Page 41 of The Wife Deception
"She died in a helicopter crash."
His features softened. "Ay, I am sorry."
"It's fine." I wasn't the only one who lost someone that day. My father loved my mother so much that he was never himself. He took to the bottle and never let go. It was hard living with him and his alcoholism hadn't helped. A few years after the crash that changed our lives, he took his own life.
The cynicism that was there before returned. "And what about your father?"
I was about to tell him about the suicide until I stopped myself. Aelin and my mom had died in the same helicopter crash, but Aelin didn't have a father. Or at least her mom had not told the family who the father was. "I never knew him," I said,feeling crushing pain for lying about my father. But one could say I never knew my father. He had been different in his last days. Harsh. Angry and bitter. I turned the question on him to avoid my conflicted feelings.
"What about you? You can't say there's no one you love. Not even your mother."
"That's because you haven't met her. She only thinks of herself and how much money her son can give her. When she divorced my father, she gave away all her parental rights to my father for a larger divorce settlement. Then she married him again when the money ran out. If there was love in her heart, it disappeared a long time ago. So tell me, how can someone love a person like that?"
"That's…" I couldn't imagine someone selling off their child for money. No wonder he had a bitter heart. "And your father? Surely you loved him." As far as I recall from the few news articles I read about Nolan senior and junior, the father had groomed him from a young age to take over the company. Nolan's father had brought his son to work even when he was a child.
Nolan scoffed. "My father saw me as a continuation of his legacy, that's it."
No wonder he was a cynic. His parents failed him. "Fine. What about your siblings?"
His face changed, taken aback by the question. "That's different. They're family." Got him.
"So are your parents."
Lazily, he took my hand and drew me to him. "Why are we even talking about my snooty family, anyway? Somewhere along the line, we got lost. I meant to say," he bent his head, our foreheads touching, "there's more to life than love. There are more interesting and pleasurable feelings than the overrated one."
My breath caught in my throat. "Like what?"
"Desire. Passion. Lust." He dragged each word, his eyes focused on my lips.
"Those are the same thing."
"Are they?" he caught my lips with his and kissed me with a hunger that turned my insides into knots. When he let go, I swayed, and I was sure I would have fallen if he wasn't holding me."That's desire." He kissed me again, this time his lips caressing, searching, his tongue dancing along my lips, making my knees buckle. My entire body responded to his kiss. His hands never wandered, nor did he let me move mine. He wanted me to lose my mind with just his kisses, and it was working. "That," he said against my lips, "is passion. And this."It was getting close to dusk and his face was illuminated by the golden sun, making him look like a bronze god. Blindly, I leaned forward for the next kiss, but it didn't come. Feeling frustrated, I asked, my voice almost a whisper, "And what is lust like?"
He drew back and let me go. A gust of wind passed by, rocking the water around us andcooling down my feverish body. "That you'd have to find out later. It's not necessarily a PG-13 lesson." I glanced around, remembering where we were, the screams of the children running around the yacht bringing me back to reality. Nolan had a knowing smirk that made me want to wipe off with a slap. Or with a kiss. Fuck this man for making me feel so hot and bothered in public.
23
Nolan
Kelly was already sitting across from my desk when I entered the office. Whatever he had found out had to be serious for him to be in my office so early. Kelly was the type of guy to ignore all protocol when he thought there was an emergency.
"I should tell my assistants not to let you into my office so early in the morning. It gives me heart attacks," I said as I marched to my chair, sat down and booted the computer.
Kelly grunted. "You said I should come to you first if I had urgent information."
"What have you found?"
"I looked into Burgess like you asked."
"Yes. The suspense is killing me."
"He's a weirdo."
Kelly bent over the side of the chair to take out a file from his leather briefcase and threw it on my desk."While you were enjoying yourself at the yacht club on the weekend, I made that for you." He got up and grabbed his briefcase.
"What? Is that it?"
"It's a lot, believe me. I'd be here all day if I were to wait for you to read the entire dossier. I had a hard time pulling stuff about your wife, though."
