Page 55 of Saved By Love at Christmas
“Look at me, Rubes.”
I hung my head and continued to weep.
Ben tilted my chin upwards. “Please, don’t torture yourself. Jamie did this. Not you. You were very brave and escaped from him. He only wants to do this to you because you were strong enough to defy him.” He paused, his eyes searching mine, making my tummy do somersaults.
“I don’t feel very brave.” My voice was hardly more than a whisper.
“Well, you are. And so is that poor woman in Spain for reporting him. The authorities will catch up with him and he’ll be punished for what he’s done.”
“I hope so. God.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “This is all so messed up. If only I’d told you I loved you years ago, we could be living an amazing life now.”
Ben stilled. My eyes widened. I’d actually come right out and told him how I felt.
“Do you, Rubes? Do you really mean what you said just now?” His voice was barely audible.
Do it. This is your chance for your happy ever after.
“Yes. I love you, Ben. I think I fell in love with you when we were in high school, but I’ve denied it all these years and kept my emotions buried deep.”
Still, he said nothing and continued to stare at me. Had I said too much? I thought he loved me too. Maybe I got the signals wrong.
He captured my lips with his and kissed me. Hard. Then he pulled away, making me groan my displeasure.
“I love you too. So much that it hurts. The worst day in my life was when Jamie took you away from me.” His eyes were soft, a deep sea-blue, tears shimmering in them.
I caught his lips with mine and let them do the talking for me. When we broke apart, my mind was made up.
“Make love to me, Ben. I don’t want to wait a minute longer.”
CHAPTER17
BEN
After the stress of the past few hours, I was elated when Ruby declared she loved me. Those three words had been a long time coming, and they were worth the wait. When I told her I felt the same, I loved the way the light and happiness came back in her expression. Then she said something which set my body on fire. She wanted to make love to me. I kissed her and hopped off the bed.
“Where are you going?” Her words held vulnerability.
“Only to my bedroom. We need condoms.”
She blushed and began picking at some unseen speck on her pyjama top. Her eyes went to mine.
“We don’t need them. I’m clean and on contraception. The one good thing about being with Jamie, he wanted to know, as he put it, that I was disease free. But if you don’t want to…”
If I didn’t want to? Who was she kidding? What she offered me was the ultimate gesture of trust.
Moving back onto the bed, I cupped one of her cheeks in my hand. “I’m clean too and more than happy to have no barrier between us.”
Remembering that the bedroom door was still open, I went to close it.
“Ben?”
I grinned as I headed back towards her. “I don’t think we want a visit from Fred right now, do you?”
“As much as I love him too, closing the door is the best idea.”
“Now,” I murmured as I crawled up the bed towards her. “Where were we?”
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