I looked at him, mildly surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought you’d come for a walk.”
“I have to watch Alex,” I said.
“No, you don’t,” Sonya called out from the other room.
Vince grinned at me. “See? Come on.”
“Vince,” I said, but he had already turned and started to walk away.
Annoyed, I went after him. I didn’t want to get treated like a jerk again, like he had treated me earlier that morning. He looked a little bit better, though I wished he didn’t have that shirt on. I definitely preferred him bare-chested and laughing at me. His dirty grins and his body drove me wild.
“What do you want?” I asked him.
“Just to talk.”
“You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk earlier.”
“Yeah, well,” he said, “I’d had a long night and you woke me up.”
“Fine,” I said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Come on,” he said. “We’ll get to that.”
I bit my lip but kept following him, not sure where he was taking me. I wanted to stay pissed at him for earlier, but there was just something so magnetic about him. And besides, I wanted to be on good terms with him, if at least because he was Alexei’s father.
But more than that, I wanted to be on good terms with him because he made me feel so good. I couldn’t explain it, but every cocky grin drove me absolutely wild. He should have been everything I despised, just another arrogant, mafia asshole, but he wasn’t. He sent thrills down my spine every time I was around him, made my head dizzy, my whole body buzzing with need for him.
As we walked, I began to recognize some things, and he finally stopped in front of a door. He swiped his key and we walked inside.
It was the greenhouse room from the other day, the one with the statue of Condita Barone. It was the same humid atmosphere, the same plants all over. We had come in through a different entrance, but I recognized it as soon as we were in there.
He led me to the central part of the room, where the statue was, and sat down on a small bench. I stayed standing in front of him.
“Why are we here?” I asked.
“No cameras,” he said. “Nobody is watching or listening.”
“Are they really always watching?”
“Yeah, they’re always watching you. Can you blame them?”
That annoyed me. “Yeah, I can. You’re the father of my son. You’d think they’d back off now that the test came back.”
He shrugged. “You’re still the daughter of our enemy.”
“Fine. Is that all you brought me here for, just to make me feel guilty?”
He shook his head and stretched his arm along the back of the bench. “You don’t need to feel guilty.”
“Hard not to when people are dying because of me.”
He barked a laugh. “Remember what Arturo said? None of this is for you or because of you.”
“Still. It’s happening because of me.”
“Yeah. But it would have happened regardless of you. We’ve been on the edge of war with the Russians for a long time.”
I nodded once. “Fine. Okay. It’s not my fault.”
“Good.” He stared at me, and the memory of his mouth against my clit came rushing back. I glanced at the tree where he’d gotten me off and quickly looked back at him, trying to pretend like I wasn’t thinking about it.
But I didn’t think he noticed.
“I did bring you here for a reason,” he said. “I want to talk about Alex.”
“Okay. What do you want to say?”
“Look.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not exactly the fathering type, you know?”
“Okay,” I said, feeling nothing but dread. “I know that.”
“I don’t know what I can give this kid, you know?”
“I’m not asking anything from you, Vince,” I said. “Just protection until this all blows over.”
“Yeah, okay.” He looked pained, and I wanted to leave. “I’m just saying, I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow, let alone able to raise a kid.”
“I understand that.”
“I love my life fast and hard, princess, but don’t think I’m just passing this off.”
“I don’t expect you to be around to change diapers, Vince,” I said quickly. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I’m going to provide for him and you,” he said. “I’ll give you money every month or something at least.”
“I don’t need your money,” I said, harsher than I had intended. “I can take care of myself.”
“For the kid then,” he said. “Save it for college or something.”
“If that’s what you want to do with your money, I won’t stop you,” I said. “But I don’t expect or need anything from you. This is already enough.”
I meant every word I said to him. I really didn’t expect him to drop everything and become a father overnight. I knew what kind of man he was and how he lived his life, and I knew that Alexei didn’t fit into his plans.