Man of the House(55)

“I can’t,” he said, smiling. “I need to find your mom and talk to her about this.”

“She’s still at the office.”

“Well, I’ll call her and get her to come home. This will be over soon enough and your mom can find a man that deserves her.”

I blinked and stared at him for a second then laughed. “Are you serious?”

“What?”

“My mom’s gay. You know that, right?”

“Wait . . . what?”

“Yeah, Carter. She’s gay.”

He stared at me then laughed. “You’re kidding? I had no clue.”

“You two never talked about it?”

“Never. I just never thought to ask, and she never brought anyone around . . . “He shrugged. “I guess it explains a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Like how she’s not deeply attracted to me.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Get out of here, idiot.”

“Gay. Huh.” He laughed, shaking his head. “You’re all full of surprises.”

I laughed as he got dressed. He smiled and kissed me again before heading out, shutting the door behind him.

I got dressed slowly, lazily. I put on another Bowie record, this time dropping the needle right on the song Heroes. I listen to it as I put on my clothes then sat at the bar while the track finished.

I didn’t know what Carter was going to do, but I had to trust him. I had no other choice, really, but I truly did believe he would do what he thought was best. Maybe he’d step down, but I doubted that was all he’d do.

I loved him, and he loved me. That revelation was still fresh in my mind, and I felt like I was reeling from it. The feeling inside of me had happened so fast, came out of nowhere and turned into something unstoppable. At first I thought it was just lust, but I knew what it really was as time went by.

It was love, pure and simple. I hated being away from him and only felt truly good when he was around. Maybe it happened quickly, but it was based on something deep, something more than just lust.

Maybe that was the attraction at first, the forbidden aspect of our relationship. But quickly things changed and although we still both clearly loved that very forbidden and taboo dark aspect of what we had, that wasn’t everything anymore. I loved the person he showed me slowly as he opened up over the days.

The intense crisis surrounding us made that unfolding much more intense and fast. What might have taken months under normal circumstances took only weeks in our situation. There was still a lot of growing and bonding to do, but I knew that I couldn’t do it with anyone but him. Carter was the man for me, and there was no questioning that.

Sure, he was my fake stepfather, but that didn’t matter. It was almost over. I believed him when he said that he was going to finish it. Good or bad, victory or defeat, I was with Carter. I didn’t love him for his money and his connections. I loved him because he was brilliant and powerful despite all of that stuff.

He was his own man and he was going to be my man.

I stood, stretched, and climbed off the stool. When the song finished, I turned off the turntable, put away the record, and straightened up the room. I smiled to myself the whole time.

I loved him and he loved me. Now he just needed to finish it once and for all.





26





Carter





I lingered in front of Evelyn’s desk, not wanting to go through with it.

I hated this plan. I hated every part of it, even though I couldn’t see a better way out. I hashed it out with Evelyn all the night before, and Emily even came up to offer her opinion. Neither of them wanted me to do it, but they both understood why I felt like I had to. As far as I could tell, there were no other good choices. No matter what I did, someone got hurt and something got destroyed. This was just the path that hurt the fewest people, and even gave me some measure of revenge.

Still, it was a disgusting and worthless thing to do. I was going to hold my nose and go through with it, but that didn’t mean I was going to like it.

“You’ll be okay,” Evelyn said.

“I know. I’ll get through it.”

“He’ll gloat. He’ll be an ass. But you’ll survive.” She grinned at me. “And then you’ll get your revenge.”

“I can handle the gloating and shit,” I said. “It’s the fact that he’s going to think he won that bothers me.”

“That’s okay, Carter. This is just one small thing in a larger plan. Once this is over, you can go on living your life and leave this all in the past.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe you’ll start a new company as good as Valor or better.”

“That’s unlikely,” I said. “I’m too old these days.”