Page 70 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
When the light turned red he glanced over at her. “I’m looking forward to focusing on you too.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“The Oceanaire. Rumor has it that I couldn’t go wrong if I took you to a good seafood restaurant with an exceptional wine list.”
“Rumor, huh?”
“Yep.”
“And just where are you hearing rumors about me?”
He liked the sass in her voice.
“I’m not going to tell you. You’re going to have to be a good investigative journalist and find out for yourself.”
“Humph.”
He chuckled. He could tell she hated not knowing what was going on.
“Can you give me a hint?” she wheedled.
“Where would be the fun in that? You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”
“Well, whoever told you is right. I love good seafoodandgood wine.”
She crossed her legs and her dress rode up, offering him a better view of her thighs. Oh yeah, this was a good night.
“I take it I can’t ask about that phone call you got the day we were going to see Cullen’s baby?”
“’Fraid not.”
“Has that ever been a problem for you in other relationships? The fact that you have to leave at the drop of the hat, and then can’t tell your significant other where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing?”
Kostya gripped the steering wheel tighter and thought of Debra.
“It was for my ex-wife. I thought that I had made it clear before we got married, but she was sure that things would change after she put a ring on my finger. It was a mess.”
Lark was quiet for so long that Kostya looked over at her. “What?”
“It’s just that I hate that kind of thing. I hate it when someone thinks they can make someone change. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Oh, I lived it all right.”
“Who was he?”
“No, I didn’t explain that right. It was my grandmother. She had my mom when she was sixteen. Mom was literally a genius, so she was like Riya, got her Ph.D. crazy early, but she was into business. She married my dad, and he was in a car wreck before I was born. By then mom was left hanging onto the business they’d started and trying to handle a newborn.”
“So she met someone new?”
“Nope, my grandmother did. Mom was working all the time, for years, and Nonnie was the one who raised me until I was nine. I don’t remember a time when Grandpa Harris wasn’t around, and—” She stopped herself.
“And?” Kostya prompted.
“And…and…it was a lot. Trust me, Nonnie and Harris were the poster children for dysfunctional.”
“You know that now, but you didn’t know that as a child,” Kostya said as he pulled into the parking garage across the street from the restaurant.
