Chapter 26
My father used to say that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.
I always told him he was full of shit.
There was no way to my heart.
No meal. No woman. No fucking gestures that could reach it.
My heart? There’s no route to it.
Hell, it hardly exists.
It’s tortured and decayed.
Just like my soul.
Yet right now, as Genesis waits for me to give in, I think of him.
His sayings and advice.
Then, I think of my mother.
The time and love she put into cooking for us .
Genesis put that same time and care into making dinner, just for me.
It’s more than just a simple dinner.
I blow out a raspy breath. “Get your ass to the table for our dinner date.”
There.
I said it .
I caved.
A smile beams on her face.
I glare at her in return.
I’m supposed to be the master manipulator.
The one in charge.
Not this butterfly-loving woman who wants to save the world.
She isn’t supposed to be bringing me to my knees like this.
Genesis pours the sauce over the spaghetti and scoops it into a serving bowl, and my cock jerks as I watch her move around the kitchen like she owns it.
Like it’s hers and she’s here to stay.
I follow her with the bread to the dining room. Just like cooking in the kitchen, I’ve never eaten a meal in here. The dinner table seats eight, like it belongs in a home where home-cooked meals are served regularly.
The walls are an earthy green—a must that I gave the interior designer. It was my mother’s favorite color. Tall windows line one wall, and rain pings against them as a roll of thunder echoes around us.
As Genesis situates everything, I return to the kitchen for the wine bottle and glasses. Realizing the bottle is only half full, I snag another from the wine fridge and uncork it.
When I return, Genesis dims the lights and sits. She’s created this intimate, romantic ambience that’s melting all the unhappiness of the day off me.
I take the chair beside her at the head of the table. My focus stays on her as she makes herself comfortable, and the candles flicker between us.
She’s so damn breathtaking.
I’m not speaking just physically beautiful either.
Her beauty radiates from the inside out. I’ve never witnessed such a compassionate heart.
Here she is, having dinner with a man who’s the complete opposite.
Granted, she didn’t have much choice, but she hasn’t tried to run once.
In fact, she’s done nothing but try to get closer through the years we’ve known each other.
I don’t know if the good person in her thinks she can rub that humanity off on me, but she’s wrong.
She could cut out half her heart and hand it to me, and it still wouldn’t be enough to fill the void in my chest.
I’m ruined.
I’ve been that way since childhood, when my future was decided for me.
I tip my head forward, motioning for her to serve herself. She fills her plate with spaghetti and grabs a slice of bread as I fill our glasses.
“Thank you,” I say as she grabs my plate and does the same. “No one has ever done something like this for me.”
Not that I’ve given anyone the chance to.
She’s the first woman I’ve ever let step foot into my home.
“You’re welcome.” She smiles, wrapping a noodle around her fork. “No one has ever paid a million dollars for me before. It’s kind of hard to pay someone back for that, but food is a nice start.”
I take a bite, moaning as I swallow it down, and point at my plate. “This right here makes up for that and more.”
The small taste test I did earlier didn’t do the sauce justice.
It has the perfect ratio of tomatoes, garlic, and seasoning with a touch of sweetness. My mother always added a dash of sugar to everything.
She grins, just like she did in the kitchen when I broke down and declared this a dinner date.
This is a reminder of home, of my family, of what I’ve lost.
But I’m not sad about it this time.
The nostalgia is nice.
“What did you do today?” she asks me, biting into her bread.
“Worked at the casino.” I take another bite.
“What all did you do there?”
This woman loves to ask questions .
Again, it reminds me so much of my family dinners.
My mother would ask my father similar questions, and he’d usually tell her some bullshit story because he’d never break down the gruesome details of how we really spent our time.
“I had a few business meetings,” I state, my voice serious. “We discussed retraining our dealers on spotting card counters.”
I give her a stern look, and she throws her head back, laughing.
“I’m sure no one would dare have the balls to do that in a Lucky Kings Casino,” she says around giggles.
“No one in their right mind,” I correct, waggling my fork at her. “It seems I’ve found the one who would dare.”
She gasps, feigning offense. “You can’t blame a girl for trying to win some cash.”
“Point made.” I lean back in my chair and take a swig of my wine. “I’d ask what you did today, but it seems I already know. Cooking and spending money.”
She wipes sauce off the side of her lip. “The shelter needed supplies.”
“What if I said I’ll double my monthly donation if you agree to stay home instead of volunteering?”
She violently shakes her head. “The shelter is my place.” She mirrors my posture in her chair, grabbing her glass and taking a sip. “Earlier, you said I’d save the entire planet if I could. I know that’s not possible, but I can and have helped change lives at the shelter. It means a lot to me.”
The softness in her tone and face has me giving up my power.
I’ll let her have this— for now .
I point my glass at her. “When you get pregnant, we’re revisiting this conversation.”
“ If I get pregnant,” she corrects, sighing.
I have to stop myself from grinding my teeth, showing her it’d devastate me if it didn’t happen. “You will get pregnant.”
She wrinkles her nose, pressing her lips to the rim of her glass and looking at me over it. “How can you be so certain?”
I set down my glass and shift in my chair to collect her face in my hands. Her lower lip trembles, and she nearly drops her glass as she slides it on the table.
Smoothing my thumb over her warm cheek, I dip my head, our lips only inches apart.
“Gen, baby, when a man sees the most beautiful woman on this earth—one who brings him to his knees, even if he fights it—he’ll want to fuck her every second of the day.
Add in that woman having the biggest heart he’s ever seen, he’ll do anything to make that woman the mother of his child. ”