Page 45 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

She looked at the tension etched into his face and took his hand in hers. ‘When did he call?’

‘Thursday, almost two weeks ago.’

The day before he’d kissed her. Now she understood why he had. He’d been having a rough time and gone for a moment of fun. And, boy, had he got a whole lot more than he’d bargained for. Poor Alex.

His anger rippled out again. ‘I insisted on tests. But it’s true.’ His fingers tightened unbearably on hers but she held in the wince, knowing he wasn’t aware of his strength. ‘Why should I have anything to do with him?’

‘People lie for all sorts of reasons, Alex. I’m not saying it’s right, but maybe you need to ask what those reasons might be.’

‘There’s no excuse.’

‘People lie to protect—sometimes themselves, sure, but sometimes to protect others too. Maybe they lied to protect you. They didn’t want to hurt you.’

‘Protect me from what? Not knowing hurt more, Dani.’ He lifted his hands from her and looked at them. ‘I used to wonder if she’d been raped.’

‘Alex.’ Her heart wrenched and she grabbed his hands again with both of hers and pulled them to her chest. Of course he’d have worried about the worst. Afraid of what his mother’s secrecy might have meant.

He looked at her, tormented. ‘And they let me wonder. Worry. For nothing. I can’t forgive them for that.’ The deepest hurt poured out. ‘He’s despicable, Dani. I don’t want anything to do with him. I can’t believe he’s my father. I don’t want to be related to him.’

She had to reach out to him. She had to help somehow, because she understood that hatred—and the underlying fear that the badness might come through his blood.

‘I’ve lied to you too, Alex,’ she said quietly. It wasn’t even a lie that would affect him, yet she felt terrible for it. Even more so as she felt him freeze. ‘I told you my parents were dead,’ she said quickly. ‘And my mum is but my father isn’t.’

Silent, he stared at her.

She breathed in and then said it. The one thing she tried never to think about. ‘He’s in jail.’

‘Oh—’

‘As far as I’m concerned he died the day he came to see Mum when she was dying of cancer and conned the last of her life savings from her.’ Dani spoke fast, stopping his interruption. She wasn’t telling him this to get his sympathy, but so he’d grasp what she wanted him to learn. ‘He’s a crook, Alex. A conman—theft, fraud, you name it, he’s done it. The kind of lowlife who preys on the sick and dying.’ She hated him, hated the way her heart raced and her skin went cold when she thought of him. ‘He wandered in and out of our lives—between sentences, between better options. He’d come and sweet talk his way back to Mum, saying he was changed. Always lies. Right up to the end, he stole from her. He has no conscience, no empathy, nothing.’

And she’d wanted to believe him too, hadn’t she? Every time. So not only had he stolen from her mother, he’d stolen from her too—taken her credit card and maxed it out. She let go of Alex’s hand to push back the sweep of her fringe. ‘His blood runs through my veins, Alex, but I’m not like him,’ she said fiercely. ‘I’m not anything like him.’ She spoke faster, insistent. ‘It doesn’t matter who your biological parents are. You’re still you. You’re not him. You’ll never be him.’

Alex just kept staring at her. ‘Is it that easy to accept, Dani?’

‘No,’ she said honestly. ‘But you have to. We’re unique, right? It’s our experiences that shape us, not just our DNA.’

‘Yeah.’ His smile was a shadow of its usual self, but at least it appeared. For all of a second. Then he went serious again. ‘Wow.’ He paused. ‘Thanks for telling me.’

She scrunched deeper into the sofa. ‘I don’t like to think about him.’

‘No.’ He’d gone pale again, staring at the low coffee table in front of them, looking too tired to move.

‘I guess you have to decide whether you want anything to do with Patrick,’ she said softly.

Alex shook his head slowly. ‘I don’t want to know him.’

‘That’s okay, Alex.’ She smiled at him a little sadly. ‘You don’t have to.’ She held his hand, her heart aching for the hurt in his. ‘Your phone hasn’t beeped.’

It must be a record.

He jerked. ‘Oh, I turned it off. I’d better check it.’

‘Give it to me.’

Their eyes met. Silently he handed it to her. She didn’t look at it, most certainly didn’t switch it on. She put it on the arm of the sofa.

Two disappointed people. Couldn’t they forget the past for a few hours? Abandon the search for answers? Just breathe and let rest soothe the aches they both had. She reached forward and unlaced his shoes. ‘You’re tired. You need to get some sleep.’

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