Page 60 of Broken

I could tell he wanted to say something more, but I need to go. It was already getting late, and I wanted to have dinner prepared before she got there. I had told her I would cook dinner, something I had never in my life done for a woman.

Not giving Valentin a second look, I left.

Speeding through the city, I made it in record time back to my mansion. I managed to cleanse myself, avoid smelling like bleach and have a few steaks thrown on the grill in the backyard just in time to hear the doorbell screech through the house.

I was coming off the patio when a guard escorted Nova to the kitchen. She frowned, but I just thanked him. He nodded and returned to his post.

She was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, with her hair under a black and red Chicago Bulls beanie. Under her sweatshirt’s collar, I could see a hint of white. She had worn my mother's pearls. It struck me in my chest that I could never ask for them back. They belonged to her now; fit around her neck in a way that no one else could pull them off with something as simple as a sweatshirt.

"So extra security, what's all that about?"

I came close and kissed her. Her lips tasted like cotton candy. "Don't worry about it. How are Desmond and Yara?"

She frowned. "Behaving."

"Let me grab the steaks off the grill." I gave her another quick peck.

It took only a few minutes to grab the food from the grill. The steaks had seared themselves to perfection and when I came back in, she had already grabbed the plates down from the cabinets. She patiently waited while I made a simple salad to go with the food. The beanie now haphazardly thrown nearby. I kissed her slowly before I went to eat.

"So," she said after a few bites. "New Year's..."

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to see you," I replied.

"We were out of each other's systems...I paid my price." She gave me a tentative smile.

Fuck,she was gorgeous. Not in a magazine cover type of way, but in a girl next door type of way. Nova would have easily fit in with my men. They would have treated her like a little sister....I didn't even want to think about it.

"We were and then you came back into my orbit. Valentin spotted you first...I almost didn't think it was you. That streak of blue in your hair."

She touched at her hair, "Yeah, that'll be gone soon. It was an impulse. I wanted something different."

"I like it," I replied. "But when I saw you, I had to get your attention."

"You dismissed me, remember?"

"I had my reasons, Nova."

"Sure you didn't just want to punish me more?"

She had a knife in her hand, cutting her meat into strips. Eyeing the knife wearily, I knew she was thinking about stabbing me because I'd been an asshole.

"No. Again, I had my reasons."

Nova stopped cutting. "You froze me out. It's not like I thought we were going to be a couple or anything, but you treated me like I was just something to be discarded."

"There are things happening with my business and I thought it would help protect you," I murmured.

A feeling of guilt found its way into my stomach. It was an unusual feeling. Like finding a broken crack in the sidewalk, that was what it felt like. Guilt was a foreign concept to me. I didn't like the way it made feel twisted up inside, like suddenly my entire existence was vulnerable. It made me feel like a child again, watching my mother be buried and put into the ground.

Nova reached over and touched my hand, causing me to put my fork down and focus on her. "Am I safe?"

"Yes," I replied.

"And my sister and brother?"

"Yes. Nova, I'd never let anything happen to your family."

The guilt had started to melt away, but lingered in the pit of my stomach.