Page 95 of Ruby Malice

“Bullshit,” she fires back. “You should have fired me for disobeying you. Instead, you kept me around. You assigned me to work in Ilya’s room. You…”

Her eyes glance down the staircase. I can almost hear the echo of our bodies sliding together. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget the way it sounds when Rayne moans my name.

And that is a big fucking problem.

“I what?” I growl. “I fucked you?”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“‘Don’t act like that. Don’t say it like that,’” I repeat, mimicking here. “This is what it’s like, Rayne. Reality. Join me in it. You and I fucked, so now, I’m supposed to give you special treatment?”

She inhales sharply. “I didn’t do it for special treatment! What special treatment would you even give me? A top-of-the-line mop? A brand new vacuum cleaner?”

If I wasn’t busy trying to shut down whatever this thing between us is, I might have laughed at that. “Maybe you’re hoping for a cushy job on the third floor instead of wiping sweat off the gym mats.”

“Cushy?” she gasps. She flings an arm behind us towards Ilya’s doors. “You thinkthatis cushy?”

“Or maybe you want a fling. The poor girl wants a taste of what life is like on the other side of the tracks. Choose your own fucking adventure; I don’t give a shit what it is,” I snap. “But whatever your fantasy was, that’s not going to happen. We fucked, it was fun, and now, it has to be over.”

“What does that mean? Why does ithaveto be over?”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t have to be. Iwantit to be.”

Rayne’s bottom lip wavers for only a second. Then she crosses her arms. “Fine. But if you think I’m quitting, you’re insane.”

I smile despite myself. “I wouldn’t expect anything different from you.”

“Why should I quit just because you’re a shitty boss? Besides, I think I can help Ilya.”

Just like that, my smile falls. “What do you know about Ilya?”

“Enough,” she retorts. “I mean, come on, Kirill. You saw that up there. He and I have a connection.”

“I think you have a clear history of overestimating your ‘connection’ with people.”

It’s a harsh jab, and I know it the second Rayne’s blue eyes mist over. But she pulls herself together too quickly for any real remorse to settle in.

“Sonya told me you would do anything for your brother. She said that if there was any way you could help him, you would. Was she right about you?”

Yes. A thousand times yes.

But what is the answer when helping Ilya means bringing Rayne even further into the fold? After the night of his accident, I swore on my own life that I would never fail to be there for Ilya when he needed me. Having Rayne around puts me at risk of breaking that promise.

“Go downstairs and wait for me there,” I tell her. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

She waves me off. “Forget it. I’ll find my own way home.”

“You don’t even have pants on.”

At the top of the stairs, she bends over—flashing a great deal of thigh in the process—and picks up a pair of discarded sweatpants. She must have brought them with her upstairs and then abandoned them when she heard the commotion.

“I’ll handle myself just fine,” she says. “So long as the next skank you’re fucking doesn’t try to run me off the road.”

I’m about to tell her there is no other woman. There hasn’t been and I suspect there won’t be for a long time.

But she’s already gone.

22

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