Page 75 of Silver Fox's Secret Triplets
"You weren't even twenty. I was thirty-nine. I should have been stronger." He stared past me, guilt carved into every line of his face. The way his forehead wrinkled I knew I'd never talk him out of his shame.
"I wanted you to want me." I twisted my hands in my lap, suddenly ashamed of how young and naive I’d been.
"I did want you. God, Ivy, I wanted you so much it scared me." He turned toward me fully now, the pain in his eyes as raw as I’d ever seen it.
"Then why didn't you fight for me? Why didn't you come after me when I left?" My voice cracked on the last word, too full of old hurt to hide.
Duncan reached for my hand, hesitating just long enough for me to give it freely. When I did, he laced our fingers together and brought them to his lips.
"Because I was a coward," he said quietly. "Because I thought you'd be better off without me. And because I didn't know how to show you that I wanted you, that I never stopped."
I blinked, the burn behind my eyes threatening to spill over.
"Ivy, you don’t ever have to wonder again. If we’re doing this—really doing this—then I’m all in. No halfway, no second-guessing. I’m not going anywhere."
I leaned into him before I could talk myself out of it, my free hand finding the collar of his shirt as I pulled him closer. He met me halfway, his lips brushing mine with a tenderness that nearly undid me. The kiss deepened, everything we hadn’t said layered into the press of mouths and breath.
When we parted, his forehead rested against mine.
"We do this," he murmured, voice rough with emotion, "we do it right. You, me, the kids. All of it."
30
DUNCAN
Ipulled the retirement paperwork from the center of my desk and opened the bottom drawer. The pages disappeared into the darkness with a soft whisper, and I pushed the drawer closed with more force than necessary, which satisfied me in a way I hadn't expected.
The knock on my office door came exactly at nine, as I knew it would. Nick's punctuality had always been one of his strengths as chairman of the board. Today, it felt more like a countdown.
"Come in."
He entered with his usual confident stride, coffee in hand, already scanning my desk for the signed documents. His eyes found the empty space where the paperwork had been, and his expression shifted from expectation to concern.
"Where are the retirement papers?"
"I'm not signing them." I leaned back in my chair, meeting his gaze directly. "Not today. Maybe not ever."
Nick's face transformed. The careful neutrality he wore in boardrooms disappeared, replaced by something harder and more personal. He set his coffee down on my desk with enough force to make the liquid slosh against the lid.
"What do you mean, maybe not ever?"
"I mean exactly what I said. I'm reconsidering."
"Reconsidering." He repeated the word as if it tasted bitter. "Duncan, we've been planning this transition for months. The board is ready. I've been preparing to take over as CEO."
"I know what you've been preparing for."
"Then what's changed?" But even as he asked, I could see he already knew. His jaw tightened, and he ran a hand through his hair. "This is about her, isn't it? About Ivy."
I didn't deny it. There was no point in pretending this decision existed in a vacuum, separate from the woman who had walked back into my life and turned everything upside down.
"It's about a lot of things."
"A lot of things." Nick laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Right. A lot of things that all happen to revolve around a woman who kept your children secret for three years."
The words hit their mark, but I refused to flinch. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I?" He moved closer to my desk, his voice dropping to the tone he used when he was about to make his most cutting arguments. "You've been planning this exit for two years, Duncan. Two years of talking about how burned out you are, how you want something different, how this company has taken everything from you and I spent that whole time asking you to reconsider. Now suddenly you're having second thoughts because she's back?"
