Evan shouldn't have felt like the floor had opened up and his chair had plunged eighteen floors to the marble lobby of Hart, Pool, and Gerhardt. He should have known this was coming. That Whitney would think of the most devious way to play this out.
Not to mention the most hurtful to Paige.
"We could start fresh, Evan." Whitney looked at him with watery eyes. "The past would all be erased. Wouldn't you like that? To go back to the way we were in the beginning? Before Paige came between us? We were so in love. We can have all that again. That's what I really want. And I know, in your heart, you do too."
At long last, the shock wore off and his brain started working again. He licked his own teeth, then pointed at hers. "You've got some lipstick on your teeth."
Looking horrified, she reached for her mouth to rub it off.
He could have gotten nastier. He could have told her to go screw herself. He could have said that she was the last woman on planet Earth that he would ever consider touching again. He could have made it clear that he'd rather be celibate for the rest of his life than get back together with her.
But he was a Maverick. And he knew better than anyone how to control a negotiation.
Even when he was sitting across from the devil.
"I'm going to pass."
She stared at him a moment, as if she couldn't even begin to fathom that he would turn her down. It was her turn to plunge eighteen floors.
Her eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed into a thin line as the real Whitney came out to play. "Then I will drag your lover, my sister--" She stabbed her chest with a pointed finger. "--who you've been screwing behind my back, through the mud. I will ruin her career. I will destroy her."
It was his worst nightmare. That Whitney would hurt Paige again. And that she would annihilate anything he and Paige could have together.
His hands were starting to tense when he stopped. Breathed. Thought of Paige.
Paige, who was as caring as Susan.
Paige, who'd only ever tried to help him.
Paige, who had remained his friend through everything.
Paige, who had risked opening her heart to him completely.
Paige, who was fearless. Magnificent.
And who loved him.
"Two can sling mud," he said in a deliberately soft voice. "Do you really want your friends and all of San Francisco high society to know why I left you? The gossip magazines would have a field day with that."
She eyed him like he was a rattler she'd suddenly found coiled at her feet. "It's your word against mine," she said, but her tone wasn't quite so haughty anymore.
Keeping his gaze on her, he held his hand out. "Henry, the folder, please."
Henry was perfectly professional as he fished a folder out of the stack in front of him and laid it in Evan's hand. Still, his lawyer couldn't quite contain the gleam of victory in his eyes.
"You really shouldn't have left a paper trail." Evan set the closed folder on the table in front of him. "And you shouldn't piss off people who might later be willing to testify against you."
Her face turned a sickly shade of pale.
"While I was out of the country, Henry was hard at work on my behalf. It's amazing how much documentation he found regarding the little lies you told."
"Now just a minute," Randall P. Craig started to bluster. Not so much of a shark anymore, was he?
Evan put his finger to his lips. Then he turned back to Whitney. "The divorce settlement is already more than generous. I've even decided to throw in the Atherton house in exchange for the San Francisco flat. You can keep all the artwork you stole while I was away, except the Dali. I suggest you take this offer. Or you won't have anything left when you lose. Nothing at all." He gave her a long look. "Because, make no mistake, Whitney, if you want to fight, I will fight."
Her lawyer looked like he was about to have a coronary as he said, "Mrs. Collins--"
She held up a hand. "Let me think."
"Go ahead and think, Whitney." Evan's voice was deadly. "Think of your reputation in this town when all your lies come out. Think of all the parties you won't be invited to. Think of how everyone will laugh. About you."
She drew in a deep breath, glared at him, then let her breath hiss between her teeth. Teeth that still had a smear of red across the front. "All right."
"I also want a nondisclosure agreement. You say one word about Paige, and it's all over."
"I said all right," she snapped through clenched teeth, her voice louder, sharper. "The nondisclosure applies to you too."
He could live with that. "Agreed."
"When do I get the house?"
"After everything is final."
"What about the Mortimers?"
"They don't belong to the house."
She huffed out a breath, then waved her hand. "All right, fine."
He felt the urge to laugh. Paige hated that word. Fine. So did he. Although, right now, he'd happily take it from his ex.
"I'll make the agreed upon amendments to the settlement immediately," Henry said, "and have them sent over by courier this afternoon."
Whitney stood, shaking off her lawyer's touch as he put an assisting hand on her elbow. On her mile-high heels, she stalked out ahead of him.
Good-bye, Whitney. And good riddance.
Henry clapped him on the back. "I'll send you the new draft for approval in a couple of hours. Then we'll get her to sign immediately."
The sooner the better.
He wanted Whitney out of his life.
And he wanted Paige in.
Chapter Thirty
The red light on Paige's desk phone flashed, indicating her next patient had arrived. Except that she didn't have another patient. Edward Wood was her last of the day, and they still had fifteen minutes to go.
But she never interrupted a session unless it was an emergency. If need be, her receptionist would have called instead of simply flipping on the light.
Turning her focus back to the middle-aged man in her office, she said, "How did you feel when she said that, Edward?"
His wife had just left him for a younger man. A much younger man, to the tune of twenty years. Edward was still sorting through his emotions, which was one of his wife's--ex-wife's--complaints, that he had no emotions.
"I guess I deserve it. She always said this would happen if I didn't change myself. And she was right."
"Perhaps," Paige suggested, "you could try thinking of it in another light. How about this?" Over the next few minutes, she detailed an alternative to his self-destructive thinking.
Her specialty was family therapy, but she never turned away anyone in distress. Edward was definitely in distress, even if he couldn't figure out exactly why. Yet.
When their remaining fifteen minutes were up, she ushered him out.
And her unscheduled patient stepped in.
"Evan."
She threw herself into his arms. Didn't stop to think it over. Didn't hesitate even the slightest. She simply gave herself wholly over to what felt right. To what she knew was right.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and when she pulled back, his expression was serious.
"Your assistant said you're done for the day," he said in a deep voice that rumbled through her deliciously. "But I was hoping you could squeeze me in."
"Of course I can." Her heart was racing as she took a step back. Then she closed the door. And locked it. Whatever he wanted to say to her, it was obviously something big. Important enough that he didn't want to say it over dinner or in bed. She gestured to the couch, then took her usual seat.
"Please," she said ever so professionally, "tell me what I can help you with." Was it something to do with Whitney? Or his birth mother?
He was gorgeous in a dark blue suit, white shirt, and striped tie. And more serious than she'd ever seen him as he said, "I have a terrible confession to make."
"This is a very safe environment. You can say absolutely anything to me without fear, Evan. A
nything at all."
His deep gaze pierced her. "I made a huge mistake nine years ago."
Her face felt overly hot, and her pulse beat against her eardrums as he continued.
"Despite everything Susan and Bob did for me, there was still a part of that little boy who didn't feel loved, who didn't think he deserved to be loved, who thought it was his fault that he'd been left behind. And yet I needed love so desperately that it made me blind to what real love was." He paused. "Right from the beginning, Whitney said everything she thought I wanted to hear. Her tactics were brilliantly insidious. Other women would only use me, she claimed, but not her. She made me believe she was the only one who could fill my deep, dark void. Made me believe that she would never hurt me the way I'd been hurt before."
Yes, that was Whitney. Absolutely. She figured out a person's biggest weakness and their deepest need and exploited both. "I wanted to warn you what Whitney was like," Paige interjected, "but I was jealous. I knew that had to be coloring my emotions. I hoped she might have changed. That maybe finding someone as good as you had worked a miracle."
"Even if you had warned me, I'm not sure I would have believed you. If there's anything worse for a guy than admitting he's weak, I don't know what it would be. But it's a fact--I was weak with her. And she knew it."
"You're not weak."
"Not anymore," he agreed, emotion swimming across his face. "Because of you. Because of your love."
"Did you know?" Her words were soft. But she had to say them, had to know. "Did you know I loved you all this time?"
"I couldn't let myself even think about how you felt. I didn't believe I could ever be good enough to deserve you. Whereas with Whitney..." A muscle jumped in his cheek. "Her darkness matched mine."
"No." Paige bristled with outrage at that statement. "Nothing about your insides, nothing about who you are, matches anything about Whitney."
"I know that now." Regret was steeped in every line on his face. "I'm sorry it took me so long to see the truth, Paige. To see you."
She went to him then, tossing out the pretense of being therapist and client, because he was absolutely everything to her. "I love that you finally see your true worth, how good you are. I love that you finally see me and my love. That I don't have to keep my feelings a secret from you. And that Whitney can't hurt either of us, because we won't let her."
He was holding her on his lap, his arms around her waist, hers around his neck, their lips close enough to touch. "You're damned right we won't." A hit of renewed fury sparked in his eyes. "Today, I kicked her out of our lives."
Our lives. How she loved the sound of that.
"We went head to head with the lawyers. And she never stood a chance."
"Of course she didn't." Her heart ached for him, though, as she guessed, "Even in battle, you were kind, weren't you? Too kind."
"I'm giving her the house, but it was always her house, not mine. The only room I liked was the library. Because of the time you and I spent there together."
She'd never forget all the precious moments she'd shared with him in that library. When she was just his friend...and he was always so much more to her.
"I'm glad she can't hurt you anymore."
"I won't let her hurt you again either. Not," he added, "that you need me to protect you. You're so strong, Paige."
"I am." She knew that now, with a certainty that no one and nothing could ever take away from her. "When she came to my condo, she admitted that she knew I was in love with you all along. From the day she met you in my dorm room. She told me it only made it better to take you for herself. To make sure I could never have you."
"Jesus, Paige." Grief and guilt welled up in him. "I was so freaking blind."
"You just wanted to be loved." She held his face in her hands. "But you always have been. I love you. Susan and Bob love you. Your friends love you." She wanted to tell him that Theresa loved him too, despite the way she'd hurt him. But for all his epiphanies today, was he ready to hear that one?
"How?" He looked at her in wonder. "How can you be so different from her?"
She stroked her hands along his arms. "She was the baby, while I had to be the responsible one. She felt entitled and privileged because my parents indulged her." Paige shook her head. "Why on earth do you think I became a psychologist? To figure her out. And to get her to change. But I couldn't do either."
"I know how hard that is to accept about someone in your family," he said. "That they're a monster who can't be changed."
They weren't talking about Whitney anymore, but about his father. Before she could speak, he brushed the hair back from her face and said, "Talk to me, Paige. I wasn't ready to listen before, but I am now. I want to know what you think. What you feel. With nothing held back anymore."
Anyone else would have made their declarations, their apologies, then happily moved on. But Evan wasn't just anyone. He was a brilliant, brave man. A Maverick.
And her one true love.
She had to kiss him then. To let him know, without words, just how much he meant to her before she pushed him to go to even more uncomfortable, raw places.
"Your epiphany about how a low sense of self-worth held you back from finding real, honest love is wonderful. The way you've dealt with Whitney and banished a powerful emotional vampire from your life is amazing."
"But?"
"No buts." She threaded her fingers through his. "How good does it feel to be free of Whitney?"
"Best feeling ever."
As much as she ached to do it, as much as it would hurt him, she had to ask, "How good do you think it would feel to forgive your mother?"
Chapter Thirty-One
He'd known what Paige would say. Because he'd deliberately opened the door for her.
Knowing a tornado was coming, however, didn't make its power any less fierce. It still whipped you up, spun you around, threatened to destroy you completely.
Only Paige could have kept him grounded. Only Paige could have kept him whole when everything inside of him was threatening to break apart.
"Whitney was the easy one," he finally said. "Everything with her ended up being black and white. Cut and dried. But with my mother, there are so many shades, so many sides, to what happened."
"Each betrayal is different." Paige's voice was soft, reaching inside him. "Some people are worthy of a second chance. Some aren't worthy of any kind of forgiveness. Whitney was calculated, plotting. But your mother was a beaten woman. Her choices weren't necessarily rational."
"No, she wasn't rational. She couldn't be when she was scared out of her mind." He leaned into the silky feel of Paige's hair against his cheek, her warmth. She made everything seem good, even when the bad threatened to overwhelm. She was solid, even in the midst of chaos. Her hands on his arms, the caress of her fingers--even through his shirt, the sensation worked some sort of alchemy on him. She made all his jumbled thoughts and emotions seem so much clearer. "What my mother did by leaving me was wrong." That fact would never change. But there were more facts that he needed to give his mother credit for. "Before she left, she did her best to protect me from my father by hiding me or taking the beatings herself. And when she found out she was pregnant, she made the only choice she could for the twins, two defenseless babies, to protect them as best she could."
Paige soothed him with her touch. "I'm so sorry for what that man did to you both."
"I am too." He pulled back, stroked his fingers over her cheek. "He had too much power over her, over me, while he was alive. He's been gone a long time, and both of us need to stop letting him have that power. We both need to move on. Fully. Completely." He forced himself to acknowledge the painful memories one more brutal time. And then he finally let them go. "My mother did an amazing job raising the twins. They're good people. Because of her."
"Do you realize that you've been calling her your mother? Instead of Theresa?"
"Maybe," he said slowly, "my feelings are changing." He was changing, with Paige'
s help. "But I'm afraid she'll continue to make bad choices."
"If she does," Paige said, "do you think you can love her and forgive her anyway?"
The answer hit him like a lightning bolt aimed straight at his heart.
"Yes. I can." After all these years, he suddenly saw things clearly. "Because she isn't the only one who's made, and who will likely keep making, mistakes."
"No," Paige said, emotion brimming in the short word. "She isn't. Not even close. We're human, so we make mistakes. All of us."
"I'm sorry," he said again. "Sorry for all the mistakes I made with you. Sorry for all the mistakes I'll make in the future."
"I forgive you. For all of it." Her lips trembled. "Just as I hope you'll forgive me for not telling you how I felt nine years ago. And for pushing you again and again to face the darkness when I know how hard and painful it is to walk back into the shadows."
"I love you."
Her eyes widened, then her tears spilled over.
"I love you, Paige."
He wanted to say it again and again. A billion times. Now that he'd finally said the words, he couldn't stop. He never would. She would just have to get used to hearing those three little words a thousand times a day. Days, weeks, years, decades that he couldn't wait to spend with her. To explore with her by his side. In his heart.
"I love you so damned much. I love you for being so damned brave. I love you for being so damned steadfast. I love you for pushing me to see that my mother deserves my forgiveness. And that I do too, for being so blind that I picked the wrong woman. I love you, Paige, for being joy and light and wonder." He held her tight to his heart, his body, his soul. "I love you with everything I am."
*
Evan loved her.
He'd forgiven his mother. He'd changed his life. He was whole.
And he was hers.
Finally.
"I love you," she said as he dipped his head to kiss her throat. "You're everything I could ever want."
"Tell me what you want, Paige." He lifted his face to hers. "Tell me, and I'll give it to you. Anything you want. Everything you want."
Didn't he know? "All I want is you."
"I'm yours."
She wanted to revel in this moment forever. Wanted to block out the rest of the world, if only for a short precious time, and focus everything on love.