Page 126 of Shadow's Surrender
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two weeks later
Scarlett sat inthe family room waiting for Shadow to come over, fearing that he’d change his mind. A big part of her understood his reluctance, but if the two of them had any chance of a happy life together, Shadow had to talk to her dad about everything in the past.
Scarlett jumped when the doorbell rang. She hurried down the hall and yanked the door open. Shadow stood on the front porch in his tight blue jeans, white T-shirt, and black leather vest. He flicked his dark hair off his tanned face and lifted his chin.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey.” She let out a breath before throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his, her tongue darting into his mouth as she sank against him.
“Now that’s what I like,” he murmured, his hands gripping her behind. Then he crushed Scarlett to him, and their lips fused in a fierce and wild kiss.
She clung to Shadow as arousal surged through her senses, screaming for him to take it further. One of his hands moved from her bottom and skimmed past her hips and side, and then molded over her breast, his fingers flicking over her nipple through the soft cotton of her tank top. Each tug at her breast brought a moan to her lips.
“I need you so bad,” she softly said.
A hard pinch on her hard bud made her cry out in pain and desire, then he kissed her gently. A lazy smile flitted over his lips as his thumb stroked her cheekbone.
“You are my sweet woman,” he murmured.
He tweaked her nose then gave her a soft peck on the lips. Scarlett missed his warmth almost immediately as he took a step back from her.
“I gotta go in and talk to your old man, but I’d rather drag you down to the tennis house.”
Scarlett nodded, brushing the strands of hair sticking to her forehead. “Me too, but I don’t want my dad to come out there and catch us. God, I would totally feel like I was in high school if that happened.” She giggled.
Shadow swatted her behind, then stood to the side, gesturing her to go inside the house. They walked in silence down the hallway to her father’s den. When she knocked on the door, her dad’s deep voice boomed, “Come in.”
“Good luck,” she said to Shadow as she turned the knob.
“I want you with me,” he said.
Her brows raised slightly. “Are you sure? I mean this is sort of private, right?”
While shaking his head, he grasped her hands. “We’re a team, baby, and you’re part of my life.”
Her heart fluttered and she leaned against him. “I’ll go in with you,” she whispered.
“Come in!” her dad bellowed.
“Showtime,” she said, opening the door.
Surprise flashed across George Mansfield’s face when she and Shadow walked in. He picked up a brandy snifter, took a sip, then motioned for them to sit down on the small leather couch across from him.
For a long moment silence filled the room, then Shadow broke it.
“So you were my mom’s sugar daddy,” he said. Bitterness dripped from his words, and she ached for him.
The facial muscles in her father’s face tightened, and his fingers whitened around the glass in his hand. “I wasneverher sugar daddy. I loved Carmen with all my heart.”
“Bullshit,” Shadow said.
“You don’t know shit. I knew your mother for a long time. I used to see her at the grocery store, the post office, and at the hardware store.” He chuckled, and his features softened with the memory of Shadow’s mother. “I helped her pick out a lot of items for do-it-yourself projects that never got done. We had a weekly meeting at the hardware store, and I’d help her figure out what she needed for the endless projects she wanted to do.”
“I never knew that. I always wondered why we had so many damn screws and tools around the house,” Shadow said, a hint of surprise lacing his voice.
“I think we both knew they were just excuses to meet up with each other. We graduated to having a cup of coffee every now and then, and each time we met up, I became more enthralled with Carmen. I loved hearing her laugh. She had the most wonderful way of creating sunlight wherever she went. I loved that about her.”
