Page 78 of Forbidden Mistress

“Part of the reason was you wouldn’t take it if you knew it came from me and…part was to keep the predators at bay.”

I frown into the darkness. “What predators?”

He pushes a breath out, as though he doesn’t want to tell me but knows he has to. “Ever since you started dating, I’ve managed to…keep you free from any entanglements you might regret later.”

I frown. “What does that mean? You chased off my boyfriends?”

Another long, tense beat passes before he answers. “Yes.”

I blink. “Why? If you decided you couldn’t be with me, you didn’t want anyone else to be with me, either? You wanted me to be alone?”

“No, that’s not what I wanted. You’re smart, beautiful…sexy. What man wouldn’t want to be with you? But I’m your brother, Cass, and after Dad died, I felt responsible for you. So, if you started dating someone, I’d…have them investigated. And…” He shakes his head. “...they weren’t good men, Cass.”

That makes me bristle. “According to who? You?”

“When Dad’s company was doing well, you were an heiress of a considerable fortune, Cass. The wrong kind of men can sniff that out like bloodhounds. It’s not something I’m proud of, but honestly, I’d do anything to protect you.”

I blink. “I had a full-on complex about my boyfriends ghosting me.”

“Believe me when I say—if there was any other way I could have protected you from them, I would have. But I couldn’t just sit back and allow them to bleed you dry while living off you like parasites.”

I frown, thinking back to the incidents that align with what he’s telling me. One of my high school boyfriends had “borrowed” my credit card and gone on a spree, promised to pay me back, then broke up with me. Weeks later, I’d received a check with no note in the amount to cover the bill. I’m now wondering if that check came from Liam and not my ex-boyfriend.

I clear my throat. “You were hardly ever around. How did you know to…”

“I was around more than you think. But yes, I did stay away from you. It was…easier, though admittedly painful. So I kept my distance.”

“Until the mystery job at Obscura…”

“As I told you on the beach, I devised ways to cope. They probably weren’t the healthiest ways. I partied a little too hard in college and drank a lot. I dated women who looked like you. I explored the darker side of my sexuality, hoping that would distract me enough from the empty feeling I had inside when I realized I could never have the woman I truly wanted.”

I swallow my mangled piece of ginger, then bend and dig into the bag he left on the floor. I pull out a can of soda and pop the tab, sipping the chilled ginger ale. But I have no words. It’s all one hell of a strange, convoluted tale and yet…it’s explaining so much. So much I’d wondered about for so long.

“When I saw you again at Lexi’s engagement party, it all came rushing back, that yearning, that emptiness. Then you lost your job and needed money. I tried to get it to you through Mom, but you wouldn’t speak to me, so I devised a plan that would help us both.”

I scowl into the darkness. “How? By turning me into your prostitute?”

“You were only meant to sit in the chair and watch us. That’s all. I wasn’t going to touch you. I hid my identity as best I could. The mask, my accent. It was all to give you deniability. A few weeks at a job that paid insanely well, then you could walk away and you wouldn’t have to come to me for the money. And for me, well, I’d hoped it would exorcise my demons by indulging at least in part, in the fantasy. I was never going to—”

He cuts himself off and sucks in a long, shaky breath. “Believe me, Cass, I never intended to touch you. But that just proves what an arrogant asshole I am. I thought I could resist you. I thought I could control this thing between us. That’s on me.”

I’m stunned silent for a moment. Yes, he’d told me this at the beach, but I was so shocked and overwhelmed, I hadn’t listened. But really, what is there to say? Everything he did to me in that room at Obscura…I’d wanted it. I’d begged him for it. And it was the hottest, most intense sex I’ve ever had in my life.

“There it is, Cass. The entire truth. I haven’t held anything back.”

I’m silent for a long moment, just sipping my soda.

“Ask me anything,” he says, eager to break the silence.

“I don’t have anything to say. I’ve just heard a big long story about how you’ve lied to me for over a decade about…everything. How should I react when my entire world has been upended—yet again?”

Silence falls between us again. He’s staring at me in the darkness, but my eyes are fixed on a distant point of the wall instead. I set aside the empty can of soda.

“I’m sorry, Cass. I haven’t said that yet. For all of it. But I can’t apologize for loving you. And now that I know how good it can be between us…I can’t give you up.”

“That’s not your choice to make,” I snap back.

“We can move past this. For the sake of our family. If not for me, then for Mom, and the baby?”

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