And she was done being a passive bystander. “Royce, let me say I agree with you. The better genes do prevail in you.”
His father turned his hard gaze her way once more, but she wasn’t backing down.
“It’s a good thing your opinion doesn’t count. At least, not for long.”
Royce stepped forward, crowding into John’s space. “Actually, her opinion counts for a whole lot more than yours—and it always will.”
Anger pushed Royce to drive mindlessly. He sped out of the Jeffersons’ long drive with a little more acceleration than was necessary. But the squeal of the tires on the asphalt gave him a brief moment of satisfaction.
He remained silent, teeth clenched, because if he spoke, the rage of years past might spew out on someone who didn’t deserve it. So he locked himself down tight, his fists clenched around the wheel. His gaze was narrowed, focused solely on the road before him.
Only when they got to the parking garage of his building and he opened her car door did he tune in Jasmine. Her stillness. Her silence.
I’m not the only one involved.
He’d forgotten. It had been years since he’d had to worry about a woman’s feelings, a woman’s reactions. He remembered how his mother had internalized everything, taking the burden of whatever they’d endured onto herself as if she simply deserved it.
Jasmine certainly hadn’t taken anything his father had dished out passively, though she’d maintained her ladylike demeanor better than his father had deserved. Now she sat looking up at him from the passenger seat, but she made no move to exit. Her posture was almost expectant, but his mind wasn’t in a place to comprehend what she was waiting for.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“I’ve been wondering if it was safe to ask you that.”
As if realizing he was losing patience, she got out of the car but lagged behind as he strode toward the elevator.
“What?” He winced when his voice echoed off the brick and concrete walls of the garage, and he heard just how impatient he sounded.
“Do you really want me here?” she asked.
Her confusion and the lost note in her voice were finally breaking through his self-absorption. He softened his tone. “Unless you don’t want to be here. I can’t stop you from leaving, Jasmine.”
“You already have.”
Royce glanced around in confusion. “What?”
“My car isn’t here,” she pointed out, exaggerating her enunciation, probably hoping he’d catch on.
That’s when he remembered picking her up at her house. He squeezed his eyes closed and cursed under his breath. How had he let that man get so far under his skin?
Jasmine.
Royce opened his eyes and looked at her expression, which was now slightly amused. Though he could still detect some concern lingering around the edges.
This was why he’d gotten so upset. So angry.
Royce had become immune to his father’s reprimands and insults throughout the years, though his conversations with his father were few and far between.
Just the way he liked it.
So this anger wasn’t about him. More than anything, Royce didn’t want Jasmine hurt by his father. He didn’t even want her touched by anything his father said or did.
Now he understood why his mom hadn’t fought very hard. It wasn’t like she’d had a lot of options. Certainly no lawyer in town had been willing to let her set foot in their firm.
Officially, it had always been her word against his father’s. Those close to the situation had known the truth. But his mother simply hadn’t wanted to be in the same room with the man who could treat her so disrespectfully after she’d served her purpose. The man who would threaten her and her son so he didn’t have to part with the paltry sum it would have taken to lift their lives above poverty level.
Better to cut that person from her life than to allow him to destroy her, piece by piece, over years of contact.
That hadn’t been an option for Royce, if he wanted to be any kind of businessman in Savannah. But he’d done his best to ignore John over the years. John seemed to prefer it that way, too. Now it seemed his father had taken some kind of interest in him.
Royce refused to let that dictate anything about who he was or his actions.
Reaching out, he took Jasmine’s hand in his. But he just stood there. He didn’t rush upstairs. Instead, he let his eyes close once more and let the early summer breeze carry her scent to him. When he opened his eyes and his gaze found her face, he took in how she was patiently waiting. He offered a sheepish smile.
“Would you like to come up for a while?”
“Only if that’s where you want me.”
Silly woman. “I can’t think of anything I want more right now.”
“Me, either.”
That’s when he noticed the slight strain in her smile, the tightness around her eyes. Their encounter with his father had affected her almost as much as it had him.
But he waited until much later, when he held her tight against him in his bed, to ask, “What did he say to you before I showed up?”
The delicious lassitude that fitted her perfectly to his side drained away. He felt her body stiffen, though she didn’t retreat from him. “Honestly, I’m doing my best to forget. Let’s just say, your dad is very much a sexist pig.”
“First of all, he isn’t my dad. He’s the sperm donor.”
His tone was light, and sure enough, she laughed. Unfortunately, the sentiment came straight from his heart.
“Second of all, it amazes me how he knew anyone willing to bring him. As you can tell, he isn’t the most personable of people. But money talks.”
“It must, because I can’t imagine how that man ever got married.” A shiver shook her body.
Royce hugged her closer. “I agree. Although, from the rumors I’ve heard, she’s just as cold.”
“Then why bother? I don’t understand.”
Neither did Royce. “It’s marriage as a business merger. They’re the perfect example.”
“An example of what not to do,” Jasmine murmured.
“I guess it works for them.” He shrugged. “I’d rather be alone than endure something that emotionless.”
She patted his chest. “That’s because
