AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hello, cock-eyed optimism.
‘Ruby, about last night …’ He paused. ‘I’m sorry. That wasn’t … It wasn’t meant to happen.’
‘I know,’ she said, keeping the easy smile firmly in place, even as the jitterbug in he
r chest died. ‘But I enjoyed it immensely, so I’m not sorry. And I don’t think you should be either.’ She crossed her legs, struggling to ignore the pulse of heat between her legs.
Down, girl.
‘Unless of course you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did,’ she added, not caring her cheeks were probably glowing now too.
If a girl couldn’t fish shamelessly for a compliment when she was getting the brush-off from the best-sex-of-her-life guy, seriously, when could she?
‘You know I did,’ he said, but he was still frowning. ‘I’m sorry because …’ He looked down at the empty plate, brought his hand up to tap his fingers on the table. She waited, for him to come up with the right words, fascinated despite everything at how hard it seemed to be for him to find them. She would have assumed Luke had given women the brush-off a ton of times before, he’d been so confident and hot last night in bed. She imagined every woman he’d ever dated had probably fancied themselves in love with him at least a little bit. Awesome hook-ups could do that to a woman.
At last, he raised his head, his stare doing interesting things to the glow in her knickers. ‘I’m sorry, because I used you last night, to make myself feel better about … about some stuff. And that’s a pretty shitty thing to do to anyone.’
Her heart rate started jitterbugging again at the sincerity in his voice, and the regret. She couldn’t tell him that was easily the sweetest most chivalrous brush-off she’d ever gotten, from any guy – or he might get the impression she was expecting more from him than hot sex, when she never had. But she filed the thought away.
She covered his hand, to still the nervous tapping. Then released it again, so he didn’t get the wrong impression about that either.
Time to set him straight.
‘Luke, I knew something wasn’t right, when you arrived here last night looking so lost and alone and smelling of rum. And I took advantage of your awesome oral sex skills anyway, so I’m really not sure who used who.’
‘Huh?’ His eyebrows popped up, and her smile became genuine.
Men were such adorable dopes sometimes.
‘But be that as it may …’ Moving swiftly on. ‘What stuff was bothering you? Do you want to talk about it?’
It was a risk, she knew that. He’d just told her she had no hold on him, which she totally got. But as a friend, she wanted to help, if she could, by doing something other than just taking advantage of his ninja cunnilingus skills.
‘Not really,’ he said. The frown was back with a vengeance.
‘Then you don’t have to,’ she said, reaching for the plate. She’d expected that response and she wanted him to know this wasn’t about her curiosity, this was about him. If he wanted to talk about it, she was a good listener. If not she was equally good at not pushing.
But as she stood to lift the plates off the table, he grasped her wrist.
‘Sit down,’ he said, the edge she’d noticed the night before back in his voice.
She sat down, and he let go of her wrist.
‘Actually, I kind of do …’ he said, a wary look clouding his expression, ‘have to talk to you about it.’
‘No, you really don’t, Luke,’ she replied. ‘Just because we hooked up last night. And used each other,’ she added, glad when a rueful smile lifted his lips. ‘It doesn’t make whatever happened to you yesterday any of my business. Okay?’
Luke was a super private guy. She didn’t want to make this any more uncomfortable for him than it had to be.
She reached for the empty plates again.
‘It’s not just about me though,’ he said and she let go of the plates again.
She could hear the brittle note which had been missing last night. It saddened her to hear it again, but what saddened her more was knowing that without it, Luke wasn’t really Luke.
‘It’s about Matty and my dad, and my mom …’ he continued. ‘And it’s kind of about you, too. And The Royale.’
The mention of Matty brought with it the hard hit of grief Ruby had somehow managed to dodge this morning, ever since waking up with Luke’s arm thrown over her hip and her clitoris still humming … But even as her lungs squeezed, and her eyes stung, the grief tugging at her again, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Luke’s troubled expression.
