Page 65 of Heart & Hope

She pads to the side of the bed and pulls back the covers, sliding in beside me. I lie back and weave my arm under her shoulders, pulling her into my chest. The emotion that clogs my throat squeezes in my lungs. “Were you cold?”

“No. I’m used to sleeping next to you when I’m out here. I want to be where you are.”

I press a kiss to her hair and wrap her into me tighter.

“Reed?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we just friends?”

I swallow the stone that materializes with her words. “We are whatever you want us to be, Rubes.”

She pushes onto her elbow, sliding her cold feet between my calves. “I can’t tell anymore.”

“I don’t want to make your life complicated. I know you have plans. But...”

“But? Reed, what?”

“Dammit, Ruby.” Nerves rattle to life, scratching through my veins, tightening my chest.Say it, for fuck’s sake, Rawlins.I swallow hard and sink my face into her hair. “I have neededyou from the first moment I saw you that Friday night in Great Falls.”

She rolls over. Her eyes pinch, and realization spreads on her face as it gives way to surprise. “What?” The word is almost non-existent.

I fold my hand around hers. “It was the Friday before I met you over at Harry’s with Addy. I saw you pacing the street in those red heels, totally consumed by whatever was on your phone. You ran into me. You didn’t look up to see me. But I saw you, Ruby.”

Her mouth makes anoh. I drop my focus to the mattress between us, trying to find the words for what I want to say. I know she’s not mine.

“It’s okay, Rubes, I know?—”

“I see you now.” Her lips brush against my mouth.

My hands are on her face. Deepening the kiss, she pushes and pulls her way through my hair. I glide my thumbs over her soft features, over her jaw, down her neck. And when her lips part for me, my heart stumbles a beat before I sweep in, taking everything she wants to give.

Breathless, I break away. “You sure, baby?”

She studies my eyes, hands on my face, breathing hard. “I don’t know where this leaves us, but I can’t be around you and not touch you. Not anymore.”

“Thank fuck for that.”

She laughs and slaps my shoulder. “Now, I would like to know what all this talk is about.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“TheGreat Reed Rawlins. Bringing ladies to their knees since... Well, that part I didn’t have the privilege of hearing.”

Heat floods my face. And I choke on the air leaving my lungs. Ruby bites her bottom lip, trying to stifle a giggle. “It’s okay, sweet man, I’m not bothered. And I’ve had my share of gu?—”

I cover her mouth with mine, winding my hands under her t-shirt. The shirt that held me captive earlier as my air stalled out in my lungs at seeing the wordCaptainsprawled over Ruby’s chest. Harry’s disbelief in coincidences has rubbed off on me. This woman literally running into me that night is no goddamn coincidence.

“Take it off, please,” Ruby begs, almost breathless.

I slide her t-shirt off and let it fall to the floor beside the bed.

“These too.” She rises to her knees, and I push her PJ shorts over her hips. But I can’t pull my eyes from her, the shape of her, her perfect breasts bouncing as she moves, unfazed. Like we are already so comfortable with each other, and this too is natural for us. My body aches to hold her, touch her where she wants me to.

“God, you have no idea how long I have been thinking about this,” Ruby whispers.

I swallow. My throat is now akin to the Sahara Desert in a dry spell. I trace the back of my hand over her cheek, letting it fall to the curved bone of her collar. Her gaze follows my touch, her brown eyes darkened, every breath choppy.

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