“I’m better,” the mysterious vixen purred in my ear. I felt the soft touch of her hand sliding over the leg of my slacks and up my thigh until she caressed the bulge of my cock. “Trust me, I’m all you’ll be thinking about tonight.”
I should have wanted her. I should have done what I would have normally done and used that woman to make me forget, to devour her in bed to feed my own need for something to fill the holes in my life. But the more she came onto me the more I kept thinking about how disappointed Gwendolyn would be. She would hate me for betraying her, for being the man I told her that I would never be again. Despite what she said I knew that I couldn’t be that person again. I had to prove them all wrong.
“I’m sorry,” I said, gently pushing the woman’s hand away from me. “But I just can’t do that.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, shrugging her graceful shoulders as she slid off the bar stool and strutted out onto the dancefloor. I watched her go, feeling that she took something of my old self with her. The old me would have taken her into some VIP room and bent her over for my own pleasure. But that wasn’t me, not anymore.
I have to make this right, I thought, setting my drink down on the bar as I stood up. I can’t let her think that I ruined everything.
I slipped a fifty-pound note under my glass and headed out the door, pulling my cellphone out of my pocket as I searched for the number of the news station that had covered the scandal when it first made the air. I was going to make things right, even if it ruined my own life in the process. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t be the man that my father and stepmother thought that I was, and I wasn’t about to stand by and let Gwen think that I was that kind of man either.
“Hello,” I said as the phone stopped ringing. “My name is Tristan Wolfe—yes, the very same. I’d like to offer you an exclusive interview about the story you released concerning my stepsister and I. Yes, I can be available as early as tomorrow morning.”
Chapter 83
I couldn’t bring myself to go into the office, not with the threat of a crowd of jeering men snapping pictures with their phones crowding around the doors to the building. There had already been vandalism on the front door, a spray painted sign declaring me a slut and a harlot. It was too much for me to handle, too much for anyone to handle. I just wanted to hide somewhere and not come out until the world completely forgot my name or that I’d been stupid enough to fuck my own stepbrother.
Clients had left in droves after the news story broke, even some former clients coming out of the woodwork to claim that I’d slept with them as well! I couldn’t believe the nerve of some people, or the desperate need some have to be in the spotlight. If it were up to me I’d never grace the newscasts ever again. I just wanted to disappear.
Tina had honestly stepped up more than I had ever imagined possible, even giving a statement on my behalf in regard to the scandal, brief as it was and denying any and all claims that I had slept with any of my other clients. I could have kissed that woman if it wouldn’t have turned into another scandal all on its own. With the evidence of my affair with Tristan, it was best to not deny what was already proven, but that hardly meant I had to give them all the details. Thankfully I made sure that I had minimal contact with the press—or my mother for that matter.
For the last few days my mother had tried to call me, trying my number again and again to mock me or try to tell me just how disappointed she was to have a slut for a daughter. Her last message had been particularly venomous, especially the parts where she declared that she wouldn’t even bother to disown me, since my own inheritance was already set to be given to my soon-to-be baby brother. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of it. All I wanted was to be left alone by the rest of the world to try and salvage what was left of the life I had built.
All that I had left was my business, and I was determined to take whatever was left after this disaster and build it back, better than ever. I could only hope that I at least had some of my clients left.
“With us this morning we have Tristan Wolfe, son of Lord Wolfe who recently made headlines after it was discovered that he had been having a rather sordid affair with his own sister,” came a voice from my TV. I’d almost forgotten that I’d had the damned thing on, and it was only Tristan’s name that had brought my attention back to it.
For a moment I froze, time seeming to slow around me as I turned my head to gaze in shock at the television screen.
What is hell is he doing? I thought, turning my attention back toward the screen.
“Good morning,” Tristan said, dressed in a sharp looking blazer, with a conflicted look on his gorgeous face.
He ruined everything for you, I reminded myself, but the fluttering in my heart was a hard feeling to ignore. I wanted so badly to simply hate him with every fiber of my being.
“Mr. Wolfe,” the interviewer began, “tell us how all of this began.”
“Well,” he said, “it started when we were in our teens actually, though as it was this time, the flirtation was mostly one-sided.”
“Your stepsister did not return your advances?” the woman asked.
“Not at all,” he said. “She refused me several times up until the point when I left to begin my first tour of duty.”
“You might consider this unrequited love then?”
“Perhaps on my end,” Tristan said. “I am sad to say that I employed a great deal of manipulation on my part in order to get my stepsister into the position we were caught in. A lot of promises I had little intention of keeping”
“Is there something that you’d like to say to your sister if she’s watching this?” the woman asked.
“I’d like to tell her that I’m sorry for dragging her into this, and that I take responsibility for putting her in such a terrible situation. I took advantage of her drunkenness and did things that I should not take any pride in.”
“Is it true that you’ve formally renounced your claim to your family title?” the interviewer inquired.
“I have. I hope that my half-brother—when he’s born—is a better fit for it than I ever would have been. I can’t say that I’d have made a wonderful brother to him, but perhaps this is something that I could do for my family that wouldn’t be such a black mark.”
“Heavy words of repentance from the debonair Mr. Wolfe,” the newscaster said, looking into the camera, “next up—”
I turned the TV off mid-sentence, utterly dumbfounded by what I’d just heard coming from my stepbrother’s mouth. Why on earth would he lie like that? How could he sit there on national television and say that he was responsible for everything that had happened?
He was protecting me, I realized, tears welling up in my eyes as the truth of it all hit me like a ten-pound hammer. He still loves me.
Chapter 84
I had few options left open to me after the scandal, and the only skills I had were best suited for a position in the military—and so it was Her Majesty’s Royal Army that became my only option. I would be able to apply for a return to duty and before I knew it I’d be back in some far-flung land securing the interests of the country. I’d never see combat, even as the disowned son of a lord, but at least I’d be able to have a place to stay and a more than decent wage to keep me going.
At least this way I’d be out of everyone else’s hair and able to hopefully turn myself into the man I knew that I could be—the man that I knew would prove my father wrong. Maybe it wasn’t what I wanted, but at least being in the military would keep me on the straight and narrow, and hopefully out of too much trouble.
I wasn’t even sure where I’d be stationed, all I knew is that I’d be away from the things that would tempt me to be my old self. I could only hope my absence would make everything better for Gwen. Perhaps the interviews had helped and perhaps just maybe she’d find it in her heart to forgive me for what I’d done, but I imagined something like that was a long way away.
I stepped out of the cab as it dropped me off right
outside of the recruitment office, breathing in the crowded London air as I tried to push through the crowd of people that was moving to catch the next light on the crosswalk.
I wasn’t sure why, but every step felt like I was pushing against a wind, as though something wanted to keep me out, to warn me away. Maybe I was being foolish, giving in to a deep seated sense that somewhere in the universe there was some force pulling us toward a certain goal. Fate.
But if fate had any meaning then how could something so cruelly pull me from the one woman that I knew was the only one that I’d ever feel any true manner of love for. Fate was a joke, and a sick one at that if it kept me and Gwen apart.
You did that, I reminded myself. Fate had nothing to do with it.
But despite my assurance that only my foolish actions had lead me to where I was, I couldn’t help but hesitate as I reached out for the handle for the recruitment office door. I don’t know what I did it, honestly there was no logical reason to have done it at all, but for a second I stopped before I touched the handle and went inside.
“Tristan!”