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Even the space and time between him and Zara was filled with how wonderful Yana Auntie was. It was as if she was a witch who’d cast a spell on all of them—even his mother. Proving every day what Zara and he had been missing, even before Jacqueline had died.
And now she was in his arms, a perfect, soft landing at the end of a lovely day.
They danced for he didn’t know how long, simply letting their bodies move to the slow beat of the music. It was a sweet exhilaration even as tension buzzed and fizzed every time her thigh brushed his or his fingers found another patch of warm, bare flesh. His heart thundered as her hands drifted from his shoulders to his neck, then back again to his chest.
When she pressed her cheek against his heart as Ella Fitzgerald crooned, Nasir felt a sweet, poignant pleasure like he hadn’t known in forever. The night was perfection, one he’d needed for so long. But what had made it even sweeter was that this woman in his arms was a mysterious, interesting puzzle that he couldn’t stop wanting to unravel.
Sudden laughter from behind them made them both look at Dimitri and James, who were now singing at the tops of their lungs while clutching each other.
A soft sound fell from Yana’s mouth and she looked down. To hide her expression from him, he was sure.
“What?” he asked, wanting to know every thought that crossed her mind, every emotion that made her sigh. His fascination was fast turning into an obsession.
“Nothing.”
“Remember our truce?”
She seemed to come to some sort of resolution because her mouth narrowed into a straight line. Bracing for either his criticism or his mockery, he realized. “They are so...gloriously in love, aren’t they? It’s enough to make one...”
“Nauseous?” he asked, threading humor into his tone when he felt anything except laughing.
She slapped his arm playfully. “Why am I not surprised you find two lovers nauseous?” Her gaze dipped to his mouth, and then away. “I think it’s magical. I’ve seen that kind of love between my grandparents. I think Thaata died so soon after her, because he couldn’t bear to live in this world without her. They’d been through so much—my dad’s alcoholism, bringing up three granddaughters... But their faith in each other sustained them. I see that in James and Dimitri. They’re so lucky to have found each other and—”
“You think it’s luck that they found each other?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“A stroke of luck, that initial meet-cute, where their eyes met across a raucous crowd, knowing James...” She laughed. “But I’m sure they work at it every day. I used to think it was magical when people just came together and stayed together. Now I know better.”
“I don’t think I’m interested in the formula, but I do want to know how you have learned that.”
“I’ve seen my sisters. They’re wonderful, accomplished, bright women. Caio and Aristos clearly adore them. But it hasn’t been a cakewalk for either of them. There have been tears and drama and grief and pain...”
“You talk about them as if they’re more deserving of love than you.”
She shrugged and he thought his once petrified heart might crack open at the expression on her face. He pulled her closer, anger and tenderness twin flames in his chest. “You know that’s not how it works, right?”
“I thought you weren’t interested in love.”
“I’m not. But it doesn’t mean I don’t understand it.” Fury against everyone who’d wronged her, who’d led her to believe such utter nonsense, including himself, colored his words. “There’s no metric you use to measure someone’s worthiness. You should get that into your pretty head.”
“You’re lucky I find you sexy when you’re all growly and bossy.”
The husky half-mutter, half-whisper dropped into the space between them, sounding like what it was. A defense mechanism, a distraction. Not that it didn’t get him all hot under the collar, egging him on to act.
“Are they okay now?” he said, curious to know how she fit in between them. How she talked of them betrayed how she saw herself, and he wanted to know more. And the more he learned, the more he realized how one-dimensional he’d made her in his head. For his own purposes.
“The difficulties they faced only proved that their relationships were worth working on, I think. Worth fighting for.”
“You want this...grand, glorious love, then?” A faint tremor laced his words even as he told himself her answer wouldn’t make a difference to their relationship. It wasn’t anything he had to offer her.
“Yes,” she said, blinking. “Although it took me a while to figure it out.”
“You’re not out there looking for this love?”
“As you know, dearest stepbrother,” she said, her breezy smile not hiding the ache, “I’m trying to fix me first. No one wants a mess in progress.”
“There’s nothing to fix, Yana,” he said, tucking another stray braid behind her ear. A strange sort of helplessness speared him that she should think herself less than any other woman or man. “Messy and imperfect and tempestuous and volatile and stubborn is all its own kind of perfection. I’m the intellectual fool who didn’t see that.”
The bodice of her dress shimmered as her chest rose and fell, tension shimmering like a dark cloud around her. “Enough, Nasir.” Her eyes flashed at him, her cheekbones jutting out. “I’ve let you seduce me with words and compliments all evening. But the farce ends now.”
