Page 64 of Heart & Hope

When my eyelids become heavy and start their descent, I turn the brightness down a little. A yawn later, I close the machine and place it on the coffee table, taking to studying the flames, now smaller and a darker shade of amber.

Reed putters around the kitchen, clearing up. I take the last pull of the wine, emptying my glass. My head resting on my hand, and wrapped up warm with a blanket, I cover another yawn before the fire fades to black.

Chapter Fifteen

REED

Ruby is sound asleep on the sofa. And as much as I would love to watch her until dawn steals the last of the night’s darkness, she is going to have one hell of a sore neck if I don’t move her.

I peel the blanket from her and brush the hair from her face. She mumbles something I don’t catch as I slide my arms under her legs and behind her shoulders. She’s light. Soft. Her sweet strawberry scent winds into my senses as I take the steps up to her room.

The spare room.

That feels fucking wrong, if anything ever did.

My heart thunders, the blood rushing south with every breath I take with her in my arms. The curve of her gorgeous lips. The apples of her cheeks. The lines of her collarbones. Her long legs draped over my arm . . .

Fuck me.

Fire roars through my veins, burning my shallow breaths out, one puff at a time.

Sweet Jesus.

A moment later, I stand by the queen bed in the spare room. And I can’t put her down.

Don’t want to.

Asleep, so gentle, so fucking beautiful, my damn heart explodes. I clamp my jaw tight, the muscles feathering. But this isn’t what she wants. To be tethered to a ranch, to a rancher. Even it’s a whole lot of fun. And she’s the best thing to ever have walked into my life.

Trying desperately to take back control over my now staggered breathing, I suck in a lungful. “Bedtime, baby,” I whisper.

She moans, and it takes everything this man has to not crumble. Instead, I let her down onto the bed and step around to the other side and fold back the blankets. Wiped out, she doesn’t wake, only sighing and rolling over.

I kneel on the bed behind her and lift her onto the side with the linen folded back, tucking her in. Two hands. Snug as a bug in a rug. Pressing a kiss to her cheek, I push from the bed and track to the door. Every step is hard.

I want to fold myself around her. Give her everything, every part of me she deserves. And selfishly, I want to keep her.

But that’s not fair.

If I learned anything from Huddo and Addy, love isn’t selfish. It just ain’t.

I head downstairs and put her laptop on the kitchen counter away from the heat of the fireplace and tidy up a little before flicking off the lights and padding upstairs into my empty room.

I lie on the oversized bed and slide my hands behind my head, knitting them as I let my gaze rove over the stars above. They’re stunning, yet they’re dull compared to the brightness that thrums to life when Ruby is around. The full moon brightens my room with a soft grey.

Reed James Rawlins, playboy turned sap.

I chuckle, but the fact is, my life changed. My way of thinking, my bad habits, all shifted when I found Ruby. And I letmy mind wander, playing out how things would go if she wanted me. If she felt for me the depth of whatever this is that I do for her.

With a hard-on that would take down a Greek god, I groan, rolling over onto my stomach, hoping it will extinguish the fire that started at the mere thought of Ruby and me.

Something creaks across the hall. A heartbeat later, she appears in the doorway, wrapped in a blanket. Her silhouette is an outline of every curve I adore. Her hair messy, her breathing steady.

“You okay, beautiful?”

“No.”

I sit up. “What is it?”

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