Ruby
Ruby
H ere, Ruby was thinking that her weekend was going to be boring as hell. Her only real plans were to go grocery shopping and binge watch a few of her favorite shows, but instead, she was sitting next to the hunkiest guy from work, trying to figure out why Luke made her feel like a schoolgirl every time he so much as looked at her.
After the insane story he had just told her, she should run as far, and as fast, as she possibly could from him. But there she sat, giddy that their legs were touching as they sat next to each other on her very small sofa, eating Chinese food. Yeah, she was completely nerding out about this guy and she was sure that sooner or later, she was going to make a complete fool of herself.
“This is really good,” he said, holding up the container of sweet and sour chicken. It was her go-to order when she and Millie got Chinese food and he was right, it didn’t disappoint. She wasn’t lying when she told him that she wouldn’t be able to finish all the food that she had ordered. She never could, but tonight, she was a bundle of nerves and sure that she wouldn’t be able to choke down even a few bites of her dinner while sitting next to the hulk.
“Yeah, it’s my favorite place to order Asian takeout from,” she said. Small talk was never really her forte. In fact, she sucked at it. She usually ended up rambling and saying all the wrong things. Like at work, for example, with her new boss, she was a total blabbermouth who couldn’t even get his name right.
“So, how long have you been with McTavish?” she asked, trying for casual or at the very least, calm.
“Just about a year now,” Luke said. “After I got out of the Navy, I wasn’t really sure what was next for me, but then Rod asked me to come work for him and Alex. I told him no, at first, feeling that he was throwing me a pity hire, but then, I thought—why not? I took the job and haven’t looked back since. I love working over there, but I hate that my trouble might become theirs.”
“How would that happen?” Ruby asked.
“It’s why I showed up at Alex’s office today. I got a threatening note at work, and I was up there to tell him that I was going to take off some time. Whoever left it for me, did so while I was at work. I found it on my windshield in the parking garage, and I hate that this happened at work.”
“I’m betting that Alex told you that it wasn’t your fault that someone left you a nasty note on your windshield at work,” Ruby said.
“Good guess,” Luke said. “That’s exactly what he said to me.”
“Alex is right,” she assured. “You can’t be responsible for what other people do and don’t do on company property.”
“I get that,” Luke said, “I still feel like shit though.”
“What did the note say?” she asked.
“It said that I should leave town now and no one else will have to die,” he paraphrased.
“Who’s died?” she asked.
“You sure that you weren’t eavesdropping in on Alex and my conversation earlier?” he asked.
“Of course, I wouldn’t do that,” she insisted. She felt so flustered and when he laughed, she was sure that she must have turned bright purple from embarrassment.
“I was kidding, honey,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that. You’re a nice person, Ruby.”
“Thanks,” she said. He had gone from calling her, “Hot” to calling her, “Nice” and she didn’t like it one bit. She wanted to be hot all day, every day. Nice girls finished last. Hell, nice girls didn’t land guys like Luke Tracy. That was just straight facts and even though they sucked, she knew that it was true.
“To answer your question,” he said, “no one’s died. Not recently, anyway.”
“Why would someone want you to leave town?” she asked.
“I’m afraid that I don’t have the answer to that question either. I mean, I don’t know many people in town, so I can’t imagine who’d want for me to leave,” he admitted.
“So, we have two questions to answer to help figure out this mystery—who died and who wants you out of town. I think that if we can answer those questions, we’ll be one step closer to figuring out this mystery,” she said, sounding every bit the nerd.
He took her container of food from her and put it on the coffee table. “You know,” he said, practically pulling her onto his lap. “I always had a thing for Velma in the Scooby-Doo cartoon.”
“Velma?” she whispered. He was so close, all she had to do was lean in just a bit, and their lips would be touching.
“Yeah, when you said all of that about solving the mystery, it made me think of sexy Velma. It made me think about you, Ruby,” he said.
“You think I’m sexy?” she whispered.
“Very sexy,” he breathed. This time, Luke didn’t give her time to consider her next move. This time, he leaned in and took what he seemed to want from her. He sealed his mouth over hers and when he finally let her up for air, she was panting, and even more confused than she was before they began their conversation. In the course of the day, Luke had called her hot, compared her to Velma from Scooby-Doo, and then called her sexy. All in all, she’d consider today a win—especially if the hunk sitting next to her decided to kiss her again.
“You kissed me,” she whispered. Ruby was still practically sitting on Luke’s lap, and she wasn’t about to make a move to get up.
“I did,” he said, “twice.” He was right. Luke had kissed her twice and God, she was hoping for a third one. “Is it okay that I did that, Ruby?” he asked. She could tell that he already knew the answer. Hell, she was probably bright red with embarrassment, and with the way that her chest was heaving as if she had just run a marathon, he could guess that she was completely turned on by what he was doing to her.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I like it when you kiss me, Luke.”
“Have you been kissed before?” he asked. She had but it was nothing like the way Luke kissed her.
“I have,” she admitted. “I mean, not a lot. I had a boy that I liked in high school, but he didn’t pay much attention to the class nerd. When I got to college, I had a friend, well, I thought that he was my friend, but he turned out to be more than that. Geeze, I’m rambling.” Ruby took a breath and tried to slow her roll, but apparently, that was impossible for her to do when she was faced with a hot man and an embarrassing situation. What the hell was wrong with her.
Luke pulled her hand into his own, resting it on his massive thigh, and she damn near swallowed her tongue. There would be no stopping her verbal diarrhea now. Poor guy didn’t have a clue as to what he had just unleashed. “His name was Mark and he kissed me,” she admitted. “I mean, not like you just kissed me. He wasn’t as good at the whole kissing thing as you seem to be. Not that you’ve kissed me enough to figure out just how good you are at it.”
“Ruby,” he cut in.
“Hmm,” she hummed, leaning into his body. Every time he even whispered her name, she found herself shamelessly leaning into him as if she wanted to crawl directly inside of him. Heck, shameless didn’t even begin to describe her.
“You’re talking a lot. Do you do that when you’re nervous?” he asked.
“Yes,” she admitted, “I do. It’s one of the reasons why guys seem to run the other direction from me when they see me coming. I guess that will include you now, too. I mean, when you see me at the office, you’re going to probably try to duck into a cubby or hallway to avoid me now,” she was about to go on with her verbal tirade when Luke pulled her completely onto his lap and sealed his mouth over hers again, and this time, he didn’t show any signs of letting up. He kissed her like a starving man, licking his way into her mouth and sucking her bottom lip into his very skilled mouth. He made her feel things that no other man had ever made her feel—including very wet and needy in her girl parts. Ruby was sure that it was all perfectly normal, judging from the numerous romance novels that she liked to read in her spare time, but she couldn’t be completely sure.
“Wow,” she whispered when he finally broke their kiss. “You’re really good at that.”
“Thanks,” Luke breathed. He was breathing just as hard as she was, and his hands were everywhere. Every place that he touched set her skin on fire and all she wanted was more.
“I want to touch you everywhere, Ruby,” Luke whispered. “You need to tell me to stop.”
“Why would I want you to stop?” she asked. “I want you to touch me too, Luke.”
He rested his forehead against hers and she could feel his warm breath on her face. Luke closed his eyes and she worried that this was all too much too fast, even for a guy like Luke. He just seemed so sure of himself; she went with what he was asking of her.
“Because I’m pretty sure that you’ve never done what I’m thinking about doing to you,” Luke admitted.
“What are you thinking about doing to me, Luke?” she brazenly asked. God, she hoped that his answer was going to be, “Everything”.
“I want you, Ruby,” he whispered. “I have since I first saw you around the office. I can’t explain it, but for some reason, I feel drawn to you.”
She smiled at him, and a scowl formed on his handsome face. “Drawn to me?” she questioned.
“You’re laughing at me,” he grumbled.
“No,” she quickly said, “not at all. I’m just not the type of woman that men are usually drawn to, Luke. And to answer your question, I have never done what you want to do with me, with any man. I’ve already told you—I’m a nerd and not many guys want to have sex with the little nerdy girl who has her nose stuck in a book or laptop.”
“They’re all idiots,” Luke said. “You’re all that I can think about, Ruby. I find everything that you do sexy as hell. And that’s why you need to tell me to stop.”
She looked him over, trying to decide what her next move should be. There was no way that she was going to give up her chance with Luke—not after he admitted that he wanted her.
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Ruby breathed.