“Fine. One dance.”
The room exploded into movement. Viktor dragged me onto the dance floor, where Sebastian and everyone else joined us. Suddenly we were all there, this mismatched family of men who'd found each other in violence and chosen to stay for something softer.
Later,much later, when the party had spilled into corridors and people were laughing in corners and the palace staff had stopped trying to maintain order, Viktor found me again.
“You are leaving?” he asked.
“Thinking about it.”
“Stay. Little longer.” He swayed slightly, drunk on champagne and happiness. “I want to remember this. Everyone here. Everyone safe. Everyone happy.”
“I'm not going anywhere. Just need air.”
“Good. Because if you leave before sunrise, I will be insulted.”
“Can't have that.”
“No. Cannot have that.” He gripped my shoulder, pulled me into a brief, hard hug. “Thank you, Dom. For today. For everything. For being family when I needed one.”
“You've got family now.”
“I have Sebastian's family. But you, Adrian, Luka, Dmitri, Ash, Noah and Troy. You are my family. The one I chose. The one that matters most.” His eyes were bright, emotional in a way Viktor rarely allowed. “Promise me something.”
“What?”
“Promise me you will let yourself have this too. Someday. Someone who chooses you. Someone who makes you want to be better. Promise me that, Dom.”
I didn't answer right away. Viktor waited, patient despite the champagne. “I'll try,” I said finally.
“That is all I ask. Try. Be open. Let someone in.” He released my shoulder, stepped back. “Now I go find my husband anddance badly until dawn. You stay. Drink. Be merry in your grumpy way.”
He disappeared back into the celebration, leaving me in a corridor lined with portraits of dead royals and the echoes of laughter from the ballroom.
I'd try. Someday.
Just not tonight.
