Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
RUBY
“ H ead’s up, Ruby.”
Jerking her gaze up at Tara’s warning, it didn’t take more than a second for Ruby to identify the source. Beckett was headed straight for her, with Ice, Braden, and Holden all just a step behind him.
Jesus, they made a picture. All that fierce, masculine energy in one small group was potent. Not to mention the fact they were all hot as fuck.
Beckett being the hottest by a mile, as far as she was concerned. With those dark eyes that saw far more than she was comfortable with and the almost boyish good looks he’d held onto even into his late thirties, how could she not feel something when he looked at her the way he was looking at her right now? Like he wanted to devour her or spank her or bend her over the bar and fuck her. Maybe all of the above, not necessarily in that order.
“Tara, can you spare Ruby for about an hour?” The question came from Braden, but Ruby knew damn well it actually came from the man currently watching her with all the intensity of a lion stalking a gazelle.
“Depends. Does Ruby want to be spared for an hour?”
God bless Tara.
One eyebrow raised in question, Braden shifted his attention away from his head bartender. “Ruby?”
Fuck. She wasn’t quite ready for a showdown with Beckett, but if she put it off she’d just have to deal with him watching her all night. And she wasn’t sure her nerves could handle that. “I’ve got a fifteen-minute break coming up anyway. I shouldn’t be gone longer than that.”
“Take more time if you need it. That’s not a request, Ruby.”
She wouldn’t need it, unless she wasted half her break time arguing with Braden, so she gave him a single sharp nod of agreement. “Yes, Sir.”
Stepping out from behind the bar, she glanced over at Beckett. “I guess we need to talk.”
“We do. I had one of the DMs hold an aftercare room for us downstairs.”
The fact that he’d gone out of his way to find them a private place for their talk probably shouldn’t have made her heart stutter the way it did. But the damn thing always did seem to have a mind of its own.
Stuttering turned to racing when Beckett placed his hand on the small of her back and kept it firmly planted there as they made their way down to the pit. To the soft, romantic parts of her it felt possessive. A claiming of sorts.
It didn’t seem to matter that she didn’t want to be claimed. And she sure as fuck didn’t want some over the top, jealous, rich asshole getting all growly and possessive with her.
She didn’t .
They were led to the same room Ivy had taken her to the night before, which was oddly calming in its own way. She knew this space, she’d been cared for and showered with affection in this space. It was her space. Not his.
She held onto that comfort as the door clicked shut behind them. Moving to the middle of the room, she turned to face him. Beckett didn’t make any move to close the distance between them, and she tried to tell herself it didn’t make her ache to have him so close and yet so far away.
“We need to talk about today,” she said, grateful her voice didn’t waver.
“Yes, we do.” Now he did take a step closer, and she just barely resisted the urge to move back. “Does it bother you when I come to your cafe?”
“No. It bothers me when you throw your money at me like I’m some kind of common whore.”
Okay, well, she hadn’t meant to say it quite like that .
Eyes narrowing dangerously, Beckett took another step forward. “Is that really what you think I was doing?”
Clasping her hands in front of her, she twisted her fingers together, grateful for the bite of pain that kept her grounded in the moment. “No, not really,” she admitted with a sigh. “But I would appreciate it if you refrained from leaving such a ridiculous tip in the future.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked you to.”
Pausing his slow stalking, Beckett blinked, looking for a moment like he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. “All right.”
“All right?” Now it was her turn to question if she’d heard him correctly. “Really? Just like that?”
“Yes. If it makes you that uncomfortable, I won’t do it again. I’d appreciate an explanation, but I can respect that you aren’t ready to give me one yet.”
Yet . The word hung between them, heavy with promise. “Well… thanks. I appreciate you being so, um, amenable.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up in a smirk and he resumed his slow trek forward. “Amenable?”
“Yes. Amenable.”
“I can’t say that’s a word I’ve heard applied to me very often.”
Gee, I wonder why . “It happens to fit this specific situation.”
The aftercare room wasn’t a particularly large space. A fact she was regretting as his next step put her within arms’ reach. “I suppose it does. But I would warn you not to get used to it, Ruby Red.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
“Maybe you should be.” Another step closer. And now he lifted his hand, brushing his fingers down the bare skin of her upper arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake. “I’m not looking for anything serious, Ruby.”
“Who said I was?” She wasn’t, and the ache in her chest had nothing to do with his declaration.
Liar.
“You should be,” he said softly, still running the tips of his fingers up and down her arm. “You deserve someone who will care for you. Who will keep you safe. Who will love and cherish you. I’m not that man. I can’t be that man for you, Ruby.”
“I’m not interested in being cherished or protected, Beckett.” I’m not interested in being controlled.
“What are you interested in, then?”
Actions, they said, spoke louder than words. With that in mind, she shifted, just enough to press herself against him, looping her arms around his neck as she pushed up onto her toes. “This.”
Unlike when he’d kissed her the night before, she didn’t start gentle. She poured every ounce of need and heat she’d been feeling since their scene into the kiss, telling him without words exactly what she wanted from him.
She wanted the pleasure he’d promised her. She wanted more of the pain he’d already given her. She wanted to let her mind empty of everything that wasn’t him, the way it had during her punishment.
Strong hands slid down her body, reigniting the fire in her veins as he moved over her corset, under the short skirt she’d paired with it to grip her ass in a tight, possessive hold.
Pain flared, not quite as strong as it had been right after her caning but strong enough to have her hissing against his lips.
His chest vibrated with laughter a moment before he lifted his head to grin down at her. “Poor baby. Is your bottom still sore?”
“You know it’s still sore, you?—”
“Careful.” He gave her ass another hard squeeze, this time in warning. “Just because you aren’t mine doesn’t mean I’ll tolerate outright rudeness. So unless you want to go home again tonight without any relief, you’ll watch your mouth, Ruby Red.”
“How do you know I didn’t relieve myself already?”
“Did you?”
She hadn’t, because she’d wanted his hands on her more than she’d wanted her own. But telling him that would only feed his ego. “Guess you’ll never know,” she said instead with a flash of a smile.
“Hmm. Then I guess I’ll just have to assume the worst. It’s a pity, really, because I was so looking forward to finding out how your pussy tastes when you come all over my tongue.”
Dammit. She hadn’t been expecting that, and now that she knew what she was leaving on the table, it was tempting to tell him the truth.
Even more tempting when he released his hold on her ass to cup her face in his hands, his dark eyes boring into hers. “Tell the truth, Ruby Red. Were you a good girl for me last night?”
Yes, Daddy . She’d never actually used that title with anyone before, but just then she wanted nothing more than to be Daddy’s good girl. She tried not to think about what it meant that she was wanting things from him she’d never wanted or needed from anyone else. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“I could force the truth out of you,” he said, his lips curving up in a wicked smile. “I could take you out to the pit, strap you to a cross and eat your sweet little pussy until you’re begging me to let you come. You’d crumble in no time.”
“So why don’t you?”
“I want the truth from you, but more than that I want you to want to be honest with me. Honesty matters to me, Ruby.”
Ugh. She could have held out if he’d demanded the truth. But that simple request for honesty cut right through her, straight to the core. Where she did, as he’d already noticed, genuinely desire to be a good girl.
To be his good girl.
Dammit.
“I haven’t touched myself since our scene. Sir.”
The smile that lit his face might have driven her to her knees if he hadn’t been holding her up. “Good girl. Would you like your reward now or would you prefer to come home with me after your shift?”
Her body was screaming at her to get on with it already, but the offer to go home with him piqued her curiosity. They’d both already said they didn’t want anything serious.
So what did he want?
“What does going home with you mean, exactly?”
“It means spending the night in my bed where I can properly worship this gorgeous body of yours the way it was meant to be worshiped.”
“The whole night?”
“Yes. Which is more a matter of logistics. You’ll be in no shape to drive once I’m through with you, Ruby Red.”
Need flared inside her, making her pussy clench instinctively. Tomorrow was one of her rare days off from all three of her regular jobs. And she had a change of clothes in the go bag she kept at the club on the off chance she did end up spending the night somewhere other than her house. So the logistics of it, as he’d said, were on her side.
It was just one night. It wasn’t like he’d proposed or something.
Just one night together, scratching a mutual itch. Nothing more.
“All right. I’ll come home with you tonight.”
Beckett
He wasn’t a reckless man. And yet here he was, waiting around at the club for Ruby to finish her shift so he could take her home with him. To his space. Where he never took anyone.
Reckless. In more ways than one.
And yet.
He’d planted himself at the bar, nursing a single glass of whiskey for the past hour while he watched Ruby and Tara work. Ruby, for her part, was actually doing a decent job of pretending he didn’t exist.
Tara, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped shooting him sidelong glares from the moment he’d sat down. He could only assume Ruby had told her something about how he’d upset her today and she was feeling protective.
His instincts proved right when Ruby took a break to head for the ladies’ room and Tara planted herself in front of his seat at the bar, a look on her face that he imagined would make any submissive’s knees turn to jelly in an instant.
He admired that about her.
“Something on your mind, barkeep?” he asked, deliberately keeping his tone light and casual as he took another small sip of whiskey.
“What’s the deal with you and my Ruby?”
“Your Ruby?”
“She works for me, so she’s mine. Answer the question, Beckett.”
Because he appreciated the fact that Ruby and the other girls had such a fierce protector in her, he swallowed his own annoyance. “We’re just having some fun.”
Tara’s eyes narrowed. “Does she know you’re just having some fun?”
“Yes. We’ve both been very clear about what we want from one another.” He gentled his tone. “I’m not looking to hurt her, Tara.”
“People get hurt all the time by people who don’t mean to.”
“Fair enough.” And because it was, he laid it out for her as well as he could. “But I promise I’m being as up-front with her as I know how to be, and I have made it clear I expect the same from her in return.”
For the first time in an hour, Tara’s expression eased. “She told you about her thing with money?”
“She asked me not to overtip her again, but she didn’t really explain why. Did she tell you something I should know?”
“It’s not really my place to say. Are you going to do what she asked?”
“Yes. Even if she’s not ready to tell me the why, the fact that she was honest with me and asked for what she needed is enough for me.”
“Good. I told her you would.” Tara gave a single, decisive nod before her gaze shifted to something behind Beckett. “Here comes our girl.”
A moment later, Ruby joined her behind the bar. “Sorry I was gone so long, I ran into Lottie in the bathroom and apparently she’s ready to start wedding planning and she wants me to join her and the other girls for brunch soon. To talk about her wedding.”
She looked and sounded so adorably confused, Beckett had to fight back a laugh. “That sounds like fun.”
“I guess? I’ve never really done anything like that before.”
“Never helped plan a wedding?” Wasn’t that like, a rite of passage or something?
“No.”
There was more to her answer. He could hear it in her voice. A hint of… something that instinct told him would answer a lot of the questions he deliberately hadn’t asked.
But that wasn’t any of his business, so he ignored the little niggle at the back of his brain. “Lottie will be thrilled to know she gets to pop your wedding cherry, then.”
“Haha.” Rolling her eyes, Ruby turned to Tara. “Ready to start closing things down?”
“Actually, I think I’m good here. You two go on ahead. Enjoy your night.”
Even in the dim light of the bar, Beckett could see the color blooming on Ruby’s cheeks and once again he found himself hiding his laughter at her obvious discomfort. “I can finish my shift.”
“Ruby.” Placing one hand on the bar and the other on her hip, Tara cocked an eyebrow. “If you don’t go clock out right now, I’m going to tell Master Beckett here to make sure you have a very uncomfortable ride to his house. Got it?”
“Beckett isn’t going to spank me just because you ask him to.” Ruby’s voice pitched up just slightly in a whine Beckett found ridiculously adorable.
“Maybe not,” Beckett said, pinning her with a look that had Ruby’s brows drawing together in a scowl. “But I will absolutely light your ass up for making me wait one second longer than necessary to get my mouth on your delicious pussy.”
“Oh my god !” Face flaming as red as her name, Ruby threw her hands in the air. “You’re both impossible. Fine, I’m going. Give me like fifteen minutes to change.”
“You have five. Every minute over that is a minute longer you have to wait before I allow you to come tonight.”
With a frustrated screech, Ruby stormed off toward the locker room and Beckett looked over at Tara. “I assume you don’t have the same reservations as our Ruby about large tips?”
“Hello no,” Tara said with a laugh. “Pay my rent, Daddy.”
Chuckling, he signed off on his tab with a tip large enough to have Tara’s eyes going wide when she looked at it. He slid off his stool and made his way toward the locker rooms, with a quick glance at his phone.
Four minutes, and then Ruby was all his.