Luke
Luke
L uke couldn’t keep his hands off of Ruby and that wasn’t going to end well for either of them—but especially her. She was so sweet and innocent, but all he could think about was taking her, making her his, and never letting her go again. That was crazy though because he really didn’t know Ruby. Hell, today was the first time that he had actually spoken to her, and now, he couldn’t stop kissing and touching her.
“Ruby,” he said as if in warning.
“Luke,” she countered. “I’d really like to see what you have planned to do with me. I mean, this might just be my only chance, and I’m going to take it.”
“It’s not that simple,” Luke insisted. “If I do what I want to with you, there will be no going back from it, and honestly, that should scare the crap out of you—it does me. We’ve only just met,” he said.
“I know that,” she said. “I was there today when you finally spoke to me for the first time. You said that I was hot,” she reminded.
“I remember,” he assured. “I was there when I called you hot,” he teased. “Maybe we should just let this thing between us slow down.” That was the very last thing he wanted, but he was also a gentleman—well, mostly. If he wanted to slow down, it was most likely because he was being a coward. It had been so damn long since he’d been involved with a woman, and it had ended badly.
Honestly, the last woman he saw on a regular basis ended up telling him that he was the worst boyfriend that she’d ever had. The part that hurt the most was that he knew that it was the truth. He was an awful boyfriend and that’s why he avoided having any woman call him that title for some time now. It had been years since he had been with any woman for more than one night and he planned on keeping it that way—until he saw Ruby around the office.
At first, he didn’t pay too much attention to his attraction to the sexy redhead. Hell, he did everything that he could just to avoid talking to her or having to run into her on a daily basis. But then, she went to work for Alex, his boss, and he knew that he’d be hard-pressed to avoid her. Today was the first day that he actually took a chance and spoke to her and all in all, he’d have to say that it went well. Ruby was sitting on his lap right now, her arms wrapped around his neck, her lips swollen from his kisses, looking at him as if she wanted more from him. The question was, would he be able to give her more?
“I don’t want things to slow down,” she said, shaking her head at him. “In fact, I think that we should speed things up a bit.” Ruby snaked her hands under his shirt, rubbing them over his pecks and stomach and he gently grabbed them and pulled them back out from under his shirt.
“That’s really fast, honey,” he said. She smiled and reached for her own shirt, slowly tugging it up over her body. Luke felt like he was going to swallow his damn tongue, but there was no way that he’d stop her.
“I like the way that you’re looking at me,” she whispered to him. “No one has ever looked at me the way that you are.”
“I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t look at you like this,” Luke said. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
“A girl could get used to hearing things like that,” she whispered. She tugged her shirt up over her head and tossed it to the floor. He couldn’t stop looking at her as she sat on his lap wearing just her bra and skirt. Luke ran his hands up her body and cupped her breasts through her bra, loving the breathy little sighs that he elicited from her as he stroked her taut nipples through her bra.
“You like that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she stuttered. “So much.” Luke reached around her back and unsnapped her bra with just one hand, letting it fall to the floor with her shirt.
“You’ve had practice at that,” she teased. “I can’t even unhook my bra with one hand.”
“I’ve been around a bra or two in my day,” he admitted. “Look at you,” he whispered. Ruby looked down her own body and then back up at him. He hated that she looked unsure of herself. All he saw when he looked at her was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He just wished that she could see herself the way that he saw her.
Luke cupped her breasts and she hissed out her breath. “Luke,” she shouted. He could tell that she liked what he was doing to her, but would she allow him to take things even further? Would she let him push her?
A sharp knock sounded at her front door and they both groaned in unison. “If that’s Millie again, I’m going to kill her,” Ruby said.
“You’ll have to get in line behind me,” Luke said. “I take it that you weren’t expecting anyone else tonight then?” he asked.
“No,” she said. Ruby stood up from his lap and grabbed her shirt from the floor. He waited for her to put it back on before he stood to answer the door. “Whoever it is, just get rid of them.”
“That’s the plan,” he agreed. He readjusted his erection and she giggled as he walked over to her door, pulling his gun from his shoulder holster again. He carefully opened the door and peeked out to find his old pal, Ranger standing on Ruby’s front step.
“What the hell?” Luke asked.
“Hey, man,” Ranger said. “Long time.” Luke pulled the door open and looked his old friend over. It had been almost five years since he saw the guy—long time didn’t even begin to cover it.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Luke asked. “How the fuck did you even find me?”
“I found you the same way that the guys tailing you found you, asshole. Now, move and let me in before they join us,” Ranger ordered. Luke didn’t bother to look outside to see if Ranger had guessed correctly. His friend was good at tracking, and he was right, if he could find Luke, others would be able to. He stepped out of the way, letting Ranger into Ruby’s apartment, and then he quickly shut and locked the front door.
“You’re still smart enough to know that won’t do you any good, right?” Ranger asked.
“Yeah, but I thought that I’d be safe enough here since no one would pin Ruby and me together.”
“Well, you did a shitty job of covering your tracks. You have no idea what you’re dealing with still, do you?” Ranger asked.
“No,” Luke admitted. “I honestly have no idea why this is all happening again. Does it have anything to do with South Korea?” Luke asked.
“Yes,” Ranger said. “And I think that I might have some of the answers that you’re looking for, but there are still some blanks. I think that together, we’ll be able to fill them in this time.”
“Why now?” Luke asked. “What’s different from last time? We didn’t get the answers that we were looking for and I’m betting that we’ll hit a few walls still now.”
“Probably,” Ranger admitted. “But we won’t have the roadblock of the Navy in our way. You started asking questions that must have set them off. They sent you home and you never got your answers and that was partly my fault. I shouldn’t have told you to go to command,” Ranger said.
“You did what you thought was right, Ranger,” Luke said.
“I appreciate that man,” Ranger gushed, pulling him in for a quick side hug.
Ruby cleared her throat, interrupting their bro moment. “Um, I’m Ruby,” she said. “Luke and I work together.” She looked at Luke as if to confirm that she had said the right thing and he nodded and smiled at her.
“It’s a little bit more complicated than that,” Luke admitted. “But we’re still negotiating everything.”
“So, you two are together and you came here thinking that no one else would add that up?” Ranger asked.
“Well, that part isn’t really his fault,” Ruby defended. “I mean, today was the first day that Luke really talked to me. He said that I was hot when we were in the elevator together, and well, I didn’t believe him until he showed up here. He interrupted my dinner with Millie, but I was fine with that. I shared my Chinese food with him, and he kissed me. Well, he more than kissed me, but that’s mostly private stuff that you really don’t need to know.” God, Luke found everything about Ruby to be completely adorable—even the way that she rambled and overshared when she was nervous. “Is she for real?” Ranger asked.
“Yeah, Ruby overshares when she’s a little frazzled,” Luke said. “Pretty cute, huh?”
“Um, sure,” Ranger said. “But that was a whole lot of oversharing.”
“Sorry about that,” Ruby whispered. “I don’t really have a filter, especially when I’m nervous, and being around two hot guys tends to make me more nervous than usual.”
“Two hot guys?” Luke asked. He didn’t like that Ruby thought about Ranger that way.
“Yeah—you and Ranger are both hot,” she said. “I picked up your name from when Luke and you were having your special reunion. I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your name.”
“No,” Ranger breathed. “I mean, everyone calls me Ranger, so have at it.”
“Is that your real name?” she asked.
“No,” Ranger admitted. “But if I told you my real name, I’d have to kill you.” Ruby looked nervously between him and Ranger and giggled. She didn’t stop until she realized that his buddy wasn’t laughing, and poor Ruby stopped giggling and cleared her throat.
“I see,” she whispered.
“Listen,” Ranger said, “you two aren’t safe here anymore. As I said earlier, if I found you, the guys trailing you will be able to find you too. You’ve put her in danger by coming here.”
“I know,” Luke admitted. “And I feel like shit that I did it, but now, I have to figure out my next step. It’s what we were doing when you showed up—figuring out what comes next.”
Ruby giggled and cleared her throat again when he shot her a look. “I bet that’s what the two of you were doing. But I’m here now, and I think I can help with the next steps. I’ve got a place where you both can lie low for a bit until we can fill in the blanks. You two up for a little road trip?” Ranger asked.
“What about Millie?” Ruby asked. “She saw him here. Will they hurt her trying to find out where we went?”
“Who’s Millie again?” Ranger asked, rubbing his head, trying to keep up with Ruby.
“My neighbor—the one that I was supposed to have dinner with tonight until Luke showed up here,” Ruby said.
“Right, I’ll keep an eye on her to make sure that no one shows up here asking questions. You’ll need to introduce her to me on your way out,” Ranger ordered.
“I’m sure that she’s going to love meeting you,” Ruby teased.
“Great,” Ranger grumbled. “You two have ten minutes before you have to hit the road. Get packing.”
“I’m already packed,” Luke said, nodding to his duffel bag. “I still travel light.”
“I see,” Ranger said. “You now have nine minutes, Ruby,” he said, looking her over.
“On it,” Ruby said, running back to her bedroom.
Luke watched her go to the back of the apartment and turned to Ranger. “I hope that I didn’t just get her killed, because I really fucking like her,” Luke admitted.