Page 38 of Crime Lord's Paradise

No hesitation in his voice. She didn’t understand. “Why not?”

“I’m a soldier.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It’s what I am.”

“You can have a life outside the underworld.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Do you have a contract with Gavin?”

“No.”

“Then why not try for something different?”

“And leave you?”

She stopped breathing. She wanted what was best for him, but if that meant leaving her …

His mouth curved before he forced it straight again. He looked beyond her to the ocean. “Once a soldier, always a soldier. We die in combat. That’s an honorable death.”

“Did you go into the military?”

“You need to graduate from high school to join.”

“You didn’t graduate?”

“No, I dropped out in the fifth grade.”

He could have fooled her. Blade was precise in his actions and speech. He didn’t sound uneducated, and he was as rigid as a marine. He was a proud man, much like Gavin. Steadfast, loyal, and ready to put his life on the line. She didn’t understand, but she respected it. She owed him her life, yet he asked for nothing and got irritated when she tried to give him things.

“What do you want, Blade?”

Black eyes refocused on her. “I have everything I need.”

“But what else do you want? When’s your birthday?”

He scowled. “I told you, I don’t want anything.”

“You’re not going to tell me your birthday?”

“It’s not important.”

She jabbed him in his chest. “Tell me.”

He glared at her. “December.”

“December what?”

“Twenty-fifth.”

She grinned huge. “You’re a Christmas baby? That’s socute!”

He turned away from her and started back toward the villa.

“That means you have to get at least two presents on Christmas, one for your birthday and one for the holiday,” she said as she paced alongside him.

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