“Oh, I’m thinking you all probably had a lot more on your minds. Like whether your father is actually alive and what his role is in all of this.”
“Still.” I pulled her to me. “Leave it to you to see what should have been right in front of our eyes.”
“Don’t get too excited. It may not lead to anything. Larry hasn’t been very talkative up until this point. Plus, he may claim not to know.”
“True. But it can’t hurt. After all, he had one of the rings too. I’ll be in the city tomorrow to talk to Bryce’s uncle. Can I pick you up after work?” I hesitated. “Oh. Will we even be able to get in to see him in the evening?”
Ruby smiled. “I’m a police detective. I can get in to see whoever I want.”
“I don’t want you to get into any trouble. This isn’t your case.”
“You let me worry about that.”
I touched her cheek, her skin like satin against my rough fingertips. “Sometimes I can’t believe you’re in my life.”
She looked away shyly. “You’ve had women before. This is hardly a first for you.”
“It’s the first time—”
I stopped abruptly. I’d been about to confess my love for her, and I couldn’t do that. At least not yet. I had no idea how she felt about me, but that wasn’t the real reason for my hesitation. Before I could love her or anyone else, I had to be sure of who I was. My world had been turned upside down with the new information regarding my maternity. I wasn’t ready to have it turned upside down by a woman.
“The first time what?” she asked.
“Nothing. You’re right.” The thought of my previous girlfriend, Anna Shane, reminded me of the quitclaim deed we’d found among my father’s things. Yet another tentacle in this mystery that was my life.
Her cheeks reddened. “I know you have.”
“Ruby, I know what you’re thinking. Believe me, you’re…different. And I don’t mean because you’re inexperienced. You’re…great in bed, baby.”
She reddened even further.
“That’s a compliment.” I pushed my groin into her. “See? I’m hard for you right now, and we haven’t even kissed.”
I was crazy hard for her most of the time. It wasn’t her hot-as-hell body, her gorgeous face and hair, the fact that she’d tried so hard for so long to be invisible…
No. It was because she was Ruby. The woman I loved.
Still, I was afraid to go there. She knew who she was.
I did not know who I was.
Not anymore.
The only thing I knew for sure was that right now, as of this very moment, I craved her. Needed her. Ached for her.
I crushed my lips to hers.
She opened for me at once, our tongues swirling together. She tasted as she always did, of sweetness, freshness, berries and cream.
I had never thought of myself as a natural dominant before, but with Ruby, who in her daily life was about as far from submissive as anything, I was finding my dominant desires.
I broke the kiss.
“We need to talk,” I said.
“Now?” Her nipples protruded through her tank top.
I had to physically stop myself from reaching for them.