AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I clenched my jaw. I should have known she wouldn’t stop her busybody ways after I had brusquely declined her request to join her and Maya for lunch.
“Plus, why would you be here, if not to enjoy the many delights on offer?”
Sandro’s eyes lingered on the two rare beauties on stage, long, lean-limbed, almost twins but for their hair—one a flaming redhead, the other glorious gold.
I drained my Scotch. What I really needed was a brunette with dazzling green eyes.
“So, how’s the family?” said Sandro, not put off by my simmering silence.
I shrugged. “Not good.”
He flagged down a passing silver-clad hostess, and she set another couple of Scotches on our table.
“What you need, buddy, is a good little wifey like Maya to pop out a couple of grandkids to keep your mother busy.”
I scowled. I’d never had a desire to bring any more children into this fucked world. Not until I saw Beth, cuddling up to Amara at bedtime, reading her that story about crocodiles she liked so much, their faces lit up and animated.
And it had hit me like a tsunami then. The sheer force of the love. Why people chose to have children, to raise them, to hold them close and read to them and soothe all their fears.
A little girl like Beth, with her mother’s silken hair and her mother’s sparkling eyes. A little girl for Amara to play with and cherish and hold in her little arms, her face alight with fascination at new life.
God, how that hurt.
We had never spoken of it, but Beth would want children, I was sure. She would be a wonderful mother. Just look at how she had filled that gap in Amara’s life.
A crushing pain bloomed in my chest at the memory of tears pooling in Amara’s eyes when I had snapped at her earlier. Amara had never known her mother. Then Beth had come and she’d had Beth. And I had ripped Beth out of her life.
How the fuck had I not realised that?
The crushing weight was stopping me from breathing.
I drained my second Scotch, nearly choking on the amber liquid.
Sandro had to thump me on the back. Smirking. “Easy, pal.”
“Screw you,” I gasped.
“Work then, since you won’t talk about family. You still keen on pissing off Uncle Gianni by killing that fucker Landry? Hold on. That is family.”
“Can’t find him,” I said shortly.
“What about Jacob’s police contacts?”
“He said they gave him a lead.”
I clenched my fists on the tabletop. I could have easily killed Landry if someone handed him to me right now. Right after I made him tell me if it was him who paid Beth to seduce me.
I dragged my fingers through my hair. Not that I believed that it was her who had come after me anymore. I had always fancied Beth. I was fully capable of seducing her, but had decided to keep her off limits. But if someone had drugged me, I could imagine changing my mind about taking her to bed in a heartbeat.
And by now, I knew damn well about our chemistry. The way she looked at me when she wanted me. That little smile she gave me, teasing. Come and get me, it said.
All she would have had to do was smile at me that night and I would have taken her to bed and kept her there all night.
Was that what had happened?
Then why had Beth been so torn up, as if she’d been keeping some secret from me?
I ground my teeth. I really should have fucking listened instead of throwing her out.
