Dare To Love Again

I slipped back out of the room, confused as hell. I’d played around with the idea that she’d become my wife to use me as a sperm donor, but that didn’t gel for me. Unless I’m the world’s biggest dupe, there’s no way I was wrong about her genuine feelings for me. And besides, I was the one who’d gone after her, hard.

She’d done everything to avoid me in those early days after our chance meeting at the gallery where she was interning. I’d gone in there to find something for mom for her birthday and found more than I’d bargained for. Something about the soft-spoken unassuming woman who didn’t go out of her way to fawn all over me when she learned my name had caught my interest.

When her attitude didn’t change when I dropped a cool million on an oil painting, I was even more intrigued. Usually, in this town, all it takes is my name to have women putting it all out there, but not this one. She’d acted as if I were no different from anyone else in the gallery and had barely spared me a glance as I left.

I’d stood outside the window out of her sight, of course, to see what she would do next. My egotistical ass couldn’t believe that she had been as unaffected as she pretended. Not since middle school has there been a female who could resist my charms. Surely she was going to rush to her phone as soon as I cleared the door to call all of her friends and gush about me.

I was well aware of the games some women played. And since she knew I would be back to pick up the painting once it was framed, maybe she was just playing a game of cat and mouse. But no, that day she hadn’t gone to her bag to grab her phone. She’d just tagged the painting as sold and made some notations as to what kind of framing etc. at least I think that’s what she was writing.

I’d walked away from her that day feeling confused as hell, but even more, I was intrigued. So no, she hadn’t used me to get her with child, at least that much I know to be true. So what the hell was it? I was halfway to my room and bemoaning the fact that I wouldn’t get to say goodnight to my son when my phone rang in my pocket.

“Silas? What do you have for me?” Silas is the head of security for my corporation and the one also in charge of looking after mom and dad when they travel. His team of men and women work mostly in the shadows, but they’re known for more than just being human shields. They can find out anything about anyone, given the time and money to do it.

“Good evening Mr. Addison, I’ve got the results you wanted from the license plate number you gave. Sorry, it took so long, but I wanted to be thorough.”

“Go ahead.”

“The car comes back to a PI firm. It’s run by a man named Sorenson, not the best reputation and skating on thin ice where his license is concerned. He’s known for crossing many lines that should never be crossed.”

“He has a team working with him, so it’s hard to say who exactly was in the car unless we can get a picture of them. You say there were two of them, right?”

“Yes, tell you what, I’ll let them pick up my trail again tomorrow and give you a heads-up. That way, you can have someone tail them and get that pic. Not that it matters. I want to talk to this Sorenson guy face to face, set it up.”

“Will do, sir, goodnight.” I hung up the phone and looked back down the hallway towards the nursery. I’m convinced, as is Jeremy that we’d picked the tail up at her place. Who the hell would have a PI following her, and for what reason? The thought of her being in some kind of danger was daunting, and then I thought of my son, and my blood ran cold, then hot.

I turned to go back to her. She’s going to tell me once and for all what the fuck happened two years ago to send her fleeing from my life. If I don’t like what she has to say, I’ll strangle her ass.CalenOnce again, I found myself coming up short in the doorway. This time it was because of the way she’d fallen asleep in the chair with our son held safely in her arms. There were tear tracks on her face that I knew were most likely there because of me. I didn’t like the way that made me feel, so I was more than a little rough when I woke her up.