“You don’t know Laura,” Billy said. “And I’m guessing you don’t even know what love is. Maybe what you should do is give yourselftime to see what the two are like. To learn to love?” “I’m … not capable of it,” he said.“Everyone is capable of love, Johannes. Even you. Even Leon. Everyone is capable of love.”Johannes went to say otherwise, but he felt Laura’s hand twitch within his grasp. “Laura?” He stared at her eyes, and then looked down at her hand.“What is it?”“She squeezed my hand. I felt it. Laura, I’m here. I’m here,” he said.Her hand squeezed his.“I felt it too,” Billy said. “I’ll go get a doctor and Leon.”Billy left the room, and Johannes stood up, placing a hand by her head, staring down into her eyes.Laura opened her eyes, and he looked into her deep-brown depths. “I was never afraid,” Laura said.“Then I guess you and I are going to have to watch a horror because I don’t believe you.”She smiled and then groaned. “Do I want to know what happened?”“You were shot,”
While Laura had been in the hospital, Johannes had been alerted to another call, putting a price on Laura’s head—alive. She had to be taken alive. It was why he’d kept her in the hospital. Three people had tried to get to her. All of them had failed, but as attempts had been made to hold the people intent on killing her, they’d taken some kind of poison and killed themselves.The bounty on her head wasn’t a lot, so the people making the attempts were amateurs. Whoever was trying to fuck with them was low level, or they didn’t have the appropriate funds to take them on.This brought him to another confusing part of all of this. His father was rich. Money wasn’t a problem. He could funnel money to any person, hide the actual transaction, and have a professional kill Laura.The more he thought about the restaurant, the more confused he got. If his father wanted Laura dead, he wouldn’t have it done sloppily like that. It would be clean. Their enemies would struggle to be caught.“You’re g
She felt a little sick. And she didn’t like the bad taste in her mouth. Was this jealousy? Why would she feel this way about a man she had no feelings for? It made no sense.She hated it.“I’m not good with words. I never have been.” “I think it’s best that you go,” Laura said.“Johannes doesn’t know what it means to care, even when he does. He says that he doesn’t have feelings for you, but I saw his face when you got shot, Laura. He cares, in his own way. You’ve justgot to give him time. Give him a chance.”Saya removed his hand and got to his feet.She watched him, curious what his game was, but he left without another word.Taking a sip of the hot chocolate he’d brought her, she was pleasantly surprised. It was sweet, just the way she liked it, with just the right amount of chocolate. It was … delicious.She took another sip and stared at the door.There was no way she was going to cave that easily. Johannes had said he didn’t love her, that he might one day care about her, but s
“That’s a pretty good picture, kid,” Johannes said. He hadn’t quite mastered the art of knowing who was called what. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure if he was any good with kids, but he had five of them around the table with him.It had been three days since he brought up adopting them completely with Laura. His dad had told him to find any means necessary to win Laura over, and this place seemed like a solid plan. There was also a tiny slim part of them that was starting to adore the kids and enjoy their company.He never thought he’d enjoy dealing with a bunch of screaming brats, but he did. They were a lot of fun to be around. Growing up, he never had the luxury of sitting there and coloring in pictures or drawing.However, at the ripe age of thirty-five, he was finally getting the chance to do that. What he wasn’t doing was drawing what he knew. The kids didn’t need to see death, blood, and destruction. All they needed to know was rainbows and houses, and well, he dr
The basement wasn’t so bad.Several years ago, Leon had donated the money to get it decorated and to turn it into a hangout room for the kids. Just another room for them to enjoy.Sitting on the sofa in front of Marcell, Cash, and Saya, Laura started to feel like it was more of a horror movie as they kept looking at her, and she felt so out of place. She didn’t know what to say or do.They just stared at her and Johannes as they sat on either end of the sofa. A nice large gap between them.“This won’t do,” Saya said. “You need to sit closer together.” “Noted,” Johannes said.“So do it now.” Marcell held his hands out and waved them in front of him, pointing for them both to get closer together.“I don’t think we need guidance for this. How hard can it be?” Laura asked.“When you both came down here, you took the furthest space possible together. If you need to convince a roomful of people staring at you like you’re under a microscope, every single little detail of your actions is goin
“Agreed.” Marcell pointed his bottle toward him. “She always seems nervous around us, but not because we’re a temptation to her.”“Johannes’s not used to being near an innocent woman. Look at the women before her. Especially Borham.” Cash sipped at his beer.“I like her,” Saya said.“Borham?” Marcell and Cash asked at the same time.“God, no, that woman is a fucking vulture. No, I’m talking about Laura. She isn’t afraid of Johannes. He can’t just walk all over her. She has a fire inside her. I think she’s his match, but he’s too damn stubborn to realize it.” Saya shook his head. “We’ve got to help bring them together. Johannes will be a lot happier if he’s in love.” “We don’t know that,” Marcell said.“Look at how he is here.”“This is fucking nightmare central,” Cash said.“So many fucking kids,” Marcell said.“And yet, look at Johannes. I saw him smile at a kid. He loves them, guys. You’ve seen it. I know you have. Laura is good for him. They’re good for each other, and we have a du
Johannes wasn’t supposed to appear human, or nice, or for her to feel sorry for him in any way, but he was doing it right now. “I promise you that I won’t ever lie to you,” Laura said.“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”“I’ve never lied,” Laura said. “Even when you’ve asked me if I’ve wanted to be married to you. The answer was no. I didn’t want to ever get married. If what you say is true and everyone has lied to you in the past, then I make it my vow and promise to you, as your wife, I will never lie to you.”“Never?”She shook her head and then agreed. “Never. I’ll always tell you the truth.”“Would you like me to fuck you right now?” Johannes asked.Her eyes went wide, and she couldn’t help but look down at his enormous dick. She assumed he had a tiny one because his attitude was so sucky, but it would seem Johannes was blessed. Not only was he good looking, he also had an amazing dick.“Er, I, er, I don’t know how to answer that.”Johannes took a step toward her. “It’s simple.
Laura had gotten the all-clear from the doctor. There was no damage inside, and her stitches had completely healed. Johannes kissed around the small bandage on her stomach the other night, and he watched her now, chasing after kids.They were all having a lot of fun, and he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. She looked so happy and at peace, and to him, that was beautiful.“Do you love her?” Stuart asked, coming to sit with him.This little boy would randomly come and sit with him. He was a cute kid, and if Johannes was being honest, the longer he spent at the orphanage, all the kids were starting to grow on him.He liked being around them. Even at breakfast and at dinner, when they were all arguing about what they wanted to eat. Billy would randomly visit with baked goodies, and he’d started to develop a sweet tooth.Did he want to lie to the kid?“I don’t know what love is,” Johannes said. “Do you?” Stuart sighed.He found it cute that he tried to seem tough, worldly even.“Yeah,