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Corinne crosses her arms. “What?”
“I’m just wondering what exactly your goal is. With Boyd, I mean,” she says, gesturing to me. “I’ve been wondering since yesterday, when you watched him walk in with a girl on his arm and you tried to give him an oddly sexual hug, and I’m wondering now as you pretend not to remember my name and hint at giving him sexual favors later. I’m just curious what your end goal is.”
Ruby glances over at me then back at Corinne.
“Boyd and I aren’t dating. We met yesterday. You have a lot more history with him than I do, and honestly it seems like you should probably get together to catch up since you appear to be on very different pages. But, like I said, I’m just wondering what your aim is in trying to make me feel uncomfortable. It would seem, to me at least, like you want me to assume you have something going on with Boyd so I’ll leave and you can try to get back together with him. Correct me if I’m wrong.”
It’s work for me to keep my mouth from hanging open, but I do. I can’t say the same for Corinne, though. She looks like she could catch a whole lotta flies with that mouth of hers and the way she’s gaping at Ruby.
There’s a long silence as Ruby waits for Corinne to respond, and the longer it goes on, the more I can see Corinne scrambling for something to say.
Ultimately, she ignores Ruby and looks at me.
“This is the kind of girl you’re into now?” she asks, one lip in a kind of snarl.
“You bet your ass.”
It’s out of my mouth in a second, before I can even think about the words, a knee-jerk reaction.
Because I’m absolutely into Ruby. The type of woman she is, the way she handles herself—all of it.
Even the way she handled Corinne.
I think most girls would have either sat next to me and stayed silent or allowed Corinne’s catty attitude to lure them into some sort of chick fight.
But not Ruby. She stated a truth about the way Corinne is talking to her in a manner that completely laid Corinne out on the mat without even really having to throw any punches.
She introduced a sweeping kick into boxing and knocked Corinne’s legs out from underneath her in record time.
It was amazing.
Corinne rolls her eyes and huffs out a “Bitch” before she and her two minions storm off to another part of the bonfire.
I can only hope Ruby’s words have done enough to keep her away from me for the rest of my trip, though if I know Corinne at all, I don’t think I’ll be so lucky.
Next time I see her—though hopefully there isn’t a next time—I’ll be sure to let her know I don’t appreciate her attitude or thinly veiled agenda.
But right now, all I can focus on is the woman sitting next to me.
“Sorry if that was too much,” she says, looking at me with a twinkle in her eyes that says she’s not the least bit sorry. “But you know how you always look back on conversations you have with people and you’re like, dammit, I could have said that and it would have been perfect and totally made them regret being a bitch? I’ve had to deal with so many people in life who want to talk down to me or around me or about me like I’m not there. They think they’re so sly, making other people feel bad or uncomfortable or unwanted. I’ve always wished I could force them to acknowledge how bitchy they’re being without being a bitch myself, and tonight the words just came to me. I’m sorry if I overstepped or if I shouldn’t have said it, but oh my gosh it felt so amazing to just—”
I can’t wait any longer for her to finish her monologue. Instead of allowing her to continue explaining to me why she handed Corinne her own ass in spectacular fashion, I press my lips against hers, slipping my hand into her hair behind her neck so I can hold her against me.
Because watching her ramble was making me want her even more. I like just about everything that comes out of Ruby’s mouth, including the sass, and I couldn’t let another minute go by without tasting the place all her words come from.
Unlike the chaste kiss in my truck earlier, both of us open our mouths, tongues seeking, exploring. Warmth and wetness and a hint of cinnamon explode on my tongue as I kiss her exactly the way I’ve been wanting to since the minute she smiled at me in the terminal at Boston Logan.
Her hand circles my wrist, and I worry she’s going to pull me away. Instead she squeezes, just a single pulse, but it communicates to me that she doesn’t want me to stop, further confirmed by the tiny moan I hear right before she nibbles on my bottom lip.
She makes me want to throw her down on the bed of my truck right here.
But even that thought calls back the nights I came to the bonfire with Corinne. I never cared if anyone knew what we were doing, whether or not anyone could see us as we parked off to the side.
Just the idea of someone seeing Ruby in anything less than what she has on now, though…it makes my blood boil, a fierce protector threatening to break free from chains I didn’t know existed.
So instead of doing what my baser instincts might have directed me to do in my youth, I pull back, enjoying the way her mouth follows me to steal another kiss.
“Ruby,” I say, lifting my hands so they’re both on her face, calling her eyes up to mine instead of where they’re focused on my lips.
