looked at Jamie. He really shouldn’t be here for this.
“What is it?” Kadin asked. “Just tell us.”
Lifting her head, she looked up at Kadin. “It’s personal.”
“Personal.”
“Yes. Between you and me.”
“Me and you.”
“Yes.”
“I would have remembered an affair and I never sleep with women as young as you.”
“No.” She shook her head, lowering it again and then catching a glimpse of Jamie’s rapt expression. “It’s not that.”
The quiet hummed. She heard Jamie’s exhale. Kadin just waited.
At last she looked up at Kadin and said, “I’m your daughter.”
Jamie choked on what must have been a midswallow with her shocking announcement.
Kadin’s face remained impassive. Wearing no cowboy hat, nothing shaded his bright gray eyes or hid thick black hair, trimmed but unruly. She’d gotten her blond hair and brown eyes from her mother.
“I read all about you,” she said. “You had another daughter you lost to a terrible tragedy. I didn’t come here to be what she must have been to you. I want that said up front.”
Still, Kadin only stared at her.
“I was adopted by my parents, Mya and Nelson Harlow, in New York when I was an infant. My mother was too young, just sixteen, when she had me. She never told you she was pregnant or that she gave the baby up for adoption.”
“That’s impossible,” Kadin finally said. Then he jabbed his thumb at the whiteboard. “Is that case real or did you use it as a ruse to get in here?”
“No. It’s real. Yes, I did use it, but...I...I didn’t know how to tell you. I only thought you deserved to know.”
“Why are you really here?” Kadin now demanded.
Reese sat back, not expecting this kind of reaction. But then she realized he would be shocked at first, and then skeptical.
“Giselle Yates,” she said. “I’m not sure if Yates was her last name when you knew her. She moved from Massachusetts before she gave birth. She didn’t tell you because her parents forced her to give up the child—me. I only just met her. Giselle. My biological mother. She told me what happened and about you. I didn’t know you were my father until she came to see me.”
Kaden just stared at her again.
“I decided to meet you because I think you have a right to know,” she repeated. “M-maybe I was mistaken.”
She started to stand.
“No.” Kadin put up his hand and then ran his fingers through his hair. Then with a curse, he walked away from the seating area and leaned over his desk.
“I know this must be difficult for you.” Reese stood.
“I’ll leave the two of you.” Jamie stood and went to the door, closing it softly behind him.
After watching him go, Reese went to the desk. “With your daughter’s murder... I’m so sorry.”
“She never told me,” he said, still bent over the desk. “After all these years. She never told me.”
“She was afraid you’d talk her out of giving up the baby and at the time it was more important for her to repair her relationship with her parents. What they thought of her took priority. And then time passed and she decided it was too late.”
“Too late?” He straightened, anger storming his eyes. “She should have told me.”
Reese nodded. “I agree. That’s why I came here. You needed to be told, and now I have.”
“How long have you known?” he asked.
“I’ve known I was adopted since I was a young girl. I was raised in a good home. We lived in New York for a while and then my dad wanted to go back to his hometown, Never Summer. We’ve lived there ever since. My mother couldn’t have children so they adopted me. It wasn’t until I was in college that I began to get curious about who my biological parents were. I started to search for them...for you. I found my mother first. She traveled to Never Summer to meet me last month. She told me your name and didn’t know what had become of you. Then just a few days ago she sent me a link to an article about your agency. That’s when I learned about you.”
She watched him take in her facial features while haunting memories must have been swirling inside his brilliant mind. Did he wonder if his murdered daughter would look like her had she lived? That twisted her heartstrings.
“I’m going to need some time to absorb all of this.”
“Of course.”
“Please don’t take offense. This is quite a shock for me.”
It must be, especially after losing his second daughter to murder. “No, I completely understand. I didn’t come here to force a father-daughter relationship. You don’t have to worry about me injecting myself into your life. You can keep in touch if you like, but no pressure from me.”
He didn’t seem to register what she said. Giving him the space she could see he needed, she turned to go, quietly closing the door behind her.
She almost forgot to stop by Jamie’s office. In the hall, she spotted him getting up from behind his desk. He stopped just inside the doorway.
She walked to him. After she entered, he closed the door.
“You sure can deliver a bomb.” He whistled. “Kadin Tandy’s daughter, huh?” His words were light but his tone was leading. “That’s incredible. The media is going to go berserk. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The media doesn’t have to know.” They had an intimate dinner that had led to sleeping together. She could have easily told him over dinner, but the magnitude of meeting her real father had kept her from saying anything. It was still too personal.
He waited a few seconds as though expecting her to explain. When she didn’t, he didn’t seem put off, which touched her deep down.
“They won’t hear it from me,” he said. “But eventually, word is going to get out.”
“Thanks for the warning.” She did not look forward to that. “And your discretion.”
He nodded and moved a step closer.
This would be goodbye now. She didn’t evade him when he put his hand on her lower back, fingers caressing her rear before gliding up to pull her to him. He made her hot for him just like that. Breathless yet again, she ran her hands up his chest as he lowered his head and kissed her. He moved his mouth with hers, gently, reverently at first, but the hot desire they had for each other couldn’t be quenched with just that. In an instant, she opened to him and he to her. The kiss grew fevered and out of control.
“It wasn’t a dream.” Jamie pressed her to the door and kissed her again.
Unable to stop herself, Reese reached for the clasp of his pants. He kissed her ravenously and then withdrew, taking her hand in his to stop her from continuing.
“Not like this,” he said.
Both of them breathing heavily, Reese tipped her head back.
“It has to mean more,” he added.
She feared he’d deliberately left off the rest of his thought—to you. This had to mean more to her.
She pressed with her hands on his chest until he moved back a step. “I should get going. I’m going to miss my flight.”
“You’ll have plenty of time.” He released her hand and stepped back some more.
She