Tempting Read Online Free PDF

Katherine had loved him and had won her family over to her way of thinking. Mark had proposed and she had accepted. But six weeks after the engagement, she’d broken things off. She’d been unable to tell Mark the truth about herself. Rather than have him pity her, then leave her, she’d ended their engagement and he’d gone back to Seattle.
    â€œI came home to figure out what to do with my life,” he said. “While I was here, I met someone. I didn’t mean for anything to happen, but it did.”
    The fear turned sharp, cutting her from the inside. She felt both cold and hot. Her whole body ached and still she sat there unmoving, determined to show nothing.
    â€œYou had a relationship with this woman?” she asked calmly.
    â€œYes. She was married. Neither of us meant for it to happen. No one knew, because of her husband. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. One day it ended. I never thought much about it again, until today. Dani is her daughter. My daughter.”
    Katherine stood. Maybe if she moved, the pain wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe then she could breathe. But the white-hot pokers pricked her everywhere and the spacious study offered nowhere to hide.
    â€œObviously I didn’t know,” he said, as if unaware that anything was wrong. “Alex suggested a DNA test so we can all be sure. It’s a good idea. She seems like a great girl. She looks like Marsha mostly, but I see a little of me in her. With the campaign, we’ll have to be discreet, of course.”
    Mark kept talking, but Katherine couldn’t hear him. He had a child. A child of his own. A child he’d met.
    â€œI invited her to dinner,” Mark said. “I want you to meet her. We don’t have to tell the kids who she is right away. But eventually we will.”
    She turned to him. Her face felt frozen. She wasn’t sure she could speak. “She’s coming here?”
    â€œTonight.” He stood and crossed to her, then took her hands in his. “I know you’ll like her. Didn’t you say you wanted another daughter?”
    He couldn’t mean that. He couldn’t not know what he was doing to her. And yet he kept talking as if he thought everything was fine. As if she wasn’t devastated that some other woman had been able to give him something she, Katherine, never could.
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    A LEX ARRIVED EARLY for dinner at his parents’ house. He’d thought about calling his mother, but had then decided it would be better to speak with her in person. His father might think she would take the news of Dani Buchanan in stride; Alex wasn’t so sure.
    Before he could head up the stairs, Fiona stepped out of his mother’s study.
    â€œHello, Alex.”
    He remembered a Discovery Channel special on spiders. Fiona reminded him of a black widow, just biding her time until she could eat her mate.
    â€œI didn’t know you’d be here,” he said.
    â€œMeaning you wouldn’t have come home if you’d known?” Her green eyes widened with emotion. “Do you hate me so much?”
    â€œI don’t hate you at all.” Hate would mean having strong emotions about her. He didn’t. He could look at her and acknowledge her physical beauty, yet feel nothing. In a perfect world, she would have disappeared from his life after the divorce. Unfortunately, he had a feeling she was never going away.
    â€œThe ice queen cometh.”
    Alex turned and saw his brother Ian rolling toward them. Alex grinned and stepped toward him. He bent slightly so he and Ian could perform their complicated ritualistic greeting. Alex did most of the hand slapping and turning. It was easier for him. Ian’s CP limited his mobility. But what his younger brother lacked in physical prowess he more than made up for in brains and creativity.
    â€œShe’s always hanging around,” Ian told Alex. “I think she has a thing for me.”
    Fiona shuddered visibly.