His Perfect Match (9 page)

After they'd walked the several feet to the elevator in complete silence, Darius decided it would be up to him to break the dam. “His Mr. Burns impression is pretty good.”

As he'd expected, she turned to face him, and as he'd expected, her pretty brown eyes, when filled with anger, sparkled like copper fire. He'd almost forgotten how beautiful she was in a fit. And she was definitely—in a fit.

“Why did you promise Marc he could come to New Zealand?!”

“It was just one of those things, you know. I was putting him to bed one night and he asked about where I lived.”

“So you promised to
take him there?”

“What's the big deal?”

“What's the big deal?! You can't just up and promise to take my child halfway around the world without even talking to me about it first!”

“You would've said no.”

“Of course, I would've said no!” She braced her hands on her hips and leaned toward him, her eyes narrowing to slits. “I don't make him promises I can't keep. And you may not have noticed, Darius, but not everyone is doing as good as you are financially! I can't keep buying thousand-dollar airline tickets!”

She is so hot when she's angry.
Darius struggled to keep his eyes on her face, knowing instinctively if he let them roam over her sexy body in that moment she would probably take it the wrong way. No, she would take it the
right
way, and that was the problem.

“You're overreacting.”

“Am I?”

“Of course. You know I would gladly buy your tickets whenever you wanted to come. That's not the issue.”

“Then what
is
the issue, Darius?!”

“You're selfish.” He turned toward the elevator doors hoping to hide his increasing hard-on. Her bust was heaving with every accelerated heartbeat and it was actually requiring concentration to focus on the conversation and not just lift her against the wall and take her.

“What do you mean, I'm selfish?”

He glanced up at the elevator and realized it rested on the fifth floor and had not moved the entire time they'd been standing there. “There's something wrong with this elevator.”

“What do you mean I'm selfish?”

He turned and headed toward the stairwell at the end
of the hall. “Just that. You bring me here for this surgery—which you should've done last year.”

“How many times do I have to tell you I didn't know where you were!” She followed in his wake, still arguing loudly. The various staff personnel came out into the hall to see what all the commotion was, but no one interfered.

“Well, now I'm here!” He spun to face her and Liz was forced to stop suddenly to avoid colliding with him. “What did you think? I was just going to slink back off into the night when it's over?”

The reminder that that was
exactly
what she'd intended managed to cool his lust slightly. She had no intention of him ever knowing Marc was his. And she had no intention of him being a part of the boy's life—not even as an uncle.

They reached the stairwell entrance and Darius swung the door open to enter.

“Where are you going?!”

“Hell if I know!” He called back and started down the stairs, his anger building with every step. If she thought she could keep him out of his son's life, she had another thought coming.

Hands braced on hips she glared down at him. “Pre-op is upstairs, you idiot.”

He stopped. Took several deep breaths to calm himself. Then turned and slowly walked back up the flight of stairs until they were standing almost nose to nose.

“Do not push me, Liz. Don't—push—me.”

She chuckled and her eyes widened in amazement. “Is that a threat?”

“You will
not
keep him from me,” he hissed between his teeth. “I won't allow it.”

Something in her eyes registered recognition. She opened her mouth to speak and then quickly closed it. The pair stood so close their breath mingled in the cool air of the stairwell. Neither backing down, neither seemed willing to give an inch.

Finally Darius turned and headed up the stairs taking them two at a time, the pain in his back jaw signaling that he was gritting his teeth. He didn't hear Liz's footsteps behind him, but assumed she was still following.

Darius was determined to control his anger. This was neither the time nor the place for a confrontation. He still had no idea what the proper way was to handle the Marc thing, but blurting the truth in a hospital stairwell was not it.

He reached the next landing and waited before entering the floor. Slowly, she came up the stairs. Her forehead wrinkled with a frown, but she said nothing.

“Is this the floor?” he asked.

She nodded up to indicate that they still had one more flight to take. He turned to go up and she stopped him with her words.

“He's all I have.”

Darius paused on the stairs, and silence settled around them once more. Slowly he turned to face her, hoping the compassion he felt was reflected on his face. “I know that. I'm not trying to take him, I just want to be a part of his life.”

She walked past him and sat down on the step. Darius just stood watching her knowing something important was about to be said.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “How did you know?”

O
kay, Darius thought, so apparently a hospital stairwell
would
be the place for this confrontation. He walked over and leaned against the wall next to her. “His birthmark.”

“What birthmark?”

“On his lower back. I saw it one night when he was crawling into bed.”

She frowned in confusion as if still not understanding.

“No one in my family has that mark but me—not even Darren had it.”

“A mark? That doesn't prove anything.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Maybe not, but the guilt in your eyes right now sure does.”

“A birthmark.” She shook her head as if unable to believe she'd been outdone by something so small. “I could tell you knew. The way you've been with him lately—I could tell, but I didn't want to believe it.”

“Why didn't you tell me he was mine when you came to Tairua?”

“You wouldn't have believed me. You would've thought I was just saying it to get something from you and then you would've demanded a paternity test. I wasn't about to put Marc through all that. I was hoping that any similarities you saw, you would assume were because you and Darren were brothers.”

“Do you hear what you're saying? You weren't concerned about Marc being put through anything, Liz. Not this time. This time it was all about you. You would deny me my son, and Marc his father because it might make your life a little uncomfortable.”

“That's not true.”

“Isn't it?”

“No!”

“Think about it. Even if I did ask for a paternity test—that's just a little blood. He would've never even known what it was for. No, you were worried about what would come after the test confirmed the truth. You were worried that you would have to share Marc.”

“You're so different now.” She shook her head sadly. “When I came to Tairua I was planning to tell you, but then I saw you talking to some guest and you seemed so…cold.”

He huffed. “Thanks to you and Marc, I'm thawing—fast.”

“I'm serious, Darius. With your money we both know if you wanted, you could—”

“Wait a minute.” He knelt before her. “That's not going to happen. I would never try to take him away from you. But I do want to be a part of his life. And…I want to be a part of your life.”

The silence was palpable. Her eyes widened in horror, and Darius felt like a balloon that had suddenly been stabbed with a pin. All the soft warmth radiating in his heart suddenly disappeared. He stood up and looked down at her.

“Okay, I get it. I may not be the man you want. But that doesn't change the fact that I am the man who fathered your child. I
will
be a part of Marc's life, Liz, so you might as well wrap your head around the idea.” He gestured up the steps. “Let's get going, they're waiting for me in pre-op.”

He moved around her and headed up the stairs. Well, he thought, at least now he knew which way the wind blew. For a while there he was starting to believe she still wanted him as much as he wanted her, but that dream had just died a quick death.

Even after all these years and everything they'd revealed to each other it still came down to the original problem. In the end, he was not the man she'd chosen, the man she wanted. He was not Darren.

Despite his brother's obvious infidelity—because Darren didn't know how to be faithful—and who knows whatever else went on in Vegas, despite all that, she still loved the bastard.

He reached the landing and opened the door leading into the hospital. Fine, if that was how she felt there was nothing he could do about it. Because no woman on earth was worth the humiliation of competing against his dead brother's ghost.

 

Liz leaned against the windowsill of the hospital waiting room, listening as the sloshing combination of snow and ice pelted the glass. The two men in her life
were only forty-five minutes into the three-hour surgery and her emotions were already a tangled mess.

Dee sat on the other side of the room knitting away as if she didn't have a care in the world, but Liz could see the slight tremble as her deft fingers worked. She had no comfort to offer her aunt. She needed every little bit for herself.

The agonizing long minutes left her with nothing better to do than to repeatedly play out the earlier conversation with Darius in her head. Could it have gone any differently? Were there words she should've used instead? Why was it that when it came to Darius her thought processes seem to malfunction and she always, always made the wrong choices. Always.

When she'd left for Tairua she knew there was a likelihood that Darius would want to be a part of Marc's life after the surgery. She had, to some degree, mentally prepared herself for that reality. She understood that by asking for his help she might be bringing him back into their lives permanently.

At the time it had seemed a small surrender. But to know something with your mind and to feel it with your heart were two entirely different experiences. After the past two weeks she now understood that what Darius wanted was not small at all.

Somehow, in all her planning and preparation she had not anticipated the emotional effect of coming face-to-face with him again. Nor had she accounted for all the ways life might have changed him over the years. Or how those two factors would affect
her
life.

She'd had no inkling of the tidal wave of regret and resentment simmering just beneath the surface of her controlled exterior even after all these years. Or, that he
would
still
look at her with eyes filled with the pain of her betrayal.

It was as if the past ten years had never happened and they were stuck in some kind of time loop together. For all her thoughtful planning, there was so much she could've never planned for. Things that in hindsight seemed obvious.

Like the fact that a boy who'd primarily been raised by a single mom and a great-aunt, would, of course, latch on to the first male relative he'd ever known with an almost superhero-type worship.

She could not have predicted that the love she had for Darius, the love she'd thought she'd buried years ago would resurface in her heart like a dormant volcano springing to life once again. And along with that intense love, the heartbreak of knowing he still despised her. Still.

She glanced out the window at the busy city below, wondering at the significance of his promise to Marc. Try as she might, she could not reconcile the Darius she'd seen that first day on the island with the man who tucked her son in at night. She wasn't sure which was the real Darius. Having developed a suspicious nature over the years, Liz leaned toward believing he was really the man from Tairua. And if she was right…then she was headed for a world of pain.

He wanted revenge for what she'd done, and justifiable as his anger may've been, it hurt to know nonetheless. So how could she believe him? How could she ever trust him?
I want to be a part of your life.
How could she accept that when she already knew how far he was willing to go to get his revenge? Seven days in paradise.

No, for Marc's sake and her own, she could not allow herself to become vulnerable to whatever he had
planned. But how could she not be? How was she supposed to keep her part of the bargain and her heart at the same time?

 

Darius awoke from the surgery to find himself apparently alone in the recovery room, not that it surprised him. He wasn't exactly expecting Liz to be sitting by his bedside hanging on his every breath with her son in surgery, as well. And after the tense moments in the stairwell earlier, he wondered if he'd ruined any chance he may have had with her. Or, if he'd ever had a chance at all.

He glanced down at the IV inserted in his arm, and the patch attached to his chest that had cords hooked to a large machine beside the bed. The pain in his stomach was intense, but tolerable and he assumed he must've been given some pretty strong painkillers.

“How are you feeling?” A voice from the corner of the room startled him. Darius turned his head to find Dee sitting quietly a few feet away, knitting as usual.

He struggled to sit up in the bed to better see her. “Not bad.” He glanced at the clock and was surprised to find it almost eight in the evening. “How long have you been here?”

“A few hours.” She stood, putting her knitting to the side, and came to stand at the bedside. “The doctors said the surgery went really well.” She smiled. “Marc's body accepted the kidney without trouble so—” A small frown creased her brow before she quickly hid the expression.

It was no use denying it, Darius knew what she was thinking, what she'd almost said.
So far.
Marc's young body was accepting the kidney for now, but they all knew it would be weeks before he was completely out of danger.

“That's wonderful.” He struggled to shift, but the pain stopped him immediately.

Dee reached forward to help. “You should lie still, your body's been through a lot. Can I get something for you? Some water?”

“Water sounds good.” He slumped back down in the bed.

Dee walked to a nearby table and poured some water from a pitcher into a small plastic cup. “Should I call the nurse?”

“No, I'm fine. Thanks.” Darius accepted the water and gulped it down quickly.

She reached forward and touched his cheek. “You did a good thing today, Darius.”

“I just wish Liz would've come to me sooner.”

“She was scared I think.” Dee shook her head in confusion. “Scared of facing you. Scared of losing Marc. Eventually one fear overcame the other. In the beginning, when Marc was first put on the transplant list I don't think she realized how difficult it would be to find a match for him, or how long it would take.”

Darius glanced at the older woman, noting her faraway expression. She was reliving moments in her minds, probably the past few years of watching her great-nephew suffer. Darius decided to take advantage of her talkative mood. “How is Liz affording his care? She can't make that much as a teacher, even with those benefits.”

“You've seen how we live.”

“Still…” His eyes narrowed in concentration. “Living sparsely doesn't seem like it would be enough. Is she getting any help from anyone?”

Dee smiled. “Darius, are you trying to find out if Liz has a sugar daddy?”

“Not really, I was thinking her parents.” He frowned. “But now that you mention it, does she?”

Dee's soft brown eyes turned cold. “No, no help from that worthless pair. They wouldn't lift a finger to help her. More concerned about their precious image than their own child.” She pulled a chair closer to the bed and took a seat. “When Darren died Liz came back to Cincinnati, not because she wanted to, but because of Marc. Her own parents wouldn't even let her spend a night under their roof. Can you believe that? Their only daughter—and grandchild.” She huffed. “Said she had disgraced them. Said they didn't have a daughter anymore.” She folded her arms across her chest. “That's how she ended up at my place. All I had was a small apartment, but it was big enough for the three of us.”

Darius frowned realizing how little he knew about Liz's aunt. Only that she was her father's sister and a bit of a recluse. “Do you have any children, Dee?”

She shook her head. “No, never could get pregnant. After my second husband, I just stopped trying.” She looked directly into his eyes. “That's why I will never understand my fool brother and his wife turning their backs on Liz.”

Darius frowned. “I don't understand either. Did she go to my parents for help? Did she tell them about Marc? They never said anything about him when I talked to them. All I know is what they told me when they called.”

“Oh, she went to them all right. And they did the same thing her own parents did. They turned their backs on her and their grandchild. As far as the Donovans and Norths were concerned, Darren and Liz no longer existed.” She quickly glanced at him and looked away. “You made it even easier.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, with you moving away so quickly, they were able to put the whole ugly incident behind them and pretend it never happened. Soon, their country-club friends stopped talking about it and their sorry little lives returned to normal.” She snorted. “If you call that normal.”

Darius's eyes narrowed as his mind worked through what it must've been like for Liz returning home to find she had no home to return to. He reached over the side of the bed and took Dee's hand in his. “Thank you.”

“No, thank
you.”
Her eyes narrowed on his face. “I know you know the truth about Marc. So what are you going to do about it?”

Darius decided there was no point in lying about it. He'd seen the truth in her eyes before the surgery. “I'm going to be a father to my son.”

Dee shook her head. “It won't be that easy.”