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Father material?
Falcon felt a punch of reaction to his abdomen, the sharp sensation causing him to grit his teeth furiously. Because the bastard was right.
But still, father material? The man who would give Summer a child, who would watch her carry that child, give birth and nurture it. The man that would forever mark her heart and soul in the most intimate of ways?
There was no sex act, no touch that could ever mark a woman as a man marked the mother of his children. That bond was one that was never broken, no matter the circumstances. His body would forever be a part of that woman’s for his child having rested inside her.
And another man would give her those children.
He cursed.
First in Spanish, then as his anger only grew, in all five languages he knew with a fluency usually reserved for the natives of those lands.
Turning, he stalked from the office, slammed the door closed, and fought the need to go straight to her parents’ home and drag her back to her own. As he neared the exit to the barn he found himself ramming his fist into the wall with enough force that the resulting crack echoed through the barn.
“Dammit, Falcon…” Raeg cursed.
He ignored his brother.
Teeth clenched, brutal fury ripping through him, he strode quickly from the barn and headed for Summer’s home. It was peaceful there. Her presence filled it even when she wasn’t there, the scent of her infusing the house, washing over a man with a subtle warmth he wasn’t aware of at first.
And she would choose another man to share that home with? To share her bed with?
Because he and Raeg were not worthy … because they could not stay and share that life, those children she so wanted, and the peace she filled her home with. Because they had no choice but to walk away when this was over, and they all knew it.
She had somehow known it even before she had left DC.
Summer would have never done something so outrageous unless she had resigned herself to being unable to love any man she might marry in the future. She wouldn’t meet so many men believing in love at first sight. No, Summer had known her connection to him and Raeg was too deep, no matter her battles with his brother. She had known that finding a man to share her life with, to be the father of her children, wouldn’t be an emotional choice.
They had already lost her even before she left DC, he realized as he stepped into the home she had created for herself and closed the door silently.
This was the legacy he and Raeg shared, he thought wearily. A legacy of always being alone, of always fearing that what they would love the most would be taken from them. Because of their father’s overpowering love for two women he had endangered, he refused to trust his sons to keep the secret of their location and their new identities. And because of that lack of trust, he would murder any woman his sons claimed if he considered her a threat. Especially a woman who had been part of the CIA.
This was their legacy, he thought, staring around the sun-dappled rooms and knowing the day would soon come when he and Raeg would be forced to walk away.
“I will never forgive any of you,” he whispered bleakly, thinking of his mother, of Raeg’s mother, and of the father who always seemed to be watching no matter the safeguards they used. “Do you hear me?” he snarled into the silence. “I did not hate until this moment. I could
have forgiven…” He would have forgiven, if that was what it took to have a chance at a future, at a family that he and his brother could share.
He shook his head at the thought. There could be no forgiveness for this, for the loss of the woman Falcon was realizing owned so much of his spirit.
He would never completely leave her. He could never do so. His heart would always linger with her, it would never desert the woman who had given him so much in the past two years.
Wiping his hands over his face he stalked to the bar, pulled free the decanter of whisky, and poured one of the short glasses nearly full before taking a healthy drink of the fiery liquid.
“Summer-shine,” he said on a heavy breath, that bleak, burning bitterness that always lurked in the darkest corners of his mind encroaching closer now. “How I wish…”
But wishing was futile, he told himself, taking another drink and making his way upstairs to the room Summer directed him to when he and Raeg had first arrived. They’d slept in her bed though. He and his brother, one on each side of her, surrounding her with their warmth, with their protection.
God help him, would he survive when he’d learn that she had married? He had a feeling survival would be the least of his worries if he ever learned she carried another man’s child. There would be nothing inside him but fury once that occurred, a fury he knew would destroy him.
* * *
Raeg stared at the empty exit from the barn for long minutes after his brother had stalked away from it. His gaze slid then to the cracked plank of wood where Falcon’s fist had slammed into it and wondered if his brother had finally managed to break a bone.
“You know he loves her, don’t you?” Cal turned to Raeg then, his dark blue eyes filled with censure. “Says you love her too, though you won’t admit to it. Yet, I have a feeling the two of you will walk right away from her once you kill Dragovich, won’t you?”
Raeg rubbed at the back of his neck before dropping his hand to his side, knowing he should just walk away from this conversation as well. He should check on Falcon, make certain he hadn’t broken his hand.
