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Well, shit. “Of course. Lead the way.”
“Doc will be here soon,” Greyson said before handing her a tablet from one of the nearby tables with a kiss on the cheek. Dominic stepped forward to do the same, but she turned the opposite direction without another glance. I offered him a sympathetic smile that didn’t feel as genuine anymore. Grey was right; he did need to get his shit together before he lost the girl for good.
Might need to take my own advice.
Instead of the office as before, Mari pulled me into a nearby sitting room. Like the rest of the house, it had a dark color palette with espresso woods and luxuriously soft fabrics, but this room was more lived-in. Bright pops of jewel tones cut through the richness of the space, and the couches obviously were well-loved. I liked it.
After motioning for me to sit, Mari lowered into the chair across from me gently, lifting the tablet to scroll through. “Your background check came through.”
Panic stole my breath for a moment as I wondered just how detailed the check was. How much did she know about me? Would she care? As someone living in her home, yeah. She’d care.
“Nate Black, twenty-eight, born and raised just outside Seattle. You received an honorable discharge last year from the Army, where you were a sniper for eight years, though you could’ve gotten out two years prior when you were shot in the line of duty. Your only living relative is your mother, who moved out of state after your father died. No arrests, tattoos, or gang affiliations. You’re as clean as a whistle.”
She recited my background check like it was a grocery list, and her face gave even less away. I wanted to know what she was thinking. The whole thing was bare bones, and we both knew it. Taking a chance, I filled in what details I could.
“Worked wherever I could get my hands dirty after my discharge until I took a liking to bartending, at which point I got hired at Gilded. No debt. My savings account is padded, despite living in a shithole and taking care of my mom. I don’t have friends and prefer it that way. No kids, marriages, or relationships either. My therapist told me I had PTSD from my time in the Army, but I didn’t agree, so I ended our acquaintance there. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs because I don’t trust myself to get out of control, and I don’t have pets because I don’t want to be responsible for anyone other than myself.”
I thought some more, unsure how far she wanted me to go, then thought fuck it. “Also, I had a vasectomy at twenty-two. Not sure if that’s relevant.”
Mari’s lips quirked, but she didn’t make any notes, which told me it was a test. She wanted to know if I’d offer her my history without asking.
“I don’t think friends need to know about each other’s reproductive situations, but thanks for telling me.”
Friends. Why did that word feel like poison to my soul?
Pushing the feeling aside, I leaned back on the couch. “So you’ve decided to trust me?”
I was fairly sure I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her.
She tapped her fingers against the tablet screen, which she’d turned off at some point during my sharing session. “I’ve decided to consider it. You’ve been a decent houseguest and an unexpected help with the evacuation plans. Since you’ll be staying with us until the Aces are neutralized completely, we may as well make use of you.”
I liked the sound of that, but…
“I won’t pledge to your family.” It was far too early to even think about it, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up. The devil already owned me, body and soul.
“Noted.” I couldn’t tell if I was imagining the disappointment when she spoke, but it didn’t matter anyway. Some things couldn’t be changed. “You’ve made it clear where we stand and I’ll respect that, but I want us to be friendly. Cordial at the very least since I have enough drama in this house already. Can we do that?”
There was that word again: friends. There were a lot of things I wanted to do to the angel in front of me, and absolutely none of them were friendly.
Reel it in. You can’t have her. But the more I tried to convince myself, the less the reasons made sense.
“Friends works for me,” I lied.
Mari took a breath in the silence, steeling herself to say more. “Since you’ll be here for a while, I wanted to make it clear that I’m not going to interfere with your life. If you want to go out and get laid or whatever, you’re free to do so. You’ll just be doing it with an escort from the family. No going anywhere alone.”
The idea of fucking anyone else left a bad taste in my mouth, but I couldn’t very well tell her that. Not yet.
“I’m taking a break from dating,” I said eventually. It was the only excuse I could think of.
Mari laughed under her breath. “That sounds like something I should consider.”
“Trouble in paradise?” I teased. Her face fell, and I immediately regretted speaking up when I knew things were shit with Dominic. “You don’t need to tell me anything, but I’m here if you want to.”
I was fishing, but who wouldn’t? Their dynamic wasn’t one I’d been around, and I wanted to understand it just as much as part of me wished I could join it.
“It’s complicated,” was her response.
That felt like an understatement. “Are you together? Dating, I mean.”
