Page 125 of Perfect Satisfaction

Arek’s hands still. “You knew these two men when we were together?”

I nod. “Trust me, please. If I could share the reasons, I would, but legally I’m bound not to.”

Arek falls to his back and scrubs his hands over his face. “Christ, Sula. Legally? Is it tied up in this estate crap?”

I curl into his side and admit, “Yes.”

“Joshua Basset is one of the heirs.”

“So far as we can tell, my father left most of the business to him. He split other assets with the other heirs. Including you.”

“You don’t know who they are?” he asks incredulously.

“It was quite a shock to find out one of them was you.”

“I bet.” He curls me closer to him. “Was he always like this?”

“My father? Cunning, devious?”

“All around asshole?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then how did you turn out so differently?”

“Different from how?”

“Your father.”

“You forget, I had a mother until I was fifteen.” When I mention my mother, my eyes burn. I blink rapidly so tears don’t fall.

“You were close?” Arek settles down, tucking an arm under his head.

“Not in the slightest.” I can tell I’ve shocked him by the way his mouth falls open. “But she loved my father deeply. She just didn’t have any to spare for his progeny.”

“Aunts, uncles?”

“On her side, most of them dismissed me the moment I went to live with my father. On his side, no—he was an only child.”

“In other words, you essentially raised yourself.” Arek pulls me as close as he can into his warmth.

My smile is luminous. “I gained a family later in life, Arek. I had Angie, her grandparents, and others I’ll introduce you to along the way.”I hope, I amend in my head.

He plucks a kiss from my lips. For a moment, I’m lost in the sweetness before I break away and ask, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“All those questions you just asked me, right back at ’cha.”

While passing a hand through my hair, he says, “My father is exactly the kind of man you’d envision when you think of tabloid news—a complete slime. I lived with my grandmother as he tried to run StellaNova into the ground. Now, I pay him to stay the fuck out of it.”

I wrinkle my nose in distaste. “Charming.”

“Definitely not on the list of people I care for you to meet.” He gives me a long perusal. “Maybe my own upbringing is why I never asked you these questions.”

“Why?”

“I’d just escaped the slime. Long before we met, I took StellaNova away from him after disgusting remarks he made after my grandmother’s funeral. Before that, I tried as hard as possible to distance myself from my father. He’d succeeded in tarnishing StellaNova in news circles. I had that hanging over me when I took the reins, but being a reporter was all I wanted to do.”