Page 81 of Tarnished Reign

“Let me get this straight. You want to skip straight past dating and move to us being a nuclear family.” His face is so tense there’s a vein throbbing in his temple.

“No. I mean, well, no.”

“It sure sounds like it.”

“So what are you saying? After this is over, and the danger is gone, we date?”

He laughs. “I don’t date.”

“So, I’m just going to be your fuck buddy? The whore I said I was at the start? Will you put me up in a nice apartment and visit once a week?”

“You have a fucking smart mouth for someone who looks so angelic,” he snarls. “And no, you’re not living in an apartment. You’re living with me.”

“Not without Cade, asshole,” I practically scream.

I throw myself off the bed and hastily toss some clothes on. I should shower, but I can’t bring myself to care. I need to be away from him for a while. I get that we haven’t started a relationship in any normal way. I understand that me asking him if I can bring a kid to stay with us is a lot, but what option do I have? If Dimitri says he wants me to stay with him, then he needs to realize that I need to have Cade safe. Not in the care system, and not left with his mother who sold me to the damn mob.

He won’t even let me use the phone, and I can’t tell him that I called Cade’s grandparents because that will drop Nataliya in the shit, and I don’t wish to do that to her. If I can find a phone, I could maybe try, but it’s a stupid and dangerous idea because if they’re already with Hana, she might realize it’s me.

I need some time alone, away from the head fuck that is Dimitri, so I can think.

“Where the fuck are you going?” He practically snarls the words.

“Anywhere away from you.”

He starts to get up.

“Seriously, Dimitri. Give me some space.”

As if realizing I’m really fuming, he falters. “Listen, Adriana, some of that came out wrong. But you’re not thinking straight. You’re not old enough to shackle yourself to raising a kid full time when he isn’t yours. Hell, you’re only just legal to drink. And I’d make a terrible father. I can never be a father.”

“Why not?”

He shakes his head.

“Why fucking not?” I scream, anger blinding me to my behavior.

“Because my own father tried to end my life.”

The words hang in the air and I can’t speak, all the saliva in my mouth turning dry at this bombshell he’s dropped.

“My mother too. He hated us and ultimately killed himself rather than raise me. He left a note. He never wanted me because I’m wrong somehow; those were his words. He saw it and tried to kill me and my mother. His genes are my genes; do you understand? I might be dangerous to a child, the way he was. I can never put some poor kid through that. I won’t do it.”

I stare at him. Horror washes over me at his words. Pity for what he’s been through but also incredulousness at the take he has on this. He’s getting me all wrong, thinking I’m demanding more from him than I am, but it also breaks my heart that he seems to believe he’s somehow faulty due to his father’s actions.

“Dimitri, you’re not him, and I don’t think you’d be like that. You’re the strongest man I know.”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’m angry, vengeful, possessive.” His eyes darken as he looks at me. “That doesn’t make me strong. It makes me dangerous.”

“I don’t believe it for a second, but I’m not asking you to be his father, Dimitri. You said you’d keep me safe, and I’m just asking for you to do the same with Cade; that’s all. You don’t have to help raise him or be his daddy in any way. All I’m saying is that if you want me, I come as a package with him.”

“How does that work?” He shakes his head. “You’re not thinking straight, Adriana. You can’t simply take him. Social services would come for him. You could go to prison.”

“You said your father is in with the cops, right? I have seen where you all live. I imagine you have immense wealth and connections to afford that kind of real estate. I bet you could help me. He’s a cute kid; you’d like him.”

“It has nothing to do with whether I’d like him or not, but the fact I don’t want to start a relationship with someone who wants to bring a kid into it.”

“So you were just going to expect your future wife to never have kids?”

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