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She elbows me in the ribs. “Be serious.”
“I am,” I reply, grinning at her as I turn the car around. We’ve gone quite far east, but my Bugatti is fast enough to get us back to town within a few minutes.
Valerie grabs her coffee, gulping most of it down as I accelerate down the road. I’m taking her back to one of my houses, the mansion furthest north, where she’ll be the safest. She won’t be able to get into much trouble there, either.
Valerie picks up on this change of location quickly, pressing her face to the window and turning back to me. “Where are we going?”
“My house,” I reply.
“I didn’t say I wanted to go to your house.”
I hate it when she’s acting all snarky like this. It’d be easier if she would just go along with what I wanted, but then again, it’d be a lot less fun. I’m not sure if I’d love her the same way if I didn’t have to train her.
“You were evicted, which means you have nowhere to stay,” I inform her calmly. “I’m doing you a favor by letting you stay with me.”
“You could buy me the world, Pasha, and that includes my own separate house. I don’t have to stay with you, and I think you’re taking this a little too fast by forcing me to move in with you,”she says, and I hear honest concern in her voice. She’s not just playing hard-to-get. She’s genuinely afraid of the level of commitment I’m trying to introduce to our fresh relationship.
“You don’t have to stay forever, but I want you close,” I reply, trying to come to a compromise.
She lets a long breath out through her nose, sinking deeper into her seat. “Maybe.”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe I’ll consider staying for the night, but I need to find a new place. This eviction crap is bogus.”
I suppress a chuckle at her choice of words. She wouldn’t like me making light of her situation, especially since I caused it. If I play my cards right and keep the snide remarks to a minimum, I might be able to convince Valerie to stay for longer than just one night.
Ideally, she’ll stay for a lifetime.
“We’ll make it comfortable, and you don’t have to stay for longer than you want to,” I say, trying to hide how hard I’m cringing inside at the way I’m talking. Boris would be on the floor having a laughing fit if he heard me. I sound like a wimp.
Valerie seems to appreciate it, though, and that’s the most important thing. She looks over to me with a soft smile. I can’t get enough of her face, especially her lips. I want to kiss her right now, but I’d probably crash and kill us both.
I can think of worse ways to die.
We arrive at the front gate of the house before I have time to dive too deep into the fantasy of ending it all with Valerie by myside. I’ve already tempted fate once by putting a gun to my head. There’s no reason to keep pushing the envelope.
“Wow, that’s a big gate,” Valerie says as we roll to a gentle stop. Her eyes are wide, and I can see the reflection of the intricate gray iron entrance in them. It’s a stark contrast to the pale blue sky.
“The taller, the better. Got to keep the wolves out,” I say as I roll down my window.
“Wolves?”
I chuckle as I flash my badge to an armed guard, who manually opens the door for me. I don’t like electric systems. Too easy to bypass. There’s nothing more effective than a heavy metal gate and a few guards with machine guns.
I shift back into gear, driving through the entrance and down a long winding road to the house. The deeper we go, the more tension I feel in the car. It’s radiating from Valerie, and she’s not trying to hide it at all.
“This is scary,” she says, watching the trees go by as we delve deeper into a wooded area. “Are there really wolves out here?”
“I was referring to my enemies. Like my brother, Anatoly. He’d sink his teeth into you the moment he saw you, so you need to watch out for him. It’s really a lot safer for you to live with me than on your own.”
She straightens up in her seat. “I’m an independent woman. Give me a gun and I’ll shoot the motherfucker the moment he knocks on my door. You don’t have to worry.”
“I’d prefer it didn’t come to that. Family is family, after all. Just stay off the south side of the city. That’s his territory.”
“Interesting… And is your brother more important than me?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
Her claws are coming out, but that just means she likes me. No woman will give you a hard time unless she’s interested in you.
