Page 21 of Secret Admirer
“You will?” His voice dipped low. He hadn’t been surprised in a long, long time. To distance himself, he checked his phone and the text message. Anthony? Here? Bart returned his attention to his "date."
Liaisons weren’t dates--yet Rebecca thought this was one.
And having a "date" was nice. Even if dates meant talking more.
Rebecca said, “Sure. I want to see more than what I have before now.”
He could show her the world.
The thought tantalized him and was more beautiful than lights on a Christmas tree.
He could also bring her downstairs and see what she looked like fully, but he didn’t dare.
If he touched her, he might somehow crush her, and Rebecca’s vulnerability reminded him of a bold, yet fragile butterfly. He left his flute on the table and offered his hand. “Come.”
She put her glass down too and took his hand. “Where are we going?”
The decision to take it slow, but see where it went, had been made. “Back to the party.”
She tugged his arm and he turned to see her glance back at the yacht. Granted, he hadn’t shown her the tour but he didn’t want her near a bed.
He'd be too tempted.
“Why are we leaving?”
Mostly because, for some reason, he wanted to be a gentleman. He squeezed her hand. “Because it seems Anthony, my brother, showed up and I’ve been worried about him.”
“Why?” she asked.
Rebecca was probably the only person he’d met who didn’t already know all the details of what his brother had done. He brought her to the gangway. “Because… ever since my sister never got off the bus over twenty years ago, Anthony has never taken responsibility for anything. He got Jennifer pregnant, and he’s been confused on how to do the right thing. And while he might annoy me half the time, Mom always said to watch out for him.”
“So let’s go.” She marched down the gangway but waited for him at the end.
The gleam in her eyes made him feel like she was part of his team.
He'd never had a team, not with a woman, anyway. He wrapped his arm around her waist as he joined her and they walked together across the grass. As they neared the lawn’s edge, he said, “I want to warn you, Rebecca.”
Revelers drank and laughed, and there was a lot of dancing.
Most of his family sat at the tables on the sides mingling with each other.
Rebecca, with her confident stride and cherry red hair, seemed like an angel compared to the models and business people that swarmed around the party. She asked, “About what?”
Anthony would have some cutting thing to say about class differences. He stopped her from moving and pressed his forehead to hers so only she heard him as he said, “Anthony isn’t like the rest of us.”
“What does that mean?” She didn’t pull away.
“He emulates our father and that’s dangerous.”
“What else did your father do?” Rebecca asked.
Another laugh escaped his lips. He thought everyone knew Mitch Morgan's sins--he was notorious. On the other hand, every book written about him sang his glory as a banker and even peacemaker for the world’s economy. “That’s a loaded question that would take years of therapy to explain. Just be careful.”
He guided her toward his family at the far end of the party, but she tugged his arm. “I want to knowyou,Bart.”
For some reason he trusted her to tell her a little bit. He stopped, held her like he’d kiss her again so no one interrupted them but instead said, “My father… let’s see. Most people blame him for my sister's death or disappearance. I don’t know if I believe that, but he kidnapped his actual wife, and told everyone she'd died. Then while she was in captivity, he had more children with Isabelle, his wife, and then took Luke, Elizabeth and Matthew away from their mother. He had multiple long-term affairs, including one with my mother, and his definition of "family" really just meant Peter "the heir" and John "the spare" and not the rest of us.”
Her lips parted and her eyes widened. “That’s a nightmare.”
