Page 35 of His Forbidden Obsession
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, not for wanting to be taken care of.” Fuck, I was in trouble. All he had to do was look at me, and I wanted to pull him into my arms and promise him everything. “I’m going to go talk to my brothers, then I’ll come back. They want to meet you. How do you feel about that?”
He frowned. “I’m a mess.”
“They’ve seen people far messier, and you still look beautiful to me.”
He smiled but still seemed uncertain.
“They’re going to keep hounding me until they see you.”
“What are they like?”
“Dante is the middle child. He didn’t want to be a part of the family business. He went to college, graduated early, and continued on to graduate school. Now, he’s a professor at Dumonde University. He manages to straddle both worlds, even though he wishes he could just teach, do research, and be left in peace. Anytime we need him though, he’s there for us.”
“Is he as hot as you are?”
I narrowed my eyes at Niko as he gave me a cheeky smile. I couldn’t decide if I was happy to see him looking better or if I wanted to choke him for asking. “Hotter, probably, but you don’t need to be looking at him like that.”
“Really?”
“Nikolai.”
“So what about your other brother?”
“Rafael or Rafe is the youngest, and he’s… Fuck, I don’t know. He’s a lot smarter than he acts. He turns everything into a joke. He runs our casino, and he loves to party. I keep thinking eventually he’s going to settle down, but I don’t know. He’s a good guy, even if he doesn’t show you that.”
“How good is someone in your line of work supposed to be?”
“We’re not like your father or his friends. Sure, we don’t follow the law all the time, and we’ve been involved in some bad things with bad people, but we don’t hurt anyone like you. We would never hurt our family. We would never sell off our family.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll talk to them.”
I wanted to keep him all to myself, but I knew that would never work. “I’ll be right back.”
“I can come out there if you—”
“No. You’re tired. You stay where you are. They can come to you.”
He sighed. “I’m not an invalid. I just—”
“I said stay in bed.”
“You’re fucking bossy. Does that come from being the oldest?”
“Yes and no, but I’m only bossy with those I care about.”
He sucked in his breath, and I rushed out the door. What the fuck made me say that?
14
NIKOLAI
Had he really said that? I stared at the door long after Lorenzo had retreated through it.
People he cared about. He cared about me. That was what he’d implied, but I was sure it was just my health and because he blamed himself for my father attacking me. Lorenzo was a decent person, so of course he’d feel empathy for me. His caring didn’t mean anything else.
Just because I’ve been half in love with him since the first time we met didn’t mean he felt the same way or that he ever would, even if we had months to spend together instead of days. I had to stop imagining anything would happen between us other than him protecting me and finding me a safe place to go. It would help if he didn’t look at me like he wanted me as much as he had that night.
