Ruby And Damien’s Dangerous Love

Ruby wanted to believe her. She wanted the music to drown out the hollow apartment waiting for her, the family she had never been able to rely on, the relatives lost inside addiction and apologies that never became change. Tonight, she wanted to be wanted by someone who knew nothing about her.

Someone who couldn’t compare her to Amber.

“Dance with me,” Ruby said.

Jenny grinned. “There she is.”

They pushed into the crowd. Heat rolled over Ruby’s bare shoulders, scented with perfume, citrus cocktails, and the faint metallic bite of spilled alcohol. For a few minutes, she let herself disappear into the rhythm. She lifted her arms. She laughed when Beth nearly knocked over a stranger. She forgot to be careful.

Then a man’s hand closed around her waist.

Ruby stiffened.

The stranger behind her leaned in, his mouth too close to her ear. “Don’t be shy.”

She twisted away. “Take your hand off me.”

He laughed as if she had flirted.

Before Ruby could shove him, another hand caught his wrist.

“Move.”

The voice was low enough to cut through the music.

The man turned. Damien stood between them in a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, his face calm in a way that made the air feel suddenly colder. He didn’t look drunk. He looked controlled - and far more dangerous for it.

“She said no,” Damien added.

The stranger muttered something and disappeared into the crowd.

Ruby stared at Damien’s hand, still curled around the man’s wrist in memory. “I could have handled that.”

“I know.”

The answer surprised her.

Most men either dismissed her strength or treated it like an insult. Damien simply looked at her, as if both things could be true: she could handle herself, and he could still stand beside her.

His gaze dropped briefly to her mouth. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “Are you always this intense?”

“Only when someone ignores a woman’s no.”

Something in her chest shifted.

Jenny appeared at Ruby’s shoulder, eyes bright with interest. “I’m Jenny.”

“Damien.”

“Just Damien?” Jenny asked.

His mouth curved. “For tonight.”

Ruby felt the smile before she gave it. “Convenient.”

“Very.”

Jenny’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it and sighed. “I need to take this. Ruby, stay where I can see you.”

“I’m not twelve.”

“No, you’re heartbroken and reckless. Worse combination.”

Damien’s eyes flicked toward Ruby, catching the truth beneath the joke.

Jenny vanished toward the edge of the dance floor, leaving Ruby alone with a man who smelled of cedar, clean linen, and something darker beneath. Damien didn’t crowd her. He didn’t reach for her again.

That restraint pulled her closer than any grab could have.

“Do you work around here?” he asked.

“I teach.”

“Children?”

“High school.” She sipped her drink. “You?”

“Law.”

“Courtroom lawyer?”

“CEO of a law firm.” His voice held no pride in it. “We deal with all kinds of people.”

“Sounds glamorous.”

“It isn’t.”

“You’re supposed to lie to me. We’ve only just met.”

“I’m a terrible liar.”

Ruby studied him. “That’s unfortunate for a lawyer.”

“I have people for that.”

The laugh escaped her before she could stop it. Damien’s attention sharpened, as though the sound had become something he wanted to keep.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“That was definitely not nothing.”

“I like your laugh.”

The compliment should have felt rehearsed. It didn’t. His eyes stayed on hers, steady and unhurried, and Ruby felt the dangerous pull of being noticed.

A message buzzed in her bag.

Tony.

She didn’t look.

Damien did not ask, but the slight tightening of his jaw told her he had seen the name on the screen when it lit the fabric.

“Ex?” he asked.

“Not tonight.”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

“It was the only one you’re getting.”

For the first time, something hard passed through his expression. Not anger at her. Anger for her.

Ruby set down her glass. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you can see every ugly thing I’m trying to hide.”

His voice dropped. “Maybe I only see what you’re tired of hiding.”

The music surged. Ruby should have stepped away. Instead, she placed her palm against his chest. Beneath the cotton, his heartbeat was firm and even.

“Do you take all your one-night stands seriously?”

“I haven’t had one in a long time.”

“Then why me?”

Damien’s gaze lowered to her hand. “You walked into a room looking like you wanted to burn your life down.”

“And you wanted to watch?”

“No.” He leaned closer, his breath warm against her cheek. “I wanted to know what would happen if someone gave you permission to stop surviving for a few hours.”

The words struck too close.

Ruby swallowed. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Then tell me no.”

She held his gaze. The club roared around them, but the space between their bodies felt quiet.

“I don’t want to.”

His hand settled at her waist, waiting.

Ruby nodded.

His kiss was not gentle, but it was careful. He kissed her as though he understood the difference between taking and being invited. His mouth moved over hers until her fingers tightened in his shirt, until the years of being overlooked and replaced dissolved beneath the heat of him.

When he pulled back, her lips tingled.

“Still want to leave?” he asked.

“No.”

“Still want me?”

The question carried no arrogance. Only a demand for truth.

Ruby looked at the stranger who had made her feel safer in ten minutes than Tony had made her feel in years.

“Yes.”

Damien’s eyes darkened. “Then come with me.”

• * *

The ride to his apartment passed in fragments of streetlights and silence.

Ruby sat beside him in the back of the car, her knee touching his. Damien’s driver kept his eyes on the road, and Damien kept one hand open on the seat between them.

He didn’t assume.

Ruby placed her fingers in his palm.

His hand closed around hers.

“You can still change your mind,” he said.

“I know.”

“I mean it.”

“So do I.”

He turned his head, the city sliding gold across his face. “You’re very sure for someone who’s been watching me like I’m a bad decision.”

“I am a bad decision.”

“No.” His thumb brushed over her knuckles. “You’re a woman who has been made to feel guilty for wanting anything.”

Ruby looked out the window before he could see how deeply that landed.

At his apartment, the door had barely closed before he kissed her again. His jacket fell to the floor. Ruby’s bag followed. He touched her slowly, asking with every pause, every searching glance, and she answered by pulling him closer.

When he lifted her onto the kitchen counter, she laughed breathlessly against his mouth.

“What?” he murmured.

“I’ve never done this.”

“Had sex on a counter?”

“Been looked at like I’m something worth worshipping.”

Damien went still.

Ruby’s courage faltered. “Forget I said that.”

“I won’t.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “You are not something to use and discard.”

The tenderness frightened her more than the hunger.

“Don’t promise things you can’t keep.”

“I’m not promising forever.”

The honesty hurt, but it also steadied her.

“What are you promising?”

His fingers traced the line of her jaw. “Tonight, I won’t let you feel alone.”

Ruby kissed him before he could say anything else.

The rest came in heated breaths, discarded clothes, and Damien’s hands learning her as though patience itself could be a form of devotion. He asked her what she liked. He listened. When she whispered his name, he answered with hers, again and again, until Ruby stopped thinking about Tony, Amber, the empty apartment, and every person who had decided she was too difficult to love.

For one night, Damien made wanting feel safe.

Afterward, she lay against his chest beneath cool sheets, listening to his heartbeat slow beneath her cheek. His fingers moved lazily through her hair.

“Tell me something real,” he said.

Ruby’s throat tightened. “I don’t have anyone.”

“You have Jenny.”

“Jenny has a life. I’m not allowed to make her carry mine.”

“Everyone needs someone to carry them sometimes.”

She lifted her head. “You sound like you know.”

Damien stared toward the dark window. “I know what it’s like to have people around you and still be unreachable.”

There it was - the fracture beneath the polished man, the reason his eyes looked tired even when his body was hard and certain against hers.

Ruby touched his chest. “What happened?”

“Not tonight.”

She should have been offended. Instead, she understood.

“Not tonight,” she agreed.

Morning arrived too quickly.

Damien stood by the window in trousers, his back to her, phone pressed to his ear. His voice had changed - cold, precise, built for boardrooms and legal battles.

“Tell Joey I’ll review the case notes before noon.”

Ruby pulled on her dress, suddenly aware of every inch of herself. The night had been wild and tender, but daylight made the rules visible again.

Damien ended the call and turned.

“You’re leaving.”

“I have work.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

Ruby reached for her bag. “This was one night.”

His face became unreadable. “Was that what you wanted?”

She wanted to say no. She wanted him to stop her, to prove that the warmth between them had not been another temporary shelter.

Instead, she smiled thinly. “It’s what we agreed to.”

“We didn’t agree to anything.”

“Exactly.”

He crossed the room. Not touching her, just close enough for his heat to reach her. “Ruby.”

Her name in his mouth nearly undid her.

“I’m not built for casual,” she admitted. “But I’m also not stupid enough to think a man like you wakes up wanting complications.”

His gaze sharpened. “You think I don’t want you?”

“I think you want the version of me from last night. The one who didn’t need anything.”

Damien’s jaw flexed. “You don’t know what I want.”

“No.” She opened the door. “And you don’t know what I need.”

His hand caught the edge of the door, stopping it without touching her.

“Tell me.”

Ruby looked at him, at the man who had held her like she mattered and now watched her like she might vanish.

“I need this not to hurt more than it already does.”

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then Damien stepped back.

Ruby walked away with his scent clinging to her skin and hope burning recklessly beneath her ribs.

Her phone buzzed before she reached the car.

Tony.

She looked down.

You really are pathetic.

Another message appeared.

Amber says you looked desperate last night. She’s right about you.

Ruby’s hand shook. Across the street, Damien stood in his doorway, watching her leave.

She locked the phone and drove.

But the cruel words followed her all the way home, and beneath them, louder still, was the memory of Damien’s voice.

Tell me no.

She hadn’t.

Now she couldn’t stop wondering whether he would come looking for her - or whether she had just given a stranger the most fragile part of herself and driven away before he could decide what to do with it.

End of chapter one. 9 more chapters in the full book.