Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
RUBY
“ W ho pissed in your Cheerios?”
Jerking her head up from the glass she’d been cleaning, Ruby glared at Tara, Club BDE’s head bartender. “What do you mean?”
Tara raised a single dark eyebrow and Ruby had to fight the urge to squirm. Despite being several inches shorter than Ruby even in heels, Tara had Domme energy in spades and it was currently all directed solely at Ruby. “I mean, who got you so riled up that you’re slamming my glasses around and snarling at all our customers. Do you need to go home?”
“No, ma’am.”
Approval lit in Tara’s eyes. “Good girl. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
The denial burned on Ruby’s tongue, but one look at Tara’s expression told her that was a bad move. “We have customers.”
Eyebrow raising even higher, Tara glanced around at the deserted bar. It wasn’t even eight-thirty, which meant that while they’d had a couple early birds the club was relatively empty. Things wouldn’t pick up for another two hours or so, and they both knew it. “I think we can manage,” Tara said, her tone dry.
“You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”
“Nope. And I can be annoying as fuck when I want something, so you might as well save us both the trouble and just tell me now.”
“Oooh, what’s Tara getting all bossy about?” Practically bouncing with excitement, Lottie hopped up onto one of the bar stools.
“Ruby here has a bug up her ass, and she was just getting ready to tell me all about it,” Tara said, her lips pulling up in a smirk before Ruby could tell Lottie it was nothing and hopefully send her on her way.
“Ah. Is it a bug named Beckett Stone, by any chance?”
Scowling, Ruby slapped her towel down on the already sparkling bar. Nervous energy buzzed along her skin and she needed to do something to work some of it off. “Yes.”
Lottie’s expression shifted from excited mischief to sympathy in a heartbeat. “What happened? You guys seemed fine after your scene last night.”
“Wait.” Eyes wide, Tara held up a hand. “You and Beckett finally stopped fucking around and scened together?”
“Yes. It’s a long story that basically starts and ends with me being a dumbass.”
The worried look that passed between her friends didn’t go unnoticed. “Did you guys have a fight or something?” Lottie asked.
“No. Not really. Well, not at all.” Blowing out a deep breath, Ruby weighed exactly how much to tell them. “Let’s just say, he reminded me why I don’t date men like him.”
Tara’s eyes narrowed, fire snapping and turning the pale hazel to amber. “Ruby. Did he hurt you? I swear to god, I don’t care how long he’s been a member of this club, I’ll get him booted so fucking fast?—”
“No, no, nothing like that.” Though it did help her nerves a bit to know Tara was so ready to go to battle for her considering they’d only known each other a few months. “He didn’t really do anything wrong .”
Lottie reached across the bar to give Ruby’s hand a comforting squeeze. “What did you mean when you said he reminded you why you don’t date ‘men like him’? Men like what?”
“Men with more money than God.” The words burst out of her, and she was too tired, too mad to hold them back any longer. “Men who think they can flash their black Amex and women will just fall at their feet. Men who think they can use their money and their connections to get whatever the fuck they want.”
Face carefully blank, Lottie pulled her hand away. “So you don’t like rich people.”
Shit. Sometimes she forgot Lottie and Braden fell into the ‘more money than god’ category. Guilt immediately pricked at her chest. “That’s not what I said.”
“Okay, timeout.” Holding her hands up in a T formation, Tara pinned them each with a stern look before pointing a finger at Lottie. “This isn’t about you, Charlotte, so why don’t you let Ruby explain before you decide to get your feelings hurt.”
Pink blossomed on Lottie’s cheeks. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good girl. Ruby?”
Taking that as her cue to continue, Ruby sighed. “It’s going to sound stupid when I say it out loud.”
“That’s okay. There’s no judgment here.” The statement was delivered firmly, with another pointed look for Lottie who rolled her eyes and held her hands up in surrender.
“Yes, yes, no judgment. Sheesh.”
“He’s come into the coffee shop where I work a couple times now. And today he came in, and we flirted a bit, and when he paid he left me a tip. Like a really big fucking tip.”
Lottie wasn’t quite able to hide the confusion on her face. “That… bastard?”
“I told you it was going to sound stupid,” Ruby grumbled.
“How did the tip make you feel?”
Ruby glanced over at Tara, who was watching her with her head tilted slightly to the side. “You sound like my therapist.”
“Therapist, bartender. Tomato, tomahto,” Tara said with a grin.
“Well, Dr. Tara, it made me feel… angry. After I got done having a panic attack over it.” A glance up showed they were both still watching, waiting. “I dated a guy who used to do stuff like that. He’d throw his money around to try and like, buy my compliance, I guess. It… ended really badly.”
“Oh honey.” Shifting back into concerned friend mode, Lottie leaned in. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Mostly. More confused than anything now.”
“Why confused?” Tara asked.
“Because I still really fucking like him.” There. That wasn’t so difficult to admit. “And I was really looking forward to seeing him tonight until he started flashing his money around. Now I just… ugh. I don’t know what to do.”
“Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two options.” Tara held up a finger. “One, you tell him where he can stuff his great big wads of cash and you refuse to have anything to do with him again.”
That was the option she’d been leaning toward for most of the day. But the more time she had to think about it, the less it appealed. “What’s option number two?”
Tara held up a second finger, accompanied by a raise of her brow. “Grow the fuck up and talk to him. I’m not saying you have to dump your trauma all over him, but just tell him that it makes you uncomfortable and ask him politely but firmly not to shower you with money.”
“What if he doesn’t listen?”
“Then he isn’t half the man I’ve always known him to be and he doesn’t deserve you.”
Some of the jagged pieces inside her slid back into place and Ruby nodded. “Right. I deserve someone who listens to me and respects me.”
“Damn right you do.”
Okay. She had a plan, and she could breathe again. “So I guess now I just have to keep myself occupied until he actually shows up.”
“Oh, that reminds me!” Lottie’s expression turned sheepish. “I was actually coming over here to tell you that Beckett won’t be around until later. Daddy is on his way to grab some takeout and then he’s heading over to have dinner with him and Ice and I think Holden.”
Alarm bells rang in Ruby’s head. “Is Beckett okay?”
“Daddy shut me down when I tried to ask what was going on.” Brows furrowed, Lottie pouted, looking rather put out that she’d been denied the gossip. “He would have told me if it was a 9-1-1 type situation, though, so I assume he’s not hurt or anything.”
“If you hear anything, you’ll tell me?”
With another of those sympathetic smiles, Lottie patted Ruby’s hand. “The second I hear something, you’ll be the first to know.”
That would have to do. For now.
Beckett
The friends and the food helped, as much as he hated to admit it. Mostly he hated to admit it because that also meant admitting Ice had been right about him dropping.
And because if he’d dropped, then that meant Ruby meant a hell of a lot more to him than he’d initially realized.
What the hell was he supposed to do about that?
“Those noodles are gonna jump off your plate and run for the hills if you keep glaring at them like that.” Ice’s amused voice cut through the noise in Beckett’s brain and he jerked his head up to find all three of his closest friends watching him with amused expressions.
“Shut up, Ice,” Beckett grumbled, stabbing at the noodles.
With an overly dramatic sigh, Ice shook his head. “Still grumpy. Guess he’s not ready for the club yet.”
Beside Ice, Holden chuckled and scooped up another forkful of his drunken noodles. “If that’s the new rule, you and I are never getting into the club again.”
Ice glared at him. “I am not grumpy.”
“You’re both grumpy as fuck,” Braden said with a roll of his eyes. “But if I banned you for being grumpy, I’d have to ban my brothers, too.”
“I am not grumpy. I’m a jaded rockstar. There’s a difference.”
“Uh-huh,” Braden and Holden replied in unison, and Beckett couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole argument.
Rising to his feet, Beckett picked up his half-empty bowl to carry it into the kitchen. His stomach was too jittery to eat anything else, so he might as well get to the club so he could talk to Ruby. “If you’re all done arguing over who’s grumpiest, we should get going.”
“Hold up.” Ice’s eyes narrowed. “I was only half joking about you not being ready for the club. Serious question, how are you feeling?”
“Better.” He rolled his eyes when Ice continued to glare at him. “Seriously. The food helped. You guys helped more. I’m still not sure what the fuck I’m supposed to do about Ruby, but I’ll figure it out. Just need a plan.”
“That plan better not include breaking her heart.” There was steel beneath Braden’s words. “If you don’t want something real with her, then be straight with her.”
“I don’t know what I want.” Which, he was man enough to admit, was the real problem. All his life he’d known exactly what he wanted and how to get it. Ruby was an unknown, and he didn’t deal well with unknowns. “But I’m not trying to hurt her, Braden. I just… don’t know if I can give her anything more than what we already have.”
“Why not?” It was Holden who asked, his brows slightly drawn together in that way he had when he was trying to piece together a particularly difficult puzzle. It was an expression he wore often when he was around Frankie, which normally amused Beckett to no end.
Having that expression aimed in his direction, however, was rather unnerving. There were things he’d never told any of them, even Braden, who he’d known for years. Things that were for him, and nobody else.
“Ruby’s a brat,” he said with a shrug, reaching for the easy answer instead. “I’m the kind of man who wants complete control, at all times, and I don’t know that she’d be willing or able to give me that. We aren’t a good fit.”
“You seemed like a damn good fit last night,” Ice argued.
“For a scene here or there, sure. But not for anything long term.”
“Then our deal is off.” Jaw tight, Holden ran a hair through his silver hair. “I’ll call Preston for you in the morning, see if he’d be interested in a meeting. I’m not letting you put that girl through the wringer just to make a point.”
“Even without the deal, I’d still want to scene with her again. I just need to talk to her, make sure we’re both on the same page about just being play partners.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something rather obvious?” Braden’s brow raised. “You said she was pissed at you when you ran into her at your office building. Don’t you think you should get to the bottom of that?”
Braden had a point. They couldn’t indulge the kind of play they both enjoyed if there were a bunch of negative emotions between them. And, more to the point, he needed to know he could trust her to tell him when he’d done something she didn’t like. Honesty and communication were at the heart of their lifestyles, even if they weren’t in a relationship.
A little voice in the back of his head told him he was lying to himself. That his reasons for wanting to know what the fuck he’d done to piss her off ran much deeper than just being her sometimes play partner.
“Don’t worry about that,” Beckett said, ignoring that annoying little voice. “I have every intention of finding out what’s wrong with our Ruby.”
That much, at least, was the truth.