Chapter 25 #2
Her shirt is gone in quick order, tossed to one side.
It probably hasn’t even hit the floor before I’m reaching for the waistband of her pajama pants.
Hooking my fingers into the elastic, I peel away the stretchy, soft pants, tossing them to one side as I drink her in.
She’s so fucking sexy. All curves and softness.
Trailing the fingers of each hand up the legs bracketing my hips, I trace a path over her knees and up her thighs, flattening my palms when I reach her hips so I can sink my fingers into the plushness there.
Everything about Ruth is lush. Her hair. Her voice. Her body. Her lips. After months of struggling to hold interest in anyone, it’s plain to see why she’s the one who finally got my attention. Why she’s the woman I can’t stop thinking about having in any way she’ll let me.
I don’t realize how long I’ve been staring until she moves to cover herself. It’s a shyness I haven’t witnessed from her before. It’s unexpected. Unusual.
And unwarranted.
I catch her wrists, pulling her hands away from the bounty I plan to fully enjoy. “Is there a reason you don’t want me looking at you?”
Ruth’s uncertainty tugs at my heart. I don’t want her to ever feel that way around me.
She huffs out an annoyed breath, making me smile. “I’m just not used to anyone seeing me naked is all.”
I angle a brow. “I know where babies come from, Ruthless. Someone saw you naked.” Someone I don’t want to think about right now because I’ll just get angry again. Start plotting. Come up with a way to ensure he never crosses Ruth’s path again.
And I’ll have plenty of time for that tomorrow since it’s a Saturday.
Ruth rolls her eyes. “I mean lately.” She rubs her lips together, eyes leaving mine. “Things are different than they used to be, and you seemed to be inspecting them pretty closely, and…”
I wait for her to finish, but she doesn’t. So I prompt, “And?”
She shoots me a halfhearted glare. “And now I have stretch marks and my belly is never going to be flat again and—”
Now that’s a temptation I can’t resist. I release one hand so I can spread my palm across the area beneath her belly button.
“Your belly is never going to be flat again because it grew an entire human.” A human I’m pretty fucking fond of.
“Flat doesn’t mean shit when you compare it to creating a whole person from nothing. ”
I’m not stupid. I know what our society wants women to think.
How it wants them to feel. Too much money is spent on pills and drinks and workout programs for the industry machine to allow women to be okay with looking normal.
They’d rather have them starving and hating themselves than allow acceptance and appreciation.
Leaning forward, I brace my hands at Ruth’s sides, lowering my body until less than an inch separates us. My nose is barely touching hers when I say, “You are a fucking goddess, Ruthless.” I tease my lips over hers. “So lay back and let me worship you.”
Ruth sucks in a sharp breath as my mouth shifts away to trail along her jaw and down her neck.
She smells so fucking good. Sweet and luscious. The way I want her can’t be healthy.
It’s consuming. It’s left me no room to think about anything else. Anyone else. It’s making me rethink everything, and that’s scary as hell.
But tonight, I don’t care about fear. I don’t care about the unhealthiness of my growing obsession with the woman pretending to love me. I don’t care if it eats me from the inside out, leaving nothing behind when she goes.
All I care about is touching her. Tasting her. Showing Ruth what I could offer her if things were different. What we could be if life hadn’t set our paths the way it did.
When she’s in Maryland, all I’m going to have is what lives in my mind, and I fully intend to stock it well. With the way she tastes. How she smells. The sound of her voice as she comes for me. And I’m going to make sure I have a lot to remember on the long, lonely nights when she’s gone.
And they will be lonely. Because now that I’ve seen what my bed looks like with Ruth in it, I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d allow someone else to take that place. I can’t imagine wanting to touch anyone else. To please anyone else.
It makes me understand Tobias a little more. How he ended up the way he was. Why he didn’t want anyone but Brooke.
Because I don’t think I can want anyone but Ruth.
Especially with the way she clings to me now, her nails digging into my skin through the fabric of my shirt as I palm the heavy weight of one breast, feeding her nipple into my mouth.
It tightens against my tongue, the smooth skin puckering as I lap against it.
I chase every sound she makes as I do my damndest to touch and lick every inch of her skin.
Right up until I get distracted by a particularly appealing part of her. It’s not the back of her knee—thought I’m still very interested in figuring out a way to fuck it—or the inside of her elbow. Also gonna rub my dick on that at some point.
At this moment, it’s the flushed pinkness of her swollen pussy that’s getting all my attention. Deservedly so.
I’m going to stay between her satiny thighs all night, savoring the feel of her clit against my tong—
The thighs I’m so obsessed with clamp against my ears as Ruth shouts my name loud enough I’m glad there are two closed doors between us and Birdie. She writhes against my bed, one hand gripping my hair as she comes way before I planned.
Well… Shit. Didn’t mean for that to be over so fast.
Ruth sucks in a breath, wiggling her oversensitized flesh away from my still hungry mouth. “No more.”
Peeling off my shirt, I scrub it over my mouth and chin before crawling up her body. “You need to practice your stamina, Ruthless.” I kiss the end of her nose before shifting to one side. Wrapping an arm around her waist, I tug her back to my front. “Now go to sleep.”