“What do you want to eat?” he asks into my huffy silence.
“Everything.”
“Helpful.”
“We’re in the city that never sleeps. If I need everything then surely it’s available somewhere.” I giggle when he groans. “Fine, avocado toast, please. Oooh, with a poached egg. Oooooh, and white sourdough from Aunt Aoife’s bakery! Oh, and does your cook know how to preparekasha?”
“Does she know how to preparekasha?” he scoffs. “Would I have hired her if she didn’t?”
Laughing, I wiggle against him. “I didn’t take you for an oatmeal kinda guy.”
“Oatmeal is for pussies.Kashais for men.”
“Your grandmother told you that as she forced it down your gullet?”
“Every morning. God, hers used to taste of wallpaper paste. Give her a recipe, any recipe, and she could replicate the results to perfection. Butkasha?” He mock-gags. “It took the realization that I can work out without it draining my energy levels to make me eat it again.”
“I like it with millet. And mushrooms. Camille always retches when I ask her to cook it for me.”
“I should have known you were atsaritsa?—”
“Hey! Can I help that my family loves to spoil me? And… Mama taught her. She’s the only one who can make it Mama’s way.”
Gaze softening, he settles his hand on my stomach. It’s big and warm and ohh, cue shivers. “I’ll spoil you.”
I fidget, hoping he’ll lower it. “Better than them?”
“You know it. In fact… are you going back to school today? Or staying here?”
I think about my responsibilities and studies. “I don’t want to.”
“I can hear that you know you need to.”
“Stop reading between my lines.”
“I was born to read your book, Victoria.”
My lips curve but that doesn’t stop me from wiggling in delight. “I may go back today. It’s my shift at Annenburg for Heat N Go.”
“I have a task for you before you leave.”
“What kind of task?” I ask warily. “It’s not Veronian-shaped, is it?”
He barks out a laugh. “Definitely not. Do you still have that credit card on you?”
“Yeah, it’s linked to my phone.”
“Good. I want you to make sure there is a soft surface in every single room of this house and the one in Poughkeepsie.”
Heat instantly floods me. “Why?”
“You know why.”
Sparks combust in my core. “Every single room?”
“Yes.”
“That could be expensive.”
