When Taeyong came home, Nari was pacing around the living room. He walked in and she nearly shouted, "Here's why I'm sleeping with you. Because I like it."
"Sounds good to me."
"And because I can."
"Yes. Absolutely."
"And it's not for your goddamn money."
"That's not really what I'm paying you for. That's illegal." She stopped her pacing and looked at him. He said, "Besides, I think you should be paying me."
fell open, and then she snapped it shut. "You're not that good, Lee."
He smiled slightly and took a step forward, sensing the danger was over. "No?"
"I've had better."
He shook his head. "No, you haven't."
She sniffed and put her nose in the air. "How do you know?"
He took another step closer, reaching for her hand. "Because I've never had better. And I've had more experience than you."
"Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's always like that for whoever I'm with."
The thought made him a little light-headed. "Is it?"
She didn't answer him and he started breathing again. He nodded to the new hole in the wall. "Redecorating? Or did I interrupt you hiding your stash?" He pulled her toward him. "I'm not going to be able to find it in the walls."
"I threw the screwdriver after your mother paid me a visit."
He murmured, "The screwdriver. Should have got rid of that as well."
He'd known his mother had visited; the doorman had informed him on the way in. Taeyong had tipped him handsomely for the heads-up.

Nari said, "Why don't you get rid of your mother? Send her on a cruise for the next week."
"I don't really mind you two fighting. There are some side effects that work in my favor."
"I mind."
"You're just trying to get out of dinner."
She blew out a breath. "I'm not going to dinner with that woman ever again."
"I'll let you bring the screwdriver."
She pursed her lips and scowled at him. "Don't make me laugh. I'm mad."
"No. You were mad. Now you're a little bit . And wanting to get back at my mother."
"Oh, is that what I am?"
Taeyong nodded. "All that energy needs to go somewhere. I'd prefer it go into my bed and not my walls."
She shook her head. "I've wised up. I'm not getting into your bed again because of your mother."
"So when I get you into bed tonight, it will be because you want to be there?"
She cocked her head. "I can admit that. You're pretty good in bed."
It was the first he was hearing about it but he kissed her lightly. "Be sure and let the Enquirer know that in your exit interview."
She laughed, missing the droop in his face, in his body. She said, "That won't help keep women away from you. Isn't that what you're paying me for?"
"I've honestly forgotten what I'm paying you for. I thought it was the ."

She groaned. "That's what your mother thinks."
"And we're back to my mother." He pulled her toward the door and took a large manila envelope out of his briefcase. "Let's move away from her and onto your intrusive relations."
She in a breath. "Has he been bothering you?" She looked at the lacerations on his hand. "Did you hit him?"
"Haven't heard a peep from him. I had him looked into." He looked at his hand, wiggling his fingers slowly, and grimaced. "And my hand met with an unfortunate accident this morning at the gym."
She grabbed his hand, pulling it up and inspecting it. "What happened?"
"Just a deal went bad. I got angry."
"What could have possibly made you so angry? You're a lover, not a fighter."
"Was that an insult?"
"No. It was. . . the truth. You wouldn't ever hit anybody. I didn't even think you would imagine hitting somebody."
He smiled coldly. Remembering how he'd imagined beating her father's face into a pulp.
He said, "I will admit it's never happened before."
"Maybe you do need a vacation. Violence isn't like you. You might love someone to death to get your way, but you wouldn't get violent." She pursed her lips. "You're not mature enough to realize you can't always have what you want."

She was right. He wasn't that mature. At all. He smiled at her, charmingly, and she narrowed her eyes.
He said, "It was just a moment, I won't do it again."
He could see she was going to want to know all about the deal went bad so he said, "It was probably just low blood sugar. You should hide some chocolate in my gym bag." He slid the envelope between them. "Here's what my investigator found out about your father."
She took a step back. "I don't want to know."
He nodded but said, "He's left the country. And he wasn't lying about your sister."
"He left?"
She took the envelope from him. Took out a couple of large pictures of her father and a dark-haired, extremely pregnant woman. She was holding a little girl's hand and scowling up at her father's face. He looked amused, and Taeyong's hand clenched into a fist.
Nari murmured, "Pregnant. He didn't mention that."
Taeyong breathed in through his nose. He would be the voice of reason if it killed him. "Maybe he didn't want to throw it at you all at once."
Nari snorted. "He just didn't think it would get me where he wants me to go."
She looked at the little girl with dark hair and hazel eyes and whispered, "."
He'd had the same reaction. The little girl looked like a miniature Nari.
He said, "These were taken in Japan."

She looked up in surprise. "Japan?"
He nodded. "That's where they've lived for the last five years. A little village on the coast."
She looked down again at the little girl, clearly worried that her father had another daughter.
Taeyong said, "She has her mother."
Nari nodded, running a finger along the scowl on the woman's face. "He said his wife didn't believe a word he said. Maybe her daughter won't believe him either." She put the pictures back in the envelope. "I'm not going to bite. Whatever game he's playing, I don't care."
"You think he's trying to get something from you? By leaving you alone?"
She dropped the envelope back into Taeyong's briefcase. "I don't know. But he usually is. It's not the risk."
"What if it is? He's your family. What if he's ready for a daughter?"
She looked at him as if she couldn't believe he'd said that. He couldn't believe it himself.
"Are you trying to reconcile me to my father?"
"No. I'm trying to make you happy."
Nari smiled at him and he realized it was the truth. Taeyong wanted her happy, even if that meant throwing her towards a man who had nearly destroyed her.
She said, "I tell you, it's a disease."
"He's your father. Your sister. Are you really telling me you don't want that?"
"I'd rather have no family than him."
Taeyong shook his head and she said, "It's not a coincidence that he found me after I got engaged to you. I don't think he's stupid enough to think he'd ever get anything from me, but if he can get back in my good graces, he can get access to a lot of people who just might be."

Taeyong narrowed his eyes at her. "I assume you are not referring to me."
"He might even get you." She shook her head. "You don't understand what he's like. He'll strip everything from you and you'll thank him when he's done."
He looked down his nose at her. "He wouldn't get me."
She conceded. "Probably not. It was more a hope that he'd go after your mother."
"She must have really pissed you off."
Her face clouded over. "She thinks I'm some money-grubbing ."
"She said that?"
"She implied it." Nari thought about it. "She looks at me like she thinks that."
"I think you're seeing what's not there."
She pointed her fi