Page 272 of Merciless Daddy

“A gift?”

“No.”

“A surprise trip?”

“No.”

“A small, emotionally manipulative animal?”

I looked down at her.

“You’re talking about yourself?”

She batted my arm in faux-annoyance. “Daddy!”

“Sorry, bella, sorry. Forgive me.”

“So what is it? What’s the surprise?”

I held her closer.

“Not here,” I said. “This is just for us.”

She went still in my arms.

Then she looked up at me.

The music continued. The club continued. Our family laughed around us.

But Yelena’s eyes held mine, and I knew there was no plan in the world that could make me ready enough.

“Take me home,” she said softly.

So I did.

The drive home was quiet.

Not empty. Never empty with Yelena beside me.

She sat with her hand in mine across the center console, her thumb brushing my knuckles every few minutes. The city passed outside in wet reflections and black glass. Beyond it waited the lake, dark and broad beneath the night.

I had told myself, once, that silence meant danger.

With her, silence could mean she was thinking. It could mean she was tired. It could mean she was content enough not to fill every space.

The house stood dark except for the lights I had left on beside the windows. Gold warmed the glass. Lake water moved beyond the terrace in slow black folds.

Yelena looked toward the lights.

“Thanky you for welcoming me into your family, Sal,” she said.

“My darling, of course.”

“I know it’s complicated. And I know my father and my brothers were angry.”

It was an understatement. But Lev, Arkady and Daniil were slowly coming round to the fact that an alliance with my family was a better offer than the marriage to Gianni had ever been.

“It’s no matter. Let them be angry. We just need to be happy.”