Miles
Ruby’s head flops back against the rim of the bath, and she lets out a soft moan.
We’ve been sitting in here for close to two hours, have topped up the water three times, and our fingers are pruney, but neither of us seems to want to leave.
The movement elongates her neck, arches her back slightly, and a mountain of bubbles parts from her nipples, breaking the surface of the water. The golden hue of her skin is flushed from the heat, and the longer I stare, the quicker my dick pays attention.
I do my best to ignore him and focus on her instead. The way my heart’s thumping in a beat that sounds a lot like Ru-by. It’s the only way I can stop the hurt from taking over, or the twist in my gut reminding me of everything that happened up to the point when Ruby came and found me in the rose garden.
Focusing on her is what keeps me calm. I don’t know why I’ve not realized before now, but Rubyismy calm. It only took Clementine to sneak around with my sworn enemy for me to understand. Because instead of losing my shit, I walked away far sooner than past Miles would have done.
I’ve gone over it and over it, sitting here while the water cooled around us—if it’s something I did to push my sister into him, if it’s my fault that it’s happened, or if it’s my fault she couldn’t tell me sooner.
And Ruby’s patiently listened while I ranted. She hasn’t told me what to feel or how to react. She hasn’t judged me for being melodramatic or overreacting. She’slistened.
She’s been a friend, and that’s new to me. Hendricks always had Story as his best friend, whereas I never felt the need to venture outside of our group of boys. I was friends with girls, sure, but not like that. Not anyone I’d go to with my problems.
Yet that’s what Ruby is. My friend. My best friend, giving me advice on my fucking Judas-betraying sibling.
Then she said something that stuck.
“You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
And that’s when I stopped being angry. I’m definitely not okay with what Clementine has done, or for the secret she and Hendricks have kept, but I’m not raging. I’m hurt and sad. Yet Ruby being here somehow makes it easier to bear.
What I said to her earlier was the God’s honest truth. I’m not ready for this to be over. I’m not ready to eventhinkabout the end of the season.
I don’t want to go back to a life she’s not part of, and as I look at her chest shimmering with water droplets, I decide I don’t plan to.
“You know, you never answered me before.”
She sits back up, her breasts disappearing under the bubbles again, and her head tilts. “When?”
“When I asked if you would date me.”
The beginnings of a smirk curve her lip, like she can’t believe I’m asking anything so mundane, but I think if she knew what I was really thinking—that I want to redo our vows, have a big fuck-off wedding like Lando and Holiday are planning, andfollow it up with forever—I’m pretty sure I’d see a Ruby-shaped hole in the door surrounded by suds.
“You really want to date?”
Leaning forward, I find her left hand, sandwiching it between my palms. Her ring slips around, imprinting against my skin, because why not? She’s imprinted herself everywhere else.
“I do. I’ve never done it before.” I laugh as she frowns at my prosaic reasoning. “I mean, there are a lot of things I’ve never done before I met you, but I’ve also never wanted?—”
“And I’ve changed things?”
“You’ve changed everything, Ruby Lanson. And I’m asking if you’ll do me the honor of allowing me to date you?”
While I’ve been talking, I slipped the ring off her finger and now hold it up to her.
She watches as I ease it back onto her finger, slotting it into the mark it left.
“What sort of dates are we talking? I’d like an example before I commit.”
My eyes flick up in horror only to find hers sparkling with glee, tongue pushing out her cheek.
In a second, my fingers find that specific point in her ribs and dig. Water sloshes over the side as she howls with throaty laughter, and I can’t take how fucking funny it is. My chest heaves, water sloshing around, until the bath and most of the bubbles are on the bathroom floor. The fact that I could have gone my whole life without hearing this particular noise baffles me.
“Miles . . . I can’t?—”
