Chapter 9: What I Asked For

My father left without answering me.

He took Delfina by the shoulders and walked her back to his car, and she cried the whole way.

The taillights turned the corner, and the iron gate swung shut.

Raimondo Corvi stood beside me on the step.

"It's past midnight," he said. "Your question stands. I'll tell you what the treaty says."

I looked at the street where my father's car had been.

My father had no answer for why he came tonight, and I had a feeling the treaty was the answer.

For the first time in my life I did not want the whole file.

"Keep it," I said. "Ask me yours first."

He turned his head.

"You'd rather I didn't answer?"

"I'd rather have a different question tonight. Mine is simple."

I looked him in the eye.

"Do you want me?"

He did not smile, and he did not look away.

"Yes," he said. "Since the lobby."

My pulse jumped in my wrist.

"Now mine," he said, low. "Is it me you want, or the protection?"

"You."

I said it plainly, and heard that it was true.

"I want you, and I'd want you with every door open and every man gone."

He took one step down to my stair and put his hand flat on my jaw.

His palm was warm and dry, and he held my face and did not let go.

"Then come upstairs," he said.

I walked in front of him up the stairs, and I felt him behind me the whole way.

He shut the bedroom door and turned the lock.

I did not wait for him to move.

I took hold of his shirt with both hands and pulled his mouth down onto mine.

He made a rough sound in his throat and kissed me back, hard, with his hand fisted in my hair.

I opened my mouth, and his tongue pushed in against mine.

He backed me against the door, and I felt the length of him through his trousers, hard against my stomach.

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