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Alison sat on the chair across from Harker. She’d made a huge mistake. She’d thought he’d like the cookies but now they were fighting again and this time it was her fault. “I think we should stop the contest. We’re both too competitive.”
“I agree.” He seemed to almost melt into the couch.
“Good and if I ask any questions that you really don’t want to answer just tell me.”
“What? You said we were done with our game.”
“We are, but I did win.” She hadn’t even considered not asking him about his past. “And I need to know more about you for our child.” But that was only part of the reason. She wanted to know everything about him for herself too.
“Our child doesn’t need to know anything about my past,” he almost growled.
“You don’t think he or she might want to know why Dad gets mad when he smells baked goods?”
“No, I don’t. It’ll be one of my endearing quirks.”
She bit her lip to stop from laughing. “Yes, but I still think little junior might be curious.”
“Junior will get over it but if you’re collecting on your win then we’re not stopping our game. I will win next week.”
“You want to fight and not talk to each other for another week? Because I don’t.”
His frown deepened and he took a sip of his drink. “No, but if I agree to stop playing, we’re going to La Petite Mort Club next Saturday.”
“Okay.” Her blood heated at the thought of what he might ask her to do.
His mouth opened and shut as if he’d been prepared to argue. “Good. And you agree to try whatever I want. We don’t have to continue, but you agree to try it, right?” His dark eyes roamed over her.
“Yes.” Her body, already at a slow simmer, started to bubble.
“Then fire away with your questions, but why don’t you come over here” He patted the couch. “I may need a hug or something.”
“Oh, that’s so not a good idea.” She laughed.
“I think it’s an excellent idea. I’ll need you to comfort me.”
“I think I should ask the questions from here.” She wanted to snuggle against his side and feel his large chest move as he breathed but if she got that close to him, they wouldn’t be talking. She tucked her feet under her, making her less likely to move over by him.
“I think you’d be more comfortable right here.” He patted the couch again.
“I don’t think comfortable is the right word for how I’ll feel sitting next to you.”
“Oh, come on. I’ll behave, but I want you close when you make me relive all those horrible experiences from my childhood.”
“Don’t even try to make me feel bad about this. I won. You lost. If you’d won, you wouldn’t change what you had planned.”
“We’d both want to do what I picked. I don’t want to do this.”
“Too bad. It’ll be good for you. Tell me about your childhood.”
“Fine. I lived with my mom until I was eight when she OD’d. I never knew my dad. After that I spent the next ten years in different foster homes. I went to college—”
“Stop. You’re listing facts. I know all that. It’s in almost every article written about you. I want more than that.”
“That’s my childhood. My life. What else do you want me to say?”
“I want you to tell me about how this poor little boy became the man I see before me today. Confident. Successful. Driven.”
“I don’t know.” He took another drink. “I guess, my life changed when I met Merri. I was in junior high and already on my way to trouble. I was running drugs and barely even going to class.” His face softened. “Until she transferred into my school. She looked like an angel on the outside but damn she was mean and prickly on the inside.” He smiled softly. “I’d never met anyone like her and for me it was love at first smackdown.”
“First smackdown?” She tried not to be jealous. She was glad he’d found Merri but the look on his face made Alison’s gut churn with envy.
“Yeah. I thought I was so cool, but she was having none of it. She wanted nothing to do with me and that made me want her more.”
“What happened? I know you went to college together. Were the two of you dating?”
“No. Merri and I were just friends all through junior high and high school. I was in love with her, but she dated this guy, Pete, until we graduated. College was my chance to move out of the friend-zone, but she fell hard for my roommate Tobias.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. That must’ve broken your heart.” She felt bad for teenage Harker, but she was also happy because if he and Merri had dated, they’d probably be married now.
“Yeah but”—he tossed back his drink—“if it weren’t for her I’d probably be dead or in jail by now.”
“No, you’d probably be some mafia or drug kingpin.”
“Maybe.” He chuckled as he refilled his glass.
“How did she help you to change?”
He sipped his drink, his eyes lost in the past. “She wouldn’t have anything to do with me the way I was, so I changed.”
“Why?” Only women who looked like Merri had the ability to make men want to change, to become better. She’d seen it her entire life and she’d always been both fascinated and envious of their magic.
“Because even though she berated me and wouldn’t date me she’d share her lunch with me, and she stuck up for me with the teachers. She was the first person who ever had my back.”
“The teachers?”
“A lot of them had already written me off as not worth their time. The area was poor. I wasn’t the first lost cause they’d seen.”
“That’s horrible.”
“I don’t blame them. I seldom showed up for class and if I was there, I wasn’t doing anything but disturbing everyone else.” He finished his drink and put the glass down on the end table before standing. “That’s it. That’s my childhood. Let’s go to bed.”
“Oh, no. We’re not even close to done.”
“But that’s it. We went to college. We started the company. Merri and Tobias got married. We all stayed friends. We hired you and you know the rest.” He held out his hand. “Come. I want to shower, and I need someone to wash my back.”
The idea of that strong, muscular body under her hands, slippery and hot made her almost jump from the couch and drag him into the bathroom. The only thing stopping her was that she couldn’t let this opportunity slip away. He’d never let it happen again. “No. That’s not it.” She leaned forward and refilled his glass. “Sit.”
“What else do you want to know? I’ve told you everything.”
“I want to know about your family.”
“I have no family.”
“That’s a lie. I looked you up.”
“Really? When?” He sounded flattered. “Before or after we got married?”
“Before. I wanted to know what kind of man and company I was going to be working for.”
“Oh.” He sat. “What do you want to know? There isn’t much to tell.”
“You have an aunt and uncle and they both have kids. Do you ever see them? Talk to them?
“Nope.” His face tightened and he tossed back his drink and refilled it.
“Why not? Family can be a pain. I know. Years ago, my mom and aunt didn’t get along very well. Aunt Tiff is kind of wild and my mom is...well, not wild.”
“My family didn’t want me when I was eight. I certainly don’t need them now.”
“How do you know they didn’t want you? Sometimes, other things happen and—”
“I was in foster care for ten years, if they’d wanted me, they could’ve taken me.”
“Maybe they didn’t know. Was your mother estranged from her family?”
“Don’t try and make them better than they are,” he snapped. “You want to know why I hate my name?” His eyes met hers and they were filled with pain.
“Yes.” But she wasn’t sure she did. She’d seen him angry before but nothing like this. He was hurt and broken and filled with hate.
“My mother loved her brother. Adored him. She was always bragging about her brother in the military. She even named me after him.”
“I thought his name was Gerry?”
“Augustus Gerald Harker, just like me. Even if he didn’t want me, he should’ve taken me in for her but instead he used his military career as an excuse to leave me in foster care. He had a wife, but he claimed that they moved too much. It wasn’t good for a child. It was bullshit. I lived in eight different foster homes in ten years. But my aunt”—he stared at the liquor in his glass—“this one is even better than my uncle’s lie. She wouldn’t take me because she didn’t want me to corrupt her kids.” He looked up at her and his eyes were haunted and filled with pain. “I was eight years old. How in the hell could I corrupt anyone? I was just a kid.”