Page 75 of Almost Ours

“—are batshit insane!”

Ruby bursts out laughing. “I’m trying to help!”

“You are not helping!” I snap, turning the bottom half of my body away from her.

“Oh my God.” Her eyes widen as she glances down towards my straining dick. “Are you actually embarrassed?”

“No!”

“You are.” She laughs. “Isn’t it just what happens to men in the morning?”

“Yeah,” I supply dryly. “But I’m not usually pressed up against my friends this early in the day.”

She gives me this oddly wounded, annoyed look that makes my stomach twist. “Is that what I am?”

The fuck does that mean?

“What? My friend? Yeah. Of course.”

I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but she’s become pretty fucking important to me in that time, whether I understand how that happened or not.

Ruby pulls away from me and the space she leaves behind feels fucking awful. I ignore it, pushing myself upright against the headboard and stretching out my back while I try to work out what I’ve said wrong.

“I mean,” Ruby huffs as she practically launches herself off the bed, “do you act like this with anyone else?” She snatches my Tommy Hilfiger jumper from the floor and drags it over her head before turning back to me. “Is this how you usually are?”

My sleeves swallow her hands and this mad, possessive feeling hits me out of nowhere. Seeing her in my clothes makes my throat constrict and wipes every thought clean out of my head. I look between the slogan sat on her chest and her eyes. “Do I let other friends wear my clothes?”

Ruby’s hazel eyes narrow. “You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

I do. I think. I just don’t particularly want to answer it.

She gestures towards the bed between us. “Do you do this with anyone else?”

No, of course I fucking don’t. “I don’t really know what you want me to say here.”

“Are you being thick on purpose?”

I lean back against the headboard and try to calm the panic sirens firing off inside of me. “No.”

Ruby is staring at me with this furious determination that makes me think I’ve massively underestimated how much this is bothering her. She takes a couple of steps back towards the bed, glaring at me, then climbs onto it and starts crawling towards me.

My breath hitches sharply and my back presses harder into the headboard as she comes closer.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Without breaking eye contact, she forces my legs apart as she moves between them until she’s right up against me.

“Ruby,” I murmur warily.

She reaches for me, both hands sliding around the back of my neck, and my breathing goes to complete and utter shit. Her face is inches from mine, her knees pressed against the inside of my thighs, my jumper hanging off her body while I sit there trying not to lose my fucking mind.

Ruby’s eyes flicker over my face. “See.”

I swallow thickly. “See what?”

“You’re reacting to me.”

“You’ve just crawled between my legs,” I point out. “What the fuck else am I supposed to do?”