“You’re still so innocent, baby. I’m not sure where I can go with you.”
She laughed. “Ryan, you are six-three and your muscles have muscles. But trust me. I can stop you if I want to.”
I didn’t doubt it. With her background and her training as a cop, not to mention that killer body that she kept through working out hard, she didn’t have much to fear from another person without a weapon. Still, I felt the need to say, “All you have to do to stop me is to tell me no.”
She sobered. “Yes, I know that. You would stop if I asked you to. I trust that completely. But I’ve told you before. I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.”
“Then…”
“What?”
“What would you say about…” God, I’d had no idea how hard it would be to actually give voice to these desires.
“Spit it out, Steel.”
I’d known for a while that both of my brothers—as well as my father, according to Wendy—enjoyed the darker, baser side of their dominant personalities. Not that we talked about that shit. We never had. But Jonah had a dungeon in his house. I’d come across it once while I was house- and dogsitting for him. I hadn’t said anything to him. He’d probably be mortified if I knew.
I had never tried anything like that, but now, with Ruby, her sweet submission so intoxicating, I wanted to.
But how to bring it up? Ruby had two sides. Her tough cop side, who wasn’t afraid of anything and knew how to take care of herself. But she also had a vulnerable side. The side who’d been nearly raped by her own father and who’d left home at fifteen. Who’d spent her whole adult life, until now, as a virgin, afraid of getting close to a man.
The two times I’d gotten a little rough and forceful with her, she’d taken it. Had seemed to enjoy it, even.
And as she said, she didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do.
“Would you be willing to try some…new things in the bedroom?”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then, “Like what?”
I opened my mouth to respond, when I suddenly realized I didn’t know exactly what to ask her for. I burst out laughing.
“Ryan. You’re freaking me out here.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I really am. I’m just trying to say that I like taking the dominant role in bed, more than I imagined I would. And I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m naturally dominant, or because you seem to be naturally submissive, which, frankly, surprised me a little bit.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Ryan, honestly, it surprised me a little bit too.”
“But you’re okay, right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Like I said—”
“You don’t do anything you don’t want to do,” I finished for her.
Now she burst out laughing.
And I realized how absurd this whole thing was. “How about this? We continue doing what we’re doing, and if you don’t want to do something, you just tell me no.”
“Sounds reasonable,” she said. “Since that’s pretty much what we just said.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” I grabbed her. “Just kiss me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ruby
His kiss nearly paralyzed me. It was so passionate, so full of fire, and my whole body throbbed, the sensation culminating between my legs. He wanted to get more dominant in the bedroom, and he wanted me to be more submissive…
The whole idea was making me shake with desire.