And when Ant was finished with her, he stood, let his pants drop to the floor, and slid into her body. He filled her completely and moved inside of her until she couldn’t tell where she ended, and he began. He took his time with her, and when she couldn’t take much more, she shouted his name out again, losing herself and her heart completely to Ant. He followed her over and pulled her against his body, as though he needed the same contact from her as she craved from him. They stood like that for what felt likean eternity, and she never wanted him to let her go. When he finally carried her down the hallway, she didn’t feel owned. She felt wanted.
Ant laid her across his bed and watched her like she mattered more than anything else — and that, more than the heat of passion they had just shared in his kitchen, undid her. The world felt as though it had slowed down, and her heartbeat stopped racing. She lay against his chest, tracing idle patterns along his ribs. For the first time in a long time, sex didn’t feel cheap because Ant didn’t make her feel that way. He allowed her to be Dr. Monroe, or just Ruby; never expecting her to be Scarlet. He seemed to want her anyway he could have her, and that meant more to Ruby than she would ever admit.
ANT
Ant didn’t sleep, but that wasn’t anything new for him. He had learned to survive on very little sleep when he was a Texas Ranger, and now, he had a feeling that working for the FBI wasn’t going to afford him much sleep either. It usually had to do with the fact that he was constantly being put in dangerous situations, but this time it was different. This time, his lack of sleep had nothing to do with danger and everything to do with Ruby.
She was curled against his side, one leg tangled with his, her breath warm against his chest. The room was dark except for the faint glow of the alarm panel across the hall. His home was quiet and safe, but how long would it stay that way?
His body was wound tight over the lines that had been crossed. He couldn’t claim that he had slept with her accidentally. There was nothing reckless about his choice to fuck Ruby on his kitchen counter. He chose to be with her. It was what they both wanted, and he wouldn’t take any of it back now, even though it had him worrying about where he stood with her.
He brushed a slow hand down her back, careful not to wake her, but needing the contact. It was as if he needed toreassure himself that she was real. That last night hadn’t just been adrenaline and proximity and fear bleeding into something hotter.
She shifted, murmured his name softly in her sleep, and damn if that didn’t do something to him. Possessive wasn’t a word Ant used lightly. He’d seen it go wrong too many times—men confusing ownership with protection, desire with control. But this? This wasn’t about claiming her. It was about knowing someone else almost took her. And that truth scraped at something primal inside him.
His jaw tightened as he thought about the guy in the parking lot. The way he’d grabbed her. The way he’d said she owed him. Ant’s hand stilled on her hip as Ruby stirred, blinking up at him. “You’re thinking too loud.”
A faint smile tugged at his mouth. “Didn’t know that was possible.”
“It is when your chest feels like a brick wall because you’re not relaxed,” she said, propping herself up on one elbow, studying him. She wasn’t wearing any makeup. She was stripped of her armor. She was just Ruby with him—not the doctor or the dancer, and he liked seeing her this way.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” she asked.
He hesitated but eventually decided to go with the truth. “I don’t like that I dropped my guard and let that asshole touch you.”
Her expression shifted, and he worried that he had said something that might offend or upset her. “But I didn’t let him touch me,” she said. “Not the way that you’re thinking.”
“I know,” he said. “I just hate that he laid his hands on you at all. I should have been more on my game,” Ant insisted.
“But you stepped in and kept him from getting out of hand, both times,” she pointed out.
“Yeah,” he breathed, still not convinced that he did everything that he could have to prevent that guy from even getting into the club. She traced a slow line down his chest with her fingertip. It wasn’t seductive, but more sweet as though she was trying to calm him in some way.
“You’re angry,” she observed.
“Yeah, I am,” he admitted.
“At him?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ant breathed, wishing that they could just drop the subject. He shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. He knew that she’d have questions, and he didn’t feel like answering them right now.
“Only him?” she continued. That was the question that he was trying to avoid.
Ant exhaled slowly. “I don’t get to be jealous of your past. We only just met. Hell, up until a few days ago, you hated me. But I wish that I could remove every man who ever touched you before I did.”
Ruby’s eyes softened. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?” he asked.
She leaned closer, her voice low but steady. “It’s you realizing that you care—about me.” The word landed heavily between them. Did he care about her? He couldn’t deny that he did, but telling her that wasn’t something that he was ready to do.
He brushed his thumb along her jaw. “I don’t like the idea of anyone thinking they can take something from you that you don’t want to give. And I hate the idea of men looking at you up on that stage anymore.”
Her lips curved faintly. “You don’t get to decide who looks at me, Ant. I don’t dance for them,” she said. “I dance for the paycheck and the money that they toss on stage. It’s how I pay my college loans, and I won’t give it up.”
“No,” he agreed. “I can’t control who looks at you, but I get to decide what happens if they cross a line. And if you’re not giving up dancing, then I won’t give up bouncing. I’ll be right there, every night that you are, waiting to take down anyone who tries to cross the line with you.”
She searched his face again, as though she was trying to make sure this wasn’t control disguised as protection.
