But his loyalty had always been to the Dearborne family. Born into it, his mother had been Reed’s nanny until he no longer required one, and Riggs had quickly acquired a spot.
“It’s an honor to drive your children.”
“I wish it wasn’t necessary.” The admission hung between us. A bridge I was asking him to cross.
He slammed the trunk closed. “I do hope you and Mr. Dearborne find a resolution soon.”
He glanced at all the children, giving them a soft wave and a big smile.
Mallory giggled when he did. “Bye-bye, Mr. Riggity Rigg! I see you soon.”
At least Mallory could always find the bright side. The child so full of love she didn’t know anything else.
Thomas grabbed his and Sophie’s suitcases and turned toward the house.
My grandmother was there at the end of the walk, arms wide open. “There are the greatest great-grandchildren in all the land.”
Mallory danced across the lawn, doing a twirl and a jump, and landing at my grandmother’s feet like a prize. “Did you see that, Grams? One day, I’m going to be in the Russian Ballet.”
Thomas snickered as he headed toward them. “Don’t you have to be Russian?”
Mallory scowled at him, and I chuckled under my breath, heading back up through the lawn.
The engine hummed as Riggs pulled from the curb.
Halfway to Gramma, I froze.
Awareness nipped at my senses and sent the fine hairs at my neck spiking with electricity, stomach turning itself into a thousand knots.
Oh.
My heart started to race, and I slowly shifted to look over my shoulder.
Wary and terrified and filling right up with the hope that seemed so impossible to find until I saw him standing there.
The most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. The most gorgeous man I’d ever touched.
He was across the road with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
Dressed in a suit, polished, his face masculine and rough.
A perfect package.
A perfectly, imperfect gift.
Nineteen
Ian
I stood on the opposite side of the road with a lump the size of a meteor in my throat. It might as well have been. Knowing the feeling that had put it there was going to completely wipe me out.
Desolate and destroy.
Those eyes were on me.
A blue, mesmerizing sea. Soft and sweet and filled with so much relief that my first inclination was to turn and run.
Especially when I was looking at the evidence of her kids.
The little girl in her arms. Two children standing at the feet of an old woman who was watching me, too.
A chilly breeze weaved through the colossal trees of the quaint neighborhood, while I was pretty sure I was being burned alive.
At the stake.
Grace slowly set the tiny, white-haired girl onto her feet, saying something to the woman who stretched out her hand for the little girl.
The older woman wrangled all three kids, shooing them and trying to get their bags into the house, sparing me a glance before she disappeared inside.
A warning.
That same kind of protection I so often found Jace watching me with.
Fierceness.
Loyalty.
The kind you didn’t mess with.
Message received.
Grace watched until the door shut before she slowly turned back to face me. Fitted jeans and a pink chunky sweater and that sweet, sweet heart.
Fuck.
I was in trouble.
Had no idea what I was doing there. What I was thinking. The only thing I knew was I’d been doing all this shady shit for Lawrence, fostering God knew what, how could I not help her?
Maybe I could do something good in the middle of all my bad. Right a wrong.
Didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be brutal.
Gathering myself, I started across the road while the girl just stood there with the wind rustling through her soft, soft hair, so damned pretty she was again making it hard to breathe.
God, that pissed me off, too.
She was too much.
More than I could handle.
Some kind of motherfucking test.
I felt it.
I was either going to pass or fail, but I had to do this.
That energy tumbled along the ground as I approached, a shiver across her skin that she passed right off to me.
Teeth clenched, I stopped two feet away, and shoved my damned hands back into my pockets so I didn’t reach out and touch her.
“Ian,” she whispered.
“You need an attorney?”
Her eyes moved over me. “Yes.”
“You want me to represent you?”
She blinked. “I’m not sure I could trust anyone else.”
Trust.
She really didn’t know me, did she?
She glanced over her shoulder. “They’re my life, and no one wants to take a chance on that.”
She looked back at me.
“Except you?” Her tone shifted into a question.
A plea.
Adoration.
My stomach fisted.
Yup.
Brutal.
I took a step closer, breathing her in, delicious plum and sugared petals. “You know I can’t touch you. Never again. And no one can know that I did.”
Something decadent flashed through her eyes. Like she was watching it in rewind.
Against the wall.
In my shower.
Me holding her in my bed.