Page 92 of The Love Scam
“We’re a couple now?”
“—and we’re being romantic.”
“We are?”
“Oh, yeah. C’mon, here’s a guy ready to make our night unforgettable.O solo mioooooo…”
“Stop. Just stop.”
But he didn’t. And then he and the gondolier sang together. It was the most awful, wonderful thing ever.
Much later, naked and sweaty
(“Oh my God, how are youdoingthat?”
“Martial arts and yoga.”
“Liar.”
“You’re right. I’ve never done yoga.”)
she rested her head on his shoulder and tried to slow her breathing.
What is it about love and sex that can make people so completely, dangerously irrational? To take risks they’d never, ever take in their right mind?
Well, now she knew. She’d risk everything for a man she’d known a week. It was insane. Wonderful and insane.
But now what?
“You never told me where you live.” Rake’s voice rumbled out of his chest and through hers,yum.“Just that you roam the world, grabbing random pickpockets and scaring the shit out of scammers and reuniting lost children with their lost fathers.”
Well, there was the hotel in Chicago. And the condo on Cape Cod—not hers, technically, but Mr. Marsh had been in the nursing home for two years, and loved when she stayed there. And sometimes she stayed at Sofia’s apartment. But as far as ahomehome—
“Because I was thinking, you could move in with Lillith and me. In Vegas.” When she sat up, he added, “If you don’t like Vegas, we could live somewhere else. Anywhere. I don’t give a shit, if you’re there.”
“Livetogether?” she asked, astonished. “All three of us?”
“Well, yeah.” He blinked up at her. “What’d you think?”
“I haven’t even said I love you! On purpose! It just slipped out earlier.…”
“But you do.”
God, the insufferable confidence. “How do you know?” It was true, but she’d spent a lifetime not letting people see into her. She’d been taking home poker pots since she was eleven.
He sat up, kissed her. Held her hands, turned them over, kissed her palms. “It’s all right. Don’t look so scared. I love that you blurted it in front of everybody.”
“But how d’you know?”
He let go of her hands and lay back down, like he didn’t want to crowd her.
“You put yourself in danger for my sake and, moreimportant, my daughter’s. And you hated keeping your word to my grandma, but you did it anyway, and you still managed to find ways to help me whenever you could without betraying her trust. You went way, way above and beyond the job description. And you don’t fuck for fun.”
“I don’t?”
“No.” He smiled. “And you haven’t been with anybody for a long time, and I’m enough of a pig to be glad.”
True, but…? “All right, you’re correct, you confident schmuck, but how—”
