She remained silent, her heart leaping in her throat, hope digging sharp claws into her tender heart.
He breathed out slowly, heavily.
“You do the same to me, Jordan,” she whispered back, her need to hear more almost a physical hunger.
His gaze flickered and darkened.
“It starts tomorrow,” he said his expression growing, not exactly distant, but no longer as soft as it had been. “The senator’s first party to introduce his son-in-law to his backers will be held at the Stanton estate.”
Her throat tightened. She didn’t want to discuss this right now.
“I’d prefer to glow just a little longer,” she told him with false amusement. “Let’s talk about this later, okay?”
When her heart wasn’t breaking because the sweet nothings hadn’t lasted long enough after the most incredible orgasm of her life.
“Tehya, we don’t have time to wait.” His fingers tightened on her face as she moved to turn away from him. “I have to know now, can you handle facing the Taites? Can you endure an introduction and pretend you don’t know them? Can you bear to walk away from your family without…”
“They’re not my family.” She had no idea if they were even likeable. She couldn’t miss what she had never had.
It was that simple. She wasn’t going to argue the point.
“Tey, look at me.” The gentleness in his tone nearly broke the fragile shell of her defenses. “Why? What’s holding you back from taking what belongs to you? Your family, and your inheritance?”
Did he sincerely want to know? Why did he want to know? God, he wasn’t supposed to switch gears like this. He was supposed to maintain some kind of consistency, wasn’t he? There was nothing worse than someone who switched gears that easily.
“Look.” She breathed out wearily. “Right now, they’re none the wiser and neither am I. Any heirs my mother had are assumed dead. I’m assumed dead. If I return, they’ll always fear I’m there to claim my inheritance. They’ll never believe otherwise. They’ll never trust me. It’s a no-win situation, Jordan, and I’m tired of fighting. I just want to rest for a while, nothing more. And returning to, or should I say, trying to enter, the bosom of my family, isn’t something I’ve put on my agenda this year.”
She was tired of fighting, she was tired of being alone, and she was tired of the shadows that refused to allow her any peace.
She was simply exhausted, and once this was over, she wanted to hide and heal the wounds gathering in her heart.
Staring back at him, she realized she wanted only to rest in his arms.
“Come here, baby.” His arms tightened around her, drawing her to him. “I’ll be there with you,” he promised. “Lean on me if you have to. But when this is over, it’s a discussion we’ll have again. This decision isn’t set in stone.”
Unfortunately, it was. She had set it in stone long ago, and she intended to keep it there.
CHAPTER 10
It was set in stone. In cement. In steel.
It was a promise she reaffirmed the next evening.
Tehya reminded herself that she had made a promise to her mother and to herself. After her grandparents’ murder, she had sworn to her mother that she would protect the rest of the family by staying away from them. That she would also protect the single secret her grandfather had given her mother unless she had no other recourse, until the threat of all danger had passed.
That secret, a set of numbers, was more than her own legacy, more than the legacy that had been stolen from Francine Taite, when Sorrel had kidnapped her. It was an inheritance set aside by Bernard Taite for his missing daughter. Cash, gold, bonds, family jewels, and a portion of Taite Industries profit per year, after Bernard Taite’s death. It was a legacy set aside by her grandfather, and Tehya couldn’t claim it until she either married, reached forty years old, or decided to return it to the overall estate for a very small portion of the whole. That inheritance was all she wanted from the Taites. As far as she was concerned, she deserved every tiny bit of it.
“Your gown will be here in about an hour.” Jordan stepped into the bedroom where she stood in front of the large, well-lit mirror, that hung on the wall behind the dresser completing her makeup. She hated vanity lighting, preferring the more natural light in the bedroom instead.
Dressed in thin shorts and a camisole top, barefoot, freshly showered and still trying to come to grips with the night before, Tehya avoided his gaze as she brushed a finishing powder over the completed accents to her face, before returning her makeup to the bag lying on the dresser.
“Fine,” she answered shortly as she checked the feature-defining job she had completed on her face. Smoky eyes, defined cheeks, the darker eye shadow highlighting and darkening the emerald green of her eyes.
Hell, she didn’t look like Teylor Johnson any more than she looked like the missing Tehya Talamosi Fitzhugh. Which was the effect she had been working for. Makeup was indeed a girl’s best friend.
Jordan paced across the room to her as she watched him carefully from the corner of her eye.
He wore black silk slacks, custom-made leather shoes, and an Egyptian cotton white shirt so expensive she was almost amused by the price. She knew the Malone’s were incredibly rich, each son provided a healthy inheritance when Erin Malone died. They rarely showed it though, which only made it more shocking when she saw proof of it.