Forbidden Temptation

The best man’s announcement of the bride and groom interrupted her lustful thoughts. The lights dimmed, and Mr. and Mrs. D’marcus Armstrong danced the first dance. Just as Ruby removed her jacket, exposing bare shoulders covered only with spaghetti straps, Luther asked her to dance. She hadn’t known that he danced, and she wondered how she should behave.

“Don’t be so careful,” he said. “I never attempt anything unless I know I can do it.”

“You look good,” she told him. “In fact, you look…uh…great.”

“Thank you,” he said, staring into her eyes. “I like the way you look, too.”

Why did he unnerve her? This was Luther, and she had always felt safer with him than with anyone else. “Thanks. Amber doesn’t like me in blue.”

A grin formed around the sensuous mouth that she’d just noticed for the first time, and a smile made his eyes sparkle. “Amber’s a woman. What would she know about what looks good on you?” He laughed, and she joined the mirth, although she wondered why she laughed when, in truth, she was thoroughly confused.

He led her in a slow fox trot, and it occurred to her that his disability made no difference. As they danced, he clasped her right hand lightly, but his hand at her waist proclaimed power and authority. She relaxed in his arms, and let the music flow over her. When the music stopped, he stepped back and half bowed, a bit mockingly, she thought. With his hand at her back, he walked with her to their table for ten, sat opposite her and fastened his gaze on her.

“Champagne, ma’am?” the waiter asked her. She took a glass from the silver tray and thanked the waiter. “They’ll be cutting the cake in a few minutes,” he said. “Right now, we’re preparing for the toast.”

She drank sparingly, usually an occasional glass of wine with dinner at a good restaurant. She hadn’t tasted champagne in ages. The best man offered the toast, raised his glass and invited the guests to join him. They had splurged on an expensive champagne, and after tasting it, she licked her lips approvingly and slowly drained the glass.

“This is good stuff,” her cousin, Paige Richards, said. “Just the thing in this candlelit room with the orchestra playing this soft, romantic music. It’s enough to make a woman say yes.”

Ruby’s gaze drifted to Luther, but she spoke to Paige. “Is that so? Then I think I’ll have another glass.”

Paige’s eyes widened. “I’m not sure you should do that, Ruby. This isn’t like you.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Ruby said as she accepted a second glass of champagne from the waiter. “Now, if I put on an apron and went into the kitchen back there to help with the cleanup, that would be just like me, wouldn’t it?” She took a long sip of champagne and the pit of her stomach immediately served notice that she shouldn’t drink too much more of it. “I’m sitting here in front of this good-looking man, listening to this befuddling music and with nothing to do with myself, so why shouldn’t I enjoy this champagne?”

Paige whispered something to Pearl, and Pearl leaned toward her older sister. “Ruby, maybe you shouldn’t have any more of that champagne.”

Ruby looked at Luther, raised the glass to her lips and let the wine drizzle slowly down her throat. Then she put the empty glass on the table. “Why can’t we have another dance, Luther? These two old fuddy-duddies are cramping my style.”

Luther got up immediately, put an arm around her waist and walked with her out to the dance floor. This time, he put both arms around her and moved in a slow drag. She put her head against his shoulder and let the champagne, the music and the aura of man encourage her recklessness.

When she missed a step, he held her a little closer. “Do you want to go back to the table?” he asked her.

“Nope. I’m perfectly happy right where I am.”

“If I were you, I’d be careful of my words,” he said.

She snuggled closer. “I’m always careful. Don’t you know that careful is my middle name? Careful Ruby, that’s me.” She glanced around his shoulder and saw Pearl and Amber talking. “I’ll bet they’re talking about me.”

“Who?” He stopped dancing and guided her back to their table.

“My guardians,” she said. “Amber and Pearl.” She took another glass of champagne from the waiter’s tray, sat down and took a few long sips. “What are you two saying about me?”

“That you shouldn’t drink any more champagne,” Amber said.

“Oh, pooh,” Ruby replied and, realizing that Luther had taken the chair beside hers, leaned over and kissed his neck. His eyes widened and he ran his fingers back and forth over his hair.

“Let her alone,” she heard him say. “She deserves to have some fun. I’ll take care of her.”

She drained her third glass of champagne and looked at Pearl. “If this good-looking man was with you, you’d be having a good time, too. Come on, Luther, let’s go see what everybody else is doing.” Amber’s gasp didn’t concern Ruby. She was having the time of her life, and she didn’t intend to let her sisters spoil her fun.

“Where are you taking us?” he asked her.

“Out here,” she said, leading him to the anteroom that faced their table. At the door of the anteroom, she traced his bottom lip with her right index finger. “I’ve been thinking about this lip all evening. I don’t know why I never saw it before tonight. It’s so inviting. Maybe it’s not real.”

His pupils dilated, and he stared down at her with hot, stormy eyes. “Why are you playing with me?”

“I’m not,” she said. “I just want to see what it tastes like.”

Luther couldn’t imagine what had gotten into Ruby when she reached up and sucked his bottom lip into her mouth, but he didn’t hold back. He couldn’t. He rimmed her lips with the tip of his tongue, and when she opened to him, fire shot through his veins and he plunged his tongue into her mouth, gripped her body to his and, mindless of their public posture, enjoyed the first sweetness he’d ever had from the lips of the woman he loved so desperately. He heard a gasp and set her away from him.

“What do you mean by starting that here in front of all these people?” he asked in a voice that trembled with the emotion that besieged him.

“There’s nobody else in here,” she said, but he could see that the kiss had discombobulated her, as well.

“I’m sorry that happened, Ruby.”

“Well, I’m not. I loved it.”

He shook her shoulders, though he did it gently. “Don’t you know better than to tease a man the way you’ve been teasing me all evening? I’m a man with feelings, Ruby.”

“Of course you are, and I haven’t been teasing you. You look good, and I’m enjoying it.” She looked around. “Where’s that waiter with the champagne?”

“I think I’d better take you home. We’ll take your car, and I’ll come back and get mine. You shouldn’t drive.”

“You listen to me, Luther Biggens. I am perfectly sober.”

“If you’re sober, why did you kiss me?”

Her hands went to her hips, but she quickly removed them. “I kissed you because I wanted to, and I fully enjoyed it.”

Luther couldn’t deny he had, too.

“I’m not going home to that big empty house,” she said. “If the wind blows the slightest bit, the whole place creaks. It’s too big, too old and too dark. I don’t like living there all by myself, and I’m not going there tonight.” She folded her arms like a recalcitrant child, poked out her bottom lip and pushed out her chin. “I’m going home with you.”

“Oh no, you’re not,” he said, feeling as if he were between a rock and a hard place. He wanted her alone with him in his house in the worse way, but he didn’t want to spend the night struggling to control his rampaging libido.

She walked to the table with head up and shoulders back in her usual regal stride, and got her jacket.

“Where’re you going?” Pearl asked her.

“Yes,” Amber said. “Are you leaving already?”

“After all that I did yesterday and today, you’d think I’d be tired, wouldn’t you?” he heard Ruby say, and as far as he was concerned, those were the words of a sober person. What the hell! If she wanted to go home with him, he’d take her there. Ruby tripped to the bridal table, kissed Opal, patted D’marcus’s shoulder and walked back to Luther.

“I’ll take you home, Ruby,” he said, wanting to do the right thing. “If you’re afraid to stay there by yourself, I’ll sleep on the living-room sofa.”

She laid her head to one side and looked at him with half-open, seductive eyes. “Didn’t I tell you that I’m going home with you?” She reached out and took a flute of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, and before Luther could stop her, she emptied the glass down her throat. “Delicious. Absolutely delicious,” she said. “Come on. Let’s go.”