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So much pain. So much loss.
“Please take me back to my car,” she said. Her chest hurt. Her eyes stung. She should never have come to the funeral.
He raked his hands through his hair, for the first time betraying a lack of control. “I can’t, Fliss. I’m not letting you leave until you say yes.”
Her anger flared. “So you’re kidnapping women now? Is that your signature move?”
“Not women. Only you.” He inhaled and let out a harried breath. “There’s one more thing...”
“Don’t bother. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind. This is absurd.”
His crooked smile was bleak. “I remember every one of the times you told me how hard it was for you not having a mother. When you started your period. When you needed your hair done for a special occasion and there was no money. When you couldn’t decide if you were going to sleep with me.”
She stared at him in stunned disgust. He was willing to play on her every weakness to get what he wanted. “You cold bastard,” she said.
“Think about it, Fliss. Your whole life you dreamed about having a mother, because yours had abandoned you, and your father never settled on a replacement. Girls need a mother. Ayla needs a feminine role model, a feminine touch. Won’t you give her what you never had? Nine months, Fliss. Twelve at the most. We’ll draw up a contract to keep things nice and neat. And it goes without saying that I’ll compensate you for lost salary at the airline.”
“Damn you.”
He knew he had won. She could see it on his face.
His expression softened. “It won’t be so bad. New York is a great city. And you’ll have time off. I’m not a monster.”
“Let’s be clear on one point,” she said. “If I do this, it’s for Shandy and Ayla. I don’t owe you a single thing. The past is the past. Whatever you and I had is long gone.”
She couldn’t read his face. But his shrug spoke volumes. “Understood.”
“And I won’t help you with Shandy’s apartment. If I’m moving, I have things to do myself.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“This may not work,” she warned. “The baby may not bond with me or with you. Then what will you do?”
His shoulders straightened and his jaw tightened. “I never plan for failure. Only for success. That little girl is all I have left.”
Three days later, Felicity found herself boarding a private jet bound for LaGuardia. Her suitcase was already on board. She’d shipped four boxes of clothes and personal items that would be waiting on the other end.
Panic dogged her every step. What was she doing?
The only way she could cope was to focus on the baby. Ayla was adorable. She had Shandy’s blond hair and Wynn’s green eyes. The little girl would be a heartbreaker one day.
Wynn held the child as he ducked his head to enter the cabin. From the moment he drove Felicity back down the mountain to her car, there had been little communication between the two of them. Only a handful of brief texts.
After all, what was there to say? Wynn had won.
Felicity settled into a seat farther back and fastened her seat belt. She refused to let him see she was impressed. She had known for a long time that Wynn was incredibly successful and wildly wealthy. But seeing his lifestyle up close and personal was a lot to absorb.
He had always been ambitious, even when they were teenagers.
His time in the navy had enhanced his skills, and he had gone to college on the military’s dime. Once he was a civilian again, he invented a cloud-based black box that relayed all a plane’s vital information in real time. The patent changed his life forever.
As she watched, he leaned toward the window and settled Ayla in her infant carrier that was strapped into the seat beside his. The baby was extremely good-natured and adaptable. Felicity hoped the child would like her, but so far that theory had yet to be tested. Wynn was hogging the child.
Once they were airborne, Felicity was no longer able to ignore her biggest fear. Not flying. She’d been doing that professionally for a very long time. Wanting to keep this private when she went on leave, she’d sanitized the truth to her friends and colleagues.
She was helping a friend. That was all they needed to know.
The fear that kept her sleepless for the last three nights was much more personal. She was going to be living with Wynn. Sleeping in his house. Probably sharing meals.
