“I wish I’d known. I could have appealed to Dad, begged him to do something, anything, to give your dad his job.”
Lily’s voice shook with emotion. As awful as it was, she knew her father was capable of such perfidy. He had always been driven and it had always been his way or no way at all. Neither of them had stood a chance against him, as young as they were.
“It wouldn’t have made any difference. Charles Fontaine is an immovable object when he’s made up his mind. You know that. I went home from that meeting feeling utterly helpless. I told my parents what your father had said. My mother begged me to stay away from you, but I couldn’t. When I got to the old weigh station, where we’d agreed to meet, your father was waiting for me. He took one look at me, shook his head with that cynical smile he wears, and got in his car. Before he drove away he told me that I was pathetic and that he was glad you’d finally seen the light. He said you’d already gone to Auckland and that you never wanted to see me again.
“I felt sick to the soles of my feet when I saw that look on his face. Sick and torn apart. I had no idea where you were. I raced home, called your place, but there was no answer. You’d gone.”
“He’d sent me away, Jack. I had no choice.”
Her father had stormed home from work early in an absolute rage and had told her he knew about her pregnancy. He’d been disgusted with her and at eighteen she hadn’t stood a chance against his ire. Within the hour he’d arranged for her to be in a car with a driver and had transported her to stay with a family in Auckland she’d never met before. People who’d owed her father a favour. It must have been a big one because while they looked after her physically, she’d been nothing more than a captive to her father’s demands.
She stroked her fingers down his cheek, across his firmly pressed lips. “I called you when I got to Auckland and left a message begging you to come and get me, but when you never called back, I gave up. Dad had told me not to expect anything from you, had said you wouldn’t be there for me when the chips were down. I thought he was right. I had no idea of what he’d done to your family.”
Jack blew out a sharp breath.
“I couldn’t come because when I got home that night Dad had taken the car and gone out. Mum was beside herself. She said Dad had told her he was going to talk to Fontaine, that one way or another he’d make sure we were all provided for. He was so upset, she was terrified he would do something stupid. I took off on the bike, looking everywhere. Eventually, I found his car wreck on the road leading back to town from your place, wrapped around a power pole.”
“Oh, God, no! Was he…” Lily couldn’t bring herself to say the word dead. She couldn’t imagine what Jack must have gone through.
“He died just after I found him. He apologised to me Lily. Apologised, for chrissake! He’d done nothing wrong. He’d worked hard all his life to support his family and yet your father still made him feel as if he had to apologise.”
Lily felt the anger emanating off Jack in waves. Anger tinged with unassailable grief. She felt helpless in the face of his despair, incapable of offering him solace.
“You know what made it worse, Lily? Your father gave evidence at the inquest as to Dad’s state of mind. You see, Dad had gone to him, begged him for another chance, and Fontaine had refused. The coroner ruled suicide, which meant that the insurance company wouldn’t pay out on his life policy. It was left to me to provide for them. Finn had just started uni, Saffy and Jasmine were still at school and Mum was in no state to find work. I couldn’t leave them and go searching for you. I had to stay and face my responsibilities. When you never called me again, I decided that I’d been no more than an adventure to you. A ‘walk on the wild side’ as all your friends had always said.”
His comment on the day she’d arrived back made perfect sense now, she realised.
“No, you were never just a walk on the wild side, Jack. I loved you then.” She reached up to kiss him. “I love you now.”
Twelve
Jack stiffened in shock at her words. She loved him? The bitter irony of it swept through him like a tidal wave. As if love would make it all right, as if it could wipe the slate clean again. No. There was no way on this world that he wouldn’t achieve the satisfaction and the result he wanted. Love meant nothing.
If she’d loved him she’d have told him about the baby. She’d have given him the chance, however small, to move heaven and earth to be a part of his child’s life. She didn’t know the meaning of the word. But she would know what it felt like to lose everything she held dear, as he had.
He kissed her again, tasting her, imprinting his own flavour on her. He pushed off the duvet that had cocooned them and lifted her from her supine position in his arms, turning her to face him. Understanding his intention, she positioned herself over him, running her soft, small hands over his shoulders, down his arms and back up again. She traced firm flat-palmed circles over his chest, her touch leaving a prickle of sensation where her hands had been.
He cupped her hips with his hands, tilting them forward, rubbing her hot, moist entrance across the base of his erection. She moaned and he felt her heat increase. She was haloed by the rising sun, the moisture at the juncture of her thighs now glistening gold in its rays. She took up the rhythm herself, rubbing along his shaft, back and forth.
Sensation spiralled through his body, pushing back the grief that had settled over him like a mantle of darkness while he’d told Lily about the night his father had died, pushing back the anger that filled him anew.
He could only focus on one thing. Lily. Her eyes were bright with passion, the pupils dilated. Her lips parted slightly, her tongue caught between her teeth as she continued, back and forth, back and forth.
She leaned forward and bit lightly at his nipples, then laved them with her tongue. First one, then the other. He’d never known such sensitivity. His erection grew painfully hard, jutting proudly from his body now that she had elevated herself slightly, her slick folds hovering tantalisingly just above him.
Her hands rested on his shoulders, bearing her weight against his strength. She lifted her face to kiss him again, pulling at his lips, his tongue, dragging a groan of need from deep inside of him. He wanted her with a hunger that came out of loss, a hunger that had been gnawing at him for ten long arid years. Years of focus, years of denial and sacrifice. He couldn’t bear it any longer. Protection be damned. He had to be inside her. He pulled her down until the blunt head of his erection probed at her entrance. He hesitated, making eye contact with her, then thrust upward.
She shook all over as he entered her body, sinking down, taking him deeper inside, tilting her hips so she could accommodate him fully.
Jack clenched his teeth against the urge to pump his hips, to take from her the climax his body so desperately craved. No, he wanted her to do this. She had to take control. If she didn’t stop right now, she would be the one responsible for driving their unprotected union to its conclusion—to any consequences that arose.
And then, mercifully, she began to move. Slowly at first, then increasing her tempo. She lifted her hands from his shoulders and cupped her breasts, offering them to him as she kneaded and squeezed at the perfectly formed mounds. Jack’s hands slid up to her waist, holding her as he bent upward, taking one nipple in his mouth and pulling at the distended peak to the same beat as her hips pounded against his.
He saw the flush of orgasm creep across her skin, felt the exquisite tightening of her inner muscles as the ripples spread from her centre and out across her body. He grabbed her hips again as her body slumped against his, pumping hard as he burst through the barrier that held him earthbound and catapulted him into the dawn.
His breathing was ragged, his body slicked with perspiration, as was hers. He trailed his hand up and down her spine, lingering at the cleft of her buttocks before moving back upward again. He felt the aftershocks zap through her body, milking him of the last of his climax, prolonging the piercing satisfaction of his relea
se.
Lily’s heart beat hard against the wall of her chest, marching in time with his own. The cool morning air sent a shiver across his skin, like a finger of foreboding. Jack pulled the edges of the duvet back over them both and held her to him, his arms a band of strength around her. He forced away the feeling of belonging, of fulfilment, that Lily gave him so unreservedly—resolutely pushing to the furthest reaches of his mind, the craving she’d set up in him for more.
He would hold her to him for as long as necessary, he promised silently. Then he would unleash his revenge. A sharp pain hit him in the region of his heart, but he refused to allow it time to bloom into thought or reason. Nothing could interfere with his purpose. Nothing.
Lily drove home later that morning, her mind in turmoil. She should have told Jack about the baby. He deserved to know now, and he’d certainly deserved to know back then when she’d been bundled away by her father like so much unwanted baggage. She’d been too young to battle her father’s wishes on her own. Certainly far too young to fight against the virtual internment she endured, wrapped in despair and a growing fear for her future and the future of her child. In the end it had all been for nothing. An undetected true knot in the baby’s umbilical cord, an extended labour and her precious boy had been born dead. Telling Jack would have been unbearably cruel on top of what he’d relived telling about his father’s death.
Lily rounded the bend in the road where Bradley Dolan had died; a cold frisson ran down her spine. How could her father have been so manipulative, so cruel? The ramifications of his actions continued to ripple through both families even now, ten years later. She steered her car into the long driveway that led to her father’s beach home.
He’d worked all his life to provide her with everything a girl could want. Everything except the unadulterated love and acceptance of a parent. Everything except the encouragement to seek that from another in the natural continuum of life. She had to face him and find out the truth.
Charles’s car was in the garage and Lily fought the sick feeling at the pit of her stomach. He was waiting for her. Goodness only knew what kind of mood he’d be in. It wasn’t long before she found out. She’d no sooner left the garage when he bellowed her name. She stopped midstride, took a deep, levelling breath and went toward his office.
“You wanted to see me?” Lily kept her voice as cool as possible, inside she was quaking.
“You had to go and do it, didn’t you?” Her father’s voice seethed with fury.
“Do what, exactly, Dad?”
“You know what I mean. Christ, I can even smell him on you! You’re as stupid now about that man as you were ten years ago. Next thing you’ll be pregnant again. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”
All warmth drained from her body as she stood up to her father’s verbal assault. Far better to let him rant than to give him any further ammunition. His last comment, however, sent a chill through her. She could be pregnant again. The last time they’d made love they hadn’t used any protection. The very act itself had been in direct response to Jack’s emotional outpouring. It had pulled at every instinct in Lily’s mind and soul to offer him comfort in the only way she knew how. The potential consequences had been the furthest thing from her mind. She should have known better. They both should have. But their lovemaking had been so perfect, so necessary.
“Stop it!” she cried, determined not to allow her father to sully what she and Jack had shared. “I know precisely what I’m doing. I’m taking my life back—my life. The life you stole from me. The life I chose. I love Jack, and that’s not going to stop just because you throw your money and your weight around.”
She took a deep breath and chose her next words carefully.
“I know what you did to the Dolan family. Whether you deny it or not, you’re responsible for Bradley Dolan’s death. How can you even sleep at night with that on your conscience?” She paused, ten long years of bitterness and frustration building to a head inside her. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot. You don’t have a conscience. People are just pawns to you, aren’t they? Necessary vices to be tolerated until they’ve served their purpose. All you’re interested in is money and the prestige it brings you.”
Charles Fontaine went grey at her words, his mouth twisted in an ugly line. “It didn’t seem to bother you to reap the benefits of that money or prestige. What do you think supported you over the years? Do you really think that talent scout just happened to come along at just the right moment in your life? Stop being so naive, Lily. I’m a powerful man, and I’m not averse to using that power to give me and mine what’s due—and you’re mine, Lily. No matter what you think.
“If I hadn’t been so ruthless, you’d have had nothing. You’d be nothing. I did it all for you. Think on that the next time you want to open your legs for Jack Dolan. And while you’re at it, ask yourself why he’s sleeping with you again. This isn’t about you anymore, my girl. It’s about me.”
He slammed his briefcase shut and stormed from the house. Lily stood still in shock as she heard the garage door open and his car rev to start. The stench of burning rubber filtered through the house as he spun the wheels of his car.
Eventually she gathered herself together and went up to her room where she slid out of her clothing and wrapped herself in an old thick dressing gown, but even it’s warmth did little to halt the seeping cold that now spread through her body. In her bathroom, she ran a deep warm bath although she doubted she’d feel warm again for a long time. Her father’s words had struck ice to her heart—they’d diminished the beauty of her night with Jack in a way she would never have believed possible.
She’d never in her life stopped to think of the true cost of her father’s financial support of her over the years. It was galling to realise she had been as immature and empty as he’d so clearly pointed out. As she lowered herself into the bathwater, tears began to track down her cheeks.
She couldn’t stay here anymore. She had to strike out, stand on her own two feet—somehow.
She must have dozed off in the bath because the distant peal of the telephone ringing made her jump, sending water rippling over the edge and onto the floor. The phone stopped and then in an instant started up again.
Lily levered herself up and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her as she dashed into her bedroom to pick up the receiver before they hung up again.
“Hello?”
“Lily! Thank goodness you’re still there. You have to come to FonCom, right now!”
Lily recognised her father’s secretary’s voice, although the woman sounded totally strung out.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Lily demanded.
“It’s your father, I think he’s had a stroke or something. He came into work all fired up, went into his office and about five minutes ago I heard this almighty thud. He’d collapsed on the floor. I called the ambulance, Lily, but he looks bad. You have to come, quickly!”
Sudden fear gripped at Lily’s heart. Had she caused her father’s collapse? He’d been so very angry before he’d left.
“Lily? Are you there?”
“I’m on my way.”
She dropped the phone on the bed and ran to pull on some clothing—jeans, a T-shirt and running shoes—and, grabbing her car keys, flew down the stairs as fast as she could go.
The ambulance was outside FonCon’s building when Lily pulled into the car park at the front. She raced from her car and through the front entrance toward her father’s office.
“Here she is!” Charles’s secretary came rushing toward Lily. “The paramedics are with him now, Lily, they’re doing everything they can.”
“Can I see him?” Lily tried to step past the other woman, to see into the office.
“Probably best to wait until they’re ready to transport him. They’ve called the rescue helicopter. They think he’s had a massive stroke. He’ll need to go to Auckland City Hospital.”
Lily sank into the nearest chair, her legs suddenly weak
and unable to support her. Eventually the paramedics called Lily in. They’d stabilised her father as far as they were able and the helicopter’s expected time of arrival in the FonCom car park was only ten minutes away. She was horrified when she saw the colour of her father’s face and heard his laboured breathing through the oxygen mask.
“Will he be okay?” she asked the medic nearest her.
“That’ll depend a lot on him, miss.”
“He’s a fighter, he won’t give up.” Lily had to believe it. As angry as she was with him, the prospect of losing him terrified her. He’d been the mainstay of her life.
When the helicopter arrived there was a flurry of activity as Charles was transferred to the aircraft.
“I’m sorry, miss, there won’t be room for you on board. Can you get someone to bring you up to Auckland?”
“I’ll bring her.”
Lily spun around at the sound of Jack’s voice and flew straight into his arms.
“I came as soon as I heard. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay,” he consoled her, his strong warm hand rubbing up and down her back in a soothing motion. “Your father is as tough as they come.”
Jack felt Lily’s shoulders shake as sobs racked her body. He watched as the helicopter blades started spinning faster and faster until eventually the aircraft lifted off the asphalt and headed north.
Tycoon's Valentine Vendetta Page 11