The Bastard (Filthy Duet Book 1) by Lisa Renee Jones

Author:Lisa Renee Jones [Jones, Lisa Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Julie Patra Publishing
Published: 2018-11-13T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Harper

Eric presses his cheek to my cheek and whispers, “Do you know how badly I want to take you to the bathroom and fuck you right now?” Heat pools low in my belly as he pulls back to look at me and adds, “Or anywhere, for that matter?”

My body melts while my mind fights for reason. I can’t end up naked and confused again with this man and in no different a place than we are now. “Which would be fine if you could do it without hating me along with the rest of the family,” I say, my hand pressing to his chest, the other landing on his tattooed arm as I place more space between us. “I’m not them. Do it the Bennett way, not the Kingston way, and judge me for me.”

The waitress chooses that moment to reappear and say, “Okay. Just had to deliver another order. Are you two ready?”

Eric studies me several beats before he asks, “Do you know what you want?”

“Yes. Spaghetti and meatballs. You?”

“I do,” he says, glancing at the waitress. “The same for me.”

The waitress asks a few questions and then she’s gone. Eric’s attention is immediately riveted to me. “I want to know your story, Harper, not theirs.”

“Do you? Because you seem to think you already know it. I dreaded the idea of you thinking I thought because we’d slept together I could manipulate you in some way. You walked away from me without looking back. What power could I ever have over you?”

“You were the only one in this family that had a chance to get me here, and you knew that.”

“Because I’m not them. Not because we slept together. You have a file on me, but files don’t tell you the real story. Not about people.”

“Then you tell me.”

“Are you going to really listen?” I challenge.

“I assure you, sweetheart, no one has ever had my full attention more than you do now, for about ten different reasons. You tell me your story.” He rotates to fully face me.

I do the same of him. “And you’ll tell me yours?”

“I already started telling you my story. You know far more about me and my life choices than I do yours.”

A story of lies, secrets, and pain that I push aside. I focus on what matters right here and now. The part of my story that I hope he understands. “I was close to my father and his heart attack pretty much destroyed me, but my mother was such a mess that I somehow found a way to step up and be strong. I was close to my mother, too, until we joined this family. She was a young mother, seventeen when she had me, and instead of dividing us, it brought us closer together. But since she married your father, there’s been a slow divide.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“I know why. It’s because I push back and fight for what I think is right in the company, more so this past year when I felt that there were things that didn’t add up.

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