“But being strong in front of your family doesn’t make me cold like her. I won’t ever become your mother, Shane. Because not only are you not your father, I’d leave if you were.”
He inhales and lets the breath out, putting his hands on my waist. “I won’t ever be my father.”
“I know that,” I say. “Or I wouldn’t be here, but Derek—”
“Is wearing a wounded ego right along with that bandaged hand, courtesy of Adrian’s knife. He’s puffing up his chest to try to seem unaffected by me making him look bad to the cartel. And now my father threw down the gauntlet by threatening his inheritance.”
“Was that real or just part of the games he plays with you two? I mean, why would he do that when he’s been enjoying this game of pitting you and Derek against each other?”
“Because to exact revenge on Mike for sleeping with my mother, he intends to buy the sports center where Mike’s pro-ball team plays and then recruit in, or buy, another team. And because of my contractual agreement when I joined the company, he needs my signature to sign any contract. In other words, he needs me happy, which means he needs you safe.”
I’ve already blanched and recovered at this point. “I’m nearly speechless. This is huge. Monumental, even. And expensive.” Realization hits me. “That’s why he was meeting with investors.”
“That’s right. It’s also legal and highly profitable, which puts me and my father on the same side of the fence for the first time in most of my adult life.” His fingers flex at my waist. “I’ve got this under control. Everything is okay.”
“No,” I say, rejecting that idea. “It’s not that simple, and you know it. Mike won’t take this lying down, and he’s the largest stockholder in the company outside of the family. He’s going to attack you because you’re attacking him.”
“For all we know, he’s already attacking us and planning a hostile takeover.”
“Then that only drives home my point. He’s going to attack, and who knows where that will make your mother step? Even with those things aside, there’s your brother, and hate is positively radiating off Derek tonight. He isn’t done fighting. He’ll do whatever it takes to steal the company from you.”
“He can’t take what’s not mine, sweetheart. My father is still king.”
It hits me then that I’m so wrapped up in how Derek affected me that I’ve forgotten about Brandon Senior. My hand goes to Shane’s chest. “How are you feeling about your father’s news?”
“You don’t have to analyze me over this, sweetheart,” he says, obviously reading where I’m going with this, confirming as much when he adds, “I openly admit that my feelings about my father are a mixed bag of emotions that resemble a swampland. One I don’t intend to open until I find out if that was real or another one of his mind-fucks.”
Mind-fucks. That’s all he ever feels he gets from his family, and I aided them in that effort tonight. “You think he’s lying?” I ask, certain Shane’s in denial, protecting himself from that swampland. “Why in the world would he do that?”
“I can think of several strategic reasons related to the company and to Mike, that I’ll explain after we get home and after we fuck this night out of our systems a good three times.”
The grit in his voice tells me his desire to leave is bigger than just me. “All the more reason we should get back inside, where you can find out the truth that Derek and your mother probably already know.”
“None of us will find out the truth inside that house,” he says, “and I’ve already texted Seth to get me answers.” His eyes warm. “What I really want to do is mind-fuck my father and leave without playing his game. What I want even more is you naked and next to me.”
He’s angry. I hear it in the bite of his voice, feel it in the tension in his body. That’s the emotion he feels, and that comes from his certainty that his father is lying. I don’t even think it’s real. This is about fear, fear that he will feel hope and discover it’s false. I step to him, aligning our legs. “Shane—”
“You aren’t my weakness,” he says softly, but somehow vehemently. “You’re just the opposite. You’re the complete contradiction to everything that is this family, and you remind me of the change I’m fighting for.” His hand cups the back of my head and then he is kissing me, his tongue licking into my mouth, the taste of his anger, his need to escape, bleeding into me, telling me his father’s many lies are burning into his mind and emotions. “When we go back inside and my family fucks with your head, which they will, think about fucking me when we get home. That’s what I’ll be thinking about too.”
My cheeks heat with the erotic boldness of those words, the boldness of this man who never fails to make me a little bit shy and a whole lot aroused. Again he laughs low and sexy, caressing my cheek. “I have no idea how you still blush after all the things we’ve done together, but I love it.” And just like that, his mood has lightened, and his arm is around my shoulders, his steps directing us back toward the door. “At least we’re guaranteed a good meal,” he says. “My mother wouldn’t cater anything but the best.”
“Were all your meals catered growing up?” I ask, reminded that tonight, with his family, for all its guaranteed uncomfortable moments, there is an open window into Shane’s past that I welcome.
“Believe it or not, she was a regular homemaker when I was a kid, even down to the freshly baked cookies after school.”
“I’m having a hard time picturing your mother with an apron on. What happened to transform her?”
“I’d say it’s a safe assumption that my father happened.”
We step onto the patio, and he reaches for the door to the house, but instead of opening it, he maneuvers me to rest my back against the hard surface, one hand on the wood by my head, the other branding my hip. “I will not let anyone hurt you. You know that, right?”
His laughter from minutes before is gone, his words low and fierce in that way he always loves me, and emotions I can’t name are welling up in my chest. No one has ever wanted to protect me the way this man wants to protect me. No one has ever cared this much about me, but then, I now know that the same is true of him as well. I wrap my arms around Shane’s neck and push to my toes, pressing my lips to his, lingering there a moment before I say, “And I will not let anyone hurt you either.” I relax back onto my feet and stare up at him. “You know that, right?” I add, repeating his words.