Page 18 of Crush (Deadly Hearts 1)

“The women you date are…vanilla. Ruby is,” he sighs again with that look I want to punch off his face so hard, his nose will come out of the back of his head. “…dark chocolate cherry liqueurs,” he finishes up.

I close my eyes briefly. His words have told me everything I needed to know about how Ruby likes it in the sack. She likes it rough. Really rough.

“I can be that for her,” I say quietly, thinking about how turned on she got with the bit of knife play in her office. I’m not as into the darkness as Layton is, I know he is into some hardcore shit, but I’ve dabbled before. The knife play was for her benefit. I wanted to see if it would turn her on and it did. A lot.

“No,” Layton says, shaking his head. “Besides, it’s all redundant. She isn’t into relationships. She doesn’t want one. She wants me for what I can give her, that’s it.”

I take that in. “She told you that?”

“Yeah. We talked. I see why you love her. She is a remarkable woman with views of the world that put mine to shame.”

“She stabbed someone earlier. It didn’t even affect her.” I don’t condemn her for it. I applaud her. She is spectacular. I may not know the full ins and outs of her underworld dealings, but I’ve pieced enough together so that I know enough to be able to help her. The Pangolin was my way of showing her that and it did help her.

“It affected her,” Layton says softly. “But she has been absolved of it.”

I frown at him. “What do you mean absolved of it?”

“You wouldn’t understand. This is what I’m talking about,” he says patiently.

“You know what, mate,” I growl suddenly. “You are a fucking arsehole. You betrayed my trust. I thought you would keep her safe, instead you took advantage of her when she was vulnerable. It was a dick move; a serious dick move.”

He just glares at me but doesn’t say anything. Not surprisingly. He hasn’t talked this much since before he went into the military. He came back a changed man, and apparently, also a dick. He never used to be this way. We ran in the same crowd at secondary school. Both of us were into sports and popular with the girls. We were friends. But not now. Not after this.

“You can get fucked,” I growl and storm off, knowing that I have to find David and get the run down on what the fuck I’m supposed to do ‘downstairs’. I’ve never even been downstairs, let alone worked it. My temper doesn’t abate when I find David, talking quickly into the phone, gesticulating wildly.

“Well, fuck you!” he snaps and hangs up. “Ramsey!” he exclaims when he sees me. “I need you…”

“Figured,” I say. “If by Andy you mean Watson, yeah, I spoke to him earlier, he’s working Perfect Ten’s tonight. Where do you need me?”

“You are a god,” David says and indicates I should follow him. “Everything okay with Rubes?” he asks casually.

“Yeah, she’s good,” I say, not wanting to go into the heartache of Layton’s betrayal. It fucking sucks, but I’m not out of the game yet. He has given me valuable information on how to get to her. I just need to figure out how to approach this. I will boot Layton out of her life and be the one to take care of her. I think that’s what he was getting at. She is such a badass in her everyday life, she wants – needs – someone to be a caregiver in her downtime. It makes perfect sense and is something that I can definitely give her, if she’ll let me.

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