Bound to Please(89)
“I’m shaking in my boots.” Then a laugh burst out of Claire’s throat. “I’m talking to Mark St. Crow!” she exclaimed, her eyes on the phone’s screen. “Oh my God! Too cool. Love your code name, by the way. Rufus. Ha!”
“Seriously. Put the phone down. Now.” Ruby hadn’t been able to totally delete Mark’s number from her cell phone, but she’d changed his name to Rufus. In some kind of strange attempt to forget him.
“In a minute.” Claire typed some more. “Are you boinking my sister?” she asked the phone.
“Claire!”
Her evil sister gave her an innocent smile. “What? If you’re not gonna give me any details, I’m going straight to the source.”
Ruby reached up and grabbed her sister’s hand, twisting her wrist until Claire screamed and jumped off her. “What the fuck? That hurt!”
“Good.” Ruby picked up the phone Claire had dropped and turned it off. “You know I fight dirty.”
“What’s the big deal, anyway?” she asked, massaging her wrist.
Panting, Ruby pushed herself to her feet. “I’m in love with him. Are you happy now? I’m in love with Mark St. Crow!”
“You don’t want to talk with him because you’re in love with him? Okay. That totally makes sense. Not.”
“Listen. You know how hard it is for me to say good-bye. With him, I’d be doing it all the time. He’s totally unreliable. I can’t live that way.”
“Right. You’re looking for Mr. Perfect.”
“Not anymore. I’ve realized there is no such thing. But that doesn’t mean I have to settle, does it?”
“Most people wouldn’t consider Mark St. Crow settling material.”
“Most people couldn’t handle the lifestyle he leads. I mean, come on, Claire. Can you see me waiting for him to come home from tour? From parties and shows all over the world?” She shook her head. “And I refuse to give up my life to follow him. I refuse to…”
“Be like Mom?” Claire asked softly. She felt Claire’s gaze on her for a second before her sister asked, “But does he make you happy?”
Ruby dropped back onto the sofa. “On occasion.”
Claire crossed her arms over her chest and gave her a look. “On occasion?”
“Yeah, when he’s not blowing me off or running away to some interview or jetting off on a last-minute tour, yeah. He makes me happy.”
“So, when he’s not living his life, things are good.” She picked up her glass.
“It sounds so lame when you put it that way,” Ruby said, shaking her head.
“I just think you have something with Rufus. I don’t want to see you throw it away because you’re scared. Now, I’m gonna go slip into something more comfortable, like my pajamas.” She sauntered off toward the bedroom.
Ruby stared after her, her pulse racing. Claire was right. She was so afraid of taking a chance with Mark, but was this any better? Why did it feel like not trying to make something work with Mark was the bigger risk?
A loud scream snapped her attention back and she ran to the bedroom. “Claire? What’s wrong?” Her heart thudded in her ears; it was too much like her dream.
But when she got to her room, she saw it wasn’t a dream. This was Ruby’s own personal nightmare.
Claire had Ruby’s black bag of toys on her bed.
“Oh my God!” Ruby ran over and tried to pull the bag away from her sister.
“I don’t think so,” Claire said, holding on to a nylon strap. She pulled out the leather cuffs and then the flogger. “Wow. So my big sister is a total perv!”
Ruby’s face burned with shame. “Claire, I can explain.”
Claire kept going. A paddle, left by Mark, was next. “You know, there are rumors of Mark being into this kind of shit, but I never, not in a million years, would have thought my own sister was so dirty.” She pulled out the blue butt plug. Luckily, Ruby had put it through the dishwasher before she stashed the thing.
Ruby collapsed on the bed and dropped her face into her hands. “I’m sorry, Claire. I’m so sorry. You must be disgusted by me.”
Claire just shook her head. “I… I don’t know what to think. I think I’m in shock.”
Ruby’s gaze landed on the remote-controlled vibrator. “So am I. I never thought I’d like… this.”
“But you do?” Claire asked.
Ruby rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Yeah. I think so.”
Claire’s gaze softened. “Listen. This is a—” She stopped and laughed wryly. “A big surprise. But it’s not like I’m going to disown you. It’s not like, say, you’re a Republican or something.”