Buttons and Shame (Buttons 4)

I didn’t truly understand what he did, and I thought I’d ask. “So, what do you do, exactly?”

“I’m an arms dealer.” He didn’t stop reading. “I told you that.”

“So you make weapons and sell them?”

“In a nutshell.”

“How did you get into that business?”

He shut his paper because he realized this conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere. “Curious today, aren’t you?”

“You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to.” He always gave me the privilege of having a choice. I would do the same for him.

“I don’t have to do anything if I don’t want to.” He drank his coffee before he set it down again. His muscles tensed any time he moved, the chiseled lines of his physique protruding out like the lines from a statue. He had an incredible body, toned in the right places and lean in other places. “My father ran the business before us. We inherited it.”

“Didn’t realize you could inherit something criminal.”

“You can inherit anything, just like how I inherited my mother’s eyes.”

“They are pretty.” I blurted it out without thinking, but I was sure Cane knew all of his features were nice.

“Not as pretty as yours.” He took a few bites of his eggs, his eyes downcast. “My parents were killed from a blood war they had with a competitor. Crow and I inherited that as well. He was the one we stole Pearl from.”

The backstory kept getting thicker and thicker. “And he’s dead now, right?”

“Pearl killed him.”

“So now there’s no competitor?”

“Not currently. But other men are looking to take his place. It’s something Crow and I are concerned about.”

“Because?”

“Whoever takes Bones’s place will need to be even more ruthless. We killed one tyrant, but that may give birth to a worse enemy.”

Hearing all this made me miss my old life. It was much simpler. “Sounds like a lot of stress.”

He shrugged. “It can be.”

“Are you ever afraid someone is gonna take a shot at you?”

He opened his newspaper again like this conversation was boring. “I think about it. But no, I’m not afraid. Dying doesn’t scare me.”

I didn’t believe that. “Everyone is afraid to die.”

“It’s natural, so there’s no reason to be scared of it. Life is just a phase. It passes.”

I didn’t know if that was ignorant or extremely wise. “Do you ever think about doing something else?”

He closed his paper again, and this time, put it off to the side. If he was annoyed, he didn’t show it. “Do you think I’m interesting?”

I took a bite of my toast. “I think all my friends are interesting.”

He gave me a look I’d never seen before. “You see me as a friend?”

“What else are you?” We screwed several times a day, but there was nothing romantic between us. We weren’t strangers anymore. And I never thought of us as enemies.

He never answered. “No, I never think about doing anything else. I like being in charge, and I like money.”

I could tell he was loaded by looking at his house and all his cars. “There’s nothing else you’re passionate about?”

“It sounds like you’re judging me.”

I didn’t know what he was referring to. “I’m not. I’m just curious. People usually have three or four passions in life. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but I’ve also wanted to be an artist. Obviously, neither one worked out…”

He kept eating like my words didn’t break his stride. “Actually, I like art too. Paintings, mainly.”

“Yeah?” I couldn’t help but smile because it suited him, oddly enough.

“Yeah. But don’t look at me like I’m some kind of pussy.”

I didn’t drop my smile. “I wasn’t.”

He finished half of his plate in a few bites and left his fork on the empty dish. “You’ve asked me a lot of questions. Now it’s my turn.”

“I’m really not that interesting…”

He finally turned my way so he could see my expression clearly. “Do you enjoy being with me?”

I knew exactly in what context he meant that. He wasn’t referring to our lunches and dinners or our conversations by the fire. He was referring to the nights between the sheets, the sex we had in front of the fireplace.

His eyes were glued to my face, watching every little reaction that I couldn’t control. His dark eyes stared at me without blinking, their intensity scorching.

It was a complicated question, and I’d never taken the time to think about it. When I sat around and thought about things, it usually made me depressed. It was easier to ignore my feelings about my current situation. But there were some innate emotions that were undeniable. I knew exactly how my body felt about Cane the first time he kissed me. Those passions had never gone away. In fact, they roared like the flames in his hearth. “Yes.”

He’d been expecting that answer based on his lack of reaction. “Did you enjoy being with Tristan?”