was in two hours. She'd tried to confront Paul last night when she got home, but he'd pulled a disappearing act again. After several phone calls to his hotel room, she'd finally reached him at three in the morning and demanded that he fix her car. Ripping him apart was long overdue.
She turned toward the sound of the door opening. “Did you reconnect the battery cable on my car? Will it crank?'
Paul flipped the light switch on and shut the door. “Yes, to both questions.” He narrowed his gray eyes. “I don't know why you insisted that I fix it before your mother and Matt get up.'
“I don't want them involved in this mess,” she snapped.
He removed her keys from his pants pocket and tossed them to her. She caught them and laid the envelope she'd taken from Jared in front of Paul.
He glanced down at the envelope then back up at her. “Why were you sitting in the dark?'
She plunged the keys into her jeans pocket. “Trying to figure out what I ever saw in you.'
He quirked a black eyebrow at her. “Really? You couldn't keep your eyes off me the first time we met. Lust is a powerful aphrodisiac, especially to a virgin.'
Her stomach churned. Again, he didn't call what they had together love. He was right. She knew now that they never loved each other. She remembered staring at his almost naked bronze body. It had glistened in the sun as he dived into the swimming pool. He had looked like a Greek god to her. It was her first taste of the unknown, crossing that threshold of sexual curiosity, and she had mistaken it for love. She had mistaken a predator for someone who really cared about her.
She clenched her jaw, removed the sexually explicit photographs from the envelope and spread them on the table. They revealed a collage of deception. “I want you to leave this house immediately and not come back.'
He took his coat off, crossed the room and plopped into a chair opposite her. His eyes glittered with angry amusement as he fingered the pictures. “I have no intention of leaving, other than to see Ann when I get the urge.” He shoved the photos into the envelope and threw them back on the table. “I gambled Jared didn't have any proof.'
Her jaw dropped open. “Jared? Did he talk to you about your seeing another woman?'
Paul chuckled. “Jared didn't
“And you agreed?” Of course he'd agreed, that's what Jared thought Paul had talked to her about. No wonder Jared was so surprised when she didn't recognize Ann Young's name.
Paul shrugged. “I agreed so he'd get off my back. I had no intention of letting him tell me what to do.'
Why hadn't Jared defended himself? Why hadn't he told her he'd put pressure on Paul?
She could kick herself across Texas. She accused him of protecting Paul. Once again, she'd been wrong about Jared.
Paul shook his head. “Nothing's changed, Katherine. I still want you back as my wife.'
She laughed, allowing all her bitterness and anger to spill from the sound. “Why don't you hold your breath until I agree? You don't love anyone but yourself. Every time I think of what I've put up with since you came to visit this Christmas, I get furious. I gave you every opportunity to prove you'd changed-
“You think Jared is father material?” he snarled. “Haven't you figured it out yet? All that attention he showed Matt was to get you into bed.'
Like the colors of a kaleidoscope swirling from one symmetrical pattern into another, the times Matt spent with his pal Jared tumbled in her mind. Because of Jared's past, he understood how Matt felt and showed him more love than Paul ever had. If Jared had befriended her son in order to get her into bed, he wouldn't have hesitated to take what she had offered. He said he had stopped because she might be hurt emotionally. Paul would have taken her and never batted an eye at the consequences of his decision.
She lifted her chin. “Yes, I think Jared is father material because he loves Matt.'
Paul bolted out of the chair and snatched papers from his coat pocket. “I didn't want to do it this way, but you've given me no choice.” He threw them on the table, sat across from her again and leaned closer.
She reached for them.
His lips twisted into a sneer. He laced his hands together and rested them like paperweights on the documents. “I'm calling the shots here. Not you.'
Hatred flowed from his eyes and washed over her.
She folded her arms and raised her chin a notch. “Then shoot, and stop wasting my time.'
He pointed to the calendar hanging on the wall. “Today is December seventeenth. There are seven days left before Christmas. You pick one as our wedding day.'
She laughed. “It would take you and an army to make me.'
He shook his head. “Oh, you'll do it. Because, you'd do anything to protect Grace and this precious house her family's owned for generations.'
Her throat went dry. He'd thrown her a curve ball. Some strange tension started to rise inside her. What was he up to? She thought he would try to hurt her through Matt. Even with Paul's money, she knew he could never win in a custody battle. But she had no reason to suspect he would attack her mother. Except that no form of coercion was beyond him. Katherine had underestimated him.
He placed the papers in front of her. “How about a foreclosure notice and confiscation of every asset your mother owns? You think that might do the trick?'
Katherine tried to hide the trembling of her hands as she analyzed documents. If lightening had struck her, she couldn't have been more stunned. She mentally added the mountain of debt bearing her father's signature.
“Let me save you the trouble.” He leaned back, stretched his legs and laced his hands behind his head. “Including the mortgage on this house and signature loans, the debt's total over three hundred fifty thousand dollars. I bought up your father's loans and I'm calling them in. You got that kind of pocket change to pay me back? If you do, you could file papers with the court, prove it, and stop me,” he goaded.
She clenched her teeth and shook her head. Even if she did have the personal assets, she wouldn't want her mother knowing about the outstanding loans.
He grinned. “I didn't think so.'
“You went to a lot of time and money to set this blackmail up.” From the date on the documents, she knew he'd purchased the loans right after her father's death. “Why spring this now? You don't give a rat's behind about Matt or me.'
His hard gray eyes mocked her. “Money, power, my father's approval, revenge for you defying me and leaving me. You pick which one you think is more important to me.'
She wanted to refuse to play his game, but it didn't take a mental giant for her to figure it out. She hoped he choked on her answer. “You'll never have the same level of respect and approval your father has for your brother William. He's earned it.'
Paul chuckled and straightened. “Oh, but I will. You're going to help me beat my saintly brother.'
She stared at Paul. “How is marrying me again going to accomplish that?'
“My father's retiring at the end of next year. He hasn't announced it yet. When he does retire, he'll be forced to bring one of us into the company to run it.'
Another curve ball zinged her way. She would have bet his father would never retire. He'd always insisted Paul and William make it on their own and prove themselves by working in the private sector. Malcolm Cahill refused to let them ride on his coattails by working for him. The global corporate structure he built and ran himself seemed to be his whole life.
“Like you, Katherine, one area I excel in is business. It's important to my father. I'm in line for the presidency of the biggest financial institution in Houston. My competition for that position is less qualified than I am, but the conservative Board of Directors prefer a family man.'
“You need us to secure the promotion?” she said quietly.
He nodded. “I told the Board we're getting remarried and I'm bringing you and Matt back after Christmas. Naturally, my father thinks this proves I've settled down.” He thrust his fingers through his hair. “Dammit, you owe me.'
“What the hell for?'
