Love Me Trust Me E-Book

Marie Dry

• Herausgeber: Marie Dry
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Five years ago, when Rafe demanded a paternity test, Lindi was devastated.
When the test came back negative and Rafe believed science over her word, Lindi realized the man she’d loved with all of her heart had never loved her.
Now Rafe is back in her life, he claimed he still wanted her, but he still refused to admit her twin boys were his.

Leseprobe

Five years ago, when Rafe demanded a paternity test, Lindi was devastated.

When the test came back negative and Rafe believed science over her word, Lindi realized the man she’d loved with all of her heart had never loved her.

Now Rafe is back in her life, he claimed he still wanted her, but he still refused to admit her twin boys were his.

Love Me, Trust Me

Marie Dry

Copyright © 2020 by Marie Dry

Cover Design by Dar Albert

All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

About the Author

Chapter One

Rafe threw down his phone on the desk and went to stand in front of the window.

“Asshole,” he said out loud and smirked at his thick Mott Haven accent. Most people he dealt with didn’t even know the dump where he grew up existed. And even if they did, the place wasn’t close to the hellhole today that it had been thirty years ago.

He found perverse pleasure in exaggerating it when he spoke to idiots who judged his intelligence on his accent and former profession. He couldn’t figure out why some of the people he dealt with thought basketball player equaled stupid. He shrugged. It worked to his advantage.

He’d spent the last five years working his ass off to prove himself, to get the bank up and running. And still they wanted him to jump through hoops to prove himself. To some of these people, he’d always be a basketball player from the slums. No matter how successful he became. He fisted his hands and then deliberately relaxed them.

Something crawled down Rafe’s spine, that feeling described as someone walking over your grave. The fine hairs on his body stood on end, as if a primal part of him sensed a presence. He turned and for one moment he wondered if he’d been transported into the twilight zone. Two pairs of identical, hostile, blue eyes stared at him. If he’d been sitting, his desk would’ve hid their faces from the nose down.

They looked oddly familiar. He didn’t know children, but he judged them to be about three or four years old and they would’ve been identical except that one of them had a slight upward slant to his eyes.

Something about those blue eyes, that contrasted strikingly with their dark skin tone, tugged at his memory. Their gazes burned with such intelligence, they glowed like diamonds shining in sunlight. They also blazed sheer hatred at him. That emotion sat wrong on the little faces. It was obscene for such young children to know such a harsh emotion.

“Please, you have to believe me, Rafe, these are your children I’m carrying.” The memory came out of nowhere, hitting him like a one-two punch. Why would that voice from the past haunt him today? Rafe pushed that thought down with the same ruthless determination he’d used to rebuild his life five years ago.

He sat down in his chair and smiled at them. “You guys could make money in the intimidation business. I might have a job for you when you grow up.” He’d point them at the asshole with the plummy accent who’d just tried to intimidate him. After facing gangs and drug dealers and domestic violence that killed your soul, few things scared or intimidated him.

They didn’t react, just continued to stare at him and he suspected they knew very well how intimidating they were. Unfortunately, they’d chosen the wrong victim. The silence lengthened until the kids exchanged a meaningful look.

“We learned lawyers,” the one on the left said at last. In a tone he probably thought was threatening. Well, actually it was, even coming from such a small person. Those identical blue gazes had The Shining going on big time.

“That’s interesting.” He didn’t know much about kids, but weren’t they supposed to ask you for candy or cry for their parents? These two looked like they could kill him and ensure that no one ever found the body. Again he marveled at the intelligence that shone in those eyes. He shrugged off that foolish thought. They were only kids, almost babies. “Are your parents working in this building?” He’d never had any occasion to interact with his employees’ children. He owned the building, but four of the twelve floors were hired by lawyers, accountants, and other businesses.

“We learnt sewing,” the talkative twin on the left continued, ignoring the reference to their parents.

“Sewing?” Rafe leaned back in his black leather chair and folded his arms across his chest, suppressing his amusement. He’d send his PA, Abbey, to look for their parents in a moment, when this conversation wasn’t strangely amusing anymore.

The silent one bumped the talkative one and mumbled something.

“S-u-i-n-g,” the child spelled out as if he spoke to a moron. Rafe had to grind his teeth together not to laugh. “We are sewing you and you will pay us.”

Hugely entertained, he relaxed back in his leather chair. Their serious expressions and unexpected words were a welcome diversion after a tedious morning spent talking to stodgy disapproving board members. “What will I pay for?” Who were these kids?

“You will pay for our school and a car for Mommy and the hospital bills.”

He was about to ask them what made them think he owed them or their mother money, when the silent one mumbled again. Rafe suspected that his mumble was more dangerous than a run on his bank. They both fixed him with looks so angry he had to check a recoil.

“We’re gonna make you pay lots for making Mommy cry,” the talkative twin said between clenched teeth. There was something familiar about their eyes, the shape of their faces. Did he know their parents?

Those blue eyes, their age—a possibility occurred to him, but he shrugged it off—that would be too big a coincidence. Unless she put them up to this.

A commotion sounded outside and the twins looked uneasy for the first time. She rushed into the room. Rafe stood up so fast, his chair crashed against the wall-to-ceiling window behind him. His brows drew together and his neck muscles tensed. It was like a punch to his gut.

Lindi, the woman who’d betrayed him in the worst way a woman can betray her man. He never thought to see her again, had forced himself not to try to find out where she was.

She wasn’t the slim teenager he’d known before. In the five years since he’d last seen her, she’d filled out, become even more beautiful, exuding the same self-assurance he’d seen in the twins.

Her slim figure had become hourglass shaped and she wore her hair shorter. His body stirred and he hated that she still got to him after all this time. She’d become a woman, a woman with self-confidence. A woman who was the mother of another man’s children. He scowled; his hands tingled with the need to know this self-assured woman. He didn’t give second chances. There would be no touching of those dangerous curves.

Her blond hair was up in a fancy roll at the back of her head. A silky string had escaped and curled over her cheek and spiraled past her chin. It only added to the overall picture of sex on legs. She was dressed in a suit with a slim, cream-colored skirt and heels that did amazing things for her already stunning legs. She used to wrap those long legs around his hips, held him deep inside her. Had sighed that she’d never wanted him to leave her. And fool that he was, he’d believed her lies.

She didn’t even glance at Rafe, her focus on the two kids shuffling their feet. He didn’t like being ignored.

“Rafael, Donatello what on Earth are you doing here? How did you get away from the receptionist? I told you to sit quietly and wait for me.” Lindi’s voice rose and she grabbed the arm of each and shook them softly, fear stark in her every action. Rafe was about to intervene when she shuddered, closed her eyes, and abruptly knelt before them and hugged them, fear still etched on her face. “How would I live without you guys?” She rose and kept her hands on their shoulders. “Don’t scare me like that. I can’t lose you.”

Rafe crossed his arms over his chest. Her husky voice stroked over his nerves, like it used to before she’d smashed his world to pieces with her lies. Didn’t she notice him, or did she deliberately not look at him? He couldn’t help but wonder if she manipulated the twins to ask him for money? The thought left a sour taste in his mouth.

“I rather think they came to see me.” He drawled and saw her stiffen, close her eyes for a long moment, and slowly turned to look at him.

She faced him. Time slowed. Her face drained of color until those angry blue eyes contrasted sharply with her paper-white face. The same blue eyes the twins sported. Except for their darker skin tone, they were carbon copies of their mother. The silence lengthened and every cell in his body felt the tension and then she flinched and shuddered as her breath hitched. Her hands on the twins’ shoulders trembled. Through all this, she didn’t look away from him, as if she was a mouse confronted by a hungry snake. “Rafe,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“The name,” he said deliberately, “is Rafaello.” She’d lost the right to call him that when she’d betrayed him.

She flinched again, took a step back, dragging the twins back with her. There was something valiant in the way she stopped the retreat, lifted her chin, and held his gaze. Did she remember the times they spent together? The hours lazily making love and sometimes, after a grueling match with such impetuous heat, they’d lose consciousness. Afterward she’d lie on his chest, lazily stroking and petting him, while she told him it was a miracle the sheets didn’t catch fire when they entered the bedroom. She’d make plans for their future, while he’d been content to be in the moment.

Did she now lavish that sensual abandon on the twin’s father, or some other lucky bastard? Because there would be another man—she was too beautiful and seductive to be single. Even with two children in tow. Her lips twisted and she looked at him with unbridled contempt. Rafe clenched his hands. She had no right to look at him that way.

He walked around the desk, enjoyed the way the twins’ eyes widened when they had to look up and up the closer he got. Their mother wasn’t as easily intimidated. She raked him with the kind of contempt only a woman could manage to convey.

“Did you send them in here? Why are they ‘sewing’ me?” If this was an attempt to get money from him, she’d soon learn her mistake? He had to give it to her, it had to be the most original attempt he’d ever experienced, but also the most contemptible. Still, she’d known him as well as anyone had five years ago. She should know that blackmail didn’t work on him.

She frowned and touched her disheveled blond hair. “Sewing you?”

The twins exchanged one of those silent glances and inched toward the door.

Rafe stepped closer to the woman who’d almost driven him to his knees five years ago, again using his height to his advantage.

“Apparently, I have to pay for numerous bills, a car, and for making you cry.” They’d also mentioned hospital bills. Who’d been sick? Lindi or the children? Even suspecting she might be trying to fleece him, he didn’t like the idea of her sick. An image of the twins in hospital, their spirits dimmed, flashed through his mind.

They locked gazes and spoke in the silent way they used to, as if it was yesterday they did this last instead of five years ago. You lied to me, his eyes said. Why didn’t you love me enough to trust me? hers asked. Lindi closed her eyes, breaking their intimate bond, and stood unmoving, then she released a shuddering sigh and turned her back on him, the motion one of such pure disdain, he gnashed his teeth. There was a finality to it that shouldn’t bother him, but it did. “Let’s go Rafael, Donatello, we’ll talk about this at home.” The twins looked as if they wanted to make a run for it.

Now when it was too late, Abbey rushed in. “Sorry, Rafe, the phone rang off—”

He held up a hand and she went quiet, her eyes widening when she saw Lindi and the twins. The two boys looked as if they wanted to stay and threaten him some more, but didn’t quite dare defy Lindi.

“Boys, we’re leaving,” this new Lindi said in a no-nonsense mommy voice, and she managed to make even that sound sexy. She adjusted the long strap of her handbag over her head and across her body, and with her bag secured, she took each child by the hand and walked out, her shoulders square and proud, and it had to be the most tragic thing he’d ever seen in his life. The silent twin looked back over his shoulder and his look promised retribution. Sewing you, he mouthed.

Rafe suppressed a laugh. Arrogant little shit. The kid reminded him of himself. He clasped the back of his neck and rubbed the tense muscles under his hand. No, he wasn’t going down that alley. They were not his children and he had the paternity test results to prove it.

The implication of what she’d called them and the twins wanting to sue him specifically hit him. Rafe clenched his fists. What did she fill their heads with all these years? “You told them I was their father?” He had to force the words out through his clenched teeth.

Lindi paused for a moment. She turned to face him, her mouth opening and closing as if she struggled for words. Then she looked down at the children, bit her trembling lip, and straightened her shoulders, and holding onto their hands, she left.

Abbey looked as if she wanted to disappear into the wall and at the same time she listened avidly.

“Let’s go, kids,” Lindi said, and with that, they all left his office without a backward look. “Will you still pull our ears, Mommy?” one of the twins asked.

Pull their ears? Ignoring his receptionist, Rafe walked to the door, watching as Lindi rushed to the elevators. He heard the talkative one mumble, slightly out of breath from trying to keep up with Lindi’s angry strides. “At least we know we won’t stay short. Indications are we should both grow at least six feet tall.” He scratched his head with his free hand. “Probably taller.”

Rafe didn’t know children, but he was relatively sure no four-year-old would say ‘indications are’.

“I don’t care, I don’t wanna look like him and I don’t wanna bounce a stupid ball around anyway,” the silent one said sullenly. There was a faint slur to the way he spoke. As if he couldn’t quite wrap his tongue around the words. “Bruce is our father anyway.”

“Quiet, both of you. I will deal with you when we get home,” Lindi said in a tightly controlled voice. Again, that determined husky sound got to him. What did ‘deal with them’ entail? he wondered uneasily.

“We only wanted—”

Their voices faded as they moved away.

“Silent,” she said. “I don’t want to hear anything more about Bruce or—”

The elevator door opened, swallowed the small family, and whisked them away from him.

Rafe walked back to his desk. “I don’t want to hear it,” he said to Abbey.

Who was this Bruce character? Why did they want to sue Rafe if they knew who their father was?

“Should I stop the children from seeing you if they come back?” she asked. She’d worked for him for three years now and he didn’t doubt she’d seen the old gossip online. Abbey was fifty-two and married, with two daughters and four grandchildren that kept her too busy to want to chase him for his money.

Rafe hesitated, looked down at his cell phone lying on his desk. “No, let them in if they return. I’ll deal with them.” The kids were oddly entertaining; that’s why he’d let them get past Abby. Sure, it’s not because you want to see Lindi again, a voice in his head mocked. This new self-assured Lindi with the sexy body.

“And their pretty mother?” she asked innocently.

He glared at her. “Don’t you have work to do?”

She laughed and walked out and Rafe went to the large wall-to-wall window behind his desk. With his hands balled in his pockets, he stared at the majestic view of Manhattan without seeing it. She’d named her children after him. Rafe shuddered. Apart from the fact that she had no right to do that, Rafe’s mother had named him after the teenage mutant ninja turtles. No boy deserves to be named after turtles. He’d had the shit beaten out of him anytime some asshole teacher called him by his full names. “Dial the chief of security,” he said and listened as the phone dialed the number.

“Rafe,” the owner of the security company he used said over the phone. A former basketball player himself, Jose had gone into business and opened his own security firm. The man knew his stuff, and Rafe sometimes wondered if it was because of the fact that he had been arrested several times by the time he was eighteen.

Rafe said, “A woman and two small children are leaving the building. Have them followed and stay on them and find out what she was doing in this building.” He didn’t believe in coincidence. As entertaining as that meeting with the twins was, he couldn’t discount the possibility that she’d coached them.

“Yes, sir.”

He continued to stare out the window. Those kids believed he was their father, despite this Bruce character that was in the picture. A small part of him, a part he didn’t want to acknowledge, wished they had his eyes instead of hers. That they were made in his image. Then he could’ve let her convince him there’d been a mistake all those years ago. He’d have Lindi again and two sons and maybe he’d be able to fool himself that he trusted her. That he was the kind of man a woman could love as well as desire.