Chapter 31
thirty-one
RUBY
“What time is it?” I ask, shuffling out of Maddox’s bedroom. I’m still in my wedding dress and like the last time I woke up here, my head is throbbing and my mouth, once again, feels like a dirty ashtray.
“It’s just after eight,” he says from the sofa.
“In the morning?”
“Evening.”
“I slept all day? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You needed your rest.” He hops up and walks into the kitchen and watches me as I pour myself a glass of water. “How much of last night do you remember?”
“Not much,” I tell him but going by the state of my head and mouth, I drank way too much. I don’t usually drink this much, I might have a glass or two with dinner and that’s it but in recent weeks, I’ve overindulged on several occasions.
“CliffsNotes, you spent the night drinking bottle after bottle of wine while eating cheese. You alternated between crying over Joel and lamenting it was the best thing he could have ever done to you.”
“Ohh,” I reply. “ Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine, you needed to let it all out and I’m glad I was here for you.” He smiles at me and I smile back, but I’m not sure smiling is the right thing to do right now. “How are you feeling now?”
Shrugging, I shuffle into his living area and over to the window. Looking out the glass, there’s white for as far as the eye can see. Turning around, I lean against the window. “I seem to have a habit of waking up in your bed hungover, but it’s Monday, why are you not at work?”
“The storm that came in was a nasty one. People are snowed in all over the place. Dennis is at the station and has everything under control. He said he’d call if he needed me.”
Nodding, I walk over to the fireplace, the warmth seeps into my frozen bones. Looking down at his small tree, I smile as I stare at the smallest Christmas tree I have ever seen, and then my eyes widen. Dropping down to my haunches, I reach through the tulle of my dress and carefully hold one of the ornaments in the palm of my hand.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” he says from behind me. “As soon as I saw it, I had to have it. It was like it was calling to me.”
Turning my head, I look up at him. “Mad, this matches the one Sab got me.”
“What do you mean?”
Carefully placing the ornament back in place, I awkwardly shuffle up into a standing position. I really need to get changed but it’s going to take forever to get me out of this thing. It might be gorgeous but it’s seriously impractical.
Once upright, I walk over to the counter where I left my bag. Digging in, I grab my phone out. I have several missed called and texts but I ignore them and pull up the photo of my tree. Zooming in, I flip the screen around and shove it into his face. He grabs my hand and pulls it back so he can see the screen .
A gasp escapes him when he sees the ornament’s matching twin on my tree. “What? How?”
“Sab gave it to me as a gift. The lady told Sab this ornament would lead me to my one true love.” Staring at him, I smile when I realize, he’s my one true love. “I think that’s you,” I whisper.
“What?”
“Each time I asked for it to show me my true love, you appeared. At the cottage with Sab, and again at my place a few days later.”
Lifting my gaze to his, we stare at one another. Each of us processing what I just said. Reaching out, Mad cups my cheek in his palm and I lean into it. My face fits in his hand perfectly, like they were made to fit.
Staring into his eyes, I whisper, “I think you’re my true love, Maddox Whitworth.”
“I think you’re right, Ruby Olsen.”
Like the night of our first kiss, our heads begin to move and he presses his lips to mine. Only one other kiss has ever felt so perfect before, and it was our first kiss when I was nineteen. Pulling apart, he whispers, “Reindeer, we’re two halves of one ornament, and I’ve come to realize Joel doing what he did didn’t break your heart because it already belonged to someone else.”
He pauses and I whisper, “You.”
“Yep, me,” he agrees. Tearfully, I nod because he’s right. He’s so fucking right. “It’s always belonged to me, Reindeer, and it has since you were nineteen.”
“Just like yours belongs to me.”
Before I can say anything else, he slides his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me toward him again. Our lips crash together and with that one touch, with this one kiss, I feel whole. I’m where I’m meant to be. I know I’m with the man from my dream and the one the lady foresaw, a giggle escapes me.
“Do I want to know why you’re laughing while kissing me?”
“Because your sister was right. That ornament did lead me to my true love, in a roundabout kind of way.”
“Let’s not tell her that, her head is already big enough, besides, I’ve been in love with you since that Christmas we spent together in secret.”
“Really?”
“Really, really.” Covering his mouth with mine, my tongue slides into his and I give myself, heart and soul, over to him.
“Will you be mine, Reindeer?” he asks against my lips. “I know you just got dumped at the altar but this feels right. We feel right.”
Nodding, I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “I’ll be yours,” I murmur. “I’ve always been yours, Mad, now kiss me.”
Without acknowledging my words, he slams his lips to mine and just like they do in the books I read, as he kisses me, my leg lifts.
My.
Leg.
Lifts.
I smile into the kiss as love and happiness radiate through me and into him.
He slides his hand down my body and drops to his knees. Slipping his hand under the tulle of my dress, he runs his fingertips ever so lightly up my legs, leaving goosebumps in his wake. He rises to his feet and stares into my eyes. I can feel his gaze deep in my soul. He presses his lips to mine, while under my dress he runs his finger over my panty-covered pussy lips. I moan into his mouth and grind myself on his hand. He pushes the soaked material of my panties to the side. Closing my eyes, I hold on to his neck as he thrusts his digit into me and I focus on the sensations firing between my thighs.
With each flick of his wrist, I fall under his spell. In and out he pumps his fingers. Pleasure builds deep within and when I open my eyes, I stare into the chocolate-brown orbs of the man who I have loved for most of my life.
“I’m close,” I pant.
“Come for me, Reindeer,” he commands and with one final flick of his wrist, I come. My pussy walls contract around his fingers and my juices coat his hand as my orgasm leaks out of me. Pulling his hand free, my skirt drops back down. He lifts his hand to his mouth and licks my release from his fingers.
Leaning forward, I cover his mouth with mine. I can taste myself on his lips, and even though I just came, I could easily come again. Breaking the kiss, I rest my forehead against his. “Wow,” I breathlessly pant. “You know, I dreamed about this,” I tell him when my breathing returns to normal.
“I’ve dreamt about this many times over the years too,” he tells me.
“No, I mean I dreamed this exact scenario.”
“What do you mean?”
“After Sab gave me the Christmas ornament, that night I dreamed about a faceless man in a suit fingering me in my wedding dress.”
“I can do more than just finger you but my suit is in the laundry, will you accept a man in sweatpants?”
“Since they are gray and my weakness, you have a deal.”
“Excellent, now what else did faceless me do to you?”
“Well, I woke up before we got further but when I did wake up, my fingers were inside me and I was on the cusp.”
“You edged yourself?”
“Well, technically yes, but I finished the job I started when I woke up.”
“Maybe you should show me what happened after you woke up.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Watching you pleasure yourself? Sign me the fuck up.” He pauses and swallows. “I want to do it all with you, Reindeer. Unlike last time, there’ll be no sneaking around. I want to shout it from the rooftops that you’re mine.”
“Yours, I like the sound of that.”
“So do I, and now that you’re mine, Reindeer, I’m never letting you go. I have so many plans for you.”
“And what might those plans be, Sheriff Whitworth?” I drag my fingertip down his chest and stare seductively at him.
“Well, for starters, we need to get you out of this wedding dress.”
“And then what?”
“And then, we won’t be leaving this apartment until I’ve had my fill of you.”