“You win,” Ruben says, pushing off the wall he was leaning on. It’s clear that he’s waiting for me, “but I’m going to make sure you get inside a cab in one piece.”
I sigh. I can’t complain about that. If I’m truthful I wasn’t looking forward to walking out front on my own with the line of people waiting to get in. Sometimes they can be obnoxious as shit.
“Thank you,” I say as he takes my elbow. I take in the profile of his set jaw and smile, a wave of mischievousness crashing over me as I add, “But don’t make a habit of bossing me around.”
His hand briefly tightens on my elbow before it slackens again. He chuckles. “We’ll see.”
Outside in the cool air, Ruben ignores everyone shouting for his attention and opens the door of a cab for me. As I’m about to climb in, he stops me with a hand on my arm. I turn to look at him. His face is an open book to me and I can see the internal struggle play across it, but what he’s struggling with is beyond me.
“Let me see your phone.”
Not sure what he wants my phone for, I hesitate before passing it to him. He begins typing into it then I hear the one in his pocket beep, which he removes and checks the screen.
“That’s my private number. Use it if you need anything. I mean it, Rosie. Anything.” He passes my phone back to me, which I clutch as he practically shoves me into the cab. Slamming the door closed, he bangs on the roof a couple of times.
The cab pulls out into traffic and I can’t help but turn to watch Ruben in the rear window. I hold Ruben’s stare until the cab turns out of view.
Dropping my head to the seat, I wince when my head begins to pound, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to forget watching Ruben as we drove away. He looked…lost.
Chapter 3 ~ Ruben
Pulling up to the side of my parent’s house for Sunday dinner, I grin when I spot Lily and Carla on the front porch with a baby on each of their laps, and Sabrina leaning over Carla to play with one of the twins.
My mom is beside herself having grandchildren, thanks to my brother Michael and his beautiful wife, Lily. But mom is driving the rest of us crazy with questions. When are we going to get married and give her more grandbabies? Ugh!
Ramon always manages to give her the slip. But despite that saving grace, something is always off with him. For a while now, Ramon has looked troubled, something that I’m not used to seeing since he’s always been the more carefree brother. My brow wrinkles as I think of my youngest brother…I definitely need to find time to chat with him; maybe I can get to the bottom of it, although he’s the hardest of my brothers to crack.
Lucien takes her questions in stride, but he definitely has his shorts in a wad over Lily’s friend Sabrina. We all see this apart from him. Apparently, because of his accident he isn’t any use to anyone and certainly wouldn’t want anyone to wake up beside him and have to look at his scars. I hope he finally gets it on with Sabrina because something tells me she’ll be good for him.
As for me, well, there’s only one woman who makes me crazy. Only one woman who I can’t get out of my head. One woman who gives me the hardest fucking cock that can pound nails. Rosie. Sweet, innocent Rosie. But she’s too damn innocent for my tastes; even though I’d be lying if I said the thought of teaching her what I like isn’t a huge fucking turn on.
It’s taken everything in me not to visit her this past week. She’d listened to me and taken the week off and I’d wanted to check on her every single day—hell, every single minute. I gave in on Wednesday and shot her a text asking if she was okay. I received a ‘yes, I’m fine’ in response. What I was expecting I’ve no idea, but ‘yes, I’m fine’ pissed me off.
“What the fuck?”
Lucien brings me abruptly back to the present by opening the car door, scaring the shit outta me.
“What, you daydreaming like a girl now?” Lucien asks, grinning like an idiot.
Pushing the door into him, he takes a step back as I jump from the car. “I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.”
Slamming the door shut, I ignore him, walking past to head toward the house. He smirks and says, “No need to get your panties in a twist because I caught you daydreaming about Rosie,” under his breath.
Fuck! I glare at my brother. “Do I have a sign across my forehead ‘Ruben can’t stop thinking about Rosie’?”
He starts to laugh, and says, “I never thought you’d admit it,” before rubbing his hand across his face, and meeting my gaze.