‘When can you be ready to leave? Is thirty minutes too soon?’
Staring at his gorgeous, stony face, Ruby felt a surge of emotion and need swell inside her. The right thing to do, the safe thing to do, was to lock away all these feelings and tell him that she could be ready to go in five minutes, not thirty. But deep down she also knew that for the first time in her life she wanted something with an intensity that transcended the need for a safety net. She wanted him.
‘Yes,’ she answered, her lips dry as dust.
If possible his scowl deepened. ‘How long, then?’
Before she could change her mind Ruby walked up to him and took the phone from his hand, putting it to her ear. ‘Sorry,’ she murmured, her eyes never leaving his. ‘Prank call.’ Then she depressed the End Call button and handed the device back to him, her breathing slightly ragged.
Sam stared at her, tension rolling off his big body and crashing into hers, making her insides quake.
Silence surrounded them, broken only by the soft sounds of Kong dreaming from his basket, and the rhythmic ticking of the wall clock.
‘Be very sure, Ruby,’ Sam said quietly, his voice rough and deep. ‘My self-control isn’t that good right now.’
Ruby moistened her lips, excited by the way Sam’s dark gaze tracked the movement. It gave her a rush of feminine power to know that she turned on this highly charged male to such a degree. ‘Neither is mine.’
Sam took a step that brought him right up against her and slowly drew her into his arms, his fingers tilting her chin up so that her eyes stayed locked on his. Heat poured off him, pressing against her body like sun-drenched stone. He was so tall and powerfully built she couldn’t prevent the thrill of excitement that raced through her.
‘No more denials?’ he said fiercely.
‘No.’
‘And no more masks.’
‘No.’
His hands shifted to her waist, rough and insistent as he lifted her so that her legs came up to wind around his waist.
‘And no more pretending that this is about an itch any man can scratch.’
‘Did it annoy you when I agreed with that?’
‘Extremely,’ he growled.
A thrill shot through her at the possessive note in his voice. ‘Sam?’
‘What?’
Ruby leaned forward and kissed the side of his neck the way he liked, breathing in his heady scent and revelling in the delirious taste of salt and man that was quintessentially Sam. ‘Are you ever going to kiss me again?’
His smile was slow and lazy and promised passionate retribution for her impudence. ‘Just waiting for you to ask me, Clarkson,’ he murmured against her lips. ‘Just waiting for you to ask.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
NOW THAT HE had her exactly where he wanted her, Sam felt his fingers tremble as he was gripped by a powerful emotion he couldn’t name. It was deeper than anything he’d ever felt with a woman before and it nearly gave him pause. He knew this thing with Ruby was all-consuming but he was fairly certain he had a handle on it. Or was he only fooling himself?
Carrying her toward the bedroom, he bit down gently on the silky flesh of her earlobe, rewarded by her deep shudder and the quick, feminine hitch in her voice. She arched her neck to give him free licence to roam.
Of course he wasn’t fooling himself. This thing, this incendiary chemistry between them, was just that. Chemistry and heat and—
‘Dammit, Kong!’ Sam cursed as he pushed open the door to the bedroom he’d used the night before and nearly tripped over the puppy that rushed in ahead of him. ‘Sit!’ he commanded, not caring if the pup obeyed him or not.
‘Did he sit?’ Ruby asked, nibbling his lower lip.
‘Don’t care,’ he muttered. Her teasing ministrations had stripped away every vestige of sophistication he possessed and left a Cro-Magnon Man in his place. Still, he forced himself to slow down and lowered her to the centre of the bed. A row of tiny buttons split her nightshirt and Sam’s gaze fastened on them, taking in the twin points of her hard nipples, which poked through the thin fabric. Unable to help himself, he lowered his head and captured one tight bud between his lips, bathing the cloth with his tongue.
A low moan escaped Ruby’s lips and he glanced upward to find her lower lip caught between her teeth. ‘You have beautiful breasts,’ he murmured. ‘So responsive.’
She shifted restlessly on the mattress, her fingers going to the top button of her shirt. Sam shook his head, straddling her and taking both her wrists in his hands and placing them on either side of her head. ‘Let me,’ he ordered roughly. ‘I told you in the limo that I’d be taking my time when I finally got you horizontal. If you use those clever fingers on either one of us you’ll destroy what little control I have left.’
She moistened her lips, heaving a sigh. ‘There’s no need to take your time. I’m so ready, Sam.’
Enjoying having her at his mercy, he bent over and licked the seam of her lips, moving back before she could tangle her tongue with his.
‘Stop teasing,’ she moaned.
‘Oh, Clarkson,’ he chuckled. ‘I haven’t even started yet.’ But he was very afraid he wouldn’t get to do everything he wanted to do because with every expanse of creamy skin he exposed he lost a little bit more of himself in the process. Knowing he should probably be a bit more worried about that, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Especially when she was now naked save for a pair of panties emblazoned with the slogan Right Here, Right Now.
He quirked a brow in question.
Ruby gave a husky chuckle. ‘Christmas gift from Molly. I wasn’t expecting anyone else to see them.’
‘Just make sure no one else does,’ Sam growled, taking her mouth in a searing kiss that set them both to panting.
Working down the slender column of her throat, he shifted lower so that he could cup her breasts and admire the dusky-rose peaks. She arched up from the bed, her fingers kneading his waist and bunching his T-shirt high. Raising his head, he reefed it off over his head one-handed and groaned as her nails raked down over his torso and belly, covering his rigid length with the flat of her hand, his erection surging against the laces of his board shorts.
With growing urgency he trailed hot kisses over her collarbone, rubbing his stubbled jaw across one taut nipple and then the other before covering them in turn with his mouth, torturing her responsive flesh with his tongue and teeth before taking her deep into his mouth.
She moaned, arching higher off the bed, and Sam’s hands went to her hips as he kissed lower. ‘Much as I like these,’ he murmured, shifting to the side and pulling her panties down her long legs, ‘they have to come off.’
Smoothing a hand down her body he hooked one of her legs over his outer thigh and slid a hand down between their bodies to cup her silken curls. They were damp, the scent of her arousal turning him even harder as he parted her and stroked his fingers inside her silken heat.
She sobbed his name and need surged inside him. ‘God, Ruby, you’re beautiful.’ Shifting lower, he urged her onto her back and held her thighs apart, kissing the backs of her knees before moving higher.
‘Sam—’ she gripped his hair, her fingernails digging into his scalp and sending goose pimples along his nape ‘—I need—’
‘I know what you need.’ He eased her thighs wider to fit his shoulders between them and touched his tongue to her tender flesh. She writhed beneath him and he had to anchor her hips to the bed with his forearm as he feasted on her honeyed centre, lapping at her and teasing her until she was keening and thrashing, and calling his name over and over.
He could tell she was close, her body shuddering and moving against him, and he quickened his movements, driving her higher, needing to hear her come for him, needing to feel it against his tongue. It had never been like this for him before. This deep-seated need to please a woman, to
hear her soft cries of surrender as he pleasured her. And when finally she peaked it was the sweetest moment he could ever remember having.
Not giving her any time to recover, he crawled over her supine body and took her mouth in another drugging kiss. Despite his highly aroused body, it was almost enough: pleasuring her and having her come apart in his arms. But then her nimble fingers reached for the laces on his shorts and he knew she was as hungry to have him inside her as he was to be there.
Taking over the task, he reefed his shorts open and groaned in aching relief when her fingers circled him, gripping him in her tight fist. His eyes closed as she wriggled down the bed and replaced her fist with her mouth. He groaned again, forking his hand into her tumbling mass of hair as she used her lips and tongue to drive him as wild as he’d just driven her.
‘Ruby, angel...’ He lifted her upwards and rolled her beneath him. ‘I need to be inside you,’ he ground out, positioning himself between her thighs, widening them with his knees.
‘Yes.’ She gripped his face in her hands and brought his mouth down to hers as his body surged deep.
Then he swore. ‘Condom,’ he growled against her lips.
‘I’m protected. Remember?’ Her body rose to his and Sam bit back a groan as he sank further inside her tight sheath. Barely giving her time to adjust, he moved in her, filling her over and over with sure, deep strokes. It was as if his body belonged to some primitive part of himself he hadn’t accessed before because he felt possessed. Possessed by some need to claim her and make her his.
‘Relax, angel—you’re so tight. Yes, God, yes, like that.’
He shuddered as her velvet heat clenched and released around his girth, her body milking his and emptying his brain of everything but her. Gripping her bottom in his hands, he angled her against him and drove even harder into her, urged on by her pleading little cries for more until in one fiery liquid moment they both hurled over the edge of reason and space and into the most satisfying release he had ever felt in his life.
He must have slept because at some point Ruby had snuggled into his arms. Or had he moved her there? Right now he didn’t care because her feminine weight pressed up against him was all he could think about. Sensing that she was awake, Sam gently smoothed her hair back from her forehead. ‘We finally made it to a bed,’ he murmured, wondering if he had ever felt this sated before.
‘Are you gloating?’ she murmured sleepily.
‘Not at all,’ he said, knowing that was exactly what he was doing. ‘I’m just relaying that I’m happy. Soft mattress. Soft sheets. Softer woman. What more can a man want?’
His stomach grumbled and Ruby blinked up at him, her gorgeous green eyes still slightly glazed from sleep.
‘Food?’ she suggested.
‘Are you offering to fix me breakfast, angel?’
‘Hmm, let me think about that.’ Her eyes narrowed into threatening slits as she mock glowered at him. ‘No.’
Sam laughed, reaching out to trace a finger down her cute, haughty nose. ‘Well, if you’re not going to fix me breakfast, what are you going to do for me?’
‘Kick you out of bed,’ she suggested sweetly. ‘So you can fix me breakfast.’
Sam collapsed onto his back, taking her with him. ‘After I’ve just serviced you like that?’
‘Serviced me?’ She lifted her head and her blonde hair cascaded like a waterfall of silk over one shoulder. Sam didn’t bother resisting the temptation to thread his fingers through it. It was the most untidy he’d ever seen it and he loved the fact that he was responsible for mussing it. ‘Serviced me?’ she repeated. ‘Like a horse?’
‘Stallion.’ He chuckled softly. ‘Want me to do it again?’
Pink bloomed in her cheeks. ‘Does it involve that thing you did with your tongue?’
‘It might,’ he promised, rolling over on top of her and covering her body with his. ‘Did I hit the spot with that one?’
‘Maybe...’ she groaned as he smoothed her hair back and anchored her head for a hard, hungry kiss.
‘You’re insatiable,’ she breathed, her hands roaming over the powerful slab of muscles that bisected his spine.
His lips tracked a path to her breast. ‘With you I am,’ he murmured, teasing the tip with his tongue.
‘Sam...’ Her voice trailed away as his lips fastened over hers once more, her hips angling upwards. Taking the invitation, Sam rolled her onto her stomach and stretched her hands high above her head.
‘You okay with this?’ he murmured against her ear.
‘That depends on what this—Oh, yes. Yes. Definitely yes.’ That last word was said on a long sigh as his thighs moved between hers and he entered her from behind. The contact was electrifying, wickedly good, and he had to grit his teeth to hold his orgasm at bay so she could reach hers first.
Coming back from that explosion of sensation wasn’t easy, not even when Kong scratched at the door and barked urgently.
Ruby gave a half-moan, half-laugh. ‘That’s Kong.’
‘No, it’s the neighbour’s dog,’ Sam said, enjoying the sensation of having her beneath him, wrung out from the pleasure he’d just given her.
‘In the bedroom?’ She laughed, wriggling out from under him. ‘I hope not. Sam—let me up—he must need to go out.’
Sam groaned and rolled onto his back. ‘That dog has the worst timing in the world.’
‘You’re hungry, anyway,’ she reminded him, scooting out of bed and grabbing his T-shirt off the floor.
He let his eyes travel over the long length of her before his T-shirt swallowed up the view. ‘I know.’
‘For food.’ She gave him a stern look and reached for the door. ‘Ah, I take back what I said.’ She glanced at him over one shoulder. ‘Kong doesn’t need to go out. He’s already left you a surprise.’ Laughter lit her voice. ‘Lucky for you, Miller and Valentino have floorboards.’
‘Yeah, lucky for me,’ Sam grumbled, not that he was truly upset. How could a man be upset on such a great day?
* * *
Somehow Sunday morning turned into Sunday evening, then Monday morning and now Monday afternoon. Neither she nor Sam had mentioned hiring a boat to return to Sydney, and when she’d called to ask after Miller’s mother, she had blithely said that she and Sam had decided to stay at the beach house to discuss the big case they were working on.
She doubted Miller believed her, but she didn’t push it. Maybe she could sense Ruby’s emotional fragility down the end of the phone. Which, if she was honest, came and went depending on what they were doing.
If they were in bed together it was somehow nonexistent. Her mind, body and very essence were wholly taken up with Sam and everything they did to each other. There was no room for doubts when he laid his masterful hands on her body, expanding her sexual repertoire in ways that were utterly exhilarating.
If they were doing something casual like cooking together, or out walking Kong, taking in the bush setting and listening to the kookaburras herald that night was fast coming, then she felt a little more out of her depth.
Coming across the grand old beach house near Miller and Tino’s, as they had done earlier that morning, had completely thrown her for a loop.
Having remembered Miller’s comment that it was for sale, Sam had immediately wanted to investigate.
‘I don’t think we should,’ she’d told him, trailing after him. ‘It’s private property.’
Sam had looked at her like a kid spying a Christmas tree. ‘Where’s your sense of adventure, Clarkson?’
‘I lost it at law school,’ she deadpanned, making him laugh.
‘So what do you think?’ he asked after peering into the downstairs windows.
‘I love it.’ She glanced at the peeling paint, and the overgrown vines spiralling out of control around the veranda posts. ‘It’s got so much character.’
/> ‘Want to buy it?’
‘Me?’ She laughed lightly, a sudden vision of her and Sam poring over paint samples and soft furnishings filling her head. ‘Miller suggested you buy it so your future kids could all grow up together. I wasn’t a part of that deal.’
She’d wandered away from him then, a bittersweet ache welling up in her chest. ‘It looks like hard work,’ she’d added, refusing to get caught up in the romance of the images that had taken hold and wouldn’t let go. ‘To make it beautiful again, I mean.’
Sam had come up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. ‘You should know by now that I don’t mind hard work. Especially when it comes to beautiful things.’
Ruby had a strange feeling that he’d been talking about her and she’d blindly reached up to kiss him, replacing her intense emotional reaction with heat and need. He’d swiftly taken over the kiss and they’d barely made it back to Miller and Tino’s house before he’d ravished her again.
Now, as they lay together under an ancient gum tree, the mid-afternoon sun dappling the lawn with interesting shapes while a few brave insects buzzed lazily in the heat, Ruby was trying not to go into full-on panic mode. Kong lay beside them, his fur slightly damp from where Sam had playfully hosed him down to help him cool off. They’d gone for a short run together along the beach, and the pup was exhausted from the effort.
Ruby turned her face up to the sun as she remembered fixing lunch together and making sweet, tender love afterwards. She barely recognised herself in Sam’s presence. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this relaxed, and there wasn’t a yoga pose in sight. Instead there was just him. Sam and his magic hands that knew just how to touch her, Sam with his gentle manner and infinite patience when he discovered Kong had treated his new shoe as a chew toy, and Sam with his intelligent conversation and broad, broad shoulders it would be so easy to lean on for a while.
Right from the beginning Sam had been able to strip away the guardedness she’d carried with her for ever, and sleeping with him, being like this with him, only seemed to make it harder to keep things in perspective. How much harder would it be if she actually fell in love with him?
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