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"I'm not shutting you out, either. I was trying to give you time to wake up before I put my greedy hands all over your pristine little body. And I'm a grumpy motherfucker because I should be touching you every goddamn minute of the day and I'm not," he growls, rising to his feet. "That's a fucking problem for me."
"Oh," I whisper.
"Yeah.Oh."
He looms close, his face inches from mine. " If you want to be daddy's little princess all day, every day, say the word," he says quietly. "I'll rip my own heart out before I tell you no, Devin."
"Jude," I whisper.
"That's not my name."
"Daddy."
"You deserve better than me, princess." He groans, resting his forehead against mine. "I'm a dirty old bastard for the things I want to do to you."
"L-like what?"
He groans again. "You're killing me here."
"Yeah?" I smile, pleased by this revelation. I like the thought of unraveling him. He's always so put together, so unruffled. This side of him is so raw and unrefined. It's sosexy. Jude is a fiercely intelligent, wealthy, powerful man. Standing in his presence is like standing in the sun. It's scorching hot and bright enough to burn. But my daddy? He's an unruly, untamed beast. Standing in front of him is like standing on the surface of the sun and realizing it was made just for you. It's pure light, pure power. And god, it's incredible.
"You aren't going to behave, are you, princess?"
"I plead the fifth."
He smiles, his eyes crinkling at the corners as devilish amusement overtakes his expression. "That's my line." He says it all the time. Usually when the brothers ask him something he doesn't want to answer.
"Just trying it out."
"I'll make you a deal," he offers.
"Oh, a deal with a fancy defense lawyer?" I tease, tapping my bottom lip.
He narrows his eyes at me, making me giggle. "Eat your breakfast while we talk, and then you can misbehave all you want when we get back to my room."
"Pinky promise?" I hold my pinky up.
He eyes it curiously for a moment as if unsure what to do and then hooks his pinky through it. "Pinky promise," he says.
"Okay," I agree and then fidget. "But, um, what do you want to talk about?"
"Why you're running from your family."
I sigh heavily, my shoulders drooping.
"Did they hurt you, baby doll?" he asks, danger glinting in his blue eyes.
"No, of course not," I hurry to say. Guilt pricks at my heart. I love my brother and my uncle so much. I don't want Jude to think badly of them. "Dimitri was barely out of college when our parents died. But he and Uncle Dante made sure I never wanted for anything. They spoiled me."
"Then why are you running, princess?" Jude asks, picking up my plate again. He scoops up a big bite of egg onto the fork and holds it out to me.
I obediently take the bite, chew, and then swallow before answering. "Because the one thing they couldn't ever give me was freedom," I say. "People…bad people…don't like them. For reasons." I chew on my bottom lip, hesitant to admit that my brother and uncle basically run the criminal underworld in Houston. I'm sure Jude probably figured that out himself when I told him who I am but saying it out loud is different. I may not want to go back home, but I don't want to see my family suffer either. I don't want to pit the three men I love most in the world against one another.
Jude isn't like my brother. He isn't like Uncle Dante. His moral compass isn't a pendulum that swings depending on the situation. He does whatisright because it's what's right. He fights for good because it's good. My brother and my uncle…well, they do whattheybelieve is right, even if they have to do wrong to do it. Their definition of right and Jude's are vastly different. They aren't evil men. They aren't bad men. But they aren't soldiers of the light either. They're just men. Jude, though? He's a soldier of the light.
"Reasons like the fact that your uncle is a criminal kingpin," Jude states, cutting off another bite of egg. "Their enemies targeted you?"
I take the bite before answering. "My whole life, I've been one wrong move from ending up in the hands of their enemies. The summer before my senior year, one of the cartels got too close for comfort. I was tied up in the back of a van when Dimitri's best friend, Constantine, found me," I whisper, shivering at the memory. If he hadn't gotten there in time, God only knows where I would have ended up. I try not to think about it.
