Revealing Her Best Kept Secret by Heidi Rice

Author:Heidi Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-10-26T15:25:23+00:00

* * *

‘That’s not going to work for me,’ Brandon replied, knowing it was God’s honest truth. He wanted this marriage, and not just for all the perfectly valid reasons he had stated.

The desire to have Lacey where he wanted her—in his home, as his wife—was about more than just payback. It was also about more than his ferocious determination to protect his daughter from the things he had suffered when his mother had abandoned him to a man who had paraded him in front of the world’s media as his heir...

And it didn’t have much at all to do with his desire to safeguard the Atlanta deal. It wasn’t even solely down to the fierce need which pulsed through his veins every time he got within ten feet of this woman. A need he had never experienced with any other woman. But he’d be damned if he’d acknowledge any of those wayward emotions in front of Lacey. Because it would give her too much power, and she already had more power over him than he had ever allowed any woman.

‘Why not?’ Lacey asked, her eyes wide with confusion now.

His temper snapped. ‘Because she is my child and I want full parental rights,’ he said. Marrow had outlined earlier that marriage, as well as establishing paternity, would be the best way for him to gain full parental rights for his child. Surely that fact was more than enough to explain his sudden fierce determination to marry Lacey Carstairs...? ‘So you’ll never be able to stop me from having a relationship with her again.’

She flinched. ‘But you can still have a relationship with Ruby—’

‘Not good enough,’ he cut her off. ‘Why should I trust you to keep up your end of that bargain?’

‘Because I’m her mother...’ she began. ‘And I want what’s best for her. I know I made a mistake not telling you about her, but—’

‘So what if you’re her mother? That guarantees nothing,’ he cut in again, the bitter laugh disguising the hollow pain in his chest. He hated her in that moment, for bringing that old vulnerability back. The flash of anger—and agony—was so intense, he blurted out the truth. ‘My own mother sold me to my father when I was three months old as part of her ten-million-pound divorce settlement. And then she turned up again when I was seventeen, after he died, to ask for more money. Because apparently she’d spent it all,’ he snarled. ‘A mother’s desire to do the right thing for her child can be bartered to the highest bidder, just like everything else.’

‘But that’s...hideous.’ The utter shock on Lacey’s face had him realising he’d said too much.

Far too much.

What the hell was wrong with him? He’d exposed himself. Had told her something he’d never revealed to anyone, other than a few of his employees—who were legally bound to keep his secrets. Unlike Lacey.

‘I’m...so sorry,’ she continued, the compassion darkening her eyes only making him feel more exposed, and more angry—with himself now, as much as her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.