“Why did you marry this…” he bit off the words with a snap of his teeth, “…person?”
A soft smile curved her lips as he covered the more explicit terms he would have used.
“Really, Jared, my marriage to Daniel has nothing to do with his relationship to his daughter. Though I was unaware of the conflicts between them at the time.” She shook her head as she wrapped her fingers around her cup, staring into the remains of her coffee pensively. “It pains him, the distance between him and Kimberly, but he does what he feels is right. And the terms of the Trust were not his doing. It was done five generations ago by a strict, straight-laced mother who entirely disapproved of what she called the ‘unnatural’ desires of the females of her family. She was determined that her ancestors would comport themselves with all respectability, and she made it stick.”
Jared breathed in roughly as he began to suspect the obstacles that now stood in the way of possessing the woman his heart seemed attached to.
“If it pained him, he would do something to right the situation, such as allowing her to marry someone she cares for rather than someone he chooses.” He restrained the fury burning in his gut. “Are you aware he considers me unacceptable as a husband to his daughter?”
Why he had bothered to approach the Senator that morning he still wasn’t certain. He hadn’t formally stated an intention to marry Kimberly, but he had been curious as to the qualifications the Senator approved.
Carolyn’s lips thinned with carefully controlled anger. The news didn’t sit well with her any more than it had with him.
“I understand why he feels that way,” she surprised him with her statement. “Wait, Jared.” She shook her head when he opened his mouth to argue. “As you said, this is Washington, there are few secrets that aren’t told in glistening detail. The rumors of The Club, the Trojans, and their lifestyle have been prevalent in the past year or so. Your name was linked to it no sooner had you joined. Daniel considers The Club and its members, the epitome of what he’s determined to save his daughter from.”
Jared rubbed his hand over his face wearily. Some people couldn’t keep their mouths shut if their lives depended on it. In this case, a bitter divorce and a less than sober ex-wife had broken the secret of the exclusive men’s club to a society that soaked up the rumors.
“His daughter’s sexuality isn’t his business,” he growled.
“No more than yours is my business,” she pointed out. “Yet, I’ve fielded questions concerning your membership there for several months.”
There was no censure in her voice, only the acceptance he had always known from her.
“I’m sorry.” He could only shake his head wearily. “I won’t apologize, I knew the risks.”
Carolyn sighed deeply. “Tell me, are the rumors concerning Kimberly’s membership there exaggerated, or true?”
She picked up her cup as though the question wasn’t dropped like a bomb.
Damn! The leak was worse than he had been warned it was. They were going to have to find the person or persons responsible for it.
Jared watched her carefully. Anything between them, he had no doubt, would stay between them, but this was Kimberly’s secret to bear, not his.
“You’re so like your father,” she chuckled then. “I will assume she is, and I will assume that your temper this week is due from learning of it yourself.” She leaned forward somberly then, her blue eyes dark and intent. “Jared, that estate means everything to Kimberly. Everything. Her mother’s last words were a plea for her to stop the cycle that the women of her family have endured for over five generations. If she loses her virginity, her father gains control of the estate, the house, everything that has been passed down, mother to daughter, for so very long now. In each case, the mother was forced to wed a man chosen by her father, one deemed capable of restraining her passions and her sexuality. The cycle is destroying her and, in many ways, Daniel as well.”
“He can break it,” Jared pointed out, aware that the anger pulsing inside him colored his voice as well. “He’s destroying her.”
“He believes he’s saving her.”
“For God’s sake.” He came out of his chair in a surge of energy born of the fury pulsing inside him. “When did we return to the Middle Ages, Mother? She’s a woman, not a child.”
“Jared, you can’t fight this,” she said softly, regretfully. “I’ve discussed this with Daniel until I’m blue in the face. He won’t relent. It’s the only conflict we’ve had in our marriage in a year now. He believes he’s right. He believes Kimberly should marry a man of restrained passions, one capable of controlling what he considers her ‘wild inclinations’.”
“He’s a self-righteous prig,” he snapped.
“Why do you care?” she asked him, frowning now as he paced the room. “I understand your desire for her, Jared, but there have been other women you’ve desired and couldn’t have as well. What makes her different?”
“She makes me crazy,” he growled, pushing his hands into the pockets of his slacks as he hunched his shoulders against the tension invading them. “She makes me want to throw her over my shoulder like a damned caveman, and at the same time I want to wrap her in cotton and protect her from anything and everyone who could hurt her. I want her happy.”
His voice, his body, vibrated with that need, with the complete certainty that he could make her happy.
“And you think marrying her will do that?” she questioned him with a shadow of mockery. “Jared, Daniel will never allow Kimberly to marry a man as sexually intense as you so obviously are. And she’ll lose everything she’s fought for to this point if she accepts you.”
“She’s mine.” He winced as the words tore from him. “Damn, didn’t that sound arrogant enough?” He laughed with an edge of self-mockery.
But he couldn’t escape the claim he had just made. As the words came from his lips, the knowledge wrapped around his heart. She was his, even if he couldn’t have her. He had seen the pain in her eyes, the sexuality that tormented her, the ache that shadowed her eyes. And so much more. He saw the need to be touched, to be held, to let go and share the passion, the heat that built within her.
“Do you love her, Jared?” his mother asked again, her voice firm now, demanding.