Attraction: (A Temptation Series Stand-alone) (The Temptation Series Book 4) (32 page)

‘Sh,’ I hushed him, moving to sit on the bed and encase him
in my arms. ‘You did all you could. You didn’t know she was in the elevator.’

Derek secured my arms to him and breathed deep to find composure.
‘No, but seeing her in Bryce’s arms when I finally made it back to where he was
waiting was such a bloody relief. I’d already had confirmation of Gareth’s
death, so the last thing I wanted was to be the one to tell Bryce that Alexis
was unaccounted for.’

I sat on the bed for a while longer with my arms around him,
silence surrounding us. It was a suffocating torture. I loved him, that was
unquestionable. But the day’s events had put my heart on guard once again, and
I couldn’t stop returning to my safety bubble where my heart and I were safe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The emotional aftermath of the explosion was still felt over
a month later. Alexis had retreated to her sanctuary, which was Bryce, her
children and her family. This was how she coped. I checked in with her weekly
via the phone, despite her reassurances that she was fine and in the process of
picking up the broken pieces slowly. Things between Derek and I were also fine,
if a little circumspect on my behalf. I couldn’t help it. It was imprinted in
my DNA.

Today being Alexander’s first birthday, we were all to be
together for the first time since the trauma of Gareth’s death. To be honest, I
wasn’t looking forward to it. Not only would I be seeing Lucy there, but it was
also a kid’s party. With kids. Little kids. I’d much rather have each of my
fingernails torn from my hands, scraped down a blackboard and then poked into
my eyes.

For moral support, I’d asked Libby to come along. Well,
truth be told, I’d bribed her. Okay, so I’d threatened her. Oh, and I lied to
her. I’d mentioned that Will wasn’t coming when he was. But I was willing to
bear the brunt of the ear-drilling she would undoubtedly give me once we
returned home.

Derek drove us to the park where the party was to be held.
It was a stinking hot thirty-six degrees Celsius, but thank fuck for obscenely
wealthy friends, because Bryce had organised for his nephew to have a kiddy
wonderland in a fully air-conditioned marquee. It was basically a makeshift
play centre for kids: all pits, slides, jumping castles, coloured foam mats ...
and lots and lots of kids.

‘Where in hell did all of these small humans come from?’ I
asked Derek as we stepped into the marquee. The high-pitched screams already
had my head pounding.

Libby smiled and instantly went to the aid of one little
girl who had managed to get the wheel of the trike she was pedalling stuck
between two mats.

‘I’m not quite sure. I think a lot of them belong to the
mothers who are in Lucy’s mother’s group,’ he answered with a shrug of his
shoulders.

‘Oh,’ I nodded, surprised he knew the answer to that
question.

We quickly said hello and gave Alexander his present. Derek
had even gone shopping and made the effort to buy something suitable for a male
toddler which I found adorable but, at the same time, felt guilty about.

Scanning the room, I spotted Alexis being lured onto the
jumping castle by Charli. She looked up so I waved and blew her a kiss.

‘Hey, guys,’ Will said happily as he approached from out of
nowhere. ‘And if it isn’t my favourite redheaded walking vagina,’ he added,
taking Libby’s hand and kissing the back of it.

She screwed up her face and wiped her hand down the front of
his top. ‘Carly, a word. Now!’ she fired in my direction.

Lib then turned around and headed for an empty table in one
of the corners of the marquee. When we were out of everyone’s hearing, she
blasted me with her icy damnation. ‘You little liar! You said he wasn’t coming.
This is a new low, even for you.’

‘Don’t get your labia in a knot,’ I said in defence,
unsuccessfully biting back a smile.

She pointed to her hilariously funny face. ‘I’m not
laughing. Is my face laughing?’

‘No, but then again, it doesn’t laugh often. You need to
laugh more, starting with now. Laugh, this really is quite funny,’ I goaded.

‘Oh, I will be laughing. Mark my words. I’ll be laughing
like a hyena when I get my revenge.’

Taking a seat, I focussed my sights on the crowded room of
people before me, spotting Derek talking with Lucy, Nic, Will and Matt.
Alexander was desperately trying to lunge out of Nic’s arms and into Derek’s.

‘I don’t like hyenas,’ I admitted solemnly. ‘They are ugly
looking, kind of like the by-product of sex between a dog and a clown.’

Libby sank into the seat next to me. ‘What’s wrong?’

Smiling at her perceptive skills, I shook my head. ‘Am I
forgiven already?’

‘No. The best plots for revenge are not ones carried out
hastily. Your time will come. In the meantime though, tell me why you look so
deflated and no longer want to be here just as much as me.’

I nodded toward Lucy. ‘I don’t trust her.’

Lib followed my line of vision. ‘Why? I thought the two of
you got along well.’

‘We do. She’s lovely. I just don’t trust her.’

‘There’s got to be a reason why, Carly.’

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Not really. Just call it a sixth
sense. I feel as if I’m missing something.’

‘Like what?’ she queried with interest.

‘I think Lucy and Derek dated before she turned lezzie. They
have a history. That much is for certain.’

‘So what, history is the operative word here. In the past.
Yesteryear.’

I looked down at my fingers and fiddled with my aunt’s ring.
‘I get that. I just don’t think it is entirely in the past.’

Lib gave me a sceptical look. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘God, I don’t know, all right?’ I answered frustratedly.

She stood up. ‘Hey! I’m just trying to help. I’m going to
get a drink. Do you want one ... or some fairy bread?’

I gave her an apologetic look and shook my head. ‘No, thank
you.’

‘Ah ... I know, I saw some mini-pizzas and hot dogs,’ she
said enticingly.

I laughed mildly and tilted my head to the side. ‘You had me
at mini.’

‘Thought as much. I’ll be back in a minute.’

Once Lib was gone, I glanced back to where Derek had been,
only to find him no longer there. I performed a quick scan of the room and
couldn’t find him anywhere. I also couldn’t find Lucy.

I can’t say what it was that propelled me to get up and look
for them, or what it was that was saying to me that they were together.
Regardless, I had to find him and discover for myself what I dreaded was the outcome.

As I was about to turn the corner to where a door lead into
the kitchen, I heard Derek having a heated discussion with a woman, except the
woman he was arguing with was not Lucy. It was Nic. My stomach tightened and I
froze solid.

‘Back the fuck off, Derek. I’m not going to warn you again,’
Nic admonished.

‘I’m sick of having this discussion with you. I’m not a
fucking threat,’ he hissed back.

‘Bullshit, you aren’t. You and I both know that Lucy will
always love you.’

Hearing that Lucy loved Derek splintered my heart, yet I
knew deep down it was true. It was obvious in the way she looked at him.

Derek groaned. ‘It’s not like that and you know it.’

‘Just back off, Derek. Alexander may be your son, but he and
Lucy are my family. Not yours.’

I gasped and took a step backward, bumping into someone
behind me. Spinning around, I came face to face with Lucy.

‘Carly, I —’

‘Derek is Alexander’s father?’ I choked out.

By that stage, Derek and Nic had rounded the corner. ‘Baby,
let me expla—’

‘Alexander is your son?’ I shouted.

‘Shh, Carly, please lower your voice,’ Lucy pleaded with
desperation.

‘Lower my fucking voice? You lying pack of heartless
arseholes,’ I spat out, before turning and making my escape.

‘Baby, wait!’ Derek called and caught my arm.

I spun around and slapped him forcefully on the cheek, the
sting numbing my hand, the pain nowhere near as severe as the betrayed heart,
torn in two, deep within my chest. Tears were streaming down my face. ‘Don’t
touch me. Don’t ever touch me again.’ And with that, I wrenched my other arm
free from his grasp and pushed past Lib and Alexis on my way out.

‘Carly!’ they both called after me, but I didn’t stop.

I needed air.

I needed to vomit.

I needed to run far away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

In the hours that followed, I’d cried more tears than I’d
ever thought possible. I was shocked, hurt and angry. I felt betrayed, but more
importantly, stupid. Stupid that I’d gone against everything I’d thought myself
to be: independent and headstrong, free and unattached. I’d let one man
infiltrate that protective wall and, in perfect arsehole-male fashion, he’d
aimed straight for my heart and dismembered it. I was heartbroken because I’d
allowed myself to love. I was accountable.

The hurt I was feeling had nothing to do with Derek being a
dad. He’d made that choice — for whatever reason — long before I’d come along.
What hurt beyond repair was that he never really loved me enough to let me into
his life. He constantly held me at arm’s-length where he felt comfortable
having me, while telling me that we ‘are’. Well,
we
‘are’ something.
We
‘are’ done.

Derek had tried calling and texting, but I wasn’t
interested. In fact, I went so far as to throw my phone in the bin. Apparently
Lib didn’t share my views, because she had retrieved it and placed it on my bed
while I was in the shower. My redheaded fanta-pants friend was a pain in my
arse, but little did she know that her actions were futile, because I had let
the battery run flat and had not bothered to charge it.

‘Carly, you have a visitor,’ Libby called from the other
side of my bedroom door.

I launched out of bed and hurled myself against it with a
thump, leaning my entire sixty-one kilogram weight against it. ‘If that’s him,
tell him to fuck off,’ I yelled.

‘It’s not Derek, Carly. Please just come out,’ she pleaded
while turning the handle on my door.

I pushed harder against it and held the handle tight. ‘Who
is it then?’

‘It’s me, Carly.’

‘Oh, no. No, no, no. I have nothing to say to you, Lucy.
Absolutely fucking nothing.’

‘Well I have something to say to you, so you can just
listen.’
Fuck her!

‘La la la la la la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,’ I sang out
repeatedly in an attempt to drown out what she wanted to say. Unfortunately, I
was not an operatic singer and could not hold the notes for very long.

During a pause for breath, I heard Lucy ask Libby how old I
was.

‘She’s thirty-five, although I know grade six students who
act more maturely than she does at times,’ Libby explained.

‘I heard that,’ I sulked. ‘Look, Lucy, please just leave me
alone. I don’t want to hear anything you or Derek have to say. He had many
chances to tell me about Alexander, and he chose not to. So it doesn’t matter
anymore.’

‘Alexander is not Derek’s son, Carly. He is mine and Nic’s.
Derek was just a sperm donor. That’s all. Please just let me in to explain,
then I’ll leave.’

I sucked in a deep breath and then let it out. ‘No, Lucy,
just leave. Lib, if you know what is good for you you’ll show Lucy out.’

The next thing I knew, I was being pushed forward against my
will.

‘Keep pushing,’ Libby said with a strained voice. ‘Almost
...’

I fell to the floor with a thud.

‘... There,’ she finished and dusted her hands against each
other.

Lucy stepped out from behind her. Sasha, too, prancing in to
sit at Lucy’s feet and wag her tale adoringly.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. You can
all go to hell.

‘Obviously you don’t know what’s good for you,’ I said to
Lib, glaring at her.

‘Obviously,’ she countered. ‘But I do know what’s good for
you and listening to what Lucy has to say is just that. Come on, Sashy,’ she
said, patting her leg and coaxing Sasha from the room before closing the door
behind her.

I stared at the panel of wood that was my bedroom door
before noticing that Lucy had her hand out in order to help me stand.

‘You’ve got one minute,’ I explained, ignoring her offer of
help.

She crossed her arms over her chest in a show of resilience.
‘I won’t need it.’

Fighting the desire to remove her confident expression, I
walked over to Rico’s tank and proceeded to feed him, giving an excuse to keep
my back to her. ‘You are so sure of yourself, aren’t you?’

‘Yes,’ she stated categorically.

I tapped some food into the tank and reminded her of her
dwindling time. ‘Fifty seconds.’

‘Derek loves you.’

‘Pfft. No, he doesn’t.’

‘Yes, he does. A lot.’

I watched the salmon pellets sink to the bottom of the tank
and answered nonchalantly. ‘You don’t keep secrets from the ones you love,
Lucy.’

‘Yes, you do if they are not your secrets to tell.’

I let out a frustrated breath and rolled my eyes. ‘This was
his secret to tell.’

‘No, it wasn’t,’ she admonished, ‘it was mine and Nic’s and
we didn’t want it told.’

I turned to face her and walked back toward my bed. ‘Really?
Who else knows? Alexis?’

‘No.’
Huh.

‘Bryce?’

She didn’t say anything.

‘So he knows and he hasn’t told Lexi?’ I asked, truly
shocked.

‘That’s my point. It’s not his secret to tell, Carly. He is
loyal and the best brother you could ask for. He will tell Alexis when I’m
ready for him to tell her. Derek is the same: loyal and the best friend a
person could have. I swore him to secrecy and he adhered to it.’

I narrowed my eyes at her. ‘Thirty seconds.’

‘It’s more like forty, actually.’
Argh! I want to
bitch-slap this clever bitch.