We lay there listening to the water dripping around us until Ruby’s quiet giggle breaks it.
“Okay, I’m sold. I’ll date you.”
CHAPTER 28
Miles
My wife is a fucking knockout.
I’m standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching Ruby descend, one hand gripping the banister so she doesn’t wobble in her heels. From the angle I’m standing at, her legs have got to be ten feet long.
Honestly, I’m speechless.
She’s beautiful any day of the week, but I’ve gotten so used to seeing her barefaced, hair braided back, wearing jodhpurs and T-shirts—usually covered in some kind of slobber or horse crap, dust, and hair—that for a moment I forget how breathtaking she really is.
Her long hair has been coaxed into thick, glossy waves, and some dark, smoky stuff around her eyes makes them look five times bigger and more sparkly than normal. The green irises are startlingly vivid, her lashes blacker, her cheeks pinker.
Everything is magnified, including my favorite part—her freckles.
The sunshine over the past month has added a whole constellation scattered across her nose.
But—and I smile to myself—her lips are bare, and I know Ruby well enough that she’s done it on purpose. Because sheknows whatever she puts on her lips will only get kissed off by me.
I can’t stop kissing her.
Her steps slow on the stairs. “Like what you see?”
“Oh, I more thanlikeit.” I make a big show of checking my watch. “In fact, we might even have time for a quickie.”
Her laugh hits me square in the chest. Light and bright, it’s my favorite sound in the world since the first time I heard it.
“Hell no. It’s taken me far too long to look like this already. I’m not messing anything up.”
“What if I do all the work?” I counter.
She takes the last few steps down and plants her palms against my chest. I catch the briefest flash in her eye as she considers my offer before playfully shoving me away. “No way, mister.”
I shrug and wrap my arms around her instead, giving those bare lips a brief kiss. “Had to try. I’ll settle for going home with the hottest girl there.”
Stepping back, my eyes drop, and I give her a full, exaggerated once-over. The pink tint deepens in her cheeks, though I’m honestly amazed she still blushes around me.
There’s not a part of her body I don’t know.
We’ve fucked all over this house, along with a few places at the yard—empty stables, my office, against the fence post . . . I know exactly how to touch her.
I know that if I swipe my thumb beneath that sensitive patch of skin under her left nipple, I can get her moaning louder than if I go right. And when I slip my hand between her legs, her keening cry makes me harder than I’ve ever been . . . that when her body flushes the same color as her cheeks, I know she’s about sixty seconds away from coming.
As I take her hand, I realize she’s wearing the pink jumpsuit she wore on our wedding day. Even though it had been nothingmore than signing a piece of paper—done for reasons far removed from where we are now—the sight of it mesmerizes me, and for a second, I can’t breathe.
I’m not the same person I was when I married her.
“You look absolutely stunning.”
She takes a step back, her eyes raking over me. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
I do look good. Tall, broad shoulders, narrow waist, thick thighs, and a year-round tan, offset by a white shirt and custom navy suit. Most of my life is spent in jeans and a T-shirt at the yard, so when the occasion calls for it, I do it properly. And the pang of regret I felt for not making more effort on our wedding day rears its ugly head.
But the way Ruby’s looking at me right now? It’s the first time anyone has ever made mefeelattractive. She’s proud to have her arm in mine, and it has nothing to do with the size of my bank account or the social currency I provide.
