‘No. Why?’

  ‘I just keep wondering why, if she was so unhappy, she chose to stay with Alistair. It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, I know I didn’t know her, but I’m just not buying into Hart’s belief that she stayed because of the money.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve already asked myself that question about a thousand times.’

  ‘You know, when I was researching Harrison for the Luxe article, all the references I ever found about his wife’s and daughter’s deaths said that they were both killed in tragic accidents. I never saw any mention of suicide.’

  ‘Accidents,’ I mutter, thinking it’s amazing what money can buy, if you’re determined to hide the truth. ‘That’s one way of putting it, I suppose.’ I take another deep breath, and exhale in an audible rush, my throat burning as I say, ‘I’m sure Alistair’s money had a lot to do with it. He wouldn’t have wanted the Beckett name sullied by something he found so embarrassing.’

  ‘He found your mom’s death embarrassing?’ she asks, sounding horrified. I give a tight nod, and she whispers, ‘Jase, that’s . . . God, I don’t even have words for what that is. I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Me, too, baby.’ I let go of her hand to wrap my arm around her shoulders and tug her close, pressing a kiss to the top of her golden head, my heart pounding so hard it hurts. Then I gently grip her hair and tug her head back until she’s looking up at me, and brush a soft kiss across her lips as I ask, ‘So am I forgiven?’

  She closes her eyes for a moment, then blinks them open and locks her steady gaze with mine. ‘Did you kiss them?’

  I know she’s talking about the three women I was photographed with while she was still in San Diego, and I can’t help but laugh, then hurry to explain when she stiffens against me. ‘No, sweetheart. I didn’t kiss them. And I’m not laughing at you, I swear. It’s just that, if you’d been there like I was, Em, you’d know how awful those three evenings were.’

  ‘Aw, your dates were shit?’ she drawls drily, before rolling her eyes at me. ‘What the hell, Jase? Do you really think that’s going to make me feel bad for you?’

  ‘No, fuck,’ I curse, knowing I’m mucking this up. ‘It’s just that, if you’d been there, then you’d have never even had to ask me that question. Because you’d know there’s no way in hell I was letting my mouth get anywhere close to those women. They were three of the absolute worst nights of my life.’

  She bites her lip as she laughs, thinking it’s funny, which I guess I deserve. Hell, I know I deserve it. I start kissing her smiling lips as I fall back against the bed, pulling her down with me so that she’s on top, and it only takes me a second to get the heavy head of my cock lodged back inside her. She gasps as I grip her hips and pull her down over my rigid shaft like a tight, wet glove, her hands braced against my chest as she blinks down at me. I plant my feet against the bed and push up, until I’m buried to the root and her warm, slick cunt is hugging every inch of me – then wrap my arms around her and roll us to our sides. ‘Now rest,’ I say with a soft growl, pressing another kiss to the top of her head as I pull her leg up over my hip.

  ‘What? I can’t rest like this,’ she laughs against my chest, shaking in my arms, and even that small movement sets off a chain reaction in my dick, the damn thing getting even bigger inside her. She gasps again, wriggling to try to get comfortable, and groans, ‘God, Jase. I swear you’re not human.’

  I smile as I grip her hair and tug her head back again, so that I can see her flushed, beautiful face, feeling so satisfied and hungry that I don’t even know how to explain it. ‘You need to get used to it, because I can’t not be in you, Em. I’ve been so bloody scared that once I sorted this nightmare out, that no matter how hard I begged, you might never take me back. And now you’re here, and you love me, and I have to be inside you. I can’t not be fucking you, baby.’

  She moans my name, and just as I start to take her plump, sweet mouth again, my phone rings. I want to ignore it, given that my girl is finally back in my arms, where she belongs, and my dick’s inside her, where it belongs – but with everything that’s happening in my life right now, I can’t risk missing something critical. Not when her safety is on the line now as well. And sure enough, when I pull out of her lush clasp and roll over to look at the screen, I see that it’s the security company’s number shining back at me.

  ‘Shit,’ I grumble under my breath, reaching for the phone. ‘This is Beckett. What’s happened?’

  ‘Sir, we have a Mr Harrison here. He says he’s your grandfather, and his identification verifies his name.’

  ‘Uh, yeah, okay,’ I mutter, wondering what the hell is going on as I throw my legs over the side of the bed and move to my feet. ‘Send him up.’

  ‘Who’s here?’ Emmy asks, clutching the sheet to her chest as she sits up in the bed.

  I grab my jeans and start pulling them on. ‘J.J., if you can believe it.’

  ‘You’re kidding,’ she splutters, quickly climbing out of the bed and running into the sitting room, where her clothes are strewn all over the floor.

  ‘Nope,’ I drawl, following after her as I pull on my T-shirt. ‘It’s like you conjured Beelzebub himself just by mentioning his name earlier.’

  She slides me a laughing look. ‘Let’s see what he wants before you call him that to his face, yeah?’

  A few minutes later, we’re looking as presentable as two people who have been fucking all day possibly can, and Emmy’s shoved the note and photograph she was holding in her hands when she got here back in her bag. When there’s a knock on the door, I open it, and my grandfather doesn’t even bother with a greeting as he prowls inside with a long, frustrated stride. He’s dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt, but with a dark leather jacket thrown over the top, given that it’s a bit chilly here in Edinburgh. Before I can ask him what he’s doing here, or how he even knew where to find me, he slides a brief glance over at Emmy, and then the room, taking in its pale cream walls, dark wood floor, and overstuffed cream sofas, before quickly looking back at me and lifting a folded newspaper in front of him. With a shake of his hand, he asks, ‘Have you seen the paper today?’

  ‘No,’ I say, getting a bad feeling in my gut. ‘Why?’

  ‘Do yourself a favor and don’t look,’ he growls, jerking his chin at Emmy. ‘It’s not something you want your girl having to see.’

  ‘Jesus,’ I snap. ‘Just spit it out!’

  He crosses his arms over his chest, still clutching the newspaper. ‘One of the gossip rags in London is running a story on you today, complete with photos of you and Chloe Ellis. Claims you’re planning a secret wedding for the two of you.’

  A sharp laugh bursts past my lips as I shake my head. ‘Why the fuck would I do that?’

  With a scowl knitting between his bushy brows, my grandfather mutters seven words that make me see blood-red. ‘Because they’re saying you’ve knocked her up.’

  Chapter Four

  JASE

  Emmy makes a strangled noise at my side, and a vein starts to pop in my temple, my fury so raw I can feel it scraping against my skin. ‘It’s a fucking lie,’ I snarl, snatching the paper away from J.J. as he mutters, ‘Page four.’

  I find the article and am breathing hard by the time I’ve finished scanning it. Christ, there are even photos of me and Chloe from when we briefly dated, the two of us kissing on a beach and at a picnic, along with the one from earlier in the week, when we were at the rugby match. Though my lips are nowhere near her in that last one.

  My pulse is roaring in my ears, but I can still hear J.J.’s raspy voice as he says, ‘I might live like a recluse, but I still know important people in London. The kind of important people who can get information.’

  I cut him a narrow look from under my brows. ‘If you’ve got something else to say, then say it.’

  ‘According to my source, Caroline’s behind the story. She paid the bloody newspaper to print it. Gave them the photos of you and this Chloe girl late last night, and they did a last-minute rush to get it in.’

  ‘Bitch!’ Emmy and I both say at the same time, and I crush the paper in my hands, wishing there were a fire I could burn it in.

  Rubbing his scruffy jaw, my grandfather pins me with a piercing look that’s as curious as it is belligerent. ‘Anna’s been keeping me apprised of what the gossips are saying, and if half of it is true, I’m going to hazard a guess and say that you have reason to believe that car crash you and Emmy had in San Diego wasn’t an accident. That there was a nefarious purpose behind it, so you broke the girl’s heart and hightailed it home, where you staged those embarrassing look-at-the-rich-playboy-playing-the-field photo ops, trying to convince the world that you no longer give a damn about her.’

  ‘Wow,’ Emmy murmurs with a soft note of awe. ‘He’s smarter than I am, that’s for sure.’

  ‘I’m starting to think he might be a fucking genius,’ I murmur back. Then I look at my grandfather, and tell him what I heard the night of the crash.

  ‘So you know what this means, right?’ he demands. ‘Nothing happens from the time you fly home, and then Emmy shows up yesterday, visiting your office in London, and suddenly Caroline is on the attack again and we’re dealing with that shit,’ he growls, jabbing a finger at the crumpled paper I’m clutching in my fist.

  ‘I get it,’ I mutter, wondering when he decided to become a part of this.

  ‘Get what?’ Emmy asks, her brow furrowed as she looks up at me.

  ‘It’s not anyone that I pissed off in the business world or has anything to do with someone I dated,’ I growl. ‘Cam backed off once I came back. And Caro backed off with the councilors.’

  ‘What councilors?’ she asks with confusion.

  ‘Shit. I didn’t tell you about that.’

  She reaches over and grabs my free hand, giving it a comforting squeeze, her unconditional support meaning the world to me. ‘Tell me now,’ she says.

  ‘When I flew to San Diego to be with you, Caroline called the county councilors in London who are involved in my plans to build those homeless shelters for teens that we talked about that first weekend we met. She told them that I’d left the country for reasons that “gave my family concern”, basically making me sound like I’d gone off the deep end.’

  ‘So that definitely makes her a bitch, which we already knew,’ Emmy says, looking like she’d enjoy nothing more than kicking Caroline’s bony arse. ‘But what does this have to do with whoever’s trying to kill you? What am I missing?’

  ‘It’s fucking Caroline! Or maybe her and Cam working together, though I’d bet money that Caro is the driving force. For whatever reason, she clearly has an issue with you and me being together.’

  ‘Why would she want to kill you for dating me? It doesn’t make any sense.’

  ‘Who the hell knows, Em? Maybe she’s just bat-shit crazy, and there isn’t a rational reason. Maybe she’s just a fucking mental bitch.’ Sliding my gaze back over to J.J., I ask, ‘How did you find me here, anyway?’

  ‘I visited Martin this morning, the same as Emmy did yesterday. When I told him why I needed to find you, and that I meant to help, he gave me this address.’

  I have to laugh as I shake my head, thinking it’ll be a bloody miracle if Martin’s got any work done recently, what with everyone traipsing in and out of his office, looking for me. And when I’m back in London, he and I are going to have a long talk about how he failed to give me a heads-up that Emmy and Harrison were coming here to see me. Though I know damn well he didn’t say anything because he knew I might bail, and the guy has been gunning for me to reconcile with Emmy ever since I returned from San Diego in a foul fucking mood. Because while he might be a trusted employee, Martin has first and foremost always been a friend.

  Huh. Maybe Emmy’s right and he really is like an Alfred. And, damn it, if he’s Alfred, then I want to be Batman.

  ‘What are you thinking about now?’ she whispers, giving me a funny look. But instead of answering, I just laugh and shake my head again, since it’ll be a cold day in hell before I admit to that embarrassing thought. God, she’d never let me live it down.

  ‘So, do you have a spare bedroom for me to stay in?’ Harrison asks, drawing my attention back to him, and I realize for the first time that he’d set a suitcase down by the door when he’d first stormed in.

  I feel my brows arch with surprise. ‘You’re staying?’

  He shoots me a cocky smirk that I swear I must have inherited from him. ‘I’ve been wanting to see that uppity bitch get what she deserves for years. You think I’m just going to scurry back home now and let you have all the fun?’

  ‘Emmy almost fucking died in San Diego,’ I snap. ‘Nothing about this is fun.’

  ‘Shit,’ he mutters, sliding her an apologetic look. ‘I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean it like that.’

  I want to tell him to go to hell, but Emmy gives my hand another squeeze, and so I bite my tongue instead, while she murmurs, ‘It’s all right, Harrison. I understand what you’re saying.’

  He gives her a grateful nod, then brings his dark gaze back to me, and there’s a deeper note of emotion in his rough voice as he says, ‘I want to help. God knows I’ve never been there for you before, Jase, but please. Let me be here now.’

  Another squeeze from Emmy’s hand, and I know there’s no sense in fighting it. ‘Come on,’ I murmur, pulling her with me as I head for the hallway. ‘I’ll show you to your room.’

  After J.J. gets settled in the spare bedroom, and Emmy grabs a shower, we order in a late lunch/early dinner from one of the local restaurants. And though the food is delicious, none of us seems to have much of an appetite. We’re too focused on trying to figure out what our next move should be, and whom we can trust to help us.

  Us. Jesus, I’ve gone from being on my own, to having the love of the most incredible woman I’ve ever known and the chance of building a solid relationship with my grandfather, and I have no idea how it happened.

  No. As I look over at Emmy, watching the gorgeous smile that curves her lips as J.J. makes another one of his bawdy observations on the world, I know exactly how it’s happened. It’s her. My beautiful life-changer.

  I’ve already called the security firm and told them I want a few extra guards on the building. With Emmy here, I’m not willing to take any chances. After Caroline’s play with the Chloe article, there’s no telling what her next move will be, or who she’ll get to try to carry it out.

  But right now, there’s another question that’s burning on my tongue, and so I look at my grandfather and finally force it out. ‘So, uh, Emmy and I had a visitor when I was in San Diego. An American man named Douglas Hart. Do you know him?’

  ‘No. Should I?’

  ‘He worked on the Grafton estate the year before I was born as part of a special renovation team that was restoring the manor house. When he saw a photo of me and Emmy in the paper last month, he managed to track us down at her apartment, because he wanted to tell me that he knew my mother.’

  J.J. sets his fork down, wipes his mouth with his napkin, and then leans back in his chair, giving me a look that says I have his complete attention.

  I give a little cough to clear my throat, and then just put it out there. ‘He claims they were lovers, and that they were crazy about each other. According to Hart, he’s my father.’

  J.J.’s eyes close for a moment, and then he exhales with a heavy sigh as he opens them and reaches for his glass of wine. ‘Is there more?’ he rasps.

  I fill him in on the rest of Hart’s story, and then push my plate aside, resting my crossed arms on the table as I hold my grandfather’s dark gaze and say, ‘We’ve never talked about it, but I need to ask you now. Why do you think Sarah killed herself?’

  He winces, as if just hearing the words causes him physical pain. ‘Christ, Jase. I wish I knew.’

  ‘The . . . The way that she did it,’ I scrape out, feeling a cold sweat break out over my brow, just before Emmy reaches over and places her feminine hand against my back, the instant comfort her touch gives me making it possible to go on. ‘I just don’t understand why she would have wanted me to find her like that. I mean, how could a mother do that to her child?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he says, sounding shattered. ‘But she loved you more than anything, Jase. She just must not have been herself at the end.’

  ‘Did you ever suspect that Alistair wasn’t my father?’

  He starts to look away, but I pin him with my stare, silently demanding an answer.

  His shoulders drop with a look of defeat, and he slowly shakes his head. ‘I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t. I feel . . . I feel like I should have seen it, but we all know what a blind, stubborn fool I’ve been. I think I see everything, when like your girl there already told me, I see it only through my own lens of pain. I was blind to Sarah’s, because it wasn’t mine. But I can tell you that she never loved Alistair.’

  ‘If she didn’t love him, then why marry him?’

  ‘Because I failed her,’ he mutters, before taking another heavy swallow of his wine. ‘Janine wanted the marriage, and it hurts to admit it, but I didn’t care enough to cross her on it. Sarah was Janine’s world, and she wanted to keep her close. Thought we would be able to ensure that Alistair treated her right.’ A scowl curls his upper lip as he says, ‘But that pathetic lush was a nightmare from the beginning.’

  ‘Hart’s never believed it was a suicide,’ I tell him, watching the surprise flicker through his eyes. ‘What about you?’

  ‘I’d give anything for that to be true,’ he murmurs, ‘but Sarah was never the same after Janine killed herself.’

  ‘Still, I think Hart probably knew her better than anyone, so it’s worth considering. He tried to get the local police to listen to him, but they wouldn’t. I suspect because they’re all in Alistair’s pocket. But I have a friend who’s a detective at Scotland Yard, and once he’s finished helping me look into Caroline and Cameron, I plan to ask him to pull Sarah’s records from the coroner’s office and review them for any signs of tampering or falsification.’