Beyond frustrated, he started the car and they left for her house. “Is it because of the man you’d planned to marry, your feelings for him prevent you from wanting to be with me?”
“You know I don’t have feelings for him any longer or I wouldn’t be this involved with you, but I’d rather not talk about it.” He could feel her separating herself emotionally from him.
In a minute he turned the corner and pulled up in front. “What will it take for you to agree for us to be together? I didn’t make up what happened when you melted in my arms on the sand. I need an answer I can understand.”
“I’m...frightened to tell you.”
What?
“Am I some kind of monster to you?”
“Of course not!” she cried.
“Nathalie—” He’d reached his limit.
She turned a pained face to him. “How would you feel if I told you I thought my stepsister had either had an affair with you, or Etienne.”
“Say that again?” Surely he hadn’t heard her correctly.
“My nephew looks so much like all of you, it’s uncanny.”
“Do you have a picture of him?”
She nodded and pulled one out of her wallet. His heart almost failed him when he examined the black-haired cherub up close. She’d spoken the truth. “I can’t believe it,” he murmured. “Alain is a double for some of the baby pictures of me and Etienne. Talk about look-alikes.” He handed it back to her. “It’s remarkable.”
“I couldn’t believe I’d met two men in one family who could possibly be his father. Then came another shock when I met your cousin in your office. He shares the same looks with you and your brother. I never saw anything like it. After you told me his marital history, I—I’ve wondered if Raoul could be the one,” she stammered.
This was unbelievable! “You’re right. Your stepsister’s son has a remarkably strong resemblance to all three of us.”
Her eyes beseeched him for answers. “Who would have thought?”
He swallowed hard, trying to digest everything. “I only saw Alain from a distance earlier.”
“He has that same lustrous black Fontesquieu hair. You should see his piercing dark eyes in person. All three of you could claim him. When I first met you, you fit the description my stepsister had given Claire. You worked on the vineyard and I couldn’t help but think you could have been with her.”
Dominic was dumbfounded. “All this time we’ve been together you’ve thought I could have been her lover...?”
“At first it seemed more than plausible, but I never expected to become involved with you. That first day you took my application, I could see you written all over Alain. He has a birthmark on his leg. I saw the same one on the underside of your forearm and thought you could be the one. It’s the only reason I returned on Monday to see if I’d been hired.”
“You noticed that?”
“Yes. But then on the cruiser you told me about the women in your life you enjoyed, but didn’t marry. I deduced you probably hadn’t been with her. But you can’t imagine my guilt over being attracted to you when I thought she could have been with you and had your baby.”
“I’m still trying to take this in.” He was incredulous.
Nathalie stirred restlessly. “You did admit you’d been to the Guinguet several times.”
“So you thought that’s where it all started with me.”
She nodded. “I lived in hopes of getting closer to you and learning all I could first. But then my world was turned upside down because your brother, Etienne, stopped by the mobile home. You have no idea what meeting him did to me. After you told me your brother had loved another woman before his marriage, but the family thought she wasn’t good enough for him, I thought... Well, you know what I thought. Couple that with my meeting your cousin, and I couldn’t go on with my plan.”
A man could take only so much. “Do you have a picture of her?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?”
She hesitated before opening her purse. After pulling out her wallet, she handed him a photo.