Free Make Me Tremble by Beth Kery Page B

is your home. You own it, don’t you? You bought it?”
    “Yes, but only because Alan Durand offered the house to me as part of the special contract he created to make it possible for me to purchase Durand shares when he made me CEO. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it at that time in my life if he hadn’t offered me certain concessions.” He exhaled as the memory of their negotiations for his taking over Durand entered his brain. Alan had been so stubborn. So insistent. So
generous
in contriving a way to set terms which would allow Dylan to smoothly and completely take the helm of Durand Enterprises. “In the olden days, a lord’s title was tied to the land. That’s what Alan explained to me once,” he recalled with fond, wry amusement. “Alan loved his European history. He insisted that I’d be taken more seriously as the head of Durand Enterprises if I was master of the company’s symbolic domain.”
    “The castle,” Alice said, a small smile flickering across her lips. She sobered. “And you
are
the master, Dylan.”
    “No. Not entirely.”
    He cupped her jaw, trying to ease her sudden troubled expression . . . her abrupt fragility. She looked up at him through her spiky bangs, her glance reminding him again of that of a cautious, wild thing.
    “It’s just so impossible to believe, Dylan,” she said in a rush, and he knew instinctively she meant his revelation that she was the true daughter of Alan and Lynn Durand. “I mean, it’s not that I think you’re lying. Why
would
you? It’s just . . .” Her expression grew a little desperate as she seemingly searched for words to explain. “You can’t just start thinking of the world as round in a second when you’ve thought it was flat for your whole life.” She gave a sharp bark of laughter, as if she’d just absorbed the meaning of her words only upon hearing them. “It’s not a bad analogy, really,” she mumbled to herself. “I sort of feel like I might fall straight off the earth into nothingness every time I think about what you told me.” She looked up at him entreatingly. “Please understand.”
    “I
do
,” he assured quietly, his fingers delving into her thick, short hair. He cupped her head. It was hard to be the rational executive when it came to Alice. It was hard to be clearheaded in this situation, period. But he had to try. So much was at stake.
    “What do you think would help you most to make it real, Alice?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. Just time, I guess.”
    He nodded, lowering his head until her upturned face was just inches from his. “Do you think it might help to see tangible proof?”
    She blinked. “Like what? More photos?”
    He pulled her tighter against him. Her T-shirt felt cool and slightly damp against the naked skin of his torso. Despite the chill of the fabric, it was the sensation of her full breasts pressing against his ribs that made his skin roughen. Her erect nipples were a fierce distraction. He forced his mind to focus.
    “Not just photos. You’ve said yourself you don’t experience any connection to photos of Adelaide Durand.”
    “What, then?” she asked in a hushed tone.
    “Alan and Lynn Durand’s physician still practices at Morgantown Memorial. He still possesses some of their genetic material. They will be able to tell you without a doubt who your parents were.”
    She stared up at him blankly. “You want me to go for genetic testing?”
    “Only if you’re up for it. It doesn’t have to be now,” he said, caressing her neck. He’d learned from experience in the past week that his touch helped to ground her. Soothe her. Distract her from her phantoms. He wasn’t above using that fact proactively to help her through this process.
    He wasn’t above using
anything
, in that cause.
    “You mean . . . it doesn’t have to be
now
, but it does have to be
sometime
.”
    He strained to keep his expression impassive, very much aware that he was once again