Page 43 of Phoenix

My father had never thought about serving our country in his life. I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. “He’s a hero, Dad. Oh, you don’t know what that means.” I was shocked the nastiness had popped from my mouth. Maybe my date was good for me.

“Wren!” Mother snapped.

I noticed Cammie slapped a hand over her mouth, turning away slightly.

“Let it be, Pamela,” my father said.

“You should have told me you were bringing a… friend,” my mother snapped. “We invited someone for you to sit with tonight.”

“So I understand. I’m not eighteen and living under your roof any longer, Mother. I will date whomever I want.”

“Phoenix. A fascinating name,” my father said as he approached, holding out his hand.

“Mr. Tillman. I’ve heard so much about you,” Phoenix told him as he shook my father’s hand, the grip firm, my ‘date’ towering over the man.

“That’s interesting since I’ve never heard anything about you. I wonder why that is.” My father turned his head in my direction, peering at me with a knowing glint in his eyes, as if he knew I was faking it.

“Well, we thought we’d keep our little love affair a secret. That makes the desire that much sweeter,” Phoenix said as he slipped his hand around the back of my neck.

Phoenix was playing my father like a fiddle, enjoying every moment of doing so.

“I didn’t catch your surname, son. Surely you have one of those.”

“Oh, of course. I’m sorry. Where are my manners? My name is Emerson Riggs Wentworth. I believe you know my father, William.”

As soon as he said the name, a cold shiver raced down my spine. I should have asked about his family.

His father and my father were bitter enemies and had been for two decades or more.

Dinner had certainly just become more interesting.

* * *

Phoenix

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Wren demanded after dragging me out of the room.

“Would you have asked someone else to be your date?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Hmmm… That meant she knew all about the bad blood between our two families.

“What good would it have done?” I eyed her carefully, especially the nervous tic that had formed on the side of her mouth. It was obvious she was anxious, yet the fire in her eyes was exactly the same as I’d seen in the motel room. I had a sick desire to tame her, requiring her full submission twenty-four hours a day. The thought went beyond Neanderthal and was one that I hadn’t indulged in my entire life. But with her, everything was different, as if my senses had been awakened for the first time.

“Well, for one it would have warned me about what I was getting in the middle of.” She threw a look over her shoulder after Camille popped her head out of the room, her chest rising and falling from her ragged breathing. “And second, it was the right thing to do, although I’m not entirely certain you know what that means.”

I hadn’t intended on creating additional difficulties. Or… maybe that’s exactly what I’d intended. After learning who Wren’s father was, it had taken all I had not to make a phone call to my father, even though doing so would have started a vicious argument. I wasn’t a man who had any level of patience, nor did I tolerate bullshit for long. It had taken me two minutes after meeting Wren’s father until I’d had enough.

Besides, I’d wanted to see the man’s surprised reaction given my hunch about the fires. He was genuinely shocked to see me. I wasn’t certain what that said, but I doubted he was trying to torch my place in order to purchase it at a fire sale.

However, he was an arrogant, insufferable piece of shit, at least in my opinion. Granted, I’d grown up listening to my father lamenting how Gregory Tillman had betrayed him, severing their partnership after a violent incident. However, I’d never expected to meet the man or to find myself in the uncomfortable position of already having fucked his daughter.

And enjoyed the hell out of myself in doing so.

While the man’s notorious, unscrupulous activities had been a bone of contention for my family, what pissed me off the most was his arrogance in the way he treated his two daughters.

Especially the woman who’d hired me as her escort for the evening.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com