Page 33 of Best Kept Secret

Mira opened her mouth, probably to argue again, but then closed it, her shoulders slumping slightly in defeat. "Okay," she whispered, so quietly that I barely heard her. "But nothing fancy."

What the fuck did that mean?I'd get her a basic fucking iPhone, and she'd do with it what every person I knew did with their phones—use the damn thing to live their lives.

"Sure," I said, even though I had no intention of getting her anything less than the best.

For a second, the room went quiet, the tension between us was thick and familiar. She wouldn't say it, but I could tell she hatedthis. Hated needing anything. But I wasn't backing down on this one.

"This is good for all of us," I added, offering a small smile to ease the tension. "Trust me."

"I already have so much to thank you for." She didn't smile back. Her eyes clouded with something I couldn't quite place—fear, I wondered. But what was she so afraid of?

"Darlin'." I pulled her into me, touching her for the first time since that night I'd kissed her. I wrapped her in my arms, hugging her, feeling her body curve into mine. "Stop worrying so much, will you, Mira?"

She leaned her forehead on my chest, and I felt her body shake a little. I raised her head by putting a finger under her chin. Her eyes were shining with tears. "Hey."

"I…what happens when I get a job? What happens with Pari?"

I wiped her tears, cupping her face with both my hands. "Pari will start daycare soon, and we'll make sure she has a nanny, if it comes to that. Roxy will pitch in. You and I will still be there for her."

Job? What job?

"Nova thinks I can get a job at her company," she answered my unasked question.

"At Savannah Lace?"

Mira sniffled. "Yes. Someone called Nina is…opening a cafeteria for the employees, and also to cater to guests and clients."

"Nina Davenport," I supplied. "She's the CEO and President of Savannah Lace. Nova works for her. What would you do at this cafeteria?"

Her face flushed. "I'd run it. I…well, I'd cook and manage the kitchen."

I blinked. "Can you…ah…can you do that?"

Her face fell, and I felt like an asshole. I wasn't being critical; I was genuinely curious. I wanted her to be set for success. I wish she'd agree to go back to school. I'd pay for it, but I already knew she would fight tooth and nail to stay with Pari, and she wouldn't take a dime from me. As it was, she wouldn't even let me buy her new clothes when we did it for Pari, so she was still in her ratty best.

"I all but ran the diner where I worked for three years. I was seventeen, Beau, and we did about four hundred covers a day, and nearly double that on weekends. I can run a cafeteria that serves less than fifty people a day."

"I'm so sorry, darlin'. I know you can. It sounds like a great opportunity. When would you start?"

We'd started to move things along on the custody front now that the DNA test results were in. Mira had given me information about her parents' lawyers. My lawyers wanted to file paperwork with the courts, establish me as a parent, and then reach out to the Sens. I had told Mira it was all taken care of because every time the topic came up, she freaked out. I didn't know what the hell was going on with her and her parents, but she didn't want to even talk about them.

My mother thought it was suspicious, and I told her to stay the hell out of it. Once I had full legal custody of Pari and was listed on her birth certificate as her father—which I wish Asha had put me on and made some of this red tape easier—we could figure the rest of it out.

"I don't know. I have to go to an interview with Nina. Nova said she'll let me know when." She licked her lips. "You don't think I can do this job?"

"I think you can do anything you set your mind to. Look at how wonderfully you've raised Pari." I tilted my head toward my daughter's room, where she was taking a nap after lunch.

Mira blushed, and the compliment made her radiant.

Fuck me!I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss her, fuck her, be inside her. It was becoming increasingly hard—hardbeing the operative word—to not just take what we both wanted. Before she went on vacation, Roxy had mentioned that she'd seen how we were eye-fucking each other, basically saying that we should get on with it while we were alone at home.

My mother had the opposite reaction, wanting to move in while Roxy was away, as if my housekeeper was some Victorian-era chaperone, safeguarding Mira's virtue.

"I'm going to go see some friends tonight," I told her, not wanting to leave, but if I stayed, I'd take her into a bedroom—any one of the many I had—and fuckherraw andmyselfblind.

"Oh. You won't be home for dinner, then?"

There was a wealth of domesticity in that question, and BPB, the Before Pari Beau, would've run like the hounds of hell were after him. But the APB liked it.

---