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She struggled to inhale. She felt like she’d been slugged back in that lobby and she was still recovering from that blow.
“Why didn’t you tell me that Lincoln had cut your shares in DuBois and his inheritance to you when he included me in the will?”
“I wasn’t trying to keep it from you,” he said, vapor from his breath billowing around his mouth. “I thought it would have been obvious, that I was previously his sole heir.”
A tear of frustration and anger landed on her cheek, seeming to freeze against her skin. “A lot of things aren’t obvious to me, Nick. You’ve accused me in the past of taking advantage of Lincoln when he was vulnerable, and yet you have no problem at all doing the same to me. You know I don’t know very much about business. You know I’m...confused after everything that has happened to me in the past few months,” she said furiously. “I let down my guard to you last night, and you take the information and use it for your own means—”
“Deidre—”
“Get away from me, Nick,” she seethed, throwing off his hold and shoving her key in the lock. He grasped both of her shoulders at once in an iron-strong hold. She felt the pressure of his body against hers from behind.
“I didn’t mean to upset you or betray a confidence,” he breathed out quietly from just above her left ear. She went still, shivering uncontrollably at the sensation of his chin brushing her hair as he spoke. “The fact of the matter is, the truth is going to come out as soon as you receive those test results. You weren’t planning on keeping the results secret, were you?”
“No, of course not.” Her voice vibrated with anger, but she didn’t move away from him.
“This is crucial information to me, as well as John Kellerman.”
Deidre turned the key and plunged into the warm kitchen. She immediately headed toward the living room, sensing that Nick was behind her and wanting to escape. How could she have spilled her guts out to him last night? The only thing he cared about was that damn company and all the power and money that went with it. Lincoln meant so much more to her than that.
He caught her and spun her around in his arms so quickly all her breath rushed out of her lungs.
“You share control of DuBois Enterprises with me until any information comes to light that refutes that claim, Deidre.” He shook her gently, a look of profound frustration tightening his features. “You can’t claim to be Lincoln’s daughter and then insist there are no consequences to that claim. Of course I’m going to communicate certain essentials about your stance on being named as one of Lincoln’s heirs to John Kellerman.”
“I heard what you said,” she said, horrified to feel tears spill down her cheek. “The only thing you care about is my cooperation. Your being here in Harbor Town, the Christmas tree, the photos, last night...all of it is just your way of getting what you want out of me. You’re using me.”
“No. Didn’t I tell you what happened between us last night has got absolutely nothing
to do with DuBois Enterprises?” he grated out. He clamped his eyelids shut briefly and then focused on her again. “Damn it, Deidre, don’t you have the smallest inkling of the repercussions of Lincoln giving you half of the controlling interest of his company?”
Doubt swamped her as she sensed the depth of his frustration, but she gave him a halfhearted glance of defiance. “I’ve told you I don’t care about DuBois Enterprises or Lincoln’s money. I just...wanted...a father.”
His grasp on her upper arms tightened. He brought her closer to him, until she felt anchored by his stare. His fierce, gray eyes seemed to be the only thing keeping her from succumbing to a wave of dizziness. “Sometimes we don’t get precisely what we want, Deidre.”
“You think I don’t know that?” she cried.
“Sometimes we get less than we bargained for,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. He leaned down over her until their stares and their mouths were aligned just inches apart. “Sometimes we get more. That’s what you got. More. Do you have any idea how many people DuBois Enterprises employs?”
She blinked at his unexpected, harsh question.
“No,” she whispered.
“Over sixty thousand employees across the world. Every single one of those people has family members who depend on them. DuBois itself is the customer for hundreds of other companies that also employ thousands of people. So while it’s real simple for you to brush off DuBois Enterprises as irrelevant, it’s not so easy for me and the hundreds of thousands of people that depend on it every single day of their lives to do the same.”
His voice rang in her ears. She just stared at his rigid face, speechless.
“I’m sorry if you thought I broke a confidence by telling John Kellerman you’d already had the genetic testing. I’m sorry that it wasn’t clear to you that I was previously Linc’s sole heir,” he said hoarsely. He leaned down until his forehead touched hers. Deidre’s breath burned in her lungs at the contact of his skin against hers. “I’m not trying to take advantage of you. It’s just that the circumstances here are a lot bigger than you or me.”
A silence stretched. She couldn’t seem to inhale a full breath.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the perception of her selfishness breaking through her emotional chaos like a hot knife. It only added to her distress. “I...I hadn’t been thinking of it in that way. To me, this whole situation with Lincoln is—”
“Intensely personal,” he muttered, his breath brushing against her cheek. He’d sounded so grim, it shocked her when he pressed his lips against the corner of her mouth. She shuddered with emotion and a wave of physical weakness. “I understand that, too. Better than I had in the beginning. Every time you told me you could care less about DuBois Enterprises, that you only wanted to know your biological father before he left this world, you meant it literally. I get that now. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that there’s a much bigger, wider picture here, Deidre.”
Tears coursed down her cheek. The edges of her vision were darkening. “I wish Lincoln had never changed that damn will,” she mumbled through leaden lips.
His arms encircled her and he brought her hard against him. When he squeezed her tight, more unwanted tears spilled out of her eyes. He opened his hand at the base of her spine, and she had the disorienting thought he knew she had a tattoo there, although that wasn’t possible—was it? Her vision swam before her eyes. His caress struck her as focused...cherishing...possessive. He spoke next to her ear, the sensation of his warm breath on her skin and the sound of his roughened voice increasing her uncontrollable trembling.
“What’s done is done. We’ll deal with the consequences. I just want you to know that I’m not your enemy. Please believe that. If you’re truly Linc’s biological daughter, if Lincoln wanted you to have partial control of his company and if he was of sound mind when he made that decision, then I will make sure that legacy is passed on to you. I would fight anyone tooth and nail who challenged your claim if all those things are true, including John Kellerman. So there’s no reason to feel threatened by me telling Kellerman about the genetic testing or that you’ve expressed interest in the Vivicor acquisition.” He leaned back and stared down into her face. She blinked the tears out of her eyes so she could see him better, but he remained blurry. Deidre had the vague impression that he looked alarmed, but she couldn’t understand why.
