by Tonya Brooks
Her eyes narrowed as she studied him before Jolie asked, "If I do, will you go away and leave me alone permanently?"
No way in hell would he ever agree to that. Then he remembered that damn oath to Dane and confirmed wearily, "If that's what you want."
***
Against her better judgment, Jolie folded her arms over her chest and nodded her consent. When he cranked the car she asked anxiously, "What are you doing?"
"We can't talk here," he replied and pulled out onto the street.
"Dammit, Reece, stop the car." She yanked on the handle but the door wouldn't open. He'd engaged the safety lock and she was trapped.
"Sunshine, just…"
"Don't call me that," she snapped and her voice held a shrill edge to it.
Reece braked for a stop sign and said in a placating tone, "I'll take you anywhere you want to go after we talk. I'd just like to do it in a civilized setting."
"My apartment…"
"Is not habitable," he cut in.
"Well I'm hardly dressed for the country club," she taunted since she was wearing faded jeans, a T-shirt, and flip-flops.
"It won't matter where we're going."
Knowing that arguing with him was a complete waste of time, Jolie fastened her seatbelt, propped her elbow on the window ledge and rested her head against her hand. In spite of the fact that her life had become one huge nightmare, tonight was the most bizarre thing that had happened to date. And now Reece had practically kidnapped her.
What the hell could happen next?
CHAPTER THREE
Jolie didn't seem inclined to talk during the drive, which was fine with Reece. He didn't want to start what he was certain would be a painful conversation for both of them in the car. And he was still trying to figure out how to explain his insane behavior four years ago. Sorry, I made a mistake just wouldn't cut it.
Nor did he have any desire to delve into the past where the root of his insecurity began. There had to be a way to find a happy medium between the two without divulging his deepest, darkest secrets. Baring his soul would only happen as a last resort, but he'd do it. For her. Reece would do anything for his mate.
Jolie stiffened next to him when he turned into the parking garage of the high rise, but she said nothing as he drove into his reserved parking space. Reece got out, went around to open her door and led her to the private elevator that led directly to the penthouse. "You moved," she finally commented when the doors closed.
"Couldn't stand to live there," he admitted as his eyes met hers in the mirrored door. "Your scent tormented me."
Not only had her scent permeated the place, but there had been too damn many memories that he couldn't escape. Jolie trying to teach him how to cook in the kitchen. Cuddling with his wolf on the living room couch. Hot, steamy showers with even hotter sex in the bathroom. The bedroom had been the absolute worst and he'd never been able to sleep in their bed again.
"Good," she said bitterly and folded her arms over her chest. "I hope it made you miserable."
"It did," Reece confirmed as the doors slid smoothly open and she preceded him into the foyer. The lights came on automatically and Jolie stopped in surprise.
"Motion detectors," he said absently as he followed her inside. "Every room lights up when you enter it. After no movement for three minutes, they go off."
The look she gave him was scathing, to say the least. "I'd almost forgotten how the filthy rich like their toys."
He grimaced at her judgmental tone and the accusation in her words. He'd been living in the lap of luxury while she'd barely been scraping by. Bile rose in his throat again and he had to swallow hard to keep it down. "Have a seat," Reece offered. "Can I get you a drink?"
"Just say whatever the hell you need to so we can get this over with," she insisted as she walked into the living area.
"I'm a bastard," he admitted heavily as he followed. Might as well start with the unvarnished truth.
Jolie merely arched one eyebrow and said, "For once, we agree." She curled up on one end of a couch, tucking her feet beneath her and hugging a throw pillow to her chest. The pose was so familiar and reminiscent of happier times that the words he'd planned to say got lodged in his throat.
If he could just turn back the hands of time and undo everything that he'd done wrong with her, he would. But there were no do-over's in real life so he had no choice except to play the hand he had dealt himself. He sat on the edge of the opposite couch and braced his forearms on his knees.
"There are things you don't know. About me," Reece began and tried to choose his words carefully. "Secrets that… no one needs to know."
Jolie sat up alertly and stared at him wide-eyed. "Oh my God," she said in a shocked tone. "Are you… coming out?"
He stared at her blankly until the meaning sank in and Reece was quick to deny, "Fuck no."
She looked relieved and then confused when she asked, "So… you're not gay?"
If he hadn't been so damn insulted the question would have been laughable. His eyes practically smoldered when Reece demanded in what she had always called his bedroom voice, "Do I need to remind you how hetero I am?"
Desire flashed in her eyes before Jolie blinked and hastily shook her head. "No. I'm good," she denied, but her voice was a shade huskier than it had been.
Reece was elated that she still wanted him. That was definitely a positive sign. This ridiculous turn in the conversation had been useful after all. Getting back on track again, he reiterated, "I am a bastard. If my mother knew who my father really was, she never admitted it."
Her brow crinkled in that adorable way it did when she was confused. "Wait, I thought your father was Douglas Lassiter.
"I'm adopted. So is Dane," he admitted.
***
Reece was seriously messing with her head. He was adopted and he didn't know who his father was. Oh-kay. Jolie didn't understand why it was important or why he was telling her now. "And this is significant because?"
"Because it's the reason why I chose to have a vasectomy," he elaborated. "I never wanted to risk exposing a child…" Reece paused as if searching for the right words before adding, "to that sort of experience."
She sensed there was a lot more that he wasn't saying, but chose to let it go since it wasn't pertinent. Instead, she accused, "That does not excuse or explain the way you behaved when I told you that I was pregnant."
"That's… complicated," he said slowly and was beginning to piss her off.
"Either tell me or take me home, Reece," Jolie insisted and wasn't about to let him off the hook with a bullshit answer.
"Suffice to say it wasn't my first experience with a woman claiming a child belonged to the wrong man," he confessed.
"Oh. I see," Jolie said as realization dawned and she was madder than hell now. "You thought I was lying because another woman said she was having your child."
"That's not what I meant," Reece hastily denied.
"So I'm the only woman who claimed you got her pregnant?" Jolie demanded and saw him hesitate. Narrowing her eyes, she demanded, "Answer me, Reece."
"Technically, no."
"What the hell does that mean?" She demanded in exasperation at his half answers.
"Yes, someone else claimed she was pregnant with my child," he replied as if it made no difference one way or the other. "But it's not relevant to this conversation."
"How the hell is that not relevant?" She demanded indignantly.
***
"Because Clarice isn't important," Reece snapped in exasperation at the conversation getting so far off track. When Jolie gasped in shock he knew he was so screwed. And not in a good way.
"Clarice… Duvall… is pregnant?" She asked as she stood and stared at him with pain etched all over her beautiful face. "That's why you believe me now," she accused and he could tell that the shock was wearing off fast and anger was taking its place. "Because she's having your child!"
Reece had deliberately fostered the erroneous im
pression that he'd had a multitude of lovers since their divorce. Now he wished like hell that he'd let the world know that he'd remained celibate. If the look on Jolie's face was any indication, he was going to stay that way for quite some time.
"I never touched her," he hastily denied as he rose to his feet. "But she is the reason why I had the test done. When the results came back conclusive I realized that Bryce was mine."
Jolie laughed bitterly at that. "I told you that four years ago!"
"Dammit, Jolie, I thought I couldn't have children and when you showed me that fucking ultrasound I went completely insane. The only thing I could think of was that you had betrayed me. That you were trying to pass another man's bastard off as mine. That you were just like…" he caught himself and shut the hell up before he admitted more than he should again.
"Like who, Reece?" She demanded. "I deserve to know whose sins I've had to pay for."
His head and his heart waged an internal battle before he finally grated out, "My mother."
***
Obviously, Reece had some deep seated mommy issues that had clouded his judgment. And she didn't know whether to believe him about the model or not, but the possibility of another woman having his child was like a hot lance through the heart. "Are you going to explain or not?" She demanded irritably.
His expression was as grim as she'd ever seen it when he admitted in a tone void of all inflection, "My mother was a high-priced call girl. She blackmailed her wealthy clients by claiming that Dane and I were theirs. Back then paranormals were still considered abominations and no one wanted it known that they had sired a bastard shifter."
"They paid the greedy bitch a fortune to keep quiet," he said in abject disgust. "We had too many fathers to count, and just as many last names. Little did they know or care that she left us in a rat-infested apartment to fend for ourselves for weeks while she went out and partied the money away."
"As we got older and paranormals lost their stigma, the payments stopped coming in," Reece confessed in a tone void of all inflection, his face an emotionless mask. "So she needed a new source of income. That was when she started pimping us out to pedophiles who wanted the novelty of fucking a shifter."
"My God," she breathed, horrified that a woman could treat her children like that. She was sickened and dismayed at what he and Dane must have suffered at the hands of such a perverse creature. Tears filled her eyes and what was left of her heart bled for them.
"The first time I shifted, I ripped her fucking throat out," he said tonelessly, though his eyes were glowing with the power of his wolf. "I was sent before the local paranormal council for a tribunal. Douglas Lassiter was one of the elders. He got the whole story out of Dane and ruled it a justified kill. Then he adopted us and took us into his pack."
"I had a vasectomy because there was no way in hell that a woman was going to screw me over like my mother did all those men." Reece held her gaze evenly and added, "So maybe now you can understand why I behaved like a fucking fool instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt."
It was almost impossible to believe that he had been raised like that, but it sure as hell did explain a lot about his behavior. After everything that Reece had been through, Jolie did understand, but that didn't mean she was willing to forgive him. Not after he had broken every promise that he had ever made to her.
Because she had believed him when he'd claimed that she was his mate. Jolie had been the one woman in the world who would never, could never, betray him. Because he had been the other half of her soul. Hurting him would have ripped her own heart out. But in the end, it had all been a lie. A terrible, painful lie.
If she really had been his mate, Reece could never have cut her out of his life. Never abandoned her and their child. Never destroyed the perfect love that they had shared. But he had, and she'd never forget it. Pressing a hand to her aching head, she leaned heavily against the arm of the couch. The emotional upheaval was taking its toll.
"I understand," she said wearily. "Now take me home."
"Jolie, it's late," he pointed out in a reasonable tone. "Why don't you stay here tonight? We can finish the conversation in the morning."
"There's nothing left to say, Reece," she denied. "You explained why you didn't trust me and didn't want our child. End of conversation."
"But I do," he insisted. "I want my son, Jolie."
Fire filled her eyes and she growled warningly, "Don't even think about taking him away from me, Reece. I'll do anything to keep Bryce."
***
And there it was.
Jolie had just handed him the perfect opportunity to exploit her weakness and have her completely at his mercy. Ruthless son of a bitch that he was, it was on the tip of his tongue to promise that he wouldn't if she came back to him. But he couldn't bring himself to utter the words that would give him everything he wanted.
It was exactly what his mother would have done in this situation and the realization sickened him. There was no way in hell he could ever take advantage of Jolie like that. Nor would he use his son for selfish gain. He'd hurt them both enough already. Dane was right. It had to be her decision.
***
"I swear I'll never try to take him from you," he assured her and damned if he didn't look as sincere as he sounded. "Please, Jolie. Let me be his father."
Jolie knew that she could not in good conscience refuse Bryce the right to know his father. She also knew what a ruthless bastard Reece was and didn't trust a damn thing he said. Right then she was just too tired to think and he was making her head spin. "We'll discuss it in the morning," she finally relented.
"You'll stay?" He asked and looked pleasantly surprised.
"Where's the guest room?"
"You can have the master," he offered and led her to the master suite where he pressed a button on the LED panel just inside the door. "I deactivated the motion sensor so the lights won't come on if you roll over," he explained. "Make yourself at home, Jolie."
"Sure," she said in lieu of the snarky comment that she was just too tired to make and closed the door between them. Jolie turned off the light, made her way over to the bed and snuggled into the exquisite feel of sheer decadence. God, she missed silk sheets. And a mattress without lumps and springs.
And the scent of Reece's cologne. She grabbed the pillow he obviously used and inhaled deeply. Mmm. Pressing the pillow to her chest it was all too easy to imagine that she was curled up against him. She was just too tired to fight the warm fuzzies the thought gave her and Jolie was asleep within minutes.
***
Reece was equally exhausted but nowhere near capable of sleep. He was emotionally wrung out from the day's events. Sharing his shameful past was the hardest thing he'd ever done. There were some things a man never wanted the woman that he loved to know, but his mate had deserved nothing less than the painful truth.
He just hoped like hell that it made a difference.
He'd lost what little humanity he had possessed when he'd turned his back on Jolie and become more beast than man. His wolf was content now that their mate was in their home, but he was also chomping at the bit to go cuddle with her like he used to do. Unfortunately, that wasn't even an option at this point.
Neither was sleep. His mind was consumed with thoughts of Jolie. The one he'd lost and the one he'd found. Trying to reconcile the two was giving him a headache. His sunshine girl and the woman sleeping in his bed were polar opposites. One had been full of life, all smiles and happiness. The other had been beaten down by life, filled with bitterness and anger.
And he was the reason why she had changed. Why she'd become hard and brittle. Never in a million years would he have believed the bright-eyed, happy woman he'd married would become the furious woman he'd encountered tonight. Jesus, it seemed a lifetime had passed since the day he'd met her five years ago.
Reece had been out for his morning run and because of roadwork, he'd been forced to deviate from his usual route. Since the coffee shop he normal
ly frequented was in the opposite direction, he'd stopped at one a few doors down from his building to get his daily fix of caffeine. Busy checking his phone for messages, he hadn't even looked at the cashier when he'd placed his order.
Immersed in firing off a response to an email, he'd paid the bill and stepped over to the side to wait. At that hour there was no one else in the shop, so when the barista had said in an amused tone, "Large, black, really hot guy," he'd looked up. The grinning young man had shown him what was written on the cup and nodded at the cashier. "Guess she thinks you're hot."
Reece had looked over at the woman and felt the breath catch in his throat. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but wisps of spun gold framed her face. A delicate blush stained her cheeks and the way she lowered her lashes over crystal blue eyes assured him that she had embarrassed herself. His phone had pinged a response and he'd flashed the cashier a smile and a wink before heading off to get ready for work.
Thanks to the roadwork, he'd run the same route for over a week. Every morning when he walked into the coffee shop, the cashier would cheerfully say, "Good morning, Really Hot Guy." Reece was no stranger to flirtatious women. They came hand in hand with wealth and power. But something about this woman was a hell of a lot more innocent than the avaricious creatures he was accustomed to.
She was just so fucking cheerful and her smiles were infectious. Even after the roadwork was finished, he didn't switch back to his old route. His morning just wasn't complete without one of those bright as sunshine smiles and he actually missed them on the days she didn't work. Her smile was more potent than the caffeine.
He'd been a regular for a couple of weeks when she had asked, "Are you ever going to tell me your name?" When he'd stared at her blankly, she had gestured with the pen and cup she held. Those blue eyes had sparkled mischievously and she'd said, "Or I can just keep calling you Really Hot Guy."
That was when Reece realized that she didn't know who he was. His face was splashed over the media often enough that people recognized him on sight. Especially women. Yet this one didn't have a clue that she'd been casually flirting with the multi-billionaire Supreme Alpha wolf shifter. She just thought he was a really hot guy.