Page 72 of On the Rocks

I surrendered to that moment, to that sacrifice, letting my hands wander her curves, my lips savoring the pressure of hers, my tongue tasting the sweet taste buds of her own. I pulled her closer — tugging, reaching — until she straddled me on the couch.

But when the heat of her center rubbed against my hard-on, I bit her bottom lip, sucking in a groan and releasing her mouth on a panting breath that felt like I’d been sucked back down to Earth and landed flat on my back.

“Stop,” I breathed, pressing my forehead against hers.

Ruby Grace’s chest heaved, her hands still under my shirt, lips parted.

I swallowed. “I don’t want you.”

Her face crumbled at that, brows bending together as she pulled back to look at me.

“Not like this,” I clarified. I reached under my shirt for her hands, folding them in mine and bringing her knuckles to my lips. “I have thought about kissing you since the day you showed up at the distillery, Ruby Grace. And I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought of doing more. But, I… Ican’t. Not now. Not when you’re torn up over another man.”

The level of hurt on her face in that moment was enough to make me wish I’d never opened my door in the first place. I knew that kind of hurt — it was rejection. AndGod, it killed me that I’d been the one to put it there.

But I couldn’t lie to myself, or to her. I wanted her more than I could say, but that didn’t change the fact that she still wore another man’s ring on her finger.

I waited for her to curse, to slap me, to crawl off my lap and slam my door in my face as she stormed out of my house and maybe even out of my life completely.

Instead, she let out a relieved breath, shoulders folding forward as she squeezed my hands that held hers.

“Tonight has nothing to do with him and you know it,” she breathed.

My heart was a stallion in my rib cage, thunderous and powerful, steady and strong.

“We’vebothknown it,” she continued. “And I’ve tried to fight it, tried to convince myself that what I felt when I was with you was wrong, that it wasn’t real.” She shook her head. “But itisreal. I’m just sorry it took me so long, that it tookthis,for me to finally admit that to myself.”

I searched her eyes, and when I found nothing but sincerity there, I didn’t know if I wanted to jump and throw my fist in the air or curl into her and fucking sob.

Because I felt it — right then and there on my couch on a normal, summer, Saturday afternoon in Stratford, Tennessee — I felt it and I knew.

The ring on her finger didn’t matter anymore.

She wasmine.

And I was hers.

As if to hammer that point home, she kept her eyes locked on mine as she reached down, slipping the ring off her finger and leaning back to deposit it somewhere on the coffee table before she slipped her hands back beneath my shirt.

“Now,” she said, rolling her hips just enough to elicit a stiff breath from me. “I’m going to ask you to kiss me again, Noah Becker. And I won’t ask you twice.”

My lips were on hers before she could even say the words.

Ruby Grace

Dark.

Everything was dark.

Outside, the sun was shining, another bright summer day in Tennessee. But inside Noah’s bedroom, where he was currently kissing me and backing me up — slowly, step by step — it was all dark.

Dark walls. Dark comforter. Dark curtains covering the window and blocking the sun’s light from sneaking through. Blind caresses in the black space between us — lips and necks and hands and sighs. Dark intentions, dark promises waiting to be fulfilled.

His dark hair in my hands, my dark heart in his.

He was just a shadow as he held me, his kisses touching me like a sweet, soft, summer midnight on a tropical island.

I didn’t realize how much a kiss could feel like a vacation.