Page 58 of The Acquisition

My lips pursed while I thought about the coding I'd created off and on for the last couple years. "Not really. It learns and adapts to the user. It can set up appointments and put them into your calendar. I'm working on adding extensions to track frequent purchases and reorder when the stock is low. Things that could help working single parents purchase groceries and other essentials."

Colt leaned forward and kissed me. It was just a soft brush of his lips against mine.

"What was that for?" I asked, surprised by the tenderness of the kiss. Not that he was always aggressive, but we hadn't evolved to casual kisses.

He smiled at me and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. "Just got lost in your brilliance for a moment. You could have coasted through life on your looks alone. Add the wealth you grew up in, and it's remarkable you're as accomplished as you are."

I shrugged, uncomfortable with praise. "I wanted to be more than my father expected, more than a pretty ornament for a man whose job I could do better than he could. I wanted to be more than who I was raised to be."

"And who was that?" he asked in a soft voice.

"My mother. Maybe that makes me sound like a bad daughter, but—"

He shook his head. "No, it doesn't. I get it. I've lived my entire life trying not to become my father. You and I weren't blessed with caring parents. I wanted to be a better father than mine was, but I ended up being even worse."

I reached out and took his hand. "That wasn't your fault. You didn't know she existed."

With his free hand, he rubbed the center of his chest. "It still feels wrong. I know I can't undo what she went through, but I want a second chance."

I felt my forehead crease. "She's an adult now. I know she needs you, but I don't see how you can have a second chance to raise her."

His tongue peeked out and swiped over his full bottom lip. "I…I think we should head to the hotel. We can continue this conversation when we've washed the travel off and had something to eat."

TWENTY-TWO

COLTER

Isat on the bed of our suite watching Jana get ready through the small opening of the bathroom door. "We need to talk before we meet up with the CEO, Hans Schneider."

She poked her head out the door. "I'm all ears," she said.

My mind went temporarily blank while she put on her lip gloss. I've never been turned on by a woman applying makeup before, but few women had lips like my wife.

"Colt?" she asked. "You were going to tell me something about the meeting?"

I blinked, trying to clear the fog of lust clouding my mind. "I don't want to pretend while we're here. This is a chance for us to just be for a little while."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Why do I feel like there's more to this?"

I twisted my wedding ring on my finger. When we were around others, I put my ring on a chain around my neck. I hated taking it off, but for the time being it was necessary.

A mental image of Hans popped into my head. His image was splashed all over European society pages. He was nearly as tall as me at six-foot-one and built like the former soccer star he was. Worse, he was closer to her age at thirty years old, and not her best friend's father.

Every picture of him in the tabloids is with a different socialite from wealthy families. With few exceptions, the women are all tall, blonde, and beautiful. Basically, women who were a lot like Jana. Only, she was also brilliant, driven, and funny.

Having dated a number of heiresses myself, I knew how refreshing it was to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with one of them. Not that Jana was the same as those women. She'd worked hard to separate herself from that crowd, which would only make her more appealing to Hans.

He was the youngest CEO in the nearly seventy-five-year history of Woten Automotive. His great-grandfather started the company a couple years after WWII in partnership with the American government as part of the reconstruction effort.

By all accounts he was a good guy, but I wasn't about to wave my wife in front of him without staking my claim on her. Especially not a good guy. He might be able to offer her the world, but she was fast becoming my world. I wouldn't give her up.

"So what do you suggest?" she asked. Her eyes dropped down to my ring, and she started shaking her head. "No. Do you know why I gave you such a hard time in the beginning?"

My brow furrowed. "Because I'm older than you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because your pictures have been in every tabloid on the globe with dozens of different women."

"You know I'm not like that anymore. I think I was just killing time until I met you," I admitted.

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