Billionaire's Touch(49)

The way he hid his disability when he should be proud of all he’d accomplished tugged at Randi’s heart. She rose and moved around the table, hefting herself up to sit on the table right next to his chair. “How did you learn?” He still wasn’t looking at her, and she wanted to weep for the boy he once was. Evan was brilliant, but he’d been made to feel less than smart by an insensitive idiot.

“After my father discovered that beating me senseless wasn’t going to miraculously make me smarter, he got me a tutor. The teacher was a bastard, but it worked. Repetition and phonics helped; memorizing the words that connected to a tangible object or person was easier. Bigger concepts came later. I worked with a tutor every night of the week and on the weekends when I wasn’t in school.”

“You’re amazing. You know that, right?” Randi reached out her hand and turned his head toward her.

“Not really. It was the way I was wired. I had to deal with it.”

Evan was so nonchalant that her heart melted. It had hurt, and it had hurt badly when he was a child. Obviously, it had made him all the more determined to find a way to conquer his problems, and he had. Dyslexia was never cured, but he’d found his own way to understand.

She’d studied examples of how children with dyslexia saw written words or books, and how best to conquer the problems. It had opened her eyes to children with learning disabilities and made her want to be able to teach them to cope. Plenty of famous people were dyslexic, including some of the brightest and most creative minds in history.

“I disagree,” she commented, trying to get him to look at her by keeping her palm on his face.

“So you teach children with learning disabilities?” he asked huskily, obviously trying to change the subject.

Randi shook her head. “No. I teach a regular class of third graders. I volunteer here for special needs. Amesport doesn’t have an organized program for gifted or special-needs students.”

“So you’re overqualified?”

“Not really. I just can’t use all of my skills in my current position. I don’t mind volunteering here.” Usually it was the best part of her day. “It makes me happy. Do you know what it’s like to be happy, Evan?”

Randi wondered if he’d ever been able to step out of his comfort zone in the past. He considered himself a caretaker of his siblings, responsible for their happiness. But what about him? He had a brilliant mind that functioned uniquely, and he’d compensated by being solemn and ultra-organized. Okay . . . he was majorly anal, but he had a reason to be. His learning disability didn’t explain his arrogance, but Randi figured that was all Evan. He’d gained confidence over the years, and he wasn’t shy about sharing his lack of insecurity about his intelligence.

He got to his feet and finally looked at her, his nostrils flaring and his eyes flashing blue fire. “I think I do understand happiness. Maybe I didn’t last week or last year, but I think I’m beginning to get the concept now.”

Randi drew the hand she had on his face to his shoulder and met his intense gaze. “Why now?”

“Because I think I’m happy when I’m with you and watching you come,” he growled, his hand moving at lightning speed to grip the back of her neck, so he could lower his mouth to hers.





CHAPTER 13



Randi lost herself completely in his kiss, the power of the embrace all-consuming and fierce. She steadied herself by gripping his powerful shoulders, and let her senses drown in Evan’s dominant assault.

She lost all of her will to fight her untamable attraction to him. This was Evan. Powerful. Indescribably sexy. Completely irresistible when he was this out of control.

Panting as he tore his mouth from hers, Randi looked at him with wide eyes.

“Did I hurt you when I told you that I didn’t want you to be pregnant?” he asked in a graveled voice.

She nodded slowly. “It’s not that I wanted to be pregnant. It was just the fact that you were so horrified that it might happen with me.”

“You know that dyslexia is hereditary. It runs in families. I was afraid for Grady when he had problems early in school, but his issues turned out to be completely different. And once I left for college, things got even tougher for him. I hated that.”

It wasn’t like it was Evan’s fault that he’d had to go away to college, but she’d learned enough about him to know he took the problems of the world onto his broad shoulders. He didn’t see it as a burden; it was simply his responsibility. “So?” Randi challenged. “Would you see any child of yours as defective if they had your condition?”