And a potential inheritance, he thought cynically. “She came to you?”

“That’s what I heard. Mom called and asked us all to join her for dinner. We walked in and there was Ruth.” She raised her head and looked at him. “It’s weird to suddenly find out about relatives this long after the fact.”

That he could agree with. “What do you think about her?”

“She’s crusty,” Julie said as she wrinkled her nose. “Very elegant, but distant and…I don’t know. I don’t really know her. I guess I’m mad because she turned her only daughter away. Okay, sure, she didn’t approve of what my mom did, but there’s a whole lot of space between not approving and never seeing her again. She turned her back on all of us. Now she says she’s sorry and we’re supposed to just forgive her? Pretend all those years without her didn’t matter?”

He found himself in the odd position of wanting to defend his aunt. Ironic, considering he, too, thought of her as meddling and difficult. Still, he loved her.

“She’s getting older,” he said. “Maybe losing her husband has caused her to see what’s really important.”

She looked at him. “Do not tell me you’re a middle child?”

“I’m an only child.”

“You don’t sound like it. Willow is the middle sister and she’s forever seeing everyone else’s point of view. It’s an incredibly annoying characteristic.”

“In my business it’s important to see all sides of a situation.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good enough excuse.”

He wanted to believe her. He hadn’t expected that, but then he hadn’t expected a lot of things.

“I’m not trying to jump to conclusions here,” she said, “but you do realize that despite all this, we can’t get involved.”

Couldn’t they? “Why not?”

“Because of my crazy grandmother and your crazy aunt.”

“We’re not related.”

“It’s the money. If we got involved, everyone would think it was because of the tantalizing offer of a million dollars. You would think that. I don’t get it. You are not the kind of man who needs anyone’s help to get a woman. So why would she do that?”

“Ruth has some particular ideas about life and her place in everyone else’s.” She always had. Maybe she genuinely thought one of her granddaughters would be able to trap Todd. Ryan was more willing to bet on his cousin. Todd wasn’t interested in anything serious and no one was going to change his mind.

“Like I said. Crazy.” Julie shrugged. “But now we have a problem.”

Everything about her screamed that she was telling the truth. She met his gaze easily, she wasn’t nervous. She’d been funny and charming and blunt ever since she’d walked up to his table in the restaurant and had compared him to Mr. Howell.

“You’re saying things would be better if I was an impoverished shoe salesman?” he asked.

“In a way. Although it sounds a little nineteenth century. Couldn’t you just be a high-school math teacher or an entry-level computer programmer?”

“I could be, but I’m not.”

“So now what?” She reached for her robe and pulled it on, then sat up and smiled at him. “I’m presuming you want to see me again, mostly because I’ve given you many opportunities to bolt for freedom and you haven’t taken any of them.”

“Do you wish I would have?”

“No.” She shrugged again. “I kind of like having you around.” She laughed. “This time yesterday I was dreading meeting you. I wished that either of my sisters could have been paid to take my place. But now…” She touched his hand. “Sometimes losing is a good thing.”

His chest tightened as the truth slammed into him. Whatever he and Todd had thought about Julie Nelson, they’d been wrong. She wasn’t in this for the money. She wasn’t in it for any reason other than she’d wanted to make her grandmother happy and she’d lost a stupid game.

The realization of what he’d done—how he’d blown it—made him sick. He’d thought she’d be a bitch—instead she was the most amazing woman he’d ever met, and he’d screwed this up. Totally.

“Todd?” she asked. “What’s wrong? You have the strangest look on your face.”

“I…” He swore silently. How to explain? How to…“I’m not Todd Aston.”

Four

Julie knew she was supposed to say something, but she couldn’t seem to get her brain to work. Too little sleep and too much shock made thinking impossible.

“You’re not Todd?” she asked, more to herself than him.

“Julie, look,” he began, but she raised her hand to cut him off.

“You’re not Todd,” she repeated as she stared at the na**d man in her bed. The man she’d made love with several times. The man she’d laughed with and joked with and had taken her clothes off for and trusted?

“You’re not Todd?”

This time the words came out in a yell that gave voice to the fury and horror building inside of her. She scrambled off the bed and tightened the belt of her robe.

“What the hell do you mean, you’re not Todd?”

“I’m his cousin, Ryan Bennett. Todd and I knew about what Ruth had done, and we figured anyone who agreed to her terms was only in it for the money. I went on this date thinking I was here to teach you a lesson. You know, pretend to be Todd and then cut out.”

“His cousin? This was just a game to you? Is this your idea of a good time?” She glared at him and wished she worked out so she could punch him and have it hurt.

Todd or Ryan or whatever his name was climbed out of bed and stood in front of her. Naked. Gorgeous. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. Why wouldn’t evil, lying, snake bastards be good-looking, too?

“Julie, wait. It’s not what you think.”

“Don’t even try,” she told him, feeling light-headed from the rage coursing through her. “Don’t think you can smooth talk your way out of this one.”

“I don’t want to talk myself out of anything—I want to explain. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

This? As in the sex? The rage built and she was suddenly terrified she was going to cry. Oh, God, not that. She refused to break down in front of this weasel.

“What part didn’t you mean?” she asked, her voice thick with loathing. “The part where we agreed to meet for dinner? Or was it just a slip of the tongue when you introduced yourself as Todd? Oops, silly me. I forgot my name?”

He’d been charming, she thought, just as enraged at herself as she was at him. Of course—if she’d fallen for him, there had to be something wrong with him. It wasn’t as if she ever found someone decent. He’d been funny and smart and she’d been so attracted to him. Hadn’t that been enough of a warning in her brain? But no. She had to go and think he was what he seemed. She had to go and bring him home and have sex with him.

For someone who was supposed to be so damn bright, why did she have to act so stupid?

“We thought…” he began.

“You thought what? This would be good sport? No, wait. What was it you said? You were going to teach me a lesson?” She glanced at her lamp and thought about flinging it at his head. “Who the hell are you to be judge and jury? What did I ever do to you?”

“You didn’t do anything,” he told her earnestly. “Nothing at all. You’re the innocent party in this. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it.”

“I know. When Aunt Ruth told Todd what she’d done, what she’d promised you and your sisters, he was furious. He always has money-hungry women chasing after him and he didn’t need three more trying to marry him for his wealth.”

“Todd needs to get over himself,” she said bitterly. “It wasn’t about the money. You know that, damn you. It was about finding out we had a grandmother and keeping things good between us. No one thought her offer was real. What’s wrong with you people?”

“You have no idea what it’s like,” he said.

“Oh, poor little rich boy. I bleed for your pain.”

He was still na**d and she deeply resented that part of her brain could actually pause and appreciate the sculpted perfection of his body. Her insides quivered at the memory of being taken by him over and over again.

She sucked in a breath and pointed at the door. “Get out. Get out now.”

“Julie, you have to understand. I never thought I’d be meeting you.”

There were a thousand ways to interpret that sentence. She had a feeling it was his meager attempt to tell her that she was special, that she mattered.

Oh, please. “So if you hadn’t liked me, it would have been okay to screw with me? There’s a nice statement about your character.”

He flinched slightly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sure you did. You’re not sorry you tried to teach me a lesson, because even knowing nothing about me, you were confident I deserved one. No, your only problem comes from the fact that I was someone you enjoyed being with and now you’ve screwed things so totally I wouldn’t get involved with you if you were the last man on the planet. There is nothing you can say or do to ever convince me you are anything but a lying bastard who believes he is so superior to everyone around him that he gets to cast judgment on the rest of the world. You are self-centered, egotistical, rude and twisted in ways I can’t begin to comprehend. Now get the hell out of my house.”

He drew in a breath, then nodded. After gathering his clothes, he walked out of the bedroom. Less than a minute later, the front door opened and he was gone.

Julie sank onto the floor. At least he was a fast dresser, she thought as waves of pain washed over her. And he was gone.

She began to shake as she fought tears and she hated that through all of this, she’d desperately wanted him to beg. She knew it couldn’t have made any difference, but she’d wanted it all the same. She’d wanted to know that last night had meant as much to him as it had to her.

Obviously, it hadn’t.

Julie dressed in her tightest pair of jeans because being unable to breathe helped to keep her mind off the horrors of her morning. She’d scrubbed the shower, washed her sheets, remade the bed and had given herself a stern talking-to. None of that had worked in the least, so she’d left to go see her sisters, stopping on the way to buy the biggest latte known to man. If not breathing didn’t help, maybe she could drown herself from the inside out.

It was a little after eleven when she pulled up in front of the small house where she’d grown up. The tiny lawn looked lush and green and there were flowering plants everywhere, mostly thanks to Willow’s green thumb.

She glanced at the two cars already parked in front of the house and took in the empty space in the driveway, then got out and walked into the house.

“Hey, it’s me,” she said as she stepped into the bright living room.

Willow sat curled up in the chair in the corner, while Marina had taken a corner of the sofa. They both smiled at her.

“Hi,” Willow said as she stood and hugged her sister. “Are you really going to drink all that coffee? Too much of that will kill you.”

“That’s the plan,” Julie said, doing her best to smile as she spoke so Willow would think she was kidding.

Marina moved in for her hug. “Hi. How are things?”

“Okay. Mom at the clinic?”

“Uh-huh.” Marina sat back on the sofa and patted the cushion next to her. “It’s low-cost vaccination day.”

“Right.” Julie plopped down.

One Saturday morning a month, Dr. Greenberg, Naomi’s boss, opened his offices to the neighborhood and gave low-cost vaccinations to whomever wanted them. It had been their mother’s idea—part of her ongoing quest to save the world. Julie had always thought she should spend a little more time trying to save herself.

“So how are you two?” she asked.

Willow and Marina exchanged a glance. Julie immediately tensed. “What?”

Willow sighed. “We were talking about Dad.”

Great. Because the day hadn’t started off badly enough, Julie thought grimly.

“It’s been a few months,” Marina said. “He should be coming back any time now.”

“How exciting,” Julie muttered and sipped more coffee.

“Jules, no.” Willow flipped her long blond hair off her shoulder and leaned forward. “That’s not fair. You never give him a break.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have enough appreciation for a man who abandons his family over and over again and the mother who lets him.”

Marina’s mouth twisted. “That’s not fair. She loves him.”

Julie felt too raw to deal with the familiar argument. “Don’t say he’s her destiny, I beg you. He blows back into her life and ours, he’s charming and adoring and then he goes away. He moves on to the next thrill and we’re left picking up the pieces.”

Julie’s childhood had been punctuated by her father’s visits and her mother’s subsequent week of tears and feeble attempts to hide her pain. While her sisters were happy to remember the excitement of their father’s visit, Julie always recalled the aftermath. Jack Nelson was like a big electrical storm. A lot of light and noise and an impressive show, but when it was over, someone had to handle the cleanup. That someone had usually been her.