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Chapter 5 – Pandora’s Box
Ruby
I gripped the back of his neck and curled up, my forehead hitting his collarbone, my thighs tightening reflexively around his lean hips.
His breath fluttered against my temple. The muscles in his back flexed under my hands as he slowly drove inside me. My eyes locked on the joining of our bodies.
I was so close.
“God, I love you, still,” he muttered roughly against my temple.
With those words, I came apart in his arms.
As soon as the conference had ended for the day, I rushed to my room, freshened up, and changed into jeans and a soft, off-the-shoulder sweater. Being ready twenty minutes early, I found myself pacing the narrow length of my room. I forced myself to stop and take five minutes to practice my breathing exercises in a failed attempt to calm my nerves. The walls of my room closed in, and I couldn’t stay there a moment longer.
Sitting in the lobby, my heart rate continued to flutter and skip from anticipation, and a splash of panic, but at least I no longer felt trapped.
What was I doing, opening this Pandora’s box?
Pleasure and pain.
Sustenance and starvation.
Salvation and execution.
All and nothing.
I didn’t try to fool myself into believing this would go anywhere, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a tiny ray of hope shone onto a future filled with him. He had built a life. I had a life. I still wondered if he would be able to walk away from his, or if it would be fair to ask him to.
I chose a chair off to the side, half-tucked behind a pillar. This way, I would see him before he saw me, and take a moment to collect myself. I knew where this night was headed. Would I be a disappointment? After all these years dreaming about him, would he?
Like a magnet, his entrance immediately drew my gaze. I was struck again by his height. Funny. Of all the things I could have forgotten, it was that. His body had changed. His shoulders were wider, his torso thicker, and heavier muscles covered his arms and chest.
He'd changed into jeans and a cable knit sweater, his jacket folded over his arm. I preferred this to the suit. Like this, he looked more like my Vander.
He walked with confidence. Striding into the lobby, he scanned the room, looking for me. I knew I should stand, but I wanted to take a moment to take in the thrill of him searching for me.
His face appeared harder, his mouth almost stern. Throughout the day, his countenance rarely shifted. He hadn’t looked like that ten years ago. I wondered what caused the change.
I hoped I hadn’t contributed.
He stopped walking and stood with his legs slightly braced. He rubbed his free hand over his jaw while he scanned the lobby, looking for me.
The same woman as before, the one with the soft voice, came up on his left side and lightly placed her hand on his bicep. My stomach clenched as he dipped his head down towards her to hear what she had to say, then shook his head no. She nodded and moved off but not before revealing her disappointment. His eyes followed her for a moment, his face thoughtful.
I stared down into my lap. I could have done without seeing that.
I took a deep breath and prepared to meet him. I lifted my chin at the exact moment he found me.
His brow smoothed, and a small smile tilted the corner of his mouth as his long legs ate up the distance between us. He dropped his coat on the chair beside me, reached for my hands, and pulled me up from my chair.
He tugged my arms around his waist and pulled me flush against his chest. With one hand in my hair, he turned my head to press my ear against his chest over the soft cables of his sweater. His other arm came around and splayed across the middle of my back. He lay his cheek on top of my head.
His chest rose and fell with his deep inhale. I stood within the circle of his arms as if I’d never left. I closed my eyes, the rest of the world melted away, and I breathed him in.
His hand slid down to nestle under my hair at my nape. It trembled slightly before he gave me a gentle squeeze.
“Let’s get you fed,” he muttered gruffly.
