Page 9 of His Wild Seduction

“I don’t know that he looked. But I was using my mother’s maiden name in Europe. To return, I had to use my real passport, of course. Franklin must have had his detectives monitoring it.”

“Is that when he sent the investigator?”

“Yes. He sent his PI with a request, asking me to meet with him. I said no. The end.”

It wasn’t the end.

Not really.

But for all intents and purposes, it was as far as Josef was concerned.

He didn’t deserve my secrets.

But even as I acknowledged that to myself, I couldn’t help but replay the incident in my head.

He’d been clutching a notice from the bank in one hand, a glass of scotch in the other. The house was empty, except for the two of us.

The staff must have left around seven. Like they used to every night. The sprawling mansion in Morristown was exactly the same as I remembered.

Pompous and badly decorated, showing off Franklin’s wealth, and the fact he had no taste.

He’d earned his wealth over the years through wheeling and dealing, and other schemes I wanted nothing to do with. But the bulk of it had been inherited.

Money was such a fucked up thing.

We needed it to live, sure. It was a necessary part of life. But I wished it wasn’t.

Growing up rich was one of the banes of my existence. It had cost me the man I loved. Cost me my mother, too.

Greedy fragile thing.

She couldn’t stand her loveless marriage. She wasn’t cruel in the normal sense, but she never cared for me.

Not like a mother should.

Of course, I knew all about it now. Franklin had blamed her for the lie she told to get him to marry her, as was his right.

My stepfather didn’t like being tricked any more than my mother could stand not being adored.

I was just collateral damage.

I didn’t know when he’d decided to gift me to one of his business associates, to use my virginal status to seal a deal, but it was sometime during the summer he’d hired Josef Aziz for extra security.

That was the summer I turned eighteen.

The summer I fell in love and gave myself to a man for the first and only time.

I had no idea what my stepfather’s plans were, or that Josef was just using me. Unwise and too green to understand, I didn’t know that men had different motivations and intentions than women did.

But we really were fundamentally different.

I thought Josef loved me. I thought my stepfather was my father, and that he, too, loved me.

I’d been horribly wrong on both accounts.

The dark, nefarious plans Franklin Gray had for me still turned my stomach.

Oh, but I ruined those plans without even knowing about them. And even though it ended badly, I would not change a thing.

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