Finn didn’t remember ever being a child.
All he remembered was the pain of his father’s arrest. The shame. The move. The bitterness. The need for justice and revenge.
He studied the crowd of people hovering nearby. Mothers and fathers who’d left work for the day to venture outside in the light. Babysitters and nannies of Boston’s elite who talked among themselves. Teenagers who strolled hand in hand, grateful for the summer break and unconcerned about who saw them making out in public or sneaking a smoke.
Jesse kicked off his shoes and jumped in to play chase in the water with the other kids as if he’d been penned up for days. He was a precocious kid who Finn might have liked had he not belonged to the enemy.
The nanny was distracted. Rebecca was nowhere to be found. Off to meet Ethan, the man who’d let her down.
Rebecca was such a babe. He wanted her, too, wished he could kidnap them both. It would be double torture for Ethan to know that his former wife had been in Finn’s bed.
But kidnapping her didn’t fit into the plan right now. And he had to stick to the plan with no variations. Variations might mean mistakes, and Finn couldn’t fail. He’d waited too long for this moment.
Hell, six months ago, he’d moved to L.A. to ingratiate himself into Rebecca’s life. First, he’d set in waiting for his father to implement his plan. But he’d finally grown impatient and had orchestrated his own meeting. He’d come on to Rebecca, and she’d responded with interest, although she’d initially turned down his request.
But in time he would have seduced her.
Pity now that he wouldn’t get to bed her. He had to take care of the kid.
Tugging his own ball cap down over his head to hide his face, he slipped through the crowd. Jesse would never see him coming, and neither would the nanny or anyone else. There were too many people in the park, too many distractions.
All he had to do was make his move, and Jesse was his.
Chapter Two
Ethan had taken out terrorists worldwide, maneuvered his way in and out of life-and-death situations that would make some people’s hair curl and had nearly died of gunshot wounds twice.
But Rebecca still had a way of robbing the air from his lungs. Just the sight of her made him feel as if he’d stepped onto a landmine. His heart was racing, his palms were sweaty and the blood rushed to his head.
In spite of the heat and the sleepless night she’d obviously spent, she looked gorgeous today, light and airy in her pale clothing with her sun-kissed skin glowing from the L.A. weather, and her silky hair lifted off her neck. Normally he preferred her hair down, flowing around her shoulders, so the up-do should have put him off. Instead he appreciated the tantalizing view of the sensitive spot behind her ear that he liked to kiss. The spot that drove her wild and turned her into putty in his hands.
His lips puckered at the mere thought, and he almost forgot why they were there and dropped a juicy one on her neck. But the sound of papers crinkling as she spread them on the table jarred him back to reality.
His feet felt like lead weights as he forced himself to cross the room. He had survived countless dangerous missions—he could certainly sign divorce papers. After all, his marriage to Rebecca hadn’t been a real marriage in over two years. He was an adult. Life had to go on.
“You seem in a hurry to get this over with,” he said in a gruff voice.
Her startled gaze swung back to him. “In a hurry? Ethan, I moved to L.A. two years ago.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “So why today?”
Eyes narrowed, she chewed on her bottom lip and glanced at the window, avoiding eye contact.
His lungs tightened. “You’re involved with someone else?”
Tension rattled between them in the thick air. “Ethan…”
He winced. “So you have met another man?”
She slowly turned back to face him. Her hazel eyes glimmered with emotions. An apology? Regrets? Indecision? “Yes.”
A frown thinned his lips as he reached out and twisted a loose strand of her hair between his fingers. “Who is he, Bec?”
“Ethan, it’s not important—”
“Who is he?” He hadn’t meant to sound so demanding, but his voice came out cold. Harsh.
She closed her eyes for a brief second, then blinked and met his gaze again. This time conviction and determination darkened the hues. “A stockbroker.”
His jaw tightened. “That’s the reason you’re doing this, so you can be free and clear to be with him.”
The silence that stretched between them hammered home his fears.
“I’m sorry, Ethan. But yes. I’m…lonely.” She hesitated. “I’m sure you’ve been with other women.”
She’d be shocked to know that he hadn’t. He hadn’t had the desire. Because no one could ever replace Rebecca.
He couldn’t help himself. He slid his hand up her neck, caught the back of her head with his palm and leaned toward her. Her mouth was only inches away. He desperately wanted to kiss her. Feel her pulse throb beneath his touch. Make her forget wanting any man except him. “You don’t have to be lonely, Bec.”
Her eyes misted. “That’s not fair, Ethan. You know I care about you. I always will. You’re Jesse’s father—”
“Is that all I am to you now?”
She licked her lips, drawing his attention to the curve of her mouth. The one he wanted to taste again.
“No, of course not. We share a past. We…loved each other once.”
Once? The word triggered a spasm of pain in his chest. She didn’t love him anymore….
“But our marriage wasn’t working, Ethan, and you know it.” Her voice grew stronger. “I never meant to hurt you, and I know you didn’t want to hurt me. It… Our lives just got in the way.”
“And your life won’t get in the way with this stockbroker?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s time to try.”
He heard the honesty in her answer, and a pang of guilt assaulted him. He wanted her to be happy. “I never meant to neglect you,” he said softly.
“I know.” She pressed a hand to his cheek. “But we have to think of Jesse. Closure will be good for all of us.”
His throat thickened. How could a broken family be good for their son?
Despair thickened his throat. He’d vowed to be a better father than his old man, a better husband. But he’d failed at both. “I am thinking of Jesse. He’s my son, Rebecca. He deserves two parents.”
“You’ll always be his father, Ethan. You can see him whenever you want. That isn’t going to change.”
Did she really believe that another man in the picture wouldn’t alter things?
“Let’s face the truth,” she said. “You’re three thousand miles away. Jesse needs a stable male role model.”
He heard her unspoken words. One who was in his life on a daily basis. God, he was being selfish, wasn’t he? “This man…Jesse likes him?”
She nodded. “He seems to care about Jesse, too.”
Her words both soothed him and tore him up inside. Another man was on the verge of replacing him, both in her life and in his son’s, and he couldn’t stop it from happening.
“We can’t rehash the past,”