His Ex's Well-Kept Secret
Before he could reply, she walked out of his office. Jaeger stared at his half-open door, feeling like she was leaving him with just a few pieces of a puzzle.
He’d find the missing pieces, he thought, sitting back down behind his desk. He’d start by running her name through as many databases as he had access to and see what popped up.
Because, he was damn sure, something would.
* * *
Why hadn’t she called Jaeger on his BS?
The question played on repeat in her head, like nails on a chalkboard, since she’d hurried out of Jaeger’s office eight hours before. Why hadn’t she mentioned their past to get it out in the open? Why did she go along with his I’ve-never-met-you-before attitude?
Piper turned the corner onto her street, her tote over one shoulder and her arms around two brown sacks of baby food and diapers. And chocolate... After a day like today, she needed chocolate. Baby food, diapers and chocolate... God, her life was so exciting.
Not.
Well, it had been! Back when she was with that six-foot-something slab of sexiness... No, that wasn’t what she meant to think! Dammit! So why didn’t you say anything about the time you spent together in Milan, Mills? What was with that nonsense?
Piper shifted her sacks and tried to blow a curl out of her eye. Pride...pride was a factor. She’d wanted him to mention Milan, to be the one to go there, to say how nice it was to see her again. She’d wanted him to ask if he could take her to dinner...to bed. She’d never thought, not once, not even after he’d shut her out completely, that she’d be so utterly forgettable.
And, man, it killed her—in a dagger-to-the-heart way—that he didn’t remember her. Spending the night with him was a highlight of her life. Conversely, she was, for him, a forgettable experience in what was obviously a long line of sexual encounters.
And Jaeger forgetting her, forgetting about Milan, made all her feelings around her father and his neglect bubble to the surface. She was an adult, and she should have been over feeling hurt by Mick’s actions, but she couldn’t help remembering the times she’d opened the door to him and watched him struggle to remember her name. Her mother and whatever she gave Mick were important to him, not Piper. When her mom died, her father stopped visiting the house in Brooklyn altogether, and the only time he’d spoken to Piper after the funeral was to demand she give him the sapphires.
She’d lived with rejection all her life. Jaeger not remembering her was just another version of the same thing.
That being said, Jaeger’s actions still didn’t make sense. Why the pretense? They’d agreed to keep it businesslike when they met again, so why not take her calls right after Milan? Why did he go to such lengths to ignore her and then pretend not to remember her?
What game was he playing?
Maybe she should’ve avoided Jaeger altogether and gone directly to Moreau’s. Why hadn’t she?
Jaeger paid better, according to Mr. Hendricks, than all the other gem dealers. She’d also, in Milan, promised Jaeger she’d bring the stones to him. Thanks to her father being a thief, it was important that she kept her promises. Piper strongly believed in keeping her word, in doing the right thing.
So, was not telling Jaeger about Ty the right thing to do?
The thought slammed into her, holding all the power of a rogue wave. Of course it was. Meeting Jaeger again changed nothing! She knew, everyone knew, that Jaeger wasn’t daddy material. He’d openly admitted a wife and kids weren’t part of his plans.
There was nothing worse than knowing who your parent was and knowing he didn’t care enough to be a part of your life. Piper wouldn’t put her son in the same position she’d been in.
Approaching her house, she pushed the wrought iron gate open with her hip and noticed her lemon verbena and geraniums needed water and the pots needed repainting. Yeah, that probably wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.
“Piper!”
Standing on the top step, Piper whirled around quickly. She wobbled, her bags tipped and she struggled to find her balance.
“Dammit, Ballantyne!”
Jaeger walked up to her, his hands in the air. “Why so jumpy? I just called your name.”
He didn’t need to know she’d been thinking about him and felt like she’d conjured him out of thin air. “It’s been a long day. Why are you here?”
Her skin prickled as Jaeger slowly approached her, his long legs eating up the space between them. As he came closer, she caught a hint of masculine cologne, warm skin. God, she remembered the smell and texture and taste of him—spicy, warm...
He interrupted that train of thought by taking her groceries from her and looking into the bags. “Wine, baby food, diapers, a popular men’s magazine, tampons, chocolate and hummus. That’s quite a mixed bag.”
Piper blushed, then frowned. “Stop examining my shopping. It’s rude.”
“Are you going to invite me inside?” Jaeger demanded, and Piper knew it wasn’t a suggestion but an order.
Piper shifted from foot to foot as she thought about what to say. Ceri, her nanny and good friend, was upstairs with Ty, and Piper really, really didn’t want Jaeger and Ty meeting. She didn’t know what game Jaeger was playing by pretending not to remember her, but until she’d figured out the rules, she wasn’t going to introduce a new player into the arena. Especially when that new player was her innocent son.
The decision was taken from her when the front door opened behind them and Piper turned to see Ceri and Rainn standing there, each with a hand on Ty’s stroller. Piper immediately dropped to her haunches and kissed her son’s cheek. “Hey, there’s my favorite guy.”
Ty wasn’t as excited to see her as usual, but he did pat her face before pushing her away so he could look around to see who was out and about.
Piper stood up, glanced at Jaeger and saw nothing but mild interest on his face when he looked at Ty. Her heart slowed down when she realized he didn’t see what she did; he didn’t see anything of himself in Ty. Thank you, God.
“We all needed some air, so we’re going to take a walk,” Ceri said, worried. Her eyes bounced off Piper’s face, onto Jaeger’s and her mouth fell open. “Wow, you’re—”
“Jaeger Ballantyne.” Jaeger smiled at Ceri, his eyes crinkled and Piper’s stomach flipped over once, twice. She’d forgotten how sexy his smile was, how it transformed his face from hard-ass to gorgeous. Jaeger shook hands with Rainn after the twins carried Ty’s stroller down the steps.
“I’m Ceri Brown, and that’s Rainn. And the cutie is Ty.”
Piper started to explain that Ceri was her nanny, that Rainn was her twin and that they lived in the apartment below hers, but she stopped. She didn’t owe him explanations of any kind!
Ceri managed to pull her admiring gaze off Jaeger to look at Piper. “Do you want to join us? We’ll be back in about a half hour.”
Piper bit her lip and shook her head. “I think I’ll skip. Jaeger needs to have a word.”
Ceri tipped her head to the side, curious. “How do you two know each other?”
“That’s a long and complicated story,” Piper replied. So long and so complicated. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”
Piper and Jaeger stood on the top step and watched Rainn tip the stroller back on two wheels. Ty’s belly laugh drifted over to her; it was another of his favorite games. There went her heart, she thought. Her kid and the two people as close to her as siblings.
“Cute family,” Jaeger said. “They are young to have a kid.”
Piper started to tell him Ty was hers, not theirs, but she just managed to catch the words. She darted a look at him, her interest caught by the emotion in his eyes. Longing, sadness, pain? Why would Jaeger Ballantyne—who’d routinely told the world he would follow in his uncle Connor’s footsteps and remain resolutely single—look envious of what he erroneously assumed was a young family on their way to a park? She had to be misinterpreting his look and his emotions, Piper decided. This was Jaeger Ballantyne, after all, who thought the world was overpopulated.
Who’d refused her calls and pretended not to know who she was.
He didn’t deserve her explanations.
At the corner, Ceri waved at them, and Piper rolled her shoulders.
“Are you here to make an offer for my stones?” Piper asked, wincing at the eagerness in her voice. Maybe this ordeal would be done sooner than she’d expected.
“I’m no closer to offering you a deal than I was earlier,” Jaeger replied.
Damn.
“Invite me in, Piper.” Jaeger reached past her to push open her front door. “We both know that we have a lot more than sapphires to talk about.”
Now he wanted to talk about what happened in Milan? And really, after all her unanswered phone calls, what was there to discuss? Apparently everything they’d needed to say had been captured in the last kiss they’d shared outside the hotel entrance. It had been tender and sweet, regretful and poignant but very, very final.
Thank you and goodbye, think of me occasionally, remember this time we spent together with a smile. Have a wonderful life.
A silent but powerful acknowledgment that when they met again, they would not pick up where they left off...
They hadn’t agreed to treat each other like strangers...but maybe it was better if they did. Jaeger still had the ability to keep her off balance.
“You’re giving me the silent treatment again. I can’t decide if it’s because your mind is revving or because you are being stubborn.” Jaeger bent his knees so their eyes were level. “Either way, we are doing this. We can talk either here or over a cup of coffee or, if the gods are smiling on me, a glass of whiskey. But we are going to have a conversation, Ms. Mills.”
Yeah, they were. Piper saw the determination in his eyes, saw the hard-ass negotiator who bought and sold valuable gemstones on six continents. Jaeger wasn’t going anywhere until he’d said whatever was on his mind. She had to be very careful to keep control of this conversation; they had to stay on topic. She wanted to know why he’d blocked her from contacting him after Milan, but Ty was firmly off-limits. As was the fact that she wanted him naked and panting.
Why did she keep thinking that?
She felt like she was standing in a field planted with land mines and she needed to carefully pick a path to safety.
“I would give a rare red diamond to know what you are thinking,” Jaeger said, breaking into her thoughts.
Piper blinked and refocused. She pushed her hair back and briefly closed her eyes.
“I’ll make us coffee,” Piper capitulated, resigned.
Jaeger put a hand on her lower back and pushed her toward the stairs leading up to her living quarters. “Sounds good. It would sound better if you offered a shot of whiskey with it. I’ve had a rough day, too.”
Three
Piper took her cup of coffee into her den-slash-office and found Jaeger standing in front of the fireplace, admiring a series of ink and pencil drawings hanging on the wall, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand.
Piper hesitated in the doorway, taking a moment to catch her breath. Every inch of Jaeger’s six-foot-something frame reflected his masculinity; his legs were long and muscled, his hands were broad and his fingers blunt-tipped, his chest wide. He made her feel smaller, feminine and sexier.
Smoking hot she could deal with, sort of, but he looked so at ease in her messy space—and it felt so right for him be here, with her... The thought liquefied her knees.
“These are fantastic. Who is the artist?”
“She’s Danish. I bought those from a gallery in Copenhagen, and I’ve never found any more of her work. Pity, because she’s fabulous.” Wanting to delay the subject of Milan and her unanswered calls, she gestured to an oil seascape on the opposite wall. “That’s Joonie Paul, also unknown, equally fabulous.”
Jaeger, tall and broad and a work of art she could look at all day long, turned so those fabulous eyes met hers. “You obviously love art,” he stated.
“I’m an art appraiser. It comes with the job.”
Jaeger sat down on the ottoman, rested his forearms on his thighs, the glass almost disappearing in his big hand. He stared at the multicolored Persian carpet between his feet before raising his face. Under his gaze, Piper felt like a deer caught in the headlights, his eyes pinning her to her spot on the couch.
“Let’s talk about Milan.”
Okay, here we go. She was finally going to get an explanation about why he’d acted like a hemorrhoid. And his explanation had better be good...
“Apparently we met in Milan, at Ballantyne’s, in late April?”
Met? Is that what the most elusive, popular bachelors in Manhattan were calling three fun, fabulous dates and a night of off-the-charts sex? Geez, things were different across the Brooklyn Bridge. Piper nodded. What else could she do? It was the truth, after all.
“I presume we discussed your sapphires in Milan, and that’s why you left so many messages for me in the fall of last year?”
Yeah, that’s what happened. It took all of her willpower not to roll her eyes. Piper watched as Jaeger shot to his feet and swiftly walked over to the window, pushing the heavy drape away to look outside. His big shoulders were up around his ears and tension radiated from him. Okay, what was happening here?
“Why are you asking me these questions? You were there.”
Jaeger turned and pushed the ball of his shoulder into the wall, crossing his foot over his ankle in an attempt to look relaxed. The expression on his masculine face was inscrutable, but she saw the emotion churning in his eyes, the tension in his sexy mouth. His clever lips were thin and tight. Jaeger looked confused and unsettled.
Why? Why would he...?
“You don’t remember?” she asked. It was the only plausible scenario she could think of.
Jaeger pointed his index finger at her in a you’ve-nailed-it gesture. Piper sucked in a long breath. Jaeger, tall, ripped and oh-so-sexy, genuinely didn’t remember her, Milan, their dates, the stones. Or that they slept together. God, Italy was so fantastic, and he didn’t remember? Piper’s mind raced. Was that a curse or a blessing?
But how could he not remember?
“Seriously? You don’t remember anything about Milan?” Piper clarified. “You don’t remember us meeting? Going to dinner—”
You don’t remember anything about the night we spent in your hotel room? Me kissing my way down your body, the last time in the shower when we shook the foundations of the hotel? Your gasps, my screams? The way we struggled to say goodbye the following morning?
She scratched her forehead. “What happened, Jaeger?”
Jaeger linked his hands behind his head. His big biceps pulled the cotton fabric tight across his arms. The shirt gaped open and she saw a hint of tanned, muscled flesh above his belt. And just above his belt buckle would be a thin strip of hair. Her lips had traced that line of hair, going lower and...
Jaeger dropped his arms and jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants. His straight black brows pulled together. “I’ll tell you why I don’t remember, but would you mind telling me about us meeting in Milan first?”
Piper crossed her legs and linked her arms around her knee. How much to say? Keep it simple...
“I had some free time in Milan and I walked into your store, wondering if someone could tell me about the stones, even though I only had a photo on my phone. You were there and, because you’re you and you work fast, you invited me to dinner.”
“We ate at a trattoria I often go to, the one in Linate?” He saw her confused expression and explained. “Credit card receipts. I paid. The date was April the twenty-ninth. Is that right?”
Sure was; she remembered the date she conceived Ty as well as she knew his birth date. Since it was also the last time she’d had sex in, oh, about forever, it wasn’t a date easy to forget. Piper started to explain they’d met the day before, but Jaeger interrupted her. “Will you tell me about that night?”
Should she tell him they slept together? No! If she did then he might do some math and suspect Ty could be his. He’d see the resemblance between him and his son and then he’d know. Six hours after meeting him again, she wasn’t ready to go there, to deal with Jaeger’s reaction to having a son he didn’t want.
One problem at a time, she decided.
She’d delay—or even avoid—the issue, but she wouldn’t lie to Jaeger. If he asked whether they’d slept together, she’d answer and roll the dice.
She might not believe in lying, but she did believe in distraction. Besides, she was being eaten alive by curiosity. “Jaeger, why don’t you remember?”
Jaeger walked back toward her, picked up his glass, took a sip and stared at her over the rim, as if he were trying to decide what to tell her. “I was leaving Milan, on my way to the airport. The police reports said that a...”
“Police reports?” Piper interjected, her voice rising.
Jaeger frowned at her interruption. “I was in a taxi when a truck slammed into us. I was in its direct path.”
Piper just stared at him, not sure whether she was hearing him properly. Jaeger was in a car accident the morning they’d said goodbye? “But—”
“Do you want to hear this or are you going to keep interrupting?” Jaeger muttered. “I was in a bad way. I had various injuries, the most serious of which was swelling and bleeding on the brain.”
“God, Jaeger.” Piper placed her hand over her mouth, horrified. She stood up and faced him, wishing she could touch him. It wasn’t enough that he was standing in front of her looking healthy and fit—deliciously healthy and fit. She needed to examine him to make sure, dammit!
The thought of him being so injured made her world tilt upside down.
“My siblings and a medical team came to Italy and accompanied me back to the States. I had a couple of surgeries, and then they kept me in an induced coma for six weeks. When I woke up, the last thing I remembered was landing in Bangkok a month before the accident. After that, nothing.”
“God, I’m so sorry. I had no idea!”
“Nobody did. We kept it very quiet. My siblings put the word out that I was hunting for an emerald in a very remote area of Colombia where communications were dicey. They told anyone who asked that they weren’t sure when I would return.”
“Why didn’t you just tell the world what really happened?”
Jaeger grimaced. “There were a few reasons. Most important, my siblings were trying to keep the news of my accident from our uncle Connor. He raised me and my sibs from the time I was ten, and when the accident happened, he was in a scary stage of Alzheimer’s. The stage when everything is upsetting and confusing. Knowing I was so injured possibly would’ve accelerated his mental deterioration.”
Piper tipped her head to the side, thinking back. “But...didn’t he pass on around that time?”
Jaeger nodded, his expression grim. “He died ten days before they pulled me out of the coma. God, the weeks following were hell.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, and I’m sorry about your uncle.”
Jaeger ran a hand over the back of his head, obviously uncomfortable. “Yeah, thanks.”
Piper pulled her bottom lip with her finger and thumb. “Well, that explains a hell of a lot. What it doesn’t explain is how you linked me to Milan,” she said, curious.
“This morning, I knew there was something you weren’t telling me. It made me curious.”
Oh, there was quite a bit she still wasn’t telling him...
“I did a Google search on you, but I didn’t realize I was also searching my own computer and the Ballantyne server. I had the usual Google hits, but it was what was on my computer that I found interesting.”
Piper bit the inside of her lip. “Pray tell.”
“I hired a PI after the accident. He dug deep into that month I spent overseas, and he mentioned in his report that you and I had dinner.” Piper opened her mouth to speak, but Jaeger beat her to it. “No, I don’t know how he found out who you were and how we met.”
“And how did you find out about the calls and messages I sent to you?”
Amusement sparked in Jaeger’s eyes. “My family is fairly high-profile, and we work in a high-risk business. Security logs all calls, messages and emails coming in. If we don’t respond to the calls and emails, and if they are ongoing, the person making contact is put on a special list.”
Piper narrowed her eyes at him. “A special list?”
“The kooks and crazies list.” Jaeger grinned, and Piper felt like she was standing in a beam of pure sunlight.
Oh, God, not good. When he smiled, her hands itched to undo the buttons on his shirt, to spread the fabric apart and rediscover his hard chest, the ridges of his stomach. She wanted to unbuckle his belt, unzip his fly, take his...
Whoa! Alrighty, that’s enough now.
Piper tapped the tip of her finger against her bottom lip. He should have been the last man in the world to rev her engine; he was a commitment-phobic playboy who would never change. But from the moment she’d met him, Jaeger had the ability to short-circuit her brain.
She wasn’t the carefree woman she’d been a year and a half back, though. She had responsibilities now. This wasn’t about her and what she wanted—hot, curl-her-toes and burn-her-sheets sex.
So stop imagining him naked and think!
He had an ironclad good excuse for not contacting her after Milan, and his explanation went some way toward erasing the anger and hurt she’d lived with for so long. But did it fundamentally change anything?
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