She stared at the ceiling for a moment, beyond exasperation. “It’s tradition to kiss someone on New Year’s.” Her gaze focused on mine like a laser. “Should I mention you kissed me back? With a whole bunch of tongue?”
Now it was my turn to make a noise of frustration. I needed to get out of the pool. A drenched Ruby wasn’t any less enticing, and perhaps she was more. Water droplets clung to her skin and trailed down between her breasts. Lucky water drops. I wanted to follow them with my mouth.
The adrenaline from the unexpected fall was finding other places to go, mainly my cock. My dress shirt was plastered to my body and the tie weighed a ton, a sopping noose around my neck.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said, working loose the knot.
“Like what?” She said it begrudgingly. “Like I hate that your kiss was the hottest thing I’ve had all year?”
My cock twitched in agreement, but I gave a short laugh. “The year which just started two minutes ago?”
She slapped her hand against the surface of the water, splashing me. Her jaw was set, but Christ, she looked hot like that. Water dripped from the loose ends of her pinned up hair, and the pink dress was nearly see-through when wet. Her nipples stood pointed to attention.
She seemed to be seething. “You’re the worst.”
“But not at kissing you, apparently.”
“Fuck you, Kyle.”
Something inside me snapped. The first few times I’d put up with it, but I was done with her repeated insult. I moved as swiftly as the drag in the water would allow, and shoved my hand into the hair at the back of her head, grabbing a handful of pins with the strands. I tugged her head back firmly and stared down into her wide eyes.
I’d never been aggressive with her before. I’d still been finding my way with women back then and how much they wanted when it came to roughness. But now a dark need took hold, urging me to show her how inappropriately she was behaving, and to do it in a way as if she were mine.
“Oh,” she whispered and the softest of moans followed.
Not in pain. This was distinctly pleasure.
A lightning bolt sizzled through me. I blanked for a moment, my vision going hazy. She liked this? Fuck me, did she want more? I laid my palm against her chest, my fingers resting softly around her neck. Not trying to choke her, but to signify control. I’d made it so she couldn’t look anywhere but at me. It was only fair, because I could focus only on her.
Beneath my fingers, I felt her swallow hard. And when her eyes hooded with desire at my action, I was done for. I leaned down and crushed my lips to hers.
Chapter
NINE
RUBY
Kyle’s mouth, fused with mine, was fire. All of my rage and pain melded together with our heat into an inferno that left me breathless. At least we were standing in water, so when we combusted, nothing else would go up in flames.
I skimmed my fingertips along his broad chest, which was covered in the soaked white dress shirt. It had become transparent to both my delight and horror. He looked even better than I remembered. All tight and toned, and daring me to touch.
But I hated him.
He’d put me through the wringer tonight. The high of realizing he hadn’t left, only for him to send me crashing down to the low that he’d left me another way . . . In the fucking dark.
The kiss he gave me now wasn’t like the one right after midnight. That one had been impressive, but this was so powerful and raw, I cried out against his mouth. I didn’t want him to stop like last time. I needed him and this brutal kiss, even though I despised the desire in me.
I hooked an arm around his shoulders and shoved a hand under the water, gathering up as much of my skirt as I could while not breaking our connection. When I was free and the dress was out of my way, I wrapped my legs around his waist.
He groaned in approval and stalked back into the deeper water so I was mostly weightless in his arms. The frantic sounds of our lips moving against each other echoed off the surface of the water, and could just be heard over the music.
I wanted to rip his heart out like he’d done to mine, and I was okay with tearing off his clothes to do it. Floating in his arms while we burned together left me dizzy. It was as if he was consuming my heat, feeding off it, and returned it back to me a million times hotter.
Kyle kept his hand locked in my hair, but the other drifted down the length of my spine and curled under the wadded skirt around my hips. His tongue plunged into my mouth when he squeezed my ass and pushed himself against me.
“Oh, good God,” I whispered, my voice weak and needy. As soon as it was out, I sucked in a breath. I hated how I was responding to him, and that I was letting him have such power over me.
If it were any other man, it’d be fine. I loved a guy who would take charge during foreplay and sex. But I knew if it was someone else, the likelihood of him having a fraction of the impact like Kyle did was next to nothing. No one compared. He’d left me hurt and broken, and unable to find any kind of replacement.