Bound to Please(74)

“What was it like then?”

He was agitated, angry, and the last thing she wanted to do was fight with him. There was a part of her that was still high from her experience at the party, and she just couldn’t deal with it. Couldn’t deal with anything, especially him and his sluts.

“What was it like?” he asked again, and in her mind she could see him clenching his teeth.

The experience had left her too raw, too open to lie now. “I wanted it to be you,” she whispered and hung up the phone.

“Goddamn it!” Mark threw his phone onto a side table where it skittered across the wood and landed with a thump against a lamp. Ruby wasn’t answering. She’d been distraught; he shouldn’t have argued with her when she was coming down off a high like that.

“Mark, you want another drink?” Mary pulled on her coat and tied the belt at her waist. “Before we go?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Beth cocked her hip to the side, emphasizing her long, gorgeous legs. “You sure you want us to go? You seem upset, and we have just the girl for you to take your frustrations out on.” She winked at him. “Our offer still stands. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

He’d just finished a drink with the girls, and they were on their way out. Despite how sexy they were, they didn’t appeal to him. He’d figured one cocktail would be enough to send them on their way without too much argument, and he’d been right.

But now? He was tempted, so fucking tempted. He knew from experience that sex was a fan-fucking-tastic way to forget his problems.

The thought of some other man touching Ruby made his chest pound with cold jealousy and anger. He knew damn well he had absolutely no right to those feelings, but he couldn’t stop them.

Playing with these two women would get his mind off things, chase all those fucked-up feelings away.

At least temporarily.

Beth took a step toward him. She rubbed her hands up his chest and purred like a kitten. “You sure you don’t want us to stay? Me on bottom. You on top, just like last time.” She bit her lip in a practiced way. “I haven’t let anyone top me since you, babe.”

He doubted that very much, but he appreciated the effort. His gaze darted between the women, so beautiful, so sexy, and so available.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, ladies. Not tonight.”

After they’d gone he went to the window and pulled open the curtain. A million lights twinkled in the skyline. He stared until the bright colors blurred together.

Last year he’d had a great night of meaningless sex with two gorgeous women. And tonight he’d sent those same two women away. If he’d been here a few weeks earlier, he would have been fucking ecstatic to find them in his room.

Then why did he feel as if he’d just dodged a bullet? What had changed?

Of course, he knew. The answer came in the form of a wickedly smart, sexy raven-haired woman who smelled like jasmine and tasted like heaven.

So, yeah. He knew the answer. The question was: What was he going to do about it?





Chapter

Twenty-One

Ruby woke from a recurring nightmare.

It always started the same. She was back at the house at the beach. It was dark and she couldn’t find her sister. She was in her nightgown, running through their small house, calling Claire’s name. But she couldn’t find her; not in their room, not in their mother’s room, nowhere…

She jerked awake, her heart jackhammering in her chest.

It was ridiculous to feel guilty about a dream. Ruby tossed her covers aside and padded to the bathroom. She checked her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were wide, scared. Her body felt empty.

Making her morning coffee, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. But as her mind slowly awakened she realized it wasn’t really the dream that had her upset; it was the experience from last night. The party, the things she’d seen. The late-night call to Mark.

What the fuck had she been thinking? With her coffee, she went to the living room and plopped into her favorite chair. She took her cell phone out of her bathrobe pocket and dialed.

“It’s nine a.m.,” a gravelly voice answered. “This better be good.”

“I had a bad dream.”

“Aw, sis. The geyser dream? Or the locked door?”

“Locked door.”

She heard the sounds of Claire stifling a yawn, moving in her bed. “It’s okay, honey. It was just a dream.”

She laughed shakily. “You’d think I would be used to these by now. I mean, it’s been what? Twenty-some years?”

“You’re too uptight. You never allowed yourself any room to get pissed or frustrated. I’m not surprised it all comes out in your dreams.”