Burn Me Once Burn With Me (Ruby Grayson) novel Chapter 398

The sound of her name—“Ruby”—froze the man on the bed in place.

Ruby turned her head as well, following the voice.

Cassian didn’t look as dazed as he had at the end of the night back at the bar. If anything, he seemed half-shocked awake, as if the jolt had sobered him up.

She frowned slightly, and in the brief moment she was thinking, Cassian suddenly moved.

He stood up, no longer aimless and confused like he’d been with Gennifer, but clearly intent on getting to Ruby.

“Ruby.”

He stepped forward, reaching out as if to pull her into a hug, but Sylas intercepted him, gripping his shoulder firmly.

Sylas arched an eyebrow and looked at Ruby. “Is he really drunk? Because he looks pretty clear-headed to me.”

Ruby gave Cassian a once-over, unimpressed. “He’s totally wasted. Out cold, really.”

Otherwise, how else could Gennifer have gotten him out of there so easily?

Sylas shrugged, suppressing his own doubts.

Watching Ruby crash her plans and then chat so casually with Sylas, Gennifer couldn’t sit still any longer. She strode over and blocked their path, planting herself firmly between them. “Why are you two here? I booked out the whole floor—how did you even get in?”

Anger and accusation seeped into her voice.

Ruby barely spared her a glance, replying coolly, “Are you aware that everything you’re doing right now is illegal?”

Gennifer let out a sharp laugh, her heartbeat racing, though she struggled to keep her composure on the surface.

Desperation had always been her last card to play.

Digging her sharp nails into her palm, Gennifer raised her chin with a sneer. “Ruby, I suggest you mind your own business. You’re divorced, you’ve cut ties with the Grayson family, and you have nothing to do with me or Cassian anymore. You can just walk away.”

“If you insist on getting in my way, what’s the point?”

She clenched her fist even tighter.

Compared to her, Ruby seemed perfectly calm.

“Making you uncomfortable is kind of the whole point,” Ruby replied, lips curling into a taunting smile as she met Gennifer’s glare. As expected, Gennifer’s eyes practically shot sparks.

Sylas, watching the tension between the two women, couldn’t help but grin in delight, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Ruby.

Gennifer whipped out her phone and called the hotel front desk on speaker. “Front desk? What’s going on with these two?”

Ruby folded her arms, watching, completely unfazed.

“Get them out! No one should be allowed up here without my permission!” Gennifer snapped into the phone, while Sylas kept his place between Cassian and the others.

The two men’s arms were locked in a childish little standoff, which Ruby dismissed with an exasperated glance before turning away.

“Apologies, Miss Gennifer, but given their credentials, we’re required to accommodate their requests,” the front desk replied, polite and utterly official.

Gennifer nearly exploded. “You—!”

Beeeeeep.

Ruby shot him a strange look. “Isn’t he your uncle?”

A grin spread instantly across Sylas’s face. “So you only saved him because of me?”

He leaned in, breath warm at her ear, teasing.

Ruby shoved his face away without hesitation. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

With that, she ignored him and rifled through Cassian’s suit jacket for his phone, about to call Bennett.

There wasn’t even a passcode—she unlocked it easily.

But the moment Ruby saw the lockscreen, her expression shifted.

There it was—her own photo staring back at her. She didn’t even know when it had been taken.

Ruby pressed her lips together, unsure how to feel.

When she’d loved him most, he’d treated her with indifference, kept her at arm’s length.

Now, after the divorce, he chased after her with all the desperate sincerity he’d never shown before.

All she could do was let out a cold, mocking laugh.

Men.

“What is it?” Sylas tried to sneak a look, but Ruby brushed his hand away, not in the mood for his games.