Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“Play.”
“Play,” I whisper back, touching my tongue to his stubbled chin.
Taking my hand, he tugs me toward the pool, which is thankfully heated, the crystal-clear water climbing my thighs, tickling my nearly nude sex as I sink in deeper, floating into Cameron’s waiting open arms. He twirls me around and attacks my neck with a growl, both of us splashing sideways into the open water. When we surface again and I’m done laughing, I marvel again over the fairytale in front of me. A green-eyed prince with dark, dripping hair, surrounded by paradise, my body humming with arousal.
“I missed you, Ruby,” he says, playing with the strings on my hips, then ultimately pulling me into an embrace. It’s so like Cameron to be the more tender man of the two, and I smile against his wet shoulder, letting him sway me in the chest-deep water. “I’ve had weak moments where I’ve looked you up on social media, just to see if you were doing well, but nothing ever came up under your name. Were you trying to torture me?”
“Mmmm.” I nuzzle his ear with my nose. “You know I’ve always been a private person. I have social media accounts under Sip and Flip, out of necessity. But running a personal account and a professional one? That would cut into my reading time.”
“Sip and Flip?” he murmurs warmly. “That’s what you named the shop?”
“Do you like it?”
“I love it, angel.” He gathers my wet hair and turns my head to the right, skimming the barest hint of his lips along my neck. “Tell me what it looks like. I assume the ‘sip’ part of the name refers to the tea counter you always wanted in install?”
I gasp. “You remember me telling you that?”
“Everything, Ruby.” He tilts my head in the other direction, going to work on the opposite side of my neck. “I remember everything.”
“I remember everything about you, too,” I whisper, the long, low squeeze of my core making me languid, hot. “You always gave the best hugs. Always made sure I was being safe on campus, paying the security guards to watch me when you couldn’t.” A memory strikes me, and I perk up. “How is your father doing? I remember he was visiting during our last tutoring session. Such a nice man.”
His jolt is almost imperceptible. Maybe I imagined it. Or maybe Cameron and his father aren’t as close as they used to be and it’s a sore spot. My recollection is of him being a nice man, if a little…flirtatious. “My father is doing well,” he says, tone a little short. “Still heading the athletic program at Dartmouth.” He tilts my face up, examining me in the moonlight. A clear move to change the subject, though I’m happy to let him. “The Ruby I remember was a buttoned-up good girl with her nose buried in a book. I never expected to see you like this.”
“Like what?” I ask, playfully.
“So…at home in a micro bikini,” he laughs, and I join him.
“I’m still a buttoned-up good girl,” I say, letting myself lay back in the water, floating faceup in front of him, moonlight spilling across my belly, thighs and breasts. “And my nose is usually buried in a book. But…there’s another part of me, too. I don’t think I was ready to acknowledge it until now.”
He stands in between my spread thighs where they float in the water, his knuckles dragging up the valleys of my sides, then back down to tease the strings on my hips again, tugging the material tighter against my core. Watching his handiwork from above with rapidly shallowing breath. “Why weren’t you ready until now?”
“I don’t know. I think I just needed the right opportunity. With someone I trust.” I allow him to pull aside the string shielding my slit, a shiver passing through me over the depth of his groan. “Two people I trust is even better than one. Four if we’re counting your wives, which I am.”
“Can’t believe we’re talking about my wife while I’m looking at your bare cunt.” He bends down to get closer, running his heated gaze over my mound. “God, Ruby. I could sculpt for a million years and never form anything so fine.”
“There’s that poet’s spirit I remember,” I whisper, warm…everywhere. I can almost feel my estrogen fizzing in my veins, energizing my extremities.
“I’m not a poet. You’re just fucking inspiring.” He sips a kiss onto my navel, his palms skimming seductively up the outsides of my thighs. “I’m proud of you for opening your own bookstore, just like you always dreamed of doing.”
I hum a yes. “The dream doesn’t match the reality exactly, but…I have hope that it will, one day. Good things take time.”
“Sometimes they even take six years.”
“Exactly.”
His hands are on my breasts now, tugging aside the little triangles to palm them bare, kneading hard enough to make me moan an encouragement, then massaging circles onto my perked-up nipples. “I could blow just from touching you, Ruby. My God. You’re so smooth and golden all over. I’m so fucking worked up right now, it’s insane.”