Those sharp eyes of his didn’t miss much, she recalled. Something in his tense, strained manner sent a distant alarm going off in her head.
“Is it really that important?”
“More important than you know.”
“All right,” she said cautiously after a moment. She took a step, breaking their contact. His touch unsettled her. He waved to the left and tilted his head.
She followed him into the next row of cars. He hit the remote lock with his thumb and a dark sedan’s headlights blinked. Deidre sat when he opened the door for her, placing the floral arrangement on the floor next to her feet. She said nothing when he got in the car and turned on the ignition, but she was highly aware of him. The dim dash lights made it possible for her to make a covert study of him. Nick was the type of man who dominated a room once he entered it. Inside a car, his presence crowded rational thought completely out of her mind.
He wore a suit and an attractive black cashmere dress coat, making her wonder if he’d been prepared to enter Liam’s wedding reception to find her. Deidre had immediately understood upon being introduced to Nick that while he may possess a handsome face and the fit, lean body of an athlete and horseman, he wasn’t about looks.
He was about power.
The walking embodiment of an alpha-male tycoon, Nick conquered the business world just like cowboys had vanquished the intimidating, rugged landscapes of the American West.
She wouldn’t let him conquer her with the same heavy-handed tactics.
He gripped the steering wheel with gloved hands. She tensed, waiting for his attack.
“You’re pale,” he muttered. “Have you been sick?”
Deidre’s jaw dropped open. She looked at him in amazement, but he kept his face turned in profile. His gruff solicitation was the last thing she’d expected.
“You can tell I’m pale by examining me in a dark parking lot?” she asked, saying the first thing that came to mind to cover her embarrassment.
“I saw you at the reception, dancing with that man.”
“You actually came into the ballroom?”
“I just stood in the door, looking for you.” He ignored Deidre’s exasperated sigh. “Who was he?”
She did a double take. “Who was who?”
“The man you were dancing with.”
Deidre blinked. She’d forgotten Nick wasn’t at The Pines last autumn when her brother Marc had visited to offer her support.
“It was my brother Marc. Can you please get on with whatever is so important?”
“You can’t just run away from all this, Deidre. It’s naive of you, or stubborn, or both to think you can say you’re Lincoln DuBois’s daughter and not expect any ramifications to that claim. Why won’t you agree to the genetic testing, at the very least?”
Nervousness fluttered in her stomach. She’d been expecting him to broach this topic. Just the term genetic testing had taken on an electrical charge in the past few months. Unbeknownst to Nick, she’d already had the testing done. She’d refused to comply when Nick and DuBois Enterprises’s chief legal officer, John Kellerman, insisted upon it. Mostly she’d ignored their demands because they’d made them in such a condescending, suspicious manner. Her body wasn’t the property of DuBois Enterprises, and as far as she was concerned, its representatives had no right to make demands upon it. When Lincoln had requested the same thing, however, she’d immediately agreed.
But he’d died before they’d received the results.
What if she wasn’t Lincoln’s daughter? Deidre wondered for the thousandth time. The thought caused a familiar raw ache to expand in her belly. It frightened her a little, to consider how much hope she’d invested in being Lincoln’s natural child. If she wasn’t Lincoln’s, she’d be right back where she’d been for most of her entire adult life.
An outsider. Anchorless. Different. Fatherless.
“Deidre?” Nick prompted quietly. She blinked. Had he noticed her anxiety? She took a deep breath.
“I’ve already had the genetic testing done at a place called GenLabs in Carson City.”
“You did?” he asked intently.
She nodded.
“When?”