Page 15 of Severed By Vengeance

And she rewarded me with a smile.

“Yeah, it’s been one hell of a month. And honestly, it’s still hard to believe you’re James’s son. How long have you known? And where have you been all this time?”

“I’ve always known. He knew of me as well, but… our relationship was complicated. I was maybe six the last time I saw him, shortly after my mom died.”

She looked away, all traces of her smile gone, and I realized I missed it.

“I’m sorry for what he did. For everything. The fact that he wasn’t there. You were just a child and didn’t deserve that, Derek.”

The moment my name left her lips, something inside me shifted. Before I could register what was happening, Evangelina reached out and took one of my hands in hers. Our eyes snapped up in unison.

It was as if the air charged between us, like volts of electricity produced through the gentle brush of her fingers.

Judging by her slightly parted mouth and stunned expression, she must have felt it too.

I shook it off and tugged my hand away.

I was thinking and reacting with my dick, and I couldn’t afford to let her beauty weaken me. I had to maintain control. There wasn’t a woman alive capable of breaking me. And Evangelina would be no different. I’d take what I wanted from her, and she’d let me. And that’s all she and I would ever be.

“You don’t need to apologize on behalf of James. I made peace with his absence a long time ago.”

She was still fixed on where our hands had been joined, brows pulled together, her expression suddenly solemn. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…”

Her voice trailed off, and I reached across the table, touching her on my terms.

“Nothing to apologize for.”

I flashed her a smile, thumb running against her soft skin, and her frown quickly shifted, bottom lip trapped between her teeth. I felt the urge to lean over and pull that sweet flesh from its hiding spot.

How pretty would those lips look, bruised, swollen, and mine?

“These are really something,” she said, tracing the ink on my hand with the tip of her finger. A slight shiver moved up my spine as she outlined a skull with a halo of roses. “Do they mean something?”

“Yeah, they all do. But you’re not here to talk about my tattoos. Ask your questions, Evangelina.” Better we move away from the significance behind my ink.

“Eva. Everyone calls me Eva. Evangelina was my grandmother. I love her, but it's just a mouthful.”

“I’m not like everyone else. And it’s a beautiful name. It suits you.”

She smiled and shook her head, and my eyes were drawn to the soft curve of her neck. Visions of my tongue swiping along its length had my cock thickening under the table as I thought of all the ways I could bend this former gymnast.

Would she taste as good as she smells?

“Derek,” she called, breaking me from my thoughts. “Is it true? What’s in those documents? Was James really involved in that world?”

I sat back and threw an arm across the back of the booth. “Sometimes those we think we know turn out to be completely different people. I’m sure my mother thought the world of James Ford once upon a time—asdid his wife.”

Her eyes were downcast, the muscles in her jaw flexing with tension.

“You know, it’s almost easier for me to believe those parts of his life, because he’s always been ambitious and driven… but to believe he would abandon you. I can’t fathom that.”

Her admission caught me off guard. She was a cop. And I had just doubled down on the fact that her dear Uncle James was a certified piece of shit, and she was more concerned with his treatment of me.

Interesting.

“You were his only son. His heir. He always talked about being unable to have children with Pam. And he just abandons you and lets you enter the system. That’s almost unforgivable.”

Eva was shaking; her emotions were so raw. So close to the surface that I expected her to burst into tears. It’s what females did. But instead, her eyes pulsed with anger.