Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Ruby snorts. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it sure looked like you were enjoying your couch time with Florence quite a bit.”
“Because I couldn’t have you! I settled for her, the same way I’ve settled for every fucking woman since. All because I couldn’t have you.” I can’t help returning her wicked smile. “Okay, yes, okay. I was nineteen and horny and putting my dick inside a pretty girl, probably for one of the first times, given the timing, so, yes, I’m sure I thought it didn’t completely suck at the time.”
We both guffaw. And in this moment, I couldn’t love Ruby more.
“But I swear to God, if I’d known you wanted me back, I would have waited for you for the rest of my life. I would have hopped a train the second I found out.” I run a hand through my hair. “I would have killed for us to be each other’s first, Ruby.” I pause, my heart pounding in my ears. “Your first was Ryder, right?” We’ve never talked about it, but based on timing, that’s got to be the guy, the lucky bastard.
Ruby nods and winces. “I wished he was you the whole time.”
“I wished Florence was you, too. I’ve wished every woman I’ve ever been with was you.” I’m quaking with adrenaline. Also, with grief over what might have been. “That’s why I came in my pants at Reed’s party. Because I’d been dreaming about tasting your pussy for twelve long years, and my inner teenager couldn’t handle it finally coming true.” I exhale and gather my courage to say something on the tip of my tongue. “If you’d been my first, Ruby, you would have been my last. My only.”
Her eyes prick with tears. “Oh, Kendrick. Mine, too.”
My heart bursting, I kiss her again.
“I have another confession to make,” I say, breaking contact with her lips. “Your place has been move-in ready for weeks now. Sorry about that.”
“What?”
I tell her what I’ve done—the bribes I’ve paid to her building manager—and Ruby looks shocked. Flabbergasted to the extreme.
“How much did you pay him?”
I tell her the outrageous number, and to my relief, Ruby throws her head back and belly laughs from the tips of her toes.
“You’re psychotic,” she says, still laughing. “I’m so turned on.”
I laugh with her, basking in an ocean of relief and love for her. “It was Savage’s deranged idea. I can’t take full credit for it.”
“Of course, that was Adrian Savage’s brainchild. I should have known.”
“I’m the one who executed on it, though,” I say defensively. “So, I think I should still get most of the credit. Enough for you to feel turned on by me and only me.”
“Oh, I do, baby. Most definitely.” She strokes my face and grins. “Is there anything else you need to confess? Any other insane lies that need to be untangled now, before we officially start this thing and promise total honesty going forward, or is every dastardly secret of yours out in the open?”
I twist my mouth. “Hmm.”
“Oh boy,” she says. “Lay it on me, baby. Now’s the time.”
“I actually passed out cold during the flight from New York to Vancouver. I slept like a baby, as a matter of fact.”
Ruby chortles. “Why did you lie about something as stupid as that?”
“Because you said you’d take a nap with me if I didn’t get any sleep on the plane!”
“Kendrick!”
“I would have said anything to get to lie down with you in an actual bed, Ruby. Also, in my defense, I was still sleep deprived when I woke up. I had a lot of catching up to do. So, it was only a tiny lie.”
Ruby giggles. “Anything else, you psychopath?”
“That journal in my nightstand? It was a decoy, babe. My old journal from last year.”
“Kendrick Cook.”
I can’t help grinning proudly at my chess playing. “I knew you’d snoop around to find my journal the second I left you alone—”
“I didn’t!”
“So I left something for you to find and get turned on about.”
“I swear, I didn’t snoop. Like I told you, I was looking for a place to put my bag of nighttime stuff.”
“Liar.”
“Oh, you’re calling me a liar—after all the lies you’ve now admitted to telling to get me into your bed?”
I snicker. “Good point. Not only to get you into my bed, though. I’ve always wanted more than that.” I touch her hair. “So much more.”
“Oh, Kendrick.”
I gasp. “I just thought of another lie. Those handcuffs in my nightstand? I bought them specifically for you to find, along with the decoy journal. That huge bottle of lube, too. I didn’t already own any of that stuff. It was all a set-up, designed to feed into your frenzy over ‘Spank.’”
Ruby pulls a face. “You didn’t already own lube?”
“That’s your takeaway from everything I just said? No, I’d run out. And I’ve never once owned a bottle of lube that goddamned big in my life. Who needs a bottle that big?”