Page 19 of Crush (Deadly Hearts 1)

ChapterTen

Ruby

Irouse from a deep sleep as the alarm buzzes on my phone next to me. I stretch luxuriously on my thousand thread count pure white cotton sheets. Stark naked from my bath earlier, I open my eyes and sit up, turning off the alarm. I feel refreshed, more so than I have for a long time, realizing that I slept for the longest time I have since I started work here as the Black Widow. It was Layton’s care for me that did it. He gave me what I’d been craving all day. He punished me, fucked me like a stallion, gave me the aftercare that I so desperately needed and then he bathed me, head to toe, washed my hair, brushed it out and dried it as if he was used to doing this. I find myself oddly envious of the women he has treated with such care before me. But it gave us a chance to talk, to figure this shit out.

Relationship – no.

Arrangement – yes.

He seemed to be into it, so that makes me happy. It means I don’t have to find another BDSM club where I can be stalked and betrayed again. I feel more than a little guilty about the way I turned Ramsey down and then leapt on his friend half an hour later. It is cruel and I hope that Layton lets me explain it to him. I doubt it though. He seems to be a man with some sort of honor. He probably went straight to Ramsey and told him. I definitely need to follow that up. It’s not that I don’t find him crazy attractive, but he’s asking too much from me. I can see it in his eyes.

With a sigh, I stand up, walk out of the bedroom and down the corridor, needing coffee now. I cross the darkened sitting room and down another hallway into the huge kitchen. I don’t bother with any lights. I can see well enough in the dark and know where everything is kept in precise locations. I wait idly as the kettle boils, and I make a cup of coffee. I didn’t have time to set the coffee maker before Layton and I had an encounter to remember. Smiling as the memory of the blood play comes back to me, I pick up my cup and head back through to the sitting room.

I stop dead in my tracks as I see a silhouette of a man sitting in the armchair by the fireplace.

“Who are you?” I ask, placing my cup down on the nearest side table. I don’t freak out. I remain completely calm. Freaking out will only make the situation frantic and when chaos ensues, things go wrong.

He doesn’t answer.

“What do you want?” I ask, moving closer to him. For some reason, I don’t get a threatening vibe from him. I can’t explain it, it’s odd.

When he opens his mouth and the words tumble from his lips, I freeze, locked into place.

“Your father sent me, Ruby. I’m here to help.”

That voice. That accent.

“You!” I hiss, reaching for my knife to ram into his gut, but I don’t have it. I curse as I left them in the nightstand drawer last night before my bath. I clench my hand into a fist. “Get out!” I snarl.

He rises, as graceful as a leopard in the darkness and approaches me slowly, doing up the button on his suit jacket. “I know you are angry with me, but I’m not leaving,” he says.

“Angry?” I spit out. “Angry? Oh, angry doesn’t cover it, you prick. You…stalker! Giselle told me everything. You are fucking deluded if you think you can break into my house in the dead of night and have a reasonable conversation with me.”

“Technically, I didn’t break in,” he says calmly. “No broken windows or doors or alarm panels. You are still perfectly safe. I would never put you in danger. It’s the opposite of what I’m here to do.”

“Safe?” I say in disbelief. “I am not safe with you. What you did to me earlier was cruel.” I back up again now, but not out of fear of him reaching me, but needing to get to the handgun in the sideboard where my coffee is. Illegal in this country, yes, but nowhere near impossible to get hold of if you know the right people and well, I am the right people. In a flash, I have the drawer open and I’m aiming the gun between his eyes.

He doesn’t even flinch.

I only then become uncomfortably aware that I’m as naked as the day I was born, with scratch marks on my chest from the knife play last night. The marks on my back twinge, knowing that the man standing in front of me inflicted them and walked out on me.

“I know,” he says softly. “I had to leave you, Princess. If I hadn’t, I would’ve…”

“Don’t call me that!” I screech, going into freak out mode against my will. Seeing him here in my home, my safe space has had a serious mindfuck moment descend on my rational side. My hand wobbles and I curse as he sees it and within a second has disarmed me and is shoving the gun into the back of his pants.

“Dammit!” I curse loudly and drop my hand in disgust at myself. “Would’ve what?” I ask after a beat.

I hear him draw in a deep breath. “Told you everything and I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t mean to break roles with you yesterday. I wanted to ease you into the fact that I was hired to protect you. Being in that position with you wasn't the best time to come clean.”

“Really?” I ask sarcastically, “and when is the best time to come clean?”

“Now, I suppose,” he says with a slight shrug. “As I said, your father sent me. He has had someone watching you since you moved here. But about six months ago, he was careless and got himself killed in action. That’s when your father called me.”

“You’re lying,” I snap. “My father, who works in I.T. out of their home in Westchester, doesn’t have the means to contact someone like you.”

He tilts his head. “Rex may not be in the business anymore, but he still has connections. Ring him if you don’t believe me.”

I blink. Is he telling the truth? What does he mean about Rex not being in the business anymore? Have I totally missed something pertinent about my parents’ life?

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