Vengeance Aside (Wanted Men 0.5)(44)

“Talk to me first,” he suggested in a reasonable tone.

She groaned and walked away. When she reached the bed, she turned and fell back like he and Samuel used to do into the pool when they were kids. She threw her arms above her head. “Are you always this irritating?”

His blood heated because she looked totally relaxed. “No.”

Her eyes rolled. “Are you always this patient?”

He wanted to laugh as he pictured the lack of patience he’d shown at daybreak. “No. Patience and understanding are not traits I was known to possess until I met you.”

“Weak and weepy isn’t who I was until I came into contact with you.”

Like he was a disease. One she would never find a cure for because one didn’t fall out of love.

He hooked his hands under her arms and dragged her up so her head was resting on the pillows. Then he sat next to her. “Accepting what is isn’t a weakness, Dale. It takes strength. Especially as what is developing between us frightens you.”

“It doesn’t frighten me. It repulses me. There’s a difference.”

But she was no longer denying its existence. How was that for progress? Now all he had to do was get her to open up to him so he’d know who to kill for hurting her so deeply that she couldn’t celebrate falling in love.

“Why did you want me to meet your dad?” she asked again.

Remembering Vasily’s advice about being honest, Lukas grabbed a bunch of red grapes from the tray Farah had brought. He held one over Dale’s mouth. She opened, and he dropped it in, but she had to roll over and come up on her elbows to swallow it after she chewed.

“Samuel and Farah can’t have kids,” he began only to stop when she nodded, her eyes pulling down at the corners because her frown became so heavy.

“She just told me why. I feel terrible for them.”

He did, too, to the point where he’d considered not having his own so his brother wouldn’t have constant reminders of what he was missing running around the house. One talk with a furious Samuel had cured Lukas of the altruistic thought.

“Because of that, carrying on the Zavrazin name has fallen to me. My parents started mentioning the next generation when I was twenty-five, which was how old my father was when they had me.” He ate a grape before giving her another. “It’s never been a priority. Until now. My mother didn’t make it to see my children, and after my father was shot, I realized it could have been the same for him. This is the only thing they’ve ever asked of me, and I’m ashamed to admit I completely blew it off.”

Tossing the stem onto the plate, he ate three grapes he’d pulled off and fed the last two to her before grabbing a handful of pitted cherries.

“After my father came out of surgery, my single status was the first thing he addressed.” As he fed her most of the cherries, he recounted the conversation he’d had with Samuel and his father, and the subsequent plan that had involved her. “When I got to the club and collided with you in the corridor, the plan blew up. I didn’t want to meet this chubby comedian named Dale who Farah thought would be perfect for me. I wanted to introduce you to my father. Turned out you were one and the same,” he said with a smirk, “and, after I kissed you, there was no question; you were the woman I would bring into our family. I just knew. And, sure, it was unsettling for a few minutes because it changed everything. But, now? Having you here?” He paused, trying to find the words to describe how at ease he felt with this. “When I left last night and was working on the man who shot my father, knowing you were asleep in my bed was one of the most comforting—”

“Wait a minute.” She popped upright, but instead of telling him off about how secure he already was in them, she said, “You left last night? And you know who shot your dad?”

“Yes. The man is being punished, and will continue to be punished until his heart stops beating sometime in the next eighteen hours. His accomplices will also pay dearly.”

She blanched. “Oh. Well, I guess congratulations are in order…?” She shrugged and gave him a helpless look. “Not sure what the protocol is when you get your man. Or men. Should I kiss you? Hug it out? High five?” She put up her palm.

We’re so close, he thought as he dried his hands of the moisture the cherries had left behind. Then he tumbled his woman down into the sheets. There was no fear or censure in her expression. She just went with it, smiling and squirming until she got her leg free and wrapped it around his knee. Already, she was separating the things he would do in a business setting from who he would be at home.

“Do you get aroused when you ‘punish’ people?” She air-quoted with the two fingers she then sliced through his hair.

“No. I get aroused knowing when I’m done handing down my punishment, I’ll now be coming home to you.”

She hid by moving in to kiss along his jaw. “Let’s drop that, okay?”

“No.”

“Jerk.”

“Dale…” he warned.

She bit his earlobe and snuggled her bent arms between them so that his body would have completely hidden her from view from anyone entering the room. She looked remarkably comfortable under his heavy weight.

“You’re an affectionate little thing,” he commented as he went down to nuzzle her sweet-smelling neck.