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“I can have the beach brought to me. And I’ll pass on abusing my palate with junk food, thanks.”
“Pretzel isn’t junk food. It’s a holy institution.”
He rolls his eyes and I laugh. He pauses, then his teeth flash in a smile that has me blinking.
Jesus, he’s insanely gorgeous when he smiles. My heart is jumping around in my chest when he pulls me close and kisses me.
We part breathless but I see his gaze search mine for a few ticks before he goes back to caressing my back.
“Olsteen says you’re her best student. Tell me why you’re not dancing professionally.”
* * *
Jared
My unexpected questioncatches her on the raw and I feel her stiffen.
I wait her out and a minute later, the answer comes pouring out.
“I suffer from stage fright. It came out of nowhere when I was ten. My parents put me in therapy, but it didn’t take. When my mom left, Dad said she left because she was ashamed of me. That I’d let them both down because no matter how well I trained, I could never perform when the time came.”
I clench my jaw to stop from telling her the true reason her mother left. Jenny Michaels left because her husband was a serial adulterer who could never keep it in his pants long enough to even finish one affair before starting another.
It was a combination of expensive mistresses and lifestyle that had led to him dipping his fingers into my corporate accounts, skimming money he stupidly thought would never be missed.
But I’m equally pissed with her mother for leaving a vulnerable child with a man like Warren Michaels.
The bastard wasn’t fit enough to bear the label of father. He’d left Skye with a succession of nannies until she was fourteen, then basically left her to raise herself.
No wonder she was in desperate need of a Daddy.
Not that I intend to assume a conventional fatherly role, of course. But I fully intend to see to her every need, even those she’s not aware she has.
Starting with changing her mindset about what she perceives as her failures.
“You know that’s bullshit, right?”
Her gorgeous blue eyes widen at my forceful tone. Then she shakes her head. “It’s not. The stage fright was real. And awful.”
“I get that. But blaming you for it instead of finding the root cause was bullshit. As was saying your mother left you because of it.”
Her mouth wobbles for a fleeting moment before she firms it. “But she left without so much as a goodbye. And…and I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Are you saying everything was great at home before she left? Think back,” I urge.
Her forehead crinkles adorably. So adorably I can’t stop myself from leaning forward to drop a trail of kisses there until she stops frowning.
Christ, her skin is so fucking soft. I can’t get enough of touching her. So I don’t. I take her hand and kiss her knuckles to encourage her to continue.
“No, I guess not. They fought a lot in the months before she left.”
“What about?”
“Money, sometimes. Other times it was about Dad coming home late. Or not coming home at all.” She pauses and blinks, then darts a glance at me. “Do you…think he was having an affair?”
“I don’t just think it, angel,” I murmur.
Her eyes widen, then cloud with hurt. “So they had problems and he let me think…” She stops, swallows, and I vow then and there to make Michaels pay twice as hard for hurting his daughter.
