29. I’ve Got Friends
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I’VE GOT FRIENDS
Payne
“What are you doing down here?”
I spin in my chair when I hear her voice. She’s standing at the threshold of my office—my fucking father’s office—wearing my T-shirt. Since I left her in bed in nothing but a pair of panties, I assume she still has those on.
I hate seeing her in this room. When I came home and started working from here, I was able to set aside the shit that had gone down in this office. But I did it knowing my father was rotting away in prison. That gave me a great deal of satisfaction.
I moved past the horrors of what he did to me. Hell, I’ve even moved past what he did to Mom all those years. She never tried to protect me or get us out. She traded her abuse and mine for a country club membership, a limitless credit card, and a new Cadillac every other year.
Seeing Ruby in this office makes my blood boil. What he did to her is unforgivable. It makes me go to places in my mind that I’m not proud of.
“Baby, what are you doing up? You’ve had a long day. You need to sleep.”
She crosses her arms making my T-shirt ride up her thighs, almost to her pussy. “It’s four in the morning. I rolled over and you were gone. Did you sleep at all?”
“No. I tossed and turned and didn’t want to wake you. You should go back to bed.”
She pushes off the doorjamb, walks on bare feet through the office, and around the desk. I swivel and she comes straight to me. She settles on one of my thighs and tucks her legs into her. I put one hand on her back and slide the other around to her ass as she leans in to press her lips to mine.
“There’s no way I’ll go back to sleep knowing you’re down here by yourself contemplating murder. I’m just going to give it to you straight—you’ve never looked good in orange. You’re hot and can pull off almost anything, but do not make me have conjugal visits where I only get to see you in orange.”
My lips pull into a smile for the first time since I got the call from Brand Vitale. “Baby, murder convicts don’t get conjugal visits. And most states don’t allow them at all.”
She places a hand on the side of my face. “Then it’s official—you are not allowed to murder anyone. Got it?”
I lean in and kiss her. “If you only knew what a hard promise that is to make. But it seems I’ll do anything for you. And tomorrow I’m throwing away everything orange in my closet.”
“Thank you.” She sinks into me further. “In all seriousness, I don’t think he’ll come back.
If there’s one good thing about your mom not leaving the house, he can’t contact her unless he’s here.
You took her phone when we got home tonight.
And the number of cameras around your property is downright creepy. At least they’re good for something.”
I draw circles on her ass cheek with the tips of my fingers. “I agree.”
Her fingers trail down my jaw to my bare chest as she murmurs, “And still, you can’t sleep.”
I look around the dim office. I flipped on one lamp when I walked in here, but it barely lights the dark-wooded room. We’re surrounded by shadows and a sliver of moonlight. “I hate this space after you told me what he did to you in here. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to work in here again.”
She presses her lips to my jaw. “I’ll paint it to look like a rainbow from top to bottom. Your father would hate that. I’ll even add glitter to the walls. Though you might not be able to work from thinking about me.”
I give the end of her hair a playful yank. “It’s amazing I can get anything done. You’re at the forefront of my every thought, Ruby-doo.”
Her smile swells. “Do you know how much I loved your nicknames for me when we were young? I think I remember every single one.”
I grip her ass. “Rubilicious is my favorite.”
She bites her lip, and I know she’s thinking of what I’m thinking. “You called me that after the first time you went down on me.”
My mouth waters thinking about it. “That’s because you were, in fact, delicious.”
“You kept asking if I liked it. How can anyone be turned on and mortified at the same time? Your head would pop up from between my legs to ask if you were doing it right.”
“It was too big a deal for me to go rogue. Internet research will only get a virgin teenager so far. I had to know if you liked it. I was desperate for you to like it.”
“I more than liked it.”
“I know you did. And if we weren’t hidden away in your room with your grandma across the hall, I might have pounded my chest after your silent orgasm. That’s when I knew I could read your body. You fucking loved it.”
“Always so cocky.” She shifts in my lap to get up.
But she doesn’t stand.
She falls to her knees.
I lean back in my chair and look down at the beauty between my spread legs. “What are you doing, Rubes?”
She pulls at the waistband of the gym shorts I slipped on when I snuck out of what is now the bedroom I will forever share with her. “We need to make new memories.”
I run my fingers down her cheek. “Is that so?”
She nods but doesn’t look away from what she’s doing. I was half hard thinking about the first time I gave her an orgasm with nothing more than my tongue. I felt powerful and on top of the world.
I’m feeling no less at this exact moment when she yanks my shorts and boxers down and my cock springs free.
There’s nothing half-hard about me now.
Her hand wraps around me as she massages the tip of my cock with the pad of her thumb.
“This is your office, Payne. You work long, ridiculous hours in here making stupid money for people doing things with their investments that I do not want to try to understand because it seems so boring I’d poke my eyes out.
But you’re the smartest person I’ve ever known.
You have mastered two careers by the age of thirty-two that most can’t do in a lifetime.
Don’t let anyone take that away from you. ”
I lean forward, cup her face in my hands, and get as close to her as I can. There’s barely a breath between us. “We’re going to have babies and bring them home here. Raise them and love them. They’ll have your free spirit, and we’ll let them do whatever the fuck they want to do in this house.”
She nods. “They’ll be smart like you and be free to live their lives however they want. And they’ll know nothing but love. They won’t be able to fathom a world where they aren’t our only priority. We’re going to give them everything we didn’t have.”
“Hell yes we will.”
“But this.” Her blue eyes gaze around the office I have every reason to hate before she focuses back on me. “This is yours. Claim it, Payne. Let me help you do that.”
I pull her lips to mine. My tongue dives into her mouth to taste her and feel her.
I’ll never get enough. This is why my life was so empty with her gone.
She surges up on her knees to meet my kiss.
We hold each other close, and by the time I let her go, every ounce of blood in my body has rushed to my dick.
When she licks her lips, I suck in a breath and beg my dick to remember we’re a grown ass man, not a horny teenager.
Okay, fine.
We might be a horny grown-ass man too. But we still need to act like the man we are.
Those blue eyes peek up at me through her thick lashes. “Here’s to new memories.”
I drag my thumb over her bottom lip. “I love you so fucking much.”
And with that, I lose the blue eyes I’ve missed for so long and lean back in my chair.
Her blonde hair falls in a mess over my lap.
Her lips close around my cock. My dick in her soft wet mouth is heaven.
When she sucks, my reality flies out the window.
I’m pulled into another dimension with no one but Ruby.
Her cheeks hollow. Her head bobs up and down. I can’t look away from my cock disappearing between her lips with her every move. I should close my eyes and get lost in this, but I can’t look away from her. She’s a work of art.
She wraps one hand around the base of my cock and swirls her tongue around my tip before taking me deep again. The talk of babies and a family...
And now this.
I groan when she sucks me hard to the tip before diving down for more.
“Baby.” I fist her hair at the base of her neck.
She doesn’t stop. If anything, she moves faster, which is not what I need.
“Ruby, baby.”
She hums on my cock. Her fist around my base tightens.
I surge down and grab her under the arms. She’s forced to let go of my cock with a pop of her beautiful lips.
Her face is flushed when I stand and pull her to her feet. “Why did you do that? I wanted to finish.”
I yank the T-shirt she’s wearing up and over her head to find the tiny panties I bought her at Walmart the other day. I push them to the floor before I put her back to my desk.
I wish I could do that dramatic swiping thing where everything flies across the room for effect, but let’s be real—I’m all electronic.
I despise paper sitting around. I don’t even own Post-it notes.
Throwing my coaster across the room is lame, so it remains on the corner of the very desk we’re making new memories on.
I stand between her legs and spread them wide so I can drag my finger down her pussy. So wet.
I surge into her in one go and bury myself to the hilt as I bend to take her mouth. She wraps her legs around my waist and holds on tight.
When I release her lips, I’m out of breath as I stare down at her. “We’re not wasting the baby juice. Not when we’re in fuck it mode.”
Her expression settles into something I don’t recognize. “I should cry, but I’m too turned on. Maybe later.”
I press my lips to hers for another kiss.
Then I pull her legs out from around my waist and stand.
Taking her in sprawled across my desk is everything I dreamed it would be and more.
I bring my thumb to her clit. There’s nothing slow or pushing her to the edge before pulling her back tonight.
I work her clit as I fuck her, pounding her body up and down on the desk.
As I look down my bare chest, our connection is the star of the show.
I’m as obsessed with the sight of us coming together as I am her.
She presses her head back into my desk and arches her neck. I feel her pussy start to constrict around my dick. It reminds me of her sweet mouth. Both are fucking perfect.
I pound into her and don’t let up on her clit. She calls out, her moans and gasps bouncing off the wood paneled walls, from the floor to the ceiling. The sound of it is cleansing.
Healing.
Therapeutic.
My orgasm chases hers. I can’t hold back any longer.
I pound into her one more time before I come hard.
I press into her again and stay there. When I fall forward, my hands land on the desk on either side of her head. We both struggle to catch our breaths. Then she reaches up, tags me behind the neck, and pulls me to her.
I take over the kiss and relish in the feel of us.
I let go to look at her. Tears slide down her temples. “Who knew the term baby juice could make me cry.”
My heartrate starts to even out, and I reach up to brush the hair from her face. “I want everything with you, and I wanted it last year. Hell, I wanted it a decade ago. We’ll get there, baby. I promise we will.”
She nods with a smile.
I hate that I have to pull out, but I do and tuck myself back into my shorts. I bend to pick up her panties and hand them to her. “I didn’t know it, but I need these new memories almost as much as I need you. I think I’ll be able to sleep now.”
She wraps her arms around me and presses her cheek to my bare chest where I can feel her tears against my skin. “We have a lifetime of memories to collect. As long as we’re together.”
This was too good.
As I walk her up the stairs to our bedroom, it’s all I can do not to think about my fucking father, free and roaming the earth.
I wonder if he really knows I was the one who pulled the strings to put him in jail and throw away the key.
I shake off that thought.
Because if he does...
Fuck.
If he does, I need to be ready.