Keep(Romanian Mob Chronicles 1)(15)

“She got your attention. Yours. My brother, who is so detached he barely seems alive, the one who hasn’t looked at a woman in as long as I can remember. I have to see her,” he said.

He bounded across the room and opened the door, but I stayed in place. Sorin was right. I did avoid attachments, kept focused on my business. And I still hadn’t figured out what about her had made me break from that pattern.

“Oh!”

Fawn’s soft exclamation was followed by Natasha’s impatient huff.

“Let us in, Sorin,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah.”

He moved aside, and Fawn entered carrying three bags. I couldn’t help but look at her, the conservative jeans and T-shirt she wore so different, but so much better than that ridiculous black dress.

“Thank you, Natasha,” I said before she came in. “Oleg will take you home.”

A fleeting disappointment filled her expression but then she smiled that trademark seductive grin. “Of course. It was lovely, Fawn,” she said and then left.

“A beautiful name,” Sorin said, grinning from ear to ear.

Fawn just looked up at him, expression wary. If Sorin noticed, he didn’t care, and instead pulled her into a brief hug, kissed each of her cheeks, and then rested his hands on her shoulders, openly assessing her. I was prepared to intervene, the look of shock on Fawn’s face driving me toward them, but Sorin dropped his hands from her shoulders.

“I am Sorin Petran, the handsome brother. It is an honor to meet you,” he said.

“Day after tomorrow,” I called in Romanian, and Sorin nodded.

“Good-bye, Fawn,” he said, and then she and I were alone.

She blinked and then turned back to the door before looking at me again.

“Sorin is…excitable, but harmless,” I said, choosing to expand the truth for her benefit.

Her eyes widened.

“What is it?” I asked.

She looked down sharply.

“Fawn, what is it?” I repeated.

Her lips turned up and she met my eyes. “You smile when you talk about him,” she said.

Almost automatically, I raised my hand to my face and found that I had indeed begun to smile, and it occurred to me Sorin might not be the reason. A troubling development, and one I would ignore for the moment.

“Is that all you bought?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes.” Then she walked toward me, fumbling in her jeans’ pocket. “Here,” she said when she’d retrieved the cash. “Your change.”

I waved it away.

“No. Please,” she said. “It’s a lot, and if I add that, it’ll take me even longer to pay you back. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to start.”

She hooded her eyes then, the huskiness of her voice having created an implication she hadn’t intended, one that I hadn’t realized until just this moment I might like.

“Keep it,” I said firmly.

We stood for moments longer, Fawn clearly warring with whether to object, but she finally relented. “I will pay you back,” she said with the most certainty I’d ever heard her say anything.

“As you wish,” I said.

Later, when it was time to sleep, she looked at the bed and then me, eyes wary as they’d been the night before. It angered me.

“If I wanted to rape you, I could have a thousand times over,” I said in a gruff voice that was a near growl.

She looked stricken, and then to my surprise, apologetic. “I—It’s just that, people always want things.”

“People like me?” I asked, voice scornful.

She nodded. “Yes. People like you. And people like David. Nothing in this life is free, Vasile,” she said, sounding both wise and weary, something that made me want to hold her close and protect her because I knew what she said was true. The instinct was completely foreign to me, one I didn’t dare act on but one that I couldn’t ignore either.

“Don’t say his name here,” I said.

She immediately nodded her assent, and I continued, “You can take care of this place to repay me.”

“Okay.” She smiled and nodded almost happily. Then she closed the distance between us but stopped before she reached me. She extended her hand slowly, let her fingers rest against my wrist for the briefest moment.

“Thank you, Vasile,” she said. Then she moved quickly to climb into bed, the pants and long-sleeved T-shirt she wore quite different than yesterday’s attire, but still doing nothing to disguise the lush curves of her body.

When she’d settled, she looked toward me expectantly.

“I’ll sleep later,” I said and then turned abruptly and headed to the bathroom.

I considered myself a logical man, one not subject to emotions or raging passions, but Fawn was challenging that belief as the iron-hard erection her simple touch had spawned proved. Yes, she’d been through things, had shown glimpses of a woman familiar with the griminess of the world, something I respected, but this reaction to her was unexpected.