I smiled. “Obviously not.”
Krista laughed softly, trying and failing to conceal her lingering discomfort. “Knowing your father’s work, the shock factor of you being his daughter is just part of the appeal. Right, Mason?”
He kept his expression neutral. “I never do anything for shock value. And certain aspects of the project have changed since we last spoke.”
“Not too many aspects, I hope.” Michelle was practically licking her chops at the prospect of a scandal. “Nothing makes the critics salivate like good, old-fashioned controversy.”
***
Safely enclosed within the low-droning quiet of the hired car, away from eager eyes and ears, Mason cupped my chin in his hand and asked, “What were you thinking, Jett?”
All I could do was shrug as he searched my eyes for answers I wasn’t ready to give.
“I told you how it had to be when this whole thing started. As far as everyone else is concerned, you’re my biological daughter.” His voice was surprisingly cool considering how frustrated he was. “You told me you could live with that.”
“I guess I’m a liar, just like you.”
I turned from him to stare out the window.
“Look at me, Jett.”
The disapproval in his gaze was almost sharp enough to pierce my bubble of resentment. Then I pictured Krista on her knees with a look of ecstasy on her face as Mason’s cock sank into her undoubtedly bleached asshole. I crossed my arms defensively, wishing I could collapse in on myself like a dying star, brilliant and destructive.
“Sometimes I forget you’re still a teenager,” he said. “Then you cop an attitude, and I’m reminded just how young you are.”
This, coming from the man who had been missing-in-action for most of my adolescence, whose last memory of me before he left was of a gangly pre-teen in braces shouting, See you next weekend, Daddy, from the driveway. He had no idea how much or how little I’d matured, and no clue how his disappearance had stunted me emotionally.
Time stopped the day I realized he was never coming back. It didn’t start again until the day he kissed me.
“You don’t seem to mind how young I am when I’m sucking your cock,” I snapped.
“Watch your mouth, little girl,” he growled, his eyes flitting to the partition separating us from the driver.
“Or what? You’ll give me something to suck on?”
“Don’t act like you wouldn’t enjoy it.”
I would’ve enjoyed it, but I wasn’t about to agree with him.
“Where the hell is this attitude coming from?” he asked. “Don’t tell me this is about Krista. She and I are ancient history.”
“Then how did she know where to find you tonight?” As much as I didn’t want him to know I was jealous of his former model, I needed to hear the truth from his own mouth.
“She probably asked Michelle or one of the others. We still run in the same circles.”
“But you’ve been talking to her,” I snapped. “She said you told her about me.”
“I did tell her about you. The day you arrived, when she came to look at my preliminary sketches, and long before that. Lots of people know about you, Jetty.”
My hard outer shell began to crumble at the sound of his nickname for me. I fought with myself to stop it from shattering completely. “You had no idea she was going to be there?”
“If I had, I would’ve cancelled on the group and taken you to dinner somewhere else.” He cradled the back of my head in his big, warm hand. “Krista is no more important to me than an old piece of furniture. There’s nothing to be jealous of—”
“Of course there is! You fucked her.”
There it was… the real reason for my biting anger. This wasn’t about Krista; I knew in my bones that Mason would never cheat on me. It was about us, me and him, and the one thing he refused to give me.
He sat back against the leather seat, his expression hardening. “I see what this is really about. You want something, and you’re throwing a tantrum because I won’t give it to you.”