8. Samuel
Going to the mall with Ruby was, not surprisingly, a mistake. After last night, I didn’t have the mental capacity for her whining, and I thought our little deal was a good idea. I can’t stand the mess back at the house any longer, but I also don’t want to clean up after her.
Maybe I also thought that she would behave when we’re outside with other people around. And so far she really behaved, but when she started walking towards that lingerie store, I knew that something was up.
Judging by the grin on her face, she’s enjoying this trip. Sometimes, she reminds me of a boa constrictor with the way she wraps herself around me. She’s suffocating me with her unbearable personality and I’m the stupid prey that runs into her waiting mouth. Over and over, like a masochistic rabbit.
Ruby walks a few steps ahead of me and I see some of the men staring at her. Even though they quickly look the other way as soon as I glare at them. Anyone dumb enough to look at her for too long or let alone try to talk to her would be missing from the face of the earth tomorrow.
Being so possessive about her is neither good for me, nor part of this job, but I can’t help myself. I don’t even like her and she’s a dipshit, but she’s my dipshit, at least for now, and I wouldn’t advise anyone to mess with that.
“I’m gonna wait outside,” I say as we arrive in front of the lingerie store.
“But you promised to help me pick out some things.” She looks up to me with those goddamn big brown eyes, her hand on my arm even though she quickly pulls it away.
“I’ll never do you a favor again,” I force out through gritted teeth as I follow her into the store. My dick twitches in my pants, obviously happy about my decision.
I could fuck her right there in the changing room, no one would dare to say anything and I’m sure she’d let me, the caveman inside me screams while beating his chest.
“See anything you like?” Ruby asks in that sweet tone again, snapping me out of my trance. I shake my head as she grabs a few matching sets.
Something red, something light blue, and something that seems horribly complicated to put on. It looks more like something you would use to restrain someone than a clothing item.
On the way to the changing rooms, she grabs some kind of white shirt with tiny flowers on it and a ton of hooks in the back, like a longer bra. It’s way too innocent for a little devil like her.
I contemplated hiding behind one of the clothing racks to avoid having to wait for her in front of the changing room, but she basically pulled me after her.
While she’s in there, I get my phone out to text Max, only to almost drop it as she opens the curtain. With a hissed “What the fuck, Ruby” I try to pull the curtain close again before anyone sees her like this.
“There’s no one back here apart from us.” Giggling, she turns around to show me all the angles of her outfit that I don’t want to see.
I’m going to die in the back of this store. Someone will have to carry me out on a stretcher and Rockwell will feel so goddamn bad for sending me on this mission while he has to give an eulogy at my funeral.
The light blue looks way too good against her lightly bronzed skin and I catch a glimpse of that horribly perfect ass.
Finally, she closes the curtain, and I use the opportunity to take a deep breath. I cross my hands in front of my crotch, only to appear professional in the highly dangerous setting of this store and surely not to hide the raging boner in my fucking pants.
The curtain opens again and now she’s wearing this thing. I don’t know what it is or how she even got in there. Unfortunately, it not only looks complicated but also hot, her body barely covered by dark red lace and pieces of something almost see-through.
”What about this one?” she asks, her eyes lingering on my crotch. Not an ounce of shame in that perfect body.
“Looks good. Would look even better on somebody else.” My voice sounds strained and she just laughs in my face while closing the curtain again. I thank God that the next thing must be the last item she picked out, because I don’t think I have the strength to play this game for much longer.
Just when I thought I got through the worst part of this day, her voice comes from behind the curtain. Even sweeter than before. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I know that whatever is coming won’t be good.
“I need your help in here.”
I step inside the small changing room and wonder where I took the wrong turn in my life.
“What do you need?”
“Could you close this for me, please?” Ruby asks while she holds the flowery top with one hand, sliding her long black hair to the side with the other one. I take a deep breath before I grab both sides of the top and as much as I try to avoid it, my hand brushes over her skin.
I never really touched her before, apart from when I shoved her back into the house and I had sworn to myself that I wouldn”t touch her unless it is absolutely necessary.
I should have kept it at that.
It’s nothing more than a brief touch, but I already know that the feeling of her soft skin under my fingertips will sear itself into my memory.
“That’s too tight,” I say, slightly concerned as I close the last few hooks.
“It’s supposed to be tight,” she replies and then she holds her breath so that I can close the last hook.
The way it sits on her body makes her hourglass figure stand out even more. She looks like some kind of princess from a painting, the little flowers on the top making her appear way too innocent, just like I suspected.
“How does it look?” She turns around, and suddenly her hand grazes over the unmistakable bulge in my pants.
I close my eyes for a second, only to open them again and see her looking up at me.
“Sorry,” she whispers, batting her eyelashes. As if this was fucking accidental. Nothing she does is accidental and I hate myself for wishing she would put her hand right back on my cock.
“Normal,” I growl, my jaw clenched so hard that I fear for the integrity of my molars.
“Normal? What kind of answer is that,” she says with a laugh, standing on her tiptoes to put a hand on my forehead.
“I’m starting to worry about you, James. We should get you something to eat.”
I grumble something ineligible as I rush out of the changing room.
Ruby is killing me. Or maybe I’m already dead and this is hell. Maybe this is my very own version of purgatory. Maybe Satan is suddenly a woman with ridiculous, probably overpriced, sneakers on her feet and long hair that smells way too good, punishing me for all my sins. And God knows I committed many.
She comes out of the changing room just a few minutes later, walking towards the register to pay for her stuff. With Daddy’s credit card of course. Spoiled brat. I wonder if she had to work a single day in her life, even though I doubt it. Some people just get everything handed to them.
I never walked into a store like she does. When I was little, my clothes were hand-me-downs from my older brother. Sometimes, maybe once a year, I got something new. A jacket, or a pair of jeans, only for myself. After my mom died and I joined the military, I earned more money, but I still didn’t use it to go on shopping sprees. You don’t need fancy clothes when you crawl around in a desert or hide in the sewer system of shoot-me-in-the-head valley.
Every month, I send a good sum of money to my grandma and my niece. They need it more than I do. The last time I saw the little one, she was a baby, not more than a few months old. It’s been almost eight years since then. Eight long years since my brother went to prison. I don’t know if she’ll ever meet her dad, but she’s probably better off without him.
“You want to share a milkshake?” Ruby suddenly asks as we are halfway to the exit of the mall.
“Do I look like I want to share a milkshake?” I want to rub my temples, but then I realize my hands are full with her goddamn shopping bags.
“A bit.”
“No.”
“Well, I want a milkshake.”
“Then get yourself one, it’s not my money that you spend on overpriced shit.”
“They are not overpriced, they are organic.”
I watch her as she orders two milkshakes and four huge double chocolate muffins. I already know that I’ll either have to resort to begging or stealing, but one way or another, I’m going to eat at least two of them.
She comes back to me, a pink milkshake in one of her hands and a chocolate one in the other while she’s wearing the paper bag with the muffins in it like a handbag.
She shoves the chocolate milkshake towards me until she realizes that I don’t have a free hand to take it, not to mention that I didn’t ask for one.
“Hey, would you mind if I drive us home?” She asks as we walk up to the car.
“You’re not driving this car,” I say as I put her ridiculous amount of shopping bags in the spacious trunk.
“But I don’t understand why you won’t let me drive?”
“Because I don’t trust you, Ruby. You could drive us off a cliff for all I know. End of discussion.”
“There are no cliffs around. And please don’t be mad at me, but you should be the one concerned about driving off a cliff.”
I let my head fall against the headrest with a groan. As I lean back forward, I almost poke out my right eye with the straw of the milkshake that Ruby holds up in front of my face.
“Try it, I promise you’ll like it.”
The stupid milkshake tastes fucking addicting and I make a mental note to drive back here to get another one as soon as I get the chance. Maybe they do delivery, I sincerely hope so.
“It’s drinkable.”
She grins at me and I don’t like that she already knows what I like. And even less do I like that it feels nice that someone thinks about me like she does.
Ruby keeps her mouth shut for most of the drive home. I’m surprised because I feared that her special-order milkshake creation which probably contains enough sugar for a week would turn her into an even more annoying little gremlin.
I still need to learn that Ruby usually does the opposite of what I expect, because she’s just sitting in the passenger seat, her head resting against the window. Her eyes fall shut from time to time, and her fingers are lax as I take her drink from her and put it in the cupholder.
I hate to admit it, but right now, so calm and silent, she looks almost cute.