“Not when you pay for a lab tech to remain on standby.”
Axel’s level of wealth was hitting her like a wrecking ball. Or rather, the fact that he didn’t seem to need to squeeze money out of an overdrawn exotic dancer from a very middling middle-class family. It made all of this more distressingly real.
“Tell me about your relationship to my birth father.” She turned to see he’d taken a seat facing her.
His gaze came up from her jean pockets. Even though half the room separated them and neither of them moved, she had the sense of the walls shrinking inward and him coming up against her. It was a wild rush of heat that curled around her, pulling her close. Caging her.
Her heart lurched, and a sting exploded in her chest, rising into her throat and blossoming in her cheeks. She pretended it wasn’t happening and lifted a brow in challenge.
He tilted his head in a self-deprecating,You caught me.
But there was no sheepishness in him. He was too direct, letting her see the power and ferocity within him. The desire.
She heard his graveled voice again.I do want you. But I can wait.
Her stomach swooped. It should have been with alarm, but it was the vertigo of being on a swing with her eyes closed or the uneven, hysterical thrill of being swept along whitewater rapids.
“My information on you was incomplete.” He sipped his drink. “I didn’t know about your side hustle. That leads me to wonder what else I don’t know. Are you involved with anyone?”
“Whatdoyou know about me?” She crossed her arms, not liking how easily he put her on her back foot. Did he know about Todd? “Have you been having me followed?”
“No. I glanced over your social profiles.” He spoke dismissively, as though it should be obvious that was all anyone needed to do. “You began your degree in performing arts with a focus on modern dance but quit in your third year. You were living with someone at the time but moved home last year, possibly because of your father’s declining health? Parkinson’s, is it?”
“Yes.” She had come home for his birthday and realized how badly Carrie was struggling to work around caring for a toddler and an adult who needed increasing levels of assistance.
Since she had already dropped out of school, and Todd was bleeding her dry, Joy had cut her losses. She had told Todd she wasn’t coming back to Connecticut. He’d squeezed one final month of rent out of her and kept the good coffee maker, but eventually sent her a box of her things, COD. of course.
“You’ve since enrolled in a nursing program,” Axel continued. “Presumably because it’s a stable career that would allow you to help your father. Your brother is an air force pilot with a wife, a small child and another baby on the way. You like animal videos and avoid political content. You don’t advertise your alter ego or where you perform.”
“Gee, I wonder why, when strangers show up and admit to stalking me.”
“I’m not a very good stalker if I don’t know whether you have a boyfriend, am I? Do you?” he pressed.
“Why? Does my birth father expect him to ask permission to date me?”
“No. I do.”
“Ha!”
He only sipped his drink, reeking of patience while her heart galloped in her chest. How did he look so damned sexy and, yes, dangerous, sitting there relaxed and watchful?
“Silly me, I thought whom I date would be my choice.”
“You would think, but we’ve both been pushed into a corner.” He looked into his glass, tilting the liquid this way and that. “I’d like to put my cards on the table, Joy. It’s more expedient, rather than waiting until we have the test result. If I do that, I want your assurance that what I tell you will stay in this room.” His gaze came up.
“Or?”
“Or you will be made very uncomfortable. That’s not a threat. It’s the truth. Your birth father has a high enough profile there would be significant publicity. Whatever you might make in selling this story, you would spend on hiring a PR agency and personal security to manage the fallout.”
“Good grief, who is he?”
“Do I have your word?”
“Fine. Yes.” She glanced toward the bedroom. “There’s probably a Bible in here if you need me to swear on it. But please, for the love of all that’s holy, tell me what’s going on.”
“We’ll need that Bible,” he said with a faint quirk of his lips. “I’m here to marry you.”
CHAPTER FIVE
