Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
RUBY
Time seems to stop when you’re having fun, and right now, I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun that didn’t include my son.
Hudson opted for a table with bottle service.
I can’t even begin to think of what something like this would cost. We have our own half-circle booth that fits all of us, with room to spare.
There is a table in front of the seating with a cutout in the middle for ice and drinks.
There are bottles of three different alcohols and the juice or beverage of choice to mix with them and a dedicated waitress who has been here the entire time to make our drinks.
Even though I haven’t drunk anything but water, my mind is blown that people experience this more than once in their lives.
A Bar Song by Shaboozy is playing, and the girls and I have huddled together as we dance and shake and sing as loudly as we can.
Not that anyone can hear us over the volume of the music and club noise in general.
The guys are sitting down and seem to be deep into multiple conversations.
When random songs come on, a few will come to dance with us.
Mostly Hudson, Luca, and Miles. Dutton and Linc wandered off with Carver and Archer a while ago, and we haven’t seen them since.
The next song bleeds into the ending of the current one, never letting the music stop.
Shay yawns, leaving the girls to find my brother.
She whispers in his ear, and then Hudson and Miles nod quickly.
Declan’s eyes are already on me.
I’ve sneaked glances at him all night, and every time I’ve caught him looking back.
At some point, I’d assumed he would dance with me the way the others did, but he never moved.
He just watched.
Me.
Only me.
Knowing he can’t take his eyes off me has kept my body alive all night.
“We’re going to head back to the room,” Hudson leans in to yell into my ear. He jerks his thumb over his shoulder in case I couldn’t hear him.
I spot the others in the group gathering any belongings they brought and a different waitress steps up to Hudson with a little clipboard.
My brother signs it, and then the group moves for the door, but Declan's hand grabs mine.
“We should stay,” he says.
“Yes,” I answer without thinking.
The group keeps moving, but Luca looks over his shoulder and gives me a thumbs-up.
I return it and then spin to find Declan talking to the waitress.
He holds a finger up and then slips a hand around my middle to pull me close.
“Do you want to keep this table or move to the dance floor?” he asks.
“What do you want to do?”
His eyes lock onto mine as a smirk touches his lips.
“I want to dance with you.”
I pinch my lips together to hold back the mega smile that wants to take over.
“Okay.”
He waves to the waitress and then pulls me to the dance floor.
It’s packed, body to body, and as soon as Declan finds a spot he likes, there isn’t an inch of space left between us.
His hands remain on my hips, and I rest mine around his neck.
The move is old school as hell, but I sway my body back and forth to the music and close my eyes, letting this moment engrave itself into my memories.
Declan spins me, my back to his front. His hand comes around to my stomach, and I back up slightly.
The moment my ass grinds into him, he tugs me tighter to his body.
I feel him harden instantly.
It only makes my body melt into his and into the music even more.
Right now, I’m not Ruby the mom who got pregnant as a teen. I’m just Ruby, a woman dancing with a man in a nightclub and having fun.
I spin in his arms to face him, opening my eyes and they lock onto Declan’s instantly.
I want to ask him what he’s thinking.
Ask him why he wanted to stay with just me.
Or why everything between us feels different now and how did it happen so easily?
I want to know the answer to things that would only complicate my life.
So I don’t ask any of them.
What I really want is to kiss him and for him to kiss me back.
My gaze shifts to his lips, and I swear my hand acts on its own, threading my fingers up his neck and into his hair, pulling him closer.
He doesn’t fight it, and it only intensifies this pull that’s happening between us.
His nose touches mine and I tilt my chin up.
I want him to take that last little inch. I want him to make that call.
“Ruby,” he says in that deep tone that sends goosebumps over my skin. It’s a mix of need and warning. “I can’t let our first kiss be in the middle of a dance floor in a club.”
My heart pounds.
“Where do you want it to be?”
The words have barely left my mouth before he’s pulling me off the floor that we just stepped out onto and through the pathway to the exit doors. We stop in a darkened hallway that muffles the music and we’re completely alone.
Quickly, Declan leans me into the wall and presses himself into me.
His lips touch my neck, my jaw, and my entire body relaxes.
It’s been far too long since I’ve had a man kiss me. Anywhere.
“The first time we kiss should be for us and just us,” he says. “I don’t like to share, Ruby.”
My entire body tingles at his confession.
Is Declan possessive?
My nipples harden.
I hope he is.
“We’re alone now,” I whisper, and he groans.
He nips at my bottom lip. I mimic his hands and clutch his sides, pulling him into me.
I’ve never wanted to be touched by someone the way I want Declan to touch me right now.
Like if he doesn’t kiss me, or more, soon, I’ll combust.
“Kiss me. Please.”
“There is no going back after this,” he says.
“I know.”
“And you still want it?”
I nod.
“I need words, Ruby.”
“Yes, I want it. I want you.”
“Good answer,” he says.
His hand slides up the front of my dress, between my breasts and up my neck, then grips my chin.
Our eyes meet for the briefest of moments before he kisses me.
Pressing his mouth to mine with command.
I kiss him back on a moan and something in that makes him snap. His hands move to my ass now, gripping it tightly as he slips his tongue into my mouth, then he switches the angle to kiss me deeper.
His hands slide to my thighs, and he picks me up.
I wrap my legs around him, and with the next dance of his tongue against mine, I wrap my arms around his neck to hold on.
“Fuck,” he says, breaking his kiss and pressing his lips to my shoulders.
Then his lips are on mine again.
He keeps me pressed to the wall, sneaking a hand between us and touching me between the legs.
“Oh God.” I let my head drop back to the wall.
His mouth goes to my neck again; his finger tugs my panties to the side.
“Shit,” someone yells, and it breaks the spell.
Delcan sets me to my feet in an instant and backs up.
Chests heaving for air, we look right and then left.
Not a single person in sight.
I touch a hand to my lips.
I almost forgot we’re at a club.
I’d laugh if the look in Declan’s eyes weren’t so dark.
“We’re leaving,” he says. “Now.”
The door to our hotel room closes, and I swear the air in the room thickens. As if it knows that lines are about to be crossed and no matter what is said or done in here tonight, we can’t go back.
I don’t want to go back.
I want to be here and now and let whatever happens tonight stay here.
In Vegas.
I step farther into the room, but Declan grabs my hand and pulls me back.
With my front pressed to his, his hand that isn’t holding my waist now moves to my neck.
He gently tips my head back, and as if I were in my very own romance novel, he groans.
I’m beginning to grow addicted to that noise.
“Your skin is so soft.”
Then he drops a featherlight kiss just under my jaw.
“I knew it would be.”
He quickly licks the side of my face, then blows on it, sending chills and goosebumps over my skin.
His lips are on mine before I have time to form a thought. His tongue wastes no time slipping into my mouth and deepening the kiss.
I let out a mew of relief.
Suddenly, he spins, pinning me between him and the door, pressing himself into me just like he did at the club.
He’s hard.
I knew he would be, but right now I’m getting a better idea of just how big he actually is, and it’s a lot bigger than I remember from the couch.
Eager to know the truth, I let a hand slide between us and begin to unbuckle his belt.
He doesn’t try to stop me. He simply keeps kissing me and gliding his hands over my body.
When I get the belt loose and flick open his pants, he pauses, both hands on my body.
“I need you to tell me that you’re positive you want this.”
“I’m positive, but it has to stay here. In Vegas. We can’t do this when we get home.”
His gaze lands on mine, heated and needy.
He nods slightly. “Okay, but we’re sober, baby. You won’t have an excuse to regret this in the morning.”
His grip on my hips tightens.
I’d assumed he wasn’t drinking but didn’t know for sure until this moment.
The persona he shows in his everyday life, the soft, gentle girl dad who is nerdy and always ready to help everyone else is gone, and in his place is a man who is ready to snap as soon as he has the green light to take what he wants.
And he wants me.
And I want him even more.
And I have a feeling there won’t be anything soft or gentle about this with him.
I close my eyes and tilt my head back on a groan. The motion presses my waistline against his.
When I open my eyes again, I make sure his are locked on mine. I need him to hear me loud and clear and stop talking so he can ruin me.
Because I know he will.
“The only thing I regret is not letting this happen sooner. Now, kiss me and take my clothes off. Please.”
The word falls from my lips as desperate begging.
“Jesus,” he whispers.
We reach the bed, and the vibe he gives me says he’s going to toss me on it, but he doesn’t. He dips slowly to lay me back, one arm across my lower back so that he can move me to the center of the bed.
His lips find my neck and then my chest, and then he’s slowly peeling the straps of my dress over my shoulder.
My skin burns under his touch with a need I’ve never felt before.