Page 60 of Theirs to Take

“I know that,” she said. “I was there today when you finally spoke to me for the first time. You said that I was hot,” she reminded.

“I remember,” he assured. “I was there when I called you hot,” he teased. “Maybe we should just let this thing between us slow down.” That was the very last thing he wanted, but he was also a gentleman—well, mostly. If he wanted to slow down, it was most likely because he was being a coward. It had been so damn long since he’d been involved with a woman, and it had ended badly.

Honestly, the last woman he saw on a regular basis ended up telling him that he was the worst boyfriend that she’d ever had. The part that hurt the most was that he knew that it was the truth. He was an awful boyfriend and that’s why he avoided having any woman call him that title for some time now. It had been years since he had been with any woman for more than one night and he planned on keeping it that way—until he saw Ruby around the office.

At first, he didn’t pay too much attention to his attraction to the sexy redhead. Hell, he did everything that he could just to avoid talking to her or having to run into her on a daily basis. But then, she went to work for Alex, his boss, and he knew that he’d be hard-pressed to avoid her. Today was the first day that he actually took a chance and spoke to her and all in all, he’d have to say that it went well. Ruby was sitting on his lap right now, her arms wrapped around his neck, her lips swollen from his kisses, looking at him as if she wanted more from him. The question was, would he be able to give her more?

“I don’t want things to slow down,” she said, shaking her head at him. “In fact, I think that we should speed things up a bit.” Ruby snaked her hands under his shirt, rubbing them over his pecks and stomach and he gently grabbed them and pulled them back out from under his shirt.

“That’s really fast, honey,” he said. She smiled and reached for her own shirt, slowly tugging it up over her body. Luke feltlike he was going to swallow his damn tongue, but there was no way that he’d stop her.

“I like the way that you’re looking at me,” she whispered to him. “No one has ever looked at me the way that you are.”

“I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t look at you like this,” Luke said. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“A girl could get used to hearing things like that,” she whispered. She tugged her shirt up over her head and tossed it to the floor. He couldn’t stop looking at her as she sat on his lap wearing just her bra and skirt. Luke ran his hands up her body and cupped her breasts through her bra, loving the breathy little sighs that he elicited from her as he stroked her taut nipples through her bra.

“You like that?” he asked.

“Yes,” she stuttered. “So much.” Luke reached around her back and unsnapped her bra with just one hand, letting it fall to the floor with her shirt.

“You’ve had practice at that,” she teased. “I can’t even unhook my bra with one hand.”

“I’ve been around a bra or two in my day,” he admitted. “Look at you,” he whispered. Ruby looked down her own body and then back up at him. He hated that she looked unsure of herself. All he saw when he looked at her was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He just wished that she could see herself the way that he saw her.

Luke cupped her breasts and she hissed out her breath. “Luke,” she shouted. He could tell that she liked what he was doing to her, but would she allow him to take things even further? Would she let him push her?

A sharp knock sounded at her front door and they both groaned in unison. “If that’s Millie again, I’m going to kill her,” Ruby said.

“You’ll have to get in line behind me,” Luke said. “I take it that you weren’t expecting anyone else tonight then?” he asked.

“No,” she said. Ruby stood up from his lap and grabbed her shirt from the floor. He waited for her to put it back on before he stood to answer the door. “Whoever it is, just get rid of them.”

“That’s the plan,” he agreed. He readjusted his erection and she giggled as he walked over to her door, pulling his gun from his shoulder holster again. He carefully opened the door and peeked out to find his old pal, Ranger standing on Ruby’s front step.

“What the hell?” Luke asked.

“Hey, man,” Ranger said. “Long time.” Luke pulled the door open and looked his old friend over. It had been almost five years since he saw the guy—long time didn’t even begin to cover it.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Luke asked. “How the fuck did you even find me?”

“I found you the same way that the guys tailing you found you, asshole. Now, move and let me in before they join us,” Ranger ordered. Luke didn’t bother to look outside to see if Ranger had guessed correctly. His friend was good at tracking, and he was right, if he could find Luke, others would be able to. He stepped out of the way, letting Ranger into Ruby’s apartment, and then he quickly shut and locked the front door.

“You’re still smart enough to know that won’t do you any good, right?” Ranger asked.

“Yeah, but I thought that I’d be safe enough here since no one would pin Ruby and me together.”

“Well, you did a shitty job of covering your tracks. You have no idea what you’re dealing with still, do you?” Ranger asked.

“No,” Luke admitted. “I honestly have no idea why this is all happening again. Does it have anything to do with South Korea?” Luke asked.

“Yes,” Ranger said. “And I think that I might have some of the answers that you’re looking for, but there are still some blanks. I think that together, we’ll be able to fill them in this time.”

“Why now?” Luke asked. “What’s different from last time? We didn’t get the answers that we were looking for and I’m betting that we’ll hit a few walls still now.”

“Probably,” Ranger admitted. “But we won’t have the roadblock of the Navy in our way. You started asking questions that must have set them off. They sent you home and you never got your answers and that was partly my fault. I shouldn’t have told you to go to command,” Ranger said.

“You did what you thought was right, Ranger,” Luke said.

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