Chapter Thirteen #2
“I'm absolutely not. These are museum-quality pieces, better than most of what I saw at the MoMA last year. People would pay a fortune for these.”
“I'll never sell them. I make more ordinary versions and those are what I sell.”
“But why?” Celeste set the phone down, giving Ruby her full attention. “Why hide your best work?”
Ruby shrugged, but she glanced down at the floor.
“Because the good ones are too much of me. If people rejected them, if they thought they were worthless…” She stopped, swallowing hard.
“It's easier to sell the mediocre stuff.
That way, if people don't like it, it doesn't really matter.
It's not actually me they're rejecting.”
“But you're hiding yourself,” Celeste said. “Just like I've been hiding myself. And look how well that's worked out for both of us.”
Ruby's laugh was hollow. “Fair point.”
“Can I see what your agent thinks about all this? The texts you mentioned?”
Ruby pulled up the message thread, handing over the phone.
Celeste scrolled through Nora’s increasingly urgent messages.
The most recent ones mentioned a wealthy art patron named Jonas Ford specifically, encouraging Ruby to bring her best work to the festival and take this opportunity to connect with someone who could change her career.
“She really believes in you,” Celeste noted.
“She believes in money. Jonas Ford has a lot of it.”
“Maybe. But she also seems to truly think you're talented.” Celeste handed the phone back. “Are you going to meet with him?”
“I don't know.” Ruby set the phone aside, rubbing her face with both hands. “What if I show him my best work and he hates it? What if I'm not as good as I think I am and I burn out again and end up back in the hospital?”
Celeste reached over, pulling Ruby's hands away from her face. “Listen to me. Just because you failed once doesn't mean you'll fail again. That's not how life works. You learned from what happened. You're stronger now and more aware of your limitations.”
“But—”
“And,” Celeste continued, squeezing Ruby's hands, “you're absolutely more amazing than you give yourself credit for. Your talent is extraordinary.”
Ruby blinked back tears. “That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.”
“It's the truth.” Celeste cupped Ruby's face, wiping away a tear that had escaped with her thumb. “You're so much more than you let yourself believe.”
Ruby kissed her then, desperate and grateful. It escalated quickly, the emotional intensity transforming into physical need. They tumbled back onto the bed, hands seeking skin, mouths hungry.
“Wait. I have something—hold on—” Ruby leaped out of the bed and dug in her duffle bag.
When she turned back, she was holding a vibrator. “I, uh, packed this. Just in case. We don't have to use it if you don't want to.”
Celeste pulled her back down, kissing her hard. “Yes. Definitely yes.”
Ruby's hands were reverent as she undressed Celeste, taking her time even though they were both already breathing hard. “I could do this for hours,” Ruby said, her tongue darting out to taste the salt of Celeste's skin.”
Then Ruby introduced the vibrator, starting slow, letting Celeste adjust to the sensation. She held it against Celeste's inner thigh first, letting her feel the vibrations without overwhelming her.
“How does that feel?” Ruby asked, her voice low and intimate.
“Strange. Good strange,” Celeste managed
Ruby smiled, pressing a kiss to Celeste's hip bone. “Tell me if it's too much.”
She moved the vibrator closer, teasing along the crease where Celeste's thigh met her body, making her squirm with anticipation. When she finally pressed it against Celeste's clit, even on the lowest setting, Celeste's whole body jolted.
“Oh my God—”
“Still okay?” Ruby paused, her free hand stroking soothingly along Celeste's side.
“Don't stop,” Celeste gasped. “Please don't stop.”
Ruby increased the setting gradually, watching Celeste's face for any sign of discomfort.
But all she saw was pleasure—Celeste's eyes were half-closed, her lips parted, her breathing coming in short gasps.
The combination of Ruby's mouth on her breasts and the vibrations between her legs was overwhelming in the best possible way.
“Oh God, that's—” Celeste's hands clutched at the sheets, her knuckles white.
“Good?” Ruby asked, increasing the pressure slightly and adjusting the angle.
“Yes!” The word came out almost as a sob. “It's so much, I can't—”
“You can,” Ruby assured her, her voice dark with arousal. “I want to see you fall apart for me again.”
She alternated the intensity, bringing Celeste close to the edge then backing off, building the anticipation.
Her mouth moved from one breast to the other, sucking and licking while the vibrator worked between Celeste's legs.
Ruby kept her free hand pressing against Celeste's hip to hold her steady as she writhed, her body seeking more friction, more pressure, more everything.
“Ruby, please—” Celeste begged, her voice breaking. She'd never begged for anything in her life, but she was beyond caring about pride or control.
“Please what?” Ruby murmured against her breast. “Tell me what you need.”
“I need to come. I need—” She couldn't finish the sentence, couldn't find words for the desperate ache building inside her.
Ruby took mercy on her. She increased the vibrator to a higher setting and sealed her mouth over Celeste's nipple, sucking hard. The dual sensation was exactly what Celeste needed.
Celeste cried out, her body writhing as moans escaped her continuously now. She was making sounds she'd never made before, completely uninhibited, and some distant part of her mind registered that she should be embarrassed but she was too far gone to care.
“That's it,” Ruby encouraged, her voice rough with desire as she watched Celeste unravel. “Let go. I've got you. You're so beautiful like this, completely undone.”
The orgasm built up quickly like an open dam, spreading across the length of Celeste's body. Her thighs trembled on either side of Ruby's head, her whole body tensing as the pleasure crested higher and higher. She tried to hold on, to make it last, but it was too much.
When she finally came, it was with Ruby's name torn from her throat, her back arching completely off the bed.
The vibrations prolonged the orgasm, wave after wave washing through her until she was shaking and gasping, overwhelmed by sensation.
It felt like it would never end—just when she thought she'd come down, another wave would crash through her.
“Too much,” she finally gasped, pushing weakly at Ruby's hand. “I can't—it's too much—”
Ruby immediately removed the vibrator and turned it off, setting it aside. She pressed gentle kisses to Celeste's inner thighs, her stomach, working her way up her body as Celeste trembled through the aftershocks.
Ruby worked her through it, whispering soft words of praise against sweat-dampened skin. “You're so gorgeous. I love seeing you like this. So responsive, so perfect.”
When she could speak again and her breathing had returned to something approaching normal, Celeste reached for the vibrator with shaking hands. “Let me…”
“You don't have to—”
“I want to,” Celeste insisted, her voice still rough from crying out. “I want to make you feel what you just made me feel.”
Ruby handed it over with a heated look, then stretched out on the bed, already flushed with anticipation. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, her nipples hard, her thighs falling open in invitation.
Celeste positioned herself between Ruby's legs, taking a moment to just look at her and drink the sight of her lovely body in. Ruby was already wet, glistening, clearly aroused from watching Celeste come apart.
“Tell me if I'm doing it wrong.” Her nerves crept up on her at the worst possible time.
“You won't,” Ruby assured her, but her breath hitched as Celeste turned on the vibrator, the buzzing filling the room.
Celeste started the way Ruby had, teasing and building anticipation. She ran the vibrator along Ruby's inner thighs first, watching goosebumps rise on her skin. Ruby's hips lifted slightly, seeking contact, but Celeste held back.
“Patience,” she murmured, echoing Ruby's earlier words.
“You're evil,” Ruby groaned, but there was laughter in her voice.
Celeste used her mouth first. Then she introduced the vibrator at a low setting, pressing it against Ruby's clit and watching her face intently.
“Oh fuck,” Ruby gasped, her hands flying up to grip the headboard. “That's—yes—right there—”
Celeste increased the intensity gradually, experimenting with different angles and pressures. Ruby's responses guided her—the way her breathing quickened, how her thighs tensed, the increasingly desperate sounds she made.
Celeste's free hand slid up Ruby's body to cup her breast, her fingers finding the already-hard nipple. She rolled it between her fingers, then pinched gently, and Ruby's whole body jerked.
“God, yes,” Ruby moaned. “Just like that—”
Encouraged, Celeste became bolder. She alternated between her mouth and the vibrator, sometimes using both at once, building Ruby's pleasure methodically.
When she finally slid two fingers into Ruby's wet heat while maintaining the vibrator's pressure, Ruby cried out, her inner walls clenching around Celeste's fingers.
“Fuck, Celeste—”
Celeste continued pressing the vibrator against Ruby's clit while she worked her fingers in a steady rhythm, curling them to hit that spot inside that made Ruby's back arch. She could feel Ruby getting closer, her body tightening, her breathing turning ragged and uneven.
“Look at me,” Celeste commanded, surprised by the authority in her own voice.