Annalise went in and packed everything. She gave clothes and things like that to the thrift stores. There was nothing in the apartment that indicated a package taken from his job. He never said a word that there was a problem to any of us, including my father.”
“Do you remember how he acted?”
She nodded. “He was different. All of us noticed it. Very withdrawn. When my grandmother tried to talk to him, he snapped at her, which, believe me, he never did. Looking back, I think he didn’t know what to do, but he didn’t want to involve anyone else in what he thought was a problem with one or more of the families.”
She tapped her thigh, the only sign of nerves, and then closed the suitcase. “We can go down there now. You have to remember, at the time, none of us knew he had kept something he shouldn’t have. Even after my father was shot, we didn’t put it together right away. We knew they’d been run off the road, and that their deaths weren’t really an accident, but we didn’t know why. For all we knew, some crazy person had gone after them and they were randomly chosen.”
“Where is Annalise?” He tried not to be suspicious of the woman. She was leopard, yet she had acted as if she hadn’t known what had been happening when Antosha had struggled with his leopard to keep it from emerging. She had cleaned the apartment and would have found the book had Ania’s grandfather hidden it there.
“Annalise has the apartment I found for her, you know that. I told her she could stay here, but she didn’t want to stay alone. I can’t blame her.” She looked around the room and then sighed. “It doesn’t feel like home anymore. Annalise feels like family to me, and I want to make certain she’s always taken care of.”
He had no problem with that. If Annalise was really what she seemed, then he hoped to offer her a position in his household. Once Ania started having his children, they would need a nanny. Annalise could be quite helpful.
“Baby, leave that,” Mitya said when Ania began to go through her drawers again. “I’ve got movers coming to pack up your things.”
“I don’t like the idea of strangers touching my clothes.” Ania ran her hands down her body, clearly unaware she was doing so. Twice she cupped her breasts and brushed her fingers over her nipples through the material of the shirt she wore. Both times she gasped and flushed.
His cock was so hard he thought he might not live if he took a step. It was difficult to think, but one of them had to remain sane. They just had to get this done and then he could figure out how to make love to his woman without bruising her. She needed care, not more rough sex, although watching her, he wasn’t certain if that was true either. Trying to do the right thing wasn’t easy.
Ania led the way back down the stairs, looking very comfortable in his shirt, as if she were wearing an elegant dress. He wondered if she wore panties under it. As they moved down the stairs, he let his hand slide down the curve of her back to the tail of the shirt, bunching it in his fist. His knuckles brushed bare skin. Heat spiraled down his spine.
“I love your ass, Ania.” He wanted her to be distracted. He needed her to be. The house had become a memorial, a shrine to the dead. He wanted Ania to stay among the living. Her family were all gone and only ghosts remained behind.
He opened his hand to palm her left cheek as she walked, feeling the muscles bunch and give. His thumb slid over her soft, firm skin.
She glanced at him over her shoulder, and her eyes held a dark lust. “You like everything about my body.”
“That’s true. I wouldn’t mind sitting you on the landing and taking time out to eat you. I’m feeling a little like the Big Bad Wolf.”
Her laughter rewarded him, spilling over so the notes felt like gold to him. A little shiver went down her spine and she pushed back into his hand. “You’re always feeling like the Big Bad Wolf. Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes and act innocent.”
“That’s bad,” he said. “Really bad.”
She went down the long hall, past her father’s room, to a door that she unlocked with