Taking on the Billionaire

by Robin Covington

  But nothing compared to how stunning Tess looked tonight.

  “Of course you were right. Exactly what were you right about this time?” She stopped and turned into his arms, the brush of her fingers against his skin a brand of the sweetest fire. Damn, this woman.

  But her touch wasn’t just flirtatious. She was nervous about something and looking to bolt. He contemplated trying to cajole it out of her but Tess was the keeper of secrets and she’d let him know what was going on when she was ready and not a minute sooner. He was sure it had something to do with the call he’d missed and the message she’d left with Estelle. When he’d tried to call her back, his calls had gone to voicemail. Getting here tonight had been a whirlwind to the extent that he’d had to send a car for her and meet her at the event. But now she was here and he was looking forward to the time when they could talk about whatever was on her mind. He tightened his grip on her and pulled her closer, dipping his head to make eye contact.

  “You are the most beautiful one here tonight.”

  And she was. He’d never be able to adequately describe her dress—computer chips and algorithms were his preferred language—but the deep purple of the fabric dipped low in the front and back and exposed mouth-wateringly tempting expanses of her pale skin. Adam couldn’t wait to take it off her later. Slowly, very slowly.

  “Adam, you need to stop being so sweet,” she murmured, the shadows of the evening doing nothing to hide her blush. “I’ll get spoiled.”

  “I think you deserve to be spoiled. Don’t you?”

  That spooked her. Her eyes went wide and the nervous fidgeting was back. Hell, this whole situation had him waiting for the other shoe to drop so he didn’t stop her when she moved out of his arms. They’d moved from virtual strangers to lovers in the span of a few weeks and neither of them had been looking for anything close to a relationship. But they sure as hell were in the middle of one now and he suspected the one time he took this chance was going to break him.

  He’d never done anything halfway in his life and he wasn’t going to start now.

  Adam reached out, laced their fingers together and led her down one of the candlelit paths, deeper into the shelter of the redwoods and away from the burbling voices of rich people pretending to like each other. The time had come for honesty, for showing his cards and betting it all on Tess. On them.

  They reached an alcove in the trees and he turned, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her. Slow and deep, pleading and demanding, ending on a whimper that erupted from somewhere deep inside of Tess. Adam leaned back, maintaining their physical contact, his heart kicking in his chest when she reached out and pulled him back in for a kiss. It was hotter, wetter, and he wondered if there was a back exit to this place. Forget talking, they communicated better when it was just skin on skin.

  “Tess, come on.” Adam wasn’t clear what he was asking her. To leave this place right now or to finally let him in and share whatever secret she was carrying around and guarding like the Mona Lisa. She hesitated, biting her kiss-swollen lips in an effort to keep her own confidence. “Baby, tell me what’s going on. You’ve got me tied in knots. I can’t stop thinking about you. I haven’t felt this crazy over a woman since I was a kid and I tell you I don’t like it one bit. Throw me a bone. At least tell me I’m not the only fool here.”

  “Adam, I didn’t want this.” Tess pressed her fingers to her mouth in a gesture meant to erase what she’d just said. He waited, giving her time. “I know you didn’t want this.”

  “I wasn’t looking for it.”

  She nodded. “No. Neither was I.”

  “But we’re in the middle of it now, aren’t we?”

  “Yes. We are. And I can’t stop thinking about you, either.”

  Yes. Yes. Adam let out a long breath, feeling the relief all the way down to his marrow. He had no idea where this was going, what they were starting, but it felt good. So damn good. He kissed her again, pouring out all of the feelings he had inside of him but couldn’t say right now. One step at a time. One step toward something spectacular with Tess.

  His Tess. Somewhere along the way she’d become his.

  “Adam.” Tess broke off the kiss, and there was something else he couldn’t decipher in her eyes. Another secret. She took a deep breath, her hand hovering between them with her indecision. And then she reached out and grabbed his hand and tugged it down until it rested against her belly. “Another something neither of us was looking for.”

  Adam’s brain wasn’t catching up. Numbers. Equations. Algorithms. That stuff came so easy to him but this was indecipherable. Like an equation where he didn’t know if he was solving for X or Y. He struggled, scouring her face for a clue. Any hint at what he was supposed to understand.

  And then it clicked into place and one plus one equaled...three.

  “A baby?” he whispered, his fingers flexing against the slippery fabric of her dress.

  “I know it’s not what you wanted,” Tess said, her tone apologetic, her expression wary but determined. Her hand splayed across her abdomen in a gesture that could only be read as protective.

  No, this wasn’t what he wanted. Family was a problem for him. He didn’t have any luck with family; he had no idea how to be a father. But it wasn’t fear that had settled in his belly. No, he wasn’t afraid. He was confused and scared...and happy. And that made no sense at all but it was the truth.

  “I didn’t know that I wanted it,” he answered, realizing that he was speaking in damn riddles when he needed to be clear. “Until now.”

  “Really? Are you sure?” Tess asked, her green-gold eyes warming with cautious optimism.

  Was he? Wasn’t the answer in the fact that he’d hired her to find Roan and Sarina in the first place? That he’d finally acted on the undeniable compulsion he’d had to find his brother and sister? That he’d lain awake at nights tossing and turning with frustration and an emptiness that he could not name? It was a family-shaped hole in his soul and he was ready to fill it.

  “Yes. I’m sure.” Adam linked their fingers together over her belly and kissed her, soft and full of promise. Laughter bubbled up between them and the heat rising from the tangle of lips and tongues transformed into warm, lazy presses of lips to cheeks, eyelids and mouths. “I’m going to be a father.” He pulled back, gazing down on her, a million questions swirling in his mind. “How? When? How do you feel? What did the doctor say?”

  “I’m guessing that it was the night on your deck. My birth control was no match for the antibiotics I had to take when I was sick,” she said, her voice full of her own speculation. “We’ll go next week and you can ask all of the questions, I promise.” Tess answered, her smile dimming as her hands skimmed up the lapels of his jacket, her fingertips lightly brushing against his cheek, tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck. The wariness was back in her eyes, matching the deeper shadows along the edge of the alcove where they stood. “Right now I need to tell you some things. I need to tell you the truth.”

  Unease pooled low in his belly, subduing the joy of the moment and he knew that this was going to be a night of secrets revealed. But he was determined that they would survive whatever was coming. He had a future with Tess and a baby to protect, and he would save them and their future—he’d failed with his own brother and sister but he wouldn’t let history repeat itself. Not with this new chance at a full life of his own.

  “What is it, Tess? I have to know everything if I’m going to protect you. Protect us.”

  “Adam, you have to understand that I didn’t know you before.” Tess lightly pressed a finger against his lips when he tried to speak again. “Before I knew what kind of man you are. Before I knew that you’re not Franklin Thornton’s son in any way.”

  “He’s my son. Don’t you forget it.” As if Tess had summoned him by just speaking his name, Franklin emerged out of the darker spaces on the path, h
is grin flashing white and feral in the dim lighting. “And you, Tess Roberts, are your father’s daughter.”

  Sixteen

  She flinched at the sound of her own name.

  For so many years she’d been careful to only use and respond to the name she’d adopted after her father had died. A name borrowed from her grandmother, so not entirely a lie. Or so Tess had told herself.

  But the cloud of confusion and suspicion on Adam’s face shook her confidence in the deceit she’d been living for the past few years. But in spite of his doubt, Adam was the man he’d proven himself to be over and over. He faced his father, his body shielding her from the threat that now polluted the air. The gesture turned her veins to ice because when he found out the truth, he’d realize that she was the poison.

  “Franklin, what do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything from you, son. I actually have something for you.” Franklin smiled and the slight sundown chill in the air turned icy on Tess’s skin. She shivered, and when Adam pulled her closer, her heart cracked a little.

  “I really don’t give a shit.” Adam turned to her, his hand sliding against her own, giving her a squeeze and an encouraging smile. “Come on, baby. Let’s go home.”

  “Adam.” Tess tried to pull out some semblance of a smile but she didn’t have it in her. The happiness of the last few moments still lingered and she used it to give her the strength to do what she needed to do. “My name is Tess Roberts...or it was. I did have it officially changed a few years ago.”

  “I’m really confused right now.” Adam shook his head but he didn’t let go of her hand and she took that as a good sign. A hopeful sign.

  “After my father died, I changed my name. Our name... Mia did it too. We needed a change from...well, we just needed a change. To start over.”

  “I get that. You had been through so much,” Adam tried to soothe her but it made her feel only worse, like the liar she’d been for the past few months. It was time to be honest with Adam and herself.

  “My dad was Michael Roberts and he died of an alcohol-induced broken heart after your father took from him the only thing he ever really loved. I only got through it because I had to raise Mia and I was fueled by hate and revenge and the single-minded goal to destroy the man who’d taken my father from me.”

  “Franklin Thornton.”

  “Yes. Franklin. The man who raised you.”

  “And why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Adam asked but she could already see that he knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it from her.

  “Because she planned to destroy me through you, son. Don’t you get it?” Franklin was enjoying this moment; his arms were crossed over his chest and the closest thing he had to a smile twisted his expression into something ugly. In that moment Tess saw her father’s face; he’d often worn the same look of hatred but he’d ultimately aimed more of it at himself than at Franklin Thornton. “It was never about you. She was using you.”

  She focused her attention back on Adam. He was the only one who mattered right now. She’d already wasted too much time on Franklin and her dad.

  “He’s right, Adam. I was using you.” Adam let go of her and she scrambled not to panic. This couldn’t be the end. It couldn’t. “I was using you. Until I fell in love with you.”

  “Love? You just told me that you were using me to destroy Franklin and you expect me to believe that any of this was about love?”

  Tess jumped, the razor-sharp edge of Adam’s voice making the first deep cut. But she kept talking because this was the most important thing she was ever going to say in her life.

  “Yeah, it ended up being all about love. I fell in love with you and I’d given up on what had brought me to you. Given up on getting back at anyone. Given up the hate and the revenge and living in the past. I fell in love with you, Adam. You replaced all of that for me.” Tess wiped her eyes, not even realizing until that moment that she was crying. “And I was going to tell you. I was just starting to tell you when...”

  “When Franklin beat you to it.” Adam was stoic, hard and chiseled under the twinkle lights. “How many chances did you have to tell me the truth? All the time we worked side by side in my office? Any of the times you had access to every goddam thing about me? The times you slept in my bed? You had a million chances Tess and you let me learn this from him.”

  Adam’s voice cracked on the last word and his expression crumbled. The cold lump that had settled into her chest shattered into a million pieces, the sharp edges making her bleed on the inside. And just as quickly his face was steeled into his usual mask of control. All of the kindness she’d come to love was gone. And she’d seen this face on Adam before; it was the face of the six-year-old boy in his adoption folder.

  She’d never forgive herself for being the reason for that expression on his face. To be one more name on the list of people who had betrayed the trust he guarded so fiercely.

  “Adam, you have to believe me.” She was begging. She’d do anything to make this right.

  And she had the information to turn the tables on this entire situation at her disposal. She had the name of the mole and the person who was backing the traitor but she couldn’t reveal that in front of Franklin. It might be the only chance Adam had to protect Redhawk/Ling and she couldn’t take away his right to determine when and where he was going to use the information. She couldn’t reveal that in front of Franklin.

  That would be the ultimate betrayal.

  So she just stared at him, begging him with her eyes to not turn away from her now.

  But all the affection and connection they’d had was gone and all that was left was the cold, dark emptiness of the chasm she had created.

  “I don’t have to do anything for you right now.” Adam stared at her for a few seconds and then he turned to walk away.

  And then he was gone, becoming one of the shadows surrounding the redwoods, and she was left alone with Franklin. The last two standing; it made sense that they were here together. They’d been bound by toxic tethers for more than a decade.

  Franklin moved into her tear-blurred field of vision, triumph in his eyes.

  “The next time you want take somebody down, Ms. Roberts, strike first.”

  Seventeen

  “You’re pregnant. You need to take better care of yourself,” Mia said.

  Tess paused in the task of dismantling all of the material she’d been obsessively working on for as long as she could remember. Photographs, notes, printouts—everything was going in the trash.

  “I just got up early. I always get up early.” It was a lie. After arriving home from the gala, she’d taken off her beautiful dress and slid into the cocoon of her bed. She’d hoped for some comfort in the dark but sleep had been impossible and after hours of tossing and turning she’d given up the pipe dream of sliding into the oblivion of unconsciousness and come downstairs to her office. Tess glanced at Mia and then at the clock. “You’re not usually up this early. Why are you here?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. My big sister is knocked up by the son of the man she’s been hell-bent on destroying for the past ten years and she’s also fallen in love with the guy but he doesn’t love her back and now her heart is broken.”

  “I never said anything about being in love or broken hearts.”

  “I’m not an idiot. I know what’s been going on here even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself.” Mia snatched the papers from her hand, read them and tossed them into the shredder. “Are you impersonating Marie Kondo?”

  “Mia, you are not bringing me joy right now.”

  “Well, then what will bring you joy? Huh? What are you going to do?”

  A night of restless sleep was catching up with Tess and she slid into her chair, tossing the papers in her hand across the desk. Her office was a disaster—it matched the hellmouth her life had become.

  “
I thought that was obvious. I’m ending this vendetta. Absolutely nothing is going to happen. I’m busted. Franklin and Adam have me on their personal most wanted list.”

  “But you’re pregnant.”

  Tess placed a hand on her abdomen, still amazed. “I am.”

  “And you love him.”

  “I really do.” And God help her, she did. “Not that it matters now. I betrayed Adam. I lied to him and as far as he’s concerned, I’m in the same exact category as Franklin now. I really fucked it up.”

  Mia was shaking her head like Tess was the dumbest human on the planet. “Then unfuck it.” She leaned forward, chin resting on her hand as she scrutinized her sister and the mess surrounding her. “Do the job he hired you to do. Then work on the rest.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “Really? To me it looks like your shredding and wallowing.”

  “I’ve tried to call Adam. He sends me straight to voicemail and even Estelle is ignoring me. A couple of guys from Redhawk/Ling delivered the personal items I had in my office here to the house.” She was frustrated and her raised voice echoed off the walls of the room. “I’m trying to do my fucking job.”

  “No. You’re trying to get the guy back. That’s not the job. And the Tess I know would never let voicemail and a cold shoulder keep her from doing the job.”

  “Do the job...” Tess considered what Mia was saying. She had all of the information, the stuff Adam had paid her to find out about the person who was threatening Redhawk/Ling. And that person was still out there. She needed to put aside her broken heart and do the work she was hired to do. That meant getting her client the information he needed to save his company. She stood, tucking the relevant file in her bag. “I’m going to do my job.”