“Rimer’s leaving him there for the night,” Jax said. “He’s got a guy—part counselor, part ass-kicker—to spend a day with him tomorrow. We’ll have to switch up the filming schedule. ” He rubbed his hand along his jaw as he looked Wes up and down. “But it doesn’t look like you’re going to be in any shape to pick up more action scenes. ”
“Hell you say. ” Wes puffed up his chest and fisted his hands at his sides.
Jax grinned. “Knock it off. You’re going to hurt yourself. ”
Wes sagged and winced, rolling his shoulder.
“Go on home,” Jax said. “Sleep in tomorrow. I’ll be revamping the schedule all morning. ”
Wes nodded and started toward the door but knew sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight.
Nine
Rubi sank deeper into her plush sofa and spooned another mouthful of limited-edition Triple Chocolate Swirl Häagen-Dazs past her lips. The rich, decadent flavor of dark chocolate coated her mouth, and her eyes rolled back in pleasure. Hardly a substitute for the taste and feel of Wes’s mouth, but…
She hadn’t seen him or talked to him or texted him in almost twenty-four hours now. The longest they’d been apart in two months. He was giving her the space she’d told him she needed, but it didn’t feel anywhere near as good as she’d thought it would. Nor was it as easy as she’d thought it would be. Especially not since Wes had moved into the bottom floor of Jax’s house, just two miles down the beach. He was way too close. Way too accessible. And keeping her distance was…torturous.
She glanced down at the note he’d left on her car that morning, one she’d found in her pocket earlier.
WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES ALL I CAN SEE
IS YOU IN RED LEATHER.
On the sofa, at Rubi’s side, her pup scooted closer and laid his adorable head on her thigh. A mix of lab, pit, and boxer, Rodie had a brindle-and-white face, big golden eyes, and lopsided ears that instantly lifted Rubi’s mood, no matter what issues plagued her.
“Sorry, baby,” she said. “Am I ignoring you?”
She laid her spoon against the carton’s lid on the side table and ran her hand over Rodie’s smooth head. Her gaze traveled over the still images of Wes’s fight practice with Keaton from the day before where she’d storyboarded them on a corkboard across the living room.
Wes’s intense expression absorbed her attention. So focused. So fierce. It sent tingles of heat low in her belly. Her gaze drifted over his body, his stance strong, one hand fisted near his face, the other arm outstretched in a strike.
She sighed, and doubt over any decision she’d made or might make in the future nagged. Damned if she did, damned if she didn’t.
She let out a long, disgusted-with-herself sigh. Rodie imitated her, drawing her gaze to his. Leaning forward, she kissed Rodie’s muzzle. His slim tail wagged, and his tongue swept across her chin.
“Your turn. ” Rubi set her carton on the side table and picked up his doggie dessert. Rodie licked his muzzle in anticipation.
She fed him a spoonful over the towel covering her leg, grinning at the way the strawberry-ice-cream-like treat coated his black whiskers until he got around to licking them clean.
Love filled her heart, the feeling so sweet, so consuming, tears rose to her eyes.
She absently scooped another heap of the doggie dessert for Rodie, watching as he gave himself a pink mustache while licking it off the spoon. But her mind was mulling over Lexi’s words from the night before.
“You’re living off a script you put in your head a long time ago, one that doesn’t apply to who you’ve become. ”
Maybe, but change that involved personal risk was no easy feat. Sure, Rubi would push her new Aston over a hundred and fifty miles an hour for an adrenaline rush, she’d screw a new guy, a virtual stranger now and then, she’d rather work for herself than for a secure company, but those were all relatively calculated risks—and none, not one, involved her emotions. She didn’t take risks with her emotions. And that was exactly what Wes wanted her to do. What Lexi pushed her toward. As if they both wanted her to continue her high-wire trapeze act after they’d taken away the safety net.
She set the ice cream on the table beside the sofa. “Enough thinking. Let’s put this stuff away before we make ourselves sick. ”
As soon as she uncurled her feet from beneath her, Rodie jumped off the sofa, trailing her into the kitchen.
She opened the freezer at the same time she realized she’d forgotten the lids and spoons. As she turned toward the living room, a ping-ping sounded near the sliding glass doors leading to the deck and Malibu Beach beyond. The odd sound raised the hair on the back of her neck, and she immediately glanced at Rodie. He’d heard it too. His head turned that direction, his lopsided ears perked, his sleek, seventy-pound body of muscle tense.
Her heart kicked, but she talked herself down under the pretense of soothing Rodie, while shoving the ice cream into the freezer. “Shh, baby, just the wind. ”
A storm had been brewing, and wind off the ocean often kicked sand against the house.
Still, without stepping from the safety of the refrigerator, Rubi reached for the lights over the sink, the only lights on in the kitchen, and shut them off.