by Naima Simone
“You asked why the high-fantasy setting?” Achilles asked Mycah. “Think about every movie or book you’ve seen or read from that genre, set in that world. When you meet the characters, they don’t know their purpose yet. The most important thing for all of us is finding our identity, our reason for being. Because when we do, we begin to understand why we’re here. We begin to have hope.”
He shook his head. “I’m not saying this game will give kids those answers, but I am saying research has proven that video games stimulate the brain. Can actually change it in some regions. So instead of giving them a game that aggrandizes what they see every day—crime, violence, debasement of their community and people—what about a game that will awaken their brains to more? Create a different mindset and passion for something that elevates them above the reality they already know? Spark a vision in them where they see themselves as heroes, warriors, kings, queens, where they make connections and fight as a team for a common goal instead of against one another? I want to create a game where they can escape the horrors of their current environment long enough to glimpse something different, something greater. To connect with it. To see they have potential and purpose.”
As the last word echoed between them, he braced himself against the regret that tried to creep in. From the vulnerability of exposing that part of himself.
“I’m so damn awed by you,” Mycah rasped. She sucked in an audible breath and leaned back, pressing the heels of her palms to her eyes. “Give me a minute. It’s the freaking pregnancy hormones.”
Huffing out a short laugh, Achilles cuffed her wrists and gently drew her arms down. She kept her eyes squeezed closed, but after a moment she opened them, and her dark gaze glistened.
“I’m serious.” She rose on her knees, tunneled her fingers through his hair, fisting the strands and tipping her head forward until it pressed to his. “What was your mother’s name?”
“Natia Lee.”
“Natia Lee,” she breathed. “Without even meeting her, I know she was very proud of the boy she raised. And I’m certain she would’ve been extremely proud of the man you’ve become.”
He blinked, staring at her, struck silent.
“You’re beautiful,” she continued. “Your soul is so beautiful, and screw anyone who can’t see it. Who refuses to see it.”
“Mycah.” He clasped her hips. To push her away, draw her closer, he didn’t know.
“No.” Her grip on him tightened. “I’m not finished. You’re brilliant. You’re scary brilliant. And I hope our baby has your brain.” She brushed a kiss over his forehead. “Is the game finished yet? Have you shown it to anyone yet? Have you told your brothers about it?”
“It’s almost done, and no.” He shook his head, leaning back, releasing her. “Cain is a thorough man, so I can’t imagine him not knowing about my past, but I haven’t told either him or Kenan about the game—or me being in jail.”
“Achilles.” She sighed. “They would be your biggest supporters. If you would just let them. And I agree with you. Cain probably knows about your imprisonment. Which means he doesn’t care and has accepted you anyway. Let them in.”
Fear etched a jagged path through him. In spite of his resolve to keep them at arm’s length, the two men had become important to him. He couldn’t bear their rejection. But what if... What if they... Hope glinted underneath the doubt, the dread like a bright penny hidden in freshly turned dirt.
“It’s a lucky person who you let in,” she said, and he narrowed his gaze on her. At the note of—well, on another person, he would’ve called it wistfulness. “They must pass tests that make the ones in your video games look like child’s play.”
He cupped the back of her neck, drew her forward until their lips brushed. Until their breath mated. “Do you want in, Mycah?”
Uncertainty shifted in those mocha eyes, and her lips parted, moved, but no sound emerged. An ache, swift and sharp, sliced his chest but he smiled against her mouth.
“Better question, baby,” he said, arranging her so she straddled him. “Do you want me inside you?”
A beat of hesitation, but she nodded, and he raised the short hem of her nightgown, balling it in one fist, revealing her pretty flesh to his greedy gaze. He lowered his hand between her spread thighs, spearing her folds with his fingers. In seconds, her wet heat bathed him, and they both groaned. She rode his hand, clutching his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin.
“Take me out,” he ordered. “Take what you want.”
She didn’t hesitate this time. Quickly, she complied, and in seconds, she’d freed his cock and notched him at her entrance. Their gazes met, a silent question in her eyes, and he was sure the same occupied his. This was the first time they would have sex since she’d told him about the pregnancy. The damage, so to speak, had been done. They could go bare, and fuck, all he craved in this moment was to have her tight, hot sex squeeze him with nothing separating them.
But it had to be her decision, too.
She nodded. Again.
And it was all he needed.
With a groan that emanated from his gut—hell, his soul—he thrust high and deep inside her. And entered heaven.
And God help him, he never wanted to leave.
Fourteen
“So if you want to look through the presentation I emailed you later for more detail, you can. But to sum up—” Achilles set his tablet on the coffee table and propped his elbows on his thighs as he leaned forward and addressed Cain and Kenan “—Jacobi is a solid investment. It permits the client to manage backup and recovery through a single service. They have a full support team, and it removes the resource drain from the client as well as any significant time for training, leaving the client companies open to focus their attention on other matters.”
“I’m just skimming through the presentation now—” Cain swiped over the screen of his own tablet, frown creasing his brow “—and I’ll pass it on to Marketing and Legal, but I agree with you. And I trust your opinion. Kenan?”
“I looked it over before the meeting.” His younger brother poured more coffee into his cup from the carafe in the center of the table. “Given you’re the expert on this and not me, you still broke it down to make sense. The money saved in time alone would make the return on investment worth it. I’m going with your recommendation.”
“That’s settled, then.” Cain set the tablet down on the table and picked up his own coffee. “Thanks, Achilles, I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. It wasn’t a problem.”
Shock suffused him. Shock and a warmth that originated from a place he couldn’t quickly identify. Probably because he’d never experienced it.
Acceptance.
Trust.
These two men—who shared his DNA but were as different from him as cotton from silk—unconditionally trusted his opinion. Accepted him.
“One last thing, Achilles,” Cain said, hesitating a beat. “Since you did the research and understand it and the company better than me or Kenan, would you feel comfortable presenting it at the next acquisitions meeting?” Before Achilles could answer, Cain set down his cup and held up a hand, palm out. “Don’t feel pressured, but I believe you would be the best man for it.”
“I’ll do it.”
Cain blinked and Kenan stared at him, both looking as surprised as Achilles felt. Yeah, he hadn’t expected to say that, either. But it was...right.
So was this leap of faith.
They would be your biggest supporters. If you would just let them... Let them in.
“Well, okay, then—” Cain smiled.
“If you two don’t have anything scheduled and can give me a few minutes, I’d like to show you something.”
Kenan shrugged a shoulder. “I’m free.”
Cain studied him a long moment with that incisive stare. “Even if I did, I’d cancel
it.”
Another burst of that damn warmth. Throat tight, Achilles nodded and surged from the couch, grabbing his laptop bag. “Can I use your desk?”
Forty-five minutes later, he had his computer set up on Cain’s desk, his program pulled up, and he’d explained everything about the video game—the setting, the target audience, the potential marketing...and the origination of the idea.
As he revealed his stint in prison neither Cain nor Kenan interrupted him, just let him relay his story until he completely finished.
And neither Cain nor Kenan looked shocked.
“You knew,” Achilles flatly stated, not angry, not glad. Not... Hell, he didn’t know how he felt.
“Of course I did,” Cain said from his perch on the edge of the desk, arms crossed over his chest, no trace of remorse in his voice. “I had both of you investigated by the company’s private investigator the moment after the will was read.”
“And my father had you two investigated to rub in my face the kind of men I’d abandoned Rhodes Realty to align myself with.” Kenan smiled, but the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. “You two are real reprobates, by the way.” His lips twisted. “I fit right in.”
“I’m a reformed reprobate,” Cain drawled. “Love has changed me.”
Achilles shrugged. “Three hots and a cot changed me.”
“Great.” Kenan scoffed. “What kind of brothers are you, leaving me out here being a degenerate on my own?” He shook his head, but the mock disgust melted away, and his scrutiny turned speculative. “So is the supposed ‘jail secret’ why you’ve kept your distance from us?”
Dammit. Leave it to Kenan to get to the awkward heart of the matter. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Achilles rose from Cain’s chair and strode to the floor-to-ceiling window of the CEO office. His brother’s office. Where he fit. Where he was born to rule. How did Achilles explain that to a man who knew from the cradle that he would be king?
He didn’t know, but he had to try. Because the time for secrets, for remaining silent and shutting his brothers out, had passed.
Turning around, he met their identical gazes.
“When I received that letter telling me about Barron’s death, I honestly don’t know why I used that ticket. I hadn’t thought of my so-called father in years. I didn’t care about him—”
“Stop lying to yourself,” Kenan interrupted softly. “You came to that will reading for the same reason I did. Because your whole life you felt something was missing. And you were hopeful that maybe, just maybe, you might find it.”
Achilles parted his lips to object, to claim that his mother and grandmother had always been enough. But the denial wouldn’t emerge. Because seeds of truth lay in that statement. Curiosity and, yes, hope had propelled him to get on that plane and come to Boston.
“Okay, I’ll give you that. And I’ll even give you that I found the something that had been missing my whole life. Brothers. But you’re right. I have tried to keep my distance, tried not to become attached to either of you because after this year is up, I’m leaving Boston. I...” Even as he surveyed the luxury of the office, the paintings, furnishings, obvious signs of wealth and power, a small voice whispered—was it still true? With the baby, he hadn’t allowed himself to think that far in advance. “I don’t belong here. Not in Boston. Not in Farrell International. You two were born into this world. You know how to maneuver in it. You know its language, its rules. I don’t. I love computers, codes, software, design. It’s where I’m happiest, not negotiating contracts, closing deals, attending parties or learning how not to offend some person with how I talk or just being...me. This isn’t my world.”
“That’s bullshit,” Cain snarled, shoving off his desk and stalking over to Achilles. “The man who endured the childhood he did... The man who survived fucking jail and then forged a successful career for himself... The man who created that brilliant video game so youth like he once was can see themselves as courageous and heroic. That man will not run from some assholes who have nothing better to do than sit around, pick out napkins for their next dinner party and gossip about people who are too busy changing the goddamn world.”
Cain got in Achilles’s face, his frown fierce, fire burning in his gaze. “I know what it is to turn everyone away. To be alone and convince yourself that’s what you want. That you’re better off that way. I won’t let you do it. Not while I’m here. I’ll fight for you. Me. Kenan. Devon. You have family now. And we’ll fight for you. You’re not going anywhere. Not if I have to keep flying all the way across the country to that forest and camp outside that damn cabin until you give in and come home. Because this is your home now. Go visit the mountains to get away for a few days or weeks, but you come back. You’re always going to come back to us. Goddammit.”
Achilles stood there, rigid with tension, staring at Cain, who glared back at him. Both of their hands curled into fists at their sides, and out of his peripheral vision, he caught Kenan standing a couple of feet away, glancing back and forth. Probably waiting to see whom he would need to tackle first.
Inhaling a deep breath through his nose, Achilles nodded. “Okay.”
Cain blinked. “Okay?”
“Wait, okay?” Kenan parroted.
“Yeah.” Achilles exhaled and a weight lifted from his chest. A weight so heavy, he shouldn’t have been able to breathe all of these years. “I’ll stay.”
A smile slowly spread across Cain’s face. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Well, just out of curiosity, what was it that convinced you?” Kenan propped his fists on his hips. “The ‘we’ll fight for you’ or the ‘goddammit’? Both were equally compelling.”
“Never miss a good chance to shut up,” Cain growled at Kenan before turning back to Achilles. “One more thing. Your video game. I don’t know what your plans are for it as far as distribution, but I’d like to sit down and talk to you about it. Because I want Farrell to do it. And not just yours. But more like it. Matter of fact, I want you to do the research on either acquiring or founding a company specifically to design games with the mission and vision you described to us. And I want you to run it.”
Achilles turned to look at his laptop, at the art, the game he’d been working on for a year but that had been in his head for nearly ten. And now he could be part of bringing to life more like them and putting them in the hands of millions of kids?
“Yes,” he rasped. “I accept.”
Cain clapped him on the shoulder, then pulled him into a tight hug. “Welcome home,” he murmured into his ear.
“Does this mean you’re finally going to leave the basement and take an office on this floor?” Kenan asked.
Achilles snorted. Then laughed. And it felt damn good.
“Come on, show me more of this game. And what timeline are we looking at as far as getting it into beta testing. Can I be one of the betas?” Cain rubbed his hands together.
A chime echoed in the room, followed by a loud vibration. Frowning, Kenan removed his phone from his pants pocket. “Sorry, I need to check that. It’s my notifications set to alert me if our name is mentioned in any...” He swept his thumb across the screen and tapped it a couple of times. His frown deepened as he scanned it, then his nostrils flared wide, his head jerking up. Eyes wide, he gaped at Cain. “Oh, shit, Cain.”
“What?” Cain barked. “Kenan, what?”
“The society columns, gossip blogs, Boston Noise and the Brahmin Post are all publishing a story that Cain and Devon ended their engagement because he cheated on her and she found out.”
“What the hell?” he demanded, his face darkening.
“That’s not all,” Kenan murmured. “They’re all reporting Devon discovered you got another woman pregnant. Mycah Hill.”
“Are you kidding me?” Cain thundered, stalking across the floor and tearing the phone out of Kenan’s hand. “Where in the hell would they get thi
s shit from?”
Shock spread through Achilles like frost on a windshield, dread curdling in his gut. Dread and suspicion. He didn’t know how they could’ve found out about the pregnancy, but he had an idea where the story could’ve originated.
Achilles had promised Mycah he wouldn’t tell Cain and Kenan about the baby, but with Cain facing the potential damage to his relationship with Devon and his reputation, he didn’t have a choice.
“Cain, Kenan.” He waited until he had his brothers’ attention on him. “I have something to tell you.”
Fifteen
Achilles stared at the penthouse elevator doors, waiting for them to open. The security guard had called minutes ago, informing him that Mycah had arrived asking to be let upstairs. He’d been expecting her since the story about her and Cain’s supposed “love child” had leaked three hours earlier.
His brothers had taken the news about Mycah actually being pregnant and Achilles being the father better than he’d expected. And they’d even been happy for him. Hugged him. But they were still confused how Cain’s name had ended up involved in the story instead of his. That part—his suspicions—he hadn’t revealed and couldn’t without talking to Mycah first. But he had promised to try to clear up the mess. And that meant convincing Mycah that they could no longer maintain this secret about the baby. Not if it meant that others would be hurt by it.
You’ll find out if she’s ashamed of you.
He briefly closed his eyes as the ding announcing the arrival of the elevator rang in the apartment.
He’d finally know if he’d been only a dirty secret for the woman he’d fallen in love with after all.
If he’d repeated a history he’d promised himself never to revisit.
If he’d given a woman his heart again only to be told it wasn’t enough. That he wasn’t enough.
Yes, he would have his answer.
The doors slid open, and Mycah rushed out of the elevator, and though he braced himself for what the next few minutes would bring between them, he soaked her in. The sensual explosion of curls that graced her shoulders and framed her beautiful face. The long, cream wool coat that opened over a dark purple sheath dress. The color reminded him of the one she’d worn the night they first met. And he tried not to let that strike him as an omen. Because he couldn’t determine if it would be good or bad.
