Page 46 of Requiem for Love

She laughed. “Is it his face? Do you know what it looks like when a guy’s in love or something?”

Crimson crept back up his neck. “Ma!”

“Kidding, kidding.” She squeezed his hand. “Where’s your brother, by the way?”

“Doing cartwheels in the living room. Oh, there’s a man out there.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he came with Aunt Sydney.”

She left the table and headed to the front room, where Theo was doing cartwheels while explaining to their unknown guest that the word “dinosaur” meant “big and terrible lizard,” but dinosaurs “aren’t even really truly lizards.” When the guest noticed her, he stood.

“Hi.” He stepped forward, hand outstretched. “I didn’t know anyone else, at least another adult, was here. I didn’t want to leave the kids downstairs by themselves. I’m Dmitri. Dmitri Sokolov.”

She’d heard his name before, but they’d never met. He was the billionaire cousin of one of the guys’ good friends or accomplices—however that worked.

“Ayesha,” she said.

His brows shot up. “Oh! It’s good to finally put a face to the name. So, you’re who Sydney came to see then.”

“Sydney’s upstairs with Joel.” And she would have already gone up there, but she was trying something new. She was trying to trust him the way she’d trusted Curtis.

Still, they’d been up there too damn long.

With Curtis, no matter how long he was gone, she never wondered if there was some woman under him in Kazakhstan, Budapest, or wherever because she wasn’t around. Curtis never did anything to color her perception of relationships, so she didn’t know where the intense, possessive streak toward Joel came from.

Dmitri looked over her shoulder. “Upstairs? I thought she was in the kitchen.”

“Nope.”

“So, you live here?”

“Yes.”

“With Joel?”

“Yes.”

He scratched at his clean-shaven jawline. “I see.”

“Want to go wait in the kitchen?”

“Definitely.”

They headed for the kitchen.

She reclaimed her seat at the breakfast table while Dmitri leaned against the kitchen counter.

“Are you okay?” she asked him. “Have a seat. You look like you’re about to keel over. Siah, sweetie, can you get Dmitri some water?”

Josiah nodded and ran to the refrigerator.

She continued to study him. When people needed to reveal information, they had a look. Dmitri had that look, and although his eyes darted around the room, his gaze always returned to her.

“Ah,” he took the glass Josiah extended, “Thank you…Josiah.”

Josiah waved off the thanks with a low, “No prob.”

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