Her Sworn Enemy (Men of the Zodiac) (9 page)

He shifted in his seat under the scrutiny of both women looking at him, expecting him to fess up to something he simply didn’t talk about. With anyone.

“A very long time ago. Probably before junior high.”

“What?” Bella said, then stared at him. “You’re kidding.”

“No. My father wasn’t exactly the family type, at least not with my mom and me. I think he saved that up for his other kids.”

“What about your mom? Surely she had family dinners with you,” Min said.

He shrugged. “When she wasn’t pining away for him, or with him, we ate together, but it was usually takeout or fast food. Cooking wasn’t her strong point.”

“Didn’t you spend any time with your father?” Bella asked.

“He came over for dinner once or twice when I was a kid. Most of the time he didn’t show up until I was already in bed. I could hear him and my mother laughing together and doors closing, but not much else.” Tuck stopped himself. Why in the hell share this with her? Maybe it was the wine Min had served. It was damn good, and he’d had several glasses.

“But your dad obviously loved you. I mean, why would he provide for you and your mom if he didn’t care? He could have just walked out on both of you. That happens often enough. Take it from a girl who knows.”

Tuck set down his wineglass, aware that if he gripped the slender stem any tighter he might snap it in two. “Guilt, plain and simple, and probably a dash of pride. He didn’t want it spread around that his illegitimate child was an idiot—might have reflected badly on him—so he paid for me to go to school. He made sure I had tutors, then private school after third grade where most of the kids were shuttled there by their nannies or chauffeurs. Turns out a lot of them saw their parents less than I did, so not seeing my father was normal to them.”

“But you still lived at home and saw your mother, didn’t you? At least you had that family,” Min said.

“I did, until junior high. By then, dear old Dad thought having a mistress with an older child was a bit of an inconvenience, so he had me sent away to boarding school in Switzerland.”

“And your mom let him?” Min said, crumpling up the napkin in her hand.

“Oh, she not only let him, she applauded it, because I was going to get a first-rate education at some of the finest schools in the world. I got to see her on holidays, but that was about it.”

No one had come to his high school graduation, because it was too far away and too inconvenient. For many years his ambition had been to earn his father’s praise and approval. It had never come. By his freshman year at an Ivy League school, his father had passed away, leaving him and his mother on their own again, without the benefit of his financial support.

“But your father sent you to college,” Bella said.

“He did. Then he died. And once he died, his legitimate son, as the executor of his estate, decided he didn’t like a trust fund going to the mistress and kid who’d made his and his mother’s lives so miserable, so he had it legally cut off by putting a rider on it.”

“You mean like a certain age?” Min asked.

“No, more like a certain number. The value of the trust is ten million. He set it up so I can’t touch it until I match what my father left for me.”

“Match? Ten
million
dollars. That’s ridiculous!” Bella fumed.

He shrugged. “It is what it is.” With hard work and savvy investments, he’d passed that marker less than a year ago. He refused to touch the trust. It was like blood money, his mother’s life put into a monetary value. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough yet to buy out the McCormack Group valued at forty million.

“How can you be so casual about it? God, Tuck, don’t you ever get worked up about anything?” she said sharply.

He grabbed hold of the wineglass, and took a drink, trying hard to swallow down the mix of emotions swirling in his system down deep so they wouldn’t well up and spill out.

“I learned a long time ago that getting worked up over things I couldn’t change wouldn’t get me anywhere,” he said as he swirled the dark red wine around in his glass. “Focus and drive are way more helpful. And for focus, you need a calm head. For drive, you need clear thinking.” He looked at Bella and took a sip.

“But matching that enormous amount isn’t even possible.”

He gave her a crooked grin. “Anything is possible, Bella. It only depends on how badly you want it.”

She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. Sure, it was sympathy, but right now holding her hand made things better.

The thumping of the ancient doorknocker echoed off the plaster walls and marble floor in the front entryway. Bella turned to her aunt. “Did you invite someone else to dinner?”

“If I did, they’re about an hour too late,” she said and tossed her napkin on the table.

“I told Toneau we’d be here if the crew needed to find us.”

“Then maybe it’s someone from your work. Personally, I’m hoping it’s Publishers Clearing House, and they’ve got an oversize check. Sit. I’ll get it,” Min said. She headed out of the dining room to answer the front door.

The sound of a muffled male voice mingled with Min’s higher feminine tones, and the two became louder as two sets of footsteps approached the dining room. Immediately Bella dropped her hold on his hand and pulled both her hands into her lap, folding them tightly together.

What the hell?

B
ella would know that voice anywhere. Jackson Palmer, her boss’s son. Of all the craptastic timing. She decided fate was being a serious pain in the ass tonight.

Her ear caught the slightly irritated quality of Min’s voice, but she doubted that Jackson even noticed. He was kind of dense when it came to picking up signals. She’d already told him several times before that she wasn’t interested in dating him, but he wouldn’t take the hint. Until this point, it had been a minor annoyance, but him stopping by like this was taking it too far.

He and Tucker were probably as polar opposite as one could get on the potential dating pool scale. Where Jackson was naturally amiable and clueless, one always got the sense from Tucker that he was a step ahead, his wit sharp, and his comments even sharper. More than that, Tucker had the air of being a shark beneath the water, powerful, lethal, and not to be messed with, while Jackson was more like a goldfish, happy to swim in circles in the same small bowl until a meal came along. Which, come to think of it, was probably why he was here.

Aunt Min always was punctual about dinner. She was a free spirit in many ways, but there were a few family traditions she clung to, and one of those was Sunday dinner, promptly at five. Without even meaning to, Bella noticed she’d leaned away from Tucker at the sound of Jackson’s voice. He strolled into the dining room with Aunt Min, a bouquet of yellow roses in his hand, and all smiles until he saw there was another man in the room. The edges of his smile faltered.

“Hey, Bella, I heard you were back on land for a bit, and I thought I’d surprise you. Sorry, didn’t realize you’d have company.”

“Jackson, this is Tucker McCormack,” Aunt Min said, quickly stepping into the awkward opening in the conversation. “His crew is working with Bella on the salvage of the
Rapid
.”

Jackson gave a quick, curt nod to Tucker. “Oh right, the salvage operator my dad mentioned. Nice to meet you. I’m Bella’s boyfriend, Jackson Palmer.”

Bella’s stomach dropped as she watched that keen gaze she knew so well take in Jackson and measure him without the man even realizing it. Tuck extended a hand, apparently deciding he wasn’t a threat. “Nice to meet you.”

Tuck threw her a questioning look that she easily interpreted as
what the hell
?

She glowered at Jackson. “You are
not
my boyfriend. We aren’t even dating.”

“Aren’t these beautiful?” Min grabbed the flowers from Jackson. “I’ll put these in some water. I think there’s some dinner left in the kitchen. Let me get you a plate,” Min said, smoothly leaving Bella alone in the room with two men who were sizing one another up like two dogs with one bone.

“Bella’s something, isn’t she? I bet she’s keeping your crew on their toes.”

“Yes, she certainly is. She’s full of surprises,” Tucker replied.

Rather than have them continue discuss her like an artifact from a dive, she pushed her way into their testosterone-fueled exchange.

“Would you two excuse me for a moment?” Belatedly her manners kicked into gear. “Jackson, can I get you something to drink?”

He glanced at Tucker. “A glass of wine would be nice.”

“Coming right up.”

“You wouldn’t mind getting me another glass, too, would you?” Tucker drawled and held out his glass to her.

“Sure.” Bella poured some wine in his glass and then a glass for Jackson, but found when it came to her own glass there was only a sip or two left. Damn, just when she could have used it. She held up the bottle. “Be right back. Need to get another bottle,” she said as she headed for the kitchen.

She pushed on the swinging door so hard it almost slapped her in the butt on the rebound. Min was humming to herself, a perfect plate of dinner in one hand and a cake stand, with a frosted lemon cake balanced on top in the other. The roses from Jackson were artfully arranged in a cut glass vase.

“Here, let me get the cake,” Bella said.

Min’s lips twitched. “Getting a little warm in there for you?”

Bella bit her lip. “You should see the two of them in there, sizing one another up. As if I’d even consider dating either of them.”

Min shrugged. “It’s what men do when they are in competition for the same woman.”

“They are not in competition over me.”

“You sure about that,
cher
?” Min set the plate and cake stand down and rested her lower back against the countertop. “Because from where I’ve been sitting, Tucker has been sending a whole lot of signals your way that he’s sweet on you.”

Bella sighed. “He may be sweet on me, but I’m looking to settle down and he’s not. End of story.”

“Is it? The way I see things, you two are closer in a month than you’ve been with any other man I’ve seen you bring around for dinner.”

Which, in all honesty, was only two, Bella thought. Not much to compare to. “So when were you going to tell me you did his ink?” she said, trying to change the subject.

Min took a knife from the drawer and started to slice the cake into thick, pale yellow wedges releasing a pleasant citrus scent into the air. “When you asked,” she said, smoothing her finger along the blade of the knife and licking off the cream frosting. “That boy has potential, you know. I can see it in his aura.”

Bella groaned. “That’s not even possible.” She pulled another bottle of wine from the cupboard and picked up two plates with cake. “So how’d you settle on his design?”

“He picked it. Says it represents his sign.”

“Fish?”

Min shook her head. “Pisces.”

“Explains why he’s so at home on the boat,” she muttered.

“What’s really troubling you,
cher
?”

Bella locked gazes with her aunt. “I saw his tattoo in a dream.”

“Not surprising since you’ve been around him. Maybe it’s your subconscious trying to work on the attraction you say isn’t there.”

“No. I saw the tattoo in my dream
before
I saw it on him.”

Min’s eyes widened a little. “Really, well that
is
interesting.”

“For once in your life could you be less cryptic? Throw me a bone here. What the hell does it mean? Is it a warning to stay away from him or an invitation?”

“Depends on the dream,
cher
.”

Bella repeated the dream oddity by oddity, trying hard not to leave any detail out.

“And the fish turned into the crystal ball?”

Bella nodded. “That’s what it looked like.”

“Hmmm.” Min took a swipe of the frosting on the lemon cake with her finger and licked it off. “Sounds like a sign to me. Maybe he’s the one who’s going to break the Dupré curse.”

“I don’t need a man for that. I can find the crystal ball and do that myself.”

Min smiled. “If you say so,
cher
, but I’ve found having a man for certain things makes it infinitely more interesting.”

Bella huffed and looked at the roses. “What on earth is Jackson thinking? I’ve already told him I’m not interested.”

Min laughed. “Jackson is used to getting his way. I’m afraid his mama and papa spoiled him. No is simply an invitation to try harder.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

Min’s eyes sparkled. “Well, now if it were me,
cher
, I’d let him see you’re already taken. That might be the only way to get through to him.”

“And I’m supposed to do that how?”

“Let him believe you and Tucker are an item.”

Bella thought on that for a moment. “Huh. That might work.”

Min picked up the other two plates of cake and gestured to the dining room. “Shall we serve dessert? I’m sure those boys are wondering where we’ve run off to.”

Bella sighed. “Might as well. Can’t let your lemon cake go to waste. That would be criminal.”

The two women entered the dining room and passed out the cake. Bella uncorked the wine, refilled the glasses, and sat down again next to Tucker. Beneath the table she rubbed her leg against his. She felt the muscles of his leg harden for a moment. His gaze caught hers assessing her, trying to read her intent.

“How close are you to bringing up the treasure?” Jackson asked between mouthfuls of cake.

“We’re still in the early stages,” Tucker answered, and as he talked his hand found hers and his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist, sending a cascade of shivers through her. “It could still be months before we have much to show for it. We’ll be out at sea for quite awhile yet.” He threw a warm glance in her direction that shot all the way through to her toes.

“Y-yes,” Bella stammered. “We’ve barely started.” Bella leaned over and lightly kissed Tuck’s neck just below his ear.