“Pah!” she hisses. “You wish. I’m not jealous of any whore you’ve dipped your wick in.”
“Oh, ouch,” I comment and sit back, leaning my head against the headrest.
“Look,” Ruby says, exhaling loudly. “I get that you both loved this woman. But if you are going to be thinking about her while you are with me, you can fuck right off. Did you share her? Hm? Did you both fuck her at the same time?”
“How long have you been sitting on that?” Declan asks, almost in disbelief.
“A while,” she growls. “I was waiting to have you both here to ask.”
“The answer is no. We didn’t. You will be the first,” he replies softly, giving her what I could only call a brave smile. “When you are ready, of course. Does that satisfy your curiosity, Princess?"
“Yes, I guess so,” she grouses.
“Princess?” I ask. “Is that because you’re like a billionaire or whatever?” I ask, scrunching up my nose. It’s not fair. I want to give her a cutesy pet name.
She laughs loudly. “You mistake my parent’s wealth for my own. No, I’m not a billionaire. I grew up with rich parents, that’s it.”
“But you’re heiress to the family fortune, no?” I probe.
“Why are you so interested?” she asks suspiciously, giving me the stink-eye. “You only here for the money?”
“Hardly,” I scoff, “And you know it. Just curious, is all.”
“Humph,” she mutters. “He calls me Princess because he is my Daddy,” she adds, giving me a smug smile.
I feel my cheeks heat up and I splutter. “What?”
“Ruby,” Declan exclaims. “Why are you telling him that?”
“He doesn’t know about that side of you?” she asks incredulously. “Hahaha,” she snorts with laughter which is infectious.
“Uhm, yeah, you’re going to have to explain that to me,” I state.
“I will, after you tell us why you had to go underground,” she says.
“Feck’s sake,” I mutter. “Like a dog with a bone.”
She smirks at me, and I feel my own bone stiffen in my pants. She is a dirty little thing. It’s surprising. I figured she was a sex goddess, but in a more ‘vanilla’ way. I curse myself for thinking about her in that way. What she has been through…I owe her more respect than that.
“Cillian,” Declan says when I stay silent. “She will keep asking. You might as well be transparent. It will also do us well to know exactly what you are running from in case we need to run again because of you.”
I sigh and run my hand through my hair. The seriousness of this finally gets through to her, and she frowns.
“Why don’t you want to tell me?” she asks.
“Because it has to do with you,” I say eventually, wishing that she’d just left it.
“Me,” she asks in surprise. “What could I have possibly done to your boss holed up in your mom’s house?”
I need to tell her that she is the one I’ve given up my entire business for.
Declan has gone still. He knows something is up.
“Connor knows who you are,” I start. “There are associates in the organization who know you as the Black Widow. When he knew you’d been by the warehouse the other day, he ordered me to…” I stop, finding this difficult to get out. Will it trigger her in some way? I have no way of knowing how she will react.
“To what?” Declan grits out.
“Take you out,” I say quietly, staring into her eyes.