“How classy of you.” It was like stepping into another realm of existence as she sat down and accepted the glass of wine while he filled two plates. “You know, when you said you wanted a dinner date with just the two of us, I assumed you meant dressing in those fancy clothes you insisted I buy and dragging me out to some restaurant with a menu I can’t read, because it’s in another language.”
He snorted. “Those kinds of dinners serve a purpose. Either you’re making a point, or ensuring you’re seen by someone specific, or conducting a business meeting. We’ve been making points and playing parts since we met. I’d like to try something new—having a relaxing conversation where we’re not coming down off an adrenaline high for one reason or another. Just me and you—Aiden and Charlie.”
“Dropping all the masks? Do you think that’s even possible?” She’d seen so many different versions of Aiden in the time they’d been together, she could almost convince herself that she didn’t know the real one. Almost. But the truth was that she still felt like she knew Aiden on a soul-deeplevel. How could she not when his actions spoke louder than any of the words he doled out so carefully?
This was a man who loved his family and was fighting against the legacy his father had left him in order to make something better for all of them. He’d done bad things—of that there was no doubt—but he had more honor than most people she’d met who were supposed to be on the side of good.
I like him.
I might even love him.
She didn’t know how she could reconcile their differences. She didn’t know if they should even try. Hell, with her luck, Aiden was only enjoying her body and would enjoy seeing her walk out of his life just as much.
“We won’t know until we try.” Aiden took a drink of his wine. He looked so deliciously rumpled in his jacket, with his tie half-undone—more real somehow. Even as she watched, he let the distant mask drop and focused all of his attention on her.
It was like standing in the face of the sun.
Without anything holding him back, his green eyes spoke volumes. Every brutalized instinct she had clamored that this man wanted her—and wanted her for more than just orgasms.
That hesawher.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t do more than sit there and stare at him dumbly while she tried to process the onslaught of information he passed on without saying a word.
In the end, Aiden took pity on her and looked away first. He nudged one of the plates to her side of the table. “Eat before it gets cold.”
She tried to swallow past her dry throat. “Sure.” Charlie took a hasty sip of wine that did nothing to calm the racing of her thoughts.
He waited for her to settle down a little before he spoke again. “What would you have done if you weren’t a cop?”
“I’m not a cop.” When he just watched her, she sighed and relented. “Okay, fine. I don’t know. My dad’s a cop, my granddad was a cop. My uncle was a cop before he was shot in the line of duty. There wasn’t another path for me.” She’d never found that sad before. She’d been so determined to do good in the world and eradicate evil that she’d just charged forward, full throttle, until she’d hit the brick wall that ended her career. It had made sense at the time.
Except she’d spent the last two years adrift and drowning, with no end in sight. Her entire identity had been tied up with being a cop’s daughter and then a cop herself and now…“I don’t know.”
“You’re great with Keira.”
“Keira just needs someone who’s not family and isn’t demanding anything of her.” At his flinch, she softened her tone. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. Even when you aren’t asking her for something, shefeelslike you are. There’s no help for it. I’m an outsider, so it’s easier for her to be around me, because we don’t have the history she does with everyone else in the house.”
She didn’t tell Aiden that she suspected Keira to be harboring feelings for Dmitri. It wouldn’t help the situation or change his plans, and she couldn’t afford for him to be conflicted when it came down to the wire.
Ruthless.
Shut up.
“Family is endlessly complicated.” He took another drink and then leaned back to stare at the sky. The overcast night didn’t offer much of a view, but being outside the walls of the town house still provided a much-needed change of scenery.
“You can say that again.” Maybe things would have been different if her mother was still around, but with only Charlie and her dad…Yeah, complicated didn’t begin to cover it.
As if divining her thoughts, Aiden leaned forward. “How’s your father these days?”
“I wouldn’t know. He’s not too pleased with me.”
“He doesn’t like me much.”
She choked. “That’s the understatement of the year. He wouldn’t shed a tear to see your head on a pike.”
“Would you?”
She opened her mouth but closed it just as fast. Telling him that she’d be completely devastated if anything happened to him was exposing too much of her already-damaged heart. Aiden might like her, but that wasn’t enough. He was still the man he was. She was still the woman she was. They were too different.
