Page 14 of The Unwanted Wife

"Only because I didn’t have a choice."

"And you are here."

"To claim what’s mine."

He searches my features. "Revenge can eat at you, and even after you get it, you’ll find it doesn’t satisfy you. Surely, you know the old adage: before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two holes."

Yep, definitely astute. All of my half-brothers are. But Brody has an intensity about him that invites you to share your secrets.

"A philosopher, too, huh?" I put some space between us, then drop down and begin push-ups.

"Guess all those books I read rubbed off on me."

"Next, you’ll be telling me you learned life-truths in those erotic romances."

He chuckles. “You’d be surprised. Matters of the heart and the body intersect at the gut and leave you with insights you aren’t always prepared for. Of course, erotica isn’t all that I read. Books have always been an escape for me, thanks to the complexity of the family I grew up in.”

I grunt as I continue to flow into the push-ups. After a beat, he joins me for the rest of the hundred reps. When I sit back, so does he, and the fucker isn’t even winded. He might love books, but he can match me in the gym, and that’s no mean feat. I reach for my bottle to take a sip of water.

"I imagine it couldn’t have been easy, having Arthur for a grandfather, not to mention, being the youngest of the lot."

"It had its moments." He hesitates, then tosses me my towel.

I wipe my face and drop it to the side, along with my bottle. Another hundred, then I switch over to sit-ups. He holds my feet as I pace myself. One-two-three—I count, until I hit a hundred. When I begin to straighten, he sits back on his haunches.

"I was bullied at school." He rolls his shoulders.

I take in his six-foot-five-inch frame, the massive chest, his thick neck, and one side of his mouth quirks. "To look at me now, you wouldn’t think I was a five-foot-three-inch runt, with nerdy glasses and my nose always buried in a book until I was fifteen."

"Late developer, huh?"

"You have no idea." He rubs the back of his neck.

"Knox came to my rescue a few times when I was being bullied, but I told him to back off."

"You wanted to stand up to them on your own."

He nods. "And I paid the price. I haven’t gotten as badly beaten up as I did that year, but I learned to assert myself. And then I began to grow." His lips curl. "I didn’t stop until I hit my present height."

"Quite a change, then?"

He nods. "I began to work out with Knox—more like, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He shoved me into the gym and insisted I lift weights. I developed enough muscles to defend myself. Soon, my tormentors began to leave me alone. Given how strong I had become, it was logical I follow my brothers and do a stint in public service.”

Five of my half-brothers—including Edward—did a stint in the military, or so Arthur informed me. He’s proud that I, too, pursued a career in the armed forces. He used it to make the point that I’m a Davenport at heart... Not. But whatever helps him convince himself to trust me.

“But you didn’t follow them, did you?”

“I could have, but it turned out, I had an aptitude for science.” He begins to stretch out his leg muscles. “My time was better spent on medical research. I ended up studying biochemistry and started my own pharmaceutical company under the Davenport umbrella."

"Among the best performing in the Davenport Group, too."

"I’ve made my grandfather a very rich man—or rather, I made him richer,” he says in a wry tone.

"How’s that?"

"He put in the seed money for the company. He believed in me when no one else did." He continues his stretching exercises.

I narrow my gaze. "You trying to tell me the old man has a heart?"

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