Sucking in a steadying breath, Harley blinked away tears. “It’s all fine,” she said, pummeled by uncertainty. “Just a little mother-and-son bonding,”
Grant extended a hand to assist her to her feet. She hesitated only a second before accepting his help and caught her breath as her skin came into contact with his. She glanced up at his shuttered expression, cursing that her raw emotions doubled the impact of Grant’s potent masculinity. Longing hit her like a sucker punch to the gut and she extricated herself from his grip with more speed than finesse.
Their conversation during her previous visit had rattled her more than she’d let on. Rattled. And tempted. But she wasn’t an impulsive teenager anymore. She couldn’t just jump into bed with a man because his rare smiles inspired flirtatious banter while his heated gaze sent goose bumps chasing over her skin.
Harley ground her teeth and fought to suppress the warmth pooling in her belly. Before finding out about Daniel, he’d made his position perfectly clear. He wanted nothing more to do with her. As he had five years earlier, she’d assumed that once he’d made up his mind, nothing would change it. And then he’d learned she’d given birth to his son. Apparently, he’d taken this to mean she wouldn’t be so easy to dismiss. Still, he’d taken things farther than she’d ever imagined. His suggestion that they rekindle their sexual relationship had caught her off guard.
Her first reaction had been to reject it. Getting over him the first time had taken forever and they’d only been together for two days. How much deeper would she fall if she spent weeks or months with him? Yet, to deny herself more of the most amazing sex of her life didn’t make sense, either.
“I thought we’d barbecue tonight,” Grant said, as he and Harley followed Daniel toward the pool. “And maybe watch a movie later.”
“I’m sure Daniel would love that.” As her son jumped into the pool, Harley settled onto the lounge chair she’d occupied the last time. Grant sat down beside her, his long legs filling the space between them. She opened her mouth, intending to share her plan to explain over dinner that he was Daniel’s dad, but Grant spoke first.
“I intend to tell Daniel that I’m his father tonight.”
“Oh.” Although they were both on the same page, for some reason Grant’s assertive tone raised her hackles.
“The longer I wait, the more confusing it will be for him,” he continued, his set expression indicating he intended to get his way. “I know you came home to find funding for Zest and I’m prepared to help you with that.”
Help her how? His offer had the sound of a negotiating tactic. “And in exchange for what?”
“I want to get to know my son.”
Harley crossed her arms over her chest, the muscles in her jaw bunching. “I’m not standing in the way of that.”
“Not at the moment, but it seems to me that if Wingate Enterprises wasn’t having financial troubles, I never would’ve found out about Daniel.”
Grant’s disapproval hit her like a sledgehammer. Driven by his criticism of her decision to keep him in the dark about Daniel and haunted by the humiliation she’d f
elt at his rejection, her temper spiked.
“You’ve rather conveniently forgotten that you made it perfectly clear that you wanted nothing more to do with me. Now you’re blaming me for taking you at your word?”
“That’s a terrible excuse and you know it.”
“I don’t know that.” She strove to keep her voice low so their argument wouldn’t carry over to Daniel.
If she were honest, she recognized that keeping the truth from him had been selfish. She loved her life overseas and had worried that if Grant knew, he’d force her to come home so they could share custody. She wasn’t ready to give up their life in Thailand.
“You should’ve told me you were pregnant.”
“What would you have done?” she taunted, making no effort to hide her bitterness. “Marry me?”
The question came out of nowhere, followed by a wild half laugh that used up all the air in her lungs. When she tried to inhale, Harley found her chest too tight to draw in a new breath.
Shutters slammed over Grant’s expression. “Since you left town without telling me I was going to be a father, the point is moot.”
Harley cursed the man’s fortified walls, battlements and parapets that offered him abundant protection from where he could lob blame bombs at her. What made it worse was that she hadn’t taken the high road five years ago and was stuck defending the inexcusable. She shouldn’t have kept Daniel a secret from him.
“So, what are you proposing?”
“I intend to be a father to Daniel. To keep you from interfering in that, I’ll give you the money you need to fund Zest.”
His proposal blew her away. She’d thought maybe he’d offer to intercede on her behalf with the charitable foundation his family ran. Instead, he was promising to solve all her financial problems. She should’ve felt relieved, but Harley wondered if using her son as a bargaining chip would one day blow up in her face.
“How could I refuse,” she bit out and instead of letting him see her turmoil, she forced a laugh. “But you could’ve saved yourself a whole lot of money.”
Since returning to Royal, she’d had to face the reality that keeping Daniel a secret from Grant had been a mistake she could never fix. She hadn’t known enough about him when they first met to know if he was interested in being a father. Although, to be fair, she wondered if Grant had any sense that having a son would change his life for the better.