His Ex's Well-Kept Secret

by Joss Wood

  Jaeger.

  Again. Would a time ever come when she didn’t want him? Probably not. Her pheromones liked his... It was that simple.

  And that problematic.

  Piper’s heavy sigh filled the back of the cab. Was it even ethical to be thinking of diving back into bed with Jaeger when she was keeping such a huge secret from him? And she had to consider how her actions would affect Ty.

  Ty came first. He always had and he always would. If she slept with Jaeger and if they reignited, she would still have to protect Ty.

  To do that, she had to continue keeping his parentage a secret.

  To do that, she had to withhold information from Jaeger, and that felt like she was lying. Aaargh!

  And while she was torturing herself with difficult scenarios, what exactly did she want from Ballantyne? Just sex? Sex with friendship? Sex and a relationship? Exactly what type of explosion did she want to detonate?

  Realistically, Jaeger wasn’t the type of guy she should have been thinking about, the type of guy she needed in her life. He was a rolling stone, someone who openly and consistently said he wasn’t interested in settling down, or in relationships, or in being a husband or father. He did not want to be tied down.

  Just like her own father.

  Piper pushed the tips of her fingers into her temples to release the tension building behind her eyes. She had to stop thinking about Jaeger. He was someone who’d dropped back into her life last week and was going to drop out again when Ballantyne and Company bought her stones.

  Maybe her intense reaction to him was a sign she should start dating again. Maybe if she’d had a relationship with someone else, had dated someone other than herself since Milan, she wouldn’t be feeling so, jeez, horny. Crazy. Frustrated.

  And if she started dating again, maybe, one day, she might meet a guy who would love both her and Ty, who’d be an amazing husband, a superb lover, her best friend and a man who’d be prepared to be Ty’s dad, too.

  Yeah, and a purple unicorn wearing sparkly red shoes and a tiara just flew past the window of her taxi.

  Piper heard her phone ringing and pulled it out of her purse, frowning when she didn’t recognize the number.

  “Ms. Mills, it’s Simms.”

  The lawyer handling her father’s estate. Piper felt the pain behind her left eye increase and pushed her fingers into her temple, hoping to push the ache away.

  “I’m sorry to call you so late, but I thought it important you know that I can’t delay putting the Park Slope house up for auction. It will have to be sold as soon as possible, just like your father’s other properties.”

  It took Piper a moment for his words to make sense, and when they did, a cold hand squeezed her heart. No! She needed more time to raise the cash.

  “What’s changed?” Piper asked, grimacing at the wobble in her voice.

  “We’ve discovered your father owes more to creditors than we thought, and we’re auctioning off the properties as soon as possible.”

  God! “When?”

  “I don’t have a definite date but...soon,” Simms replied, sounding sympathetic. “I’m sorry. I really wanted to give you some time.”

  “Could I make an offer on the property before it goes to auction?” Piper asked.

  “We’ll entertain an offer, but it will have to be for the full market value. Or else you’d have to bid at the auction and take your chances.”

  Piper exhaled. “How much do they want?”

  “It’s in a good area, on a good street. It’s a very desirable property. Three point two million but I’m sure you could beat them down.”

  “And my deadline?”

  “Yesterday.”

  Piper couldn’t believe this was happening. With acid churning in her stomach, she told Simms she’d get back to him and disconnected.

  Taking a deep breath, she dialed Jaeger’s number. When he answered, she said, “I need to see you. Now.”

  * * *

  Jaeger opened his door to a white-faced Piper. Tension tightened her amazing eyes, and her wide mouth was a slash in her face. She looked on the verge of snapping.

  She needed a large glass of wine or some fantastic sex. He could provide both, at the same time if necessary. He was talented that way.

  Jaeger gestured her inside and took her coat, which he hung on a steel-and-wood coat stand by the door. She wore a tight black turtleneck tucked into a gray-and-black tartan skirt and long leather boots. Her penny-colored curls were pulled off her face into a tight knot, and she wore black-rimmed glasses. She looked like a hot professor. Jaeger mentally stripped her of the skirt and sweater, loosened her hair and left her in those glasses and boots. He instantly went from interested to aching.

  Like he always did when she stepped into the room. Or looked at him. Or breathed.

  Jaeger walked away from her and headed to the fridge, hoping the cavernous empty space would distract him from thoughts of leading Piper straight to his bedroom.

  “Would you like some wine?”

  “No, but thanks. What I do need is three million for the sapphires. Preferably by yesterday.”

  What? Jaeger straightened and turned, lust temporarily pushed aside. His brain clicked into gear and he frowned. “I thought I had another week before I had to make an offer.”

  “That was then. Today I need three million or I’m going to have to find another buyer,” Piper stated, hugging herself and staring at the floor.

  Most visitors to his apartment said something about the space or the kickass view. Piper, who instinctively appreciated beauty, didn’t comment. She was so taut she didn’t even notice her surroundings. And that told him exactly how upset she was.

  Jaeger slammed the fridge door shut, turned to another cupboard and pulled down a crystal tumbler. He found a bottle of Scotch and poured a healthy two fingers. She looked cold and upset, and whiskey would help for both.

  “Take a seat.” Jaeger led her to the streamlined sofa next to the window and gestured for her to sit down. Piper sat and crossed her legs. Jaeger tried not to notice how her skirt rode up, revealing four inches of a very sexy, silky thigh. He handed her the whiskey and sighed when she just held it between her palms.

  “It’ll help only if you drink it,” he murmured.

  Piper took an obligatory sip, took another and placed her elbow on her knee, her hand on her forehead. Jaeger waited for her explanation. When she eventually lifted her eyes to his, she looked shattered. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be difficult or to go back on my word, but I need to sell those sapphires. Quickly.”

  Yeah, okay. But why?

  She asked, “Are the stones, right now, worth three million?”

  Jaeger sat down next to her and lifted his thigh onto the blocky cushion. “Piper, we suspect the gems are from Kashmir, probably mined in the late 1800s. If this was a back room in Bombay, I’d offer you three million right now and trust my gut. Here in New York, I don’t need to take the risk. Tomorrow a gemologist will test the stones, and in a few days we will have a detailed report, including color, clarity and carats. After I receive the report, I will have a better idea of what to offer. They might be worth three, four times what you’re asking. I like making a good deal, but I don’t want you to be cheated out of the true value because you are in a hurry.”

  Piper stared at the toes of her leather boots. “But I need the money...now.”

  “Surely a week or two won’t matter?”

  “You’d be surprised.” Piper placed her whiskey on the glass-and-wood coffee table and stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. “I need to sell them, Jaeger. If you as the Ballantyne representative won’t buy them from me, then maybe Moreau’s will.”

  Of course they would. If Piper walked into Moreau’s tomorrow and asked for three million, James
Moreau probably wouldn’t hesitate. And Ballantyne would lose the find of the century.

  He supposed he could offer Piper three million for the stones right now and be done with it. Three million and Piper could walk out the door, and he’d never have to see her again...

  He wasn’t ready to do that, not yet.

  Since his accident he’d been playing it safe, trying to take fewer risks, measuring the reward before charging into a situation. He’d been lucky to escape that accident with his memory mostly intact. He now thought before he acted, sometimes too much.

  But Piper tempted him to step out of the safe zone and live a little. She made him feel like the man he’d been when he was younger—fearless and invincible. Interacting with Piper was akin to surfing a sixty-foot wave, incredibly exciting and ridiculously dangerous.

  And, he noted with wry amusement, he hadn’t even made love to her yet. He wasn’t letting her walk away until that had happened.

  He had many regrets, and he was damned if he would add never slept with Piper Mills to that list.

  He would make love to Piper. Of that he was dead certain.

  “Jaeger, I’m about to lose my house, the house I grew up in. It’s going up for auction unless I make a substantial offer,” Piper told him, her voice sounding infinitely weary. “That house is my home, Ty’s home. The area has great schools and great amenities, and I don’t want to live anywhere else! Besides, where will I find another place that can fit the four of us, that gives Ceri and Rainn their privacy, but where they are a minute away when I need them?” Piper’s voice rose. “That house is a part of me. It’s mine.”

  Jaeger frowned. “If it’s yours, then why is it going up for auction?”

  Piper stared out of the custom windows, still not seeing the view. “I’ve just found out it was owned by my father through a company, and it’s now part of his estate. It has to be sold to repay some of his debts.”

  Fair enough. Jaeger picked up her glass of whiskey, drained it and stared across to New Jersey, his mind tumbling. Essentially, he needed those sapphs; Piper needed the money. He wasn’t prepared for Ballantyne and Company to take the risk, but he could.

  Along with this property, Connor had also made him—and his siblings—a beneficiary on a multimillion-dollar insurance policy. Adding up the money he’d received from the policy, his personal savings and the money he’d inherited as his share of his parent’s estate, he had a heap of cash sitting in the bank, doing nothing.

  He could offer Piper a loan against the future sale of the sapphires provided she sold the sapphires to Ballantyne and Company. If she reneged on the agreement, which he doubted she would, he could afford to lose the three million. Hell, he could afford to lose a lot more.

  His offer would secure the sapphires, and it would get Piper out of a hole. It was one risk he felt reasonably comfortable taking. This way, he and Piper could keep looking for provenance, which would ensure a bigger profit for all of them.

  And it would keep Piper from walking out of his life...

  It was a no-brainer.

  Jaeger calmly made the offer and watched the emotions dance through Piper’s eyes. He saw relief and temptation and suspicion.

  “You’re offering to buy the stones? Yourself?”

  “I am offering you an advance against the sale of the sapphires,” Jaeger replied, trying not to use the word loan. He thought the word would make Piper twitchy.

  He was right. “It’s a loan, Jaeger.”

  “It’s a temporary advance, Piper.” Jaeger pushed his hand through his hair. “Once the gemology report comes back, Ballantyne will offer you a lot more for those stones, and you will repay me the money. It’s not rocket science.”

  Piper opened her mouth to argue, shut it again and repeated the action. He lifted his eyebrows and waited another thirty seconds before speaking again. “Okay, that’s settled. I’ll get the money to you, maybe by the end of day tomorrow, but definitely by Monday.”

  That sexy mouth opened again, and Jaeger thought she was the most gorgeous goldfish he’d ever seen. Deciding it was past time to change the subject, he leaned back against the couch and folded his arms. “You’re looking very businesslike, Miss Mills. How’s Ty feeling?”

  “He’s fine, back to normal. I haven’t seen him today and when I get home he’ll be asleep.”

  Piper fingered the hem of her skirt. “I was in Washington earlier and on my way home when I got a call from the lawyers telling me about the house.” She licked her top lip, and Jaeger nearly offered to do it for her. “Um, thank you. For the advance. I promise I’ll pay you back.”

  “I know you will,” Jaeger replied. “That’s a given.” If she kept looking at him like that, all soft and grateful, then he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking her in his arms and seeing exactly how she looked wearing just boots and glasses and crazy curls. “Tell me about the art you saw today.”

  Piper looked at him. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even know me.”

  Jaeger stood up and walked around the couch to the window, resting his forearm on the glass and his head on his arm. He felt the air behind him move, inhaled Piper’s perfume as she joined him. She placed her hand on the center of his back. He felt connected, for the first time in a long time, to something bigger and deeper than himself. It scared the crap out of him.

  He swallowed, thinking he could tell her he didn’t want the gems to go to Moreau’s, that securing the sapphires was all he cared about. The sapphs were important—of course they were—but he didn’t want her to lose her house, lose her connection to her mother. He suspected emotional connections were vitally important to Piper. It wasn’t necessary for her to be this stressed, this worried. This was a solution he could well afford. But his impulse to offer the money went deeper than business; he was trying to protect her. Seeing her so frazzled caused his intestines to knot.

  That sixty-foot wave was swelling to eighty feet. Why was he on this crazy ride with her? His gut wasn’t screaming that the risk was too great. What if this wasn’t just about getting her into bed? What if he wanted more? God, he was risking emotional annihilation if he couldn’t master this ride, but he still didn’t pull the offer, didn’t back away.

  He couldn’t.

  He forced the words out. “It’s just money, Piper.”

  It could only be about money; he couldn’t afford anything else—like his future or his heart—to be at stake.

  Piper rested her forehead on his biceps, and he looked down at her bright hair. He wanted her, and his raging desire had nothing to do with gemstones or money or houses in Brooklyn.

  He just flat-out wanted her under him, naked and panting. He had since she’d walked into his life a little less than a week ago.

  Jaeger dropped his arm, turned to face her and waited for her to meet his eyes. She would; he knew she would. She couldn’t resist temptation any more than he could. That he wasn’t alone in this madness made him feel, strangely, a little less like he was surfing that wave.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said, his voice gruff, “but I want you.”

  Piper lifted her hand to touch his chest, and he felt her warmth through the thin layer of his cotton T-shirt. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I want you back.”

  He knew that. He was old enough to recognize mutual attraction when it was standing between them, doing the tango. Sex was just sex, a good way to blow off steam. They weren’t kids, and he was sure Piper wouldn’t think this could be the start of something that went deeper than mutual pleasure. He didn’t want her getting the wrong idea. Hell, he didn’t want either of them getting swept up in the moment and thinking this was more than it could be.

  “Sex is all that’s on the table, Piper.” Jaeger jammed his hands in the pockets of his jeans so he didn’t reach for that big button that held
her wraparound skirt together.

  “I never thought anything else was on offer,” Piper replied, her eyes steady on his. “Apart from the fact that we’ve known each other for a week, I’m a single mother who has got more than enough to deal with without the complication of a relationship. I’d like to be with you, for an hour or two, so I can step out of my crazy life.

  “I want to do nothing but touch you and have you touch me, think of nothing more than how much pleasure you are going to give me. I need to escape and I think I could, with you. A lover is what I need tonight.” Piper looked at her watch and grimaced. “Well, for the next hour or so.”

  Jaeger felt the air leave his body, and he lifted his hands so he could frame her face. His fingers speared into her curls and she gripped his wrists, looking up at him with big eyes. He couldn’t wait to touch her, to kiss her, but first things first.

  He moved his hand to the back of her head and found the pins restraining her curls. He pulled them out one by one and tossed them to the floor, allowing her hair to fall over his hands and wrists. “That’s better. Now let’s get rid of the skirt and shirt.”

  Piper started to remove her glasses, but Jaeger captured her hand and pulled it back to her side. “Nope, the boots and glasses stay on...”

  * * *

  This was what she needed, Piper thought as Jaeger pulled her turtleneck over her head, being careful not to dislodge her glasses, and dropped the garment to the couch.

  Jaeger ran his finger over the edges of her pale green lacy bra, from one side to the other and back again. It felt like he was running a gentle firecracker over her skin. Every cell in her body woke up and did a hello-there-darling stretch.

  Yeah, Jaeger touching her was exactly what she needed, what she wanted. For eighteen months she’d thought of little more than Ty and his needs—whether he was thriving, growing, happy. She hadn’t had a date, or sex, in far too long, and she’d forgotten how amazing it felt to be the object of a man’s attention—a very sexy man’s attention.