not as rich as I thought. Or at least I hadn’t been.”
Tears hit my eyes, but what a thing to say. “It’s that way for me, too,” I confessed.
“I know,” he said, then smiled, which turned devilish when he added, “I’m planning on stepping back.” He brushed his lips over my fingers, before he released my hand. “Letting those I’ve put in positions of power have more of it.” He looked every bit the villain when he added, “I’m going to become a man of leisure.”
That wasn’t possible. He might slow down, but he wouldn’t stop working. It wasn’t who he was, but I loved that he wanted to. “And what will you do as a man of leisure?”
“Ideally, fuck you all day.”
Those words had the effect he wanted, as more heat pooled between my legs. “That would mean I’d need to be a woman of leisure.”
“No, we’d just use your desk in the bullpen.”
That thought shouldn’t turn me on, but it did. “And your desk,” I added.
“Fuck, yeah.”
I took another long drink of wine to calm my libido. And as turned on as he made me, it was my heart that ached in the best possible way. He brought me here to show me his past, his beginning, but he also brought me here to let it all go, to move forward, to start a new beginning with me. It wasn’t a wonder that I was so totally and completely in love with him.
We walked through a section of Montenegro that was so different from the opulence of where we were staying. Poverty, an underbelly of it, that was as much weaved into the tapestry of the place as the magnificent views. “This is where I grew up. On these streets.”
Not in a home, not under a roof, but on the streets. My heart broke, my hand reaching for his, because I needed the connection. Looking up at him, his focus was on our surroundings, there was a touch of disbelief. “I forget sometimes what it was like,” he whispered.
“What was it like?” I asked, knowing he needed to purge.
“Hungry, all the time. Dirty, only bathing when it rained, or when I jumped into one of the lagoons. Ruthless as I got older. There’s a hierarchy, even on the streets. The bigger you are, the more people want to tear you down. You learn to fight in order to survive.” Bitterness touched his tone. “Miles away, people are tossing out untouched food, while here, there are those willing to kill each other for something to eat.”
But he’d overcome it. He hadn’t just gotten out; he’d thrived. “You got out, Kade.”
“So many don’t.”
He started to pull me away when I noticed the crowd ahead. “What’s that?” I asked.
“The community center,” he said.
“Can we take a look?”
He hesitated but led me to what was the hub of the area. Inside, people gathered to talk, some were reading, some knitting, but it was a community. There was a table setup in the back, mountains of food, and a steady line of people. My heart filled, as did my eyes. “You did this.”
“Someone had to.”
He grew up in hell, but he wouldn’t let others. “You weren’t going to show me this.”
“It’s not enough,” he said.
I looked around the room to the happy, smiling faces. “I think if you asked them, they would disagree.”
He took me to the dive shop, the place it all started. I was expecting a little shack, and maybe at one time it had been, but now it was a state-of-the-art diving facility with a fleet of boats, top of the line diving equipment, and all of it was affordable, not catered to just the rich.
“What was your job?” I asked, as we walked down the dock toward a boat.
“Took people to wrecks,” he said, as we reached a boat, and he held his hand out to me.
“Are we going to a wreck now?” He had asked that I wear a bathing suit. I figured we’d be swimming, but diving would be even better.”
“Not exactly,” he said, then grinned.
I went to the bow of the boat and took a seat on one of the cushions, while he spoke to the driver. Before long, we were cutting through the crystal blue water. It was beautiful, the freedom of flying over the water. I’d never been on a boat, even growing up in New Jersey, but I loved it.
Kade used the time to teach me everything I needed to know about the