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“No, Damian,” she says passionately, staring at me hard through her tears. “You can’t say that. You can’t even think that, okay? Because—because—”
She breaks into tears again and I take her in my arms, leading her to the bed, then scoop her under the knees and cradle her to my chest.
I hold her close, rocking her softly, understanding that all the pain that’s built up in her needs to come out somehow.
Sparky climbs atop her, nuzzling at her face, licking her cheeks as her tears begin to slow.
“Because what, Dakota?” I murmur after a couple of minutes.
“Oh,” she says, giggling up at me. “Right. Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Maybe it will sound silly.”
“You were all gun-ho about telling me just now,” I tease.
“Yeah, when I was speaking from Sob Central.”
She sits up in my lap, wrapping her arms around my shoulders looking into my eyes. I brace her back, feeling the warmth of her skin through the bathrobe. Sparky lies atop her legs, draped over as though claiming a piece of this moment for his own.
“So what do you think, Damian? Now that you’ve seen me all snotty and icky, and now that I’m no longer a virgin, do you still want me?”
“Always,” I snarl. “But I also want you to tell me what you were going to say. Because otherwise, it seems my little princess is going back on her own principles. You’re the one who wants us to be able to talk to each other, remember?”
“Touché,” she says, giving my shoulder a playful pinch. “Fine, since you’ve backed me into a corner …”
“There’s more that I’d like to back you into,” I growl.
She giggles, a sound sweeter than sugar after her sobbing.
“Does that even make sense?”
“I don’t know,” I chuckle deeply. “It made you laugh, so missioned accomplished.”
“I was just going to say … Well, obviously I have just some unfinished stuff to do with Mom and Dad’s death. I mean, for one thing, the psychos who did it were never caught—”
“I can help with that,” I tell her.
“Really?”
I nod. “I can put some feelers out. It might have to wait until after this shit with the Bratva, though.”
“Okay,” she says, nodding. “Yes, thank you.”
“Anything,” I tell her firmly. “Anyway, you were saying?”
“Yeah, basically I guess I’ve always been sort of paranoid, and then that wasn’t helped by how the Bratva got their hands on me. It’s so freaking embarrassing.”
I pause, sensing she needs to talk, to vent, and I’ll always give her that room.
It’s her right, as my queen.
“They contacted me and said they wanted to hear my singing. Apparently, their agent overheard me in the forest one day. It’s ridiculous. Of course, that didn’t happen. I guess they knew I was a singer from my Likes or whatever online. But I fell for it, really bought into their bullshit story. The second I walked into that so-called talent agency … blam, they had me.”
“Blam,” I tease.
“Well, bang, whack, whatever.”
“Nope, Popstar, you said blam.”
She wriggles against me, my cock thrumming with the need to be inside of her again, but somehow I fight the urge.
I imagine myself striding into that phony talent agency and snapping their bones like toothpicks.
“So I guess I’ve always doubted my feelings, but then with you, it’s like you’re the only true thing I’ve ever felt. My need to be with you, Damian, I can’t explain it. But when I’m with you it’s like I’ve finally found my place in a puzzle, like all my life I’ve been this misshapen piece and with you I just …”
“Fit,” I say, emotion bubbling beneath the word. “I know exactly what you mean, Dakota. I feel exactly the same.”
“I don’t see you as a killer,” she says, bringing her lips close to mine, her breath washing over me, leaden with the scents of her desire. “It was just a nightmare. Really, I see you as the best thing that ever happened to me. Really, honestly, I think I’m—”
In love with you.
Is that what she was about to say?
The blaring of the phone cuts through her words, causing Sparky to leap to his feet, his tail erect and his posture ready for action.
I leap to my feet, too, Dakota sliding aside onto the bed.
“What the fuck do they think they’re doing?” I snap, fists clenched hard. “It’s three in the goddamn morning.
“They could have a good reason,” Dakota says quietly. “Be nice, Damian.”
“Nice?” I grin widely at her. “Oh, I’m always fucking nice, aren’t I?”
I grab the phone from the bedside table.
“Yes?” I snap.
“How rude,” he says.
Oh, fuck.
“What’s the matter, my friend?” Andrei the Wolf goes on, sounding way too damn pleased with himself. “Were you expecting room service? I am sorry to have to disappoint you.”
I pause.
I listen.
I try to think.
“Ah, I can hear the cogs in your brain turning, my friend,” Andrei goes on. “You are thinking that the Bratva would never march into a hotel in the middle of the night, not one in this part of town. Maybe you’re thinking that my little brother, he was the careless one, not me, not good old Andrei. Maybe you don’t believe that I would take the receptionist and several of the staff as hostages, hmm?”
