Page 46

THIRTY-NINE

ruby

“Ruby.”

The voice that stirs me out of sleep is the softest, warmest thing I’ve ever experienced. At least until he brushes his perfect lips against my neck.

“Wake up, baby. I want you.”

Pressed against me, Lorenzo’s body is warm but smells like the night air, like he’s spent hours in the cool breeze that comes off the lake.

The room is dark, but dawn must be approaching, because I can make out enough to remind me I’m in my old bedroom in my parents’ house.

His hands wrap around my waist—the same hands that held me in his lap in the attic a few hours ago, the same ones that wrote those unforgettable words in his journal.

He pulls me tight to him so his hardness is pressed to my ass.

Instantly, I’m ready. His hands are slow as he eases my underwear down and drops kisses along my spine, but there’s nothing gentle about his touch.

The certainty in his fingers of what he wants is so hot.

“Where did you come from?” I whisper in the dark.

“I’ve been awake all night, thinking about you.

” His fingers dip between my thighs. “Thinking about all the nights I spent doing the exact same thing, wondering if you slept naked or if you’d snuck a guy into your bed.

Pumping my cock and imagining being inside your perfect body.

Wondering how it would feel to make you come.

” He slides his tongue along the sensitive strip of skin behind my ear.

“And then I remembered you’re mine. I don’t have to wonder anything anymore, because you belong to me. ”

I exhale a moan, his words and the feel of his finger sliding inside me setting me off. “Wait,” I manage to say, making a halfhearted attempt to roll away from him.

He hooks his leg over mine. “I don’t want to.” He rolls his hips so his erection slides back and forth against my ass cheeks. Damn it. I swear his desperation is contagious.

“Just give me one minute.” I free myself and get out of bed. “I promise I’ll be right back.”

In the bathroom, I pee quickly, feeling like I just woke up from a vivid, feverish dream.

I’m flushed and I feel shaky, desire mixing with the fact I’m still sleepy.

I hurriedly brush my teeth, but Lorenzo pushes the door open before I can finish.

He cocks his head and looks at me like he’s just caught me doing something bad.

He’s clad only in dark boxer briefs, which sit low across his hips, waistband askew and revealing a tuft of dark hair.

In front of the sink, he spins me to face him and takes the toothbrush from my mouth. Good thing I don’t need to spit. “Stop it,” he says, taking my face in his hands.

“Stop what?”

He leans in to kiss me. “I want you exactly the way you are.” His fingers dig into my skin, and his kiss hurts just enough that electricity sparks inside me. He leans so far over me I have to brace my hands on the counter behind me.

“Here I am. Now what are you going to do?”

He hooks his arms under my legs and lifts me onto the counter.

His hands push my knees apart, and immediately he drops his eyes to my pussy.

“Fuck you. Obviously.” He flashes a wicked look that I wish would last forever.

“Fuck you right here in your bathroom exactly like I used to imagine.” He pushes his boxer briefs down to his thighs.

He fists his rigid cock and pushes himself between my legs, barely probing my entrance.

The hypnotized way he stares down at our bodies floods me with desire.

“You said you didn’t let yourself imagine us like this.”

Dark eyes meet mine as he licks the tips of two of his fingers. I follow his gaze and watch as he wets my exposed skin. “I lied.” He shifts his hips and slowly slides his cock up and down between the delicate folds of my skin.

My breath hitches as he hits my clit. “You lied to me, Lorenzo Rossi? I don’t believe you.”

“Yeah, okay.” He takes a deep, steadying breath each time his length slides against me. “When we were high schoolers, I didn’t let myself go there.”

“But?”

“But then you kissed me,” he says gruffly. “How the fuck was I gonna think of anything else after that?”

Before I even know why, I’m kissing him with a fierce, desperate energy. I want him so badly, want him to do to me the things he’s only done in his imagination and with his hand wrapped around his dick. “Here we are,” I say against his lips. “Fuck me the way you always wanted to.”

He grunts and grabs for my hips with both hands.

The feel of his desperation makes me ravenous for him.

His fingers crush against my skin, and he enters me with such force it knocks the breath from me, but my body doesn’t resist. Sweat trickles down his jaw and along the veins that stand out in his neck as he pumps into me with brutal intensity.

Fuck slow seduction and the kind of lover Lorenzo tried to be when we first started up.

This is Lorenzo at his purest, chasing his desire, wanting nothing except to come inside my body.

His arms lock around me to fuck me as deep as our bodies will allow.

“This is how I always wanted you,” he says into my ear through gritted teeth, his chest crushed against mine. “Spread open for me in your sweet little bathroom.”

I let out a little laugh. “We always wanted the same things, didn’t we? You can’t know how many times I made myself come right here, thinking about getting fucked.”

“Fuck.” A harsh sound rumbles in his throat.

“If we wanted the same things, you must have imagined your heels up on this counter and my tongue buried in your tight pussy. You must have thought about my cum dripping down your spread thighs. Tell me that’s what you thought about.

” He thrusts brutally hard and his shoulder meets my chin.

My teeth cut into my lip and I taste blood.

Lorenzo pulls back and grips my face in one hand, making me meet his eyes. “Tell me, Ruby.”

“Yes. That’s what I thought about. And your cock spilling inside me.” He watches my lips move with hungry eyes. “And me coming so hard on you that the entire town heard me scream your fucking name.”

He grunts in approval. Then he licks the blood off my lip.

I wrap my legs tight around him and cross my ankles, pushing him deeper inside me, digging my heels into his ass.

My tacky, dated bathroom with mirrors on three sides gives me a perfect view of our bodies at any angle, and I stare.

I watch his smooth ass pump into me. My eyes sweep over his back, thick muscles straining and the beautiful tattoos painted across his skin shiny with sweat.

My mind flashes to the night I saw him jerking off in the shower.

How desperately I wanted to be the one he imagined, the only one who could make him feel that way.

Let it be me, I’d wished. And now it is.

I rake my nails down his back and moan his name.

He drops his head back. “God, Ruby.” His rhythm speeds up, turning sloppy. He’s about to fall apart.

I’m so turned on I don’t even need to touch my clit.

The raw sound of his voice and the feel of his sweat all over me and his heat inside me are everything I need.

Ecstasy hits me like a slap and I’m completely gone.

I know he’s coming, but I’m soaked in my own pleasure.

I fall against him and move with him as he draws the last of his orgasm from my body.

Ten minutes later, my lips are raw from my own teeth and the hungry way he kissed me after he came, and he slips out the door to get back to his house before his parents wake up and start party preparations.

I shower but I’m certain the smell of sex and Lorenzo stays on my body.

I put on scented lotion and a red sundress and add a spritz of the perfume I wore in high school—which triggers some vivid memories—but the day is warm and humid, and I smell the scent of him blooming on my skin.

It makes me deliciously happy. When I walk over to Lorenzo’s house to help set up for the party and Gina gives me a hug, my happiness mixes with guilt and a vague feeling of naughtiness.

“Morning,” Lorenzo says when I step out onto the patio where he and his dad are setting up furniture. His gaze goes to my body like he can see right through my dress, and he smiles like he’s trying not to smile.

“Good morning, Ruby!” Joe says cheerfully as he pushes a lounge chair into place. “I don’t see why you had to get dragged into party setup for the Rossi family. Run! Save yourself!”

I laugh. “I thought I was part of the Rossi family.”

He holds up a finger. “Touché.”

“Sleep well?” Lorenzo asks, hoisting a heavy chair overhead and making his biceps flex tantalizingly.

Behind me, Gina steps outside with two vases of white flowers. “Just fine,” I say.

“Really? You look tired,” Lorenzo tells me. As he turns, I catch sight of a bright-pink scratch peeking out from the shoulder of his cut-off T-shirt. An image of his naked body rocking against mine dances through my vision. That’s my scratch.

Gina makes a face. “Lorenzo! Who raised you? I only wish I looked like that when I was tired. You should apologize.”

I stick my tongue out at Lorenzo. “Yeah,” I tease.

He holds my gaze, and for a second I think he’s going to tell them about us. My heart beats nervously. I hold my breath, not sure whether I want him to or if I’m hoping he won’t.

“You’re right, Mom.” Lorenzo nods and walks behind me. “Pardon me.” And right as his parents turn their backs, he slips his entire hand under my dress and squeezes one cheek.

I stifle a surprised sound and hear Lorenzo chuckling softly as he picks up another chair.

Except for a too-brief instant when he corners me in the bathroom, tugs my dress down, and kisses me from my lips to my breasts, Lorenzo keeps his hands to himself once people start to arrive for the party.

It only ratchets up the tension between us.

It’s our first time being “Ruby and Lorenzo, the R-rated version” among all these people we’ve known since childhood, and it’s almost as awkward as it is delicious.

Lorenzo’s extended family is just as kind and welcoming as his parents are, which means that even if I spend most of the party repeating the same three lines about what I’m studying and my plans after graduation, just being part of the gathering is comforting.

I see the same faces as every year—with the exception of Anthony, who’s conspicuously absent.

Lorenzo’s aunt and uncle don’t mention him.

When the afternoon heats up, I excuse myself from small talk and stand in the shade against the side of the house.

It’s not cooler here, but it’s quieter, with none of the Rossis’ chattier family members venturing this far beyond the snack tables.

Lorenzo stands with his parents and his aunt Teresa on the far side of the patio, his back to me.

From behind my sunglasses, I take in the slope of his muscled traps and his thick, wide shoulders tapering down to his narrow waist. I love that silhouette.

A small patch of sweat darkens his white T-shirt between his shoulder blades, and I picture him pulling the shirt over his head, leaning over me, covering me with his hot, sweaty skin.

I want to live this morning all over again.

It’s his aunt who pulls me suddenly from my daydream.

“I half expected to see Alli here,” Teresa’s saying.

“I spent the whole first half of the summer saying the same thing!” Gina says. “Lorenzo finally told me to stop asking.”

Teresa looks from Gina to Lorenzo. “Over and done with?”

“Over and done with,” he agrees.

“She was such a lovely young woman!” Teresa says it like Alli’s dead or something and not out there still living her perfect life. I bite back a flare of jealousy.

Lorenzo nods slowly. “Yeah. We’ve been over a long time, though.”

“For the best,” Joe says confidently. “A year from now you’ll be traveling all over this country. That’s not the time to get serious with someone.”

Lorenzo shrugs, but I can’t see his expression. That’s where I stop listening anyway.

It’s only now I can think about a long-distance relationship without worrying Lorenzo would tire of it.

I trust him completely, and time apart doesn’t feel like a threat to us anymore—but it feels like a threat to me.

The closer we get, the more I understand I need him every day.

Not only his love but his presence, the comfort of his arms, his confidence when mine wavers.

He’s the one I run and cry to every time I’m uncertain about school and work, every time my parents’ words rock my confidence, every time I’m in need.

I don’t know whether that’s a sign of the strength of our relationship or a sign of my own lack of fortitude.

The answer to that has never mattered, because he’s always been there.

But without him around, what will be left of my strength?

As I step out of the shade to find myself a drink, there’s a little ache in my heart that wasn’t there before.