Reveal (Wicked Ways #2)(63)

“Kids I can handle. They’re a lot like men. You give them the shiny things that make the most noise and they’re satisfied. Now women, on the other hand . . . I fail at understanding.”

“So you want kids, then?”

He purses his lips and angles his head to the side in the way he does when he really ponders something. “I’ve never really thought about it. That sounds stupid, but I haven’t. My stance on relationships was that they were temporary at best.”

“That’s promising,” I tease with a nudge.

“Yeah, but . . . when you don’t have something, don’t grow up with a set ideal, the thought of living it is scary.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” I murmur.

“You can talk about it with me, you know.”

“What do you mean?” I ask the question, although I already know the answer.

“Connecticut. Samantha. Your uncle. I promise you I have a good record keeping secrets.” He squeezes my hand. “At least my clients think so.”

“Thank you,” I say softly. “There’s nothing more to tell.”

“I know, but . . . I’m here.” He pulls me in tighter against him.

I look up at him and press my lips against his. It’s a soft kiss but one packed with so much emotion that it’s hard to open my eyes when the moment ends.

So I don’t. I just rest my forehead against his and breathe him in, surrounded by a silence sprinkled with Lucy’s laughter and the distant sounds of the city.

“You’re wrong, by the way,” I whisper against his lips.

“About?”

“You understand women better than you think.”

Another brush of lips.

“No. I understand you.” A rub of his nose against mine. “You changed things, Vaughn. You changed them in ways I never saw coming.”

Those words are like the soft sigh my soul has needed after so many years of holding my breath.

My mind wanders to places I rarely let it go. To futures and possibilities. One that has Ryker in it. I’ve been living in the next moment—one bill after another. I’ve been living for Lucy, with her as the endgame in mind.

But what if I wish for more?

What if I wish for one that has happily ever afters fit for the princess dancing in front of us?





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Vaughn

“At some point we need to talk about Carter,” Ryker says when he puts the car in park in my driveway.

“Please don’t ruin tonight,” I say.

“But that’s what you’ve said the last three times I’ve brought him up.”

“I know. It’s just . . .” I lean my head back on the seat rest and close my eyes. Lucy’s sound asleep in the back seat, and maybe I don’t want to ruin a perfect evening talking about him. And maybe if I pretend he never happened, then he’ll never follow through.

“You’re naive if you think he’s just going to go away,” he warns as if he’s read my mind.

“Ryker—”

“Just hear me out—”

“Please.”

“I’m not going to ruin tonight, but . . . he needs to be dealt with.” His hand twitches on the gearshift as he reins in his temper.

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes, it is. You have dirt on him. He knows it. You two are playing a game of chicken that neither of you are going to swerve on. Vaughn, men like him . . . you don’t want to mess with men like him. They’re cowards who ruin you out of spite. They’ll ruin you simply because they like to watch you cower in fear. They get off on it.”

“Then there’s nothing I can do if it’s out of spite. I don’t give in, he’ll ruin me. I do give in, he’ll still ruin me to prove he can. When a person’s endgame is to fuck me over in every way possible, it seems so much easier to stick my head in the sand and pretend he doesn’t exist. When I do, he leaves me alone.” I unbuckle my seat belt and move to get out of the car.

“What does he have on you, Vaughn?”

I try not to be pissed off the minute I meet his eyes and see the doubt woven into them. “Nothing that I don’t know of.”

“What about your uncle? You said he mentioned your uncle.”

“Hell if I know. I left with Sam and never looked back. Ever. I’ve had my private investigator that I use for Wicked Ways check to see if he’s alive or dead. It’s a shame he’s still alive, but I’m not going to apologize or be sorry about whatever karma-induced accident left him paralyzed. That’s about all I care to know. That family doesn’t deserve an extra second of my time. Not one. So what does the senator know about my uncle? Beats the hell out of me. But if Carter’s a man who gets off on fear like you say he does, then just bringing up my uncle has me scared when most days I can rationalize that he can no longer touch me.”

“What do you mean, ‘most days’?” he asks.

“Most days I know I’m out of his reach, but sometimes when you’re rich and want something bad enough, you have everything at your disposal to get it. Let’s just hope Sam and I were blips on his radar who he thinks fell off the face of the earth.” I push the handle to open the door and climb out.