Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DECLAN
When I was in college, I had friends who would talk about their big adventures in Vegas.
If that’s what you want to call them. They would tell me about the girls they met and fooled around with and how they drank until their debit cards were declined and how they passed out by the pool and got a killer sunburn.
The time of their lives, they called it.
Sounds like a total nightmare to me.
Those stories were on my mind until the moment it was decided that Ruby and I would share a room.
It wasn’t like I expected this trip to turn out the way it did for those college friends, but still, the idea of letting loose and getting a smidge rowdy had occurred to me.
Now, I’m sharing a room with the woman who has done nothing but occupy every single bit of the free time my mind has. And then some. I’m thinking about her even when I shouldn’t be.
Ruby steps out of the elevator first. The rest of the group is nowhere in sight, so it seems they’ve already disappeared into their rooms.
She pauses for a split moment to read the sign with the room numbers and then she heads down the hall, leading the way to what is about to be one of my top three challenging weekends.
Right behind the first weekend we had Susie and the first weekend Susie's mom left us. In all three, I’ve had no fucking clue what I’m doing.
I’m attracted to Ruby. To her body and her mind and, if I’m not careful, this weekend very well might be the weekend where she finds out just how much.
Not that her sitting in my lap hinted at it or anything.
Or when I almost kissed her.
Shit.
She might already know and is choosing not to acknowledge it.
Without a word, she stops and holds the key card to the door. The green light shines, and she pushes the door open.
Still, I follow behind her, letting her take the lead on the vibe she wants in this situation.
Again, she stops suddenly and I almost bump into her.
“I’m going to kill my brother,” she groans and then walks further into the room, letting go of her suitcase when she’s next to the couch.
Like most rooms, the bathroom is to our right, and just past that is a little kitchen area with a two-person table. The mini living room is next to that, with the TV in the corner and the bed across from the couch.
The bed.
One.
And by the looks of it, it’s barely made for two people.
Ruby sits on the corner of it and closes her eyes.
She clearly doesn’t want to be in this situation, despite her saying she was fine, and I can fix this.
I back up toward the door.
“I’ll get another room.”
“What?” her gaze snaps to mine. “Why?”
“Because,”—I hold out my hand and gesture to the room—“you’re clearly not okay with this, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Her eyes lock onto mine, and I wish I knew what she was thinking.
“I’m fine. I promise. I just …” She shifts her gaze to the bed. “I thought we had two beds.” Her gaze moves to the couch.
Maybe that’s not a bad solution. I pick up a cushion.
“Not a pullout.”
“Of course it’s not.”
My eyes find hers again. “Last chance. I can go get my own room, or we share a bed.”
Because the world has decided to punish me, she bites her bottom lip, then quickly lets it go with a pop. “We share.”
“Alright, do you—”
“I also suggest we entertain the idea of a possible truce this weekend in honor of my brothers and Sadie.”
“A truce?”
“Yes.” She nods as if it’s settled. “No arguing this weekend.”
I grin and then cross my arms.
“I think that’s going to be easier for me than it will be for you.”
She points at me.
“Because you say things like that.”
“I think you like it when I say things like this.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
She smiles and I wink at her.
“Alright, fine. Let’s just … relax for the next two days.”
“I can do that,” I tell her.
“Good.”
“Yeah.”
“What should we do first?”
“Well”—I twist to look around the room.—“what do you do in your free time?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Fair.”
“You?”
I chuckle. “It’s not appropriate for this conversation.”
“We’re both adults.”
True.
“I’d probably get off.”
Silence follows.
“I walked into that one, didn’t I?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Cool.” She perks up and then marches to her bag and opens it.
“I’m going to take my things and get ready with Grace and Brooke.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes,” she says and is out the door in the next minute.
The bathroom sink is running when I come back to the room a couple of hours later.
With Ruby gone, I’d taken the free time to meet Linc and Dutton downstairs for a drink and to gamble a little before we needed to change and meet the others for dinner.
“I’m back,” I announce so that I don’t freak her out when she realizes she’s not alone anymore.
“Okay,” she shouts back through the bathroom door. “I need about five more minutes.”
“I’m going to change then.”
“Sounds good.”
I change quickly, add some deodorant and cologne, and take a seat on the couch to wait for her.
Every thought stops when Ruby walks out of the bathroom.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t for my heart to pound the way it is right now.
I wasn’t expecting my brain to become obsessed with her the way it is at this moment.
Obsessed.
Addicted.
Both are accurate to describe the way my eyes are glued to her and my palms are growing sweaty.
It’s not a good look for me, but fuck.
Wow.
Although she maxes out at five foot five, those black heels make her slim legs look as if they go for miles. Not to mention where the emerald dress ends above her upper thigh.
Hell, if she turns around, I’m not so sure it’s going to cover her ass.
As if she can read my mind, she turns to duck back into the bathroom for something, and sure as shit, it barely covers her backside.
It’s backless with thin gold straps holding it up. I groan.
I don’t know what I was expecting for tonight, but this was not it.
“Do I look okay?” she asks. “You’re looking at me all weird.”
I nod.
“Yeah. Yeah,” is all I manage to choke out.
Her brows dip as she glares at me.
My response is clearly not the one she wanted, but I’m not so sure she would care for the one I want to give her.
“Thanks,” she says.
I clear my throat and pull myself together.
“What I meant to say was, you look nice, Ruby.”
“Nice,” she repeats. “Nice?”
“Yes, nice.”
She pops one hip to her side and rests her hand on it. She freezes with a huff for a split second before shaking her head and moving for the door.
“Nice is not the look I was going for.”
She passes me, grabbing her clutch off the little table near the door.
“What look were you going for?”
Another huff as she tosses her hands up.
“Honestly, I don’t know, but maybe one that’s a bit more sexy than nice. No one wants to touch nice.”
I pause to process what she just said and to think over my next words carefully.
She wants a look that screams touch me. Is that what she said?
How is that …
What does she …
My thoughts jumble in my mind and before I know it, I’m saying the one that is bound to shock her the most.
“You want to be touched, Ruby? Is that what you're telling me?”
“I—” Her green eyes focus on me, and I can tell right away that she’s just now realizing what she said out loud. “Yes.”
I move closer to her. I tell myself it’s because she’s by the door and we need to leave to meet the others, but right now my body wants nothing more than to be close to hers.
“I can assure you,” I say when I’m right in front of her, “that as long as you are with me, there will not be another man laying a single fucking finger on you.”
She sucks in a breath, her chest lifting and drawing my gaze to the dip in the front of her dress.
“Won’t that defeat the purpose of what I just said?” she asks.
Slowly, I drag my eyes back to hers.
Her lips part, and I’m tempted to kiss her right here, right now, and change the plans of our entire night.
“I said another man won’t be laying a finger on you, not that no man would.”
She doesn't miss a beat.
“So that man will be you?”
Her words come out all breathy, and the want in them leaves me growing hard in my pants.
“Do you want that man to be me?”
I wait with bated breath for her answer, my body drawing close to hers as she looks at my mouth.
But then someone pounds on the door, and we both jump.
“Ruby, Declan, are you ready?”
Ruby closes her eyes and tucks away from me, so I let out a breath and open the door.
“Luca, yes, we are ready.”
“Waiting at the door, I guess.” He laughs then heads down the hall to meet the others.
I hold the door open wider for Ruby to walk through, my eyes drifting to every inch of her backside.
The rest of the group is waiting by the elevators. The vibe hits me instantly, and I let out a little laugh. Ruby must feel it, too, but instead of laughing, she just outright calls it as it is.
“Oh, great. You’re all going to be alpha fiancés and enjoy zero percent of the night because of what the girls are wearing, aren't you?”
“Well, I sure as shit don’t want other guys thinking what I’m thinking,” Luca says, sending a look of warning to Shay.
She smiles, pressing to her toes to kiss his lips.
“Agreed,” Miles says, hooking his arm around Quinn and pulling her close.
“Let's all just be smart tonight, okay?” Hudson adds.
Ruby shakes her head. “I’m hearing a lot of talking, but none of you have said the right thing.”
I chuckle louder.
“Ladies, you all look stunning tonight,” I say to lighten the mood.
“And that right there is what each of you should have said.” Ruby points to her brothers one by one. “Each. Of. You.”
All three of them grumble an apology to their girls, and when Ruby is satisfied, she steps in front of me to hit the elevator button, my eyes dropping again to her where her dress ends dangerously just over her ass.
A throat clears next to me.
I startle and look to my right.
Luca has his arms crossed as he glares at me.
He mouths, “Be smart.”
I smile and give him a thumbs-up.
Too late for that warning.
The club is in full swing by the time we finish dinner and make it back to the hotel. Truth be told, it’s 11 p.m. and I could go to sleep, but according to Hudson’s hockey friends, this is the time you go to the club—even then, we are arriving early.
I glance around the group as Hudson and his hockey friends speak with the guy who determines who gets to go inside the club and who will wait in line.
No one seems to be tired, and the girls actually look excited.
After all, the one thing Sadie asked for was to go to a “club club,” which she defined as not just a bar with dancing, but a full-blown stage and booths and bottle service.
How she came up with this idea, I have no idea.
“I can’t believe we are doing this,” Ruby says, leaning into me. “This is everything the opposite of our small-town life.”
Maybe that’s why Sadie wanted a club night.
“You got that right.”
“Did you go to clubs while you lived in Chicago?”
Her question takes me by surprise. Ruby can talk a lot, but her inquiry about my past away from Lovers isn’t her normal go-to conversation.
“No. Not once.”
I glance down at her just as she looks up.
“Really?”
“Really.” I nod.
“You never wanted to?”
I shrug. “It wasn’t like I hated the idea. I’m actually curious to see how all of this works, but it’s not me.”
“I feel the same way.”
Hudson waves a hand to grab our attention and the group starts to follow.
We walk right by a long line of eager partiers.
I make eye contact with a few of them, mostly women, all harmless.
But then someone whistles and shouts, “Yeah, Green, let me see that ass.”
My entire body freezes.
Who the fuck talks like that?
I spin to find the voice and see a man rubbing his chin and licking his lips.
I move for him, but Ruby grabs my arm.
“Don’t.”
“He can’t talk to you like that.”
“No, he can’t, but I'm never going to see that man again, so I'm going to let it go and enjoy the night with my friends.”
“What if he makes it into the club and seeks you out, then he tries to grab you and—”
“Whoa, whoa, turn off dad mode, please, and give me just Declan Young, Ruby’s friend for the night.”
She grabs my hand and drags me to where the others are waiting, clearly oblivious to what just happened.
I follow but look over my shoulder to glare at the man again.
I see you, asshole. I won’t forget that face.
We all squeeze into an elevator that has its own escort. The motion jerks so fast that Ruby stumbles, steadying when she bumps her ass into my junk and my hand slides around to her stomach to hold her still.
Because I feel I need to make this clear now, I lean forward to whisper in her ear.
“For the record, Declan Young would never let a man like that talk to his friends. Once we are back in Lovers, you might go back to hating me, but hating me or not, you deserve fucking respect from every single person who meets you. End of story.”
Her chest rises and falls quickly.
I lean a little closer.
“Did you hear me, Ruby?”
She nods.
“Good.”
We reach the floor of the club and file out. Like many moments before this one, the group walks in pairs of two.
Instead of waiting to be the last ones, Ruby grabs my hand and falls into line.
She tugs me close and says, “Just to be sure about that guy, how about you stick with me tonight?”
I slide a hand around her hips, and because it’s loud as fuck in here, I place my lips right next to her ear. “I was planning on it.”