DirtyBeautiful (20 page)

Worry lines across his forehead smoothed out as she stepped
into the threshold. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she whispered.

“I’d been knocking for a while. Thought you wouldn’t
answer.”

Dylan shuffled and rubbed the back of his neck. Unspoken
words hovered between them, but Erica feared to voice them.

Finally he spoke. “Sorry about before. Bud was going nuts in
the middle of the night and had her cornered in my backyard.”

Silence stretched.

“Nothing happened between her and me last night, Erica. I
swear.”

The earnestness in his voice crumbled the wall that held her
apart from him and she stepped into his open arms. A soft shudder ran through
his frame as he kissed the top of her head. Beneath her ear his heart
thundered, a telling sign of his anxiety. Call her vain, but it warmed her to
know that he was worried of the outcome of their meeting.

After a while, she pulled back. His hands slid down to her
hips, keeping her within an inch of his body. “What happened after I left?”

Dylan grimaced. “We talked a bit. She’s in a bad place right
now and I feel kinda responsible.”

Erica tried to stifle the sting of juvenile jealousy. She
couldn’t fault him for a characteristic she found charming in him even at the
risk of her own self-security. “Okay?”

“I… I kinda offered for her to stay with me for a while.”

Erica stiffened and stepped back despite his grip. “What?”

Dylan held out a placatory hand. “It’s not like that, Erica.
She and I have a history and I can’t just throw her on the street.”

“You mean the baby?”

“No! Look, I know it all sounded pretty convincing back
there, but I don’t think I’m the father.”

“You don’t
think
? Who is she to you?”

“We’re just close friends that—”

“So close that you
might’ve
gotten her pregnant. I’m
not stupid, Dylan. Why did she come all the way from LA if she wasn’t sure
you’re the dad?”

“I’m not,
okay
?”

Taken aback by the vehemence in his tone, Erica faltered.

Dylan heaved out a breath, his thumb and forefinger pressed
on the bridge of his nose. “Look.” His eyes glinted with desperation. “I’ve
done some pretty messed-up stuff in the past. You’re different. What we have is
different. With her… With her it’s just…shit, how can I say it? It meant
nothing.”

“So what was she exactly?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

Erica fisted her hands. “Try.”

“Look, all you need to know is that what she and I did
wouldn’t ever touch what we have. What I feel for you eclipses everything. I
don’t have those types of feelings for her.”

“I’m sure she has friends who would be happy to take care of
her. Why you?”

“We…our friends wouldn’t understand. Some of the people we
know are kinda self-centered.”

Erica didn’t have trouble believing that. Still, she wasn’t
comfortable with that woman staying with him. It’d take a saint to be all right
with her man in the presence of a woman who knew how he liked it in the
bedroom. And despite what Dylan might think, she was no Mother Teresa.

Dylan stepped forward and eased her fists apart to slip his
fingers into her hand. “I know I’m asking too much. I get that. I really don’t
want to lose you over this. But I can’t in good conscience kick her out.”

Still, Erica had to try one more avenue. “What about
family?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. She didn’t go to them, Erica.
She came to me. She might come across as a bit of a bitch sometimes, but she
really isn’t that bad once you get to know her.”

Erica highly doubted that. Since the moment she met that
woman, Ruby had been gunning for her. Judging by the set of his shoulders,
Dylan wasn’t going to budge on this and it hurt to know that he was putting
this woman before her feelings on the matter. Removing her hand from his, she
rubbed her arm to ease the cold goose bumps that raced across her skin.

“How do you expect me to feel, Dylan, when a woman you used
to have sex with is living under the same roof as you and she may or may not be
carrying your child?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times and the edges of his
mouth drew downward. “I don’t expect anything except a little faith.”

Erica dropped her face in her hands and sucked air through
small gaps between her fingers. He asked too much of her. Thoughts of Greg and
the feeling of betrayal churned in the shadowed corners of her mind. Faith in
men and their fidelity could only be stretched so far. Erica doubted her ability
to handle a woman as beautiful as Ruby being in the same house with Dylan, it
was too much to bear.

Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist and eased her hands
down. Soft blue eyes clashed with hers. “Hey, it’s going to be all right. All
of this,” he indicated his house, “it’s just temporary.”

Erica swallowed hard and pondered the future of their
relationship. “What if it isn’t?” she whispered.

What if he decided that he wanted more with Ruby? How would
she cope, coming in last a second time around?

“I’m sure,” he said succinctly.

Erica still couldn’t hold back the unease that burgeoned
inside her. The sickening feeling that foretold the beginning of the end.

* * * * *

A new bed was delivered the next day to Dylan’s house and
Erica watched as he heaved the mattress through the door. The pain in her chest
spiked at the sight. Foot poised above the first step, Erica noted the way Ruby
ran her hand down Dylan’s back. The intimate gesture made her insides curdle.
Her fingers clenched around her car keys and reminded her she needed to get to
work. The car chirruped as she unlocked it. Both Dylan and Ruby looked her way.
Ruby grinned and offered a five-fingered wave, but when Dylan turned around to
approach Erica, that smile dropped off.

Erica’s heart faltered at his look of pure hunger as he ate
up the distance between them. Before her brain could kick back into motion,
he’d wrapped his arms over her waist and brought her into his body to nuzzle
her neck. A shiver marched down her spine as warmth expanded in her stomach.
Maybe all this worry was for nothing?

“Where you going?” Dylan asked.

“Some people have to work, you know.”

“Can’t convince you to take a day off?”

Erica notched one eyebrow. “You want me to cut school? You
know bad boys get detention.”

Dylan grinned. “I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

“I bet you do.”

“I missed you last night. Maybe you can save that thought
for tonight?”

Erica threw him a sultry look. “Are you expecting me to
dress all prim and proper to fulfill a dirty schoolboy fantasy of yours?”

Lust flared in his eyes. “Now that you mention it—”

“Dylan!” Ruby called.

Dylan glanced over his shoulder then sighed. “Look, I got
some things to finish up here, but what do you think about a romantic dinner
tonight?”

Her heart fluttered. “Sounds wonderful, but I promised Tammy
I’d watch her kids tonight. I probably won’t be back until nine.”

“Perfect. I’ll be ready.”

He buzzed her on her lips, twisted away and returned to his
house. Elation burgeoned within her body. Erica ignored the hitch in her gut as
she slid into her car and drove away.

Dylan watched Erica drive down the street, eagerness a
steady thrum in his chest. Tonight was going to be a night of groveling and he
had no problem with going all out to ease her mind. Although she silently
accepted the terms he presented regarding Ruby, he felt her discontent and he
was caught between guilt on both sides.

All he could do was lather attention on Erica to reassure
her where his feelings lay with her. She was it. He knew it in the depths of
his heart, but he was torn between his budding relationship with Erica and
Ruby’s fragile state. It was the subtleties he began to notice. Ruby’s pale
complexion. The hopelessness in her eyes when she thought she was alone.

Ruby’s gaze followed Erica’s car as it disappeared down the
street. “She okay with me staying with you for a bit?”

“Sure,” he lied through his teeth.

“Geez, she must be the saint you paint her out to be.
Knowing your partner is bunking down with an ex-girlfriend would’ve sent anyone
else batshit crazy.”

“She doesn’t know we were in a relationship.”

Perfect eyebrows rose. “You told her about our working
relationship?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what did you say?”

His internal voice screamed for caution even as he spoke. “I
told her you and I were friends with benefits.”

Ruby’s mouth dropped open as her expression turned
thunderous. “You told her I was a fuck buddy?”

Dylan knew he stepped wrong in an instant and cursed his
internal filter.

“How dare you!”

“What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t just tell her we
were friends because of you claiming I got you pregnant.”

“You could’ve!”

Dylan caught on to Ruby’s tell—the way she tipped her chin
and flipped her hair in an act of defiance. Defiance to what? “I didn’t get you
pregnant, did I, and you know it.”

Lips pursed together, her eyes flickered.

“You came all the way here just to fuck with me? Why?”

Ruby sneered. “You think too highly of yourself if you think
that. I couldn’t stay in LA and you were the only person I knew who might help.
Clearly I made a mistake.”

As she twisted away he grasped her wrist, preventing her
escape. “Why then? Why the lie?”

Ruby slanted her head and he caught a sheen of tears in her
eyes before she blinked them back. “Why not?”

She was blocking. “Ruby. Who is the father?”

Lips whitened and her breathing grew frantic as she glared
at him. “It’s your fault I’m like this!”

Dylan recoiled and she wrenched free. “It was a revenge
fuck?”

Ruby stabbed him in the chest with her finger. “It was never
about revenge. If you hadn’t left like you did I wouldn’t have felt so alone.
So fucking worthless. I wouldn’t have sought comfort in the first available
dick that came a-knocking.”

“Who is it?”

She swiped at the tears that trailed down her face. “I think
it might be…Vane.”

Whispered so soft, Dylan had to strain to hear her. “What?
Vane? You can’t be serious.”

“Now you know why I can’t stay there. He’ll know.”

Dylan didn’t know whether to insist she tell Vane out of
principle or keep her secret. Everyone knew Vane as a man driven to succeed,
and he found his money maker in adult films. If he knew Ruby carried his child,
Dylan wasn’t sure how he’d react. Neither of the two outcomes he thought Vane
might take would be good for Ruby or the child.

“Shit.”

“Exactly,” Ruby intoned on a sniffle.

“Don’t worry. I’ll figure this out.”

Ruby laughed hollowly. “Trust you to try to save the day.
You always did that, Dylan. But when are you going to realize that there are
some things you can’t save?”

Sad reality was, Dylan knew that, but it didn’t stop him
from trying.

Chapter Eleven

Erica pulled up at her house to find a trail of candles
leading from her front door to her backyard. Smiling, she followed the lodestar
of tea lights along the narrow pathway and into her yard. Dylan stood within a
circle of rose petals, a single rose in his hand. Erica stepped into the light
and noticed the picnic blanket at his feet.

He stepped beyond the flowers and wrapped his arms around
her. His lips found hers and she tasted coffee on his tongue. Her mouth opened
under his persuasion, her fingers skating over his cotton shirt to clutch at
his shoulders. A roughened palm snaked under her blouse while the other
squeezed her buttocks. Erica gasped at the hard edge of his arousal, which
pressed against her belly, pleased by the evidence of his desire for her.

A groan rumbled in the depths of his chest and Dylan broke
off the kiss, his breath hot in her ear. “I’ve been dreaming of kissing you all
day.”

“Then why stop?” Erica murmured against his lips.

Dylan groaned then captured her mouth once more and flicked
his tongue along the seam of her lips before pulling back. “Because I’m trying
to be romantic.”

Erica pouted but allowed him to guide her into the circle of
petals and onto a picnic mat. A brow tipped upward as she sat, tucking her feet
under her backside. “A picnic at night?”

Dylan grinned. “Thought you’d like to dine under the stars.”

She tipped her head to peer at the stars as a cool breeze
brought with it the smell of roses and clean night air.

Glass tinkered followed by a loud pop and she looked down as
Dylan poured champagne into a flute. Accepting the glass, she brought it to her
mouth, the bubbles tickling her nose. The tart sweetness washed over her tongue
and she swallowed then wiped the tip of her nose. “It tickles,” she said on a
light giggle.

“Never had champagne before?”

“Champagne? This here is a beer town. We don’t do fancy
things like that,” she said with a mock flutter of dismay over her heart.

Dylan chuckled. “I love a woman who’s easily pleased.”

Her heart faltered at his words. It wasn’t quite a
declaration, but still, she couldn’t stifle the hope that blossomed there.
Erica sipped more champagne, the fizz dancing along her tongue. Languidly, she
watched Dylan flip the lid of the picnic basket and pull out a simple meal of
salad, cold meats and fruits. They ate, both enjoying the comfortable silence.
Finishing off her second glass of champagne, she lay on her back, her hand
tucked beneath her head. Shoes kicked off, she wiggled her toes and stared up
at the stars.

Dylan lay beside her, the low candlelight clouding his
features. Propped on his elbow, he plucked a strawberry from the punnet nearby
and ran the tip down her nose to hover above her mouth. After a moment’s
hesitation, she bit into it. He kissed her lips and pulled away to offer
another piece. And so continued the ritual. With each strawberry she ate, he
kissed her somewhere. One at the base of her throat. Another on her earlobe.
Each gentle touch of his lips made her insides flutter and heat gather in her womb.