Free Ruby Tuesday by Mari Carr

to rub her delicate neck. She was soft, her skin so pale she was almost translucent. He glanced at the clock on the wall.
    “Just after ten.”
    “Pop and Riley should be up in a bit,” she said. “Tris and Ewan will keep the pub open until midnight. Guess we should clean up.” He looked around at the living room. “How the hell did it get so messy?” She laughed. “You seem to share my bad habit of scattering paper everywhere when you write. My family goes mad when I’m in the zone because I tend to lay waste to every room in the apartment.”
    “In the zone? Is that where we were?”
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    “Wasn’t it?”
    “Yeah, I guess it was. I generally do my writing alone. I don’t think I’ve ever been in the zone with another person.” He had composed a few lighthearted numbers with the other members of The Universe, typically when they were drinking on the tour bus and feeling punchy late at night. They’d even released a couple of them and they were quite popular party songs. All the serious music the band performed, he’d written on his own.
    “I’ve never been there with someone else either.” She rose from her chair and turned to face him. “It was nice having the company in there.” She rose up on tiptoe to place a soft kiss on his cheek. For reasons he couldn’t explain, the platonic nature of her light buss pissed him off. When she began to retreat, he reached out and pulled her back to him, roughly.
    “Sky.”
    “There are limits to everything, gypsy.” They were nose to nose, but he refused to let her go.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You don’t want to have sex. We won’t. But that doesn’t mean I won’t kiss you.
    Real kisses. I have limits, too, and the main one is I can’t sit beside you day in and day out and not touch you. It’s just not possible.” He bent down and punctuated his words with a hard, deep kiss.
    “So we’re going to draw a line in the sand and hope the tide doesn’t wash it away? I don’t think I can handle this, Sky. I’m not as experienced at casual affairs as you are.”
    “Even if I promise it’ll be fun?”
    She laughed at his joke, as he’d intended. He wasn’t about to get into a discussion of casual anything with her. For one thing, he was really starting to like her, which was playing havoc with his plans to seduce her. He hadn’t lied about respecting her. She was one of the most genuinely giving people he’d ever met. Her work at the preschool and the nursing home proved that and he’d spent most of the morning listening to her 60
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    sister and pop sing her praises. The funny thing was, he didn’t think they even knew they were doing it. They’d just drop these little tidbits about Teagan into normal conversation without realizing they were drawing a picture in his mind of an incredibly kind woman.
    Teagan needs to find someone else to serve at the soup kitchen Saturday.
    Did Teagan remember to take back the laundry she’d done for the widow across the street who’d had her water turned off?
    Mrs. O’Malley called to see if Teagan would pick up a prescription for her on the way home from the preschool.
    All day long he’d listened to their commonplace chatter and with each word, he found himself more and more fascinated. He nuzzled his nose into her neck, breathing in her scent—honeysuckle?
    “You’re incorrigible, Sky.”
    “Incorrigible in a ‘you can’t keep you hands off me’ kind of way?”
    “Argh,” she groaned. “Why do I have the sneaking suspicion if I looked up ‘player’
    in the dictionary, I’d find a picture of you?”
    “If that’s true, then it merely proves my point. This will be fun. Play with me, Teagan.” His words came out more seriously than he’d intended. He’d meant to keep things light and fun and he fully intended to ignore the part of him that said he wanted to be closer to her for reasons far more important than just sex.
    “I want a promise from you,