Royally Chosen Christmas (Royal Sons MC #7) - Elle Boon Page 0,18
get ahold of him, and well, I needed you to know I was aware he was with one of his women. I didn’t want to say anything at the time but seeing you ready to pummel him made me feel as though I was making things worse. He wasn’t off doing anything I wouldn’t be okay with. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She didn’t look away when she stopped speaking, nor did she hunch her shoulders like she was embarrassed.
“What about you and your needs? You speak about him having lovers, but what about you. Mom, you’re young and beautiful and only forty-three. You have a lot of life to live. Hell, I know half my team, who are too stupid to realize I’d already marked their foreheads with my scope, thinks you’re hot. The other half are smart enough to keep their thoughts to themselves, but I saw they agreed with the others the one time you showed up to greet me when I returned. What about you?” He hated the thought of her being alone or in a loveless marriage for the rest of her life.
“Are you asking if I have a lover, Scott? Because the answer is no, I have no male companion, and I don’t want one. Sixteen years may seem like a long time to many, but to me, it was only yesterday I was with your father planning our future. Now, come on, let’s go inside and eat. I wanted to make sure you knew everything. There are no secrets now.” She patted his arm then walked in with her confident stride.
No way was he going to break her heart and tell her the bastard she was married to, even in name only, was a damn child rapist who more than likely was also the father of the baby Angela had been carrying. He wondered what other woman the prick was sleeping with since he’d obviously been with someone on the day Angela had died.
“It’s about time you two came in. Charlene was getting ready to toss everything out and order me pizza.” Talena grinned, her braces made the word pizza sound a little lispy.
“Hey, I’m all for pizza. You like anchovies on yours?” Scott hated seafood of any kind, same as Talena and his mother. The dual ‘yucks’ came from both the females in the room. Normal, they all needed normal, even if it was make believe for a little while.
After dinner he agreed to stay the night, thinking he’d get some work of his own in before going to bed. At twenty-three, he hadn’t planned to take over the company anytime soon, maybe never. Shit, he didn’t want to be stuck in an office wearing a suit and tie. Although it was something his father and grandfather before him had seemed to love, being stuck in an office for eight to ten hours or more didn’t appeal to him. Throw him in the middle of a firefight or a rough terrain with a backpack and his wits, and he’d be golden. They may call him Hollywood, and God yes, he loved his comforts, but he’d rather be outside doing something physical. He could still appreciate the finer things, like his quarter of a million-dollar Ferrari and even the nice clothes when he was home, but to think about getting up at the asscrack-of-dawn every day, driving to and from the same place, sitting behind a desk, doing the same shit, day in and day out, he wasn’t that man and never would be.
“How could he have been best friends with my dad all through college and after, then marry my mom when my dad died, yet somehow have another life so well hidden nobody knew anything about it?” he asked the empty room, still puzzled over the fact his father who was a smart man had never known the duplicity of his friend.
He could remember his father telling stories about times he and Gary had done things, or maybe it had been Gary who’d been the storyteller. However, his dad had believed in him enough to make him VP of the family business. They’d both had the drive needed to run a company like Haven Corp, making Gary the natural choice to take over after Scott Senior had been killed. Now every memory made him wonder if Gary hadn’t been manipulating things, ensuring he was a staple feature in their home long before his father’s death. Coming over four to five