pick up some fruit. Then made me bake for them and drink tea. They were heading out when I left to come get you.”
“Of course all those babushkas wanted you to cook for them and make tea. I mean, look at you. Anyway, it’s nice. Your whole brood are just really nice people. Except Rada. She’s a jackwagon.”
Vic nearly choked at the mention of Alexsei’s ex, who had been less than friendly to Maybe. “To be fair, she did give him a head’s up about your sister looking like she might need help.” Rada was complicated. As Evie’s best friend, she’d been part of their family a long time. She’d been worried Maybe would push her out of the family for good since she and Alexsei had already been broken up for nearly a year.
“I didn’t say she was an evil master villain. But she’s not nice. I’m not nice either, it’s how some of us are.”
He thought about that for a bit. “I think you’re nice.”
“I do nice things sometimes. But I’m not nice. It’s not an insult. It’s just a personality type.”
“Huh. Okay, I’m going to ruminate over that awhile because I’m not sure if I agree or disagree. Were you... Never mind.”
“What? Was I nice before?” she asked the question he hadn’t known if he had the right to.
“Yes.”
“I think I did all the things I was expected to. I helped people in trouble in my job. I had a fiancé who had a very good job and very nice teeth.”
“Always important,” he said to make her snicker.
“Anyway, it was a good life. I don’t want to make it seem like before I was taken I hated my situation. It was a life I was happy in. And then something happened and turned it all upside down. A lot of things weren’t strong enough to survive the carnage. But some of those, like the fiancé, weren’t quite what I believed they were from the start.
“And after I’d come through it all, after everything insubstantial had burned away, I started a different life. And I wasn’t nice anymore.”
He ate as he got himself back together. She unraveled him. Not something he was entirely comfortable with.
“Okay. I can see that.” Though he thought she was pretty damned nice, he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her what she felt and who she was. “What are you doing this weekend? I’ve got both days off and I was thinking of a hike up at Tiger Mountain. It’ll be cold, but clear. Have you hiked it?”
“No, but it’s on my list.”
“It’s not super strenuous, but a good workout. I promise to take it easy on you.”
She snorted. “How do you know you won’t need it the other way around?”
“Who says I want you to take it easy? Maybe I like it hard.”
He hadn’t meant to say it. Or maybe he did but he hadn’t meant it to sound so very suggestive.
But she wasn’t offended. Not at all, unless he was misreading the way her eyelids went half-mast.
“Perhaps I like it hard too.”
Holy shit. What the hell was he supposed to do with that image? Except think about how to make it reality.
“I think we need hot chocolate. And a fire,” he said around a suddenly thick tongue. “I even have the supplies to make whipped cream for it. I’ll walk you home afterward.”
* * *
SHE SHOULD HAVE said no but she didn’t.
Instead, he tucked her up on his couch and made them both hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream while she basked in the heat of the fire and watched him.
His house was the same sort of tri-level ranch house their neighborhood was dotted with, but with a modern touch. Dark wood floors with burnished steel. The overstuffed couch she was on was plush and deep green with nail head accents.
It was a decidedly chic, adult space. Classic. Sophisticated. He was way more than she’d expected. Her mistake really, she should have paid better attention. But naturally she got caught up in that face of his.
She was only human, after all.
“So tell me about your favorite tattoo lately,” he said as he joined her.
“That I’ve given?”
He nodded.
“I’m still giving it. A half sleeve. It’s a cardinal. Full color.” She indicated the way the bird lay around the curve and muscle of the upper arm. “Wings open. There’s a lot of fine line work with the feathers.”
“What about it makes you so proud of it?”
She thought awhile about the exact words to use. “It takes a steady hand. It’s scary at first when you’re inking someone. This is a big piece. A mistake is forever. I was nervous but since I just jumped and did it, it’s turning out really awesome.”
“You’re a risk taker.”
“Not so much anymore.”
“Making art is taking risk. You create something and throw it out there to rise or fall. That takes guts. And tattooing is forever. Well, there’s cover-ups and removal but you know what I mean.”
“I do.” She hadn’t thought of it like that but he was sort of right. “You’ve got the heart of a poet.”
“Evie says the same. I can’t see it.”
Without thinking about it, she reached out and pulled his hair free to tumble down. “You even have the hair and the face of a fallen angel.” It had been intended to tease but damn it if it wasn’t true.
“I tell myself I’m going to keep it slow and easy and then you go and say things like that. So delicious, right here under my nose for three years. You’d think after three years I’d have more chill, but I don’t.”
She drew a shaky breath. “I really shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be telling you all this stuff and thinking about how you kiss. There’s something about you, Vic. I say things I don’t intend to. I want things I shouldn’t. It scares the hell out of me.”
It was only the second date, but it was way deeper than that. They’d been developing a relationship for years and it seemed like now that they’d finally stepped into this new romantic thing between them, the intimacy had sharpened.
After years of living a very pared-down life, focused on herself and surviving, it was tender, nearly raw to let someone as close to her as she found herself doing with Vic.
“I’m not that person. I make good choices. I’m responsible. I pay my bills on time and I turn the water off when I’m brushing my teeth,” she told him.
He put his mug down, taking hers as well before turning back to her and enfolding her hands with his own.
“Are
