He smiled. “Glad to know you’re worried about me, sweetheart. But I’ll have Slate look into this asshole. Once we learn everything we can, we’ll find a way to take him off the board completely.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes, the fuck I do, Viv. I do.” And then his lips were on mine, wild and free, so hungry that my body shook with need from the start. It was always like that between us, a brushfire over dry, arid land that moved fast and quickly spiraled out of control. I clung to him while his big hands gripped my ass, keeping me flush against the growing evidence of his own arousal. He growled and deepened the kiss.
I moaned and wrapped one leg around his waist and then the other so that his steely length applied pressure to the soft space between my thighs. I never wanted the kiss to end and the low growls that left Falcon’s mouth I knew we’d both be naked soon.
One last time.
One slightly roughened hand slid up my shirt as we fell to the bed and my legs tightened around him, bringing him closer to where Ineededhim. “Falcon,” I whispered the moment his lips left mine and headed south to my jaw and down my neck.
The door smacked open and smaller footsteps sounded. “Mama! Mama!”
TJ.
Falcon froze and then rolled off of me. “Fuck,” he whispered.
I had to bite back a laugh at how flustered he was. “He’s a baby and he doesn’t understand,” I mumbled to him. “What’s up honey?”
He raised his arms high in the air and smiled at both of us. “Dada, up!”
Falcon softened instantly, all the lust slowly faded as he lifted TJ onto the bed and watched with amusement as he got settled on his lap. “Later,” he growled, that one word a promise I knew he’d keep.
Later. Never had one word sounded so wonderful yet so ominous.
Chapter Thirteen
Falcon
“You got something for me?” I stood in the office doorway with my arms folded and brows knitted tight after a horrible fucking night of sleep. I was up all night thinking of that fancy fucker invading Vivian’s life every single time she thought she’d put some space between her and the bad shit. He had no goddamn right, and yeah, I was also pissed because he was partially to blame for why I was just now meeting my son. I wanted him dead by my hand.
Eventually Slate looked up, scowling. “Yeah. Been up all night gathering everything I could find. Wanna hear it now or wait for Diesel and Rocky?”
My fingers twitched with the need to hear it all right fucking now, but I’d lose my shit if I had to listen to it twice. “I guess I’ll wait,” I answered on a grunt before I took a seat. The anxiety was a motherfucker, and I found myself tapping on the table until Slate tossed a cordless mouse at my head. “What the fuck?”
“I stayed up late getting this for you. I slept like shit and my back hurts, don’t annoy me this early in the day.”
“Early? It’s eleven.”
He glared at me. “I said what I said.”
Rocky was the first to enter, followed by Diesel a few minutes later. I bit the inside of my lip to avoid giving either of them shit and then I waited for Slate.
And waited some more.
“What did you find,” Diesel finally asked, putting me out of my misery.
Slate pointed to the screens behind him, which looked like a scene out of a fucking movie, a bunch of digital shit that meant next to nothing to me. “Dr. James Thomas St. John III grew up rich. Filthy fucking rich. His daddy was the plastic surgeon to the rich and infamous for more than forty years and his mom? Well she’s a socialite from one of those old money families, you know the kind who can trace their blood back to the Mayflower? That kind of old money.”
Which meant the asshole had resources. A lot of fucking resources. “What else?”
“He’s got a good reputation. He’s good looking and charming with rich people manners that makes it easy for most folks to ignore his darker side.”
“Darker?” I sat up taller, hungry for details.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “The asshole can’t take rejection and he’s prone to obsessing. I found several complaints at the hospital that were ultimately swept under the rug by the hospital administration. Inappropriate behavior, obsessing, stalking from harmless to terrifying. He can’t takeit’s overfor an answer.” He flipped across dozens of documents, each one with names redacted and no resolution. “So far, he’s gotten away with it.”
My stomach tightened as the truth of Slate’s words hit me. The picture that took shape was worse than I imagined and I fucking hated that. For years I believed she left me to go live the good life with that asshole when the truth was that he waspart of the reason she left me behind. But she hadn’t lied, or she hadn’tjustlied about him, she’d hidden things because the truth of what she’d gone through was even worse. “Fucker.”
