Page 65 of Unbuttoning Her Brooding Boss

On the third floor the receptionist smiled and welcomed him.

He was used to people waiting for him—welcoming him. So far, so normal. Maybe it was going to be okay.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out. After only a moment the receptionist escorted him to an office at the end of the corridor.

Darren Thompson had risen to stand behind his some what messy desk. He was only an inch or so shorter than Jack. He had dark hair, streaked with grey. His eyes were a different colour, though.

Jack knew he had his mother’s eyes.

‘Jack Wolfe—CEO of Wolfe Enterprises. What brings you to my little empire?’ Darren gestured towards an empty chair on the other side of his desk before sitting again. ‘You want to start putting up buildings?’

So he’d done a little research on him? Jack would have too. But Darren couldn’t know the real reason for his visit—Jack’s adoption had been kept very private.

‘I’ve not come here about a business matter.’ Jack couldn’t sit. He paced, walking over to the window. He could see the pale yellow car in the car park. He almost smiled. Instead he took a breath and turned back to face his father. ‘I was adopted by the Wolfe family. My birth mother was Lisa Kelly. I was born on July nineteenth, twenty-eight years ago.’

Darren didn’t move. ‘Why is this of any relevance to me?’

‘Because in the year prior to my birthyouwere my mother’s boyfriend.’

The man looked up at him for a long time. Saying nothing.

‘I believe you’re my birth father,’ Jack finally added when the silence had become too pointed.

He didn’t want to believe it. His investigator’s report hadn’t made for pleasant reading. Darren Thompson was known for poor business practices, shocking employee relations and a suspicious private life. He’d been picked up by the police for ‘male assaults female’ but the woman—his fiancée at the time—had refused to press charges.

Jack had wanted to meet Darren and make his own assessment, and he was reading the man’s body language now...

‘No blood test is one hundred per cent accurate.’ Darren’s mouth barely moved as he spoke. ‘I’ll never accept you as my son.’

Wow.Just like that. Jack’s blood ran so cold it almost congealed.

‘You want money?’ Darren asked. ‘Is that why you’ve made this up?’

Seriously?

‘I’m Jack Wolfe,’ Jack answered, as coolly as he could. ‘If you know anything about Wolfe Enterprises you know I have no need for money.’

‘Just because they gave you their name doesn’t mean they’re giving you their cash, though, does it?’ his father sneered. ‘So many of these things are just for the look of it. Softening the ruthless business empire image by adopting some druggie chick’s abandoned kid.’

‘My mother didn’t abandon me.’

She’dchosenhis future. And his personal story hadn’t ever been in the press. The Wolfes had never tried to use their adoption of him for commercial gain.

‘No? She was addicted to cash and anything else I gave her. We were doing okay for a while, but then she told me she was pregnant.’ The man rolled his eyes. ‘How do I know you’re mine? She could’ve been screwing half the town for all I know. In fact I reckon she was. She’d do it with anyone who could get her a fix. She always dressed too tarty and talked too friendly. I had to sort her out.’

‘Sort her out?’ Jack asked icily.

The man admitted nothing more. He looked Jack over. ‘I told her to have an abortion, but she ran off.’

Of course she had. Because this bastard was a bully who’d probably threatened to beat her—to ‘sort her out’ again. And why had he taken it upon himself to ‘sort her out’? Because a man was the boss of a woman? A man decided what she did or didn’t do? A man decreed what a woman should and shouldn’t wear? Told her what to do with her body? With her baby?

His mother must have been terrified, given she’d run so far. And she’d never once looked back. She’d never returned to this country. And now Jack knew why. Now he knew part of the reason why she’d turned to artificial stimulants to help her get through her days.

Bile burned its way up from his gut, testing foul in the back of his throat.

‘Thanks for your time.’ Jack turned and walked towards the door.

He refused to apologise for interrupting him.

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