Chapter Twelve

Ruby sat on the edge of her bed and watched Lucas as he talked to someone on his team about available agents and Interpol. It was fascinating to see him like this, in all of his master-of-his-domain glory as he prowled her room issuing orders and plotting Henriksen’s downfall.

The whole show was turning her on. Chewing on her bottom lip in a failed effort to distract herself from noticing the way his suit pants fit perfectly on his tight ass and the way his mussed hair and the determined line of his jaw gave him an air of hot badassery, she exhaled a deep breath. The action only emphasized the way the lace of her bra scraped against her sensitive nipples.

“So we’ll set up Gundersen as a hotel employee and Aster as a guest,” Lucas said, rubbing his palm hard across the back of his hair, making it stand on end. “Berg and Pedersen should set up outside the hotel in twelve-hour shifts.”

He nodded several times, uttering a few nonsensical acronyms that must have made sense to the person on the other end of the line before hanging up and slipping the phone back into his pocket.

“So what happens now?” she asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

“We call off the wedding and get you the hell off this island.”

She could disappear and start over. Jasper didn’t need her looking over his shoulder any more. He had the entire American government doing that. Having a permanent spy in the Macintosh organization was too valuable to let anything happen to him. Her mom had finally found her backbone, how much longer before she walked away from Fare Island? What if the only thing tying her here were her kids? If they left, would she too?

It seemed like Ruby’s world was full of breathless possibilities instead of well-loved burdens, but when she tried to imagine where she could go, the only thing that popped to mind was a garden of lavender, comfortable chairs perfect for reading in the sun, and a dark-haired, blue-eyed man coming out of the manor house, heading straight for her.

And that was never going to happen.

Her throat ached, but she forced the words out anyway with a bravado she didn’t feel. “So I guess this is good-bye.”

The muscles in his shoulders went tight, and his eyes darkened dangerously. “I don’t want it to be.”

“That makes two of us, but it doesn’t change facts.” She lifted her chin and dredged up any bit of self-control she had not to bound up from the bed and run straight into his arms. “I’m not the kind of girl who ends up with the good guy. I’m the crime boss’s daughter.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He stalked over to her, every step an act of aggression no doubt meant to intimidate her and push his message home. “The Sparrow and your bother, they know the score. I did terrible things before I joined the Silver Knights. Luc Svendsen, and all his misdeeds, isn’t just a cover. It’s my real name. It’s who I really am. Every blackmail scheme, every extortion, all of the lives ruined, and dishonest schemes enabled, I did that. If Dominick Rasmussen hadn’t seen a use for me and recruited me into the resistance when Henriksen’s father was still riding high on the success of his coup to overthrow the Elskovian monarchy, given me a new last name and a purpose, I’d still be selling secrets to the highest bidder. I’m not a good guy.”

He loomed over her, a massive, uncompromising brick wall of wrong. If he expected her to back down, he was seriously mistaken.

“Bullshit.” She stood up from the bed, forcing him to take a step back to make room for her. “Who you used to be isn’t important, it’s who you are now that counts.”

Crossing his arms, he gave her a hard look. “Always such a tough chick with all the answers.”

“Coming from you…” She shot him a sassy smirk. “I take that as a compliment.”

“It is.” A grin tugged one corner of his mouth.

“We aren’t going to get all soft and mushy now, are we?”

“You always seem to have the opposite effect on me.”

Her gaze dropped to where his hard cock pushed against the confines of his pants. Her mouth went dry. If this was the last time she got to see Lucas, she sure as hell was going to see all of him.

“Do I make you horny?” she asked in her best silly British spy impersonation, needing to put some emotional distance between them before she just gave in and admitted what she already knew was true.

She wasn’t just falling for him—she already had.

He cupped the side of her face with his hand and dragged his thumb across her bottom lip, staring at her with a look of such focused intensity in his eyes that she was surprised she didn’t spontaneously combust on the spot.

“That’s not a good enough word to describe what you do to me,” he said, his voice a low rumble that was made of equal parts awe and frustration. “You distract me from the rest of the world. You make me lose my ability to think about anything else, but how good you feel in my arms. You tempt me just by breathing. Believe me, I love everything you can do to me with that mouth of yours, but it’s what comes out of it that lets me know I’ll never find anyone else like you.”

She gulped. “I thought you didn’t like my smart mouth.”

“I like it too much.” His hand dropped to the hem of her shirt, but he didn’t make a move to inch it up. Instead he teased her with the weight of his fingers against her.

“Stop talking.” It came out more like a desperate plea than demand.

Lucas dipped his head but stopped short of her lips. “But there’s more to say.”

No. She couldn’t take any more. Walking away from him was going to be hard enough without more words like those to replay on an endless loop in her head. “Shut up and kiss me.”

…

The desperate, needy edge in her voice tore away the last shreds of control Lucas had been holding onto because, despite what she’d argued, he wasn’t a good guy. A better man would have found a way to walk away. He may not be that man, but he could be her man tonight. So he did what she asked—what they both wanted—and kissed her.

Soft, pouty lips. Sweet, hungry mouth. Sexy little moan. It was as familiar and exhilarating as watching the sunrise after a nightlong storm, the kind that made the single-pane windows in the cheap apartment he’d grown up in rattle like they’d shatter at any moment. He could experience this kiss a million times, and each time would be as thrilling as the first. She parted her lips, and he deepened the kiss, plunging inside and claiming her as if he had the right to. Touching her was bliss and agony and something he’d never even dreamed about, but it wasn’t enough. He needed all of her.

Never breaking their connection, he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her down with him as he dropped to the bed so she landed astride him. He threaded the fingers of one hand into her thick hair, pulling her closer even though there wasn’t a centimeter of sunlight that could have gotten between them at the moment.

She undulated against him, rubbing her damp core against his hard cock. Pleasure streaked through his body, making him as hard as she was soft. It would have been heaven if it weren’t for all the clothing between him and her silky skin.

Breaking the kiss, he trailed his lips across her jaw until he got to that soft spot behind her ear that made her entire body tremble. “Damn, I love it when you do that.”

“Makes two of us,” she said in a languorous purr as she turned her head enough for him to get a better angle.

He sucked her earlobe, raking his teeth across the sensitive flesh as he did so and grabbed her skirt-covered ass in his hands, holding her hard against him as she rocked her hips.

“Fuck me,” he gasped, the rest of the world obliterated by the sensation threatening to overwhelm him.

She had the audacity to chuckle. “Yes please.”

Smart mouth. Oh yes, she had one, and it made him hard as fucking concrete. But if she still had enough thinking power to make smart-ass remarks, then he wasn’t getting the job done. He dragged his hands up from the full globes of her ass to her waist, and before she had a chance to realize his intent, flipped her onto her back, and then he got up from the bed.

The sight knocked him stupid. There she was on the bed with her kiss-swollen lips, wild rainbow-colored hair spread out over the duvet, and her skirt hiked up to mid-thigh showing off her mouth-watering long legs, and he forgot his own name.

“Are you just going to look?” she teased, tugging her skirt high enough that he got a good view of the bright-blue silk panties covering his favorite place in the known universe.

God, she was killing him, and he’d never been so happy about the possibility of death. “Your clothes have got to go.”

One eyebrow shot up. “Only mine?”

“Such a smart mouth.” He took out his wallet, pulled a condom out of it, and tossed it onto the bedside table.

“And you love it.” She shimmied out of her skirt and made quick work of whipping off her shirt.

Love. Ruby. His fingers flubbed on his shirt’s first button as the truth slammed through him like a steel battering ram against a wall of dried-out twigs. As asinine as it was, he’d gone and done the one thing he swore to himself he would never do, especially not with her. He’d fallen for the girl he could never have. Before he could say anything, even if he’d had the vocabulary to do so, she rose up on her knees on the bed and went to work on his belt.

…

Ruby ached with need, every nerve ending tingling and desperate for Lucas’s touch. Her core clenched as she lowered the zipper of his pants, slow enough to elicit a tortured groan from him. Good. This was how she wanted him, as lost in desire as she was.

Finally, when she couldn’t stand to wait any longer, she pushed his pants down and took the long, thick length of him in her hand. Pressing her thumb against the sensitive spot right under the head, she leaned forward and lapped up the glistening drop of pre-come on the swollen tip. She looked up at him as she slowly slid her tongue over her lips, spreading that first taste of him.

“Ruby.”

God, she loved the sound of her name coming from his mouth. Instead of answering, though, she went back to his cock, taking him inside her mouth and curling her tongue around his width as she sucked him deeper. Tasting him, stroking him with her tongue. Taking him as far as she could, even with one hand wrapped around the base of him and the other cupping his balls.

It shouldn’t be this good. He wasn’t even touching her. Still, she was slick with desire, and the demanding ache she’d had a few moments ago had grown to an undeniable need. She sat back and let him slip from her mouth.

“I need you,” she said, stroking her hand up and down his now wet shaft before giving it a quick kiss.

“Lucky for you.” He kicked off his shoes and took off his pants and underwear in one downward sweep. He reached behind his neck and tugged his shirt over his head, not even bothering to unbutton it all the way. “I’m here to serve.”

Thank God for big favors.

“Lie back on the bed.”

It wasn’t a request, it was an order delivered in a rough timbre that made her nipples pucker—and judging by the bad-boy smirk on his face, he knew exactly the effect he was having on her. Not doing it wasn’t an option she even wanted to consider. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give him a little bit of sass back.

She sat back on her heels then tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, reached behind her back, and unhooked her bra.

His cock jerked in response to her teasing act of defiance. “You’re not following orders.”

“I’m a very bad girl that way.” She folded one arm across her chest to hold the lace in place and then slipped one bra strap off and then switching, doing the same with the other.

A muscle in Lucas’s cheek twitched as he watched, silent and intense, but otherwise, he didn’t move.

She lowered her arm. The bra followed. Keeping her gaze locked on his face, she licked the tips of her thumb and first finger then used them to pinch her already hard nipples, rolling them and pulling them taut.

His hands fisted, but he remained still.

“Oh, you’ll give me nothing until I lie down, huh?” she asked. “Whatever will I do?”

She released her nipple and slid her fingers lightly down her stomach to the top of her panties. Raising herself up on her knees, she slipped her fingers under the waistband and between her wet folds. Even though the lace covered her, it was see-through enough for him to have a partially-obstructed view of her fingers circling her clit in unhurried strokes. She was so turned on that it wouldn’t take long, but she wanted to come with him so she stopped and lifted her slick fingers to his mouth.

“Taste,” she said.

The word hung in the air between them.

“I will,” he practically growled. “But not like that.”

He moved so fast she didn’t see it coming, grabbing her behind the knees and yanking so she flopped onto her back. Half a second later, her panties were sailing through the air to land somewhere on the clothing-littered floor and her legs were spread wide. She figured he would dive in without any hesitation. She was wrong.

Taking his time, he kissed, nipped, and licked his way down the inside of her leg, his grip an iron vise not letting her pull away when he hit a tickle spot or one so sensitive that her hips came off the bed, her clit vibrating in response.

“No escaping now,” he said. “You started this. It’s only finished when you come so hard you forget your own name.”

The comeback on the tip of her tongue evaporated the moment his tongue touched her in firm, unhurried licks so good they bordered on torture. The feel. The sound. The electric pulses jolting through her. They were as overwhelming as they were welcome. He lowered one leg to the bed, pushing it out as far as it would go, and began to stroke her folds, spreading her wide so she was utterly and completely open to him.

The vulnerability of it crept into her head, scaring her and tugging her away from the pleasure.

“It’s okay,” he murmured against her. “I’ve got you.”

And he did. She knew it the same way she knew the northern lights would send streaks of green across the sky in the fall—and tonight she’d pretend it could be that way forever. She pushed away the fear and relaxed.

“That’s it.” He lapped at her clit and plunged first one and then another finger into her, curling them so he rubbed against her G-spot. “So tight.” Another lick. “So good.” He twisted his fingers, stroking them in and out in a steady rhythm. “So perfect.”

The vibrations started in her thighs, ebbing and flowing like waves that crashed into each other.

“Lucas.” She could barely get his name out, it was too much.

“Let it come, I’ve got you.”

He sucked her clit into his mouth while pressing his tongue hard against its base, relenting and repeating it over and over again as the sensations increased and took her higher and higher until her orgasm broke her into a million pieces. And like he promised, Lucas was there for her as she came down back into herself, slowly, breath by breath. When she could focus again, there he was, wrapped around her and holding her close. His fingers traced the line of her hip and outer thigh, getting as far as her knee before making the feather-light journey back up.

A deeper desire took hold of her, one that didn’t call for an explosion outward so much as the aching need to be filled, to be completed. “I might still remember my name.”

His quiet laugh and increased pressure of his hard cock nestled against her ass were his only responses.

She rotated her hips, relishing the feel of him against her but needing to feel more. “You’ve made me greedy.”

“For what?” He reached around and cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb against her nipple.

Her breath caught. “You.”

He rolled her nipple until it peaked. “That I can give you.”

“Tonight.” There was something masochistic about her insistence on reminding herself of the temporary nature of this, but she needed to, because tomorrow was going to hurt enough without the little white lies meant to comfort that only delayed the inevitable heartbreak.

“Ruby, we—”

“Have only tonight.” She rolled so she faced him, pushed him onto his back, and grabbed the condom from the bedside table. “Let’s make the most of it.”

…

Already on the edge after watching her come, Lucas held his breath as Ruby rolled the condom onto his straining cock. That was bad enough. When she lowered herself down onto him, so tight, he had to do equations to keep from losing it right there. He clamped his hands onto her hips and held her still against him, loving that he had the taste of her on his lips even as his dick was buried in her.

“This is more than tonight.” It had to be. Something this right didn’t disappear when the sun came up.

She didn’t argue. She didn’t agree. Instead, she tossed back her head, planted her palms on his chest, and rode him hard, grinding her clit against his pelvic bone at the end of each downward stroke. It was almost enough to drive them both into oblivion, but he wasn’t going as a passive observer. Hell no.

He took one hand off her hips and wrapped her long hair around his fist, pulling her head back. She made that moan that just about killed him every time and increased her pace, arching her back even more. The angle allowed him to hit the sensitive nerves just inside her entrance with each forward and retreat. It was beyond good, but he needed to feel her come all over him. He released her hip and reached between them so he could circle her clit with his thumb. She tightened around him and he nearly lost it. Keeping an iron grip on the last shreds of his self-control, he kept himself right on the edge, refusing to fall into the abyss until she did.

Her legs began to shake and she rocked harder against him, digging her nails into his chest. One. Two. Three strokes. She came with a harsh groan, squeezing him tight.

Only then did he follow her over, raising his hips off the bed and driving into her as deep as he could. Five rough, deep strokes and his balls tightened. The vibrations built at the base of his spine, and he made one final thrust before coming hard enough level a brick wall.

Ruby collapsed next to him, her chest heaving in time with his own. He closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath. At least that was what he tried to tell himself. The truth was, he didn’t want to let her go. It was idiotic. It was illogical. It was fact.

“I’ll be right back,” he said before taking a quick trip to the bathroom to discard the condom and then turn off the bedroom lights.

When he got back, she was curled up on her side. He got into bed beside her, pulling the covers over both of them, and tucked her in close to him. He stroked her hair, so smooth and cool, as she snuggled closer. With any other woman this was the moment when he snuck out, but there was nowhere he’d rather be than with the woman he loved, even if it was only until dawn.

“Love you, rainbow girl,” he whispered against her hair, the words coming from a place in him that he didn’t even know existed until he met her.

She propped her chin up on his chest, the look in her eyes as sad as it was wistful. “I wish it was a simple as that.”

He wasn’t a man for games or fantasies. Life had taught him long ago how stupid it was to lie to yourself, but he couldn’t help himself. For as long as he could make the night last, he’d do what he always seemed to do when it came to Ruby—he’d break his own rules because being with her was worth it.

“For tonight, let’s pretend it’s that simple.” He pushed a strand of blue hair away from her face.

“I love you,” she said, then brushed a kiss across his lips and laid her head down in the pocket of his shoulder.

What else was there to say? They couldn’t make plans for the future. They couldn’t commiserate about the past. They only had right now. So he held her close as she drifted off to sleep, but he couldn’t.

There was too much he wanted to memorize about her, the slope of her shoulder, the line of her neck, the curve of her hip, the feel of her fitted perfectly against him like she’d been made just for him. It was one of his life’s cruelest ironies that the only woman he’d even fallen in love with could never be his.