Out of love.
"I understand now." She gazed at her father for long, agonizing moments, at his haggard features, his downhill slide. "I love you, Dad. I always have and I always will, no matter what you've done. Because you made me feel loved. But I'm not a child anymore, and I can't stand by and watch you destroy Drew. And I won't watch you destroy other people either. You have to stop making excuses, saying that it was okay because I was only a subcontractor."
"But it was only greedy people looking to get rich quick," her father insisted.
She held up a hand to stop him from saying more. For the first time, her father shushed. She sensed Daniel's outrage in his bristling body, and her outrage equaled his.
"Don't you dare try to justify what you do," she said. "You're not Robin Hood. You're not some sort of do-gooder." She narrowed her eyes to a glare. "And if your lies and cheating and stealing weren't bad enough, you dragged Drew into it."
"Your brother--" her father started.
She couldn't bear another excuse, so she turned to Drew. "Tell me the truth. Do you really want this for the rest of your life? To go on stealing? Because that's what it is."
"I'm tired." His cracked voice sounded so weary. "And I'm done. I've been done since..." He shook his head sadly. "Since I lost you three months ago, Tash."
He'd lost her the first time he'd helped her father with one of his schemes. Because he'd lost himself. But now that they'd found each other again, she wanted so badly to believe him. And to believe in him.
Maybe this was one of those times when looking on the bright side and seeing the best in people wasn't a flaw.
She might end up being wrong for giving her brother a second chance. But she sensed that her belief in him would help the brother she loved actually become the good person he was capable of being. If she had faith in Drew and was there to buoy him up if he ever doubted, then maybe he could eventually find the will to trust in himself.
Maybe that's what family was all about. Believing in them enough to make sure they believed in themselves. Just as Daniel's mother believed in every one of her kids.
She went to her brother and took his hands in hers. "I believe in you, Drew."
"You shouldn't."
But she wasn't that easily scared away. Not anymore. "I do."
Then she turned back to her father. "Before I leave tonight, you're going to promise me two things."
"What?" Her father looked mulish. But also a little cowed by her.
"That you're going to pay back every single penny to every single person you owe."
"Impossible!"
"I'm sure you have records of all of them," she replied in a firm tone. "And if not, I'm happy to find them for you and send each one a personal note to let them know their money is on its way back to them. Got it?"
He looked like a chastised child, pouting after being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Fine."
"Good. And second, you're going to stop your cons, once and for all. If I find out that you haven't--and believe me, I will--I'll make sure the feds have enough information about what you've done to lock you up. Forever."
He stared at her. For a long while. "You've changed."
"I have." She wouldn't apologize for finally finding her strength. "And now it's time for you to change. Long past time."
His mouth was set in a firm line. But he nodded.
Tasha felt as though she'd sprinted an entire marathon. But she still had one more very important thing to say. "I love you both. You're my family. I only want you to be able to do what's good and what's right. That's all I've ever wanted."
Her father picked at the white sheets. No matter what he said, she believed the things he'd done weighed on him. The panic attack proved it.
Or, if she took off her rose-colored glasses, maybe he was just afraid of getting caught.
But even if her father was a lost cause, she believed in Drew. Her brother could change--and she wouldn't give up on him until he did.
Gathering Daniel's hand in hers, leaning into him for the comfort he had always been so quick to give, she said to her brother, "Tell me where you've been the past three months."
And she listened to their story.
*
Daniel was so damn proud of Tasha, his heart felt near to bursting. Even as he'd wanted to crush her old man for what he'd done to her, for the pain he'd caused, for his betrayal. For making Tasha lose her ability to trust. For making her doubt herself.
Daniel wanted to help her heal, and healing was in every word she'd said. She'd gone to bat for her brother and hadn't accepted her father's excuses. But neither had she withheld her love.
Love was the most important thing.
No matter what her family had done.
It was something he wished his mother and father had realized about themselves long before now. His mother had forgiven everyone else--but she hadn't forgiven herself. If she had, she never would have kept her secrets from him. She would never have been afraid of what he'd think of her.
He could only hope that after their conversation, she'd finally seen that she had nothing to ask his forgiveness for. In fact, his mother had helped him find Tasha, to accept Tasha just the way she was.
No one was perfect. But Tasha was still perfect for him.
It was after midnight by the time they left her father's room. It had been a long, long day, and she leaned into him as they rode the elevator to the penthouse suite he'd booked. He'd wanted to give her luxury, something she could totally unwind in, with a jetted tub, thick comforters, and the softest mattress.
Inside the suite, he sat her down on the sofa in the sunken living room and went to one knee in front of her to remove her sandals.
A colossal fruit basket sat on the coffee table, compliments of Walter Braedon, owner of the Regent Hotel. In addition, champagne chilled in a bucket, and two crystal flutes sparkled in the lamplight.
She flopped back against the sofa, and when he began to massage her feet, she groaned her appreciation. Her eyes closed, she asked, "Do you think my father will change?"
"I don't know." He always wanted to be honest with her. "But your brother already has."
They'd left him in her father's sick room. The two had roamed the country for the last three months, never staying any one place for long, always paying cash, which meant they'd slept in cheap motels that didn't require credit cards, eaten fast food, and probably drunk too much as well.
"Do you know what I think? Your brother only stayed because he thought your father needed him." Daniel worked up her right leg, then the other, unknotting her calf muscles.
"That feels so good." Opening her eyes, she held out her hand. "But come here beside me. I want to apologize."
He gathered her into his arms, the place he always wanted her to be. "You have nothing to apologize for."
"I do. When we first met, I was mean to you."
He laughed. "You really don't know the meaning of mean." He'd loved her feistiness, her banter.
"I refused everything, questioned everything, like your intentions were suspect. Like you weren't worth trusting."
"Sweetheart," he whispered. "What else were you going to think about some strange guy after what you'd been through with your own family?"
She shook her head. "The thing is, I did my friends a disservice too. I left them in order to punish myself. But I ended up punishing them as well. I want them back. I want to explain everything and make it right again."
He laid his hand over hers. "They'll understand."
"I hope so. It's taken me a while, but I think I finally see what your story about Whitney and your mom and Evan really means." She looked into his eyes. "If you never believe in people, if you can't see the good in them, then you can never truly believe in yourself. So if I want Drew to see the good in himself, I have to see it too. And if I want my friends back, I have to believe we can all forgive." She gave him a small smile, but one that lit her eyes. "Even ourselves."
&n
bsp; His heart swelled, and the words came out of him in a rush.
"That's exactly what I want my mother to hear. That she needs to forgive herself. It's as important as forgiving other people. Maybe more so."
"What could your mother possibly have done that needs forgiveness? She's perfect."
"My mother is incredible. But no one is perfect." When Tasha's eyebrows went up in question, he explained, "I'd been getting these weird signals from her ever since I came to the mountains. Like there was something she was hiding from me, something that made her really uncomfortable. She even hung up on me once."
"Why?"
"It turns out that she got pregnant with me before she and my dad were married. And she ran away from him. She didn't even tell him about me."
Tasha looked shocked. "What was she planning to do?"
"Her mom wanted her to give me away, but she insisted on keeping me. She just wasn't going to tell Dad." Then he told Tasha the whole story.
Talking about it wasn't a betrayal of his mom, it was an affirmation of everything she'd been through.
And it was an affirmation of everything Tasha had gone through as well.
"I always thought the perfect relationship meant that you never argued, you never hit any bumps in the road, you always saw eye to eye on everything, that you never kept a secret or made a mistake that hurt the one you loved." He cupped Tasha's cheek, stroked his finger over her bottom lip. "But now I can see that perfect simply means learning how to forgive and to accept and to do everything you can to love with your whole heart."
She turned into his touch, kissing his palm. "I was afraid I might not be worthy of your family. That they were pillars of strength I could never live up to. But it turns out that they're human, just like me."
"Like me too." He let his gaze wander over every strong, striking feature of her face. "It was your love that helped me realize I had to be brave enough to talk to my mom. To ask her what was wrong."
"I love that we've given each other strength," she said. "Your love helped me face my father and my love helped you talk with your mom. You and me together--we feel exactly right. Maybe," she said with a grin, "even a little bit perfect."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tasha didn't know how long they held each other. All she knew was that she'd never been so happy, never felt so good. So whole. "I want to make love with you, Daniel. I want to give you everything the way you've always given everything to me."
"You've already done that."
He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the dark bedroom. Her feet slid to the carpet, but she stayed on tiptoe, her head tipped back so she could see his beautiful, amazing face. Giving him everything started with confessing the last of her fears.
"When I saw your apartment today--and your plane--and Matt's house--I was afraid. Of how rich you are. Of how hard it could be to live up to all that."
"You know my money doesn't mean anything."
"But it does. It's what all my father's dirty deeds were about. Money is..." She searched for the right words, desperately needing him to understand. "Money is something you earn. It's not something you deserve. And for a while today, I started to lose ground, because I was afraid I didn't deserve you. That I hadn't been good enough. That I'd made too many mistakes, and I hadn't paid enough for them. And yes, I didn't believe that I deserved your family either. But with my father tonight, I realized what I needed to deserve wasn't your money, but your strength. Your loyalty. Your love." She held his face in her hands just as he had held hers. "I'm making a promise to you, right here, right now, that I will never stop giving all those things to you, just the way you've always given them to me."
He crushed her to him then, and together they fell to the bed.
"You're everything to me," he vowed. "I never dreamed you would fall into my life."
"From a roof, no less," she said with a smile that was full of more joy than she'd ever known was possible.
*
"I love you," he whispered against her lips before he parted them and went deep. Tasted her, tasted sweetness, tasted love. "You are so beautiful, inside and out." He would never cease to be amazed by her. "I'm going to make love to you for the rest of my life." It was a promise, a vow.
He reached between them, pulling her clothes off, his fingers grazing her until she shivered with the erotic contact. Reveling in the heat of her, in the bounty of her breasts, he lavished kisses on the pearled tips. Then finally she was naked. He tore at his clothes, because the only thing in the world he needed now was her skin against his.
He entered her with a slow reverence, their bodies generating heat like the inside of a volcano.
"Daniel." She arched, pushed her head back into the mattress, taking him deeper ever so slowly.
The times they'd had each other were out of this world, but after everything they'd revealed to each other, this was a true communion. He needed to relish each moment of it. Every moment of her.
He went to his knees, holding himself inside her, draping her legs over his thighs. "Tasha," he whispered. "I'll remember the sight of you like this forever."
Her skin was tinged pink, her eyes half-lidded with desire, her lips moist and red from his kisses. He ran his fingers over her stomach, savoring her, then finally dropped to her hips and pulled her tight against him.
She rewarded him with a delicious moan. "Please," she begged.
He held her, moved slowly inside her, so damn slowly it was exquisite torture. "Do you feel that?"
She cried out, her hands on his arms, her body clutching him from the inside, and he breathed harshly to stave off his own pleasure. As she dug her heels into the mattress, all her muscles tightening, he found her perfect spot and rode it relentlessly, his strokes short and slow. Driving them both to the edge of wildness.
It was all he could do not to lose control as her body tightened and released, squeezed and rolled. She moved with him, unconsciously trying to take him deeper, harder, faster.
His blood pounded, his body wanting to unleash, yet his mind needed this. Flushed with arousal, her lips parted, her breasts rising, falling, every muscle tensed. And the glorious sight of him filling her, the intimate connection, the ultimate ownership, his and hers.
Then he moved his hands between her thighs and Tasha went wild, crying out her pleasure, grabbing his arms, her nails biting where she held him, her body spasming around him.
Until the moment he couldn't hold out a second longer, falling on her, thrusting high and deep, her cries filling him up. There was only her, the pleasure, the feel of her around him, and the explosion rocketing through him as she dragged him into the glorious wildness with her.
*
Tasha woke in the morning to the scent of coffee and bacon and toast, and the sound of the suite's front door closing. Daniel had slung a fluffy robe across the foot of the bed for her, and she drew its thick folds around her, feeling lusciously naked beneath the soft material.
Delicious scents drew her out to the living room. Daniel wore the matching robe, the lapels hanging open to reveal tanned skin that she wanted to kiss all over, just the way she had last night.
"Coffee?" He held up the pot. "Or juice."
Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she whispered in his ear, "You."
He pulled her around to sit in his lap, kissing her breathless. "If you keep doing that," he told her, "our breakfast will get cold."
"I don't mind if breakfast gets cold."
Of course, that was right when Daniel's phone rang again. Somehow, she guessed it was her brother, even before Daniel said the words.
She already knew why Drew was calling, had known it every moment that she was with her father in the hospital room. All the belief in the world couldn't change someone who didn't want to change. At least, not this quickly.
She climbed off Daniel to take the phone from him, but he pulled her to his lap again, giving her his strength. Just as they'd promised e
ach other, he would always be there whenever she needed him.
With his arms around her, she said, "Hello."
"Dad is gone," Drew said bluntly. "I went out for coffee, and he was gone when I got back."
"I knew he would go." She didn't sugarcoat it. "And I'm glad he didn't try to pull you back in when he left."
"I wouldn't have run with him, Tash. I'm turning myself in. I'm sick to death of running. I'll take whatever they throw at me. I meant it when I said I was done. No more lies. Ever."
She leaned into Daniel's shoulder, feeling sick at the thought of what would happen to Drew. But also knowing he needed to face the consequences. "I'm proud of you for owning up to everything. I'm here in any way you need me."
"I love you, Tash. And I'm sorry. So damned sorry, I wish I could rewind back to eighteen and make very different choices."
"Those choices made us who we are," she said softly. Amazingly, they'd brought her to Daniel. "I'll help any way I can, just please call to let me know what's going to happen to you once you talk to the authorities."
They said their good-byes, then Daniel held her tightly. "I take it your father is in the wind?"
"Yes."
His muscles tensed. "Do you want me to find him? I can. I will."
"No. Just like Drew, he has to make that decision himself, whether he wants to pay for what he did or run for the rest of his life. And maybe for now, that's what he thinks he still wants." She sighed. "It might be crazy for me to believe this, but I have to keep the faith that losing his family will force him to change."
For long, beautiful, agonizing moments, Daniel simply held her, his lips against her hair. Then he said, "I can get a good lawyer for Drew. I'll pay for him too."
His sweetness and caring brought tears to her eyes. "Thank you. But I can't let you pay for anything."
"We're partners. And now your brother is my family too. He's doing the right thing, and I want to help him."
"Thank you," she whispered again, choking back the sob that rose up.
"One more thing," he murmured against her hair.
"Anything."
"Anything?" He had a wicked glint in his eyes, one that boded very well for her.
"Yes, anything."
"Okay then." He slid her from his arms, settling her back on the chair as he went down on one knee. "Marry me."