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"Trust no one."
Ruby awoke with a cry and all but threw herself at the man who shared the couch with her. Zane, too, had slept, and when he came awake his arms instinctively wrapped around her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Not even a little," she confessed.
"Another dream?"
She nodded, then she pressed her face to Zane's chest and closed her eyes. Another movie was on the television in front of them, this one more somber than the musical that had been on when she'd fallen asleep. There was no singing, no dancing. Lots of angst, judging by the expressions on the faces on her television.
If she believed in curses and living statuettes and telepathy and all that other nonsense, she might be able to make herself believe that the dreams were a kind of warning. Whatever had killed the women who visited her as she slept was coming for her.
She shook off that thought; it made no sense. No more sense than a piece of jade that seemed to move on its own and make the walls of her once-peaceful home purr like a satisfied panther. No more sense than the urge to lose it all in the earthy and pleasurable distraction of sex with a man who was willing to sleep on her couch so she wouldn't have to be alone. Ruby was tempted to lift her head and kiss Zane Benedict and see where that kiss took them. She hadn't been attracted to a man this way in a very long time, and it would be nice, very nice, to enjoy something real and solid and reasonable, like sex. He could make her forget, she knew he could, and right now she very much wanted to forget.
After being alone for much too rong, she wanted someone to hold. She wanted the complete connection that would come with Zane inside her, when pleasure would wipe away the fear. She had told him so fiercely that she was not looking for a man, but having him here, feeling his skin against hers, it was wonderful. She wanted more.
Ruby didn't consider herself a brave person, but she lifted her head and very slowly moved her mouth toward Zane's. She didn't attack him; she moved so slowly he had plenty of opportunity to move away or turn his head. He didn't. Instead, his lips parted slightly right before hers touched them.
Eyes closed, they let their mouths linger against one another. Immediately a riot of sensations was set into motion. What she felt was strong enough to wipe away the fear of her dreams, to allow her to forget the impossibilities of purring walls and figurines that moved on their own.
Her hand rested on his side
, and she allowed her fingers to stroke there, learning the unexpected muscles and strength he usually hid beneath baggy T-shirts. They moved a bit, adjusting arms and legs, getting more comfortable and closer on the couch. She was oddly twisted but didn't care. The kiss took her beyond the terror of inexplicable sounds and terrifying dreams, and she wallowed in it.
Ruby was so hot she didn't mind at all when Zane loosened the belt of her robe and parted it. She enjoyed the rush of cool air, the extra bit of freedom, the feel of his hand slipping up her pajama top and finding one welcoming breast. They kissed and touched, caressed and learned one another, until Ruby found herself lying on her back with Zane Benedict cradled between her legs.
Reality intruded. She didn't have any sort of birth control in the house. Hadn't needed any for about two years, sad to say. Zane had come running to her house wearing elastic-waisted flannel pants. Unless there were hidden pockets with condoms in those sleep pants, they were out of luck.
"We have to stop," she said, then she kissed him again, unable to help herself.
"Why?" Zane asked gruffly.
She could use a lack of birth control as an excuse, but more than that concern stopped her. There were ways they could offer one another pleasure that wouldn't risk pregnancy, and there was a twenty-four-hour drugstore five minutes from her house. No, she had to tell him the truth. "This is happening too fast for me," she whispered.
"It is rather unexpected," he agreed without anger or even a hint of frustration. There wasn't going to be any sex on her couch—not tonight—so she half expected Zane to pull away and sit up straight, putting an end to the comfort. Too bad. But he didn't go away. He held her. He stayed.
"You are perfectly symmetrical," he whispered.
Ruby had not thought it possible to laugh tonight, but she did. "What?"
"Symmetrical. True beauty is in symmetry, and you have it."
"I'm not beautiful," she said. Cute, maybe, when she worked at it, but not beautiful.
"You are." He demonstrated, first with both hands on her face, slowly tracing and measuring in between kisses, then lower, hands on her breasts. Thumbs rocked gently against sensitive nipples beneath the thin fabric of her pajamas, as he weighed and tested shape. Then lower, to her hips, where his hands gripped and held her, thumbs rocking against her pelvic bone.
If she had one iota less control, she'd strip him naked in a heartbeat and he'd be inside her and it would be so good. It would be symmetry; it would be true beauty. They were so close. She was lying on the couch, and he was on top of her. There wasn't much in the way of clothing between them. A shift, a push, and she could so easily dismiss all her reservations. Without warning, Ruby twitched as the final words of her latest dream came back to her. Trust no one.
"We should sit up, I suppose," she said.
"Yes." Zane slowly and reluctantly moved up, taking her arm and pulling her with him until they sat side by side. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he didn't make any juvenile attempt to hide the fact that he was aroused. "So, tell me about your latest dream?"
It was still too clear, too vivid and horrible, and those final words haunted her. What had happened to the baby that had been in the next room as his father offered his mother to a demon? It was only a dream, and yet the child seemed so real. It had been a little boy, she knew. How did she know?
Trust no one. "I don't want to talk about it," she said.
"Perhaps later," Zane said, sounding more disappointed than he had when she'd made him take his hand off her bare breast.
