“Sheesh. Good thing your father doesn’t know.”
“Oh, I think he knows. Or at least he suspects. For all I know, anybody he ever caught has ‘disappeared’.” I let that drop, thinking about it for a moment. “You know, that’s the weird thing about my father. He says things like I’ll never be worthy enough for any man, yet he chases them all off if any of them show any interest. He acts like a psycho, jealous boyfriend.”
“Oh, ew, Nat.”
“It’s true! Sometimes, I think that he thinks if he can’t have me, then no one can. That’s how he acts, anyway.”
She sighs and shakes her head. “I’m going to side on the hope that he’s just an overprotective father.”
I scoff. “Overprotective fathers love their daughters.”
Before she can respond, the waiter shows up and asks to take our orders. We order wine and a couple of pasta dishes and just as I’m contemplating ordering an appetizer, a sweet, musky smell interrupts my thoughts.
I look around and see him as the hostess is leading him to his table. Tall with dark blond hair streaked with silver. The gray suit he’s wearing fits him well, moving with the casual swing of his arm as naturally as if it were part of his body. His arms and torso are covered up, but there’s a tattoo of a lion’s paw on his neck that clearly belongs to a bigger tattoo.
He’s with one of his people, a slightly shorter man with short, dark hair and wearing a black suit. His suit is nice, but it doesn’t fit nearly as well. I can see his muscles bulging through the fabric as he lifts his hand to scratch his temple. They both sit and my eyes turn back to my high school crush.
Anton Romanov. When I was sixteen, he waseverything.Outside of a few crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes and the laugh lines that crease his face when he smiles at the waiter to thank him, he looks the same. Well, that and the well-trimmed and maintained beard he’s sporting. The fantasies I used to have about this man…
“Earth to Nat. Come in, Nat.”
The sound of my name brings me back. I look across the table at Ilya, who has her eyebrows lifted in question. “He asked if you’d like anything else?”
“No,” I say, closing the menu. “Thank you.”
We hand over the menus and the waiter leaves. Ilya immediately looks over her shoulder to see where I was so distracted.
“Don’t start,” I say.
She turns and smiles at me, her lips tight. “I’m not going to say anything… other than that it’s really wild that on the day after you break up with your boyfriend, you end up seeing your teenage dream across the room.”
“Stop,” I say, playfully slapping her hand. “There is no universe where Anton Romanov would ever look twice at me. He knows who my father is.”
Ilya shrugs. “Your father’s nothisboss, though.”
“Oh, my God, Lee.”
She stifles a giggle, then, “Okay, let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute. There’s an old adage that goes, ‘the fastest way to get over one man is to get under another one.’ What if that other one were Anton Romanov? I mean, think about it. He’s perfect. He’s in the game, so he’s not going to care what your father does. He’s older, so he probably knows his way around a woman’s body?—”
“I amnotgetting into a relationship with a Bratva,” I hiss at her. “My father would hit the roof.”
“So what if he does at this point? You know, he’s never going to approve of anyone you ever end up with. Why bother acting like he ever will? You might as well just see whoever you want to see, however you want to see them.”
Again. Valid. I chew on my bottom lip and think about it, looking over at Anton’s table. He’s in the middle of a conversation, aslight smile on his face, and I swear I spot a dimple. Ugh, this man is so gorgeous.
“Can we please change the subject?” I ask. Ilya nods, relenting.
“Okay.” She thinks for a minute. The waiter returns with our drinks. She waits until he leaves and says, “So, there’s this club I’ve been thinking about checking out.”
“Oh? A new club opened up?”
She shook her head. “It’s not new. In fact, it’s really underground. Most people don’t even know about it.”
I raise a skeptical eyebrow. “How do you know about it?”
She smirks. “Rodney told me about it.”
I blink. Rodney, her ex-boyfriend before the last one, hadn’t been spoken about since I left for college. “You’re still talking to him?”
