“Are you in the wedding party?” I asked.
He grinned. “Best man. Marcus didn’t want to have to choose between all his brothers.”
“So I’ll get to see that gorgeous ass in a tuxedo?” I teased.
“It’s all yours, sweetheart,” he said suggestively as he loaded our plates into the dishwasher and put the cake in the fridge.
“I wish,” I mumbled.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing,” I answered.
“I’m going to go hit the shower,” he said as he moved toward the elevator.
Can I come with you?
I knew that Jett wanted to move slow, but my body was pleading with him to pick up the pace.
Was he waiting for me to make that move? Or did he just want to make sure I was ready before he took things any further?
I sighed as I gathered up my laptop and followed him upstairs.
Maybe it was beyond time for me to figure it out.
Jett
I stripped and turned the shower on.
Every single day, I needed to get myself off to stop myself from starting something with Ruby that she might not want to finish.
I had to get some kind of relief. And every goddamn day, visions of Ruby and the way she’d looked and sounded during her first orgasm and every orgasm after that fucking haunted me.
I stepped into the shower and leaned back against the tile. “Fuck!” I cursed. How much longer was I going to be able to handle the nearly combustible sexual tension that flared between us?
Ruby was the one good thing that had ever happened to me as an adult other than the fact that I was incredibly successful because Lawson had catapulted into a tech giant, which didn’t seem nearly as monumental as the woman who had given me her trust.
Ruby had permeated my damn soul, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Her essence had become a part of me I couldn’t live without.
I craved her like an addict craved drugs, and it was pretty much torture to look at her and not make her completely mine. Primal instinct battered at me to claim her in every way possible, but because of her past, I wanted to be careful not to scare her off.
But it’s not her fault that I’m a horny bastard!
I’d already admitted to myself that maybe my hesitation wasn’t completely about her. She practically pleaded with me to fuck her every night, an event that always ripped my heart out. She was ready. But maybe I…wasn’t.
It was about me now.
I was too damn scared that I was going to end up losing her somehow.
And that was completely unacceptable.
Okay, maybe she had seen the scars on my upper body, and she’d accepted them. But my leg was a mangled mess. And I was pretty sure the whole naked package was pretty ugly.
Hell, I’d seen Ruby growing and changing while she was in counseling. She was finding her own way, and standing on her own two feet. Eventually, she’d receive the insurance money her parents had left for her. Was I fucking afraid she’d eventually leave me?
I clenched my fists, knowing that was exactly what I feared. But I was going to have to move past my own issues to keep Ruby. If I didn’t, I’d definitely lose her.
She needed to become independent, and I wanted that for her.
So I’d eventually have to find out if she was willing to accept me with all my deformities.
Or not.
Problem was, the stakes were way too high for me this time.
She’s not Lisette!
I knew she wasn’t like my ex, and maybe that was part of the problem.
Losing Lisette had been a blessing.
Watching Ruby walk away would completely destroy me.
The stakes were too damn high for me to take a risk.
“Jett?” I heard Ruby’s hesitant voice from outside the glass door of the shower.
As it started to open, a gut reaction made me spring into action.
I slammed the partially open door in her face as I bellowed harshly, “Get the fuck out! Leave! I don’t want you here, Ruby!”
Even with the shower running, I could hear her audible gasp of dismay. “I’m sorry,” she said tearfully. “I’m so sorry.”
I could see her form move toward the bathroom door, and she was fumbling to get out.
“Goddammit!” I cursed.
I’d let my own insecurities hurt the woman who didn’t deserve it.
Her loud sob gutted me, and the only thing that mattered was making sure Ruby was okay.