Chapter TwentyEight
I checked the sky overhead to see if pigs were actually flying.
“What are you looking for?” Frederic snapped.
“Nothing,” I smirked. “But if you could repeat what you said, I would very much like to record it and set it as my new ringtone.”
Frederic flipped me off.
“That’s naughty!” Penny shouted from across the gardens. The child missed nothing. She was busy playing tea parties with Evelyn, who she instantly took a shine to. With only uncles, and a mother who barely cared, Penny was starved for female attention.
The two of them set up a little picnic area, alongside Penny’s twenty million teddy bears, and were happy in their own world.
Even sipping on fake tea and eating imaginary cake, Evelyn was breathtaking.
Watching her from the corner of my eye, dressed in a floral dress that rivaled the flowers in the garden, made the little resilience I had left to keep her at bay dwindle into nearly nothing.
I tried to re-establish our boundaries after the harassment news broke.
It was a massive risk having her here amongst my family. They welcomed her more warmly than they did me, for crying out loud. Seeing her slotting into place with them as if she were the missing piece of our family jigsaw chipped away at the wall I built between us.
I willed myself to stay strong.
But fuck, that woman knew how to wiggle her way back into my mind, planting herself firmly in the forefront until she was all I could think about once again.
“You overstepped by releasing that shit to the press about Lexington. You had no right.” I focused back on Frederic. “Did you truly think I wouldn’t have done it?”
“Honestly? No. However, I stand by what I said. I shouldn’t have done it myself.”
“Then why did you?”
“When you gave me a copy of the files on Zhang’s computer, I found the harassment ones amongst them and sent it to you on Thanksgiving.” Frederic kept his eyes on his daughter. “You ignored me. You were too busy playing happy families with your temporary wife.”
My back teeth ground together.
“Around the same time, Penny’s mother opted to change the terms and conditions of our divorce settlement last minute. She asked for more money, which fine, I can deal with that. However, she is threatening to take Penny away from me for good.”
“The lawyers will ensure that never happens.”
“I hope so. However, in my state of anger, I lashed out and sent the files to every press outlet possible.”
“So because your life is fucked, you decided to screw with mine?”
Frederic cocked a brow. “This isn’t your life, Jaxon. Marrying her is a means to an end. A means that you seem to have forgotten about. I said I was wrong for leaking the information, but I am not sorry that it is out there. I’m merely disappointed that it wasn’t you who did it yourself.”
I’d knock his front teeth out if we were anywhere else in the world.
It wasn’t as if I was never going to do anything with the information. I was always going to use it against Lexington, in my own time. Other things got in the way, that was all.
Right?
“All I am saying is, don’t get attached any more than you already are. And don’t try to deny it, you’ll insult both our intelligence.”
“I don’t need you hovering over me, and I certainly don’t need you reminding me what I married Evelyn for.”
“Don’t you?” Frederic raised an eyebrow. “Because from the outside looking in, it looks to me that you’ve gone soft, petit frère. That you’re letting some woman, some piece of ass…”
“Watch your tone,” I snarled.
“You’re too smart to be blind-sided by a good fuck with pretty eyes.”
“Talk about my wife that way again, and I will happily put an end to your miserable existence.”
“This is my point exactly.” He smiled without feeling. “You are allowing the daughter of the man who wrecked our family to steer you off course. I thought you could handle this.”
“I am handling it.”
Frederic scoffed. “Piss poorly. Just don’t tell me you have gone and done something as stupid as fallen in love with her?”
Absurd.
I wasn’t in love with Evelyn.
I cared about her. I found every single thing about her attractive. Her smile, her freckles, her laugh, right down to her soul.
But I wasn’t in love with her.
It didn’t matter that my chest ached when she wasn’t around. Or that my body reacted to every touch or glance she graced me with. Or that I felt like I’d won the lottery every time I made her laugh, or smile, or her cheeks blush a thousand shades of red. It wasn’t love that made me sick to my stomach thinking about the day we walked away from each other.
I wasn’t in love with Evelyn.
Because falling in love with her was a fool’s game.
Which made me the biggest fool of them all.
Fuuuccccccck.
“For crying out loud, you have. You stupid bastard.” Frederic shook his head. “Your silence spoke louder than any denial you could try and tell me now.”
Across the gardens, Evelyn was on her feet and dancing with a gleeful Penny. The faint echo of Evelyn singing carried through the breeze and beckoned me to join them.
The woman was a siren calling me to my ruin.
Selfishly, I wanted to let her wreck me.
“You do realize that when this is all done, she will never be able to forgive you?” Frederic said. “Any thoughts you have that you two will come out of this with a happy ending, you best readjust your expectations.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“We have waited a long time for this. We’ve worked too fucking hard to get this close to taking Lexington down. Love comes and goes, but this opportunity is a once in a lifetime.”
He was right.
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Hurting Lexington meant hurting Evelyn, too.
Our conversation was ended by the arrival of my father, which was more than the perfect excuse to remove myself from being in Frederic’s presence and take a walk around the gardens.
My relationship with my father was complicated.
He was weak. He let Lexington steal everything from him. He thought that just because they were friends, he wouldn’t fuck him over. He didn’t realize that Lexington Reynolds was a shark, circling the waters waiting for a chance to strike.
My father never fought back. He simply let all he worked for fall to crumbs at his feet and soothed his wounds with alcohol and self-loathing.
Lexington was the catalyst for our shit childhood, but my father was equally to blame.
“Uncle Jax makes the best tea in the whole world. It’s fairy tea!” Penny clapped her hands together as I approached them. “He uses a magic secret ingredient.”
“Is that so?” Evelyn smiled. “You make fairy tea?”
“I sure do.” I smiled back. “The best fairy tea in all the realms.”
Penny nodded enthusiastically. “Uncle Jax said he spoke to the fairies in the gardens, the ones that come out at night-time when I’m sleeping. They told him how to make their super-duper special tea!”
The corners of her eyes crinkled. “And what is this magical ingredient?”
I tapped the side of my nose. “I can’t tell you that. Otherwise, it won’t be a secret anymore.”
The sound of her laugh warmed me from the inside and banished my brother’s earlier words echoing in my mind.
“The fairies said only special people can know, didn’t they?” Penny’s ocean-blue eyes stared up at me with nothing but pure innocence and adoration.
“That’s right. Only the best types of people.”
“I know what it is!” Penny danced on her tiptoes. “Can I go and get some from the kitchen?”
“Why don’t you head up and get washed up for your supper,” I said. “We’ll meet you after. Then we can show Evelyn how to make fairy tea. Sound good?”
“You promise?” Penny’s eyes pinballed between me and Evelyn. “Pinky promise?”
I latched my finger on my four-year-old nieces’. “Happy? Now, go.”
Her face broke into a grin as she ran back to the house.
It was strange to think that only two years ago, we didn’t know Penny even existed. One day Frederic was his same old self, avoiding his soon-to-be ex-wife, and the next she walked through the door with a two-year-old on her hip demanding childcare allowance.
Now, I couldn’t imagine our lives without Penny.
She was the ray of sunshine the Dade family desperately needed.
Much like another certain woman in my life.
“She is one of the cutest kids I’ve ever met. Honestly, I’m not just saying that. She is the sweetest,” Evelyn said. “Your whole family is the sweetest, actually.”
I frowned at my father standing in the veranda watching us. “For the most part.”
“Your father?”
I nodded, the familiar throbbing returning as my back teeth clenched together. “He always comes when he knows he is as welcome as a bad smell. We simply tolerate it for our Grand-mère’s sake.”
“I’m sorry, that mustn’t be easy on any of you. Maybe he keeps coming because he wants to try and make amends with you all?”
I tried to shrug off the tension gripping my spine. “He’s an alcoholic who refuses to admit he has a problem. He gave up his right to make amends with us all when he decided a bottle of vodka was worth more value than his sons.”
Her hand slipped into mine and squeezed gently.
“It’s fine,” I said. “He will be no more than a shadow in the background. He’ll sit at the table, eat his dinner, and then vanish before tea and coffee is served.”
“Well, I seriously hope there is a special outfit you wear when you are making your famous fairy tea,” she teased gently. “A frilly sparkling skirt and some glittery wings?”
“In your dreams.”
“Do you have a magic wand? Maybe some fairy dust hidden up your sleeves?” She giggled in delight. “Oh, do you have a special fairy name? Like sugarplum or dandelion?”
“I’d stop if I was you,” I said, my tone lacking any threat. Her ability to soothe the brewing storm within me had not gone unnoticed. The corners of my mouth hurt from trying to suppress the smile threatening to break free. “Or else.”
“Or else what? Are you going to put a fairy curse on me?”
“That’s it. I warned you.” I lunged for her.
Evelyn squealed as she narrowly escaped my grasp. My fingertips brushed the strands of her flowing hair. I moved again and she dipped out of the way with a cackle.
“What happened? You all out of your fairy powers?”
“You have an awfully wicked tongue. Makes me wonder what other wicked things it can do.”
The two of us stared at each other. Mischief and delight swirled in her green orbs.
“I’m too fast for you, old man.”
“Old man?!”
She nodded with a devilish grin.
“You better run fast, ma douceur. Because when I catch you, I will take great pleasure in punishing you.” My pulse quickened as her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. “Run.”
She was off in a blink of an eye, tearing through the gardens, grabbing the hem of her dress and giving me the perfect glimpse of her curved thighs.
Blood thrummed through my ears and straight into my cock. Thoughts penetrated my mind of all the things I wanted to do to her the second I got my hands on her.
I took off after her, chasing her to the bottom ends of the gardens and behind the sea mallow shrubs.
Evelyn was either the worst at trying to run and hide, or she was deliberately taunting me and wanting me to catch her. Primal need fueled me, tracking her through the shrubs and around the trees, her spiced sweet scent teasing me along the way.
Red curls darted around a wilting rose bush. I followed, my own heart beating so loud that I wondered if she too could hear it.
Another near miss, the material of her dress teasing my palms.
Her breathless laughter filled the silence.
A left turn.
A right turn.
Around another tree and then it happened.
The second she stumbled over her own sandal and rolled onto the grass, I was atop of her.
She lay flat on her back. Unblinking eyes staring up into mine as her delicate hands cautiously settled on my ribcage. Unspoken tension sparked between our bodies. It still drove me crazy how much my body reacted around her, constantly yearning for her touch.
“You caught me,” she swallowed.
“This old man still has a few tricks up his sleeve.”
Her tongue slicked across her bottom lip. “Is that so? Maybe you should show me.”
The tip of my nose nudged hers. Her back arched, and her breath on my lips was all the invite I needed. Our lips melded with a soft groan.
It was different than before. The last time we kissed, it was out of pure desperation and need.
This was a different sort of desperation.
Softer. Slower. Loving.
Her hands roamed under my top, tracing the contours of my stomach and chest. She took her time, tracing each indent to memory. She nibbled at my bottom lip until I parted and allowed her tongue to glide along mine.
There wasn’t a chance in hell I would ever tire of the taste of her. With every twirl of her tongue, every little moan, every time her lips fitted perfectly with mine, I felt myself falling further and further into her.
Her hips pushed up into mine, grinding against the hardness wishing to be set loose.
At that moment, I was hers.
Only hers.
Her touch was electric, exploring every inch she could, shocking me back into life.
The sight of her nipples pebbling through her white dress was nearly my undoing. They called to be touched and savored. My fingers itched to caress them until she cried out in pleasure.
She was slow and demanding at the same time.
Not wanting to take too much, to push too far, I met her kiss with as much as she was willing to give me.
I’d take whatever she gave me.
No matter what.
“Jaxon,” she whimpered against my mouth. My name on her lips was everything. “If this is your idea of punishment, I think I might need to tease you more often.”
“This isn’t your punishment.” I dipped my tongue back into her mouth. Sweet hell, no one should taste that good.
She pulled back a little, her hips still cemented against mine. “This isn’t my punishment?”
“Non.” I ran the tip of my nose along her jaw. “Your punishment is: now that I have caught you, I don’t believe I am strong enough or selfless enough to ever let you go.”
Her hands encased my face as she brought my forehead to rest against hers. “We still have eight months.”
It wasn’t enough. No amount of time was enough with her.
Evelyn’s lips turned downward, a deep line forming between her brows as if she too felt the gravity of our impending deadline lurking in the background.
I kissed her again, ignoring the sour taste threatening to ruin everything.
Eight months.
Our time together was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode on us the second I pressed the detonate button.
Maybe in another lifetime, another universe, I could do the things I needed to do and keep her, too.
But in this lifetime, she’d never forgive me.
And hurting her was going to be the death of me.