“They were prostitutes.” Sophia said it, but not in the form of a question.
“In a way. They were very lovely and one of the prominent Nazi families took them in, for their own purposes, only some of them sexual. They were obsessed with identical twins and experimented on them, lightening their skin and other things. Of course they tried to twist their minds too, which wasn’t too difficult with Vinita. But Solange resisted and finally she got away. Vinita didn’t. Probably didn’t even want to. For a few years, I think Solange was happy and she had a baby.”
Sophia gasped.
“Yes, Solange was your mother, Sophia, not Vinita.”
“Are you, I mean it’s ridiculous I have to ask this, in front of everybody, and all, but—”
“No. I’m not your father. I was in love with Solange but she just considered me a friend. Then one day, a few years after she had disappeared, Solange just showed up in this middle-of-nowhere French town I was working. And she had with her this little girl with long dark curls and huge eyes. She begged me to take you in. Told me that Vinita had never let her go, that she hounded her and followed her and threatened to turn her baby over to the Nazi family.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure I ever did either, Sophia. I think, well, I think Solange was pregnant when she ran away, some kind of experiment since most of the men in that family were sterile.”
“So no Daddy hiding somewhere, I take it, unless he’s a Nazi.”
Brendan hugged her close when she said it.
“I don’t really know. I just know she said that Vinita was obsessed with giving you back to the family. That she could always find you if you were with Solange because, and this was Solange talking, there was some twin bond that existed. Or maybe something the Nazis had done to them, I don’t know. But she claimed Vinita could always find her, no matter where she ran. I told her I didn’t know anything about children. This wasn’t the life for you, but she begged me and, and I loved her, so I did. Maybe it wasn’t right, Sophia. I don’t know.”
“Is Sophia the name she gave me?”
“Yes.”
“So where is she now? My mother.”
“Vinita caught up to her eventually and I don’t know what happened. According to Vinita, she killed her. But as you know, Vinita tells a lot of lies.”
“How the hell did she wind up as Michelle Sheldon, married to a US senator?” Kendon asked.
Michaels answered that one. “One of my old buddies was on the SEALs detail back on the island. Off the record, he told me a little about the operation. This Vinita’s marriage was arranged with the obvious goal of trying to influence US policy. Apparently, Senator Sheldon is a traitor, not that it will ever come out outright like that of course. He’ll probably just retire and then have a heart attack care of either his friends in South America or some more ruthless members of our government.”
“But the point is,” Arthur continued, not breaking eye contact with Sophia, “when Vinita did start masquerading as a senator’s wife, she somehow tracked us down. The first time was a few months ago. She threatened to deliver you, Sophia, back to South America if I didn’t do what she said. We ran, but she caught up to us again. I’ve seen Vinita slit men’s throats without blinking an eye. And that was before the Nazis got a hold of her. I’d hate to think of what she’s capable of now. When she caught up with us for a second time, I decided to just do what she asked. It was then when she gave me the assignment about the puzzle box.”
“The puzzle box,” Brendan muttered. “Was there really some jewel in it? Is that what this could possibly be about?”
Arthur shook his head. “It was documentation of the Nazi families that had escaped to South America and a listing of their Swiss bank accounts. A fortune.”
“A little information about some of their recent uncredited exploits as well, as I understand it,” Michaels added.
“And since the SEALs reclaimed the little box as evidence, that’s probably all we will know,” Kendon said.
“How the hell did Mandrake’s Italian boyfriend get his hands on it?” Brendon asked.
Kendon shrugged. “Probably just like he told you. His grandmother. He said she was German, right? Maybe she was part of the ring. When she told him it had a jewel in it, he just took her literally, I guess. He probably added the Goring’s wife element himself to make it seem more interesting to you.”
“And he was too stupid to know how to open it.”
“Hey, it was hard to open. I never did get it open,” Kendon reminded him.
“So that’s who Vinita was afraid of in that house? Some creepy old Nazi-wanna-bes?” Sophia asked.
“These men were monsters, Sophia, and Vinita, a monster herself, learned to fear them from an early age. Most of the original Nazis may have died off by now, but they certainly taught their children well. These people were just as depraved as their forefathers. Your mother was very brave to escape with you and very brave to give you to me. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done better with you. It’s just, well, it was all I knew.”
She felt a rush of emotion for this man that overcame their natural reticence with each other. “You taught me to survive, Arthur, the only way you could. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Not that you won’t both be retiring,” Kendon added.
“I’m going to make it all up to you, baby,” Brendan whispered in her ear. “I swear I am.”
She pulled away, shaking her head and saying for all to hear, “There’s nothing to make up, Brendan. It just was. It made me who I am.”
“I love you, Sophia.”
Her mouth dropped open. Actually, so did his. She wondered if he was still drunk.
“Geez, Brendan, what a dolt you are!” Mindy chided. “You don’t just say it right out like that in front of everybody the first time. Man! It is the first time, isn’t it?”
“What gave you that idea? Sophia’s stunned expression? Come on.” He pulled Sophia up from the sofa. “Everybody’s going to bed.”
“It’s not even two o’clock in the afternoon!” Mindy objected. Then she eyed Kendon. “But maybe that’s not a bad idea.”
“Stay away from my baby sister,” Brendan warned him, walking toward the main cabin arm in arm with Sophia. “Everybody else, make yourselves at home. Take the skiff back. Whatever. We’ll be busy for a while.”
“I’m not a baby!” Mindy objected behind him.
“I’ll be right there, Brendan. I want to have a word with Arthur for a second.”
As Brendan was about to strip for the shower, a knock sounded on the door. Since Sophia wouldn’t knock, he wasn’t asking whoever it was in.
“What?” He opened the door. Seeing who it was, he said, “I wasn’t kidding about my sister, Kendon.”
“Don’t worry. I think she’s a little young for me.”
“Yeah. Tell that to her.”
“Anyway, I just wanted to mention this, for what it’s worth. Sophia could have stayed behind when we went back for you. In fact, I was convinced she and her pal there would have. The SEALs had no interest in them. They could’ve taken the skiff and gotten away while we were busy going back for you. But she didn’t. She was desperate to get back to save you.”
Kendon wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. But he appreciated the sentiment.
“Thanks, man. But I’m through testing Sophia. I’m taking her at her word from now on, just as she’s taking me. I have no interest in trying to protect myself anymore from what I really want.”
The other man nodded. “Can’t say I blame you there. Lifelong habits are hard to break though.”
“Maybe, but we’re going to try. Both of us.”
“God, Brendan, does this mean you’re settling down to one woman? I don’t believe it.”
Brendan scowled at his sister who had suddenly shown up behind Kendon. She was probably stalking the poor guy. “Good bye, Mindy. Get her out of here,” he said to Kendon.
“And no offense, but you’re fired.”
“None taken. I’ll send you my bill.” Kendon grinned as he led Mindy away.
In the opposite direction from the cabins, happily.
The rest of the party disappeared as Sophia steered Arthur to the dining room. “I meant what I said back there.”
Arthur shrugged. “Whatever. I was laying it on a little thick.”
She looked at him. “That was all the truth. I know it was.”
Arthur laughed. “Maybe. Truth is relative. Anyway, I can see you’ll be retiring for the time being. Fine. I get it. He’s obviously hooked. It’s a smart play, especially if you can get him to marry you eventually. He knows the worst and he still seemed, ah, entranced, I guess you’d say. It’s a smart move. As I said, maybe he’ll even marry you and with this guy it’s a virtual guarantee he’ll cheat, which’ll up the divorce settlement if you decide to go that way. Smart all around. I taught you well.”
She stared at the closest thing to a father she had ever had. “I love Brendan.” It was freeing to say it out loud like that. “It’s not the money. Can’t you understand that?”
“Save it for him, my dear. You’re forgetting I can’t be conned. I know you.”
“No, Arthur. That’s the point. You don’t.” She kissed his cheek. “Not really.”
As she was walking back to the cabin to join Brendan, he called out, “You’re very much like your mother, Sophia. I could never teach that out of you.”
She glanced back. “I think there’s more of that in you too than you let on, Arthur.”
He shrugged. “We’ll see. Maybe when you and Beckett surface for air you’ll find the silver gone.”
She shook her head with a smile.
Brendan was in the shower when she went into the suite. Hurriedly shedding her clothes, she joined him, kissing him under the stream of hot water.
“Everything okay with you and your mentor?” He wrapped his arms around her.
“Not sure. He still thinks I’m conning you.”
“You can con me anytime, sweetheart.”
She laughed. “God knows what Arthur will steal before he disappears again.”
“You think he’ll disappear?”
“I guess so.”
He reached for the bar of soap, rubbing it between his hands until he’d worked up a healthy lather, and then he ran his soapy hands along her neck, her shoulders. When he came to her breasts, he caressed them leisurely and she arched into his touch.
“And that doesn’t bother you? Him disappearing?”
“It bothers me. But it’s his choice. And you’re mine.”
He kissed her, long and leisurely. “Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Well, in honor of you quitting the game, I’m going to quit BFD.”
“Your family’s company?”
“Yeah. Turn around.”
She did so and he ran soapy hands soothingly along her shoulders and back. She practically purred at the pleasure of it, though the sound was drowned out by the rush of the running water.
“Will your sister be disappointed?”
“Hell, no. She’ll be glad to get rid of me probably.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“She has a lot more people there whose names aren’t Beckett who deserve my job.”
Sophia turned to him. “And what do you deserve besides the one reformed con-woman you seem to be stuck with?”
“I deserve this.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her thoroughly, without using the “L” word again, which was just as well because it apparently scared the hell out of both of them. “I deserve what we have between us. What we can make between us.”
“If you say a beautiful baby again, I’m going to try one of my other martial arts moves on you.”
He shut off the shower and grabbed a fluffy towel from the towel warmer he must have switched on before he stepped into the shower. He dried her dripping body off in long, intoxicating strokes that lulled her and excited her at the same time. Then he stood up.
“We may have already made a beautiful baby, Sophia, given all the unprotected sex we’ve had in the last few days.”
She froze.
“Are you okay with that?” he asked softly.
“Are you?” she countered.
He nodded.
“Then I am too. But in case we haven’t yet, how about you use a condom from now on until I can get on the pill.”
He chuckled, sweeping her up in his arms. “I’m getting you to the doctor as soon as I can, then.”
She scooted back on the bed as he laid her down.
“But first, I have a few things that are more pressing.”
He reached for the condom.
About the Author
Angela Claire’s first love was romance novels, but she resolved to give them up temporarily for law books (which were considerably less fun). In a quest for a “responsible” career, she headed off to Harvard law school, obtained her diploma and settled into a corporate law practice in New York City—which she hated! After staying in the rat race long enough to pay back her massive student loans, Angela returned to her roots in the Midwest and is working as a lawyer at a more leisurely pace than big city law firm life would allow. A multi-published romance author, she writes in her spare time and finds romance in real life with her husband. Angela would love to hear from you.
Angela welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Angela Claire
Executive Perks
Pleasuring the Professor
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Seductive Intent
ISBN 9781419940651
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Seductive Intent Copyright © 2012 Angela Claire
Edited by April Chapman
Cover design by Syneca
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Electronic book publication June 2012
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