“Using the King name’s getting you a lot of new clients lately, isn’t it?”
“You’ve gotten me two of them,” she pointed out.
He waved that away. “You’re using me, Dina.”
“You actually believe that, don’t you?” She just stared up at him, her own eyes blurred with a sheen of tears that she refused to let fall. Dina was shaken, disheartened but somehow not disappointed.
“Yeah,” he said simply. “I do. You know, when I offered to use my name and contacts to give your business a boost, I meant the offer. But I was actually impressed when you said no.” He shook his head slowly. “Turns out though, you just wanted to do the boosting yourself. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out how you were milking your new last name for business? Did you think I wouldn’t care?”
“I wasn’t doing that, Connor.” Silently she congratulated herself on keeping her voice quiet and even in spite of how she was trembling. Pain shimmered brightly as her heart simply broke.
A part of Dina had been waiting for the fairy tale to shatter. For Connor to let her down and for reality to come crashing in on her. She loved him, but that wasn’t enough. He didn’t even know her, she thought sadly. If he did, he never would have believed the worst of her so easily. So she couldn’t trust him. And love without trust didn’t stand a chance.
“I don’t cheat, Connor. I don’t lie,” she repeated. “And I don’t use people.” Her gaze locked on his, she tamped down the anger churning within and let the pain color her words as she said, “But you can’t see that because you’re too busy waiting for people to fail you. You actually went out of your way to twist things around to make me look as guilty as you’re afraid I am.”
“Afraid?” He scoffed at that.
“Yeah. Afraid.” She reached up, but instead of slapping him, she cupped his cheek in her palm. “I recognize the signs because I was scared, too, and tonight, it looks like I was right to be. I didn’t use you, Connor. I didn’t marry you to help my business or for the sake of the triplets—no matter what you originally offered me. See, the only reason I married you was because I loved you.”
He blinked and then his eyes narrowed.
She let her hand drop. “And that disbelieving look in your eye is why I never bothered to tell you.”
“What do you want me to say?” he ground out.
“Nothing. You’ve already said too much,” she told him. “It’s late. I’m tired. I’m going to bed. In my old room.”
She took a couple of steps and stopped when he asked, “Did he hurt you?”
Dina looked over her shoulder at him. “Who?”
“John Ballas. The guy who was bothering you.” Connor’s face was hard and still. “Did he hurt you?”
Shaking her head, Dina said, “He was just being drunk and foolish. If you hadn’t shown up, I could have handled him.” She paused and said, “But to answer your question...no. He’s not the one who hurt me, Connor.”
Eleven
Connor spent the night at the office. It wasn’t the first time he’d slept on the wide leather couch. But this time was a misery.
All night he’d lain awake, replaying that scene with Dina, and no matter how many different ways he tried to examine it, he still looked like an idiot. Even if he was right—he’d handled it all wrong.
He didn’t even know what had set him off. Con only knew that the last couple of weeks he’d been tense. To be honest, he’d been tense ever since that afternoon when he’d realized he loved her. That had thrown him. Hard. Still, he’d been working through it, pretending that everything was fine. Then his guests had started complimenting him on Dina’s talents and saying how they were going to be hiring her for upcoming events. He’d watched her, smiling, happy, connecting with people, and a voice in the back of his mind whispered that she was just using his name to promote herself. That she was no different from any of the other women who had tried to use him in the past.
Pushing up off the couch, he stumbled into the front office and made coffee. But while he performed the familiar task, his mind was dredging up images of Dina. The smile on her face when he’d pulled John Ballas off her and the way that smile had died away because of Connor. God.
He leaned both hands on the tabletop and listened with half an ear to the hiss and bubble of the coffeemaker. He’d saved his wife from a jerk and then turned on her. “Who does that?”
“Does what?”
Connor didn’t bother to muffle the groan as he looked over at Colt, standing in the doorway. No one would ever think them identical today, he thought in disgust. Colt had clearly slept well. He’d shaved and wasn’t still wearing the clothes he’d had on the night before. Plus, his life wasn’t currently in the toilet.
“What did you do?”
“What didn’t I do?” Connor answered, turning back to watch the rich black liquid drip all too slowly into the waiting pot.
“Seriously, Con. I saw you at the party last night. You were wired so tight I half expected you to give off sparks.”
“I know.”
“So. I repeat. What did you do?”
“Made an ass of myself, apparently,” he muttered, not happy about sharing this moment with his twin.
“Yeah, I guessed that, since Penny talked to Dina this morning.”
His head snapped up. He looked at his twin and squinted against the morning sunlight streaming in through the front windows. “Is she okay?”
“Is there some reason she wouldn’t be?”
Plenty, he thought but didn’t say. There were some things he wasn’t going to talk about, even with his twin. “Give me a break, will ya?”
“Sure,” Colt agreed quickly. “Arm? Leg? Thick head?”
“Don’t be funny,” Con muttered. “Not in the mood for funny—thank God. Coffee’s done.” He grabbed the pot, poured a cup and took that first hesitant yet blissful sip. The heat and caffeine didn’t help, though. There was still a black hole of misery in the center of his chest. And being completely awake only made him more aware of it.
“What the hell happened?”
“I don’t even know,” Con said before he could measure his words. Hell, he’d been going over all of this since the night before and he still couldn’t have said exactly why he’d snapped. Shaking his head, he took another sip of coffee before asking, “Penny talked to Dina. How is she?”
“Hurt. Confused. Mad.”
He wiped his face with his palm and blew out a breath. “Sure she is. Why wouldn’t she be?”
“What’s the deal, Connor?”
“I don’t know.” Colt followed when Connor walked back to his office. Dropping back down onto the couch, he braced his elbows on his knees. “Something had been building up in me for days. Maybe weeks. Last night, I don’t know. I just...snapped.” He looked up at his twin. “I love her.”
“News flash,” Colt said wryly.
Scowling, Connor said, “Well, it was news to me. And not happy news.” He leaned back on the couch and threw one arm across his eyes. “I didn’t want to love her. Too risky. Too messy. So, I don’t know, maybe I was looking for reasons to not care.”
“Why?”
“You can ask me that?” Connor’s gaze snapped to his twin’s and there was heat in it. “How the hell did you react when you found out Penny had been lying to you? That she’d had your children and never bothered to tell you?”
Colt shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “Different situation.”
“No, it isn’t. I had three kids out there that I never knew about.” Connor set his coffee cup on the low table in front of him with a slap and stood up. “Jackie, my best friend, lied to me and disappeared out of my life to hide the lie. She used me. If Jackie could do it, why not Dina?”
“So you judge everybody based on Jacki
e?”
“Not just her.” Connor started pacing and while he talked, his anger spiked again and he told himself that maybe he hadn’t been wrong at all the night before. “How many women have tried to get their hooks in us? For the money? For our name? For what we can do for them? Hell, have you forgotten how fast you ran from Penny? Didn’t your original marriage last a whopping twenty-four hours before you bolted?” Connor stabbed his index finger toward his brother. “You told me that you loved Penny even then, but you didn’t trust it. Didn’t trust her. So you ran.”
“This isn’t about me,” Colt said, mouth grim, eyes hard.
“Sure it is. We’re identical twins. Why is it so hard to see that I’m doing the same thing you did?”
“Exactly.” Colt stomped across the room toward him and stopped. “Why can’t you see it? Hell, maybe learn from my mistakes? You’re doing the same damn thing I did, and I was wrong. If I remember right, it was you who called me an idiot over it.”
Connor grimaced.
“Yeah. I ran from Penny. Doesn’t make me proud to admit that. Makes me a damn coward.”
“No, I was wrong back then. You were smart to trust your instincts.”
Colt snorted a laugh. “If I’d done that, I would have stayed with her, because every instinct I had was telling me she was the real deal. The once in a lifetime. But I let my fear rule me. Just like you are.”
Connor laughed and the sound scraped over his dry throat. He walked to the windows that overlooked the beach and the ocean below. The sun stained the morning sky rose and gold and there were whitecaps frothing on the water. Surfers were already out there, bobbing like corks in a bucket as they sat on their boards waiting for just the right wave. What should have been a soothing view did nothing to ease the knots inside him, though.
“I’m not afraid of anything.” Then he heard Dina’s voice in his head. You’re afraid, Connor. I know because I was scared, too. Deliberately, he pushed it out.
“You think I don’t know you?” Colt countered. “Think I can’t see it? You’re quaking in your boots, man.”
“Go away.”
Colt snorted. “No. I’m gonna save you from yourself.”
“Just butt out, Colt. Do us both a favor.”
“You can try to blow this off, but it’s not working.” Colt walked up and stood beside his brother, both of them looking out over the water. “I tried the same damn thing. Told myself Penny was just in it to use me. Thought she wanted money, or whatever, but all she wanted was me.” He shook his head slowly as if he still could hardly believe his good fortune.
“No accounting for taste,” Connor mused, and felt the knots inside him tighten.
“Right,” Colt said, nodding sagely. “Easier to make jokes than to face what’s right in front of you. I tried that, too. Didn’t work for me, either.”
Con remembered what Colt had gone through when he and Penny were trying to work out what had brought them together. He remembered finding it damned amusing too. Wasn’t so funny when he was in the hot seat. “John Ballas grabbed Dina at the party last night.”
Colt stiffened instantly. “Bastard. Tried that with Penny, too. She dumped her drink on his head. The man thinks he can get away with anything.”
“Yeah, well, we’re done with him. I don’t care how much business we lose.”
“Agreed. How’d Dina handle him?”
Connor shoved his hands into his slacks pockets and fisted them there where his brother couldn’t see them. “She didn’t. I saw them moving off toward the bushes and I intercepted them. Tossed Ballas aside.”
“Good for you. Wish I’d had the chance.”
“Then later,” Connor added, “I accused Dina of cheating on me with him.” God, just saying the words out loud shamed him. He knew damn well what John Ballas was like. Hell, he knew Dina wasn’t cheating. His wife had been accosted and he’d turned on her.
Stunned, Colt stared at him, openmouthed. “Are you out of your mind?”
“I don’t know,” Connor admitted. “Maybe.”
A low whistle slipped from Colt. “No wonder Dina was so mad this morning.”
“That wasn’t the only reason.”
“Connor...”
“You know what?” He glanced at his twin. “I don’t need to hear any more from you.”
Colt studied him. “No, you need to hear it from Dina. But that’s gonna be tough, since she’s gone.”
“Gone?” His heart stopped. Hell, a part of him felt like the world had stopped. “What do you mean gone?”
“What do you think it means? She left. She told Penny this morning that she was leaving.”
“And you didn’t mention it until now?” Connor turned and headed for the door.
“I wanted to hear your side and now that I have, I don’t blame her.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“When you do something right, I’ll support you. In this?” Colt shook his head. “You’re on your own.”
On his own. It was the way he’d lived his entire adult life, Connor thought as he left the office, his brother’s words still ringing in his ears. Connor had never let anyone close—at least, no one outside the family—except Jackie and even she had turned on him, so didn’t that justify his actions now? Didn’t that explain why the hell he’d snapped? Didn’t that prove him right to be suspicious of everyone?
But those suspicions had brought him here. In the car, heading south, Connor fought down the panic that began to race through him. It didn’t matter what she’d told Penny. Dina wouldn’t leave. She’d stay and fight through this. He thought of all the times she had gone toe to toe with him, standing her ground, arguing her position and not giving way even when he tried to throw his weight around.
He kept telling himself that she was too stubborn, too unwilling to give an inch to ever run from an argument. But then he remembered the look on her face the night before. The touch of her hand on his cheek and the regret in her eyes when he tossed her confession of love back at her.
He slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel and flipped the visor down to block the morning sunlight. If she had left, he’d just follow her and get this settled, one way or another. If she had left, he told himself, he’d find her at her bungalow. He knew she’d kept it, so where else would she run?
Settle it. How would he settle it? Could he let go of years of self-protection and let himself trust a woman? If he couldn’t, was he really willing to lose Dina?
No. That he wouldn’t do. Just the thought of never seeing her again made his breath lock in his chest. What was it Colt had said? That he’d known Penny was the once-in-a-lifetime woman.
Well, for Connor, Dina was that woman. That one in a million he hadn’t believed existed. The woman he’d been too stupid to appreciate until it was too late. No. It wasn’t too late. He’d figure this out. Despite what his brother might think, Connor was a smart guy. There was an answer. He just had to find it.
At his house, he parked, jumped out of the car and hit the front door running. He took the stairs two at a time, his own footsteps thundering through the quiet house. Too quiet, his mind warned. The kids should be up and playing, squealing. There should be the scent of scrambled eggs and coffee in the air, but there was nothing.
The house, like Connor, felt abandoned.
At the landing, he walked down the hall, turned into the triplets’ suite and stopped dead. The beautiful room was empty. He forced himself over the threshold and looked around, as if he were expecting to find the kids and Dina hiding behind the furniture. But there was no one and his footsteps echoed eerily in the quiet.
His gaze swept the completed room. Rafe had outdone himself. The suite was huge, with a bay window complete with child safety rails and a bathroom designed for small children, with counters
and even the tub shorter than normal. There were three matching white cribs that would become daybeds as the kids grew and bookshelves filled with storybooks and toys. Dressers in a walk-in closet held their clothes and soft rugs covered the wood floor. The walls were dotted with framed images from children’s stories along with pictures of family.
Almost without knowing where he was headed, Connor moved to the photo of Jackie and Elena. He met his old friend’s eyes and felt the anger finally fade. She’d hurt him. Lied to him. But because of her and Elena, he had the triplets in his life. And up until last night, he’d had Dina.
Now all he had to do was get her back.
He ran out of the room, down the stairs and skidded to a stop before slamming into his housekeeper. “Louise. When did they leave?”
The older woman frowned at him, folded her arms over her chest and tapped the toe of one sturdy black shoe against the floor. She sniffed. “Before breakfast. They were crying. All of them.”
He caught the glimmer of tears in Louise’s eyes as well and guilt took a bite out of him, but he swallowed down the pain.
“I’m going to get them now,” he told her and started for the door.
“You’d better bring Dina and those children home where they belong,” she called out and had him stopping in surprise.
When he looked back at her, she hadn’t changed position but managed to look even more disappointed in him.
“Until they come home, I’m on strike. You can cook and clean for yourself, Connor King.”
“You can’t go on strike,” he argued.
“Watch me,” she said shortly, then whirled around and quick marched down the hall to the kitchen.
Yeah, looked like he had a lot of things to straighten out.
* * *
Dina was done crying.
She hadn’t slept the night before and most of today had been spent soothing the triplets, who were too young to know why their daddy wasn’t with them. Thank heaven they were also too young to know what a jackass he was.
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