Page 81 of Heart & Hope

“What can’t you do, baby?”

I’m a thousand percent positive I’ve swallowed glass.

“I can’t imagine anyone else,” she utters.

“Baby, I told you, those girls were before. And it was?—”

Her hands fall to the tile by her legs. She’s shaking her head...

Why is she shaking her head?

“Come here.” Ruby rests her head back on the tile. I drop to my knees and crawl into the steaming hot shower where she sits. The water soaks my t-shirt, then my jeans. Drenched and inches from her now vibrating body, I wait. Absolutely wound up. Painfully fucking desperate for her.

Her hands cup my jaw, and she pulls my mouth to hers. But I resist, stopping before our lips touch. “What do you want, Rubes?”

Her face turns pained, like she’s holding back a sob. A heartbeat later, she forces a smile, running her hands through my wet hair, those brown eyes burning. “I want you.”

Before my brain has a second to analyze the situation, I slam my mouth to hers, moving forward until I’m kneeling between her legs. She peels away from the wall and is wrapped around me a second later. I rest back on my heels, and she straddles my lap. Her kiss is hot, hungry, and blowing my goddamn mind.

We’ve gotten each other off, but this is different. Like there’s something strong and permanent tugging between us, both ways. It was tentative before. Now, it’s pulling my heart through the cage that keeps it, seeing her this way. Because after the heat and the desire wears off comes the fall. With anyone else, I wouldn’t care.

With Ruby? There would be no coming back.

I must have stilled, because she is leaning back. Water runs over her face, neck, and over her peaked nipples. Drops run over those perfect breasts, cascading onto her stomach.

“Reed?”

Worry lines her eyes. Fuck.

“You don’t want to?” she whispers.

She has no idea how much I need her. But that’s just it. This is more than some spontaneous thing for me. Has been for a long time. I could almost deny it before, but now?

Having her here has been amazing, but every time I think about the grand opening and what that means for us, knots fill my gut. When R & R Ranch opens, Ruby goes home. And I keep thinkin’, if Adds had never come off her horse, her life, Hudson’s life... they all would have been different. And I never would have met Ruby.

Color me sentimental. Maybe I’m more like Harry than I wanna admit, but fate doesn’t screw up, unlike me. And I can’t—I won’t—find anyone like Ruby again. Those odds don’t exist.

Soft, light kisses brush over every angle of my face.

“Wherever you went just now, sweet man, please come back.” She searches my face.

I suck in a ragged breath and meet her gaze.

“There you are. What happened?”

“I’m alright,” I rasp.

“Caught up in your head again?”

“Kinda, but it’s not the anxiety.”

In fact, my head is clear. I guide her to her feet and stand. The water rushes over me, matting my hair and running down my shirt, plastering it to my toned torso as I dip my head. Wet hair falls forward, sticking to my forehead.

“You told me it was always okay to stand up for myself. To choose the things I want in my life.”

She nods. “I did, and you should.”

My jaw feathers. “I can’t do this, Rubes.”

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