by Anna Brooks
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, angel. Everything’s just right. I love you, Ruby. So damn much.”
“I love you too, Pierce.” She leans up and kisses my nose. “Now, show me how much.”
I slam my mouth to hers and wrap her up in my arms. She entwines her legs around my back and grips my hair. I want nothing more than to find her heat and slide home, but she needs to come first.
Prying her off me, I run my tongue along her collarbone and gently nip all the way down to the spot between her breasts. With one hand on each tit, I press them together and devour her nipples. I suck at them like a starved man and knead them, loving how perfectly they fit in my hands.
“That feels so good, Pierce.” She sucks in a breath when I pop a nipple from my mouth and trace a path with my tongue to her trimmed hair. Her juices glisten on her lips, and I use both thumbs to part them.
“So nice down here, babe. Your pussy is perfect.” I lick her and twirl my tongue around her sensitive bud. “It tastes so good.” Using one finger, I skim a line down from her clit to her little hole and press it inside. “It’s so tight.” My cock drips, and I realize I can’t hold back much longer, so I combine the two and add a second finger to fuck her with, making sure to alternate between licking and sucking. Feeling her squirm and hearing her breathy moans is like a fucking drug.
“I’m gonna come.” Ruby’s fists tighten on my hair, and I keep the slow and steady pace until she tightens around me. Before she starts dripping down my fingers, I pull them out and stick my tongue inside her, lapping up her deliciousness and groaning at her flavor. “Shit!” She pumps her hips a few times and then stills. I take my mouth away, but bring it to hers so she can taste how fucking sweet she is.
“God, that was …” Her chest heaves and I smile against her mouth and align the tip of my cock to her entrance.
“Ready, angel?”
She smiles up at me and traces my lip with her thumb. I nip at it and she nods. “So ready.”
Painstakingly slowly, I enter her. I’m not even all the way in and my arms begin to shake, so I lower myself on top of her. “It’s so damn good, baby.” I push in with one thrust and she gasps for air, my own lungs deflating right along with hers.
I stay seated and just let her walls hug me, giving my cock a second to calm the hell down, because if I start to move, I’ll nut before she comes again.
“You fit inside me perfect.”
I slide out then push back in. “Fuck yeah, it’s perfect.”
She leans up on her elbows and kisses my chest. I thrust into her with short, deep strokes and my head starts spinning. Jesus. Sweat rises through the pores on my back, and I grit my jaw together trying to hold back. Trying to make it last. Trying to show her how much I fucking love her.
“Don’t hold back, Pierce. I can take it.”
Unable to keep the beast at bay, I answer, “I know you can, and I’m gonna give it to you.” Then I sit up and lift her legs so they rest on my forearms, fucking her with an intensity that’s been three years in the making. I slam into her over and over again until she screams and marks my skin with her nails. Her walls gripping my cock sends me over the edge and I hold her tight, emptying myself in the only pussy I ever will for the rest of my life, making sure to keep every drop inside her.
Chapter 29
Ruby
PIERCE HOLDS ME IN his arms, and as much as I try not to, I can’t stop smiling.
“You sure you’re good?”
I can’t believe he even feels the need to ask that. I’ve never in my life felt that cared for or that treasured. He managed to be so gentle, but the desire seeping out of his pores and the intensity in his movements weren’t lost on me. He was just as far gone as I was, and the fact that he has to question it makes me fall in love with him a little more. “Yeah. I’m positive.
“So I have a question.”
“Okay.”
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
I roll over to face him. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“What do you want to do? Like, career-wise?”
“Good question. Well, I… um, as a hobby, I write books.”
His eyebrows rise in shock. “Really?”
“Yeah, and I don’t know if I’d ever do anything with them. It’s honestly just … or it was something I did to escape my reality. I haven’t done it much since we’ve been together.”
“What do you write about?”
My internal temperature rises a few degrees, but I try not to show it. “Romance.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You write about sex?”
“Well, it’s a part of the story, yes, but it’s more about the relationship between the two main characters.”
“Can I read it?”
“What? No.”
“Why not?”
“Nobody’s ever read anything.”
“So? I wanna read it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I might just skip to the sex, though.”
I laugh so hard I have to sit up and catch my breath. How does he do this? Five minutes ago, I was deep in the throes of the best orgasm of my life, and now I’m almost dying from laughing so hard. He absolutely amazes me.
When I’m done, I finally give in to him. “Fine. But you can’t read it in front of me, and I don’t want you to tell me how it is because I won’t believe you even if you tell me it’s good.”
“Why wouldn’t you believe me?”
“I don’t know. ’Cause you wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings.”
“Of course, I don’t. But I wouldn’t lie to you. I promise.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I pat the side of his face as he kisses me.
He sits up, and when he does, the sheet falls off me, but he lifts it back up to cover my breasts. “So, umm. What about work?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you like working at the store?”
I shrug. “It’s not like it was my lifelong dream to work at a convenience store, but I needed money and they were hiring. I’ve been lucky to find someone who’s been so flexible with everything that’s happened lately. Leroy’s great.”
“He is,” Pierce agrees. “’Cause I was just thinking. Both of the girls who work for me are going to be leaving for college soon.”
“Okayyy.”
“Well, just, if you’d want to work at the gym, you can, that’s all. No pressure or anything.” He’s so cute how he’s acting shy. I’ve never seen him embarrassed like this.
I’d love to spend as much time with him as possible, but I don’t know if it’s enough hours to pay my bills. “I kind of need full time.”
“I can do that. I’ve been working a lot lately, and since things have picked up, I need someone to help with things that I can’t always leave instruction for. So if I had someone able to answer questions and organize classes and stuff, that would be awesome.”
“If Leroy can find someone to replace me, I’ll do it. I don’t want to leave him in a bind when he was so nice to me.”
Pierce’s face lights up. “Really?”
“Yeah. You think I’d miss out on the opportunity to watch you work out on a daily basis?”
“You can watch me anytime, all you—” His phone rings and he jumps off the bed, hurrying to grab it.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I hope. That’s just my brother’s ringtone.” He slides his thumb across the screen and puts the phone to his ear. “Dec?”
“What? Shit, you serious? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll be there soon.” He pulls the phone away for a second to look at the screen. “I dunno, like a half hour. Yeah. Cool, later.”
“Everything okay?”
“I think so. Declan said he’s in town and wants us all to meet up at my parents’ house.”
“Oh, okay. Do you have time to drop me off at home first?”
His hand
freezes on the way to open a dresser drawer mid-air, and he rolls his eyes. “You’re coming with me.”
“I am?”
“Yes. I want you to meet my brother. I want you to be involved in my life, Ruby. You never have to question if I want you to go somewhere with me because the answer will always be yes.”
“All right. Let’s go, then.”
* * *
We rush to get ready since Pierce told Declan he’d only be a half hour, and now we’re in the car. I’m contemplating the text I just got from Rick telling me I never need to worry about Stanley again. When I text him back asking him what he meant, he just said he was dead and that I don’t have to worry about him anymore.
“Stanley’s dead,” I whisper.
“How’d you find out?” I’m surprised that’s the only reaction I’m getting from Pierce, but I ignore it and try to think.
“Rick texted me.”
“He was the head of security, right?”
“Yeah, we both hated Stan.”
“Sorry, babe.” He pats my thigh, but I shake my head.
“He’s technically my dad. Shouldn’t I feel bad?”
Pierce shrugs and puts his blinker on. “I can’t tell you what to feel, but I can say that I’m not disappointed someone who hurt you isn’t breathing anymore.”
We sit in silence for a minute, and I push the thought of Stan to the back of my head. What’s in front of me is more important now, so I decide I’ll reflect on the ugly part of my life later. Right now, it’s about the man next to me, the fact that he’s excited to see his brother and he wants me to meet him, and that he wants me to be a part of his family. A real family.
“So tell me what I need to know about your brother.”
“I will, but before I do that, I just want you to know I told my parents about you and the relation between you and Nik.”
“Okay.”
“It’s not like I was trying to lie to you or anything about it, but I’m pretty close to my family, and well, everyone else knows, too. Sorry. I hope you’re not mad.”
“It’s okay. I figured between you and Nik, they would. Plus, Travis said something the night I was in the ambulance, so I already knew.”
“Okay, good. So my brother. Declan is a moody son-of-a-bitch. He joined the Coast Guard when he was eighteen and lives and breathes his job.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s one of those guys who jumps out of helicopters in the middle of the ocean and saves people. A rescue swimmer.”
“Didn’t they make a movie a while ago about that?”
“Yep, that’s what he does.”
“Oh, wow. That’s amazing.”
“He doesn’t come home much, so whenever he does, we try to spend as much time together as we can.”
Just the way his voice lightens tells me how much he loves him. “Why doesn’t he come back a lot?”
“Well, his job for one.” He reaches for my hand and pulls it over to rest on the console with his. “There was this girl who was supposed to move with him after he got done with boot camp, but something happened and she tore him apart. It was so much more than just a breakup … she gutted him. She told him that while he was away, she cheated on him and that she didn’t love him anymore. It was pretty brutal, especially since they’d been together since they were fourteen.”
“Oh wow, that’s awful.”
“Yeah. He won’t admit Amie’s a reason he stays away, but I know it’s gotta be hard for him to come back here and remember everything.”
“Do you ever see the girl?”
“No, I haven’t. Meara’s seen her, but she ignores her since she remembers Amie and knows that she broke Dec’s heart.”
“I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of your sister. She’s feisty.” I laugh.
“Yeah, she is.”
“We’re here. This is where I grew up.”
He comes around to open my door, and I admire his childhood home. It looks like such a great place to live, and I have a moment of jealousy that I wish I’d have had something like this instead of a fucking casino for a backyard.
“Hey.” He turns me so my back is to the house. “We’ll get something like this someday, and our kids will have a huge backyard to run around in and lots of friends and cousins to grow up with.” At the mention of kids, I can feel my face dropping. “Not now. Not yet. I know it’s not something that we’re ready to talk about. But someday.”
“How do you know every single thing I’m thinking? It’s not fair.”
He throws his arm around my shoulder as he leads us up the walkway. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just good at reading you.”
“Too good. This does not bode well for me for when I’m trying to lie to you.”
“No, baby, it doesn’t.”
He doesn’t knock when we get to the door, and we’re greeted by shouts of hello from his sister and Liam, Char and Travis, and his parents. I’m nervous because I’m going to have to talk to his mom and dad, and I haven’t seen them since the night of the barbecue. But if they’re anything like the children they raised, I shouldn’t be too worried.
“Hey, where’s Dec?” Pierce asks as we make our way to the living room.
“Not here yet,” Meara answers. “So … you guys have a good night last night?” She waggles her eyebrows and Liam nudges her and points at her parents as Pierce shoots her a dirty look. “Sorry … geez, you people are sensitive.”
We sit around and talk for about ten minutes. I was right; his parents are super sweet and kind and I don’t feel nervous anymore at all.
“You guys all here?” A man’s voice comes from the hallway.
“Declan, we’re in the living room,” his mom shouts.
Everyone begins to stand, no doubt excited to see him, but when he rounds the corner, they quickly realize he’s not alone.
“Oh my God,” Pierce says.
“Holy shit!” Meara yells at the same time Char hollers the same thing.
“Hey everyone.” His voice is low and soothing, and he smiles as he talks. “I’d like you to meet my daughter.” He turns the tiny bundle of pink in his arms and a collective gasp echoes through the room. “Clover, meet your family.”
Chapter 30
Pierce
IT’S ONLY BEEN A few weeks since Ruby’s worked at the gym with me, but she’s managed to pick up on everything super-fast and I really like being able to walk out of my office and see her sitting at the front desk.
All of the classes are done for the day and I’ve just finished some evaluations. The gym closes in about ten minutes, but a few guys are still sparring so I grab my stuff to go wait with Ruby. She’s not at the desk, so I go in search of her and find her walking around with a basket, picking up dirty towels. I lean against the wall and enjoy the show, watching her tight little ass when she bends over. Even though I’ve told her I’d clean that nasty shit up, she ignores me and does what she wants anyway. I’ve learned quite quickly that she does that a lot.
A chime on the door makes her look over my way, and she catches me staring at her, but I just shrug. “You’re hot. What can I say?”
I push off the wall to go see who came in and stop dead in my tracks. I’d recognize her crazy blond hair anywhere. “Amie?”
“Hey, Pierce. Long time no see.”
“Yeah. What’s up? Dec’s back in town, ya know?”
Her eyes snap back up, and she blinks before I can confirm it, but I’m pretty sure they were glossy for a second there. “Yeah, I’ve seen him.”
I want to kick her out of here and tell her to go fuck off for breaking Declan’s heart and turning him into a hardened asshole, but a desperation in her voice causes me to pause.
She tucks her hair behind her ears and I notice a fading bruise on her neck. “I was wondering if you had any, um, training I could get. Private lessons if possible.”
“What kind of training, Amie?”
“Self-defense,” she whispers.
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“Who?” She may have been a bitch to Dec, but she was practically part of my family growing up. She babysat for Meara and me. I could have sworn she was going to marry Declan, but for whatever reason, she decided to cheat on him. Even still, I can’t in good conscience let her walk out of here without trying to help her.
“What?”
“Who put their hands on you?”
“Nobody.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. I’ll go somewhere else. I just thought that since I knew you … I knew I could trust you. But I see how it is, and I understand how you all feel about me.” She runs out of the door before I have a chance to stop her.
“Shit,” I whisper under my breath.
“Who was that?” Ruby stands next to me as we watch the beat-up old car pull out of the parking lot.
“Amie. Declan’s ex.”
“What did she want?”
“Self-defense lessons.”
“Oh, no.”
“Yeah.”
The stragglers wave to us as they leave, and I follow them and switch the lock on the door.
“Wanna shut off the lights for me?”
“Yup.” She skips away and I shoot a text to Declan to let him know I’m going to stop by tonight after I drop Ruby off at her house.
When all the lights are off in the gym, I set the alarm and we walk hand in hand to my car. Leroy’s walking out with his daughter, who came back after having the baby and took her job back, and we all wave at each other.
As I pull away from the parking lot, I clear my throat. “I read your book.”
“Oh, God.” She holds her head in her hands and shakes it. “It’s bad, right?”
“I thought it was good. Honest.”
“You’re such a liar.”
“No, I’m not. I even read the whole thing, not just the sex. Which we have to talk about, by the way.”
She whips her head up and stares at me. “What?”
“You’re nasty, angel.”
Her face turns beet red, and she groans.
“Her entire body shook from her core. She’d never felt so full before—”