Bourbon Summer, page 11
She arched a brow. I kept my gaze steady, promising. What I promised was yet to be determined.
Ruby ran her tongue along her teeth and flipped her hair as she turned back to the first man who’d bought her a drink.
Cassie glanced over her shoulder. “You know her?”
“She’s an employee.”
Cassie looked again, then back at me. “Is she why you’re here?”
Yes. “I’m just watching out for her.”
“Uh-huh.” She braced her elbows on the top of the table. “You watch all your employees that closely?”
If I told Cassie we were dating, this little setup would look weird as hell, like some sort of torture kink I didn’t have. But then if she heard Ruby and I were dating later, it’d look messed up. The only thing seeing Ruby surrounded by horny men did to me was flip the switch on my caveman brain. I wanted to toss her over my shoulder and haul her away. Then gouge out every man’s eyes who saw her ripe, round ass in the air.
I forced my stare off Ruby. Cassie waited for an answer.
The only thing Cassie was guilty of was being optimistically forward. I would give her an answer of sorts. “We were on a date, and I got tired of her thinking she’s not desirable. So I told her to sit at the bar and see how many guys approached her.”
Cassie ruefully shook her head. “You brought her to the right place. Andi and I weren’t even going to come here because we wanted to talk and have a drink and be left alone. But the price is right, and I get a little pick-me-up from Allen staring at my boobs.”
A low growl rumbled out of me. Allen stared at Ruby’s tits like he could see through her top.
Cassie reclined in her seat and folded her arms, grin in place. “You’re really dating her?”
I nodded, hating the lie but knowing this was exactly what we needed—word to get around without becoming a spectacle. “It’s a new thing.”
She barked out a laugh. “I’ll say. Here I was thinking Katrina was right about you.”
I bristled. Who knew what she had said. I gripped my beer bottle. “She probably was, but Ruby’s not like her.”
“Definitely not.” Cassie sighed wistfully and ran her hand over her pale tresses. “I also assumed tall blonds were your thing. I even thought maybe you and Katrina were getting back together.”
That got my attention off Ruby. “What?” Why the hell would she think that? Hadn’t my ex spewed enough dirt about me to turn everyone off? You’re nothing but an overgrown man-child, Tenor! You catfished me.
The beer bottle I gripped held firm against my ever-tightening grip.
“She was in town at Christmas. I ran across her at Broken Oar, and she asked if I’d seen you lately.”
My stomach dropped. Broken Oar was another downtown bar. Katrina was asking about me? A good way to ruin my day was to see her. To know I hadn’t changed, and she was still right about me. All of them had been right—every woman I had dated and that dickwad from school. “Her grandparents still live in town. She’s not here for me.”
The grandparents, I didn’t mind. They still called me a nice boy when I ran across them in the grocery store. Even Katrina’s mom had been nice enough. Her dad though . . . It was a toss-up who sucked the most. Bobby from school, Katrina, or her dad.
“She still wants you,” Cassie said.
I grunted. “Doubt it.” My gaze strayed to Ruby. Her face didn’t just turn red from embarrassment. The spirits had given her a solid blush. How far down did it go? A question that had repeated in my brain far too many times tonight.
Cassie followed my gaze. “Katrina’s out of luck,” she muttered. She leaned over the table again. “I’m confused. You were obviously right about men tripping over themselves for a taste of Little Miss Snow White. Why are you still sitting here, letting her get hit on?”
Why was I?
Because she could have anyone. Not some workaholic who had lived with his mother until he was almost thirty and spent all his time helping his family. And when he wasn’t, he had “hobbies to be ashamed of,” according to Katrina. Hobbies that had made her embarrassed of and for me.
“She gets to choose who she’s with,” I said.
Cassie’s eyes flared. “You’d let her go home with one of them?”
Ruby was a bundle of energy. She swayed in her seat and laughed, but she was also beyond tipsy. “No. She’s drunk. But she’s having fun.”
Cassie tipped her head. “That girl might be enjoying herself, but she’s also a ninja. She’s not having the fun you think.”
I eyed Ruby again. She spun one way, took a selfie, then another.
“Every time someone gets handsy, she moves,” Cassie clarified.
Frowning, I kept studying the Ruby show. She had told me how much she loved her job, so I assumed the photo shoots were a part of it. She had free rein to take pics and pose with people who didn’t mind being in the shot. Hell, maybe she had personal accounts to post on. I would be the last to know. I used my phone for communication, checking the weather, and tracking market prices for the ranch.
A guy with a wedding ring would crowd too close from behind and she’d jerk around to laugh loudly at another guy’s joke. Then when fingertips touched her leg, she was twisting the other way.
Shit. “I’ve gotta go.”
Cassie’s laugh followed me out of the booth. I stormed across the bar and pushed through the two men crowding behind her. “Time to go.”
A chorus of male dismay rang out.
Ruby clutched at me. “Tenor. Oh my god—I think . . . I think you might be right.”
I helped her off the stool and she wobbled. “Of course I’m right.”
Allen was pouring what might have been her seventh drink and ogled her ass. I wedged myself between Ruby and all the guys.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. “Dude, the lady doesn’t want to—”
I glared at the first man to approach her. “You really want to tell me what the lady wants, Travis? Or do you want me to tell your fiancée how you spent your night?”
Ruby’s scandalized gasp rang behind me. “You’re engaged?”
All the guys went silent.
“How ’bout you, Kenny?” I asked one of the men trying to paw her from behind. “You didn’t even bother to take your ring off?” The anger inside me was rising to alarming levels, pushing against my temples. The other guys were single as far as I knew. Allen was a good target. I’d been so determined to let Ruby have what she wanted I’d been willfully ignorant of what had been going on. “So help me, Allen, if you keep leering at women, they’re not going to find your body.” Allen paled. I had the right type of land to lose a whole-ass person in and he knew it. “I might just dump you off the nearest overpass for pouring her drinks so strong tonight.”
Fucker had done it on purpose.
I prompted Ruby to head toward the door, but she wobbled again. I picked her up, slipping my arm behind her back and my other under her knees.
Her breath hitched. “You’re so strong.” Rum-scented breath wafted across my nose. “Just like the drinks,” she hissed before dissolving into giggles.
A slow clap preceded me out the door. More applause broke in.
Ruby tried to crane her neck to look over her shoulder and the move only made her breasts rub against my chest. “Who was that?”
“Probably Cassie and her sister.”
“Oh.” That plump lower lip was out with a pout. “The one you were talking to?”
“She’s just a friend.”
“Friend with benefits?”
“No. She hits on both me and Teller and neither of us is interested. She wouldn’t be either if I actually dated her.”
She tipped her head back. A groan left her. “The stars are beautiful, but I’m dizzy. You can put me down, you know. I can walk.” She kicked a leg up to show her short heels. “I’ve just been sitting for so long.”
“I know.” She was also drunk.
“I think those guys were flirting with me,” she whispered. “I didn’t know Travis was engaged. Asshole.”
“Yep.” I was close to the pickup and wishing I’d parked another half mile away to keep holding her. Carefully I set her on her feet and opened the passenger door.
I hovered while she climbed in, albeit a little unsteadily.
Before I shut the door, I leaned in. “Why the hell do you doubt they were flirting with you?” I’d known exactly what had been in each one of those guys’ heads. I wanted to do the same things to her.
She blinked those big, innocent eyes. “I was the only choice.”
“No, you weren’t.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Does Allen know where a woman’s eyes are?”
A small laugh gusted out of me. “No. I don’t think so, Goldilocks.”
I closed the door and got in behind the wheel.
She sank into the seat and gazed out the window. “The stars really are beautiful tonight. The only chance I really get to see them is from the parking lot at Copper Summit.” She twisted in her seat until she was facing me. “Thanks for rescuing me.”
“I should’ve done it earlier.”
A sigh left her. “I enjoyed the attention, but it was also stressful. Are men usually so handsy?”
“Yes.”
“Not you.”
Around her I was.
She curled her legs under her and was quiet the rest of the way home. In the dash lights, I made out her closed eyes. Dark lashes rested on her cheeks and her mouth puffed slightly open.
I parked in the garage, hoping she’d stay asleep. She did.
I loaded her in my arms again and carried her into the house.
“You’re so strong,” she repeated against my chest and wrapped an arm around my neck.
Good thing I was close to the guest room, or I’d be doing this with a hard-on.
I entered the room and was instantly surrounded by the limoncello smell of her. There was no way I could move all my shit back into this room and spend any time in it without thinking of her.
I placed her on the bed. She whimpered and reached for me. I grasped her hands in mine. They were warm and soft. I kissed her fingertips and released her. “Get some rest, Ruby.”
“Mmm.” She rolled over. The back of her skirt hitched up. I ripped my eyes off her and stumbled for the door.
I was not going to leer at her like Allen when she was sleeping. Instead, I went to my room, shut the door, and toed off my boots. Then I turned my bedside lamp on, yanked my shirt over my head and tossed it in the laundry basket by my closet.
The bathroom door squeaked open. I paused, making sure she wasn’t retching or didn’t need help.
After a few moments, the sink turned on. Good. I took off my belt and shoved my pants down. I folded them neatly and draped them over a pile of cases that I had stacked by the closet until I could put them back into the guest room.
I ripped my blankets back just as my bedroom door opened. I froze as Ruby entered, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
Panic coalesced in my chest. Shit, shit, shit. “Ruby.”
She blinked, her eyes going wide. Her gaze touched on my chest, and she drew her fingers across her collarbone. Her attention traveled lower and she mouthed wow.
I scrambled for a shirt, but I had none near me. The closet was behind her.
She cocked her head, studying me. Then she closed the distance between us.
I backed up until the backs of my legs hit the end table. “Ruby . . .”
She traced the faint silvery lines at my shoulders. I had hoped my old stretch marks would go away as I got older, but no such luck. They’d faded but were still visible. I jerked like her fingertips were pure voltage.
I gulped. I wanted her touch, but I also wanted her to forget seeing a thing. Not many people had ever seen me shirtless.
“You have such a nice body,” she murmured and danced her fingers over my pecs.
My dick had taken note of her presence in my bedroom. The oxygen being supplied to my brain was getting dangerously low. Soon all I’d have was that caveman that wanted to throw her on the bed and flip her skirt up. “You need to go back to your bed.”
Those ripe lips puffed out. She snatched her hand back. “I knew you were only taking pity on me.”
I grabbed her hand and held it. “I’d be between your legs right now if you weren’t drunk.”
That was supposed to have been a threat, but it came out as a confession.
“I am not dru—” A giggle left her. “I might be a little. Those drinks were really strong.” She hitched my hand closer and inspected it. “You’re big everywhere.” She gave my crotch a pointed look. “Like, really big. Am I dreaming?”
She sucked in a breath and looked to the stacks of bins around me. Interest filled her eyes and a smile lit her face.
Fuck. She wasn’t dreaming, but this was my nightmare. The taunting was coming.
“What’s all this?” She bent over to peer inside the display case. “Are those figurines?”
“They’re models.”
“Of what?”
Here we go. “It’s, uh . . . Warhammer.”
She squinted harder. “Warhammer?”
“Tabletop gaming,” I mumbled.
She turned to peer at me. “Come again?” She bent over the stacked black bins to look at a clear display case behind them. “Are they, like, orcs?”
“Yeah, actually, those are actually Orks.” I scratched behind my neck, put my hands on my hips, then shoved my fingers through my hair. How much of this would she remember when she was sober?
“What do you do with them?”
Her curious tone helped unknot some anxiety. “I buy the models, then I paint them—”
She rose with a gasp and swayed. I caught her elbow.
“You painted these?” She held on to me as she bent back over. She traced the plexiglass, leaving a smudge behind. “So many small parts.”
“That’s part of the appeal.”
She rose again and used the same finger to follow my old stretch marks. “You’re a real artist. What else do you do with them?”
My mind fogged with lust. What had she asked?
Right. Exactly what I had never wanted to explain to another woman again. “I get together with others—mostly guys—and we . . . play.”
She blinked. “Oh. That sounds fun.”
I blew out a gusty breath, surprised. “Really?”
“I mean, you could have a giant blow-up doll collection. Porn. Guns.”
“I have guns, but I don’t paint those.”
She giggled and spun around. When she bent over to look at another case, I bit back a groan and aimed my gaze at the ceiling. Too late. My heartbeat slammed through my dick.
“I bet you give really good orgasms,” she said.
Desire rammed into me. The war I’d been losing over my erection was done. I had to have heard wrong. “What’d you say?”
She straightened, then bypassed me and crawled between my sheets.
Dear god, she was in my bed. Her limoncello scent would be on my sheets. “Ruby—”
“All that patience?” She scooted to the other end. Then she curled onto her side facing me and pulled the covers to her chin. “All those tiny details? The reverent way you have everything stored? A guy that pays that much attention to models can probably find a woman’s clit.” She snorted. “I don’t think Brock knew what a clit’s function was.”
How did I respond? Why was she in my bed? “It’s been a long time, but yeah. I know exactly what a clit is for.”
“So you don’t date and you don’t fuck?”
“I can control myself.” Tonight suggested perhaps not.
She rolled her eyes back and moaned. “Control and patience. Tenor, you’re like the hero in my fanfic. So tightly wound that when he blows . . .” She turned her sultry smile on me, her gaze traveling down my body.
“I’m not a hero in anyone’s story.”
“You saved my pride.” She patted the other side of the bed. “Come on. Get in. Can you shut the light off?”
I almost did as she asked without question. “You should go to your room.”
“You’re warmer. And you won’t touch me.” Her eyelids drifted shut. “I’ll have to make myself come again thinking about how you kissed me.”
“Jesus, Ruby.”
She cracked an eye open. “I said your name when I did too.”
A drunk Ruby was a painfully honest Ruby. My erection was growing painful. “Christ.”
“Nope. Your name.” The blankets shifted. “I remembered what it was like to have you towering over me with that big body of yours,” she groaned. “So nice.”
The covers jostled again. She was moving her legs apart. “Ruby.” Her name came out alarmed. Terrified. Excited.
If she got herself off in my bed, I’d never get another peaceful night’s sleep. I’d have blue balls and memories and nothing else.
“God, Tenor. Your muscles are so hard.” She rolled to her back, her knees creating little mounds under the covers.
“You can’t do this. You’re drunk.”
“Just a little.” She smiled at me, all sleepy and sexy. “I’ve built up a decent tolerance, trying all the Copper Summit lines.” Another moan. “That tongue of yours . . .”
If I kept standing here, I’d dive right under the sheets and bury my head between her legs. “I’ll sleep in your bed.”
“Don’t leave,” she whimpered. “I’ve liked you for so long.”
I froze. “How long?”
“When Brock dumped me, I didn’t feel guilty anymore noticing you. Then I got obsessed,” she hissed and arched up. The blankets pressed against her hand and I could see it move. She was working herself like I wanted to.
She might be under the influence, but she also wasn’t stopping and she was exploding soon. If I left and she remembered this in the morning, would she blame herself? If I stayed, she could blame me instead of being humiliated. I couldn’t let Ruby feel bad about herself.
I flipped the light off and climbed between the sheets. I stretched out next to her. I wouldn’t participate, but I’d be right here with her. “How wet are you?”
