Page 91 of Diamond In The Rough

“Hey!” I smack the table and draw my brother’s smiling gaze. Because fuck him. My heart pounds with nerves. With anxiety. With the sickening thought of Tiia standing between me and my enemies. “This conversation is over.”

“Fine with me.” Completely unbothered, he settles back and presses a kiss to Christabelle’s temple. “What else did you find out about Renee today, Darling?”

“Renee?” Tiia looks from my brother to me. Curious. But not probing. Her cheeks are still flushed from the topic before this one. “Who is Renee?”

“Nobo—”

“His mother,” Felix inserts, oh so fucking helpfully. But then he adds, “Probably. We’re still working on finding out who birthed us.”

Of course Tiia’s cheeks pale as her eyes swing back to me. “You don’t know who your mother is?” Then to Felix. “None of you know?”

“For fuck’s sake.” I sit back and exhale. Because bringing a woman, any woman, around Felix Malone is always, and will forever be, a mistake. “When will it end?”

“That’s why you came to me early.”

After dinner. After dessert. After Felix finished discussing private shit and grilling the woman he had no right to grill, I lead Tiia away from the dining room and through the only home I’ve ever known.

It’s more peaceful here these days. More comfortable. Now that our father is dead—and with him, his poisonous ways—this place brings me calm.

It’s a far cry from the prison I once considered it to be.

Soldiers remain scattered throughout the house, guarding the doors in silence, and swapping out with their compatriots when it’s time for a change in scenery. More are in the yard, watching the entrances and keeping us safe.

Their loyalties are bought. But the price is good enough to ensure they stay.

“Micah?” Tiia wraps her hand around my arm when I turn us toward the stairs instead of the front door.

I could lead us outside, put her in a car and send her home. That could be the end of our night and the start of me placing space between us.

I’m not blind to the fact we don’t fit. She’s not the one I’ll keep forever. She doesn’t deserve to drown in my world, and I can’t escape to be with her outside of it. There’s no compromise here for us. Which means, for her safety, and for my sanity, the smart thing to do would be to place her in a car and force her to leave. Remove her from my life by choice, which is a significantly better option than her being removed by enemy force.

But I’m not ready yet.

Not today. Not tonight.

Instead, I lift my arm over her shoulders and pull her in until she walks against my side. Until our feet tangle with every step, and her breath races out to bathe my skin.

I’ll keep her for tonight.

Then tomorrow, I’ll send her back to the real world.

That’s the way it has to be.

“You’re pulling away from me.” She’s observant. Intuitive. She places her free hand on my ribs and squeezes just tight enough to remind me that I had stitches there not all that long ago. “You invited me to dinner. You wanted to bring me into your life. And now you’re not even talking to me. What the hell is that?”

“Privacy.” My heart thuds in the depths of my chest. Nerves swirl in my blood. I miss her already, which is entirely fucking ridiculous. “Until we’re in my room,” I explain, “we don’t have privacy.”

“So you’ll talk to me then?” She quickens her steps. “Okay?”

She doesn’t make a show of aloofness now. And she’s not the type to be coy. She wants to get where we’re going so she can have the things she wants.

And right now, she wants me.

Jesus. What happened in her life to make her so brazen?

We have to climb four flights of stairs to get from the dining room to my room. Tiia Hale fucking drags me up all of them, past twelve guards and countless guns, because her patience is non-existent.

“This one.” I slow our steps outside my door, knowing she’d blow right past if I let her. Then I set my hand on the knob, brutally aware that a few of my truths will be exposed purely by letting her enter. Secrets I’ve yet to share with her. Solitude I cling so desperately to, removed once I allow this woman into my space.

---