But at least he had Esme. Turning, he slowly sauntered back toward the mansion, replaying their conversations in his head.
“You gonna be with Mummy and me forever and ever?”
He stopped again. What had he said when she’d asked him that? He’d been caught by surprise and still smarting from Tori’s earlier rejection when she’d learned he’d shot off his big mouth to the press and he’d just snapped out a no as unequivocal as the one that had given him such a sting a short while later. He tried to remember now if she’d been standoffish before then.
Damned if he could remember. There had been his mood at the time, her less-than-thrilled attitude at discovering he was cutting her out of the process of informing Es of her parentage, and at this point he didn’t know what was what.
So is this the kind of uncertainty you want to hang your future on, Ace?
He snapped to attention. No. Hell, no. If love meant putting yourself on the line, even if it turned out the other person didn’t feel the same way as you, so be it. Better at this point to chance getting his teeth kicked down his throat than to torture himself trying to second-guess what Victoria felt. At least he’d know one way or the other.
With renewed determination, he picked up his pace. She hadn’t been in her rooms when he’d turned Esme over to Helen, so there was no point in looking for her there. In the tree he’d heard her say something about a room that had always bothered her. The only one he remembered her ever mentioning in that context was the one he used for his office. It seemed unlikely she’d go there, but he’d check it out, all the same.
It was at least a place to start.
SHEER POSSESSIVENESS GAVE Victoria a fresh surge of power and the distracting fear abruptly cleared from her head. She’d already made up her mind it was better to die trying than to docilely accept certain death by stepping into her father’s secret closet. But DeeDee had made a big, big mistake when she’d taunted her about Rocket.
“Screw you,” she snapped. “I left John once before without fighting for him. Damned if I intend to do it again.” While the other woman gaped at her, she stepped back, swept the box from the shelf and, clutching it to her chest, quickly stepped around the front of the bookcase to prevent DeeDee from trapping her behind it. Giving the other woman, who stood foursquare between her and freedom, a quick assessment, she came to a decision. DeeDee wanted a war of words? She could do that. To hell with manners—she had good cause to know nice girls finish last.
“Look, Big D,” she taunted. “I’ve got the bonds. You want them, come and get them—if you can.” She gave the other woman an insolent once-over. “Put on a few pounds lately, haven’t you?”
“You bitch! You’d better watch your mouth, because I’ve got the knife, and it won’t take much to make me use it.”
Victoria shrugged as if it were a minor consideration. “You’ll need it, Chubs. I’m younger and fitter.”
DeeDee’s mouth opened and closed several times before she finally sputtered, “You’re kidding me, right? I’m only a few years older than you and I play tennis every day!”
“Big deal. I chase after a five-year-old. And face it, both of us know we can count your age in slut years. Besides, I’ve got news for you, Blondie—I’ve got a much longer reach and I can run circles around a roly-poly little thing like you any day of the week. More importantly, I’m smarter. Oh, and Big D—?”
“Quit calling me that!”
She shrugged. “I was merely going to say that you could present yourself to John stark naked on a silver platter and he wouldn’t look twice. Father truly was more your speed.”
DeeDee screeched and launched herself at Victoria, but Tori was ready for her and sidestepped the charge, dancing away from the bookcase when the other woman crashed into it and inadvertently slammed it shut. The knife dropped from DeeDee’s hand.
Victoria didn’t know whether to go for the weapon or make a run for it. So much for smarter, she thought sourly when she decided on the latter and found she’d hesitated a second too long. She really wished she’d run while the running was good when she saw DeeDee dive for the knife, because no way on earth would she voluntarily present her back to the other woman. Leaping forward, she kicked at the knife just as DeeDee reached for it.
The other woman got her hand wrapped around it anyway and rolled onto her back where she started slashing wildly, preventing Victoria from kicking again. Victoria backpedaled as fast as she could, but realized she had underestimated DeeDee’s speed when the woman scrambled to her feet. Swearing under her breath, Tori threw the box at the blonde as hard as she could.
As she’d hoped, DeeDee dropped the knife to catch the box of bonds. Taking advantage of the other woman’s momentary preoccupation, she whirled and ran for the door. Before she could reach it, however, it opened and she ran smack up against a hard surface.
She let loose a single eardrum-piercing scream of shock. Long arms wrapped around her and although she’d managed to keep her wits about her up until now, she abruptly lost it and began kicking and struggling. Oh, God. DeeDee had an accomplice.
“Tori, calm down,” said a firm, no-nonsense voice. “I’ve got you.”
She knew that voice and its familiar lack of sentimentality sank into her panicked mind and calmed her as nothing else could have. She tipped her head back to stare up into John’s face, her gaze traveling over every beloved centimeter as she curled her fingers in his shirt. “Oh, God, Rocket, oh, God. I thought I’d never see you again. It was DeeDee. She killed Father and I found the bonds and she wanted to steal them and lock me up in the wall and we fought and, and—”
She was babbling like an idiot, but John apparently understood. His eyes narrowing, he abruptly set her aside and crossed the room in a few long strides. Reaching down, he grabbed hold of the knife that DeeDee had once again managed to pick up, wrenched it from her grip, flipped it in the air and caught it by the tip of its blade. He sent it winging, embedding it with a solid thunk in the spine of a book on the second-to-the-top shelf. Then he snapped his fingers around her wrist like a handcuff.
She looked down at his long, tanned fingers, then slowly raised her head. Her shoulders went back, her breasts lifted and licking her lips, she rubbed up against his side. “I’ve got a fortune in bonds here,” she said giving the box clutched to her side a little jiggle. “Help me get rid of Victoria and you and I can have a real good time spending it.”
“Let me get this straight. You want me to—”
Victoria made a rude noise. “Kill me.”
“No, no.” DeeDee pressed closer yet, looking up at him with choir-girl eyes. “I wouldn’t ask you to kill her. Just shut her up long enough for us to get away. It’s not like you two are an item anymore or anything. She told me herself that you dumped her this afternoon.”
He turned to stare at Victoria, who raised her chin slightly. His face was expressionless and she didn’t exactly hear him rushing to deny it.
“She told you that, huh?”
“Yes, she did. So I’m offering you a twofer. Here’s your chance at the brass ring and the best sex you’ve ever had.”
John didn’t even glance down at the female nestled next to his side. “Tori was mistaken. I was under the impression she dumped me.” His jet eyes bored into Victoria’s. “Call the cops, darlin’. Then you and I have got some serious talking to do.”
“No! You bastard!” Spewing obscenities, DeeDee kicked out at him, twisting to pull free of his grasp and snapping at his arm with her teeth when his hold didn’t loosen. John did something to her wrist that put an immediate stop to her struggles. The box tumbled to the floor, spilling its contents, and she sagged against him. Staring down at the bonds scattered across the hardwood floor, tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
Victoria simply stood and stared, until John looked over at her and repeated, “Call the cops.” Then he gave her a big white grin. “Darlin’.”
She turned to do his bidding, but even as she pun
ched out 911 on the phone’s keypad, the only thought she could seem to hold on to for more than three seconds running was: he thought I dumped him? When? They did have to talk. Then the memory of that killer Miglionni smile and the second, deliberate darlin’ floated across her consciousness and the corners of her lips curled up.
Of course, it was too much to expect that the situation could be handled either quickly or quietly. The police arrived with sirens blaring, which the detective who showed up with the surly Detective Simpson admitted had sent the reporters at the gates into a frenzy. And everyone in the household came running to see what had caused the ruckus. Victoria let Jared stay but sent Esme back to Helen and the staff about their business. Finally, however, after Victoria and John had explained discovering the existence of the bonds and she’d told the police over and over again how she’d come to realize there was a secret space and demonstrated how the closet worked, they took DeeDee away and the room finally cleared of everyone but her, John and Jared.
John turned to her brother. “I know you probably have more questions, but would you mind giving your sister and me a few minutes? We’ve got some things we need to hammer out and they’ve been put off too long already.”
“Sure.” Jared headed across the room, but turned at the door to look back at them. A smile transformed the soberness that too often had been his natural expression lately. “This is going to be all over the news, isn’t it.”
It wasn’t really a question, but John nodded anyway. “Yeah. Your name’s going to be publicly cleared, buddy. That’s a good thing.”
“Yeah.” Jared’s smile grew wider. “That’s a real good thing.”
Then he was gone, slamming the door exuberantly behind him and John turned back to Victoria. He trailed a tough-skinned fingertip over her cheek and she registered the touch all the way down to her toes.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She nodded.
He shifted slightly, shoving his hands into his pockets and balancing on the balls of his feet. “Tori—do you love me?” He promptly grimaced and shook his head. “Sorry. You don’t have to answer that. I’m going about this backward. I was specifically looking for you, you know, when I walked in on your little catfight with DeeDee.”
“You were?”
“Yeah.” He moved closer. “Because I realized today that I love you—and I figured I owed it to you to at least tell you…without expecting anything in return.”
Joy, in its purest form, burst inside her like a brilliant, multicolored pyrotechnic. It was like the Fourth of July and her birthday and the way she’d felt the first time she’d held Esme all rolled into one, only multiplied a hundredfold.
“I’ve always made a point of playing it safe when it comes to women,” John went on in a low, hoarse voice. “But I don’t want to do that with you. Whether you return my feelings or not, I want you to know you’re the only one for me.”
“I do, though. I love you, too.”
“Otherwise it’s just…what?” A slow, whiter-than-white smile spread across his face. “Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah. I love you so much, John, and I’d sort of started to assume we were headed somewhere with this relationship. I felt like dying when you told Es there was nothing between us.”
“Because I thought it was what you wanted! You were so pissed when I told the reporters I was her dad and—”
“We hadn’t even told her yet, and I didn’t want some enterprising yellow journalist looking up her birth certificate and broadcasting the Father Unknown from here to kingdom come!”
“Yeah, I figured that out once I actually thought it through, but at the time I had it in my mind that you were ashamed of me, that you didn’t think I was good enough to publicly acknowledge as the father of your kid.”
Stepping close, she smacked him on the chest with the flat of her hand. “When are you going to realize who I am?”
“I did, darlin’. Earlier, I did just that. I figured out once and for all what I knew instinctively in Pensacola but kept forgetting here—that you’ve never been and never will be that kind of elitist. I know that if you don’t like something I’ve done or don’t want me for whatever reason, I can trust you to tell me up front.” He jerked her against him and looked down the length of his nose at her with the arrogance she both loved and deplored. “So, we’re gonna get married for real, right? I think we oughtta. And soon.”
She blinked up at him. That was his big apology? That was his proposal? Then she smiled crookedly and looped her arms around his neck. What the hell. John was like a cat who’d come late to hearth and home: almost domesticated, but not quite. Maybe that would improve as he learned to trust in her love for him—or maybe he wouldn’t ever be entirely tame. She was pretty sure he’d never be a Hallmark card kind of guy. It didn’t matter, because in all the ways that counted he showed his love. He was the man who hadn’t hesitated to put his heart on the line for her—with no expectation of getting anything in return.
She kissed him, hard and quick, then pulled back. “Soon works for me. You want a nice big society wedding?”
“God, no! That is—that’s not what you want, is it?” His eyes narrowed as she grinned up at him. “Ah. You’re jerking my chain. Very cute.”
Her grin widened. “Admit it, when it comes to anything society you’re just too easy to tease—although in all honesty I think you fit in better with the country-club set than I do.” He laughed and she kissed him again. When they came up for air this time, she said, “Something small and private would suit me. Just you and me and Jared and Es, with a few family and friends. That sound more your style?”
“Much.” He eyed the desk covetously, then set her loose and stepped back. “We’d better get out of here,” he said with patent reluctance. “Much as I’ve developed a lech for you on desktops, we’ve got a couple of kids who are probably dying of curiosity. If we want to satisfy it—and more importantly, avoid putting on a show the entire household will hear—we’ve got to deliver me from temptation.”
They were laughing when they left the office, but paused to kiss a few yards down the hall. It had just begun to heat up when Jared’s voice intruded. “Jeez, you two.”
John pulled back and turned to give the young man an unabashed, ear-to-ear grin. “Hey. I’d like you to be the first to know your sister has just agreed to marry me.”
Jared’s smile froze. Then, eyes shadowed and posture stiff, he nodded politely. “That’s nice. Congratulations. I’ll, uh, start looking for a new school.”
It broke Victoria’s heart that experience had accustomed her brother to expect nothing else. Father’s marriages had equalled getting shipped off to school.
Before she could open her mouth to reassure him, however, John said, “Yeah, maybe you should do that.”
Her head jerked up and she stared at him in dumbfounded betrayal. “Rocket!”
He stepped away from her toward her brother. “Start looking in Denver,” he advised over her protests. Hooking his elbow around Jared’s neck, he hauled him in, scrubbing his knuckles atop the boy’s head, which was nearly on a level with his own. “That’s where you’ll be living, with us.”
Oh, God. She should have known better and she loved him, loved him, loved him so much it hurt.
Esme’s radar must have been working overtime, because she came clattering down the stairs and within moments the entire household was assembled to hear the details of DeeDee’s arrest and learn of their plans to wed. The latter called for an impromptu ice-cream party in the kitchen.
It was a good hour and a half later before Victoria finally got John to herself again. She followed him into his bedroom, closed the door, then launched herself into his arms. Laughing, he waltzed her over to the bed and dipped her until they both tumbled onto the mattress.
Victoria gazed up at him solemnly when he propped himself over her, his forearms on either side of her shoulders and his lanky body looming over hers. His ponytail slid over his shoulder
to pool on her chest and she reached for it, wrapping it around her hand. “You just had a taste of the chaos that’s going to be your life from now on. You still willing to sign on for this?”
“Hell, yeah. I grew up without much in the way of a family—I’m really gonna dig belonging to one.” Lowering his head, he nuzzled along her jaw. “And make no mistake about it, darlin’, you all are mine.”
“Good.” She arched her neck. “Have any opinions about adding to it?”
He raised his head to look down at her. “Have more babies, you mean?” His eyes lit up. “Sure. What the hell. Let’s build us a dynasty.”
“A dynasty? Why, Mr. Miglionni.” She batted her eyes at him. “Do you think you’re up to the task?”
Lowering himself over her, he wiggled his hips.
“Oooh. I see that you are.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “What do you say we get started?”
“Now?” She let her thighs fall apart and sighed when he immediately made himself at home between them.
“No time like the present, darlin’. I believe in giving one hundred percent to any project. And if the first effort doesn’t take, you know what they say.” He kissed her until her bones felt like warm candle wax. Then he pulled back to gaze down at her. His smile was lopsided, his eyes full of love and his fingers were gentler than a summer breeze as they traced her damp, swollen lips. Lowering his head, he whispered in her ear. “Prac-tice, prac-tice, prac-tice.”
EPILOGUE
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HOURS John found himself alone. Propping his shoulders against a wall of the intimate Brown Palace banquet room he and Tori had rented for their wedding reception, he savored his happiness. He tapped his foot in time with the four-piece band playing at the other end of the room, surprised no one was dancing on the minuscule floor. Attendance in the room, however, was momentarily sparse. His bride had slipped away with the women and even Coop and Zach, who’d been having a grand time toasting and roasting him, had disappeared a few minutes ago. He had a sneaking suspicion they were out in the parking lot messing with his car. He’d probably find all kinds of embarrassing crap tied to it when he and Tori left. You’d think they were teenagers instead of grown men, but Jared acted more mature.
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