Page 40 of Wicked Little Game
“Well, I don’t mind it. It’s kinda hot.”
“You’re a weird one.”
“Would you mind wearing it while we, you know—,” she asks with a grin on her face, wiggling her eyebrows.
“No, and also not relevant. We’re not going to,you know,” I say, a grin dancing over my lips. I don’t know why, but I missed our little banter.
“We’ll see,” Ruby mumbles and I gave up on arguing about that with her around a week ago.
“Why do you work as a bodyguard?” She suddenly asks. “I mean, I saw your dog tags. Why aren’t you in the army anymore? Did they kick you out or anything?”
She reaches out to me with her little grabby hands, but thankfully just to get a hold of the cigarette package. Usually, I would tell her to fuck off or at least ask for one like a decent human being with manners, but since she, or well, her dad, is the one paying for them, I let it slide.
Apart from that, it also gives me a second to think aboutmy answer. I expected this topic to come up eventually, especially after the bracelet situation made it obvious that she had seen the dog tags.
“I work as a mercenary. That’s all you need to know.” I flick on my lighter to light her cigarette, and she leans closer, looking up at me.
“A mercenary, interesting.” Her eyebrows are raised as she sits up, and I just learned that there is apparently a way to seductively smoke a cigarette. Or maybe that’s just Ruby, who knows.
“New book?” I ask to switch the topic, gesturing to the stuff on her lounger. She nods and smiles at me.
“You like to read?”
“Don’t have time for that,” I reply.
My mom loved to read. I still have boxes full of her books standing in a storage unit in Phoenix. My brother wanted to get rid of them after she died, said that she doesn’t need them anymore, but I couldn’t bring myself to give even one away. They were the only luxury she allowed herself. One day, I’ll have the time to read them.
“Well, if that ever changes, let me know,” Ruby says, as if she’s already planning to spend the next few months with me. “We could start a little book club, just the two of us.”
A few moments later, she hands me her half-smoked cigarette, like I’m her personal assistant, or ashtray, before she gets up and walks towards the pool. Slowly, she lowers her body into the water, her arms propped on the edge while she rests her head on them.
Mindlessly, I take a drag from her cigarette. There’s a faint taste of cherry lingering on it, and I wonder if her lips taste the same.
“It’s really funny, you know.” Her voice snatches me out of my thoughts. “The first bodyguard my father hired was just some guy who wanted to earn a bit of extra money.” Sheleans back to get her hair wet, slicking it back before she resumes to her previous position, watching me from the pool.
“And look where we are now. Seems like I’m a really dangerous person if it takes a mercenary to keep me in check.”
“You are dangerous,” I mutter under my breath.
She really is. Not in the common sense, like a knife or a predator would be. More like a virus. Like a bite from an animal that has rabies and you don’t realize the danger until it’s too late.
Max had a rabies scare once. We were on a mission in Belarus when he tried to pet a raccoon and it bit him. Goddamn idiot. I don’t think I ever witnessed someone having such a hysterical outbreak before.
“Come over here, the pool is big enough for the both of us,” Ruby says with a laugh while I feel bad for comparing her to a deadly disease. She splashes water in my direction and suddenly I don’t feel that bad about it anymore.
“You really think I’m going to get in there while you’re around?” I groan as I get up. The floor is uncomfortably hot as I sit down at the edge of the pool, dipping my legs into the cool water. “I know you’re going to turn into a misbehaved dog as soon as I pull my shirt off, and I don’t have a stick to keep you at a distance.”
“Actually, youdohave a stick.”
“See, bad dog.” I roll my eyes at her. I think I adopted that habit from her and I’m not happy about the fact that she’s turning me into some kind of sassy monster.
“You wanna put me on a leash?” She grins at me, and I can’t even blame her. I’m equally responsible for this bullshit.
“It would definitely suit you.”
As if I hadn’t thought about how perfect she would look with my belt around her neck, forced to crawl to me while she begs for my cock like a good girl.
“Come on in, I swear I’ll behave,” she says, batting her eyelashes at me.
