“Oh… oh God… No, no, no…”

“I’m sorry, Angel. It was the only way…”

She was right on time and dressed for success. My sweet Angelina. I could almost feel her last orgasm, still thrumming…

I slipped off the mask in front of her. I wanted her to see me do it. There would be no more secrets between us. No more hiding in the shadows. It was time for honesty.

“You knew it was me last night…”

“I knew it the first night, Angel. I knew even before then… Finding you was the hard part. Making sure I was the first man to approach you at the club was not.”

“And you let me think… I was there to… Why the hell didn’t you tell me it was you, Will?

You let me think I was fu… that I was with somebody I’d never see, ever again.” She pushed her hands into her hair and it cascaded between her fingers. “You’ve humiliated me. You knew it was me while you kept your own secrets. And now…,” she trailed off. I could see a hundred different thoughts all dawning at once… “You bring me here… with my family… and you think that I can just go to work for you, like none of it ever happened?” She shot me a hard look that went straight to my groin. Beautiful, fucking, spirited woman…

“Not like nothing happened,” I answered her. I left the doorway where I’d been waiting and headed toward her. The closer I got, the harder I got. She was so small and yet so powerful. With a look or a touch, she could change my whole world. The truth was, she already had.

“Like everything happened,” I finished. “I’ve been looking for you ever since you left, sweetheart. Since Jimmy fucking broke your heart and you felt like your only option was to leave us all behind.” I took her into my arms and breathed her in. “All these years I’ve needed to apologize. For your prom… for involving myself where I had no right, for confusing you when you were still so young…” I stroked her hair back and felt a shift in my chest. “I had no right to do what I did back then. Maybe no right to what we just shared at the club. But once I knew where you were and I’d arranged to hire you…

I found out that you and Mattie were going to the club,” I said, looking at her hard. “I have people on my payroll… I learn things… And I couldn’t let you go there and be taken by some fucked-up stranger.” I pulled her to me and felt that current run between us. “Can you forgive me that much, at least?” I tilted her chin up with my fingers. “Right or not, Jimmy or not, I couldn’t forget you, Angel. That first night… when you gave yourself to me completely…” I kissed her, letting my hands slip down her sides… around her back.

“You left before the wedding…,” she said softly.

“I couldn’t believe you were willing to marry that asshole… and I sure as fuck couldn’t watch you do it,” I answered. “He may be my mother’s son, but I don’t consider him my brother anymore. Not after what he did to you. And not after he left you alone with his baby inside you.” I looked down into troubled eyes. “He has no idea what he walked away from. And I won’t apologize for wanting you for myself.”

She let out a long breath and I felt her body relax against me. “Jimmy saved my life when he left me at the altar,” she said. She put her cheek against my chest and I felt my heart turn over. “He was my only mistake,” she said softly. “Not you… not us…

I grew up with stars in my eyes, looking at you, wanting only you… But you were so out of reach.” She looked up, her mouth open, her lips softly parted. “Jimmy was all my mom’s idea, not mine. I just let her control me for so many years…”

“So now your daughter’s growing up without her father,” I said. Her eyes moved away. “I know you had a little girl,” I said carefully. “And I know that you’re protective… private.” I leaned down. “I didn’t look any deeper than that,” I reassured her. “I only wanted to know if you two were okay, and if Jimmy had ever stepped up as a dad…”

She shook her head. “It’s way better he didn’t,” she said. She shifted in my arms and I stroked her back. “Violet’s mine. Me and Mattie… and Mattie’s sister, Donna, too. We’re her family. The only family she needs.” She stood taller and looked at me squarely. “I make sure she has everything she needs and it’s the reason I accepted this job…” She looked around the huge empty room. The entire house, at present, held little more than a table and a bed. “Tell me, honestly, the reason you offered it to me…”

I tightened my arms, enjoying the feeling of her breasts pushing into my chest. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had so much clothing between us. It was interesting… exciting…

“I want you,” I said plainly. “In all these years, even thinking I might not ever find you, I never stopped wanting you. And I never stopped needing to do what I could for you, and for your daughter. I still don’t know her name…”

“It’s Violet,” she said gently, and I could hear the love in her voice. “The day she was born, there was a huge bouquet of violets waiting in my room. Mattie had sent them… and the scent filled the air… They brought the baby into my room and put her into my arms. I counted her little fingers and her toes… I saw her face… and for the first time…

I didn’t feel quite so alone anymore.”