Page 29 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

She nodded jerkily. “I’ll leave as soon as possible.”

She was gone thirty minutes later.

Jasper told himself that was good. His preference was to navigate this alone, as he had done for most of his adult life. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to involve himself in Vienna’s divorce drama, although he didn’t—yet he already had, he acknowledged grimly. Not that he had any regrets in how he’d handled Neal. If anything, he hadn’t been hard enough on him. He should have scared him off for even glancing at Vienna ever again.

No, his far greater concern was that a public acknowledgement of their involvement could put her in the same jeopardy he and his family faced. He had already been thinking they should deny their relationship and part ways as quickly as possible when she had said,There’s nothing more between us than casual acquaintance.

That had slid with unexpected abrasion across a very old wound, one that shouldn’t still be so raw, but was.

In those seconds, as she offered to put herteamat his disposal, as if he couldn’t afford his own flight and security detail, he’d flashed back to a very well-dressed woman in a Lexus pulling up beside him as he was doing cart returns at the grocery store. She had introduced herself as his girlfriend’s aunt and offered an upscale shopping bag with string handles. It had contained his hoodie, his favorite book on mineral identification, and the empty keychain that readSweet, matching the fob on his own keys that read,Heart.

Your things, the woman had said.Annalise is staying with me while she finishes school.

But what about—?

His heart had thrust itself into his mouth.

She’s seen the broader picture of her future. It doesn’t include becoming a mother right now. Or you.Don’t contact her.

Her body, her choice. Jasper had respected that. Given the still fresh loss of his mother and his crushing responsibilities to his father and sister, he’d been in a panic as to how he would also support a partner and a baby, but he felt no real comfort in having all of that yanked away. Especially not when the disdain in that woman’s face left him feeling so inadequate and unworthy.

Her future doesn’t includeyou.

Like he was some kind of war criminal. Annalise hadn’t changed schools to avoid gossip. She hadn’t wanted to seehim.

And there was Vienna dismissing their relationship just as dispassionately, now that her association with him had consequences.

With bile sitting in the back of his throat, he had carried her bag to the garage and nodded curtly when she said goodbye.

He didn’t dwell on her abrupt departure. He had his own vehicle and his own crisis to manage, which was where he forced his thoughts to turn.

After a brief call to his father, warning him to take precautions, he called his lawyer to advise that he was moving his timeline up. He might not catch Orlin Caulfield in his net, but he could still snag a lot of slippery fish.

He packed as he made his next call, requesting his financial advisor reactivate all his accounts. Most of his holdings had been moved into trusts while he’d been missing. Amelia had been able to do that much, which had turned out to be a genius move, protecting his crypto balance when the rest of the world’s had crashed.

He’d been using some of those funds to buy up REM-Ex shares under a shell company, but that was hardly the extent of his investments. Jasper had always had a leg up when it came to reading a feasibility study for a mining venture. He’d been growing his portfolio from his university days and could easily leverage what he held into whatever cash he might need for a flight. Or to purchase a private jet, if it came to that.

Vienna didn’t know what kind of resources he had at his disposal because he hadn’t told her. His father and sister probably didn’t even know the extent of it. He preferred to live simply, rather than throw his money around, but he had plenty of it. That early experience of not being good enough had driven him to work hard and prove hewasgood enough.

Then Orlin Caulfield had cut short the life of his friend as if Saqui was unimportant. He’d tried to sacrifice Jasper in the same way, all to hang on to his own riches.

Jasper loathed that level of arrogance and kind of despised himself that he had felt so compelled to rise—sink?—to the same affluent level. At least it meant he could make Orlin choke on his misapprehensions.

Or could have, if he’d been able to wait until Orlin was back.Damn it.

His last sweep of the house for his own belongings took him outside where fat raindrops had begun to plonk on Vienna’s sketchpad.

Stand there, she had insisted this morning—had it only been this morning?

He’d watched the dreamy look that transformed her face as she moved her pencils, fluidly exchanging one color for another, bringing her gaze back to him again and again.

It had been erotic, standing there unmoving while her eyes traveled over him so thoroughly. When he was so hard he couldn’t stand it, he’d stolen the pad from her hands and carried her up the stairs.

Hewas making more of their affair than it was, likening their lovemaking to a drug trip that had left him fundamentally altered. They’d come together at a time of heightened pressure. Releasing that pressure had felt inordinately good.That’s all.

He studied her sketch. It was undeniably good, but unsettling. Revealing, even, which caused an itch behind his sternum. It was him, but it was an image of himself he didn’t recognize. Had he really packed on that much muscle? He wasn’t one to preen in front of a mirror, especially once he’d seen how wasted he’d been after a year of trading farm labor for meals and a bed.

He’d been eating three squares since arriving here and worked out downstairs every day, mostly to relieve tension and try to exhaust himself toward sleep. He hadn’t noticed that his T-shirt was sitting so snugly against his skin, though.

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