“I’ll feel better coming with you.” I close the door behind us and stay beside her as we go down the steps and follow the path to the spot next to the garage where we parked. “I’m pretty sure you could handle a mountain lion on your own, but I’drather not find out.”
Ruth spins to face me as we reach the UTV, wide eyes scanning the darkened night around us. “Are there really mountain lions out here?”
I move closer, because there are, and I don’t want her to be afraid. “Yes, but they’re more scared of you than you are of them.” I smirk. “At least they should be.”
Ruth is one of the most capable women I’ve ever met. She’s brave and strong and determined. I’m pretty sure a big cat wouldn’t know what hit them if it tried to tangle with her.
It sure as hell wouldn’t know what hit it when I came after it next, because there’s no way I’m letting anything hurt her. Not a wild animal, and sure as hell not the man terrorizing her.
Ruth rolls her eyes at my teasing. She usually does, but there’s also a smile on her face this time. “Whatever.”
“I mean it.” All joking seems to flee my body, replaced by a seriousness I don’t usually feel. “You’re not someone to be fucked with, Ruthless.”
Ruth’s big eyes blink up at me. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She pushes up on her toes, pressing a quick kiss to my lips. “Thank you.”
I don’t know why, but I’m grinning. “You’re welcome.”
For good measure, I lean in and kiss her back. It’s just a quick peck. No tongue involved. Just a simple press of my lips to hers.
Except when it’s over, I don’t fully pull away. I can’t. It’s like I’m stuck. Unable to put distance back between us.
Ruth doesn’t move away either. Her lips stay less than an inch from mine as her eyes move over my face.
I don’t know who moves next. It could be me. It could be her.
It could be both of us.
All I know is in the blink of an eye, Ruth is in my arms, pulled tight against me, sliding her tongue against mine as I press her back against the door of my side-by-side.
She’s quite a bit shorter than me, and it’s not long before I gettired of hunching over. Gripping her ass cheeks tight, I heft her up until we’re face to face. Ruth yelps a little, the sound traveling from her mouth to mine as the sudden change in elevation sends her scrambling to hold onto me. But when her legs lock at my hips and I press her tighter to the vehicle, I’m swallowing a moan instead of a yelp.
The sound is like a drug, and I only want more of it.
More of her.
Using my hips to keep her where she is, I run a hand over the generous curve of her hip, giving the softness there a squeeze on my way up her body. My palm is just curving around one supple breast when a loud voice pierces the night.
“Tuck. You better get your ass in here before your mother comes looking for you.”
Fucking Walker. Twice tonight he’s interrupted me.
And this one is absolutely going to result in an ass kicking.
18
Ruth
Ihad a lot of expectations for tonight. Most of them were bad. Some terrifying. A few made me want to throw up in my mouth. Not once did I expect I would end up pressed against the side of a UTV, making out with my fake boyfriend.
So now, instead of just being terrified, I'm also flustered, unsettled, and unable to look Tucker in the eye. Which is a huge issue since I'm supposed to be madly in love with him.
Which is another problem.
I'm starting to kind of see how easy it would be for a woman looking to fall in love to end up having those sorts of feelings for Tucker Bradshaw. Because instead of making me feel weird about what happened earlier, and how I tried to climb him like a tree, he’s acting like it's no big deal. Just a normal thing.
For him, it probably is. He did admit to partaking in sexual escapades in his parents’ powder room. Letting me suck on his tongue in the yard is probably nothing on his scale of zero to a big deal.
I hate to admit how much I don’t like that.How something that’s affecting me so much could be nothing more than a few minutes of good natured fun for him.
