by T. M. Cromer
Her eyes made a study of his face, lingered on his mouth, and then met his probing stare.
Coop held his breath in expectation of her response.
A half-smile tugged at her lips. “I thought it was understood. I’ve loved you since the moment you gave me your ice cream.”
He released the pent-up air. “I think I’ve loved you since then too.”
She scrunched her face and would’ve ducked her head, but he placed a finger under her chin.
“I mean it, Summer. I’ve never said those words to another woman who wasn’t a family member. I wouldn’t lie about something as important as this.” He stretched to drop a light kiss on her lips. “Granted, I didn’t realize that girl was you, or maybe somewhere deep inside I did, but you captured my heart that day and have held it ever since.”
“You’re a silver-tongued devil, do you know that?”
“I might’ve been told that a time or two,” he agreed with a deep chuckle. “I have another question.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you and your sisters really dance naked in the moonlight?”
“Another fantasy, Coop?”
“Darlin’, that’s every man’s fantasy. Four gorgeous women naked in nature? Hell, yes!”
Her happy laughter triggered his.
“What if I told you we did?” she teased.
“I’d ask if I could get a calendar of dates and times so I could watch.”
“Okay.”
He lifted his head from the pillow and gaped. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“You’d better not be messing with me, Summer Thorne. A man can only take so much teasing.”
She laughed again and held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
He laid his head back on the pillow and sighed happily. “I am so going to love being your boyfriend.”
After a moment, he frowned. No woman would allow him to see her sisters naked. “Wait a sec. What’s the catch?”
“The catch?” she murmured sleepily.
“Yeah, the catch. You’ll give me the dates and times when you and your sisters dance naked under the moonlight. Location, too?”
“Location, too,” she agreed. “It’s in the clearing between our properties.”
He rolled on top of her and settled between her legs. “I don’t trust you.”
“You are the most suspicious person I’ve ever met, Cooper Carlyle.”
“The twinkle in your eye tells me you’re having me on.”
“You think you know me?”
“Oh, I know I know you, sweetheart. You come across as sweet and innocent, but underneath that hot-ass exterior beats the heart of a naughty girl.”
“Hmm, maybe I need a spanking.”
He lowered his head and tugged her nipple between his teeth. “That is definitely one option. The other is that I torture you until you tell me what I want to know.”
“What kind of torture are we talking here?”
Coop blew on her wet bud. “What kind do you think?”
“Oh, fuc—”
He clapped a hand over her mouth. “No swearing. I don’t know how you kept the mice away last time, but I don’t want to risk it.”
Her muffled laughter had him grinning in return. She licked his palm and arched a brow.
Coop tasted his way down her body and inserted a finger into her drenched core. “What’s the catch, Summer?”
“I’ll never tell.”
He inserted a second finger and pumped her hard.
She moaned, and he withdrew.
“The catch.”
“I’m not telling,” she countered in a husky voice that shot straight to his groin.
He inserted his fingers again and ran his tongue the length of her stomach. “Tell me,” he ordered as he pumped her.
“A cloaking spell,” she gasped out.
He rose up. “I knew it! Turn over. You’re getting a spanking for being a dirty rotten tease.”
She grinned and rolled over on all fours. “Do your worst.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you shouldn’t tempt a man like that.”
22
Summer lifted her hand to levitate another bale of hay much to Morty’s delight. The chimp hooted and clapped as if she were the best magician on the planet.
“You’re easily amused, sweet boy.”
He nodded his agreement, hooted again, and blew her a kiss.
“Do you want to help Mama with chores? You can feed today.”
He leaped off the stack of hay and straight into her arms.
Summer grunted at the impact. “I think you’re putting on weight. Should we tell Coop to cut back on the treats?”
The man in question walked up behind her, removed his work gloves, and stroked Morty’s back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mmhmm. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to levitate him just to hold him.”
Coop tucked his head in the crook of her neck and kissed below her earlobe. Before he pulled away, he traced the delicate shell of her ear with his tongue.
“I’m off today. Want to sneak away and get busy in the hayloft?” he murmured.
Boy did she ever.
Morty puckered his lips and made kissing noises.
Coop laughed. “Exactly what I had in mind, buddy.”
A droll, arrogant voice came from a darkened corner of the barn. “How domesticated the two of you have become.”
Summer’s heart kicked into overdrive.
“Coop, will you return Morty to the house?”
“No way I’m leaving you here with him, sweetheart.”
“Please. I need to know you’re both safe,” she begged quietly.
“I’m not here to hurt anyone, child. I’m here to reason with you. To tell you a little tale and allow you to make up your own mind.”
“Why should I believe anything you have to say?” she demanded angrily. “You killed my mother!”
In an instant, Alastair stood in front of her. His anger was palpable. “Did I? Did you actually see me kill your mother, Summer?”
His question took her aback. “N-no.”
As quickly as it appeared, his irritation disappeared. Resignation and weariness replaced the other emotion. “I loved your mother, and she loved me. Did anyone ever tell you that part of the story?”
“You’re lying.” She hugged Morty tighter as her uncle reached out a hand.
Instead of stroking the chimp as she’d expected, he tugged a lock of her hair. “Did you ever wonder why you’re the only one with my coloring?”
Her world shifted on its axis. “What?” she croaked.
“Ask Preston for the true story. Ask him where he really goes when he disappears for months at a time.”
“Are you saying her mother is alive?” Coop demanded.
Alastair shrugged. “I’m saying I didn’t kill her.”
Eyes the exact color of her own stared back at her. Open, honest, and urging her to see the truth. “You’re my father?” she asked hoarsely.
His expression softened infinitesimally. “A DNA test would verify it one-hundred percent, but according to your mother, yes.”
“I can’t believe this!”
Silence reigned as Alastair allowed her to process the impact of his words. The idea that she’d been lied to her entire life didn’t sit well.
“Why did you never claim me?” she demanded.
“You think I didn’t want to?” Sadness replaced all other emotion on his classically handsome features. “But your mother returned to Preston. She believed it would be better if you believed he was your real father.” He frowned and stroked a finger down her cheek. “After she was gone… Tell me, Summer, how do you shatter a child’s whole world? How do you pull a perfectly happy little girl away from the only family she’s ever known?” He dropped his hand and a shutter fell over his pain-filled gaze. “You don’t.”
Tears blurred her vision, and she struggled with this new insight i
nto Alastair.
“I don’t believe you.”
He smiled, not unkindly. “You do, because you know the truth when you hear it. A gift from me to you.”
Coop pulled her back and confronted Alastair. “What kind of piece of shit threatens their own daughter?”
“I never threatened her, boy. Think back. I threatened you,” Alastair said in silky tones.
Anticipating where the conversation would lead, she surged forward. “No!”
Alastair barely flicked a glance in her direction. His cold gazed locked onto Coop. “Mistreat her and you’ll have me to deal with. Remember, I’m not as nice as my brother and sister.”
“Don’t you dare threaten him!” She inserted a shoulder between the two, careful to twist her body to keep the oddly subdued Morty out of Alastair’s reach. She still didn’t trust that her uncle—no, father—had pure motives for being in her barn. “How did you get past the wards?”
“I intend you no harm,” he said simply. “I can see you want to argue the point. You’re all fire, like Aurora. It threw me to discover you were a water element—like me.”
A sound at the entrance to the barn caught their attention.
“Alastair, step away from my daughter.” The seething rage in Preston Thorne’s voice had them all taking a step back.
“Your daughter?” Alastair sneered.
Preston’s face lost all color and his uneasy amber gaze sought Summer.
“Dad?” Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. “Is it true?”
“Tell her the truth, brother. She deserves to know.” Alastair gestured to Summer’s trio of sisters entering the barn behind Preston. “They all deserve to know what really happened.”
“I could kill you for this,” Preston growled.
“It isn’t as if you didn’t try. Tell them who got caught in the cross-fire and why.”
A keening wail rose up. Summer hadn’t even been aware of making the sound until Coop caught her as her knees gave out.
Morty’s hands gripped her neck and buried his forehead to her throat.
The three of them huddled against the stall wall.
“I think you’ve done enough damage for one day, Alastair,” Coop told him frostily. “Take a hike.”
Summer’s tear-filled eyes raised to view her real father.
Regret stole across his features. “I’m sorry, child. Truly. When you’re ready to talk, call out to me. I’ll come.”
She shook her head and swiped at the tears pouring down her cheeks. “I won’t. I can’t care for a man who would let his company experiment on animals.”
He frowned his confusion. “Your ape was brought to my lab to heal him. GiGi took him before I could. I’ve never laid eyes on that animal before today.”
That explained why Morty hadn’t gone ape-shit over Alastair’s appearance. Her chimp had never had contact and, as a result, hadn’t made the association between the lab and Alastair.
“What about the recordings?” Coop asked, less hostile.
Summer had the sense he believed Alastair, just as she did.
Goddess, she was confused. Up was down and down was up. Nothing made sense and it seemed as if everyone she loved and trusted had lied to her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alastair said as he shook his head.
“We have videos of Morty being mistreated at your lab after hours. A tech used a cattle prod through the bars and denied him food.” Strength returned to Summer’s spine. In this, she wasn’t mistaken.
Fury, dark and forbidding, shifted Alastair’s eyes from sapphire-blue to black. “One of my lab techs?”
His quicksilver moods were alarming considering the power he wielded.
Her vocal cords decided discretion was the better part of valor and abandoned her. She merely nodded.
“I want to see those tapes.”
Summer shot a nervous look at Coop, who nodded. “Okay.”
“Meet me at Monica’s Cafe in one hour. I’ll be waiting in the back booth.” Alastair disappeared before she could agree.
“Holy shit,” Coop muttered. “That man lends a whole new meaning to the word terrifying.”
She snorted her laughter through her tears. “He really does. I thought it was only me.”
“My respect for you has increased tenfold. I don’t think I could’ve faced him down alone like you did on that beach.”
“But now we both know he never intended to harm me,” she said quietly as she pinned Preston with a glare across the aisle. “But somehow, I think my dad knew all along.”
“We need to talk,” Preston declared.
Betrayal was a funny thing. Its effects altered perspective. Where she’d once viewed Alastair as an evil sonofabitch, she now viewed him as a victim, similar to herself. And where she once viewed Preston as a God among men, she now viewed him as a lying, spiteful bastard. While the truth probably resided somewhere in the middle, she wasn’t magnanimous enough to utilize that logic.
“I have nothing to say to you right now,” she snapped. “You lied to me. My whole fucking life—achoo— you lied to me!”
A hundred rodents of every species and size raced down the barn aisle. Her stunned sisters stood silently by and watched, helpless, as the drama unfolded.
Preston, unperturbed by the rodent infestation, snapped his fingers.
The aisle was clear except for humans and Morty.
Summer handed the chimp off to Coop before she faced Preston. “What did you do with the mice?”
“I relocated them to the woods by the clearing where they belong.”
Saul sounded off from his location in the rafters. Because she knew what to expect, Summer caught him as he plummeted to the ground.
“That goes for your squirrels too, Summer. They either learn manners or they go.”
She stepped to within a foot of Preston. “Don’t even think about threatening Saul, Dad. You know damned well he’s my familiar.” She sneezed, and one tiny squeak was emitted from the stall behind her.
Preston, his eyes boring into Summer’s, positioned his fingers to snap.
Autumn’s hand closed over his. “Daddy.” She only uttered the single word, but the censure in her tone was obvious.
He shrugged her off but lowered his hand. “Are you going to meet him?”
The betrayal in his eyes stung. Yet, he’d betrayed Summer first. “I am.”
“Then I have nothing more to say to you. You have until the end of the week to have your animals relocated and be out of my home.”
Her sisters gasped and cried his name in a chorus of “Daddy!”
“No, it’s okay,” Summer choked out as Spring’s arms encircled her. “I’m a big girl. I can survive perfectly well on my own.”
“Really?” Preston scoffed. “Because last I checked it was Thorne money footing the bill to feed your misfits.”
“That’s enough, Mr. Thorne,” Coop snapped. “I get your feelings are a little bruised here, but Summer is the only one who has the right to be pissed. You lied to her.”
“I don’t need you to tell me how to handle my child, Cooper.”
“But I’m not your child, am I?” she choked out. Moisture burned behind her lids, and she struggled to contain her grief.
“You’re mine. Perhaps not biologically, but you’re my sunshine. I raised you as my own,” he told her. The gruffness in his voice, the tension along his shoulders, and the pain in his eyes spoke of his emotional investment.
Her throat worked convulsively.
“Why couldn’t you trust us with the truth, Dad?” Winnie asked. “I can see maybe not when we were small kids, but we’ve all grown into successful adults with the ability to reason.”
Preston closed his eyes and seemed to age a century in the seconds before he opened them to focus on Summer. “Stay or go, I can’t stop you. But don’t believe everything he says. What I did, I did for your well-being. I need you to understand that.”
Summer no
dded and folded her arms around her. “I’m going to show him the video of Morty’s abuse. Other than that, I have no agenda. If he wants to tell me his side, I’ll listen and try to withhold judgment—just as I’ll listen to your side, Dad. It’s all I’m willing to offer either of you right now.”
He gave a single sharp nod and headed for the door. He paused without turning. “You don’t have to move out. I hope you’ll forgive my loss of temper.” Without waiting for a response, he left.
As one, her sisters closed the gap and wrapped her in a sisterly hug, Thorne style.
“Are you really going to see Alastair by yourself?” Spring asked.
“No,” Coop cut in. “I’m going with her.”
The four women fought to hide their smiles and failed miserably.
“What’s so funny?” he demanded.
Summer stretched up to place a soft kiss on his cheek. “You are by thinking you can protect me from one of the most powerful Warlocks in existence.”
She nearly laughed at the green hue he’d acquired. “Most powerful?”
“One of the most powerful,” she corrected with a pat on his arm.
“The other would be Preston?”
Autumn piped up. “That would be a big ten-four, Sheriff.”
“Good Christ. I’ll be lucky to survive this family.”
23
Coop didn’t like it. Not the emptiness of the restaurant that should be bustling this time of day. Not the vacant expressions on the faces of the staff. And certainly not the sinister aura surrounding Alastair where he sat in the back booth in his black suit and red tie. Did the guy have another outfit?
As they wove their way through the tables, he leaned in and lowered his voice. “Is it possible your new father is bipolar? Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but he is looking moody as fuck. It’s a far cry from the touching reunion he was going for earlier today.”
Summer snorted and rolled her eyes. “If he frightens you, you can wait outside, Coop.”
He bowed up to his full height and threw his shoulders back. She might as well have told him to check his man card at the door.
Alastair, in a single swift elegant motion, stood and gestured to the seat opposite him. “I’m pleased you decided to come.”