Page 77

I slide one finger along her slit, feeling the heat and slickness of her, and she makes a sound that goes straight through me. I find her clit and circle it slowly, watching her stomach tighten, watching her fingers grip the comforter.

When I slip one finger inside her, she gasps my name, and hearing it like that, broken and desperate, makes me want to hear it again.

I add a second finger, and she grips them tight, pulling them deeper. I work her slowly, curling with each stroke, pressing the spot that makes her hips lift off the bed. My thumb works her clit in tight circles, and I watch her face, watch the way her expression shifts from focused to lost.

"You're close," I say, and it's not a question.

"More..."

I smile and speed up, adding a third finger, stretching her, and she cries out. The sound is raw and unguarded, and it's the most honest thing I've ever heard from her. Her thighs clamp around my hand, and I feel her clench, feel the pulse of her orgasm around my fingers. I keep going, working her through it until she pushes my hand away, gasping.

I give her a moment to catch her breath, kissing her hip, her stomach, the underside of her breast. Then I'm moving up her body, settling between her thighs, and the head of my cock presses against her entrance.

She wraps her legs around my waist, the silver anklet warm against my skin, and looks up at me. Her eyes are still unfocused, her lips parted, and she's never looked more beautiful.

I push inside her, slow, inch by inch, and we both groan. She's tight, still pulsing from her orgasm, and the feel of her around me is almost too much. I fill her completely and hold still, my forehead against hers, just feeling her, feeling this.

"Move," she whispers.

"Not yet." I kiss her jaw, her neck, the spot below her ear. I want to memorize this, the weight of her beneath me, the way her body accepts mine, the fact that she's here and this is real.

She grabs my ass and pulls me deeper. "I said move."

I pull back and thrust in, not hard, but firm enough that she gasps. I set a rhythm, grinding against her clit with each stroke, and she meets me thrust for thrust, her hips rolling. We're both fighting for control, both trying to make this last and desperate for more at the same time.

I grab her wrists and pin them above her head with one hand, and she arches beneath me. I drive into her faster, deeper, and the sounds she's making, broken gasps and my name over and over, are destroying me.

"Ruby. Look at me."

She opens her eyes. Green, wild, unfocused. I hold her gaze, and something shifts between us, something tender beneath the heat. I release her wrists, and her hands come to my face, pulling me down. We kiss, deep and slow, even as my hips keep moving. Her tongue traces my lower lip, and I swallow her moans.

I'm close again, my rhythm faltering, my thrusts becoming erratic. I bury myself deep and let go, my orgasm hitting in waves, pulse after pulse. She clenches around me, and I feel her come again, smaller this time, her body shuddering beneath mine.

I collapse onto my elbows, breathing hard, still inside her. Her fingers trace lazy patterns on my back, and for a long moment neither of us moves.

Finally, I pull out slowly, and she makes a small sound at the loss. I roll onto my side, pulling her with me. She fits perfectly against me, small and warm, her back pressed to my chest. I drape my arm over her waist.

The moonlight has shifted. The room is quieter now. I can hear the hum of the fridge in the kitchen, the distant sound of a car passing outside. Her fingers find mine, and I lace them together.

"You're not so bad," she murmurs.

"High praise."

"Shut up." But she's smiling. I can feel it.

I press my lips to the back of her neck, where a spray of tiny flowers disappears into her hairline. She shivers, and my hand traces her hip, her thigh, back up to her stomach.

I feel myself stirring again, and Ruby notices too.

She shifts against me, deliberate, and I tighten my arm around her waist.

"Again?" she asks, and there's a challenge in her voice that makes me smile.

"If you're offering."

She turns in my arms to face me, and the look in her eyes tells me everything I need to know.

Later, Ruby ends up stretched partly across me with one leg tangled with mine.