Page 34 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

“See,” I mutter and then sigh. “I can break his nose if you really want me to.”

She brightens considerably, forgetting about my transgression of many years ago, thank fuck. “You would?”

I nod.

“Hey,” Cillian snaps. “I’m innocent over here.”

“Innocent?” she scoffs. “Something tells me you were born a troublemaker.”

I snort into my hand.

“Humph, well, then,” Cillian says, acting all affronted. “I will see myself out. Ruby, it was nice to meet you regardless of you throwing me under the bus.”

“Oh, please,” she snaps. “You loved kissing me. It was probably the highlight of your year.”

“That it was,” he mutters with just enough longing in his voice to warrant my attention. I wasn’t overly concerned before now. Cillian is a strange one. Since his divorce, he has thrown himself into his work and hasn’t been on a date in years. This was probably the first time he has kissed a woman in years. I can’t say that I blame him for wanting to kiss her back. I can blame him for taking too much interest in her.

“Out,” I snap and sit down on the bed next to Ruby. I eye her up speculatively. She has followed him with her eyes, and I can see a spark of interest in them.

“Are you sure you are okay?” I ask. “He shouldn’t have pretended to be me.”

She sighs. “No, you’re both right. I should’ve known straight away. It was only when we kissed that I knew it wasn’t you. Still, a heads up would’ve been good.”

“I know. I was worried,” I admit softly.

“What about? That I’d see you in him and want him too?”

I nod slowly. “Do you?”

“No,” she says quickly. Too quickly. It doesn’t take an eye trained to pick up every single movement and facial expression to know that given half the chance, she’d kiss him again. I don’t know how I feel about that. The other men are hers. They always were and always will be. Cillian, though? He is someone she knows through me and that doesn’t sit right with me, somehow. Twin or not. Brother or not. I would not feel good enough if she decided to pursue him.

Not that I think she would right now anyway. So I’m probably being paranoid.

She wraps her arms around me, and I kiss the top of her head, then I tilt her chin up and press my lips against hers. She opens up and I sweep my tongue briefly over hers and then I pull back. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

She nods. “I’m nowhere near even close to being ready for anything else, but a kiss, I can do,” she murmurs. Then her face crumples as it hits her what just happened. Now, I’m ready to kill for her regardless of who it is. “He came into my room, and I thought he was you,” she whispers. “I was defenseless.”

“Hey,” I say, holding her tightly. “Cillian is a dick, but he would never hurt you. I know you don’t know that, but I do, and I need you to trust me. Can you do that? Can you accept that you were in no danger?”

She gives a little shrug, picking at the towel wrapped around her body. I lean over and pull the coverlet over her, giving her some protection against the vulnerability she is feeling. “Still want me to kick his head in?” I ask.

Her laugh is a snuffly one, but she shakes her head. “Don’t suppose your mom would appreciate me very much if I got in the middle of you two.”

“Oh, she’d be on your side,” I inform her truthfully. “Mam is very much a woman’s woman. She would lay down her life if it meant saving another. It’s her way of dealing with what happened to her.”

“Your dad?” she asks carefully.

I nod and brush it aside. I don’t want to talk about it.

“I’m here to talk to, you know,” she says.

She’s the sweetest thing. Worried about me when she is going through her own trauma. “I know.”

“I don’t want…” she huffs out a breath and looks away.

“Don’t want what?” I press, knowing what she’s going to say anyway.

“I don’t want Scarlet having that part of you. You are mine in every way.”

“I am,” I reply, my cold heart filling with warmth at her words. “And you are mine. You are my priority now. I need you to heal and claim back your power and strength before I will ever allow myself to come first.”

“Too sweet,” she murmurs. “Just for the record, you kiss way better than Cillian,” she adds with a smile.

“I know,” I reply, making her laugh and it lights up the darkness, just a tiny bit.

---