Page 192 of Dark Love

“Where are you going and why didn’t you tell me until just now?”

Vex is definitely vexed with me. Why do I find his wrinkled brow so sexy? My hand moves of its own volition, and I trail a finger across his cheek.

“Dahl.”

“Don’t be mad at me. I don’t like it.”

He sighs. “I’m not mad at you. It would have been easier to make arrangements if you told me a few days ago, but I’m not mad. There’s one good thing about having a private jet. It can be ready on short notice.”

“You have a private jet?” How?

“Yeah, Dahl. I have a private jet.”

Jets cost money. A lot of money. Club owners in Urbium can make a lot of money, but not that money. “How?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

No. Yes. No. Maybe. “Sort of.”

“Not everything I do is legal.”Vex doesn’t expand on that statement.

Mindy was right. I knew she was right. “Okay.”

“That’s it. All you have to say is okay?” His eyes widen and he pulls back slightly.

“I’m glad you told me.”

“Dahl, you make no sense. A woman like you should be losing her mind right about now.”

“A woman like me?”

“Yeah, a woman that should have a white picket fence, a dog, and a man with a normal job that comes home every day, knowing just what a gift it is to have you waiting there for him.”

Is that what Vex dreams of? “I don’t want any man but you.” Though I could do without the illegal machinations, it’s part of who he is now. Maybe it won’t be in the future.

“You didn’t even ask what illegal things I do.”

“Do you want me to?”

The crease in his brow deepens. “Not really.”

“Then I won’t ask. I know the important parts of who you are.” Maybe if I tell him that enough, he’ll believe me.

“What do you know?”

“That you’d never hurt an innocent person and you’re not out there swindling grannies out of their life savings. Past that, there’s a wide range of morally gray choices that I might not agree with, but if you eventually tell me, I’d understand.”

“Swindling grannies?”

I shrug. “People do it all the time.”

“But I never would.”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” I should tell him the truth. Or a little of it, at least. “Um.” How do I say this? “The reason I hesitated to tell you was because you can’t come with me.”

His face morphs from confusion to irritation back to confusion. “You aren’t traveling without me. That’s not an option. Where am I telling the pilot to schedule a flight plan for?”

It would be wrong to sigh in his face, even though that’s what I desperately want to do. “You can’t come… No, that’s wrong. I don’t want you to come.”

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