Page 52 of I Hate You More

Being with Ruby did that, somehow. Her presence restored and revived him, made him feel like a new man. One who laughed and played, who didn’t always abide by the rules. One who could behappy, if he let himself.

“You’re such a liar,” he said as he managed to get her skirt lifted to waist-level. The panties she had on were an abomination against sexy underthings. They weren’t black or lacy, and they certainly weren’t small. White cotton turned gray with multiple washings, they looked like the kind of underwear you’d put on when you planned on chasing small children around for forty-eight hours. “I should have known better than to trust you. What else have you been keeping from me?”

He’d meant it as a joke, a way to segue into the other, more enticing parts of her that lay hidden underneath, but she stopped squirming almost at once. When she pushed her skirt down this time, he didn’t try to stop her.

“You can trust me, Spencer,” she said as she struggled into a sitting position. The movement slid her bottom half away from him, but it thrust her upper half much closer. So close, in fact, that their lips almost touched. Her breath was warm and beckoned him in, but he didn’t think that was why she’d sat up. “I’m not hiding anything that matters. Not really.”

Of all the expressions he’d seen cross her face, this was the one that was going to end him. There was such a wistful, pleading note in her melting-chocolate eyes that he couldn’t deny her anything.

In that moment, Spencer knew he was in trouble—realtrouble, the kind that toppled empires and tore families apart. The kind that changed a man forever. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. With that sincerity and those hideous, adorable granny panties, she had complete power over him.

That was what scared Spencer the most. There was only one other person on the planet who had that power, and look how well he’d handled that. Caleb was about to be released into the world to continue on his self-destructive path, and there was nothing Spencer could do to help him. He could only watch and wait.

“I think I need to take another look underneath your dress,” he said. It wasn’t at all what he wanted to say, and it didn’t begin to capture the emotions that were thrumming like the drums of war in his chest, but it had to be enough. A woman like Ruby—so alive and so physical, sopresentin everything she did—required an alive and physical response. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll find what I’m looking for under there, but I’m more than willing to try.”

“Then it’s a good thing I don’t have the energy to stop you,” she teased.

“I don’t know how you managed it, to be honest,” he said as he slid his hand toward the hem of her dress. He took the time to enjoy the way she felt through the thin, summery fabric, a liquidity to her limbs that made him think of a cat. “I meant to stick to my resolutionnotto do this. I had a plan of action and everything.”

As though reading his mind, she made a low purr of contentment and gave a feline shimmy as she stretched into position. The buttons at the bodice of her dress strained in response. “Oh, really? Why don’t you tell it to me, and I’ll let you know how it sounds.” She laughed. “Well, I already know how it’s going to sound, but I want to hear it anyway. You’ve got your skintight-black-leather voice on right now. You could tell me anything.”

“Trying to provoke me?” he murmured as he gave up on his pursuit of her legs to flip open those straining buttons. He couldn’t help himself—there was a glimpse of an equally graying and functional bra underneath. He’d never been so intrigued by a woman’s underwear in his life.

“Always,” she admitted. “Does it bother you? You’re very enticing when you’re worked up.”

He shook his head, surprised to find that he didn’t mind at all. If being worked up meant that this woman would stand across the room from him and dare him to stroke himself, if it meant she’d lay herself out on the couch and invite him to touch any part of her he wanted, then so be it.

He liked who he was around Ruby. He liked this man who joked about black leather, who didn’t mind coming undone so long as she was the one in charge of the undoing.

“The biggest part of my plan was to, ah, take care of business before I got here,” he said as he got her top button free. As he suspected, a glimpse of whitish cotton peeked back up at him. Considering how that whitish cotton swelled and beckoned toward him, he decided he’d never seen any fabric he liked more. “So that was the first thing I did.”

“Wait. What?” She paused in the middle of arching her back, the jut of her breasts causing the second button to undo itself. “You mean you jacked off?”

“Jacked off. Spanked the monkey. Choked the chicken. Wrestled the eel.”

She took her underlip between her teeth. “Um… You know a lot of terms for that.”

“I was a teenage boy once, all evidence to the contrary. You’ll notice the only ones I remember are animal-related. I’ve always wanted to be a vet.”

Her laugh rang out so loudly that she cast a panicked glance toward the boys’ rooms, but the one thing Eva and Maury had splurged on in this house was soundproof walls. Lowering her voice a little, she said, “I’m sorry. Please, continue what you were doing. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Since he was in the middle of running a finger lightly along the upper swell of her breast, it took him a moment to remember where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. Exploring the topography of Ruby’s form was like traveling to a distant—and wondrous—land.

“Once I, uh, took care of business, I did push-ups.” He flipped open the third button of her bodice. This one exposed a lot more than just her bra, offering him a glimpse of the band of skin along her rib cage. It led to the enticing curvature of her waist, which he knew from experience would lead to the equally enticing curvature of her hips. Sucking in a sharp breath, he added, “Lotsof push-ups.”

“One hundred and forty of them?” she teased.

His voice came out as a rasp. “More.”

“One hundred andfifty?”

He shook his head. The truth was, he’d lost count. Sometime in the past few days, doing push-ups had become synonymous with Ruby standing half-naked with her hand between her legs. He could never go to a gym again.

“Poor baby,” she murmured. She placed a hand on top of his before he could reach the fourth button. “You must be exhausted. I’d better get the rest of these for you.”

“Don’t you dare,” he growled. “After all those push-ups, I’ve earned this.”

She arched toward him instead. “Then by all means, don’t let me stop you. What else did you include in your plan?”