All the Secrets We Keep (Quarry Book 2) Read online

  “It would be imprudent,” Theresa corrected.

  “It would be a bad idea.”

  She rolled her eyes and bit into her pizza so that a long, gooey strand of cheese stretched from the slice to her lips. She twirled her finger around it to break it off, then stuck it in her mouth to chew. “Anyway, besides, I already have a place to sleep.”

  She made him go home shortly after that, and later in his own bed, an arm beneath his head and his other hand resting on his belly while he stared up at the ceiling into darkness, he couldn’t stop himself from wondering what he would’ve done if she’d said yes.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Afternoon delight, nothing better. Niko stretched and yawned, drowsy beneath the blankets. Alicia sighed from beside him and nudged her head against his shoulder. Her hand, flat on his belly, toyed with the curly hairs below his belly button until, chuckling, he had to grab it to make her stop.

  “Ooh, you’re ticklish,” she said. “I’ll have to remember that.”

  He turned his face to kiss the top of her head. “Don’t you dare.”

  “It could be fun,” she told him. “Kinky, even.”

  Niko laughed but kept her hands from teasing him again. Alicia laughed, too, and kissed his bare shoulder before rolling onto her back. She kicked at the covers, pushing them down. When he protested, she knuckled his side gently and rolled over him to get out of bed, then walked naked to the chair in the bedroom corner so she could grab her robe.

  “Don’t.” He pushed up on his elbow. “I like to see you walking around naked.”

  “I’m sure Theresa wouldn’t appreciate it.”

  Niko fell back onto the pillows. “I thought you said she was working.”

  “She is, but she doesn’t have set hours. She said she’d be back later, but you never know. Anyway, if I walked around naked all the time, you’d get so used to it that it wouldn’t be a big deal anymore.” She gave him an arch grin and tied the robe at her waist. “I’m going to grab a drink. Do you want something?”

  “I’m starving.”

  She laughed. “If that’s a subtle way of asking me to make you a sammich . . .”

  “No,” Niko said. “But if you want to . . . never mind, I’ll get up. But I’m not putting on clothes.”

  “Fine, let your dingle dangle,” Alicia said. “Don’t blame me if Theresa comes home and catches you with your willy wagging.”

  Niko paused with his feet swung over the edge of the bed. “I don’t think I realized how much I loved you until you called my dick a willy.”

  Alicia guffawed, and Niko sat back and enjoyed the beauty of that humor. To him she would always be gorgeous, but laughter transformed her. She didn’t protest when he went to her and kissed her, although she gave him a curious look.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Because I wanted to.” He kissed her again, letting it linger this time. They’d spent hours making love, and, still, the touch of her tongue on his sent a shiver of delight through him. He nuzzled her neck until she laughed again, softer this time.

  “I love you,” Niko said.

  Alicia pressed her face against his chest. “Love you, too.”

  Her shoulders rose and fell, and she shook a little. The soft hitch of her breath confused him. Niko pulled away to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Happy.” She wiped at her eyes, then pushed up on her toes to kiss him again. When she pulled away, her gaze was serious. “Niko, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I’m thinking of selling this house.”

  “Are you going to ask me to fix it up first?”

  Alicia punched him lightly on the arm. “No! Stop it.”

  “Well, okay. So you want to sell the house. Then what?”

  “Pay my parents back, first of all.” She paused with a frown. “I could do that without selling the house, but it wouldn’t leave me with much. And they’re not asking me to pay them back for anything. I just feel like I want to return the money they gave me that had been meant for Jenni’s college.”

  Niko didn’t know what to say about this. He brushed the hair off her shoulders. “Okay.”

  “It was generous of them. It helped me and Ilya get started with Go Deep. And they sold me this house for way less than I would’ve spent on something else. If I sell it, I can repay them for the money they gave me and get out from under it. I guess that’s the thing. I can put things behind me. Move on.”

  “Moving on sounds good.” He settled his hands on her hips, holding her close. “Where do you plan to live?”

  She gave him a hesitant, hopeful smile. “I thought you and I could talk about that.”

  Niko’s brows rose. “About living together?”

  “Well . . . yeah. Traveling first,” she put in quickly. “I want to do some of that. But we’d still need a place to come home to. Maybe more modern. Not out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe not even in Quarrytown.”

  This gave him pause. “Not even here?”

  “We could go anywhere,” she said.

  Niko kissed her again. “We could go everywhere.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Ilya had brought in the mail, a handful of bills addressed to him, and the rest mostly junk. He’d opened the slim letter and shaken out the check made out to his mother in a nearly illegible hand without paying much attention to it until he realized it had not been meant for him. He looked it over. Fifty bucks, no change. The weird thing was it had come from Barry Malone.

  “This is yours,” he told her and set the check and envelope in front of her.

  It was nearly three in the afternoon, but Galina was eating a buttered English muffin and drinking coffee. She snorted softly as she slid the check toward her. She shrugged, maybe at the amount, and tucked it in her pocket. “Thank you for opening my mail. Apparently I’m so old and decrepit I can’t be trusted to do it myself.”

  “It was by mistake.” He wasn’t going to let her get to him. “Why’s Barry sending you money?”

  “We were married,” Galina said, like that made sense.

  Ilya snorted much the way she had moments before. “Sure, a million years ago.”

  “What can I say? He feels compelled to offer me financial compensation in restitution for being a terrible husband.” Her smile broadened, looking wicked. She took a bite of her muffin, crunching. “Where is your brother?”

  “I’m sure he’s across the street.”

  “Ah.” His mother twisted in her seat to look at him. “Sit. Talk with your mother. I haven’t seen much of you for a few days.”

  He grabbed a can of cola from the fridge but didn’t sit at the table. “I’ve been packing things up at the shop.”

  “Really?” Galina looked surprised. “Does this mean you sold it?”

  If he said yes, she would ask him for money. Perhaps not directly. She was subtler than that. She’d always had a way of getting what she wanted, even without asking outright. Look at the way she was still getting money from her ex-husband of some twenty years ago. Telling her the truth would lead to a fight.

  “Yep,” Ilya said calmly. “I sold it.”

  Galina’s eyes widened a tiny bit more before she nodded, looking pleased. “Good. I think that’s the best thing for you. You’ve held on to that for too long. What will you do now? Travel, like Alicia?”

  “I don’t know.” The truth was, he didn’t love traveling. Sure, the exotic locations and liquors and, yes, the women had always been exciting, but his idea of a good time would always be a hotel with a clean, soft bed and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Trekking through mountains and any kind of wilderness didn’t appeal to him at all. It felt like he’d already been most of the places he’d ever want to go.

  “You’ll figure it out,” his mother said serenely and sipped from her mug. “I’ll be going out later. Don’t wait up for me.”

  “I don’t ever wait up for you,” Ilya answered.

  She laughed.