The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (48 page)

A long while after, when they lay exhausted
and sated, Adam glanced at the clock on the nightstand. He wanted
to stay where he was, cradled in the sweet haven of Tashi’s arms,
but…

He sighed deeply and kissed her lips. His
heart swelled with an amalgam of indescribable emotions when she
opened her eyes. “Perhaps we should get dressed and have
breakfast,” he said. “You have a new life growing inside of you.
You have to stay strong and healthy for him. And if he’s anything
like his daddy, he loves to eat directly from his mommy’s
body.”

Her efficacious laughter was a hallowed
symphony in Adam’s soul.

***

“Why aren’t we having breakfast on the master
suite balcony as we always do?” Tashi asked as she descended the
winding staircase to the first-floor.

“It’s part of your surprise,” he said
squeezing her hand.

“What kind of surprise could there be in the
formal dining room? I hope you didn’t change the furniture or
anything, ‘cause I love the house just as it is.”

“Well, there is one addition, actually,” Adam
responded as they turned at the foot of the stairs and walked down
a long marble corridor decorated with sculpted full figure statues
and busts of great men and women of old.

“Is it another statue?”

“Hmm. Kind of.”

“What if I don’t like it?”

He pulled her against his side and kissed the
top of her head. “You’ll love it. I promise.” They stepped through
the curved archway that led into the dining room.

When Tashi saw the man standing at the row of
French doors that overlooked the courtyard below, her hand flew to
her mouth. His back was turned to her, but his salt-and-pepper
hair, his height, the curve of his wide shoulders and broad back
were very familiar to her. She’d briefly studied that back when
he’d pushed her behind him to shield her from the first round of
gunfire.

He turned on her gasp, and that smile, that
big, wide, white smile, made her throat tighten. “Agent
Dawson?”

“Hello, Tashi.”

The next instant, Tashi was flying across the
room to meet him halfway. She was clasped tightly in his strong
arms as she gave in to the joyful sobs.

“Goodness, nobody has ever been this happy to
see me.” His voice thundered in her ears. “And I don’t think I’ve
ever been this happy to see anyone. Well, maybe one other,” he
said, stroking his hand down her hair.

Finally, Tashi lifted her head and gazed up
at him. His eyes were red and there were tears running down his
cheeks. She stared into his kind brown eyes and took in the image
of his roughened dark skin. She reached up and touched the scare on
his cheek. He trembled violently.

“I thought you were dead. But I’m so thankful
and happy that you’re not. Thank you for saving my life.” She
closed her arms about him again, and laid her cheek on his chest,
delighted, grateful to hear the thumping of his heart beneath her
ears. He was alive. “You walk with a limp. You didn’t have one that
night.”

He placed his hands under her chin and
caressed her cheeks, gazing down at her with affection and
tenderness. “I was badly wounded, my child. I didn’t remember
anything for a while.” He swallowed. “That’s why you didn’t hear
from me, and by the time I could put all the pieces together, I
thought it best if I didn’t contact you or Adam.”

He turned briefly and smiled at Adam who was
standing at the side bar where a continental breakfast was set up.
He was holding an espresso cup in his hand, and nibbling on
something in the other. Even though she knew she should, Tashi was
too excited to eat.

“I’m sorry you had to spend all that time
wondering about me, and living on your own.” Paul’s voice drew her
back to him.

“The money helped,” she said with a bland
smile. “It’s all in the past. I’m just happy you survived.” A
shiver ran down her spine. “What about those men? Did you catch
them?”

“Yes, dearest. The FBI raided them last
night. Most were killed in a shootout, including Scottie and the
head of the organization.”

He exchanged a brief glance with Adam, and
Tashi knew that Adam had been with Agent Dawson for the past two
days. He hadn’t told her what he was doing because he didn’t want
her to worry about his safety. She loved him so much.

“The few who survived will spend the rest of
their lives in prison,” Paul continued. “They pose no more threats
to you. You don’t have to testify. I took the blame for shooting
that man. Nobody knows you were ever involved and that’s the way we
need to keep it for your safety, and that of your new family.”

Tashi took a moment to let it all sink in.
She’d never thought about how she would feel about the news, when
and if she ever got it. But now that she had it, all she felt was
relief. She was free. She could live a normal life. “Oh,” she said,
looking quizzically at him. “I know this is trivial, but all my
stuff I left in my apartment—”

“I had it boxed up and stored in mine. I’m
making arrangements to have it transported here.”

“Thank you, Agent Dawson. I will find a way
to repay you.” She hugged him again then, holding his hand, she
took him over to Adam and held his hand.

“You two,” she said looking from one to the
other, “are the most wonderful men in the world. Except for my
uncle, nobody has ever been this kind to me.” She looked at Paul.
“Thank you for sending me to Granite Falls. Because of you, I met
this man.” She smiled up at Adam. “I fell in love with him and I
know he loves me unconditionally and completely.”

Tashi was sandwiched in a group hug, then
Adam said, “Tashi, Paul has something he needs to discuss with you.
I’ll leave you alone.” Before Tashi could protest, Adam was out the
door with his croissant and his espresso.

All of a sudden the room was quiet, and
filled with tension. Tashi folded her arms across her stomach.

“Let’s sit,” Paul said, walking her over to a
love seat near the French doors.

They sat at opposite ends and turned toward
each other. Tashi didn’t understand why she felt awkward, but she
did.

“Well,” they both said together, and
simultaneously caught their bottom lips between their teeth.

“You do that, too,” Paul said with a chuckle,
tiny lines appearing at the sides of his eyes.

As Tashi continued to stare at him, a cold
knot formed in her stomach. She might look like her mother, but the
shape of this man’s nose, his lips, his eyes… Strange and
disquieting thoughts raced through her mind along with the critical
question that had been bothering her for a year and a half. Her
hands twisted nervously on her lap. “Why did you rescue me that
night, Agent Dawson?” she asked, her heart thumping because her gut
told her she already knew the answer.

His chest rose and fell on a deep sigh and
Tashi glanced at the wet stain on his light blue shirt left by her
tears. “Tashi,” he began, looking directly into her eyes. “I
rescued you because you’re my daughter. I’m your father.”

Tashi’s mouth dropped open. Shock rippled
through her. She sprang to her feet and stepped behind the love
seat putting distance between them. The information ripped her
insides apart. For twenty-two years she had longed to know the
identity of the man who had fathered her.
Unknown
was what
had been written on her birth certificate in the space where the
name Paul Dawson should have been. That pain had been locked deep
within her heart all these years. And now this man whom she was
just beginning to trust and admire was telling her that he was her
father. He wasn’t a criminal, or a drunk. He was decent, kind, and
loving. So why was it such a big secret all these years?

“If you are my father, where were you when I
was growing up?” She threw the words at him. “Where were you when
my mother died? When I was a little girl, all I ever dreamed about
was that someday, some strange man would knock on our door and I
would open it. And he would smile down at me, and say, “Hey,
baby-girl, I’m your daddy, and I’m home to stay.” Why didn’t you
want me? Why did you abandon me and my mother?”

Paul passed his hands across his face. This
was exactly what he was afraid of, what he had been dreading—his
own child’s repugnance toward him. The pain of betrayal and
desertion evident in her liquid green eyes and her teary voice were
killing him all over again. He got up and walked over to her. “I
wanted you, Tashi,” he said in a broken voice. “But I didn’t know
about you until just before that night. I’d been watching you and
Scottie—”

She shot him a withering glance. “You were
following me?”

“Yes, trying to figure out the right time and
way to approach you. But then my gut told me that Scottie was bad
news, so I began investigating him. I learned about his plans for
you just hours before you were to be shipped out. I raced to the
house to stop you from being drugged. I couldn’t tell you who I was
because I needed you to have only one thought in your head:
survive
.”

Her mouth tightened and she looked out the
French windows thoughtfully before catching his gaze again. “So how
did you find out I was your daughter?” she asked in a disillusioned
voice.

“After your uncle died, I received a video
your mother had made for me before she died. In it, she told me
about you. There were clippings of the two of you together, playing
in the sandbox in your backyard, eating ice cream, of you swimming
at the club, your birthday parties with you blowing out your
candles, and making wishes.” Paul sniffled. “Was that one of your
wishes, baby? Were you wishing for me?” He wanted so much to feel
her arms about him again, not as an FBI agent who’d rescued her,
but as her father who loved her and would die for her. “I swear to
you, Tashi, if I had known about you, I would have been there. I
would have turned in my badge twenty-two years ago to be the kind
of father you deserve.”

“Why weren’t you there?” She shrugged her
shoulders. “Didn’t you love my mother? Is that why you weren’t
together?”

“No. I loved your mother, Tashi. She’s still
the only woman I have ever truly loved.”

“Then why didn’t she tell you about me?” She
stomped her foot, and her voice raised several decibels.

“Sit, Tashi, and I’ll tell you,” Jake said
quietly, as his leg began to hurt.

She reluctantly returned to her end of the
love seat and he dropped down on the other. “When I met your
mother,” he began, “I was a cop in Washington, D.C. and she was
studying pharmacology at Georgetown University. She worked
part-time at a coffee shop, and that’s where we met.”

“Adam and I met at a coffee shop. History
repeating itself,” she said with a slight smile.

“Yes.” He so loved her smile. “You look so
much like your mother, and you smell like her.”

Her smile deepened and he knew her anger was
dissipating.

“We fell in love. We talked about our
future—she becoming a pharmacist and me joining the FBI, and then
one day, she asked me how I felt about kids. I told her that I
didn’t want any until my career was established.” Paul closed his
eyes briefly as the pain of that conversation hit him like a ton of
bricks. He wished he’d added,
but I’d give up everything if I
unexpectedly became a father.

His lids popped open when he felt Tashi’s
small warm hands on his knee. “It’s okay,” she said.

Her smile was comforting, encouraging. “We
were walking down a dark street one night, when four members of a
local gang jumped us and held guns to our heads. One of them
recognized me as the cop who’d sent his father to prison for drug
trafficking and illegal gambling. They wanted payback. I told them
I’d go quietly with them if they let your mother go. I told them
she was an escort and meant nothing to me. To prove it, they gave
her a knife and made her cut my face.”

Tashi sucked in her breath, and her hand flew
to her mouth as she gaped at the scar on his right cheek.

Paul’s body shook on a ragged breath. “As I
stood there bleeding, she backed away with her hands pressed
against her stomach and tears in her eyes. Once she was out of
sight, I took down the thugs, but my heart died that night, Tashi.
Evelyn dropped out of school and moved back to Cleveland. Two weeks
later, I got a postcard from her saying that it was over and not to
come after her. I wrote to her, called her and left messages until
she changed her number. I flew to Cleveland to see her. She refused
to see me, and went as far as to take out a restraining order
against me.” He shook his head somberly. “I guess she never trusted
my love and commitment to her. If she’d only talked to me, told me
she was pregnant, I would have turned in my badge and married her.
I just thought she’d stopped loving me.” He wiped at a tear.

“I’m sorry.” She reached up and caressed his
scar with trembling fingers.

Paul caught her hand and dropped wet kisses
into her palm. “I’ve missed your mother every day since that night.
I feel so cheated.”

“We were both cheated. I guess Mommy didn’t
know how much you really loved her.”

He glanced away for a second. ‘It eased my
pain to know that she named you after my grandmother. Her name was
also
Tashi
.”

“I have roots,” Tashi said, happy bubbles
forming in her soul. She wrapped her arms about him, buried her
face in his neck, and inhaled his natural male scent and the light
odor of his cologne.
He was her father
. He wasn’t there
because he hadn’t known about her. But as soon as he learned of her
existence, he’d ironically put his career, and his life on the line
for her. She couldn’t ask for a better dad.

“Just one last thing, Tashi,” Paul said,
running his hand up and down her back before easing her reluctantly
away. “Your mother didn’t kill herself. After I got the video, I
began looking into her death. Some rich kids befriended her and
forced her to steal narcotic from the pharmacy where she worked.
When she threatened to expose them, they made it look like she
overdosed and drowned in one of their pools. The people responsible
for her death will be brought to justice. If it’s the last thing I
do, I will make them pay.”