Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DECLAN
I can’t sleep.
I flip the covers off me and grab my computer. I prop myself against the headboard. Might as well check my emails.
I click on one, scan it, then I click on the next and scan that one, too.
Yet, if someone were to walk in here right now and ask me what I just read, I wouldn’t have an answer.
My mind is 100 percent focused on Ruby.
This past week has been torture. I’d hyped myself up all day to talk to her. To tell her that maybe we made a mistake by agreeing to end this in Vegas, but then my mind kept going back to whether or not I could be who she needs, who my company needs, and who my daughter needs all at the same time.
The point of being with someone is to have a partner, right? That person you grow with and who is there for you through the good and the bad. We could be that person for each other, couldn’t we?
Watching her with my parents tonight was a sight I never planned to see anytime soon, but something about the way my mom fawned over her and how Ruby laughed at my dad’s horrible jokes … everything just fits.
I’ve never felt so content before.
It kills me that she’s right upstairs. That in under sixty seconds I could be up there with her. I would have to be quiet, sure, but she’s right there.
I shove my laptop aside and grab my phone, opening up my text thread with Ruby.
Declan:
Are you awake?
The dots appear almost instantly, as if she’d been waiting for me to message her.
Ruby:
Yes. I can’t sleep.
Declan:
Neither can I.
Ruby:
Why not?
I debate whether I should tell her the truth. I don’t want to scare her away. But I’m not about to start whatever this is with a lie.
Declan:
I’m thinking about sneaking up there to see you.
The dots appear and then go away.
Then they appear again and her text is almost instant.
Ruby:
Okay.
That’s all the assurance I need to sneak out of my room.
A couple of the steps creak, but I pause long enough to be sure they don’t wake Susie.
I tiptoe across the middle floor and to the stairs that lead to Ruby’s room. Her door is closed, but it’s clear that she still has her light on.
I find her wearing a mismatched pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, sitting up in her bed with her computer the way I was.
“Hi,” She whispers.
“Hi,” I whisper back.
She closes her computer and puts it aside, then she meets me at the foot of her bed. She reaches out to touch my chest, her hands sliding up to my neck, and my head pounds louder than ever before.
But when her gaze locks onto mine, I know without words that her mind is in the same place as mine.
“How did we ever think we could keep this to just two nights?” I ask her, snaking my hand around her body to pull her against me.
God, it feels good to have her in my arms again.
She lets out a small laugh.
“I have no idea.”
She pushes to her feet and presses her lips to mine.
Fuck. I missed her.
When she pulls back, her smile fades.
“What if it doesn’t work out and the kids suffer from it?”
“That won’t happen, but I can promise you that I won’t let us impact their friendship.”
“What if this affects your friendship with my brothers?”
“Your brothers are great, Ruby, but for you, I’d risk it.”
“What if I can’t get past the things people say about us and I freak out?”
“Then we work through it, together.”
Her mouth twists.
“Look, Ruby, I’m not going to beg you to be with me, but let me be very clear. I like you. A lot. If this isn’t something you think you’ll ever be ready for, I need you to tell it to me straight.”
The room fills with silence.
Her eyes latch onto mine as her breathing picks up.
Instead of using words, she launches herself at me. I catch her in time to help wrap her legs around my hips.
Her lips meet mine, and she kisses me desperately.
She tilts her head to deepen the kiss, sliding her tongue into my mouth to dance with my own.
“I don’t want to tell the kids or anyone yet. Let’s do this for us right now and figure out the rest later.”
“I can do that,” I tell her and take a seat on her bed, letting her straddle me.
We don’t break apart except to pull our shirts over our heads.
I grip her breast and give it a small squeeze.
She moans at my touch; my cock twitches beneath her.
I scoot back and then flip us over to lay her on her back.
I unbutton her shorts and slowly slide them down her legs, taking her panties with them.
Once she’s bared to me, I settle my face between her legs, licking and sucking her glistening center until she’s pulling on my hair and coming on my tongue.
She moans my name in a whisper, and I reach for her nightstand.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I wink.
“You don’t think I forgot about your friends here, did you?”
Her cheeks turn red.
“Don’t get shy on me now.”
I grab both of them and hold them up for her to pick one.
Yeah, I’d love to use them at the same time, but I plan to have her come the second time on my own cock, so I don’t want to get carried away.
She points to the purple one.
As I put the other one back, I spot the gel she must use with them.
“Ruby, I’ll never be the same knowing this drawer is up here next to you each night.”
She grins wickedly. “Then I probably shouldn’t tell you that I’ve thought of you while using them.”
“Fuck, really?”
She nods.
“That’s hot.”
I grab the gel, and even though we don’t need it, I squirt a small bit right between her legs, then I reach forward and massage it into her pussy, sliding two fingers inside of her.
Her back bows off the bed, and she grips the sheets.
I could watch her like this all fucking day.
I press the tip of the vibrator against her and flip the switch on.
“Shit.”
My cock gets harder as I push the toy inside of her. The vibrations against my hand are intense. I can’t imagine what it’s like inside of her.
So, I slide a finger inside with it to feel it.
“Oh!” She lets out a breath.
“Breathe, Ruby, you’ve got this, but don’t forget to be quiet.”
I push the dildo in a little more and watch as her breathing becomes erratic. Keeping it inside of her, I reach down to remove my sweats and pull out my dick.
I stroke it twice and then I shift my body up to rub my tip against her clit.
I groan the moment I feel the vibrator pulsing against my own cock.
I rub myself against her faster, now moving the dildo in and out.
“Declan, I’m … I’m …”
I pull the vibrator all the way out, flip her to her stomach and pull her up by her hips. I keep her legs pinned together and straddle them before lining myself up with her entrance and pushing in.
“Oh my God!” she cries into the sheets as I slam into her once, twice, and then a third time before her pussy grips my cock and I come with her.
I pump until the last bit of my orgasm is gone, and then I roll off her and let her breathe.
I might have gotten a little carried away.
I rub her back, waiting for her to look at me.
When she does, she’s grinning and starts to laugh.
“Let’s do that again,” she says.
I lean forward and press my lips to hers.
I know without a doubt that whatever Ruby Asher is willing to give me, I’m going to take.
Even if I have to sneak up to her room every night for the rest of the summer.