The warning hung in the air between them. Whatever else Sebastian had done, he clearly loved and cared about his daughter. Or at least one of his daughters, it didn’t seem like he had much of a relationship with his two illegitimate children. Nick wanted to promise that he would never hurt Aggie, but he couldn’t. When she learned the truth about her attack and why he’d set it up she would be hurt, devastated.
“Everything going all right in here?” Aggie cautiously peered through the door.
“Fine.” Her father grinned at her.
“Nick?” She turned wary eyes to him.
“Fine.” He smiled too.
“Good, I really want you two to get along.” She joined him on the sofa, sitting close so their legs touched from hip to knee, and leaned into him.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he pulled her closer. Nick felt like he was heaping lie upon lie. He wasn't going to get along with her father. Not ever. He would prove that her father had killed two of his ex-wives and kidnapped his third. The knowledge of what her father had done was going to hurt Aggie just as much as finding out what he had done. How could he have ever thought it was a good idea to try to get close to Sebastian Candella through his daughter? How could he have ever thought that hurting her was acceptable because it was for a good cause?
He knew the answer to those questions was that he hadn’t known Aggie back then. And he would never have thought it possible that a woman could have made this deep an impression on him in just three days.
Three days?
Had he really only known her for such a short amount of time?
She had hooked him when she’d fought back against Miller’s staged attack. Then every second he had spent with her since then she had lodged herself deeper and deeper in his heart and his mind.
Wanting to get his mind off Aggie before he called a stop to things immediately, he had to make the most of this opportunity, if he really did come clean with Aggie then he wouldn’t get another chance to speak casually with her father. “Do you have a girlfriend joining us tonight, Sebastian?” he asked casually.
Aggie looked surprised and uncomfortable with his question. Nick assumed because she was still sensitive about her father dating.
Sebastian looked annoyed by the question. “No.”
“No, you don’t have a girlfriend joining us tonight, or you don’t have a girlfriend?” he tried to make the question sound innocent. He wanted to know both if there was another potential victim, or if Sebastian had further broken with his pattern by killing one of his exes while he wasn't involved with someone else.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Sebastian all but growled.
“Dinner is probably ready,” Aggie announced in a hurry. “Nick, why don’t you come and help me serve.” She took his hand and pulled him up with her. “My father recently broke up with a girlfriend,” she whispered once they were alone in the kitchen. “He’s a little sensitive about it. I would have warned you, but I didn’t know you were going to ask him if he was dating.”
“Just trying to get to know him,” he explained, thinking that the break-up could have been the trigger for breaking with his MO and taking Emily Hadden now.
“Best to stay away from any topic about my mom or his ex-wives. He doesn’t like to talk about them, and I really want the two men in my life to like each other,” she implored.
There was no way he could give her that, but he could try to make the evening as pleasant as possible. He didn’t really need to ask any questions about Sebastian’s wives, and knowing that discussing them was a sensitive topic was telling enough. Grabbing her around the waist, he tugged until she was flush against him. “Calm down, everything is going smoothly.” He rested his forehead on hers.
She sighed, shuddered, and rested against him. “I'm a little nervous.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about. I make a good first impression.”
“Do you now?” He could feel her smile.
“I made one on you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you kinda did.” She settled herself against his chest.
“You look amazing, as usual.” He brushed his mouth against the sensitive spot behind her ear.
Aggie sucked in a breath and snuggled closer. “Thank you. You're looking pretty good yourself.”
“Am I interrupting again?” Sebastian swung the door open and sounded suspiciously like he hoped hewasinterrupting.
“No, you're fine.” Aggie reluctantly moved out of his arms and gathered plates and glasses.
“Let me do that.” He gently nudged her aside. “Go rest your arm, I can dish up the food.” Aggie looked tired and drawn tonight, she was trying to hide it, but something was clearly bothering her. As soon as her father left, he was going to get to the bottom of it. “So, Sebastian,” he asked as he drained the spaghetti, “where do you work?”