Yes, Master, page 18
Before Drake could reply, Ruby’s eyes drifted closed and she was asleep within seconds.
A constant beeping sound woke Ruby several hours later. She knew without looking that Drake was gone. She was alone in the cold hospital room, and she had no idea if he’d ever be back, if she’d ever see him again, or if her words meant anything to him at all. She looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was eleven in the evening. Her head felt better, and she wasn’t as groggy either.
She used the button on the bed to raise herself into a seated position. That’s when she saw them. Flowers, balloons, get well wishes, they were everywhere. The sight warmed her heart. Connie. The kind gesture had her stamp all over it.
Ruby moved her neck from side to side, but when there was no pain she thought maybe she could try standing. She hated hospitals. Hated the feeling of helplessness that came with them. Besides, surely she was well enough to leave, right? After all, nothing was broken. A headache was no reason for a hospital bed.
Moving the IV out of the way, Ruby lowered the bed rail and tossed the covers aside. She gently swung her legs over the side of the mattress. No pain. “Okay, so far, so good.” But when she scooted to the edge, put her weight on her feet, and started to stand, a shaft of pain shot through her head. It felt like someone was stabbing her temples with a sharp blade. “Ouch, damn it,” she cursed.
A strong, muscular arm came around her shoulders. “Uh, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Ruby looked up to find a very annoyed Drake South scowling down at her. In her ruined pride she snapped at him. “I’m getting up, what does it look like I’m doing?”
She wiggled to get him to release her, but his arm didn’t budge. “You little idiot, get back in that bed.”
“I’m not an idiot,” she bit out. “And I don’t want to stay here any longer. I want to go home.”
“It’s not a hotel, Ruby. You’re here because you were hurt, and you aren’t leaving until the doc gives the all clear.”
His voice was annoyingly calm, which only made Ruby angrier. But her head hurt too bad to fight with him so she allowed him to help her back into the bed. “You’re bossy,” she muttered when he fluffed her pillow for her.
“Yep.” After she was under the covers, he asked, “Now, what’s the real reason you’re so anxious to escape?”
She turned her head away. “I told you, I hate hospitals. They’re depressing.”
Drake turned her face back toward his. “And that’s all? There isn’t anything else bothering you?”
She shrugged, not willing to humiliate herself further by telling him the truth, that she was worried he didn’t love her. That he might never love her. Still, he was here, wasn’t he? And by all accounts he’d stayed by her side the whole time. Ruby thought of the worry that she’d put him and Connie through. It must have been frightening to wait for her to come out of it. Shame filled her that she’d only been thinking of her own pride. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. “When I woke and my head didn’t hurt, I just figured I was good to go.”
He took her hand in his own and intertwined their fingers. “Don’t be sorry, baby. I’m just glad you’re all right. Let’s wait and see what the doctor says when he sees you tomorrow. Make sure your tests all come back okay. We’ll find out when you can go home then. Besides, feeling no pain probably has something to do with the medication they’re pumping you full of right now.”
Home. Ruby’s first thought was of Drake’s big bed and his strong arms holding her through the night. She knew her own bed would never feel the same again. Unfortunately, her declaring her love for him probably had him thinking of moving on to greener pastures. She closed her eyes to avoid looking at him. Great, he probably felt sorry for her. That thought so did not improve her mood.
Drake watched Ruby’s facial expressions. He knew what she was thinking. She was feeling uncertain for having opened her heart to him. He decided now was as good a time as any to play the sharing game.
“I love you, Ruby.”
Her eyes flew open. “What did you say?” She stared at him, as if trying to find the proof of his words.
“I admit, my heart nearly stopped when you said those three little words earlier. For a long while I couldn’t move, I just watched you sleep.” He reached out and cupped her cheek. “I hadn’t realized until you said them aloud how badly I needed to hear them.”
“And you love me too?”
He grinned at the shock that was written all over her face. “I think I’ve loved you from the moment you brought me those cookies. A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, you know?” He swallowed around a lump in his throat. “When Connie called to tell me you were in the hospital, and I saw you lying so lifeless in the emergency room . . .” Drake about doubled over seeing it all over again. “You scared us, baby.” He leaned down and softly kissed her warm cheek, needing to feel for himself that she was okay. Some of the tension drained out of him when he felt her breath against his mouth.
Her eyes filled with tears. “Oh God, I do love you. I’m sorry for arguing with you about the racing. I don’t think you’re irresponsible and careless. I was just scared. The idea of losing you . . .”
“Shh, it’s okay. You had every right to be upset, considering what you went through with your dad’s death. And I promise to cut back on the races. Seeing you so broken in the ER gave me a good idea what you must have felt when you saw me all banged up. But I swear to you, I don’t have a death wish, Ruby.” Drake brushed her lips with his. “Damn, I never get tired of kissing you.”
“I know the feeling,” she said against his mouth. “I realized when I woke up in here that life is unpredictable. There are no guarantees. I don’t want to miss out on love because I was too afraid to take a risk.”
“It’s okay, because I wasn’t about to let you walk away from me. I told you, I’m not like Bryan. I was ready to play dirty if necessary. Anything and everything to get you back.”
Her brow quirked up, clearly intrigued by the notion. “Oh yeah?”
“Yep. And I can do dirty really well, baby,” he murmured as he brushed his thumb over her nipple through the hospital gown.
She laughed and swatted at his hand when the caressing became more intense. “Stop that.”
“Never,” he vowed. “And I think some sort of punishment is in order.”
Her eyes darkened with arousal. “Punishment?”
“Definitely,” he replied, as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You scared ten years off my life, woman.”
“W-what kind of punishment?”
He winked. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll think of something.” He leaned down and braced the bulk of his body on either side of her. “First, you need to recover.”
Ruby’s arms crept around Drake’s neck. “Mm, I can’t wait.”
Their mouths met, and Drake knew he’d been right the night she’d agreed to go to lunch with him. He had hit the lottery, because with Ruby in his life, Drake felt like the richest man alive.
Runa’s High
VONNA HARPER
1
“Catch your breath. Then ask your question.”
That was easy for Coach to say, but he’d never truly understand what drove her. Hands on hips and leaning forward slightly, Runa Mullan sucked in the early morning air. Today was special, damn it. Not only was the first meet a week away, none other than Jeff Tappe had come to the university track. He was here! Wearing running shorts and shoes, looking almost human. Obviously at home in this setting.
Runa shook back her unruly hair and focused on the man who’d taken the silver medal in the 800-meter run at the last Olympics. He was her idol, her goal, everything she strived to be. Somehow she’d pick the man’s brain and make him understand her commitment to their common sport.
Jeff was more muscular than most expected of someone who specialized in a middle distance running event, but she understood the need for strength along with expanded lung capacity. Her own long legs were hard as steel and—
Wrapping those legs around the elete athlete and riding him. Feeling his cock buried inside her. Living, damn it, living!
“I’m, ah, delighted to meet you,” she wheezed and shook off the crazy thought. At twenty-three she should be beyond hero-worshiping, but she lived to accomplish what the black-haired man had so it was hard not to place him on a pedestal. “My question is—I’m concerned about peaking. I want to keep getting faster.” She glanced at Coach, then decided to hell with it, this was her one chance to get the information she needed to reach her personal goal—the university’s 800-meter record for women. “Coach says I’ve pushed myself as far as I can anaerobically, but I know I have more strength, speed, and power in me. However, I can’t reach those benchmarks unless I stress my body to the max.”
As Jeff smiled, she felt a twitch in a part of her anatomy she hadn’t had time to acknowledge in what felt like forever. He was a sexy man all right, over six feet tall with close to zero body fat and the afore acknowledged muscles. His eyes were nearly as dark as his hair and faint freckles dotted his deeply tanned cheeks. Dressed in blue running shorts and a body-hugging white T-shirt, he carried himself the way she suspected a cheetah did—supremely confident in what his body was capable of. “I watched you sprint and now I’m listening to you breathe,” he said. “You gave yourself a pretty intense oxygen debt load. What more do you want?”
To be pushed to the edge. To go past that point. Then to fuck you. “Ah, how about a world record?”
His expression told her he knew she wasn’t joking. “All things are possible, at least they’re within the realm of possibility. Answer me this. What would you believe you’d accomplished if you broke that record?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Would you be satisfied then, Runa?”
A nod from Coach let her know Coach had told Jeff about her. Well, why not? She was one of the team’s fastest female runners. The other day she’d come in first during a friendly competition among the university’s 800-meter runners of both sexes.
“I’m not sure,” she answered honestly. The other team members were continuing their morning workout, which meant she’d spend the rest of the day mentally kicking herself if she didn’t get back on the track.
“No,” Coach said, “you wouldn’t be satisfied. Runa, that’s part of why I asked Jeff to return to his alma mater. You’re a rare talent. You’re also like a thoroughbred eyeing the starting line. Always pushing yourself. That’s good, of course, but I don’t want you injuring yourself or burning out.”
She’d never burned out on anything, starting with when she’d taught herself how to swim at age four. Okay, so she’d yet to find a man who understood her need to be the best she possibly could, but no man would like the miserable creature she’d become if she fought her A-personality nature.
“Runa,” Jeff said, “like I said, I watched you run a little while ago. You have one speed, overdrive. In that regard you and I are a lot alike. Never being satisfied is what it takes to compete in the Olympics. But . . .” He watched as a trio of runners went by. “There’s a lot of life to be lived once the Olympics are over—or after you’ve given the valedictorian speech.”
He knew that about her too? Darn it, had Coach also told him she’d gotten through her undergraduate work in less than four years and was now a 4.0 grad student majoring in environmental education? Well, hell, that’s what she was, a woman on the fast track through life. It suited her.
Except for those rare times when a man’s physique and mind rocked her onto her heels and dampened her panties—like now.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Jeff asked. So far his gaze had stayed on her eyes. Now he slowly took in her entire body ending with her running shoes. If he was looking for a runner’s form, he’d find that all right, but if he was interested in soft curves, he’d have to go elsewhere. “I was on top of the world the day they put that medal around my neck. Then the crowds went away and I deflated. That’s because I’d neglected to address the rest of my life.”
She wanted running tips from him, darn it, not his life story. “I guess that was bound to happen.” Her shorts and top clung to her sweaty body, so she pried them off her. He watched.
“You don’t want to hear that, do you?”
Darn him, was he feeling sorry for her? Thanks, but that was the last thing she needed. If he couldn’t give her more hours in the day, how about competitive suggestions only he knew about? “Let me get this straight. You don’t believe I should aim for any more anaerobic energy expenditure. What kind of interval training program would you design for me?”
He shook his head. “You don’t know how to relax, do you? You think you’re hardwired to always push yourself.”
“What’s wrong with that? You wouldn’t have gotten where you did otherwise.”
“No, I wouldn’t, but that’s no longer the way I live.”
If that’s true, I feel sorry for you. “I do.”
“So I see. Tell me something, Runa. What if you were no longer that thoroughbred Coach talked about? What if you had to slow down and smell the roses?”
She started jogging in place. “I like roses. I’ll smell them tomorrow.”
His mouth twitched. Well, hell, it wasn’t as if she could stop. If she was awake, she was on the move.
“No, you won’t, unless someone forces you,” he said. “Where did this need to push yourself come from?”
“What does it matter? Thanks to my track performance, I got a scholarship that pays about half of my bills.” She lifted her head. “Academic scholarships cover the rest.”
“Which means, as I said, you might never smell the roses.”
She bit down a retort and looked around for something to hang her thoughts on. That was when she realized Coach had returned to the track. Just seeing the oval made her long to be on it. Of course, if Jeff was running with her, not talking, just pitting his body against hers—“Life’s short. I learned that in spades when cancer took my mother shortly after I turned twelve.”
He touched her shoulder. The contact lasted only a second, but his heat remained. She stopped jogging. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Yeah, well, bad stuff happens in everyone’s life.”
“Most girls don’t lose their mothers at such an early age.”
She had and it still hurt. However, she didn’t want to talk about that pain. “Coach, he, ah, he said he’d like to see me rein in a bit, that pacing myself might help. I told him I’d never let that happen. We’re at a bit of an impasse.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I’m who I am and that person has given herself a goal. I want to set a new 800-meter university record.” Damn it, her goal was doable. There was no reason to apologize for stating the possible.
He studied her. “I might be able to give you some pointers. I’ll look at your training regime to see if it needs tweaking.”
“Wonderful. I’d really appreciate—”
“But there’s more to breaking records than spending every minute chasing goals. Your body needs time to recover.”
Coach had told her that so many times she no longer heard the words. “I do. Don’t forget I have classes to go to and studying—”
“No just being?”
“Being?” The word tightened her throat and made her clench her fingers. She was still aware of his rugged, sexy body, but it wasn’t enough. “I’m not wired that way.”
As Jeff Tappe stepped into what should be her space, she felt his presence throughout her, refused to give way. “Keep that up long enough and you risk burning out on life.”
How had thinking suddenly gotten so hard? “What do you suggest then? Meditation?”
As he shook his head, she wondered if he was trying not to smile. “That wouldn’t work with you because you can’t slow your mind down.” He closed his fingers around her left wrist. “You push and push, but eventually you’ll hit a wall unless you learn how to relax. The body is nearly as complex as the mind.”
“So I’ve heard.” Did he expect her to pull free? Maybe later.
He lifted her arm and pressed her hand against his chest. Just like that she became nothing more than a woman. Horny. “I’m not a shrink, but here’s my thinking. You had to watch your mother getting sicker and sicker, right?”
Unable to speak, she nodded. Those nine months had been a form of hell she’d never been able to talk to anyone about.
“Bit by bit your mother lost control over her body and finally her life.”
Walk away. Don’t risk him seeing into your heart.
“You refuse to let the same happen to you.” He spoke softly. “You fill every minute of your life and keep setting new goals for yourself. You have a choke hold on each day. The idea of anything or any person dictating how you spend those days terrifies you.”
Stop it! I can’t hear this. “For someone who just met me, you think you know a hell of a lot about me.”
Before she knew what he intended, he’d turned her so her back was to him and slid an arm around her shoulder. His other arm pressed against her belly. “Right now I’m in control of your body. How does that make you feel?”
Trapped. A wild animal run down by a skilled hunter. Under his control, facing a new existence. Wanting the challenge.
“What is this about?” Why wasn’t she struggling, and how dare this feel so good?
“You might say this is my way of getting your attention. I want you to think about your reaction to what’s happening.”
His warm, moist breath slid into her hair, but that wasn’t the only reason she was shivering. She was proud of what her body and mind were capable of. At five foot ten inches tall and in prime physical condition, she figured not many men would try to take her on, but Jeff Tappe was several inches taller with muscles that put hers in their place. They were out in the open. If she called for help—no, she wouldn’t. Couldn’t. Didn’t want to.
