Revealing Ruby (Bound and Determined #1.5)(27)

“How did you know?”

“Your focus at the time was as much on my lips as on my breasts. It was not so hard to guess.” She moved her lips back, relaxing her throat to take him deep.

“Ahhh.” It was hard to tell if it was an answer or only the response to her actions. Tensing all the muscles of her mouth and throat, she sucked hard, stroking along the underside of his cock with her tongue, her every sense attuned to his smallest movement. Pulling back, she breathed deep, filling her lungs with much-needed air. Musk and man, was there a better scent anywhere?

His fingers tangled in her hair, urging her forward again. She nipped with utmost care. In this moment she was master and it was best that he knew that. Slipping her tongue out, she laved the spot she had just nipped and then, sliding her lips about him again, caressed her way down his long length.

Her mind filled with the image of him as he’d been when she first came upon him in the shower: lean, heavy muscles and damp, velvet skin. Picturing the expression on his face, she increased the tempo of her movements, replicating the long easy strokes she remembered. And then faster, faster, faster.

She could hear him gasp. The fingers clasping her hair gripped and loosened and then gripped again. His whole body pulsed with need and she fed into it. Faster. Faster. Deeper. Harder.

It was hard to breathe and she did not care.

All that mattered was him, the taste, the smell, the feel. This was all about him and she relished it.

When he’d been in her earlier she’d been too overcome by her own feelings to luxuriate in his. Now she could observe every detail of his response. He loved to go deep, to feel the caress of her throat along his whole length, but he also loved when she pulled back, playing about the head. Her tongue licked long strokes against the pulsing vein.

“I can’t hold it any longer.” It was a gasp, a cry. His whole body locked tight and shuddered with effort, but she could feel it coming, feel the surge that worked its way from his base. She pressed farther, pushing herself and him to the extreme.

His fingers dug into her hair, his hips lifted from the bed, his thighs rock hard about her—and then he let go. The cry ripped through the room, his body buckled and the stream of his seed spurted into her throat, filling her.

She swallowed quickly, working her lips about him, bringing him higher.

He cried again and then sank back upon the bed. His flesh still quivered beneath her touch as the extreme sensation left him.

“God, that was incredible. You are incredible,” he said as he fell back, his fingers slipping from her hair.

Settling back on her knees, Ruby filled her lungs, wiping sweat from her brow.

That had been a powerful experience.

Derek was so strong, so forceful, and for that moment he’d been hers, completely hers—and she had wanted nothing more than to bring him pleasure, satisfaction.

She rose to standing, letting his shirt fall open about her.

He was beautiful, reclined upon the bed, his eyes half-closed, his whole body relaxed, the white linen sheets tangled about his limbs, hiding nothing. Locking the image in her mind with the surety of paint upon canvas, she climbed up on the high bed and cuddled beside him.

She never slept with men. Her own room beckoned, and yet the thought of lying down beside him for a few moments was irresistible. It didn’t have to be for the whole night. She could enjoy his warmth for a few moments and then when slumber took him she could creep away to her own room. Plenty of time remained before there would be any danger of morning and maids.

Pulling the coverlet over them both, she wiggled up to the pillows as he moved beside her, spooning her into his body until she was surrounded by warm, protective male.





Chapter Nine


Derek opened his eyes slowly as the first rays of morning light crept through the slight parting of the drapes. Dawn came early in these summer months, but still it was time to be going. He had many tasks that must be finished before he could depart for Manchester, and the things both pleasant and unpleasant that awaited there. God, did his family really expect him to marry some slip of a girl he’d never even met?

His guts coiled at the thought. His father wished to sell him into marriage in return for the promise of several new weaving machines and the secrets that went with them. He’d agreed to it months before when it had all seemed so far away, so improbable—and a man had to marry. From all he’d heard he would not find the girl unpleasant. It was the right thing to do, the honorable thing to do.

Weaving secrets. The idea was laughable, but Derek knew all too well that they could make the difference for his family. He hadn’t wanted to agree to the bargain, but when he’d returned from the Orient, and they’d welcomed him back warmly, he’d sworn to do his duty to repay them in whatever way he could.

And marriage was the price, a price he must willingly pay.

He closed his eyes, shutting out the image of the angel before him. Last night might have been one of the best of his life, but he could not allow that to influence what must be done, what he must do. There was no connection between Ruby and his thoughts of marriage.

He would not think of that now, not think of promises that must be kept. He’d avoided letting marriage enter his mind these past months and he would continue to do so until the last possible moment.

Blast.

The time had come to slip away and greet the day.

Only he didn’t want to move. Lying in this great bed with Ruby’s soft body cradled against him, it was hard to even think of moving. Well, at least to think of rising from the bed.