Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1)(52)

Curious, he asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I remember you,” she said just soft enough that he almost didn’t hear her. “We were in a graveyard? I think? I’m not really sure—it was all fuzzy.”

It wasn’t fuzzy for Kaz. He remembered that day well, mostly that he didn’t want to go. After the car bomb shortly before, Kaz had hated any kind of light, the sight of it making his head hurt instantly, even with the thick, opaque sunglasses Vasily had bought for him.

His father hadn’t told him much of what was going to happen that day, only that he was expected to be there, and to be on his best behavior. Even at ten years old, he knew better than to disappoint his father, especially on a day as important as that one, even if he didn’t know it at the time.

It had been one of the few times that Kaz had seen Alberto Gallucci in person, and the lone time he had seen Violet in person before a few weeks ago. More, it wasn’t the Italian Don, or his father’s excitement after the meeting had taken place, that he remembered most about that day.

It was Violet.

She had to have been no more than four at the time, but she smiled and talked to him like they were the same age. There had been no fear in her when she spoke, talking about things he couldn’t see as she described them for him.

It was the sun, she had said, that shined the brightest …

Thinking back on it, he wasn’t so sure that was true.

“Yeah,” he finally responded. “It was a graveyard.”

She ran fingers through her hair, trying to tame it as best she could, even as she looked away from him, trying to remember a past that he knew all too well. “Why were we there, though?”

That was one answer even Kaz didn’t have. He had asked Vasily once, what he and Alberto had discussed that day, but his father had never given him an answer, and even forbid him from asking about it again. Until recently, he had abided by that—truthfully, he hadn’t given a shit to ask again—but now, he was a little more curious.

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t seem surprised by his lack of knowledge. “That was what you meant then, when you said we met before?”

Pushing off the wall, he crossed the floor in a few, quick strides, and stretched out at the foot of the bed, tucking his hands beneath his head. “It was.”

“Funny that no one’s ever mentioned that,” she said almost absently, shifting in the bed so she was sitting up.

Especially with the way Vasily talked about the man, as though he was the scum of the earth. One would think that the two men had never seen eye to eye on anything, but at one point, at least for a time, they had. There had been no bullets fired that day, nor had any voices raised above pleasant conversation level.

Strange. All of it was f*cking strange.

But the last thing Kaz wanted to be doing presently was thinking about his father, and hers, knowing that if either of them knew what was happening at that very moment, Kaz would be a dead man.

Reaching out, he offered her his hand, and she accepted it without question, letting him pull her across the bed, dragging the sheet along with her. As she straddled him, his hands drifted beneath the fabric that covered her to rest at her hips, and he felt content, enjoying the visual she made on top of him.

He could have never anticipated this, that he actually wanted her exactly where she was, but he did. And though he had business to attend to, he wasn’t ready to give up this moment. He’d hold onto it for as long as he could.

“Now it’s you,” she said with a smile, drawing his attention back to her. “You’re overthinking.”

He merely returned her smile, reaching up to let the strands of her hair drift through his fingers. She leaned down further to give him better access, but the moment she did, he stole a kiss instead, feeling her contented sigh against his lips.

One hand drifted around to the back of her head, fisting the hair there to keep her in place, the other palming her backside to keep her steady. It was only supposed to be for a moment, just a quick kiss to remind him of what she tasted like, but it soon spiraled into something else as she ground down on his cock, making him grip her ass just a bit tighter.

Kaz was hard, had been since the moment she climbed on top of him, but at the feel of how wet she was, even the slight tremor that worked its way through her body, it became almost painful.

Last night hadn’t been enough. No matter how many hours were spent rolling around in his bed. He was quickly learning that when it came to her, he was insatiable, the need almost making him crazed. But as he had half a mind to grab a condom from his nightstand, a ringing phone made him pause.

It took him a moment, thinking it was his phone, but as Violet shot up, scrambling off of him to go in search of it, he knew their moment was over, and at worse, their time was up.

She hadn’t been gone long before she was right back in his bedroom, the phone to her ear, her face devoid of color. “Hey, Daddy.”

There was nothing quite like the sound of her saying, ‘Daddy,’ that made his cock shrivel up, but he didn’t move from his spot on the bed, not wanting to even breathe in her direction.

“In thirty minutes?” Violet said, the anxiety in her expression making Kaz frown, wondering what they were talking about. “I won’t be ready by then. I’ve only been awake for a few minutes. I need to shower, do my hair—and you know how long it takes me to do my makeup, I—”