His Ex's Well-Kept Secret(27)

Eat hot croissants in Paris.

Sit in the teacups with Ty in his lap at Disneyland.

Read Ty a bedtime story.

Tell Piper another story using his mouth and hands.

She should have been here, with him, at his side where she belonged. His  fear and her secrets and the stones and the press be damned. Her next  to him, him next to her-that's the way it should be.

Jaeger felt a broad hand on his shoulder, and he looked up. Jaeger  smiled at his friend and rival, James Moreau, and shook his hand.                       
       
           



       

"Sorry I missed out on poker the other night," James told Beckett after  he'd greeted all the Ballantyne brothers and kissed Sage's cheek.

"I get it. You were scared. Perfectly understandable," Beckett taunted him.

"Up yours," James genially replied.

"I heard you lodged a claim with Mick Shuttle's estate to recover the  money he owes you," Linc stated as James slid into the empty chair.

"Shuttle bought many pieces from us over the years. I never thought his damned check would bounce," James muttered.

"Glad he was your client and not ours," Beckett cheerfully stated.

"I'm sure you are," James wryly replied. "Ballantyne and Company  definitely dodged a bullet. Shuttle's Colombian honey flew south the  night before he was arrested. With, I presume, my diamond choker."

"Judging by his long list of creditors, you'll be lucky if you get money back from his estate," Jaeger commented.

James placed his elbows on the table and tapped his finger against the  bloodred tablecloth. "And that's what I can't understand. Thirty years  ago, my father bought two stones off Shuttle, two exceptional sapphires  my father paid top dollar for. Shuttle boasted he had many more and, no  matter what happened, the rest of the stones were his backup plan."

Jaeger felt his heart stop, start and bump against his rib cage.

"My mother sold two stones thirty years ago to give him the capital to start his business."

Piper's house, he remembered, was owned by her father through a company,  and the reason she had to sell was because it was part of his estate.  The cash raised would go toward repaying her father's debts.

Piper Mills was Mick Shuttle's daughter.

That was a hell of a secret and raised the question: Why hadn't she told him?

And what else was she holding back?





Eleven

Piper wasn't surprised when Jaeger pushed the button to her intercom  sometime after midnight. The message she'd left on his phone was  intriguing. He'd want to know more, want to know everything.

She stood and placed her hand on her stomach, pulling in a deep breath.  Silly of her to think they'd have a little more time before the  situation detonated. In Milan, they'd hurtled from dinner to breakfast  to dinner to bed in record time, and over the past week she'd  reconnected, slept with and fallen in love with Jaeger.

Everything with Jaeger happened at warp speed.

Piper walked to the kitchen to buzz him up. God, she was tired and pissed and so in love with him it hurt.

Ask him about the interview, tell him about Ty and get it done. Throw  your cards on the table and stop second-guessing him and yourself.

Honesty is always better than sugar-coated BS.

Honesty was the foundation of trust, and she'd shortchanged Jaeger by not being totally up-front. About everything.

But she had to be prepared for him to be honest back. Maybe he meant  every word he'd said to that television presenter; there might be  nothing more between them than a bit of great sex. Jaeger might  genuinely not be interested in Ty, and she'd have to deal with that.

She was stronger than she felt; she had to be if she was going to  survive the worst consequences of this conversation. She'd survived her  father's lack of interest; she could survive Jaeger's, too.

Straightening her shoulders, she walked to the hallway, unlocked her  front door and there he was, his hand raised to knock. Jaeger sent her a  cool look and walked past her, shrugging off his thigh-length coat and  tossing it over the back of the nearest chair. His tuxedo jacket  followed, and he ripped his tie from his neck and snapped open the top  button of his shirt.

Piper folded her arms and watched as he rolled back the cuffs of his  dress shirt in short, snappy movements. His eyes were ice blue, his  shoulders tense, his jaw rock-hard.

Jaeger looked as out of sorts as she was. But she had no idea why.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" Jaeger demanded, slapping his hands on his hips.

Piper tipped her head to the side. Her rugby jersey reached to midthigh.  Woolen socks covered her feet. She looked ridiculous and wished she was  better dressed.

"I needed some time alone," Piper replied.                       
       
           



       

"Why?" Jaeger asked, as if talking to him was the beginning and end of her existence. It was, but he didn't need to know that.

"Well, I'd just heard you tell the world there was nobody special enough  in your life to take to Moreau's Ball. Considering you'd spent the last  night making love to me, your statement made me feel cheap and  inconsequential." Piper perched on the arm of a chair and crossed her  legs. She looked up at him, keeping her face blank. "I was trying to  work through my hurt and anger so we could have a rational  conversation."

Jaeger ran an agitated hand across his jaw. "You saw the interview?"

"I did."

Jaeger's curse bounced off the walls of her apartment. "I never, for one  moment, thought you would see that. You don't even watch television!"

"And that makes what you said okay?" Piper heard her voice rising and  reached for control. She pulled in a calming breath and linked her  shaking hands around her knees. It didn't escape her notice that he'd  yet to deny the truth of what she'd said.

She couldn't help that a little sarcasm leached through her rationality.  "Silly me. I'd started to think I might be more than a warm, willing  body and a source of some very fine stones."

"That's not fair. I've never treated you that way." Jaeger jammed his  hands into his pockets and scowled at her. "I don't know what you want  me to say, Piper. I never discuss my love life with the press."

That wasn't a denial, either, Piper thought as she moved to sit in the chair. "What are we doing, Jaeger?"

"Right now? Having a fruitless conversation."

Despite her questions, he hadn't said anything to make her think there  was anything serious between them. She wasn't going to beg him to be  with her. And she couldn't stay with him, vacillating between love and  hope, waiting for him to become bored with her, waking up each day  wondering how much time they had together.

It was better to live without him than to live in limbo. She was better, stronger than that.

She was not her mother.

Piper stood up, found her bag and pulled his check from her wallet. She  handed it to him, ignoring the fire in his eyes. "I don't need this  anymore. My uncle's diary will prove that the stones are from Kashmir,  mined in the late nineteenth century. I'll get the diary tomorrow and  I'll drop it off at your office on Monday morning. Ballantyne and  Company can cut me a check." She sucked in a deep breath. "I would be  grateful if you'd contact the lawyers administering my father's estate.  With your assurance that I have funds coming in, they might not sell my  house from under me."

Piper opened her mouth to tell him about Ty when he spoke again. "Who is your father?"

Those were the last words she'd expected from his mouth. Why was he  asking her that? And why now? Piper felt a prickle of unease dance up  her spine. "Why is that important?"

"Is your father Michael Shuttle?"

How had he found out? Piper forced herself to hold Jaeger's demanding stare.

Jaeger pointed his index finger at her. "Don't even try to lie to me! I know he's your father, Piper."

"How?" Piper asked.

"Because Shuttle sold two Kashmir sapphires to Moreau's thirty years ago  to fund his business and said he had more. Your mother sold two  sapphires to kick-start your father's business. Your father's estate is  in administration and in debt. So is Shuttle's." Jaeger paced the area  between her living room and hallway.

"Yes. He's my father."

Jaeger stopped pacing, and his direct look pinned her to her seat. "Okay, so why is that such a secret?"

"You're kidding me, right?" Piper heard her voice rising and thought, To  hell with control and rationality. Jaeger was a big boy. He could  handle a little shouting. Oh, damn, she couldn't shout, she had a baby  in the house. "Why would I want to tell anyone about him? Why would I  want to invite the attention and the scrutiny?"

"I'm not talking about telling the world. I'm talking about telling me!"  Jaeger shot a look at the stairs and kept his voice low as well. "What  else aren't you telling me? What else have you lied to me about?" Jaeger  closed the gap between them, and his hands gripped her biceps. "What  else, Piper?"