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“Now you want me to go vanilla?” Zar snickered. “Fuck,no.”
“Your shit’s your business,” I said. “Weneed to focus on Nina. Her time in jail was highly traumatic, and so was her brother’s death, not to mention all the shit that went down with Dimayev’s thugs. She witnessed a murder. And Aiden’s right when he says she’s lonely, has been lonely, for a long time. She needs us to keep her safe, yes, but also to make herwhole.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Zar exhaled a long breath. “What elseyou’vegot?”
“She needs purpose, activity, friendship.” My mouth turned up when I remembered how powerful our connection had been tonight. “She needs sex, too. She loves sex. It makes herhappy.”
“Says the man who’s been fucking her all night.” Zar rolledhiseyes.
“If this is gonna work, we’ve got to pitch jealousy out the window.” Somebody had to say that shit aloud. “She told me. She’s open to you.Bothofyou.”
I caught a flicker of surprise in Zar’s eyes. He really was too dense for his own good sometimes. Aiden was totally with it. He flashed me a goofy grin. His readings of Nina were right onthemark.
“We can’t just come at her with our dicks cocked like sex-crazed drones,” I said. “We’ve got to remember our objectives. We want her for more than the short term. We want her for more thanfucking.”
“Maybe we should tell her that,” Aidenoffered.
“I mentioned some things,” I said. “I told her about our pact when she asked me why we were willing toshare.”
Zar bit the corner of his lip. “She askedyouthat?”
“Shedid.”
“Maybe we should tell her more,” Aidan said, “tell her real clear-like whatwewant.”
“Hell, no,” Zar said with a derisive snort. “You tell her what we really want and she’ll shoot out of the nearest hatch like a goddamntorpedo.”
“She’s got courage,” I pointed out. “And she’sinterested.”
“Curiosity is one thing,” Zar said. “Checking off an item on her sexual bucket list doesn’t mean she’s on board for the long term. Anything we’d say to her would sound like crazy talk. Besides, it’s too soon. We don’t know if this is gonnaworkout.”
“You mean if this is gonna work outforyou?”
“For me, yes, but also for the two of you. The way I see it, we take it one step at a time.” Zar was firm on that. “The only place she’s safe from Dimayev is here. We don’t have the luxury of scaring the hell out of her and driving her away and straight intodanger’spath.”
“We all agreed,” I reminded Zar. “She could be therightfit.”
“She could also not fit at all,” Zar countered, ever theskeptic.
“I want her to stay,” Aiden said with a certainty thatstartledme.
Zar narrowed his eyes on Aiden. “Don’t you think you might be jumping thegunhere?”
“Negative.” Aiden wasn’t backing down. “She’s a find. She’s anoriginal.”
“Aiden…” Zar pinched the bridge of his nose before he dropped his hand in the water with a splash and confronted Aiden with his piercing stare. “You don’tknowher.”
“I’ve got good data.” Aiden said. “And I trust my data. I want her to stay…forgood.”
Holy shit. Things were rolling at supersonic speed and not justforme.
“A successful mission requires realistic expectations.” Zar rose from the water and sat on the edge of the hot tub, his body flushed and steaming like the metals he forged. “I’m not opposed to giving this a go. But her staying for good is a high bar and the odds aren’t in our favor. It’s feet on the ground on this one. Nobodygetshurt.”
I knew what Zar was doing. He was cutting back our expectations, setting us up for a quick bail out. He was also protecting Aiden from himself. I understood his concerns. We both worried about Aiden’s moods. But Nina would be good for Aiden. I was almost ninety-eight percent sure. And Aiden could be great for Nina, something I knew in myprofiler’sgut.
Zar was also throwing up a wall to protect himself. He had no clue he was doing it, but his Kevlar armor was full on. Zar was as sour on relationships as he was hard on himself. He was probably afraid, too, although he’d never admit to that. Hell, even I was nervous. Nina had crash landed into my heart and set me on fire, but the hard truth was she could walk out at any time and leave me smoldering inruins.
The way I felt also explained why Zar had been so hard on Nina, why he was so reticent to give her a chance. He was terrified of the damage she could do to hisheart.
