Free If I Trust You (If You Come Back To Me #4) by Beth Kery Page A

that went with it. Lincoln meant so much more to her than that.
    He caught her and spun her around in his arms so quickly all her breath rushed out of her lungs.
    “You share control of DuBois Enterprises with me until any information comes to light that refutes that claim, Deidre.” He shook her gently, a look of profound frustration tightening his features. “You can’t claim to be Lincoln’s daughter and then insist there are no consequences to that claim. Of course I’m going to communicate certain essentials about your stance on being named as one of Lincoln’s heirs to John Kellerman.”
    “I heard what you said,” she said, horrified to feel tears spill down her cheek. “The only thing you care about is my cooperation. Your being here in Harbor Town, the Christmas tree, the photos, last night... all of it is just your way of getting what you want out of me. You’re using me.”
    “ No. Didn’t I tell you what happened between us last night has got absolutely nothing to do with DuBois Enterprises?” he grated out. He clamped his eyelids shut briefly and then focused on her again. “Damn it, Deidre, don’t you have the smallest inkling of the repercussions of Lincoln giving you half of the controlling interest of his company?”
    Doubt swamped her as she sensed the depth of his frustration, but she gave him a halfhearted glance of defiance. “I’ve told you I don’t care about DuBois Enterprises or Lincoln’s money. I just...wanted...a father.”
    His grasp on her upper arms tightened. He brought her closer to him, until she felt anchored by his stare. His fierce, gray eyes seemed to be the only thing keeping her from succumbing to a wave of dizziness. “Sometimes we don’t get precisely what we want, Deidre.”
    “You think I don’t know that?” she cried.
    “Sometimes we get less than we bargained for,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. He leaned down over her until their stares and their mouths were aligned just inches apart. “Sometimes we get more . That’s what you got. More. Do you have any idea how many people DuBois Enterprises employs?”
    She blinked at his unexpected, harsh question.
    “No,” she whispered.
    “Over sixty thousand employees across the world. Every single one of those people has family members who depend on them. DuBois itself is the customer for hundreds of other companies that also employ thousands of people. So while it’s real simple for you to brush off DuBois Enterprises as irrelevant, it’s not so easy for me and the hundreds of thousands of people that depend on it every single day of their lives to do the same.”
    His voice rang in her ears. She just stared at his rigid face, speechless.
    “I’m sorry if you thought I broke a confidence by telling John Kellerman you’d already had the genetic testing. I’m sorry that it wasn’t clear to you that I was previously Linc’s sole heir,” he said hoarsely. He leaned down until his forehead touched hers. Deidre’s breath burned in her lungs at the contact of his skin against hers. “I’m not trying to take advantage of you. It’s just that the circumstances here are a lot bigger than you or me.”
    A silence stretched. She couldn’t seem to inhale a full breath.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, the perception of her selfishness breaking through her emotional chaos like a hot knife. It only added to her distress. “I...I hadn’t been thinking of it in that way. To me, this whole situation with Lincoln is—”
    “Intensely personal,” he muttered, his breath brushing against her cheek. He’d sounded so grim, it shocked her when he pressed his lips against the corner of her mouth. She shuddered with emotion and a wave of physical weakness. “I understand that, too. Better than I had in the beginning. Every time you told me you could care less about DuBois Enterprises, that you only wanted to know your biological father before he left this world, you meant it literally. I get that now. But