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I arrived back at the compound in the wee morning hours, tired from all the travel but quickly rejuvenated when I saw Evelina waiting for me. She sat out on the library balcony in a long, silk robe with a book in her hand, but I didn’t think she’d been reading it.
“Miss me?” I asked. “Counting the minutes until I returned?”
She forced a frown and crossed her arms, but a tiny smile broke through her stern expression. “Seeking your own justice?” she asked.
“What?” I asked, all innocence. “Did you see something interesting on your cameras?”
“You know exactly what I saw.”
I squeezed onto the big lounge chair beside her, and she scooted over to make room for me. Instead, I pulled her onto my lap. “I couldn’t rest easy if I knew he was still alive. Men like that don’t give up.”
“Unless they’re dead,” she whispered.
“I would do it a hundred times more,” I told her. “That’s who I am.”
She tucked her head onto my shoulder and snuggled close. “I know that.”
“And?” I urged.
She snickered. “And I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby. I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
We indulged in a little kissing, making out, and letting our hands roam like teenagers. I wanted to pick her up and take her to bed and waited for her to make the suggestion, but we both pulled away at the same time, both of us seeming to have the same apprehension.
“I don’t feel right sleeping in the same bed with you while your father’s here,” I said.
Her smile was full of relief. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. We have our whole lives together. There’s no reason to rub it in his face. You know how I—”
“Worry,” I finished for her. I had to give up trying to make her see that her father wasn’t a fragile old man. He’d beaten the tar out of me after all. My face was still purple and blue to prove it. “Are you going to worry about me like that in ten years?”
She shrugged. “Depends on how much Viagra you need.”
I howled with laughter, then squeezed her until she squeaked as punishment. “What kind of joke is that?”
“It’s a joke that’s meant to tell you I don’t care at all about our age difference. Does it bother you that people will think I’m your daughter everywhere you go?”
I was determined to never lie to her. “A little,” I said. “Sure. How could it not? Or I’m a dirty old man with a sexy little girl fetish.”
She wriggled in my lap. “Maybe this sexy little girl has an old man fetish. Ever think of that?”
“Okay, Evelina. Calm down.”
She rubbed her backside over my stiff cock. “Only when you do.” She repositioned herself so she wasn’t driving me wild anymore. Not as much, anyway. “I hope you can get past it,” she said seriously. “The age thing. I hope it doesn’t tear us apart.”
“I won’t let it,” I promised. A promise I could keep. “And I’m sure I’ll get used to it over time.”
“I like this,” she said. “Just talking. About real things and the future.”
“Speaking of the future,” I said, then trailed off.
I couldn’t ask her to give up her dreams. I went back and forth between Miami and Moscow for over two years. There was no reason not to rotate them with New York as my main hub if that was where she wanted to be. I’d been living life as a mafia kingpin for more than half my life. It was her turn now.
I pointed to the sun beginning to rise above the treetops in the distance, turning the inky dark sky a vibrant orange and red. “Want to walk in the garden before we go to bed? Separate beds,” I added with a sigh.
She got off my lap, and the loss of her warmth nearly took my breath away, but we did have the rest of her lives. I could be patient. We linked hands and tiptoed downstairs, not wanting to wake her father or brother. In the garden, we strolled past the pool, and she stopped, staring at the clear, blue water with an inscrutable look on her pretty face. We'd had a lot of fun the last time we’d been in it together, but then I pulled away.
I had only been thinking about myself then and what a hard time I was having trying to resist her. She had repeatedly offered herself to me, and I had pulled away. Or worse, accepted and then pulled away out of fear. It was time to make her see I was done doing that.
