by Amelia Wilde
My throat has gone tight with tears, and my heart is aching, but it’s from a strange, wild happiness. I reach out and take Levi’s other hand. It’s the least I can do in this moment. It’s the least I want to do. My body is screaming for me to run back to the master bedroom, Levi by my side, and stay in there until the end of eternity.
“I hope you know—” His gaze is steady on mine, but I can see the tiniest flicker of uncertainty, like he might be making a mistake. I squeeze his hands. “I hope you know that if I could take that moment back, if I could start over and treat you like a princess from that moment on, I would.”
“I know.” My voice is strong and confident, which surprises even me. “I know.” I rise up on my tiptoes and press my lips against his. “Is it my turn?”
“Your turn?”
“My turn to apologize.”
He laughs, the relief shining through in his voice. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
“I didn’t realize until far too late in all of this that all the things in the world couldn’t fill the space you left when I walked away from you.”
Levi’s expression goes serious, but his eyes are soft, glowing.
“I should have known that all the time I wasted worrying about things could have been spent on—” This is the part that makes me choke up. “I wasted a lot of time being suspicious of you, because I thought I would get something out of clinging to what used to be.”
He pulls me close, holding me tightly in his arms. “I don’t blame you.”
“You should, though. I acted like an idiot. I could have lost you. I could have lost what we had, and where the hell would I be now?”
“You’d be fine. You’re no pushover, Ruby.”
“That’s the thing.” I step back so I can look into his eyes, because this is important—this is everything. “I wouldn’t be fine. I didn’t know it until you were gone, but I wouldn’t be fine without you. And I hope you can forgive me for how I acted. I hope you can forgive me, Levi, because I never want to spend another night without you again.”
The smile that illuminates his face is brighter than any sunrise I’ve ever seen. “I forgive you.” He straightens up. “Now...if everyone’s forgiven, can I show you this one last thing?”
“Yes. Please.”
He turns around and opens the door, and that’s when the floodgates open.
I see it over his shoulder. It’s the wardrobe Henry and I spent hours playing in front of. And more than that—on the walls, displayed in all its glory, is the china I loved so much, the tiny purple flowers as perfect as ever. Everything I said I loved as we looked through those pictures, as we walked through the house, is all here, in this room.
“Being with you, Ruby, taught me that there can be a balance,” Levi says softly, ushering me into the room ahead of him. “You can be attached to some things without letting it overwhelm you. Not everything is a ruthless negotiation.”
Tears spill down my cheeks. “You are an incredible man.”
“Only because I met you.”
I throw my arms around Levi’s neck, hugging him so tightly that after a few moments he pretends to gasp for air. I let him go, whirling around again. This is enough. This is all I ever wanted. This, right here, with Levi in the room—this is everything.
“What am I going to do?” I laugh through my tears. “I can’t fit these things in my apartment.”
“There’s one more thing.”
I look into his eyes, speechless, and another core-melting grin knocks me off balance.
“This could be your penthouse, too.” Levi scoops me up in his arms and kisses me, hard. “No strings attached.”
“No strings?”
“Only one. I love you, Ruby Ashworth.”
“You’re a hard sell.” I press my lips against his. He tastes like home. “I love you, too.”
48
Levi
Ruby’s legs tremble, spread wide at the foot of my bed, and the sight of her like this—bent over at the waist, hands fisted in the comforter—takes my breath away.
She has the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen on a woman, and the creamy skin there is a bright pink shade from a warm-up spanking that had her slick and wet by the fifth stroke. The rest of her is a golden tan from her weekend at the house in Conyers Farm. I can’t stop tracing my fingertips over the lines where her bathing suit used to be.
She shivers, standing in place, the blindfold wrapped around her eyes. It’s a soft, expensive length of silk, and utterly opaque.
I’m taking my time.
I’m taking my time, because we have time. We finally have time.
She let me carry her through the penthouse to my bedroom and when I stepped across the threshold she sighed with relief.
“Happy to be here?” I’d murmured into her ear.
“Could I stay forever?”
“No need to ask permission.” As soon as I’m finished worshipping her body, I’m going to have some of my staff pack up her apartment and bring all of her things here. She won’t need to worry about a single detail. I’ll have someone cancel the lease, even if I have to buy it out myself, and by the end of the day tomorrow she’ll be all moved in. What she doesn’t know yet is that I’m going to have the guest suite outfitted as a private space for her. Ruby doesn’t need to sleep in my bedroom if she doesn’t want to. I’m willing to take our time.
There are other things to focus on right now, though the plans keep churning in the back of my mind.
I run my hands over the ridges of Ruby’s spine, and she wriggles her hips, her ass moving in delightful circles. “Don’t break the rules,” I warn her, keeping my voice low and commanding.
“Sorry,” she whispers.
“Don’t apologize.” I lean down, breathing the words into her ears. I wrap my hand around her hair and pull so her face is tilted slightly upward. “Follow my commands, and you’ll never have to.”
A little smile plays over her lips, but I know she’s enjoying it by the way her juices drip down the inside of her thighs.
Speaking of the inside of her thighs...
I move behind her, stroking two fingertips over her slit, and she tilts her hips, offering me more access.
“There’s nothing I’ve ever wanted more than you.”
Ruby turns her head to the side, her breath fast and shallow. “Please?”
“Please what?”
“Please, take me.”
She’s begging to be teased, so I slide two fingers into her and work them in and out, in and out. Ruby groans in frustration, bucking against my hand. “What’s the matter? Is this not what you wanted?”
“Please, fuck me with your cock.” Those words, in her sweet voice, nearly push me over the edge.
This time, I’m not teasing. I pull my fingers away from her and line myself up in an instant, thrusting inside with all the power I can summon in my hips. Ruby gasps. I’m in to the hilt, the head of my cock banging against that final barrier, and she cries out.
I take her like it’s the last day on earth, fast and hard, until she’s crying out.
I reach forward and tug on the edge of the blindfold, letting it drop to the comforter, and on the next stroke I pull away. It’s only a matter of lifting her, turning her, and Ruby is spread out in front of me on the comforter, breasts heaving.
She stretches her arms over her head and arches her back as I climb onto the bed, leaning down to swirl my tongue over her nipples, one by one. Then I concentrate on one, then the other, licking until she’s gasping, wrapping her legs around my hips, trying feverishly to draw my cock back in.
I kiss the side of her neck. “You don’t have to beg.”
“I...wasn’t...begging,” she breathes.
“Your body is begging,” I tease.
“Trust me,” I say, lining myself up with her opening and plunging in, making her cry out. “I’ll give you what you want.”
I rock my hips into her, picking up the pace, picki
ng up the rhythm, and she meets me with every thrust, her hips rising from the surface of the bed.
I’m close, and the way her muscles work my cock, her tightness made for me, pulls me under. I’m lost in her, lost in the brightness that’s filling my chest, lost in her voice, her touch, the scent of her skin.
She’s mine.
She’s mine, and I’ll never want for another thing in my life—unless it’s for the purpose of making her happy.
We move together, and it doesn’t take any more conscious thought. I play her body like an instrument, drawing out little cries and loud ones, circling her clit until she comes on my cock and then thrusting myself into her pulsing pleasure.
I’m swimming in the heat of her, far away from anything else, when she whispers something into my ear.
“I didn’t hear what you said, love.” The apology comes between thrusts, slowing things down, making each stroke powerful and deliberate.
“I love you. So much.”
There are no qualifiers. There is no doubt in her voice. She doesn’t ask me if it makes any sense, if it’s happening too soon, if we should slow down, if we should wait. All the answers we could ever need are in the molten heat between us, hanging in the air. We can come back to them any time.
“I love you,” I respond.
“Tell me again.”
“I love you.”
“One more time...” The final word is a gasp.
I lean down, murmuring them into her ear, one more time.
Ruby comes at the words, pulling me in, and I follow close behind.
Epilogue
Ruby
Six months later
“You’re going to be late for work.”
Levi’s voice is low and soft in my ear, and the sound of it makes me want to turn over and go right back to sleep. Right after I pull him back into bed with me. Would that be so bad, if I went back to sleep? No, it wouldn’t be so bad. it would be perfect.
I stretch my arms over my head, intending to rub my eyes, but instead I let them flop back against the pillows. By the time he speaks again, I’m already starting to fall back into a dream.
“Ruby...”
“Mmm?”
“You’re going to be late for work.” I’m going to be late for work, and if I’m late for work I’ll end up staying late, and then I’ll be late for Henry’s housewarming party. The apartment he got is ground-floor, accessible, but the doctors say he’ll be out of his wheelchair inside a year if he keeps up his physical therapy. My parents are expecting it to be a mini family reunion. They used the money from the sale to buy a place in the suburbs, near where my father has a new job. It took some convincing, but it’s better that he doesn’t own the place. At least for now.
Levi ups the ante, pressing his lips above my collarbone. My nipples pebble at his touch, but I still don’t want to open my eyes.
“I don’t want to go.”
“Yes, you do.”
I open my mouth, but it’s hard to find the words to describe the fatigue that’s settled into my limbs.
Levi kisses the other side of my collarbone, and I spread my legs beneath the covers. His hand follows a moment later, gliding gently over my waist, my hips...and then circling my clit.
Why do I feel so strange, so tired, so happy?
It can’t have anything to do with the man who’s pleasuring me right now.
I smile at the thought, and Levi applies a little more pressure. It’s a joke. Everything has to do with him. Everything that matters, anyway.
Then the thought connects with something else. Another fact. Another undeniable fact. Time has been going by, the weeks flying. I’m busy with work, I’m busy in love...
When was the last time I had my period?
It doesn’t shock me, arriving at the only conclusion. It doesn’t shock me at all. It makes me laugh.
Levi stops, and I open my eyes. “What’s so funny?”
He’s grinning at me in the morning light, and his face is so breathtaking that I hope I never forget this moment for as long as I live. “I think I’m pregnant.”
His eyes go wide, and his smile gets bigger, more radiant than I ever thought it could. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. I think I’m pregnant.” I try to fill in the details. My last period, my last—
Levi scoops me up from the bed, kissing my face, kissing my lips, laughing. When he pulls back, there are tears in his eyes. “You’re not going to work today.”
“Don’t be silly. I’m going.” I yawn, trying to shake off the tiredness. There’s another contest in the works, and I’m in charge.
“Not today. Today, we’re going to find something out about you. And our baby.”
“I could be wrong, you know.”
“You’re not wrong.”
He moves toward the bathroom, and I know without asking that even though he’s already showered, he’s going to take his time with me under the water. He’s going to wash my hair, and he’ll kiss me every three seconds, stretching out the moment as long as he can.
Excitement surges in my chest. “I don’t think I’m wrong.”
“I know,” he says, eyes dancing. “Oh, Ruby. This is it.”
I kiss the side of his neck, breathing him in.
It’s true. This is the beginning of everything.
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Hard Cash
Josephine’s hand flies through the air, her palm aimed squarely at my face, but it’s clear she’s not slapped people very often, because I see it coming from a mile away.
I put my hand up to stop her, wrapping my fingers around her wrist.
She gasps, two red spots high on her cheeks, her other hand scrambling for the towel, breasts rising, threatening to spill over the top.
We’re frozen like that for the space of one heartbeat. I’ll never forget how she looks in this moment—indignant, yes, but also powerful in a way I didn’t expect. She looks like a pissed-off goddess who also might be turned on, ready to go.
Which one of us moves first? I can’t tell, but everything in my body responds. She’s tilting her face up toward mine, offering herself up at the same time that I move to take her. My momentum carries us both into the bungalow and the door swings shut behind us.
Josephine is panting, her arms thrown around my neck, and the towel crumples to the ground. Neither of us reaches for it.
I reach for her instead.
Holy fuck, it feels good to touch her, and I do, everywhere that I can think to get my skin against hers. I have my hands on her face, pulling her in, trailing down over her shoulders, her waist, her hips, cupping her ass. Josephine doesn’t resist. She melts into me, lifting one knee like she can climb straight up and onto me, and if she could pull it off, I would let her.
She sucks my bottom lip between her teeth, biting down hard enough for it to hurt, and then pulls back, breathing hard. “You’re such an asshole.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
Then we’re crashing together again.
Why not? Let the world burn.
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© 2017 Amelia Wilde
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