Chapter 11

11

“ S o, tell me. How come you wear a binder sometimes?” Ruby pulled off a gooey slice of mushroom and onion pizza from the pie in front of her. “I didn’t know you did that.”

Sasha shrugged, picking at a slice of mortadella on her own pie. “I just like how I look when I wear it under certain types of clothing.” She paused, considering how to word her feelings. She didn’t have the facility to describe the way that Ruby did. “Sometimes I like being a little girly, sometimes I want to be more in touch with my butch side. You know?”

“I don’t know , I have always been pretty firmly on the very girly side of things, but I understand that what makes you feel like yourself can be different things on different days.” Ruby gestured to the oversized Culinary Institute of America sweatshirt that she’d pilfered out of Sasha’s suitcase and worn today. With a grin, she continued. “For example, today I feel very much like myself while I’m wearing your clothes.”

If Sasha had been standing, she’d have gone weak in the knees. As it was, her heart rate felt like it was doubling and tripling in record time. She managed a weak smile and kept picking at her pizza.

Had it really been less than 24 hours since they’d had sex for the first time? Things felt both like they were moving unbelievably fast and like they were falling exactly into place. She had everything she’d wanted since the first day she’d laid eyes on Ruby, and it was all going so exactly right, she was petrified. And they had even really addressed what had happened yet. They had just continued on as normal ignoring the world around them, Ignoring the smell of sex that had filler their minds, bodies, and the room.

One minute she’d been sitting at a wedding reception surrounded by Ruby’s family and drowning her sorrows in vodka. The next she was literally deep inside of Ruby and savoring the taste of her warm, sweet wetness. And it had been magical, from that moment and through the hours of her bringing Ruby to one delicious orgasm after another. One wasn’t enough; she didn’t think any amount of time with her naked would be enough.

She’d never had to gently move Ruby’s hand away from her breasts or crotch, like she’d had to do with so many of her other lovers who didn’t understand that Sasha’s love language was acts of service. She found her pleasure in the joy of getting her partners off, in the tastes and scents and sounds of their sexual bliss. It was the way she’d always been, but in the past, she’d often try and try to give her partners what they wanted, but it never felt a hundred percent right.

Ruby had simply let her give all she had in the service of worshiping Ruby, in caressing her beautiful full breasts, in teasing her nipples to attention, in sucking gently on her clit. There’d been no pouting about feeling guilty for not reciprocating. Only a gasping, grasping, arching, wrung out and happy Ruby, face flushed and blue eyes sparkling as she gazed adoringly up at Sasha from the pillows.

They’d probably have to have a talk about it later, but for now, Sasha could only marvel at how perfectly that first time together had gone. If she believed in soulmates, every conviction she had had would have been confirmed with a vengeance after last night.

“Earth to Sasha.” Ruby waved a hand in front of her face. “Hey, you’ve got to eat your pie. Papa Joe back there is going to get his feelings hurt if you don’t, and then I don’t get to come back here ever again.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate a watchful Italian grandpa glaring at them from the kitchen doors. “Eat, eat, how you gonna get a girlfriend if you don’t eat?”

Love had a way of absolutely killing her appetite, but Sasha gamely ate her way through three-quarters of her spinach and mortadella pie with extra mozzarella, because she absolutely could not be the reason for anything even remotely unpleasant happening to the woman she adored.

“Down you get, lass.” Declan’s strong hands circled Nicola’s cinched waist, and before she knew aught, she was being lifted down from the back of her beautiful chestnut mare as if she weighed no more than a feather.

They’d ridden hard and long into the night after escaping her father from Auld Alisdair’s cottage. She still couldn’t quite believe that they’d managed it, that Declan’s men had turned up in time to outnumber her father’s pitifully small guard force and allow them time to complete the marriage rite and get away.

It was three days yet to Inverary, she knew. But she was exhausted from the events of the day, and when she’d nearly led her poor mare into a tree face-first, Declan had known they had to stop for the night. He’d led her to to a tiny, empty crofter’s hut in the woods, and as she slipped down to the ground with his help, she eyed it and him dubiously.

“It’s nae castle, lass, but for as tired as you are, it’ll be a palace.” Gently, he led her forward to the door. “I’ve stayed here many a night, it’s clean and comfortable, if a bit scarce on luxuries like food. Still, there’s a clear river near here for water, and I’ll catch us some fish for dinner.” He flashed her the bright smile that always made her fall in love with him again. “Nae worries, I’ll get the fire going and cook them, I don’t expect you’ve had much experience cleaning and gutting fish.”

“But Declan, it’s…” She glanced through the window of the hut, to see a small, plain bed, a rough wooden table, and not much else. “It’s our wedding night.”

He looked at her in confusion for a moment, and then nodded. “Ah. Nae, lass. I wouldna have our wedding night here. You’re my Lady of Inverary now. I’ll take you home, let you have a long bath to soak away the soreness. You’ll have a good dinner and time to rest and then…” His voice dropped low. “Then, lass, then we’ll have a proper wedding night.”

“Have I told you lately how much I looooove your work?” Sasha’s arms encircled Ruby’s waist and she hooked her chin over Ruby’s shoulder. “You’re so good.”

Ruby wriggled in her chair and blushed with pleasure. “Thank you.”

“I can’t wait to see what you write when they get to Inverary.” She spun the desk chair around and braced her hands on the arms of it, a sly grin on her face. “You want some inspiration?”

“Sash, my family is literally right downstairs.” She loved it when Sasha was bold and naughty, though. It was so unexpected when you considered how diffident and shy Sasha was in day-to-day life. But in the two days that they’d been sleeping together, a new to Ruby side of her friend—lover, she supposed now—had emerged, one who was a little dominant, whose entire focus was on Ruby and Ruby’s pleasure, who took the lead and made insinuating quips and who, it seemed, was all but insatiable.

Any time they were alone for even a moment, Sasha had her hands on Ruby. Even when they weren’t alone, actually, she reflected. The PDA they’d blushingly discussed and practiced on the trip to New York came easily to them both now, the hand holding, the quick kisses, snuggling on the basement couch watching movies with the family.

She liked it. She was happy, so incredibly happy in a way she’d never thought she could experience. And from such an unexpected source. Now that she was paying attention, she felt almost ashamed that she hadn’t seen the potential of this from Sasha before. She hadn’t been looking.

Something did nag at her, though. Things were going well. Really, really well. Almost perfectly, too fairy-tale. Surrounded by the love and acceptance of her family, with a generous lover in her bed each night, one who knew precisely how to take care of her and what she wanted—it was exactly, beautifully perfect. And Ruby knew full well as a writer that nothing was this perfect—nothing that could last, anyway.

They were leaving tomorrow. Emerging from their cozy little romantic wedding week bubble. What then? They’d be supported by their Lounge family, to be sure, if they returned home pink-cheeked and hand in hand. But otherwise, the mundane was sure to intrude and dull the sparkle of what they had now. How long would they last? And what about their friendship if they didn’t? Could this ruin everything if it doesn’t work out? Ruby’s inner commitment-phobic anxiety started to bubble.

Maybe her brother had been right. Maybe they should have done more talking the other day. Maybe they should talk now. There was so much more at stake than she’d fully considered when she decided to explore the possibility that Sasha might have feelings for her. She didn’t want to hurt Sasha, not at all, but her feet were definitely starting to feel a little icy. She didn’t want to lose?—

“You look tense, Rubes.” Sasha walked over to the bedroom door and, with a sly smile, twisted the lock in the doorknob. Within seconds, she had Ruby out of the chair and laid out across the bed, breathless. Her hand went right to the button and zip on Ruby’s jeans. “Let me fix that for you real quick, before they call us down for dinner…”

As Sasha’s hand slid under the waistband of her panties and began to play with her clit, everything Ruby was worried about disappeared in a red-tinged fog of desire. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and gave herself over to the pure erotic pleasure of the moment.