Show and Tell (43 page)
Because everything was so perfect with Scott after last night, but what if he was another bad judgment? She’d jumped quickly into marriage with Harper so no one else, not her father, not Faith, would have the chance to disapprove. What if that were the reason for Scott to be a secret? Because someone might disapprove, and she wouldn’t be able to stand firm against it. That’s why Harper rubbed her raw, because he made her
think
.
think
.
“I’ll make this quick,” she said, biting down on her anger. “If you’ve taken pictures in order to blackmail me into giving you a settlement, you can forget it. I don’t care what you do with those pictures.” Unless they hurt Scott.
“What pictures?”
She stepped closer. His blue eyes were like cracked crystal, a peculiarity she’d once found attractive, and he’d always worn the most delicious aftershave. That was just the outer shell. “I’m not falling for it. You know what pictures.”
Something shimmered on his cheeks, a slight sheen of sweat or raindrops that hadn’t dried. “My car.” He pointed his umbrella. “Can we talk there?” He glanced over his shoulder.
Trinity realized they were silhouetted against the front windows of Vatovola’s for all to see and speculate, yet she was still loathe to get in his car.
Which felt like a sign of weakness. “I only have a few minutes.”
Harper beeped his remote, and she climbed into the passenger side of his late-model luxury car. At least he hadn’t bought that with her money while they were married. He’d come with it.
Light raindrops pattered on the windshield, and their breath steamed up the inside glass.
“I don’t know what pictures you’re talking about, Trinity. I’m not blackmailing you. I would never blackmail you. Believe it or not, I actually care about you.”
He was such a liar. “I won’t let you get away with it. Daddy’s lawyers will—” She cut herself off midthought. She wouldn’t use Daddy’s lawyers. She’d handle this herself. She wasn’t a weakling who needed to turn to
Daddy
whenever something went wrong. “I want you to back off, Harper.”
Daddy
whenever something went wrong. “I want you to back off, Harper.”
Leaning back against the door, he hooked a leg up onto the seat. “I messed up our marriage, Trinity.”
He sure did.
“I never meant to hurt you. It wasn’t my idea in the first place, but I needed the money.” He blinked. “I thought I could do it all without hurting you. Because I liked you.”
“But you didn’t love me.”
“No.”
Trinity digested that a moment, surprised to find it didn’t hurt. “I didn’t love you either.”
Once the words were out, she realized how dreadful they sounded said aloud. She’d married a man for her own selfish purposes. No matter how it ended, she was also a guilty party.
“I knew you didn’t,” he said softly.
“You couldn’t have known.”
“You never lost control with me, Trinity. You always made sure your makeup didn’t run or your hair get out of place.” He put out a hand to touch, withdrawing when she flinched. “You were never passionate about me, Trinity.”
That stabbed her through the heart, because it was true. She felt so much passion with Scott from the beginning, even when he was just a physical obsession. You didn’t have to feel passion to feel love, but the awful truth was she’d never felt anything for Harper. “You were passionate about me?”
“No, I wasn’t. You see . . .” He tipped his head, his gaze tracing her features. “I was always in love with someone else.”
All the air seemed to be sucked right out of the car. She’d
never
been Harper’s perfect little wife. She’d been his perfect little patsy. “The woman in the shower?”
never
been Harper’s perfect little wife. She’d been his perfect little patsy. “The woman in the shower?”
“We needed the money to get out of some financial problems.”
“What about the money that
disappeared
from your last business deal?” Daddy had checked on him.
disappeared
from your last business deal?” Daddy had checked on him.
Harper blinked, toyed with the cuff of his pants where he’d put his leg up on the seat. “I was never very good at business, and I lost everything for my investors.” He finally looked at her. “I didn’t steal it.”
It explained one thing, but not everything. “But she
knew
you were marrying me for my money?”
knew
you were marrying me for my money?”
“It was her idea to find a rich woman.”
Trinity couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea, let alone have an emotion about it. “She didn’t care that you were going to have to
fuck
me?”
fuck
me?”
He yanked back, flush up against the door. “You’ve
never
used that word.”
never
used that word.”
“It’s a perfectly good word.” She said it again for good measure. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Then she beamed him a malicious little smile. “There, see how easy it is?”
It struck her that she’d loved saying it for Scott. It had an entirely different meaning with Harper.
“I’m sorry, Trinity. Honestly, I didn’t want you to find us like that.” He seemed so sincere, his eyes a pale blue, pleading for forgiveness.
“Apologizing isn’t going to get you any money.”
“I know that.”
“So it was all for nothing.”
“Actually, my . . .” He glanced at her, weighed his words. “She found someone that’ll work out the way we need it to.”
“You mean,
she
married some poor slob for his money?”
she
married some poor slob for his money?”
“It’s not like that.”
Trinity put the tip of her index finger on Harper’s knee. “Doesn’t it bother you that she’s letting another man touch her?”
Harper shrugged. “He’s old. He can’t get it up anyway.”
So that made it fine with him? “Doesn’t it bother you that she didn’t care that I
wasn’t
old and you had sex with
me
?”
wasn’t
old and you had sex with
me
?”
His Adam’s apple slid slowly up and down.
“I wish I could feel sorry for you, but I can’t.” She wondered, though, if she could forgive him. Yet in the next moment, the answer seemed so obvious. The person she needed to forgive was herself. Harper wasn’t the only one who told lies. She’d been lying to herself all along. “I didn’t marry you for the right reasons, Harper. I’m as guilty of making mistakes.” She flashed him a look. “Yours are a lot worse than mine, but I screwed up, too.” She wasn’t going to learn a damn thing from this if she didn’t at least face that.
She’d been searching for the elusive things that Faith had found—unconditional love and acceptance. Maybe she hadn’t found it because she truly wasn’t able to give it in return. She wasn’t sure she could give it even to Scott.
“Harper, we did a quickie marriage in Nevada. Why don’t we agree to a quickie divorce there, too? Then we both walk away with what we had before we started.”
She could walk away with what she’d had, but she couldn’t ever be the same person. It was time to move back into the master bedroom and stop letting it haunt her. She’d made a mistake. Now she had to forgive herself and move on.
“That’s fine with me, Trinity.” Harper stuck out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”
It was the oddest thing to seal a divorce agreement with a handshake. Yet, by letting go of the anger, she felt as if she’d finally done something right.
THE Saturday evening dinner party Herman Green hosted was in celebration of the new contract between Millennium and Green Industries. Scott swirled the ice cubes in his glass and observed the gathering in Herman’s living room.
All business in an office atmosphere, Connor Kingston now played the fawning husband over his very pregnant wife as she sat on the elegantly appointed gold brocade couch. It was like tearing open an envelope to find something altogether unexpected on the inside.
All the major players from Monday’s contract signing were in attendance, including Rudd, his wife, and Grace. Jarvis Castle had arrived late. The soon-to-be-retiring chairman of Castle Heavy Mining, he was also Kingston’s father-in-law, and he doted on his daughter, Faith. He handed her a crystal flute filled with sparkling cider.
Faith Kingston was a pretty woman, not so much the cut of her face, but her smile, the loving look when she gazed at her father, and most especially the heat in her eyes when she held Kingston’s hand to her belly as the baby kicked. More than awe at the tiny life growing inside her, it was something profound she shared with her child’s father. It was
their
baby,
their
love,
them
all the way.
their
baby,
their
love,
them
all the way.
Katy hadn’t wanted to have sex with him when she was pregnant. Between Kingston and his wife, Scott figured they couldn’t get enough of each other even at eight months.
For the first time, he wondered if he’d ever had that kind of passion with Katy. He remembered attributing passion to youth and newness, something you grew out of without intending to. Perhaps he’d never truly known it in the first place.
Until Jezebel.
In a black evening dress, pearls at her throat, she made an entrance through the double living room doors. Her stiletto heels sank in the expensive patterned carpet, and the flare of the dress’s skirt showcased her legs. Rounding the glass table central to the large room, she kissed her father’s cheek. He introduced her to Rudd and his wife. Glad-handing, smiling, she didn’t even turn in Scott’s direction.
He hadn’t seen her since Tuesday morning, and she’d had a logical excuse every time. The beginnings of their relationship had been spent trying to get her to reveal who she was. Now he’d simply switched from one goal to another, revealing their secret affair to the world. He had the feeling he’d use up every ounce of energy he possessed trying to get her to love him in return.
“She’s a bit showy, isn’t she?” Grace had chosen a flowered dress, one that was too short and too tight for the event.
He felt mean-spirited making the comparison to Trinity, who couldn’t wear anything too tight or too short for his desires. He wanted to run his fingers beneath the flared dress to see if she wore thigh highs or pantyhose.
“She’s Herman Green’s daughter, so I’m sure that’s expected.” He hoped the comment came across as innocuous.
While Trinity was beautiful, she was more than a face and body. She had layers he wanted to peel away: exhibitionist, voyeur, and a bit of a submissive, yet she liked her control. One minute she could be sassy and snarky, the next, she was apologizing for omitting the truth about her divorce. Gorgeous, she was still insecure. He’d seen that as she’d stripped down for him in his living room. She’d needed his approval. She hadn’t figured out she already had it.
Grace sipped her mimosa. “I’ll bet she’s a cold fish.”
Moving just his eyes, he glanced at her, but she focused solely on Trinity. That was an odd comment. He’d never heard Grace remark on anything so personal, but then he’d never attended a dinner party with her either.
And Grace was wrong. In his few weeks with Trinity, he’d discovered a level of kinky desire he didn’t know he had. And she met every challenge head-on. There wasn’t a thing cold about her. She’d damn near cried with pleasure when he spanked her and went crazy when he fed her pussy the vibrator. It had been so fucking hot, he’d never go back to vanilla sex. He’d never go back to sex with anyone but her.
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