A Forever Love(35)

“You’re awake?” His voice was a deep growl, as though disgusted by the very notion that she should be awake at such a horrendous hour. “I thought I exhausted you last night.”

He curled his arm around her body and pulled her close to his side. She closed her eyes. Now this felt good. So very good. To be held tight by this man, a powerful strong man who might have anything or anyone in this world he desired. What woman wouldn’t become intoxicated by the very idea that she might be the one, the only one, whom he could ever want? But with a Travati? Untrue. Forget the words from the evening before, she was not buying into a forever-after happy ending for her and Justin.

“When the farm wakes up, I wake up.” She pulled at his arm to extricate herself from his grasp, even though she definitely didn’t want to. No, she could lie here all day, perhaps every day, for the rest of her entire life.

“You never needed much sleep.”

“What?” She turned to him and pulled her eyebrows together. “How do you know that?” How would he know that? They were together one night, only one night. Her habits, her sleeping habits, couldn’t be deduced in only one night.

“I watched you,” he said. He pulled his lips away from the pillow. “You ran in the mornings, I ran with you. What was it, like five a.m., and then you’d be at the office by seven and I always got there by—”

“Seven fifteen.”

He nodded. “Bingo. Sounds a bit stalkerish now, doesn’t it?”

“If I didn’t know who you are, I’d be a little bit scared right now.”

“If I didn’t know who I am and you told me some guy was doing that, I’d be a bit scared for you too.” Justin dropped his head back to the pillow.

“But why? When? I mean—”

“A need. A deep-seated need. Call it a premonition, call it … I don’t know what the hell to call it, but after our night together, even after you marched into my office and gave me your speech, I felt this overwhelming need to protect you. To keep you safe.”

“But what about after I left New York?”

Justin rolled onto his back away from her. He stared at the ceiling, the light of dawn beginning to creep into the room. “Something else to worry about, I guess.”

“More like out of sight, out of mind,” Aubrey said playfully, but a heaviness settled into her chest. That was Justin, wanting what he couldn’t have and then not caring once it was gone. His hand jetted out and grasped her, pulling her down onto his chest.

“That’s not what happened.” His voice was soft. A long sigh. His eyes searched the ceiling of the bedroom. “I got sick.”

She pressed upward on her forearms. “What do you mean—”

“We kept it private. A secret. We had to. We were in the middle of a huge deal, and if they’d found out something was wrong … that I was ill, the deal would have collapsed and Travati Financial … Well, let’s say Max’s inheritance wouldn’t be available to him.”

“He doesn’t need your money.”

“He may not need it, but he’s going to take it.” He peered into her eyes. “You’ve had him for fifteen years, Aubrey, and I haven’t even met him. He’s my son. My only son, and the only child I can ever have. Until two days ago, I didn’t think I’d ever get to have a child.”

She sat with his words. Held them close and replayed them in her mind. “No wonder you were so mad.”

“Right. Well, that’s no excuse to be cruel. There’s no excuse for that.” He pressed her chin up and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry. I behaved very, very poorly.”

Aubrey nodded. “I’m sorry too. I kept your son”—her voice cracked—“oh my goodness, I kept your son, and if you’d died …” She rolled onto her back and pressed her fingers to her lips. “If you’d died, he never would have known you and you never would have known him and …” She shook her head, nearly unable to process the thought, not wanting to process the idea that she might have kept these two men who shared the closest of bonds from ever meeting each other. They would meet, Justin and Max. She knew this needed to happen, no matter the fear that clutched her heart. The urge to flee, to seek out the familiar, pulsed through her body.

“I need to go.” She pulled the blanket from her body, and the cool air prickled her flesh. This was just sex, wasn’t it? Glorious sex, but only sex. Pent-up emotion that had been used to communicate. Her head told her so, and yet her heart …

She turned toward Justin. He lay in bed, sprawled on his back, his eyes blinking at the ceiling. Yet she wished there could be more, more than just the want and need and desire of fifteen years, more than the memory of a night that haunted them both. Could it be more? She wasn’t certain how. Her fear, her lie, still lay between them, a giant weight that pulled her down to earth after a night of flying amongst the stars.