Chapter 31

• Chapter Thirty One
• A few weeks passed by and Elaine was feeling a lot more sure-footed in her new life. Derek was right. She’d tried to instantly eliminate her old self and be this acceptable person she’d constructed in her mind and nearly tipped her entire world off the axis at the first test. She was coming to learn perfect didn’t exist and it wasn’t easy to translate fantasy into reality. The only reason she’d been considered a perfect assassin in the first place was because she outlived the entire first class of Black Widows. Now she was discovering that letting change take its course as slow as it wanted, made it easier for her to adjust and assimilate. She wasn’t trying to be Ellie or Tasha anymore, she was learning to be Elaine one day after the other with Derek’s help. It was fun and less stressful.
• By the second week having a house full of people didn’t make her itch anymore. She actually loved the crowd, even when they would argue. It was overwhelming sometimes, but she always walked out into the backyard and took in the fresh air and a minute or two to herself before she joined the circus again with steadier nerves. It was amusing to watch Alonzo give up control to his son. The man was an alpha and being the head of the household was a reflex and, so he believed, his right. Elaine was under the impression that she was the head because she owned the six bedroom home, but Derek had sneakily paid her back for half of its cost and since the house was in Katya’s name, there was little Elaine could do about it. He’d even moved himself into the master bedroom. That did make her nervous, lying next to him every night. His breath at the back of her neck, his arm lazily tossed over her waist and his body unconsciously—he would like her to believe—in his sleep curving around hers in a protective and possessive gesture. She was so glad Katya still slept in the same room. This new discovery had made her shy in the sex department.