But to his vast disappointment, almost disgust, he saw tears welling in his son’s eyes.
“You set me up to see you together,” Scott accused.
Wes didn’t deny it. “It was time someone woke you up to the fact that the girl you’d become so ga-ga over was a slut.”
“That’s not true. You . . . you . . .”
“I dropped a few suggestive remarks, and she recognized them for the come-ons they were. This was no innocent virgin, Scott. I didn’t force her. Hell, I didn’t even have to try hard. She knew damn well what she was getting into when she came to my office that evening. Getting into her pants was as easy as one, two, three. Truth is, she wasn’t wearing pants, and she made sure I knew it.
“If you would stop being mad at me long enough to think about it, you’d realize what that says about her. She’d been toying with the idea of having both the son and the father before I ever touched her.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Me? I’m disgusting? Why am I the bad guy? She was the one who did it for the novelty, for the fun of it. I did it for you.”
“That’s . . . that’s bullshit!” Scott sputtered. “You did it to show me you could.”
Wes tried to lay his hand on Scott’s shoulder, but when Scott threw it off, he said angrily, “Look, if I had come to you for a father-to-son heart-to-heart, and had told you that your sweetheart was a whore, you wouldn’t have believed me, would you? Well? Would you? No. In order for you to believe it, you had to see it for yourself. I knew if you saw us together, that would be the end of it.”
“Mission accomplished.” Scott sneered.
“Goddamn right. You were well rid of her for a lot of reasons. I did you a favor.”
“You fucked my girlfriend as a favor to me?”
Wes sighed. “I can’t discuss it if you’re going to twist everything I say.”
“How many times?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. You heard me. How many times were you with Millicent? Just that once on top of your desk? Or did I just happen to catch you at it, and now you’ve made up this swell story about doing me a favor?”
“Scott.”
“How many times?”
“Several, okay?” Wes shouted back. “I didn’t keep count. It doesn’t matter. You’re refusing to—”
Scott reached for his sweat suit jacket and shoved his arms into the sleeves, then snatched up his overcoat and headed for the exit.
“Get back here, Scott,” Wes ordered. “We’re not finished.”
“Oh yeah, we are.”
“Where are you going?”
Scott kept walking and didn’t answer.
“If this is your way of getting even—”
Scott stopped in his tracks and turned. Looking Wes straight in the eye, he smiled. “I already got even. With both of you.”
CHAPTER
25
WHEN TIERNEY SAID IT WAS TIME FOR THEM to go to bed, he meant it literally. Leaving her to sit in front of the fire, he got up, gathered all the blankets, and heaped them on the mattress.