Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
AMARI
RED LIGHT
Since I was an early riser, my eyes popped open around 5 a.m. To my delight, the lights and heat were back on, and Ruby’s house warmed quickly.
I stretched my sated body and left Ruby in the bed.
She slept peacefully under the covers with an angelic face that made me want to carry her to my house and set her up as a permanent fixture there.
Not yet. The words entered my spirit as I stared at the love bites I placed on her relaxed shoulders.
I walked to the bathroom and turned on the light, wiping matter from the corners of my eyes and brushing my teeth.
I hummed romantic Christmas tunes softly as I reminisced about my night with Ruby.
She was unexpected and delightful, satisfying me beyond my wildest imagination and leaving me with a peace I wasn’t used to feeling around women with lots of baggage.
Never had I encountered such a giving woman in bed. Ruby’s witty conversation kept me alert. She was everything I thought she might be and a lot I didn’t expect her to be. She was created to receive the best things in life.
Too many men targeted nurturing women and sucked the life out of them. On the other hand, I gave too much, with women like Lise taking as much as she could until she bled me dry.
That was why Ruby and I worked. We could protect each other’s weaknesses and maximize our strengths.
With our track records, there were bound to be some issues, but our core was good.
Whatever came our way could be worked out logically.
The hard knocks of past hurts would shield us from throwing too many darts at each other. We would be a team in every way.
I exited the bathroom and walked downstairs. When I saw the paper full of to-dos on the kitchen table along with my work order, I picked it up and chuckled. The only work I got done was getting Ruby to cream for me. After all the efforts she put into rocking my world, I owed her money.
For the next few hours, I checked all the light fixtures in the house, replaced blown bulbs, and tightened up loose doors and floorboards. When I heard Ruby’s door open and her soft footsteps descending the stairs, I’d knocked out many of the smaller tasks on my list.
“Good morning, sleepy head.” I placed my hammer on the floor and rose.
When Ruby threw a shy smile my way, I winked at her.
“Hello, handsome.” She looked around the room and nodded at my tools strewn across the floor before eyeing the fresh pot of coffee that I brewed in her Keurig. “Somebody woke up with something on their mind.”
I moved to the table and picked up my steaming hot cup of coffee.
“Because of you, I have a lot of things on my mind.”
Ruby floated toward me and reached for my cup before taking a sip with her lips planted at the exact spot where I drank.
“Hmm, . . . good and hot with just the right amount of cream.”
“Are you talking about the coffee or me?” I grinned hard.
“Both.” She spoke the word quickly before lifting the cup to her wet lips again.
I reached for her waist and kissed her neck.
“Be thankful I can still focus. Somebody threw that ass back on me so good I’m lucky not to be in a sex coma.”
Ruby set her cup on the table and gave me a loose hug.
“Whoever that is needs to stop distracting my handyman.”
Something about the formal way Ruby said handyman made my ears perk up. Was she distancing herself from me?
As if she sensed a shift in my mood, she gave me a tight smile and dropped her head. She bit the corner of her lip and rested her hand on my arm.
“I had a great time with you, Amari, but let’s call it what it was, a one-night stand.” She gestured around us.
Never had a woman dismissed me so quickly and blatantly. That was exactly what Lise did to me over and over. Despite priding myself as a level-headed guy who was slow to jump to conclusions, I couldn’t push offense aside.
“Is that all I am to you? Your handyman?” I spoke the words in a low voice so I didn’t come across as distraught as I felt.
Despite that, my voice exuded a sharpness I didn’t recognize.
Ruby shook her head.
“No. That’s not what I meant.”
“What exactly did you mean?”
She turned her head toward the frosty kitchen window and sighed. “I need time. That’s all.”
I was crushed. It sounded as if she wanted to be done with me.
“I’ll finish up and see if I can give you space too.”
“Really? Is that how we’re going to end a beautiful time together? I thought we were on the same page. Why are you moving so fast?”
Because I’ve been waiting for a woman like you my whole life.
“Why are you moving so slowly?”
“Because . . . I don’t trust my judgment.”
When Ruby spoke those words, my hard heart cracked.
No matter how put-together she appeared to be, Ruby hadn’t been treated consistently well by the man who vowed to cover her in sickness and in health until they died.
It didn’t matter that I spoke flowery words.
She was an action kind of woman who needed someone to show up for her every day, not just in the dark or when she offered her body to them.
She needed someone to be her rock on hard days when she was most vulnerable too.
Without that, I was no better than one of her sex toys.
I finally got it through my thick skull what Ruby meant.
We may have made intense love, but I had to earn the prize that she was.
She was more than an easy lay. She needed to be cherished and bask in that soft life I bragged to her about.
I knew what I had to do, and I was determined to do right by Ruby Starks.