Any Time, Any Place (Billionaire Builders #2)(83)

“Yeah. I listened to them all today. When you were making excuses to not get involved with me, you said you wanted to get married. Was that a lie, too?”

“No. I may have emphasized it a bit more, because I needed some defenses against you. It was a way for me to make sure you kept your distance. But I do want long term. I’ve done my playing around and intended to look for a man who’d like to settle down. A man interested in marriage and a family.”

He didn’t answer for a while, seeming to process her statement. Vulnerability hit her. It was hard sharing things with a man who no longer acted like he cared about her. She kept telling herself the man she loved was still there, he was just buried underneath a mess of emotions and hurt right now.

“You said your tattoo was a symbol of justice. Care to elaborate now that all our skeletons are out?”

She refused to wince. Her fingers came up unconsciously to stroke the familiar lines. “I thought your mother had ruined my father. Your family forced me to question his love and loyalty, and it was easier to hate. I got the tat so I’d never forget the day I lost him. I wanted to be reminded that one day, justice would finally be served.”

“Congratulations. How does it feel to scratch something off your bucket list?”

“I can’t apologize for the girl I was and how I felt, Dalton. I won’t even try. I can only say I see things more clearly now, and we owe it to ourselves to forgive. That’s the real justice I was looking for all along.”

He seemed to ponder her words, taking his time before asking another question. “What made you change your mind about my mother?”

She took a deep breath and clasped her hands in her lap. “The stories you told me. The way you loved her. The way she loved you. They didn’t add up to the woman I’d imagined. Then my aunt Penny mentioned something to me recently. She said Papa told her about a woman he’d fallen in love with, but who needed time to sort things out. We both agreed it sounded like a married woman. I think it was your mom.”

He flinched but kept talking. “You believe they were coming back?”

“I do. All this time, I was so angry and confused. But along the way, I’d forgotten how close I was with my father. What purpose would there be to fleeing to Paris on a weeknight, leaving families they loved behind? My aunt kept telling me the same thing, but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Now I realize it doesn’t make sense.”

“People rarely do,” he muttered. “Especially when sex is involved, which is too often mistaken for love.”

She hugged her body tight against the sudden chill. “Love would’ve brought them back.”

“Love made them leave and killed them both. You’re being a romantic fool because it’s easier to believe. You’re still denying the idea of your father going after my family’s money?”

“Papa wasn’t interested in money—not that way. He lived for his art and everyday pleasures. We were poor, but it never felt like it. We were happy.”

“Maybe that was a mirage, too.”

“No. Just like I don’t believe your mother hated your father so badly she decided to cut her sons loose. She loved you.”

“You know nothing about my mother,” he whipped out.

She fell silent, caught between words that couldn’t reach him and the voice inside begging her to touch him and bring him back.

“Cal told me he knew who you were.”

She blinked in surprise. “He knew about me?”

“He didn’t tell me, though.”

“Why?”

His face revealed a flicker of pain. Her heart swelled with the urge to reach for him, comfort him, but she kept still. “Guess he’s come to the conclusion you have—that our parents fell in love and were coming back. He told me I looked so happy with you, he wanted you to tell me the truth yourself.”

She choked back a sob. “Dalton, I never wanted to hurt you. Never. This connection between us has always been there, and I’ve been fighting it from the very first day. But I don’t want to any longer. I realize you’re the man I was meant for, even though it’s been a short time. There’s an emptiness in my core that’s filled when I’m around you. I’ve traveled the world and met a thousand people to try to slake that emptiness, but it all went away when I first saw you.”

His jaw tightened. “I did, too. But what was real and what was a sick way to get closer to the memory of your father?”

She jerked back. “It wasn’t like that!”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

The rage was back, shaking his body like a storm wind clutching a weak tree branch. Her body hurt, and she moved toward him, desperate to take away the pain and convince him of the truth. She knelt in front of him, her hands resting on his knees. “This is about you and me,” she said. “This is about how you make me feel when you take me in your arms and make me yours.”

“Then prove it.” His eyes glittered like water droplets hitting stone, brilliant under the glare of the sun. “Prove it to me, Raven.”

His challenge caused a wave of longing to crash through her, and there was nothing left to do but reach for him.

Still on her knees, she pulled his head toward hers and kissed him, sinking her tongue deep into his mouth, drunk on the taste of chocolate and a touch of whiskey, his dark, male fragrance rising up to surround her. He dragged her onto his lap and she straddled him, pressing her breasts against his muscled chest. He yanked her tank top down with her bra and sucked on her breasts, his teeth rough, his tongue hot. She arched into the sting, opening his belt and freeing his erection, her hands squeezing and stroking until he groaned and jerked under her touch. He raised her up just enough to tug her jeans and underwear off, splaying her open to his plunging fingers. She gritted her teeth against the impending orgasm, needing him to be inside her, and scraped her nails down his chest, half-crazed.