Page 36 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

“Ruby,” he said, her name a plea on his lips, and that was what did it. That was what pushed her over the edge.

Her hips arched up off the bed, and she felt herself dissolve yet one more time.

She was gasping for breath, when he moved up to kiss her mouth, give her a taste of her own pleasure on his lips.

Her face got hot, some of her thoughts returning to her now that her pleasure had a chance to subside.

Then he moved over to his duffel bag, and took out a box of condoms.

She felt embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that.

But thinking was an unavailable skill right now. She couldn’t say that had ever been the case before. Typically, she was all

thought, with a determined lack of access to her feelings. She was okay with having feelings; she just wanted to stay in control

of them. And there was no control. Not here. Not with him.

There was nothing but this driving, relentless need. He was beautiful. Just so beautiful.

And he was hers .

It was the sudden swamp of possessiveness that surprised her. That grabbed hold of her like a feral thing she had never known

was part of her.

He was hers.

Her best friend.

And he had just done things to her that no man had ever done before. That made her feel unequal in a way, because what could

she do? When a man was so experienced, what could she give him that hadn’t already been given? Maybe that was the wrong way

to think.

“I want to hear you beg,” he said.

He looked at her then, and there was a dangerous light in his eyes. An edge to him that she had never known before. It was

like magic. Like one of the doors that had always been locked to her inside of Justice was finally open.

Not just her safe space. Not just her friend. But this man who had a sort of sensual edge to him that had never been hers to harness. And now there it was.

“You want me to...”

“Tell me what you want,” he said. “Beg for what you want.”

She wanted him. Inside of her. She ached for it. Was desperate with the need for it.

But it was... embarrassing.

“This is you and me,” he said. Like he had read her mind. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed about it. There’s no reason

to be ashamed. Just tell me what you need.”

“You,” she whispered. “I want you inside of me.”

“That’s what I want too,” he said, opening up the condom box slowly.

Maddeningly slowly.

Then he took out a packet, and tore it open, positioning the latex over the blunt head of his arousal and rolling it down.

She had never been so fascinated by the act. Never. But then, she had never found a man’s body quite so beautiful.

He moved over her then, kissing her deep, and she could feel the blunt head of him pressing against the entrance to her.

She wanted him. But right then, she nearly panicked. Nearly pushed him away. Because it felt too big. Too significant. Because

it felt like it would be too much for her to handle.

This change. The shift in who they were.

But she couldn’t deny her need any more than she could deny him. And as he began to sink inside her, inch by agonizing inch, it was like she understood something that was both basic and complex that had always eluded her. Something deep and raw and honest.

This was what sex was. She’d had sex. More times that she could count. But it had never been this.

The feeling of this man deep inside of her surpassed everything.

Their connection was more than just physical. Physically, he was a gloriously attractive human being; physically, he appealed

to her in every way. But there was something deeper, something more real. A rawness that burned between them when he pushed

his way into her.

When he was buried all the way to the hilt, he looked at her, intense fire burning in his eyes, and she felt undone. His breathing

was fractured, and her own need was so intense that she could barely breathe.

Then he began to move. A pained expression on his familiar face, the action between them so new, so intense that it was like

they were strangers. But they weren’t.

Because it was Justice. Her Justice, and she could never unknow that.

You couldn’t unhammer a nail.

She would never be able to go back to the way things had been before. To not knowing this. To not knowing that he fit perfectly

inside of her. To not knowing that when he thrust deep, he reached parts of her that no one ever had.

When the pleasure started to build inside of her it was a deeper, richer pleasure than what had come before. It was beyond

sanity. Beyond words.

They were both breathing hard. She put her hand on his chest, could feel his heart thundering.

She could feel her own need mounting into something impossible. Building and building until it was like a skyscraper of desire

that she didn’t think she would ever be able to reach the top of.

But failing to do it might kill her.

She wrapped her legs around his lean hips, and he began to drive deeper, harder. Her name was a prayer on his lips, the desperation

there fueling the need inside of her.

Justice.

She rocked her hips up against his and he reached beneath her hips, holding her up against him as he thrust down. Like they

couldn’t get close enough, like he couldn’t go deep enough. Like there would never be enough.

“Rue,” he said, against her mouth, and that was when she shattered. Every other time had been waves. Rolling and rolling within

her, making her cry out. But this was something else. Like she had been reduced to a million crystal pieces, undone, but more

beautiful than she’d been before.

Justice .

She was saying his name over and over again, wouldn’t have been able to stop herself if she tried. Justice . This man destroyed her. In every single way.

And yet she felt reborn. Remade.

New.

He pressed his forehead to hers, and he kissed her. And that was when she knew it would be okay. That was when she knew that he was as undone as she was. And maybe there was no first that she could give them, but it was something.

It could never be nothing.

He’d said that. She believed him. Because she trusted him.

They held each other, breathing hard.

“I didn’t know,” she said. “I just didn’t know that it could... I really didn’t know.”

“Me neither,” he said.

She looked up at him, and she didn’t know what to say to that.

She touched his face. “Thank you.”

His smile curved, just on one side of his mouth. “You’re welcome.”

She wasn’t sure what he felt about that. She wasn’t sure where to go from here.

“I’m going to go run a bath,” he said.

His decisiveness, yet again, saved them.

She lay there on her back, staring at the ceiling. She was supposed to be here with Asher.

That made her laugh. Because not a single part of her felt like that was true. Not a single part of her felt like that was

actually meant to be.

No.

This, Justice, felt a whole lot more meant to be than anything else could. She didn’t know what was going to happen next,

but she knew that he was going to take care of her. And that was no small certainty. In her life, the certainty that somebody

would take care of her was the biggest thing she could think of.