Page 99 of An Indecent Longing

He’d bought the house after his wife had committed suicide, wanting to get Risa out of the city and away from the memories. Even as a kid, Dorrie had realized that, though Risa lived in a mansion on the Main Line, her life wasn’t sunlight and roses. Risa’s emotional roller coaster with her mom had left permanent scars. Scars only Dorrie really ever saw because Risa never let anyone else close enough to see them. Not even their dad.

Now, as Gens made the turn into the lane and the big black gates opened like magic, she sucked in a deep breath, resigning herself to an interrogation she really didn’t want to have.

Gens pulled the car to a stop at the door and she turned before she got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”

Gens nodded. “Sure, Dorrie. Just let me know when you’re ready to leave and I’ll be here.”

She let herself out of the car, a little surprised none of her dad’s guards had come out of the house to do it for her. Typically, he had at least one man on the door.

Shrugging it off, she let herself in through the open front door.

“Hello?” she called out when she didn’t see anyone.

“In the solarium, love.”

Her eyebrows shot up. Now that was interesting. Her dad didn’t use endearments where others might hear him, especially not for her. That meant there must be no one else in the house.

Making her way through the house to the back, where the solarium looked out over the most beautifully landscaped two acres of ground she’d ever seen, she couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.

“There you are. How’s my brilliant beauty today?”

Rising from the couch where he’d been doing the Inquirer crossword puzzle, her dad opened his arms and hugged her tight against him, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

As always, affection from this man made her heart feel like it was caught in a grinder. A conflicting rush of emotion flooded her body. Love, amusement, exasperation, confusion.

Her relationship with her dad couldn’t be defined in normal father-daughter terms. He’d always been a part of her life but he’d never been there for her on a daily basis. She’d never wanted for anything.

But there was also that part that knew this man had been a member of the Philly Russian criminal organization for years. He’d worked his way up and recently had taken over the entirety of the Philly operation when David Oleksy had gotten out last year.

“I’m good, Dad. But what’s going on?”

Waving at the couch he’d been sitting on, he waited until she sat then claimed the cushion next to her. His blue eyes, so dark most people thought they were black, watched her with pinpoint focus.

Her dad was a handsome man, his white-gold hair still thick but cut short and perfectly styled. He was the kind of guy who looked just as good in jeans as he did in a five-thousand-dollar suit. And his smile could be warm and inviting. Or make grown men quiver with fear.

She’d never, not once, felt frightened of him, and neither had Risa. But she knew he instilled fear in some of the scariest men she’d ever seen.

How he managed to walk that fine line was beyond her.

“Why didn’t you tell me Blank had been shot?”

Resisting the urge to fidget, she answered as truthfully as she could. “Because I knew you’d want me to take someone else. And I’m not comfortable with anyone else. And…I had a date last night. A new guard would’ve made it impossible for me to have a good time.”

Her dad didn’t look surprised. Shit. That meant—

“And how did your date go?”

Shit, shit, shit.He’d known about her date. Probably also knew she hadn’t gone home last night.

Oh man, she really didn’t want to have this discussion with her dad. She didn’t even want to have this conversation with her mom. But her dad had surprisingly few boundaries when it came to his daughters. So if he wanted to talk to them about dating and sex, he talked.

Risa found it much easier to talk to their dad about sex. Probably because he’d been her only parent for so long. Dorrie just…couldn’t.

Usually, he knew that and didn’t push. Apparently, today he was going to push.

“It was fine.”

She could tell he wanted to say more but she also knew he ran the risk of her freezing him out completely. It was how she handled any situation she didn’t want to deal with, and this qualified as one of those times.

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