What Belongs to Her

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Leah’s glass halted at her lips and she slowly returned it to the table. “Uh-oh.”

Sasha closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping under the impending doom of any man stripping her off her tough, tomboy persona. “Exactly.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” She opened her eyes. “He’s barely said a word to me since yesterday morning and I’ve no idea what his intentions are. I was so close. So damn close to at least getting Kyle’s attention back on my offer for the fair. Now this happens.”

“What’s his son’s name? Have you told him about the offer?”

Sasha lifted her wine and took a sip. “John. And he knows about the offer. I told him. He also knows Mum hates the place and that I want it.” She stared at her friend. “He asked me why Funland means so much to me. He said it can’t be all about family if Mum wants nothing to do with it.”

Leah’s intense gaze softened with concern. “Your reasons are none of his damn business. All he should be asking about is the money.”

“I know that.”

Leah eased her hand across the table and grasped Sasha’s. She squeezed her fingers. “He doesn’t need to know what happened to you there. Your reasons for wanting Funland have nothing to do with anyone else. You’ve never felt you could even trust your mother to understand what happened and why you want to make it yours, let alone some bloke who’s clearly shaken you up.”

Sasha squeezed Leah’s fingers in return before removing her hand to brush the hair from her face. “Do you think I’m mad?”

“Mad?”

“For wanting Funland. For wanting to make it good again. I know it’s probably completely irrational but, for me, it’s the only way to erase him for good.”

“Hey...” Leah leaned across the table, her gaze intense and full of conviction. “That, my girl, is all that matters. If you owning Funland is the only way for you to deal with what happened to you, so be it. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong. The animal who hurt you was one individual. One bastard who got away with hurting kids and then disappeared off the face of the earth. I believe you can make Funland an amazing place again. Don’t give up, okay?”

Sasha smiled as relief she wasn’t insane shuddered through her. “I’m so glad I’ve got you on my side, you know.”

Leah grinned. “And I’m glad I’ve got you on mine. Between us, we’ve got enough baggage to fill an airport lost-property department, but who cares as long as we’ve got each other’s backs, right?”

“Cheers to that.” Sasha clinked her glass to Leah’s and they each took a sip. She lowered her glass to the table and sighed. “It’s weird. He almost frightens me.”

She frowned. “Who? This John guy?”

Sasha nodded.

“You don’t think he’s dangerous, do you?” Leah’s gaze darkened. “I don’t want you working there if for one minute you think—”

“No. Not in the way you mean. I’ve never...” She swallowed. “I’ve never felt such an instant pull to someone in my life. You know what I’m like with men, what I’ve made myself like with them. He’s...different.” She smiled softly. “I kind of like him.”

Leah raised her eyebrows and leaned back. “Wow.”

“I know. No idea why I should.” Sasha shook her head. “He should be on my hit list, for crying out loud, but there’s something about him. I don’t think he likes Kyle any more than I do. I think he’s hurting, Leah. Really hurting...like me.”

“You mean...”

“I’m not saying he’s been sexually abused. I’m saying he knows hurt, real hurt. He’s got that...thing. That anger, that open wound, and it comes off him in waves.”

For a long moment, Leah said nothing, and Sasha tried not to squirm under her friend’s scrutiny. Eventually, Leah smiled. “I think this guy is here for a reason, but be careful. Just because he stirs something inside you, doesn’t mean he’s not his father.”

Sasha released her held breath as unease quivered up her spine. “I know.” She drained her glass. “Drink up. Tonight we’ll have some fun and come Monday morning, I’ll feel better. I’ll be back to normal and ready to find out for sure what John Jordon’s plans are.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

MONDAY MORNING WAS an early start for John and he couldn’t deny there was something about waking up in Templeton Cove rather than in the inner city that instantly cleared the senses. He breathed in the sea air as he walked through the empty fair and into the office. It was barely eight and everything was eerily quiet.

The quietness, the faraway sound of seagulls and the roll of the ocean should have felt alien to him. It was far too soon for him to be feeling the appeal of life in this small seaside town, yet still it inched over his shoulders.

Had his father felt the same thing when he first came to Templeton years before?

God, he didn’t want to even have that in common with the man. He wanted to continue to hate him as much as he always had. Time and again, he kicked himself for not ripping up Kyle’s letter asking him to come here. Yet, here he was. Still in Templeton.

More than once, John had left Kyle’s Templeton Cove mansion over the weekend, suitcase in hand, and headed for his car. He’d gotten as far as sitting in the driver’s seat before getting out and going back inside.

He unlocked the office door and entered, tossing his jacket onto the back of his chair and sitting down. He slid the file box he carried onto the desk before lifting his feet onto the desk to rest next to the box, crossing his legs at the ankles. John leaned back and closed his eyes.

Somehow, he had to find the tenacity to stay and see his intentions through. He had to know who his father was now, and who he’d been when he shot and killed the man who murdered his wife—John’s mother—nineteen years before. Once he found whatever the hell it was he was searching for to release the bitter resentment eating him from the inside out, he’d leave Templeton and never again have to think about the man who had abandoned him.

He opened his eyes and looked toward Sasha’s desk at the opposite side of the room. His stomach instantly knotted. If he frittered away or gave away Kyle’s earnings, would that extinguish the fire in his belly? Make John happier than he was now? Or did the annihilation lie within someone else...or maybe within himself? He’d be a liar if he said his draw to stay longer in the Cove hadn’t been perpetuated by the exotic-looking and passionate Sasha Todd.

Time and again, he’d pondered how it would be to make love to her.

Yet, it wasn’t just his attraction to her that drove his desire. It was how she made him look at himself through her eyes. It was unnerving. He thought he could do this. Thought his anger would keep his drive to ruin Kyle alive and strong throughout his mission...but she’d barely left his mind all weekend and with that, she made him think about how ugly a person this mission made him. The openness of her dark and beautiful gaze was more telling than that of any woman he’d ever met. Her thinly disguised emotions ripped at his heart and he hated it. One minute angry, the next sad, he felt as though he knew her and it entirely confused him.