Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tenor
Ruby’s blue eyes were wide and a little too glassy for my liking. The mass of curls around her head made me itch to bury my hands in them. She wasn’t in a skirt, but in her cuffed sweatpants, she looked cute and cozy. Perfect for sitting on my couch to read a book and to strip off later.
Fuck, she was gorgeous. “Sorry I couldn’t answer your text. Bob—Robert showed up on my doorstep. Sort of.”
He’d confessed to hating the name Bobby, so I’d quit using it since he was earning a B-plus in not insulting me.
She glanced from me to her dad. “I don’t understand.”
Robert shrugged. “Thought maybe you’d answer the phone if I made nice with your boyfriend. I know I was a bastard to him, so I needed to talk to him anyway. He’s easy enough to find and he agreed to meet me at his place.”
Ruby still looked perplexed. “Did Mom tell you to?”
“She didn’t have to,” he said. “I asked her if she thought this guy would throw me on my ass, though. She said I deserved it.”
Ruby glanced back and forth between us. “You’re friends?”
“I doubt that’ll ever happen,” he said almost sadly. “I was pretty bad, Rubes.” When I opened my mouth, he pointed at me. “I’m not going to quit calling her that. I’m her dad and I get to call her a nickname she hates.”
As long as it wasn’t meant to be derogatory, I wouldn’t interfere. “That’s up to her.”
He nodded and met his daughter’s stunned gaze. “All I care about is that he’s good to you.”
I doubted we’d be friends, but after talking with him, I was optimistic we could be amicable. He was loud and brash like Ruby had described, but I had learned a lot about that boy who had bullied me. “No, we’re not friends. But he’s apologized?—”
She put her fingers on my lips. “He what now?”
“Apologized,” I said around her finger. I flicked my tongue out.
She snatched her hand away but bit her lower lip, her gaze glued to my mouth. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t know where this bar has been.” She winced. “Sorry, Madison.”
“Valid,” Madison said. She handed Ruby’s phone to her. “I called Tenor when you went to the bathroom. And then again when you confronted Katrina.”
“I’m right here,” Katrina snapped, but we all ignored her.
I cupped Ruby’s face. “I’m not going to ask you to write your dad out of your life. We’ve talked about how things would work if you took me back, how we’d act around each other, how he’d be with our kids.” I cut my warning gaze toward him. “Especially about nicknames.”
Robert shrugged. He’d been fine with it.
Her lips parted. “Kids?”
“I know we only dated a couple of months, but there’s no one like you, Ruby. I knew almost right away that you were it. You’re my Goldilocks.” I wrapped my hands around her waist. “I’ll do anything you want. We can add on to the house. There’s plenty of land, depending on how many kids you want.”
Wonder filled her eyes. Then retribution filled her gaze. “You mean,” she said loudly, “add on to the house you built with your own money from your two jobs? The one with the nice shop?”
I grinned at her, soaking in her militant pout.
Robert nodded. “Nice damn house.”
Katrina let out a huff and stomped past us. “I only came here because there were no Baileys.”
Light cut through the room as the door opened, then she was gone.
“You didn’t care that she was here?” Ruby asked.
“She’s been wanting to talk to me, but I keep deleting her messages. I haven’t cared to see or speak to her. I quit being at her beck and call when she insulted me and my family.”
Ruby’s mouth curled into a sneer. “She probably heard you were back on the market and realized how much she’d fucked up. Her mistake is my win.”
I feathered my thumb across her soft cheek. “You’re amazing.”
“I’m still a lot younger than you,” she said in a ragged voice. The vulnerability was back.
“You’re perfect. The only reason I’d talk to Katrina is to thank her for getting me to swear off dating. I didn’t have to keep suffering through the wrong women.”
She flattened her hands on my chest, but she turned her attention to her dad. “You’re going to behave with him?”
“As long as he does right by you.” He closed the distance between us, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Look, honey. I know exactly how I was when I was younger, and I know it wasn’t right. I was an angry kid, and Tenor never fought back. He just took it and I kept giving it. Told myself I didn’t respect him for it, but the truth is it pissed me off more. He was stronger than me. Nothing will take back how awful I was, but I’ve tried to be a better adult than I was a kid. Some days, I’m successful. Tenor and I—we’ve come to an understanding. You’re important to both of us. And we’re playing another match tomorrow.”
“I’ll still win,” I said.
Robert sniffed, challenge in his eyes. “You can’t win forever, Bailey.”
I would. Out of spite. And I’d celebrate every win in front of him like an asshole.
I didn’t have to worry about Robert anymore. He was part of my present because I got the very best of him in Ruby. He could no longer haunt me. Neither could Katrina. Her fucking dad could suck a rotten egg. If my school bully could accept me for his daughter, then the issue hadn’t been me.
All the ghosts of my past had been put to rest. I didn’t dread seeing them and I gave zero fucks what their opinions of me were. There was only one woman I cared about and I’d spend my life making her happy.
I’d indulge her reading habit—and her work ideas. “I love you, Ruby. I’ll do anything for you.” I took out my phone and pulled up one of Copper Summit’s social media accounts. “But I need to prove it.”
She glanced at the screen and did a double take. “Is that...” She let out a soft gasp.
“Yep.” Thankfully, she’d sent the pictures of me to Wynter as examples of how she’d capture any employees who were willing to participate. Before Robert had arrived, I’d talked to Wynter. She’d posted the photo of me behind the drink I’d poured for Ruby. I hadn’t looked yet, but I knew the post was there. For everyone to see and comment on. And oddly, I was only concerned that it pleased Ruby. Everyone else could fuck off.
“You posted this? For me?”
“Actions, not words. She’s got more queued up for you to use.”
“Oh, Tenor. I love you so much.” She tucked herself into my side, holding the phone out. “This picture is my favorite.” She giggled and peered closer. “‘Do I get one of those when I order an old-fashioned?’ No way.” She clicked out. “You know that book you left me? There’s this shower scene...”
Ruby
I was plastered to Tenor when he carried me into the house. My mind was foggy, but my body hummed. I clamped my legs around his hips.
He stopped at the island and kissed his way down my neck. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”
“I was scared.” I angled my head to make room for him. Why was I still dressed?
Why was he still dressed? I bunched up the fabric of his shirt to drag it over his head.
He straightened and gripped my wrists. “Not yet.”
My buzz faded. “Why?”
He pressed a firm kiss to my mouth. “Because I’m going to feed you first.”
We hadn’t been together for almost a month, and he didn’t want to have sex? “We’re not going to...”
He gripped my hips and lifted me to the edge of the island. My legs were spread, putting the bulge of his erection right at my center. I groaned and rocked against it.
His pupils blew wide. “We’re most definitely going to, but you’re still drunk. And we should talk first.”
Couldn’t we talk after? Was he second-guessing himself? Now that he had me, he wondered what the urgency had been. Maybe seeing Katrina again?—
He ground into me. “Get out of that pretty head of yours. I want to do this right. You’re worth it.”
That fissure in my heart closed completely. I cupped both sides of his face. “That book was so clever. I still have it.”
His lips pulled down. “I threw it away. It was useless.”
“Your sisters dug it out and talked to me about what you went through. They helped me see I wasn’t being a doormat if we tried again.”
He feathered a hand over my cheek. “They didn’t tell me.”
“Well, they brought me the book, and I read it last weekend. Good choice. You had to special order it, didn’t you?”
He dipped his head. “I stayed up all night reading it to get it to you in time for your shift.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and planted a kiss on him. He stuffed his hands in my hair and devoured me. If we weren’t going to have sex yet, I’d take this. We could make out for hours until I sobered up.
My stomach growled, and he pulled away. He swiped his thumb over my lower lip. “Food. Since you so valiantly defended Mama’s cooking, I can throw her lasagna in.”
I groaned. “I haven’t had a good meal in weeks.”
He smiled and made sure I was steady before retrieving a small pan from the fridge and tossing it into the oven. Then he took a glass from the cupboard and poured some water from the pitcher he kept in the fridge.
He stopped between my legs. “Here. Drink up.”
“Allen pours them strong, but Madison cut me off.” I gulped the whole glass down and set it beside me. “So. My dad?”
“I can tolerate him.”
I brushed my hands over his shoulders, down his arms, and clasped his hands. “I really am sorry that my dad was your bully.”
“Small world.” He gently squeezed my fingers. “But it turns out I got the very best of him. Seeing him again made me face my past and reevaluate it. How I reacted and why.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I know.” His brow furrowed. “I think I always felt like I did or that I should’ve done things differently. Like I should’ve done more, reacted like my brothers would’ve, and when I didn’t, it meant I was the weak Bailey.” He rolled a shoulder. “Instead, I’d rather he directed his meanness toward me than anyone else. I had my family. Others didn’t. And it wasn’t like I couldn’t see the connection between him and my dating life, but after Katrina, I doubled down on being me. Yet somewhere in my brain, I was convinced nothing mattered. No one would really want me.”
“I want you. If we do nothing but go to the jobs we enjoy and come home and read and paint models, I’ll be so damn happy.”
“I thought that was exactly the life you’d eventually run from. Somehow, I thought I wouldn’t react appropriately and you’d leave.” He lifted me off the counter and I hugged myself to him. He took me to the couch and sprawled over the cushions with me on top of him. Need swept through me. Being on top of his hard body made mine go haywire.
“I just need to soak you in.” His hands roamed up and down my back. “I missed you.”
“I couldn’t read romance anymore.”
He reached over to the coffee table and grabbed a book from a small stack I hadn’t noticed. “I have some for you.”
I pushed up, my hair tumbling over my shoulders. Without getting off him, I flipped through the books he had. Various space marine romances greeted me, including two others from the series of the first book I’d read at his house. He had tabs in each book.
“I can’t believe you did all this.” I selected a book and curled into the nook created by him and the back of the couch.
He plucked the book from my hands and opened it to a tabbed and highlighted page. “‘You were my everything, and I took you for granted.’”
“Tenor.” I flattened my hand on his hard chest.
“I wanted to say so much to you, and I was afraid I wouldn’t get the chance.” He paged further into the book. “‘You’ve sucked me into your orbit and I don’t want to be freed.’ You’ll have to excuse the space metaphors, but I wanted to get books that were relevant to us.”
“I like them.”
He flipped to another page. “If you like that, how about this one? ‘You are my atmosphere, the very air I breathe.’”
“It’s perfect.”
He turned to a new page. “‘Do you want me on my knees for you? Because I will drop right now, honeybee. I will beg for you, but it’ll come at a cost. I’ll give you everything you want, but you’ll come with my name on your lips. It’ll be your sweet nectar on my tongue each time I have a craving. You will spread for me and you will need it. You will need me. But I’ll be right there, on my knees and waiting for you.’”
Heat flushed through my veins and wicked under my skin. I scissored my legs, desperate to ease the ache between my thighs. “Oh god, Tenor. I’m not going to make it until after dinner.”
“You’ll make it.” His deep voice was a rumble under my ear. “And I’ll be right there, waiting for you. On my knees.”