Page 24 of The Disputed Legacy
No amount of late-night conversations about anything and everything with this sexy man would convince me to trust him, either.
Nothing would, and that was the most depressing fact of life that I could acknowledge.
10
SAUL
It didn’t take me long to learn that Oscar stayed with a sitter on Wednesday nights. They became my favorite night of the week since I could have Willow to myself. As much as she’d let me.
We were both too secretive. Yet, that intrigued me too. She wasn’t playing hard to get but was trying to keep her distance out of a sense of survival.
But from what?
I had the resources to look her up and investigate who Willow was, but I wanted her to open up to me because she wanted to. Because she wanted me to know who she was.
She could declare that nothing would happen between us, but I wasn’t a quitter. So long as she continued to give me those small smiles that she just couldn’t hide and so long as she kept seeking me out and watching me with curiosity when she thought I wasn’t looking, I had to have hope.
The next Wednesday night when I showed up, I was glad that I wouldn’t startle her like I had last time. I lacked the time to go change and clean up after handling a couple of assholes in a fight at one of the bars we owned, and I’d hurried so I wouldn’t missseeing her completely. It was sweet how she’d been concerned, but I wasn’t stupid. She was likely worrying that I was some kind of a bad guy who was prone to violence with evidence of an injury.
Many would categorize me as a villain simply because I was a member of the Ivanov Syndicate. And perhaps, according to the circumstances, people could be justified in thinking that.
But I didn’t care. I was proud of my family and who I was. We represented power and wealth, even if we had to be our own version of law and order to maintain it. It was a cutthroat world out there, and I wasn’t ashamed of who I was.
However…
I kicked a pebble off the sidewalk as I walked toward the diner to see her.
However, it’d be really stupid to tell an already skittish and skeptical woman that I was a Mafia man.
The last thing I wanted to do was scare her off. Or Oscar. Getting to know him wasn’t a waste of time, and I couldn’t get over how easy it was to laugh with him. With the shit I put up with, I needed more excuses to lighten up and laugh when I could.
By the time I reached the diner, the rush was over. She was wiping off the counter, distracted and maybe bored. But the second I entered, she looked up and gave me that sly smile.
“Saul, you’ve got to have better things to do than come here every night,” she said as a greeting.
“Nonsense.” I stuck my hands in my pockets and leaned against the counter, admiring her gorgeous green eyes alit with mischief and amusement. “Nothing is better than coming here to see you.”
Irene breezed by and huffed a jealous laugh. “Geez! Stalker much?”
Willow frowned at her for a pensive moment before looking at me. “Areyou stalking me?”
I leaned in more and beckoned her closer, crooking my finger at her. Once she was slanted over the counter to meet me in the middle, I turned to put my lips near her ear and savored the warmth of her so close, the vanilla sweetness of her skin, likely her lotion.
Fuck, I was addicted to the idea of her.
“Do you want me to stalk you?” I whispered in reply.
She pulled back, rolling her eyes and smiling. “Funny.”
I meant it, though.
I sat, sighing heavily. “It’s the truth. I enjoy coming here.”
She arched her brows. “Just to seeme?”
I nodded. “My job is overwhelming,” I admitted.
She opened and closed her mouth, probably frustrated that she couldn’t ask what my job was and get a direct answer.
