Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
She swallowed, her eyes large in her face. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re coming home with me, and we’re going to talk.”
“My home is elsewhere.”
I stepped closer, sliding my daughter, who had been watching us, her little mouth frowning, back into her mother’s arms. “Your home, your place, is with me. Both of you.”
I was close enough I could smell her. She had always smelled good—pretty and feminine. Now there was another layer to her scent. Our daughter had added to it. One I would have to get used to.
And I planned on getting used to it fast.
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You forget the man you’re married to, Tally. One call and I can have our daughter taken from you. Charged with kidnapping. Have you locked up.” I was full of bullshit, but I was angry. Tally grew pale at my threats.
“Or you can come with me quietly, and we can settle this between us.”
“Settle what, exactly?” she asked, her bravado making me want to kiss her and yell at her at the same time.
“Where we go from here. One way or another, I’m back in your life. How you play it will decide how your future unfolds. I suggest you choose wisely.”
“You’re a bastard,” she whispered through tight lips.
“No, I’m a husband and a father. I’m fighting to keep my family. And I’m not going to fight fair this time. You erased those rules. Now you can live with the ones I set out.”
I saw the fight drain from her eyes. Watched her shoulders slump. I had won—at least for now. It was all I needed to get her back to the apartment so I could figure this out.
“Fine,” she whispered. “You win.”
Strangely, I didn’t feel any sense of victory at her words.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tally
I felt his eyes on me in the car the entire ride into Toronto, yet every time I looked at him, his gaze was on Julianna. He sat across from us in a limo, Julianna safely strapped into a car seat beside me. The silence was making me jittery.
“How did you arrange for the car seat so quickly?”
“I have connections.”
“The same connections that got my luggage off the airplane?”
He shrugged. “They’re far-reaching when need be.”
“How did you know which one?”
He finally tore his gaze off Julianna, meeting mine. “I knew your alias five minutes after I got the call. Your luggage was taken off the plane ten minutes after they showed you the private room. The loudspeaker in the room was disconnected before you walked into it. A guard was stationed in the hall in case you tried to leave,” he said flatly with no emotion as if reciting a grocery list, not spinning his web of trapping me.
“Who are you?” I wondered out loud.
“I told you. I’m your husband. The father of our child. I wasn’t letting you slip away again.”
“The man I married ran a security firm.”
“The man you married was more than that, and you knew it. You chose not to see it, and I was stupid enough to allow it.” He leaned forward. “I lied to protect you, and I have regretted it every day. I hated how you discovered my lie, but what I hated most of all was that you ran before you let me explain. That you walked away as if what we shared meant nothing.” The look in his eyes became frostier. “That you hid our daughter from me and only by chance did I find out about her.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
He cocked his head. “And I was trying to protect you.”
Another uneasy silence fell between us. Julianna squirmed, kicking her feet, and Julian leaned forward, rubbing her tummy. “Is she okay?”
“Yes. She’s just fussing a little. Her schedule is off.”
“Julianna,” he crooned. “Pretty little girl.” He smiled, tickling her chin, which seemed to delight her. I was amazed since she never liked strangers. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised she liked Julian. I wondered if she sensed their connection even as distant as it was.
He wound one of her curls around his finger. “She has your hair,” he mused.
“A little darker.”
He looked up, his eyes all at once vulnerable and pleading. “Why did you name her Julianna?”
“I wanted her to have something of her father’s,” I said honestly.
“Besides my DNA?” he asked, a smile tugging at his lips. “The eyes sort of give it away.”
“So does the impatience at mealtime.”
He bent close to her and whispered something to her I didn’t catch. I watched the scenery go by, the sights becoming familiar as we got closer to Toronto.
There was so much I wanted to say, so many questions I had to ask, but I was aware there was a driver and this wasn’t the time or place.
“Are you still in the same place?” I asked.