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He glares right back at me. ‘Your sister should know you’ve had a baby. Just as your baby’s father should.’
It hits. Hard.
‘You really do like keeping everything within your very tight control,’ he says.
I don’t know why he’s so bothered by this. ‘I was doing it for her.’
His mouth thins. ‘No, you were controlling. Not involving her in any decision to help you or not. She’ll be angry with you for keeping this from her.’
‘That’s a price I’m willing to pay because her future is too important. I was going to tell her once I had things more secure.’
‘Fortunately things are more secure now. We’ll visit her before we leave.’
I stare at him.
It didn’t occur to me that visiting her would even be an option. I’m used to packing up and clearing out without any chance to say goodbye. The moment my mother decided, that was it—all hands on deck to put our few things into bags before they were forgotten. We always left as if a killer were at our heels.
Dain misinterprets my hesitation. ‘Surely you don’t want to leave the country without seeing her?’
My heart’s in my throat. I would love to see her. I’ve missed her so much in these months that I’ve kept away from her. ‘Are you sure?’ I ask hesitantly. ‘You don’t mind?’
His jaw drops. ‘I’m not a monster, Talia,’ he mutters bleakly. ‘I’m not going to force you to pack up and leave the country without saying goodbye to your family or friends first.’
I hear the hurt in his voice. ‘I... I just...’
‘Think the worst of me.’
‘Of most people,’ I correct. My heart squeezes. It isn’t only him.
‘Well.’ He watches me. ‘You can ask me for anything.’
To my total mortification my face heats and I can’t even mumble a response. The things I really want to ask from him are way too...way too...wild.
CHAPTER TEN
Dain
‘YOU WERE ABLE to lean on me that night in the gondola,’ I point out to her, trying to soften my tone. How can I be fascinated and furious with her at the same time?
‘That was a life-threatening situation,’ she mutters.
The tips of her ears are scarlet again.
What’s it going to take to get her to trust me again in any small way? Because I’m trying here. She’s just demanded an outrageous sum of money and I’ve not batted an eyelid and supplied it immediately—although admittedly my motivation was mostly to confound her. But I desperately want her to open up more. I know she’s ballsy and bristly but when she laughs—which is too rarely for my liking—she’s a delight.
It’s shocking enough that she hadn’t properly tried to contact me about Lukas, but that she hasn’t told her own sister about him either is blowing my mind—even when she insists they’re close. And it touches a wound of my own. Not being told my grandfather was terminally ill—on the pretext of protecting me—is something I’ve never forgiven my family for.
‘My assistant found the messages you sent and forwarded them to me,’ I say.
She watches me warily.
‘Overzealous spam folders and weak double checks in play there. There weren’t as many as I’d thought. You didn’t discuss the pregnancy in the first couple.’
‘Of course I didn’t, that was personal.’
Part of me appreciates her discretion. But her first two loosely worded messages—I need to get hold of Dain. We met one night—didn’t pass the spam/stalker test. The last was too generic—I’ve had a baby—even with the photo attached.
‘You could have tried harder,’ I say. ‘You should have.’
