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“Tell me more about yourself,” he said, wondering if she’d shut down on him again, like she did during their first date.
She chewed her pizza for a moment before answering. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about your childhood. Where do you come from?”
A small moment of hesitance was followed by a gulp, as if she was about to share something significant. But when she started talking, it seemed like she was just telling him the details of her normal life.
“I grew up in a small town with my mom and two older brothers. My dad died of cancer when I was young, so it was just the four of us. My brother really looked out for me though.”
“I’m sorry about your dad.”
“I was pretty young when it happened. The hardest part was watching my mom struggle to raise three kids on her own.”
“She didn’t have any family to help her?”
Alice shook her head, and he reached out to tuck a strand of hair that fell in her face behind her ear.
“I’m lucky to have my aunt to help with Max. She babysits him for me after school most days. They are having a sleepover tonight.”
“Is she the only family that you have?”
“I have a brother, but he’s not really a kid person. Don’t get me wrong, he loves Max, but it’s hard for him because his wife and their daughter died in childbirth four years ago. Being around my son brings a lot of that to the surface for him.”
“That’s terrible. At least he has you to lean on. Family is so important.”
“Yeah. Bloodandthe ones you choose.”
Alice tilted her head to the side as she studied him. “The ones you choose?”
“Just a saying,” he said, regretting his words. He shouldn’t talk about the Bratva like that. He considered the men in the syndicate to be his chosen family, but that wasn’t something he could explain to her. “Tell me more about your life.”
She talked while they ate, telling him stories about her brother’s overprotectiveness interfering in her love life when she was a teenager and how her mom was a strong woman that refused to ever date again after her dad died. She didn’t say much about him, but Nickolay assumed it was just a painful subject.
Even as she opened up to him like this, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was also holding something back. There was something about the way she spoke sometimes, as if she were thinking about her next words a little more than necessary for a woman telling her own story. It wasn’t all the time, but he picked up on it enough to think it was odd.
After eating, they laid back down in the bed, and Nickolay found himself smiling as they laid in the dark. Her feminine curves were pressed against his side as she laid her head on his chest, and he was surprised to find that he enjoyed this intimacy almost as much as the sex. Then, Alice asked a question that made dread drop into his stomach like a ball of lead.
“Nickolay? Have you ever done anything you regret? Anything bad?”
He had to force himself not to tense up, knowing that she’d feel the change in his body. This wasn’t what he would have considered to be typical pillow talk, but he didn’t question it.
“I…I’m not exactly a saint, Alice.” He didn’t want to lie to her, but he couldn’t tell her the truth about the things he’d done in his life. “But I don’t believe in living with regrets.”
“Are you saying that there are bad things in your past? Or…your present?”
Nickolay paused before answering. Did she somehow know about his criminal ties? Or maybe she suspected because of something she’d seen at Alek’s house.
“Let’s just say that I will always do whatever it takes to take care of myself and my family.”
Being in the Bratva allowed him to take care of his son for a long time. It provided the house that they lived in and put food on the table. It gave him power and that chosen family that he mentioned before.
“What about you?” he asked after a moment of silence. “Do you have any regrets?”
Alice sighed through her nose, sliding her arm around his waist. “Not yet.”
Her cryptic response confused him, but he was tired enough that he didn’t press her for more information. After a moment, Alice’s breathing deepened, her body completely relaxed. She was asleep, which told him that no matter what she suspected about him, there was enough trust between them for her to sleep in his arms. With that comforting thought in his mind, Nickolay closed his own eyes, drifting off to sleep himself.
* * *
