The Con (Men Who Thrill Book 4) (4 page)

My cock throbbed insistently against the confines of my jeans, and the need to possess her fully was almost overwhelming, and I could feel Ruby’s desire matched my own.

I was torn, loving her taste, the way she cried out, but needing more. So I broke the contact and looked up. Ruby’s eyes were aflame with her desire, and I had to have her.

“Where’s your bedroom?” I asked, voice low and thick.

“This way,” she said her own voice low.

She turned and gripped my hand in hers, and then walked through the living room, pulling me behind her. As we moved I traced my hand down the broad expanse of her back, letting my fingers play at the base of her spine, and then tracing up, loving the way she shivered and the faint trail of goose bumps that rose in the wake of my touch.

Soon, but not nearly soon enough, we reached the small bedroom.

I didn’t give it a second look, my attention focused. I kicked off my shoes and then quickly removed my pants. Ruby stood still, eyes on me.

After I undressed, I reached into my pants and dropped a condom on the nightstand and then grabbed Ruby and pulled her close.

My cock rested against her denim-clad thigh, and I kissed her until she shivered. Then, I stepped forward and she stepped back until she sat on the edge of the bed.

I kneeled in front of her, and she watched every move as I pulled off her shoes, then unbuckled her pants and slid them down her legs, revealing all of her to me.

When her legs were bare, I moved my fingers up her calf, over her soft thigh, which quivered with her need, and then hovered at the apex of her thighs. At the first touch I could feel how ready she was for me, the sticky wetness that greeted my fingers only making my need to have my cock as deep inside her as it could go that much sharper.

I looked down, saw her clit protruding from the nest of dark curls that covered her sex. One touch, a second, and her thighs went slack, her back arching and her breath coming out in sharp little pants. I stroked again and was rewarded with another sigh.

Finger now coated with her wetness, I stroked her plump lips and teased her opening and with my other hand, I held the heavy weight of her breast, teasing her nipple as I teased her clit, my cock throbbing with the need to be inside her.

Impatient now, I stood and lay her back on the bed, quickly put on the condom, and then lay atop her. I stared at her, her face the most beautiful mix of shyness and passion.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, her eyes averted.

“Ruby,” I said, my voice strained and husky.

She looked at me.

“Are you sure?” I said.

“I’m sure,” she said, voice as strong and certain as I thought I’d ever heard it.

Sweet relief filled me at the thought of finally filling her. I pushed, moving inside her, biting back a moan as I breached Ruby. She was so amazingly tight that I released the moan that was at the back of my throat. Then I pushed a little farther, but stopped when I met unexpected resistance.

My eyes flew open, and I stared down at her. I’d known she didn’t have much experience, but this…

As much as my body rejected the idea and wanted to claim her as my own, I stilled and started to pull back.

“Ruby—”

“Please, don’t stop,” she said, grasping my hips and lifting up her own.

The movement pushed me ever so slightly deeper insider her.

Of their own volition, my hips jerked, moving another inch of my cock inside her. Pleasure, electric and intoxicating, rocked through me, and I pressed gently and then a little harder, balanced on the edge, wanting to bring us to gather there but anxious not to cause her any pain, and awed by the gift she was giving me.

“Are you okay?” I asked when I was more than halfway inside her.

“Oh yes,” she said around her breathy moans.

I drove in the rest of the way, not stopping until my pelvis hit hers. She sucked in a harsh breath.

“It’s okay,” I said, as her reached between our bodies and strummed her clit.

She breathed out again, but this time the sound was one of pleasure. And it only spurred my own.

I moved, tentatively at first, but as her breaths sped, so did my thrusts. I had never experienced anything like the joy of being inside of her, her tightness squeezing around me, the softness of her body cradling me as I moved inside her.

Her walls fluttered around me, and she gripped my back tight, her fingernails burrowing into my skin. I didn’t care. The marks she would leave and the tiny sting of her nails were more than worth it. Would’ve been a thousand times over.

I reached between us again, brushed her clit, and then circled my finger around her opening, touching the place where we were joined.

It was her undoing.

She came apart in my arms, her body tight with her climax, her pussy clamping down on me so tight that it took my breath away.

And then it was my turn, and my orgasm flashed through me like lightning, stronger and more intense than any that had come before it.

I stayed inside her as long as I could, and I squeezed her tight, holding her in the afterglow of the moment.

Much later, I got up, found the bathroom, and quickly returned with a warm cloth, which I pressed against her.

“This feels nice, doesn't it?” I asked.

She smiled and nodded softly, her face so innocent, her expression revealing her trust. Just as I had wanted.

So why, underneath the contentment that release had brought me, did shame me, hot and piercing, cut me so deeply?

Chapter Eight

I didn’t see her again until Monday night’s shift, but the memory of being with her had been my constant companion after I’d left her.

At work, she was the same as she always was, and when I brushed my knuckles against hers, she looked at me with sharp reprimand, but underneath I could see the softness.

If I had any doubt before, it was gone. She trusted me completely.

I should have been ecstatic, and I was, mostly, but I couldn’t shake that nagging feeling of wrongness. It was stupid, ridiculous even, but I couldn’t deny that this, that I, would change her forever. I’d taken something that she could never get back, and as much as I was committed to pulling this job off, as impossible as it was for me to be deterred, I couldn’t pretend that she would escape this without consequence just like I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t care.

“Would you wait here?” she asked about halfway through our shift. “I need a break.”

I nodded and leaned against the cart, waiting.

When Ruby had rounded the corner, presumably headed toward the ladies’ room, Daniel materialized as if out of nowhere.

I stood straight and glared at him.

“I know,” he said, “but I found out that the schematics are still here and they are in that locked room, box 368. You any closer to getting the key?”

I narrowed my eyes at Daniel, frustrated and annoyed, but answered anyway. “The key is in hand. She trusts me now, and I can get it from her,” I said quietly.

“Wow. I’m kind of impressed. I didn’t think you had a chance.”

“I’m very good at what I do,” I said. “And it was easy enough. I just threw her a bone and waited.”

“Threw her a bone,” Daniel said, snickering.

His laughter died when I stepped closer, and being smart for once, he nodded and left quickly.

Something about his tone had annoyed the shit out of me. Which was ridiculous. This had been my idea, and the plan was working to perfection. Still, hearing his sniveling little voice, listening to his innuendo about me and Ruby was fucking irksome.

She returned a moment later, and then gifted me with a smile that was clear and bright with her affection. “Okay, we can finish up,” she said softly, that smile still on her face.

I smiled back, my heart lifting at the sight of her. And then I remembered why I was here, what I was doing to her, and I felt a millimeter tall.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“What are you listening to?” I asked later that night.

“It’s nothing,” she said.

“You seem to like it a lot for it to be nothing,” I responded.

She moved to the left, grabbing the trash cans lined in a row as I worked at the right, both of us falling into the easy pattern that we had developed over the time we’d spent together.

“It’s silly,” she said when she returned, not glancing in my direction, that reserve and shyness that she sometimes still showed flaring up.

“Now I’m intrigued. Ruby Struthers likes something silly,” I said with a smile.

“It’s just…” She trailed off and then started again. “I take these classes in the morning, you know, but sometimes I’m so sleepy after work that I don’t really process what’s happening. So I record them and then I listen to them at night,” she said.

“So that explains it,” I said.

“Explains what?” She turned her eyes on me, curious.

“Why you light out of here at the end of our shift. I was taking it sort of personally, but now I see. You never struck me as a clock watcher, but you’re out of here at six forty-five on the dot every morning,” I said.

She smiled shyly. “Is it that noticeable?”

“Maybe not to everyone else, but I pay attention.”

She laughed and grabbed another trash can before she came back and started again. “Yeah, class is at eight thirty, so I have to rush home, jump in the shower to wake up, and catch the bus to school. It’s tight, so I don’t like to waste any time,” she said.

“That’s a lot, Ruby,” I replied. I pushed the cart, a relatively new development, one that spoke of her trust in me, and she walked alongside me.

“It is, but it’s not forever. And besides, I eventually want to do more than empty trash cans at Titan Industries or wherever the temp agency places me,” she said.

“What are you taking classes for?”

She clammed up then, seemed like she didn’t want to answer.

“That’s cool, you’ll tell me one day,” I said.

“I doubt it,” she said.

I turned my gaze toward her.

“Haven’t you learned not to underestimate me?” I said, holding her gaze.

The sheepish expression on her face was answer enough.

Chapter Nine

“What are you doing?” Ruby asked the next Saturday when she found me on her front steps.

“That second step was a little iffy. It should be fine now though,” I said, scraping my thumb across the top of the new wood.

“I guess why would be a better question,” she said.

I grabbed the toolbox and put it back in my car, and then bounded up the steps and into the house. Then I walked through the living room and into the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of water, which I drank in three swallows.

“That’s dangerous, Ruby,” I said, staring at her.

She jumped as though startled and her gaze flew to mine. “What?” she finally asked.

I stalked toward her, keeping my gaze glued to hers.

“You look at a man like that and he’ll get ideas.”

“Like what?” she asked, her voice shy but deep with desire.

“Like this,” I responded, letting my gaze trace over her body with the same hunger that had been in hers.

“I didn’t look…” she said, trailing off when I lifted a brow.

She blanched, and blushed so sweetly I couldn’t resist kissing her.

“It’s fine,” I said, lips only inches from hers. “Nice to know that you like what you see.”

“I’m sure you’re used to attention,” she said, breaking my gaze.

“Not from you.”

I kissed her again, her mouth soft under mine. As I kissed her, she lifted her hands to my waist and rested her fingers against me.

Sex, while enjoyable, had become routine, a way to blow off steam. But with her, it was an entirely new experience. Learning the things she liked, and the things she
really
liked, teaching her the same about me had been amazing. Like now, when, after stripping off her shirt and bra, I held her nipples between my fingers squeezing tight, almost enough to hurt, and then chasing away the sting with a quick swipe of my tongue.

Having removed my own clothing and chased her into the bedroom, I lay back, cock straining at attention, arms behind my head, I watched her, waiting.

“So smug,” she said, but as she spoke, she opened the small foil packet and then gripped my shaft, stroking up and down before she slid the condom in place.

I’d learned she loved touching me this way, and I was rather fond of it myself. And I was even more fond of how much she liked to be on top. She centered herself above me, hand wrapped around my base, her gaze as avid as mine as I watched her watch herself as she settled over me and moved down, cunt swallowing my cock.

We both sighed when I was fully buried, her weight on me, her walls around me leaving me no choice but to reach out and capture the generous flesh of her hips in my hands. She rolled her hips, her motions that erratic, experimental rhythm that always made me want to flip her and slam home again and again until we both reached a shuddering climax.