Free 3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys by 3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys (mf)

always followed by the coldness of loss.
    "Thanks, honey, but I finally reached a point where I realized it didn't matter what anyone else thought. I'm the man I want to be."
    "Are you?"
    She'd just said she thought he was amazing; what was she getting at? "What are you asking?"
    She swallowed, as though she was nervous, but one thing he'd come to know about his Phoebe was that she was no coward. "There was a time when you wanted to be a husband and father as well as a fabulously successful businessman."
    Remembered pain colored his voice with anger. "Some dreams die." Literally.
    Pain that had to equal his own reflected in the beautiful depths of her eyes briefly before she smiled in a way that reminded him of a mannequin in a store window. "Yes, they do."
    Damn it. He knew he shouldn't have had this week with her, but he'd been unable to deny an ache that had grown steadily worse the longer he knew her.
    Now she was hurting, and it was all his fault. He couldn't be what she needed, a wedding and happily-ever-after kind of man.
    He'd gone that route, and it had only led to more pain and disillusionment.
    "You want to know something so ridiculous, it's almost unbelievable?" he asked, needing to get that look off her face but for some reason unable to completely drop the subject.
    "Sure." She was making a valiant effort to look unaffected by his reminder they didn't have a future, and he wanted to curse until the air turned blue.
    "My father wanted me to get married and have children. To settle down."
    "What's so strange about that? Most parents want that for their children."

    "Even fathers who never bother marrying your mother? Give me a break." His dad had lived a life worthy of the front page of a supermarket tabloid. The idea of him wanting Rand to "settle down" was almost obscene.
    "I never understood why he stayed married to Carter's mom. They lived separate lives for as long as I can remember, and he never ended his relationship with your mom."
    Rand used to wonder the same thing. He'd even asked his father about it once, not that it had gotten him anywhere. His father had not believed he owed his eldest son any explanations, and his mother had cried when he asked her, so he'd given up.
    "Oh, they broke it off once. When Hoyt and Carter's mom got engaged. My mom was pregnant with me at the time, but a poor girl from a broken home wasn't Hoyt's idea of marriage material."
    "Your dad ended it even after your mom got pregnant?"
    The waiter brought their meals, and Rand waited to answer until the other man was gone. "Yes. He accused her of getting pregnant to try to trap him."
    "What happened?"
    "Mom named him as father on my birth certificate. New Hope is a small town.
    News got around, and Hoyt's wife found out about it. By this time she was pregnant, too. The only decent thing my dad ever did for me or my mom was not to deny his paternity. I don't know what happened between him and Carter's mother, but she moved into her own bedroom, and my father renewed his relationship with my mother."
    "Why didn't they just get a divorce?"
    "I can't speak for Carter's mother, but Hoyt liked the prestige and facade of respectability that marriage to the daughter of one of the founding families of New Hope gave him."
    Phoebe reached across the table, and soft, warm fingers curled around his wrist. "I'm sorry."
    He rubbed her fingers with his own and let the pleasure that gave him settle his insides. "That was only part of it. I read my grandfather's will after my father died, and Grandfather stipulated that all his assets would go directly to Carter if my father divorced his wife and married my mother."
    There had been no family acceptance from the old man toward Rand ever. The bastard son had had no place in the Sloane family, and his grandfather had made sure that would not change.
    Phoebe's eyes had filled with sympathetic tears, and Rand felt like a dog. He didn't want to make her unhappy.
    "What a horrible thing to do. That's just