Page 56 of Ruby Malice

“Maybe she’s nothing to you,” he said, “but Viktoria would make some poor sucker out there extremely… well, extremely content. I’m not sure she has it in her to make anyone extremely ‘happy’ in the full sense of the word. But you know what I mean. She could be spending some other loser’s money and driving them insane, but you won’t let her go.”

“I won’t let her go? I never wanted her in the first place,” I scoffed. “She’s the one who strapped herself to me.”

“Fine, then drop anchor, or cut the rope, or whatever fucking analogy means you move on and try to take care of yourself.”

“So you want me to be single forever?” I quipped.

Usually, that would get a laugh out of German, but he was being surprisingly austere. “You have spent your entire life taking care of other people. Maybe it’s time you think about what you want for once.”

“I tried that once,” I’d snarled. “It didn’t turn out so well.”

German tried to argue, but I dismissed him. Thankfully, he knows better than to press when I’m not in the mood.

Rayne doesn’t have that good sense. Unlike so many people in my life, she doesn’t care what I want or what I think. She pushes back. She argues.

But I can also feel her bending towards me. Like a sunflower seeking the sun, she can’t seem to ignore her instinctual urge to look at me.

The way she’s looking at me now.

“Leave,” Rayne says suddenly. Her eyes are wide. In the blue light reflecting off the ocean, they’re even more vivid. It looks like I could step inside and submerge myself in them.

“Excuse me?”

“Leave,” she repeats, pointing at the door for emphasis. “I can’t work while you're here. You’re paying me to clean, and I can’t do that when you’re watching me.”

“Go ahead. Clean. No one is stopping you.”

She huffs, the exhale blowing a tendril of hair away from her face. “You’restopping me. You’re distracting me.”

I tilt my head to the side. “How am I distracting you, Rayne? Tell me?”

“No.”

“We’ve already been through this,” I sigh. “Tell me.”

“I won’t.” She crosses her arms over her chest, pressing her breasts even higher. It’s actually insulting how good she looks in this uniform. They’re supposed to be unisex, for fuck’s sake.

“So you’re going to quit?”

She shakes her head. “Also no.”

“Those are your only two options. We’ve been through this. Christ, I hate repeating myself.” I slide to the edge of the bed and place my feet on the floor. I’m close enough to grab her by the waist and drag her into my lap. In different circumstances, I would.

She could wrap her legs around me. I could drive into her. We could both stop dancing around this thing throwing off heat between us as it burns brighter and brighter with every passing second.

“No. There’s a third option. You know there is,” she says. Her throat bobs as she swallows, her eyes looking everywhere but at mine. “You fire me.”

“Is that what you want?”

“No,” she admits. “I don’t want to lose this job. But I won’t be your puppet, either. No amount of money is worth that. You don’t get to stick your hand inside of me and make me say whatever you want.”

Towards the end of her speech, Rayne realizes what she’s saying, but it’s too late to course correct. Too late to take it back.

I watch as embarrassment and desire flush across her neck.

“That isn’t what I meant. I meant I won’t—I didn’t mean—” She groans. “Stop twisting my words.”

“You’re doing that all on your own. It’s pretty clear what the problem is, Rayne. How I’mdistractingyou,” I whisper. “Do you think about my hand inside of you often?”

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