The Reluctant Heir

Too bad he was a lying sack of garbage.

“The threats.” She stared at him, watching confusion sweep through his eyes. Yeah, nice try. “The baby.”

The color left Carter’s face. Drained away, leaving him pale and listing to one side. “Oh, damn. Please tell me you didn’t date my father and get pregnant.”

She almost gagged. “What?”

“Look...” Carter held up both hands. “He’s... I don’t know, charming? At least that’s what women have said. I don’t get it at all but—”

“Stop talking.” She grabbed a handful of his jacket when her nosy neighbor from across the hall opened his door. After a quick wave to send the guy scurrying away, she pulled Carter into her apartment and shut the door, trapping them inside. Together. Which was her nightmare.

“I did not sleep with your father.” She practically hissed the words at him.

“Good.” Carter visibly blew out another breath as a bit of color returned to his cheeks. “You said something about a baby?”

She shouldn’t have mentioned it. She refused to travel down that heartbreaking road. “How did your father find me?”

“Uh...” Carter closed one eye as if he were trying to reason something out in his head. “Were you lost?”

She didn’t buy the act. This errand had a purpose and Carter was the only one of the two of them who knew what it was. “Skip to the part where you explain how and why you’re here.”

“Okay.” His frown came and went. By the time he made eye contact again he seemed to have gotten control of whatever emotions were churning inside him. His expression morphed into a blank and unreadable one. “It’s a long story, but suffice it to say, my father asked me to come and see you. Specifically, to give this to you.”

He held out an envelope. Another envelope just like the ones his father had handed her and sent to her with messengers before. The idea of being told to stay away when she already had done just that didn’t make any sense. But the idea of reading through more correspondence from Eldrick Jameson exhausted her. She refused to do it. She would not give him or Carter the satisfaction of ordering her around and getting their way a second time.

The envelope might as well have been on fire because there was no way she was touching it. Never again. “Put that away.”

He flipped it around in the air a few times. “You don’t want it?”

He sounded stunned at the thought. She almost laughed at the reaction. It was as if he didn’t know his father and the old man’s schemes at all. There were always strings when it came to dealing with a Jameson.

“Save us both some time and just tell me what it says.”

Carter shrugged. “How should I know?”

“You’re telling me you didn’t open it? You flew here or took a million-dollar taxi ride or whatever and you never gave in to the itch to crack open the seal?” That seemed to defy human nature.

“Gotta say it sounds like you want to know what’s inside.” When she didn’t say anything, his hand dropped. “He left the envelope for you and said he wanted you to have it. My job was to deliver it.”

“Why?”

“I figured you knew.”

Anger whooshed out of her, but frustration quickly settled in its place. She had no idea what was happening. From the apologetic sound of his voice, she wondered if he did either. “Are you serious? You really don’t know what this assignment your father gave you is about?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Carter moved around the small space, careful to dodge the corner of her dresser and the edge of her bed, to stand by the window. “I’m not sure how to ask this, so I’m just going to blurt it out. I apologize in advance for the delivery.”

“That sounds ominous and—”

“Did you have a thing with my father? Maybe not sexual but...something?”

The question sounded just as horrifying the second time. The words had changed but the idea still screeched in her brain. “I don’t want anything to do with your father. Never did.”

“That’s new.”

“Meaning?”

Carter shook his head. “Well, he’s been married four times and had a series of mistresses and girlfriends, so I guess some women like him.”

She shivered. “I don’t get that.”

“On that, we agree.” A smile tugged on the corner of Carter’s mouth as he took a few steps around her small space.

That cocky walk, the self-assurance. The way he stepped into a room and owned it. He was older now, more attractive in the way age and life experience molded and changed a person. Defined his features. That firm chin. The sexy smile.

The teenaged version of her had suffered from a debilitating crush that made her stammer and stare at her feet during the few times he’d talked to her. The grown-up version of her, the one who had experienced nothing but grief and anguish at the hands of the Jameson family, appreciated the way he looked but was smart enough to be wary. To not get reeled in.

“So, your father’s sole instructions were to find me and give me that.”

“Yes.” He held the envelope out again.

None of this made sense. She’d never said anything. Never tried to see Carter. Ripped up the damn check his father had given her as a payoff, but there’s no way the elder and famously impulsive Mr. Jameson had waited all these months to send Carter to try to pay her off again. Something else was happening here.

A terrible thought floated through her mind, freezing her to the spot by the door. “Is he with you?”

“My father?” Carter shook his head. “He’s not even in the country, as far as I know. He and the new wife live in Tortola. Since I haven’t heard from him in a few weeks, I’m assuming he’s back there.”

She noticed Carter didn’t sound upset about living that many miles apart. The family dysfunction was his business, but she did have a few seconds of silent celebration at the thought of being some distance away from Carter’s father. “Good.”

Carter eyed her, his gaze assessing her, as he leaned against the wall next to the window. “I’m guessing whatever happened between you two was bad.”

“The good news is you’ve done your duty. Daddy asked you to visit me and you did. Mission accomplished.” It was time for Carter to leave. She needed to make plans, figure out where she went from here.

“I still have the envelope, so I’m not convinced we’ve resolved anything.”

“The reality is I’m not related to the man, so I don’t have to do what he wants.”

Carter made a noise that sounded a bit like huh before he started talking. “Any chance you’re going to fill in the blanks and tell me what all of this is about?”

No way would she give up her small advantage by sharing anything she knew. “Hey, stud. You came to see me.”

“I guess shy little Hanna is all grown-up now.”

She reached out and opened the door. “And she’s done with this conversation.”

He pushed off from the wall and took the few steps that put him in front of her. “You know this isn’t over, right?”

Her hand tightened on the doorknob. “Sure feels like it.”