She shot him a look.“Yes, actually, I can.I just did, in fact.”She took a bite of her fancy-ass mac and cheese and chewed.Even cold, it was fantastic.“We’re going to have to go back and eat there, but without all the finger fucking.”
He gave another of those put-upon sighs and climbed onto the bed next to her.“Once you’re finished eating, I’ll treat your wounds.”
“Scratches, not wounds.”She waved her fork at him.“See what I mean?Hysterics.”She let them eat for a few minutes—mostly because she really was starving—and then paused to take a drink of her water.“Do you push the visitation with Hadley because you want a hold over Olivia or because you actually care about your niece?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, I think it does.”It was one thing that had never fit with the cold bastard he presented to the world.Her brothers and even Olivia thought it evidence that he was just that much of a bastard, but she didn’t think that was it at all.
He set down his fork.“You’re still trying to make me Prince Charming.”
“Bullshit—though that was a nice dodge.I see you better than most, and you know it.Now, answer the question.”She waited for a few seconds and then poked him in the arm with her fork.“I know you get off on being the one with all the cards, but you’re going to have to open up eventually.It might as well be now.”
Dmitri frowned.“My sister and niece are the last family I have left.”When Keira shot him a look, he growled.“It is impossible not to love that girl, and you know it.She’s sunshine and innocence and all the things that shrivel up in our world.It gives me hope that Olivia and Cillian love her so much, because they will shield her from the worst of it.”
“There, that wasn’t so hard.”Keira smiled.“Hadley loves you, too, you know.After your visits, she prances around for days bragging about how wonderful her uncle is.It drives my brothers batty.”Knowing that he loved his niece shouldn’t give her hope.Just because he was capable of familial love didn’t mean he’d be capable of actually falling in love, let alone with Keira.
She might as well wish on a star—it would give it the same odds of happening.
Dmitri saw the moment Keira’s mood plummeted, but he couldn’t begin to guess what caused it.She’d been fine, chatting and flirting and not acting at all like he’d done damage to her a short time ago.Between one breath and the other, she… wilted.She pushed her plate away.“I think the day just caught up with me.”
It could be that.It could be that he was looking too deeply into things because he felt guilty.
Or it could be that she was withdrawing from him for reasons unknown.
He cleared the food and took the time to deliver it to the kitchen.The house was quiet around him as he headed back upstairs.There would be patrols at irregular intervals—both internally and externally.It wasn’t something he bothered with most of the time, but he’d never had a traitor in his home before.Caught between the need to remove anyone that couldn’t be trusted and the requirement of having more than just Pavel to protect the house… there weren’t any good options.
When he arrived back at the room, he found Keirabrushing her teeth in the bathroom.It was such a mundane thing that something inside him clicked into place.This was right—her in his room, in his home, in his life.He’d known it before, but tonight only solidified that feeling.Where else in the world would he find a woman who was this intoxicating mix of strong and soft, harsh and flirty?
He wouldn’t.
He pulled a bottle of Neosporin from the drawer.“It might be best to sleep in a shirt.”
“Get me one of yours.”
The sheerrightnessof the moment staggered him.He nodded, trying to keep the revelation from his face, trying to lock down the whirlwind of emotions hitting him with the force of a hurricane.I love her.He found a soft T-shirt and brought it to her.“Turn around,moya koroleva.”
She sighed, but she did as he commanded, bracing her hands on the bathroom counter.Dmitri pressed a soft kiss to the nape of her neck.“Why did you retreat from me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He raised his eyebrows at her reflection in the mirror.“Opening up goes both ways.”While she chewed on that piece of information, he quickly dabbed some of the ointment onto the scrapes on her back.The bruises would be spectacular, but she was right about the scrapes being exactly that—scrapes.
“It’s nothing.I’m just being unforgivably sentimental.”She sighed and turned to take the T-shirt from him.“We keep going around again and again.I know what this is.I do, Dima—I swear it.But sometimes the lines get blurry and I forget for a little while, and when I remember, it’s a downer.”She made a visible effort to straighten her shoulders and get her smile back into place.“It’s fine.I’m fine.”
He had to pick through her words to understand what she was actually saying, but when he did… Dmitri found himself holding his breath.“You’re falling for me.”Her flinch had him correcting, “You’ve already fallen.”
“Call it temporary insanity.”
She tried to brush past him, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.“Keira, wait.”
“If you’re going to give me another lecture on how this isn’t a love match and I’m a fool for forgetting that, there’s no need—I’m doing a damn good job of giving it to myself.”
Fuck, she was killing him.He pulled her into his arms.“I love you, too.”And then again in Russian.“Ya lyublyu tebya, moya koroleva.”
She froze.“Don’t fuck with me like this.It’s cruel.”
“I can be cruel.”He framed her face, tipping her head back so she looked into his eyes.He did his best to lower the masks he held in place through habit and let her see what she’d come to mean to him.“But I’m being honest right now.I never planned on it, but then, I never planned on you.”
