Chapter 15 #2
I gave a polite smile. “I’m sure he is. I’m beat, though. And not in a fun way. I think I’m just going to head out. Nice to meet you two. I’ll…see you around.”
Unless I get blocked first for being too needy.
“I hope so,” Jekyll said, and their eyes followed me on my way out.
I picked up Phantom’s present from Princess and left. My train rolled by, passing just as I made it through the turnstile. It felt like the longest wait of my life for the next one. I got to my apartment and Artemis’s arrow hit me straight through the heart.
Aleena’s stuff had been cleaned out. No more kid toys. No more baby bottles and pictures books. No more my sister, always right there when I needed her. The emptiness was almost debilitating.
I stripped out of my clothes, took down my hair, and pulled on a comfortable robe. I pulled out a bottle of red wine that I’d been letting grow dust since Aleena moved in. I grabbed it by the neck, found a glass, and took them both onto the fire escape with me.
On the fire escape, I could lose myself in the noise of the city. The honk of taxis. A couple screaming at each other. The ding-a-ling of a bike bell.
The city never slept, and thank goddess for that. I was humming with unspent energy. I sipped my wine and, for a minute, let myself quietly flow and ebb with the pulse of the city below.
This is what you do, Ruby, I thought to myself. You get all caught up in a guy who doesn’t want you, and before you know it, you’re getting drunk, alone, on your fire escape.
It didn’t take me long to clear the bottle. In the dark, my phone screen blinked to life.
[Text: Phantom]
shift ran late.
[Text: Phantom]
I’m sorry.
I frowned at the text. But what can I say to that?
Sorry people are dying? Sorry the rest of the world needs you more than I do?
This wasn’t something I could hold against him. Even if I wanted to.
And I wanted to.
[Text: Me]
I guess I’ll see you next week
There. Send.
I heard a buzzing. But…wait. That wasn’t my phone?
From the dark, I heard a displeased grunt, and then a voice said: “You guess?”
I screamed. I jumped to my feet and wine splashed over the side of my glass.
One ladder down, Phantom stood there, phone in hand, our texts on his screen.
“Holy…fucking shit.” I held my glass to my chest, my heart pounding. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry,” he said. He wiped his face, caught in the splash zone. “Just me. I should’ve led with that.”
He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded pretty pleased with himself, actually.
I huffed. “Most people would use the door.”
“Right. Well. I saw you out here.”
I craned over the side of the fire escape. The ladder was pulled up. He’d have to bicep curl his way up here, and…
I was briefly ashamed by the feelings that image stirred up inside of me.
I frowned. “What are you doing here?”
Those brown eyes look up at me through the slats in the fire escape. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t be at the club. I thought I’d go straight to the source, in case I missed you.”
I let out a dramatic sigh. “Well, we have a problem. My dominant has rules. We only play at the club. Outside, we’re strangers, remember?”
“Who says I came here to play?” Then his voice dropped, and he confessed, “I couldn’t go another week without seeing you.”
Fuck. Fuck the way my heart lit up in my chest every time he dropped a crumb of affection.
I pushed my hair back, suddenly self-conscious.
I’d been so sexy about an hour ago. Now, I was in a cheap robe with curling-iron burns on it.
Meanwhile, he was still in his uniform; that navy blue.
I wanted to rip it off of him. “How was your shift?” I asked.
“Long.”
“Do you need a shower?”
His eyebrows knitted as though surprised by my suggestion, but then he said, “That sounds nice.”
I pushed my window open and invited him inside my apartment.
Phantom climbed in through the window. His shoulders were too bulky and he had to duck and crouch to enter. When he hit the floor, a small wince crinkled the edges of his eyes.
He looked around, taking in my apartment. I was hyper aware of the pile of laundry on the couch, the chairs we’d moved against the wall to make room for toys, the mess of magazines and sunken candles on the table.
A far cry from Phantom’s super-clean space. And his place was a sex dungeon. What was my excuse?
His eyes scanned my apartment. Please, stop looking at my mess.
“My sister and her kids just moved out,” I explained. “So. It’s a bit chaotic in here.”
“I like this place. It’s very…you.”
“A mess?”
“Alive.”
Which was a weird thing to say, but it made me smile. I took Phantom’s hand. I liked how big his hands were—I felt like Belle holding the Beast’s paw as I tugged him through my apartment. “This way.”
I led him into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and let the water run through my fingers. “This building is old. It takes a minute for it to…um…heat up…”
My tongue tripped over itself when I realized he’d already unbuttoning his shirt. I was hypnotized by the muscle underneath. He was thick, but not like a gym-rat, still soft in places, strong from lifting people into stretchers for a living.
I noticed a small, inch-long gash near his collarbone. It looked fresh. “What happened there?”
He tucked his chin to examine himself, then poked the spot. “Oh. Right. We had a patient in the middle of a psychosis episode. Apparently, I have the face of an enemy.”
“Did he…stab you?”
“With a pen. I’ll live.”
“Mightier than the sword. Does it hurt?”
I moved to touch the skin underneath it, but he covered the spot. “It’s fine.”
I pressed my lips together. “So it’s true—doctors really do make the worst patients, huh?”
“I don’t need a nurse. I need a shower.” He made eye contact. “Are you joining me?” he asked. Which sounded more like: you’re joining me. Then he dropped his pants.
Dear Fates, I know I’m not your favorite child, but goddamn. You really said Ruby deserves this tonight. Phantom, fully naked, was a majestic sight to behold.
I collected enough saliva to get out the words, “Yes. I am.”
His hands moved to my robe. “May I?” I nodded.
He pulled the belt free from its knot and gently slide the robe off my shoulders.
His eyes drank me in. His fingertips dropped from my shoulder down my bare breast, as though he were admiring a fragile work of art.
The slightest touch made me shiver. “I love the way your body responds to me,” he murmured, with so much conviction that my self-doubt shriveled up and died.
He hung up my robe and left his uniform in a pile before pulling the curtain back.
He stepped into the shower, then took my hand and helped me over the lip of the tub.
The warm water beat against my back and cascaded down my skin. My shower was small, and our naked bodies couldn’t help but brush against one another.
He cradled my face and pulled me in for a kiss, but stopped before our lips touched.
His breath tickled my mouth. He tilted his head and kissed the edge of my lips instead.
He kissed my cheek. His lips touched the space underneath my ear that made my knees weak.
Each gentle, deliberate kiss melted me into his arms.
“May I touch you, Sir?” I whispered.
“You may.”
I braced myself on his chest, enjoying the strength of his muscles underneath my palms. His mouth met my throat and I felt the teasing pinprick of teeth.
I moaned. I wanted to climb him like a tree.
“Wait…” He stopped at my request, pulling back. I took the bar of soap and lathered it between my hands. “You take such good care of me, Sir. Let me take care of you. Please.”
I put the soap back in its place. I ran my soapy hands along his chest. I mapped little scars here.
A smattering of freckles. I washed his new cut gently, cleaning it, and this time, he let me.
I grazed my fingers down his middle, tracing the happy trail there.
I moved lower…lower. His stomach tightened, muscles clenching in anticipation.
I couldn’t wait anymore. I took his cock in my hands. The soap made my palm slick and immediately, I started tugging.
“Slower, Ophelia,” he murmured gently.
Oh. This wasn’t a man who liked to be jerked off.
He wanted to be worshipped.
I wrapped my fingers around the base of him.
I worked my hand upward, taking my time.
Squeezing. Rubbing my thumb over the veins that drew to the surface.
Enjoying the velvet softness of him. I lathered him, washed the soap from him, and took great care to give every inch of him the attention he deserved.
There we go. He swelled fully in my hand now, until he was so hard that it pulled a grunt from the back of his throat, followed by a choked, “Fuck.”
Goddess. I loved that sound from him.
I was tempted to speed up, to get on my knees and swallow him down until I choked—the way all lovers past had treated me before. But I was his good girl. I remembered my instructions. So I kept my pace…pulling my hand upward…drawing it down…admiring every inch of him.
He loved it. His breath became low and ragged in a way that made my heart patter.
“Your cock is perfect,” I told him. “Do you know that?”
He gave a hmm noise, his brain short-circuiting.
Oh, this version of Phantom was cute.
I tilted my head up to look at him. “It’s so hard. It’s throbbing. Look.”
We both watched as my hand stroked his shaft. Painted nails drew up the length of him and my grip encircled the red, shiny head of him. I squeezed gently, just enough to make it swell before it gave a strong, needy twitch in my palm.
His breath shuddered. “That’s enough,” he growled, his voice syrupy thick.
I stopped my caressing, but kept him in a light hold as he cupped my face like a chalice. He drank from my lips, his tongue invading my mouth and claiming every inch of me.