Page 33 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

ChapterSixteen

Declan

Taking a deep breath and trying not to murder my twin brother where he stands, I enter Ruby’s room slowly.

Cillian holds his hands up as Ruby gives him a ferocious glare that I’m glad I’m not on the receiving end of.

“What the fuck?” she growls, her old fire back in spades. “What the fuck is this? Some kind of twisted game?”

“Nope,” Cillian says. “You asked for my help, so I helped. You never once asked if I was Declan.”

She lets out a low rumble and picks up the hairbrush from the dresser. She throws it at Cillian with the force of…well, someone who has been stabbed in the gut four days ago. It bounces off his head and it’s so comical, I let out a snort of amusement despite my anger at my brother.

“You,” she hisses at me. “You never said you had a twin. I assumed he was you. Until I kissed him. Oh, then I knew, I knew something was off. His kisses suck!”

Her cheeks have gone bright red, which tells me she is lying. Sure, different is probably accurate, not that I want to think about that, but suck? Yeah, nope. Not buying it.

“Really?” I drawl, giving Cillian a smug look anyway. Suddenly, I lose all of my anger at this and just find it funny. I have no idea why.

“Aren’t you going to beat him to death?” Ruby fumes at me.

“If anyone is to blame here, it sounds like it was you,” I retort.

She gapes at me. “You’re taking his side?”

“By your own words, you said you kissed him,” I reply.

“Fuck you,” she snaps and stalks to the other side of the room where she catches herself and grabs her side in pain.

I rush straight for her, shoving Cillian out of my way. “Ruby,” I say gently, taking her by the elbow and helping her sit. “Are you okay?”

She glares up at me with those pretty green eyes and then she does something that affects me in a sexual way, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid….she pouts at me.

“No,” she says. “I’m not okay. He should’ve known that I didn’t know, and you should’ve warned me.”

“Well, I was kind of hoping you could tell the difference,” I say lightly, trying not to make too big a deal out of the whole taking advantage angle. She doesn’t seem to have latched onto that yet, so I’m skirting around it until she does. And if she does, then I will beat my brother to within an inch of his life.

The fire in her eyes is definitely the old Ruby. “You’re putting this on me?” she shrieks.

“Sort of,” I admit, sheepishly.

“Look, I didn’t mean any harm,” Cillian interjects into the simmering silence. “You asked for help, I helped and then you kissed me. I’m not in the business of turning away women who throw themselves at me.”

She whips her head around to face him. “Throw myself at you?” she growls. “You fucking wish. I thought you were him. I mean, hello? Have you looked in a mirror lately? No, I may not have asked if you were Declan but why would I when I didn’t know he had a twin? Hmm? And another thing. I asked about Siobhan, so clearly I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Uhm,” he says, giving me a raised eyebrow. “She doesn’t know?”

“Siobhan and Cillian married shortly after we broke up. They’re divorced now,” I add hurriedly, “Just so you don’t think you kissed a married man.”

“So you make a habit of going after your brother’s women, is that it?”

“Hardly,” he scoffs. “Declan stole her from me in the first place…it’s ancient history.”

“Not. Quite,” she clips out, seriously pissed off at me now.

I stroke her cheek with the back of my hand. “You’re going to pull your stitches if you’re not careful.”

She rears back and then grimaces. “Oww,” she cries.

---