Page 12 of Her Power Play

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I lift my hand and press my palm against the door. What the hell am I thinking? This guy is so far out of my league it’s insane. Why he’s even here, I have no idea.

“I can hear you breathing, Ruby,” he calls out.

There is a moment of silence, one where I freeze, and he smiles. Slowly, I reach down for the doorknob. Gently, I turn it, then step back and pull it open. The view of him in person rather than through that peephole is a million times better than I could have imagined, and then the scent hits me.

He smells so good.

So damn good.

“I didn’t know if I was going to open the door,” I whisper.

“Got that, Ruby. But I knew you were going to.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask

He hums, taking one step toward me, then another, and he’s so close. My chest is pressing against his stomach as he looks down at me. When he lifts his hands, I feel his fingers cup my jaw before he lowers and shifts his face closer to mine.

“Yeah, sweetheart, I knew. Let’s go get some food,” he murmurs against my mouth. “Your pastries aren’t enough to sustain me the entire evening.”

“Entire evening?” I ask.

He hums. “This is just the beginning.”

FOURTEEN

LIAM

I should have invited her for coffee or something. A whole dinner is too long to wait to get her back to my place. Coffee or drinks would have been better. Even if the truffle fries are out of this goddamn world.

The conversation flows, but all I can think about is having her naked and beneath me, in front of me, or on top of me. Although I plan on having her every way possible, and soon. So damn soon.

“Did you go to college?” she asks.

I’m taken aback by the question. Although I shouldn’t be. We’ve been talking about a lot of different things tonight. Family, she has none, and I only have my dad. That was a somber part of the conversation I wasn’t ready for, and neither is this.

“No,” I state simply. “Hockey is the only thing I’m good at, and luckily I’ve been able to make it a career.”

She nods once, then she clears her throat as she stabs a piece of meat on her plate. I watch as she brings it to her lips, but she doesn’t take a bite. Instead, her eyes stay connected to mine, and she leans forward.

“I wasn’t able to go to college either,” she whispers.

“But you wanted to?”

Ruby shrugs a shoulder, then she slips the meat into her mouth and begins to chew. I watch her, wishing those lips of hers were wrapped around my meat and not the steak on her fork. She chews slowly, but I’m pretty sure she’s just thinking.

“I think I did,” she whispers. “But it wasn’t ever going to be an option, so I didn’t think about it too hard. My grandmother was sick, and I spent most of my high school years caring for her. When she died, I felt lost. I didn’t have anyone to take care of anymore, and I didn’t know how to take care of myself.”

“So you poured yourself into your career.”

“I poured myself into the bakery,” she says.

This conversation feels really fucking heavy. It’s not how I thought this night would go. Reaching across the table, I wrap my fingers around her wrist and gently squeeze her there. When her gaze meets mine, I give her a small smile.

“And you’ve succeeded,” I say.

She nods, but I don’t know if she believes what I’ve said. She’s succeeded, though. She’s got a bakery that is catering for the Houston Lonestars, even if it wasn’t for a huge event. She still catered to a professional sports team. To me, that’s a big damn deal.

“Maybe. Some days it doesn’t feel that way.”