Ruby's Fantasy (16 page)

‘So he'll see me naming him?' The ground seemed to open up in front of her and she swore she'd fall in.

‘I won't leave your side,' Jake reassured her. ‘Breathe, sweetheart.' He took in deep breaths and she copied him.

‘What if he seeks retribution?'

He gave her a grim smile. ‘I won't let him. My copper mate is interrogating him at the moment. We served in the army together and I saved his life. He owes me big time, so I'll have access to Tattoo Face if I need it.'

‘Is that legal?'

‘This is The Cross. The police here have a history of doing things their own way to get results. I promise you on my life, Ruby, that man will not be bothering you anymore.'

‘That's a big promise to make.'

There was cool steel in his blue eyes, a hardness she'd rarely seen before when he was with her. ‘It's one I intend to keep.'

He'd lay his life down for her.
Ruby went into his arms and hugged him tight, her head against his chest. Just the smell of him, soap and man, helped calm her nerves. In the short time she'd known him, Jake had followed through on everything he said. In fact, she'd never met anyone who was so precise about detail as him. No wonder the army had suited him. His big hands wrapped around hers in a silent communion of trust and she realised she was breathing normally again despite what was ahead of her. ‘Thank you.'

‘Pack an overnight bag.'

‘What? Why?' she asked surprised by the jump in direction.

‘You need fresh air and I'm going to get you out of the seediness of The Cross once we've finished at the station. It's time you saw just how great Sydney can be, plus I promised you a day on the harbour tomorrow.'

‘You trying to entice me to stay?'

Jake pulled her to her feet. ‘I want you to see where I live. I want you in my world.'

Whoa. Back up. Ruby pulled away from him. ‘Jake. You have to stop doing this.'

He clasped her to him and wouldn't let her back away. ‘Doing what?'

‘Making life decisions for me. I have a home. I've made that clear. I can't just pull up roots. It's not that easy.'

‘No, Ruby, you've made a retreat for yourself and you wouldn't have ventured out of the mountains if it weren't for this trouble with Emerald. I'm going to show you that there's more to life than hiding away in the mountains.'

Was that true? She'd never thought about her life in those terms. All she'd thought about was getting away from her dysfunctional home when she was young. If it hadn't been for a scholarship she'd never have been able to afford university at Bathurst in the country.

Snatching her hands from his, she walked back and forth trying to cool down. Drat him. She stopped and glared at him. ‘I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I've had to work for everything and I'm proud of what I've achieved. I'm twenty-four, I have a degree, my own business, a share in this one and worked my butt off to buy a small cottage in Blackheath. That wasn't easy to do by myself, so if you think I'm some type of simpering gold digger who is going to come in and be overwhelmed by your wealth, forget it. I'm not.'

Jake tried to put his arms around her but Ruby butted her hands up against his chest.

‘Listen, Ruby, don't get mad. You're wonderful. Sexy, smart, brave, but how do you know there isn't more unless you experience what else is out there? You've been subsisting at survival level your whole life.'

‘Subsisting? Damn it, Jake. How dare you? I told you, I've done everything myself. I live in my own house. I don't call that subsisting.'

‘It's time to step out and show you my life. I want you to be part of it. No matter how prickly you get, I'm not backing off.'

‘Prickly? I'm not prickly. You can be so arrogant sometimes.'

Jake raised one eyebrow in an infuriating manner.

Resisting an urge to stamp her foot, she pinned him with her gaze. ‘Listen here, I don't want to get used to something I can't afford and I certainly don't want to be dependent on a man.'

‘So you're afraid to even go and look?'

‘Of course I'm not.'

‘Good. Go pack an overnight bag.' He glanced at his watch. ‘We have to be at the station in five minutes.'

Turning her back on him, she marched to her bedroom and threw a few things into her bag. From Jake's multi-millionaire's perspective, she would look like she was subsisting, but she was proud she'd bought her own place and had an income.

Jake was way out of her league, a trust fund kid who thought big. She got it. Sure he was generous, protective and sexy as hell. If it hadn't been for him, the last few days would have been a nightmare, but he needed to learn—she was not going to give up her independence. She'd earned it the hard way. Unlike some other women she knew, she didn't expect a man to be her meal ticket. After all this time she enjoyed working, interacting with clients and building a business from the ground up. It had been a long hard road, but she was happy with her achievement and she wasn't giving it up for a man. Jake was not for her, not long term. The trouble was, she had no idea how she was going to give him up, except by going back home.

Jake waited while Ruby packed. He'd blasted lightning onto dry wood and Ruby had flared, but he needed to prepare her for his lifestyle in the Eastern Suburbs. He wasn't going to let her pride build a wall between them, but the woman was skittish, determined to fly back to Blackheath before she had a chance to see if she enjoyed other parts of Sydney. Too determined to hang on to her hard-won freedom and had built a shell around herself which made it difficult to explore that they had something together.

When she came out of her bedroom wearing the skin-tight pants she'd had on the other night and a layered, black top that silhouetted her figure, her gaze held a bruised expression.

His heart stirred. There was no way he'd give up on her.

He strode over and took her overnight bag from her and slung it over his shoulder. The black she wore made him suspect she was going for an anonymous look rather than sexy, but with her long blonde hair curling loose over her shoulders and her large sky-blue eyes, she was a man magnet. He wanted to introduce this wonderful, intelligent woman to his friends and have her by his side.

He saw that her light pink lipstick was slightly smudged as if she'd put it on in a rush and her face pale from nerves. For a country girl, she'd taken on a lot over the past few days and she needed a break, which was what he intended to give her. Her whole idea of Sydney was The Cross and he wanted to show her the beautiful harbour beaches, take her out to his favourite restaurant on the water at Rose Bay and spoil her. She couldn't appreciate what she didn't know. But she would. She'd have to because after Remmy died, he couldn't bear to lose the best thing that had happened to him since he'd left the army.

He noticed Ruby hunting in her handbag. ‘I can't find my phone. I've been looking for it all day.'

‘You left it at my place last night. It's on the coffee table. We have to go through my place to get to my car on the way back from the police station, so we'll pick it up then.'

‘How do you remember small things like that?'

‘I notice detail. Like you're worried.' He put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. Her body felt stiff and unyielding, almost fragile. He couldn't wait until he got the identification process out of the way. Ruby deserved better than mucking around in the seamy underbelly of The Cross. She had no idea of the spell she'd cast over him.

‘How can you tell how I feel?'

He reached over and touched her left ear. ‘You've forgotten to put in your other earring. You don't normally do that.'

Touching her ear, her blue eyes widened. ‘So I have. My brain's so scattered. I can't think straight.'

‘This shouldn't take us long and then it's chill out time.'

She walked back into her bedroom to get the other earring. On returning she asked, ‘Is there anything you don't observe?'

He shrugged. ‘I've always had that skill. Kept me alive in Afghanistan. Saved the lives of my men, too, which is lucky because I'm about to call in the favour when I talk to my ex army copper mate.' With his brother in a different battalion he'd hadn't been able to keep his eye on him all the time.

He could with Ruby.

Had to with every essence of his being.

If she became stifled that was a risk he had to take.

Ruby headed down the stairs and walked through her shop, opened her front door and locked it again once they were out on the street. Jake unlocked the front door of his shop and put Ruby's overnight bag inside his shop, then locked up again.

Outside the weather was steamy and scantily dressed women walked the streets. Already, cars full of men perused them calling out cheeky phrases to catch their attention. On Ruby's right, the red and white neon Coke sign, a Kings Cross icon, lit up the top of William Street. Jake put his arm around Ruby in order to navigate around the busy foot traffic on Darlinghurst Road as they walked down the street towards the police station.

Prostitutes stood in their doorways touting for business, American sailors whose ships were moored at the nearby Garden Island base crowded into the bars. Tourists waited in line to get into bars, a man painted silver mimicked robotic movements and Jake tossed a coin into his tin as they passed. Wind caught a spray of water from the El Alamein Fountain, lightly dousing them as they approached the police station. ‘Jake?' Ruby gripped his hand.

‘What is it, sweetheart?' She hadn't uttered a word in the ten-minute walk.

‘When you said your copper mate owed you, I wondered what you had planned. You're too protective of me. I don't want you doing anything illegal on my behalf.'

‘Like what?'

‘Like bashing Tattoo Face for retribution. If you get charged you could lose your business license.' Her sky-blue eyes flashed concern.

She had him pegged. Although he never participated in violence for the fun of it, he wasn't afraid to do whatever was necessary to look after her. ‘How I deal with Tattoo Face needn't worry you.'

‘Jake!'

‘The best scenario is you'll recognise Tattoo Face and the cops will lock him away,' he said as they approached the police station.

She gave him an assessing look and he knew she wasn't fooled. ‘And the worst?'

‘Ruby!' he growled. ‘I told you I'll deal with it.'

She snatched her hand from his, stopped walking and turned on him. ‘You're impossible sometimes.'

‘Yeah, one of my men told me I was a bastard. Got a sock to his jaw and he fell into line. The whole damn battalion came home in one piece. I'm going to fix this my way because I'm not letting some bastard scare you back home.' Under his gaze he saw her luscious lips turn down, a frown marred her sweet face but he didn't care. When it came to dealing with arseholes, he was the expert. He put his arm around her shoulders feeling the fragile bones underneath and moved forward. The sooner they got this done, the better.

‘You realise that whether I go home or not will be my decision to make.'

‘I made it for you,' he said gruffly. ‘The first day I met you, I fell in love.'

Jake loved her. His firm response made her giddy with excitement. No man, not her boyfriend, not her father, especially not her father, cared about her the way he did. Support. She'd never known what that felt like and Jake brought it with him in spades. He knocked down her reserves one by one like bowling pins.

She must have been staring at him, her mouth open in surprise at his confession because he gave her a look so intense her breath hitched before he claimed her lips. His lips were hot and demanding a response. She didn't know if it was because of the tension of what was waiting in front of her, but it was as if all her pent-up desire, thoughts and anxiety made her fling her arms around the back of his neck. Jake was secure.

She needed him.

Her whole body pressed against his as she kissed him back, absorbing the love and security he proffered so readily. If he was expecting her to tell him that she loved him too, he didn't show it. Instead, he broke the kiss, gave her a reassuring smile, took her hand and led her up the police steps stopping just before they entered. ‘You ready for this? Remember, I'm right by your side the whole time. There's no reason to feel afraid.'

‘I can do this,' she said, realising his heart-warming kiss had steadied her nerves. Jake was good for her.

Maybe there was some way for them to be together. She squeezed his hand and was rewarded with a squeeze back as they walked up the police station steps to deal with her nemesis.

Jake's contact, Senior Constable Adam Garner, greeted them at the police desk and explained the procedure. Senior Constable Garner led them to a white, painted room. Standing in front of a wall, which had black lines painted across it to indicate height, were six men. Several of the men had facial tattoos, many were dressed in black, the colour most worn in The Cross, but their height varied. A number was painted on the wall above each man's head for the person to identify the suspect. She stood with Jake beside her, his arm protectively around her waist. Ruby leant into him, not comfortable that there wasn't a screen like she'd seen on the police shows on television.

‘Walk along in front of the line up if you wish. Take your time choosing,' Senior Constable Garner said.

Ruby did as she was asked. Several of the men avoided her gaze until she reached the last man on the queue. His gaze slid over her like oil and then he looked away. She wanted to shiver, wipe her whole body down he had such an unctuous quality about him. He had small, dark eyes and a thin face.

In the bright light of the room, it seemed almost laughable that this man could be a threat. He wasn't tall or even broad shouldered, barely coming up to Jake's underarms, but still the sight of him sickened her. Although the incident had occurred at night, the flash of the image of Tattoo Face holding a knife flared in front of her mind. ‘That's him,' she pointed. Her temples began to throb and she felt Jake's body tense beside hers. She saw him take a deep breath as if he were communicating with her on how to remain calm. ‘The one on the right at the end.' Instinctively, she took in a deep breath and breathed out slowly following his example, breathing in the security of his closeness, his calm, his love.