warm fingertips skimmed my skin and knew I had my answer. This was happening. Rick and whoever else would judge us, be damned. I was going to fuck my brother’s best friend and milk it for all it was worth!
I pulled away from the wall just long enough for him to tug my shirt off over my head. He tossed it to the ground and his eyes wandered over my breasts still encased in a lacy bra. I smiled, thankful I’d taken the time to change out of my nude t-shirt bra before coming over. I didn’t know what would happen, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to be a little sexy after that kiss on the beach.
“You’re so damn beautiful, Rubes.” Steven traced a finger over the fullness of my cleavage, his touch feather light but enough to get my nipples hard and poking through the fabric. He noticed and flashed a wicked smile before lowering his head to suck it into his mouth. I groaned and raked my fingernails against the wall behind me as he sucked and teased me.
Heat washed down my body when he moved his mouth over to my other breast, kissing a trail over my tender boobs. I dug my fingers into his hair. It was much shorter than he used to wear it but I liked the way it felt against my palms. I let my hands wander down the back of his neck and over his back muscles and shoulders again, suddenly more eager to have his skin against mine. I tugged on the fabric and Steven pulled away from me just long enough to shed his shirt.