Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
RUBY
I t was the warmth that woke her. Soft and gentle on her skin, a tender caress that pulled her lovingly to the land of the waking.
Rolling onto her back, she grinned up at the ceiling as she stretched her sore muscles. Beckett had lived up to his promises and then some after their snack break, and there were a dozen delicious little twinges making themselves known all over her body. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so wonderfully used by a man.
It was definitely a feeling she could get used to.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand beside her, which was interesting because she didn’t remember getting it out of her purse the night before. She’d been far too distracted by Beckett to even think of it.
Which meant he’d put it there for her, and found a charger for her so the battery was full when she woke up.
Ignoring the little flutter in her chest at his thoughtfulness, she picked up the phone—and immediately groaned at the message on the screen.
It was from Jacqueline, her contact at the temp agency she occasionally worked with, begging her to fill in for someone at one of their client’s offices. It wasn’t the usual way things were done, but Charleston was often more like a small town than an actual city, and Jacqueline seemed to have a soft spot for Ruby and went out of her way to give her as much flexibility as possible with their arrangement.
In return, Ruby made it a point to step in whenever she was available, especially when they were in a tight spot. And judging by the tone of Jacqueline’s text, they were in a very tight spot.
But today was supposed to be her day off. Her one day off a month, which she deliberately gave herself as a reward for working her ass off the other twenty-nine or thirty days of the month. And she’d so been looking forward to doing absolutely nothing all day.
On the other hand, she could use the money, and Jacqueline was obviously desperate.
Dammit.
Ruby
I need an hour. Send me the address.
Rolling out of bed with a sigh, she headed for the bathroom attached to Beckett’s bedroom. Before she’d fallen asleep the night before, he’d told her he would probably be gone by the time she woke up, but to make use of whatever she needed in the morning, an offer she appreciated even more now since it would save her a trip back to her apartment which was well out of the way of her impromptu commute. The clothes in her go-bag were more casual than business, but they’d have to do.
After tracking down the fresh towel and washcloth he’d laid out for her, she stepped into the beautifully tiled shower—the beautifully tiled shower that was the size of her entire bathroom in her apartment—and after a few minutes of studying the complicated touchpad in front of her, pressed a button she hoped would turn on the water.
And let out a scream as it attacked her from all sides.
There were, she realized after the initial shock, approximately a dozen jets hidden in the walls of his shower. Which was… amazing, actually.
Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back as the rainfall shower head above her sprinkled water over her and the jets beat at the soreness in her muscles.
For the first time in years, she found herself missing the life she’d once had. A life that had provided her with luxuries she could no longer afford.
Luxuries like giant showers with a ridiculous number of high-powered jets that turned your muscles to jelly.
But there was danger in getting too used to such luxuries, as she well knew, so forced herself to hurry through her shower and turn the water off, no matter how badly she simply wanted to wallow in the pleasure of it.
Wrapped in an impossibly large, impossibly soft towel, she went in search of a spare toothbrush. Beckett seemed like the kind of guy to be prepared for anything, and it honestly surprised her a little that he didn’t have a sleepover kit or something waiting for her.
Either he wasn’t as prepared for overnight guests as she thought, or the extra toothbrushes were hidden somewhere she had no hope of finding them. Which left her with only one option, and even though it made her cringe a little, she couldn’t not brush her teeth. Making a mental note to let him know in case he wanted to replace it, she squeezed some toothpaste onto his brush and hurriedly scrubbed at her teeth.
A quick glance at her phone told her she had approximately five minutes to finish getting dressed and get her ass out the door. Which she just barely managed, with her hair piled in a wet messy bun on top of her head.
She paused on the front steps, wondering if she should message him about locking up since she didn’t have a key. And nearly jumped out of her skin when his voice came out of nowhere.
“Forget something Ruby Red?”
“Jesus Christ, Beckett! Are you spying on me?” The thought of him watching her, without her knowing, sent a chill up her spine.
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “The doorbell has a motion sensor and a camera. I got a notification someone was on the front steps and saw you looking rather adorably befuddled.”
“I do not look befuddled.” Okay, she probably did, considering she was feeling pretty damn ‘befuddled’. “I was just trying to figure out if I needed to lock up somehow.”
“Ah. Thank you for thinking of it, but I’ll take care of it.”
Of course he could lock and unlock his whole damn house without even being there. Why wouldn’t a man with more money than god be able to control his whole life from a distance?
Because the thought made her more uncomfortable than she cared to admit, she shoved it to the back of her mind. “Okay. Um. Thanks for last night. It was fun.”
“You’re welcome, Ruby Red. I have to get going, Jonas is in my office tapping his watch and glaring at me. I’ll see you tonight, let’s say around seven?”
That should give her plenty of time to swing by her apartment after her shift for a quick change into more club appropriate clothes, so she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl. Enjoy your day off, Ruby. Get some rest. I have plans for you tonight.”
“Ah… about that. I sorta got called into work.”
Her confession was met with silence, and she shifted nervously from foot to foot as she waited for a response. “Beckett? Are you there?’
More silence. Which meant he’d probably hung up, or closed the app, or however the fuck those things worked.
Oh, well. She’d tell him about getting called into work when she saw him at the club later tonight. Maybe he’d feel sorry for her and fuck the stress away.
Dreaming of all the delicious ways her ‘Daddy’ might help her unwind after her day, she jogged down the steps to her car and headed to work.
Beckett
More than once throughout the course of the day, Beckett found himself reaching for his phone to text Ruby. It was the kind of thing he’d do if he was her Daddy, and he had to remind himself every single time he picked up his phone that he wasn’t responsible for her. And even when he managed to convince himself that he should check in on her, just as her play partner, he had to remind himself that she had been very adamant about their dynamic not spilling out into the ‘real world’.
But no matter how much he lectured himself, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Wondering about her. What she was doing, how she was feeling. If she was getting enough rest or if she was finding a million things to do to keep herself busy instead.
That last led to many, many fantasies of how he’d punish her for not taking care of herself. A spanking, naturally, and then he’d make her sit on her red-hot bottom to either write lines or an essay about the importance of self-care. After which they’d cuddle on the couch with her favorite dinner, watching a movie she picked out.
Of course, he wouldn’t actually do any of those things. That was how he’d behave if she was his, but since he wasn’t looking to be her Daddy outside of the club, those fantasies would have to remain firmly in his head.
Still, he was looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble she might get herself into at the club tonight. With a brat like Ruby, the odds were in his favor that she’d try to push him at least a little bit when they were at the club. Especially if she was still trying to win her bet or whatever it was with Frankie.
Which is how he found himself sitting at a booth, sipping a bottle of water a full half-hour before they were scheduled to meet. Loud laughter caught his attention and he looked over to the stairs, where Lottie and Frankie were making their way up to the restaurant, their arms linked.
But no Ruby.
Dammit.
Lottie spotted him, and her entire face lit up as she pointed him out to Frankie. And the next thing he knew, they were descending on his table, sliding into the booth across from him with twin expressions of barely concealed excitement.
“Ladies.” He kept his tone even as he greeted them. “What have I done to deserve the pleasure of such company this evening?”
Across from him, Frankie rolled her eyes as Lottie giggled into her hand. “Can’t two girls just sit and chat with a friend?” Frankie asked, her tone borderline defiant which amused him to no end since he knew damn well it wasn’t him she was rebelling against.
“Of course you can. It’s just unusual to see you without your entourage.”
Holding up her fingers, Lottie counted off. “Ivy and Delia are both working tonight. Silver and Ice are running late, which means Silver either got herself in big trouble or Ice took one look at her in her club gear and jumped her bones. And Ruby… well, we were hoping you knew where Ruby was, actually. She’s not answering her texts.”
The hairs on the back of Beckett’s neck stood up straight. “What do you mean she’s not answering you?”
“Relax,” Frankie said with another eyeroll. “We added her to a group text this morning for Lottie’s wedding stuff and she hasn’t checked in. But maybe she’s just not a big texter. We thought you might know.”
“I don’t, unfortunately.” It was unfortunate for him as well, seeing as how their concern had activated the ‘Daddy’ in him and his imagination was running wild with different scenarios.
It was a bit of a drive from his house back into town. Had he heard from her at all after she’d gotten in the car?
Who was her emergency contact? Would they even be able to find out if she’d been in an accident? What if she was lying in some hospital somewhere, alone and in pain, because he hadn’t bothered to check in with her all day?
Get it together, Stone. She’s probably just busy.
“Whoa, whoa, hey. You okay, Beckett?” Lottie’s concerned voice jolted him out of his spiraling thoughts and back to the present.
“Yes. Sorry, just… zoned out for a second.” Glancing down at his watch, he grimaced at the placement of the hands. He still had another fifteen minutes before she was due to show up. “She’s supposed to meet me here at seven. I suppose we’ll have our answer then.” At which point he had every intention of impressing on her the importance of not worrying the people who cared about her.
“Oh, perfect! I’m going to grab us some food, then. I’m starving ,” Lottie exclaimed with even more than her usual dramatics as she slipped from the booth. “You want some of those burnt ends we had the other day, Frankie?”
“I’m not really hungry.” The edges of Frankie’s smile were tight. “So get whatever you want.”
Lottie’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but then her expression cleared, leaving him wondering if he’d imagined her response as she flashed him a bright smile. “Any requests, Bex?”
Oh, absolutely not. It had been bad enough when Ruby had used that nickname to taunt him in a scene. He was damn well not going to have the whole club using it. “That is not my name, Charlotte.”
He’d put just enough steel behind the response to have red flooding Lottie’s cheeks. “Sorry. But, um, I should probably warn you it’s catching on.”
“Is it, now? Well you can let your fellow brats know that if I catch them using that nickname, it will be Ruby’s ass paying the price.”
“That’s not fair!”
“Seems entirely fair to me.” Not only because it was actually Ruby’s fault the nickname was catching on, but hopefully her fellow submissives would likely feel guilty enough about getting her in trouble to stop using it. If not, it gave him an excuse to punish his naughty brat.
Win-win for him, yet again.
“Ugh, fine . Doms always ruin all our fun,” Lottie grumbled, turning on her heel to stomp away.
That was one crisis averted. Now, if he could just lay eyes on his Ruby, he’d be a very satisfied Daddy indeed.