“Don’t you laugh at me, Mister.” She reached out and poked a tiny finger into my chest.
It was a simple, playful touch, but one that had my skin burning and a need I couldn’t contain any longer rushing through me. I wrapped my hand softly around her and tugged her closer to me.
Her breath hitched. We were inches apart, eyes locked on one another, and then her gaze dropped to my mouth. I groaned and drew a breath of her flowery scent into my lungs.
“I need to kiss you,” I told her, barely holding it together. “Tell me you want that too?”
Her lustrous eyes flashed back to mine, dancing with anticipation. She nodded her head yes.
“That’s not good enough, baby. Tell me with words.” I needed to hear that she wanted this as much as I did.
“Please.” The desperation in her tone had my cock stirring in my jeans.
“Please what, Red?”
“Kiss me. And hurry,” she pleaded.
That was all it took.
I let go of her hand and wrapped mine around the back of her neck, then pulled her face to mine. I slanted my head a fraction and sealed my mouth to hers.
Her lips against mine were what I imagined soft, puffy clouds would feel like. I was lost in them. When I swiped my tongue along the seam of her mouth, she opened without hesitation. My body vibrated and my cock revved to life at the flavor of her.
She tasted like heaven, sunshine, and hope. My heartbeat accelerated as a collision of sensations pounded through me. Never in my life did a kiss move my soul the way that one had.
Because I’d never kissed Ruby before.
I slowly ended the kiss before things got too out of control. When I pulled back, our eyes locked onto one another, and our heavy breathing mixed in the cool night air making small misty clouds.
That’s when I realized Ruby didn’t have a coat on and was going to freeze to death. I yanked my sweatshirt over my head and dropped it over hers. It was a smart move to keep her warm, but dumb at the same time. Seeing her in my clothes had all sorts of fantasies running through my head.
“Now you’re going to get cold,” she whispered.
I’d been in much worse situations through the years and I knew I’d be fine. I was about to tell her so when music floated through the wind and met our ears.
Ruby sighed and nodded her head in the direction it had come from. “What do you think the kids are doing in there?”
“Making music,” I told her with a smile.
She grimaced. “That’s all they had better be making.”
An uncontrolled burst of laughter rose from my chest and freed itself. I’d thought about it many times over the last couple of weeks, but the woman was adorable. Her phone rang before I could tell her that.
When she looked down, Ruby frowned and sucked in a breath. “It’s an unknown number again,” she whispered.
She stared at the phone, not moving to answer it. Reaching over, I pulled it from her hand to take the call but it stopped ringing.
“You haven’t been getting more of these calls have you?” She hadn’t told me about any but I wanted to make sure. Not that she had to tell me everything about her life, but I was beginning to want to know everything about Ruby and be part of her world.
Would that scare her away?
“I haven’t gotten any more calls until now.” Her eyes widened when the phone alerted her that there was a voicemail.
I still had hold of her cell and didn’t want to overstep by listening without permission but I did want to hear the message if it had to do with anything that was going on in regard to being scared and why she’d come toNo Surrenderseeking help.
“How about you put it on speaker and we listen to it together?” I asked her as I handed her back her phone.
With shaking hands probably due to the cold weather and being nervous, she nodded in agreement, took the phone from me, and pressed the button to play the message. An older, gravelly voice that sounded as if the woman had been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for decades came over the line.
