Page 112 of The Seducer
“I’m not a small kid,” Tristan said with his brows drawn inward. “I can take care of myself.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Finn took another sip of his beer. “Why don’t you go back to the boys and enjoy your time with them?”
Before Tristan left the room, he looked at Raven, who had fallen asleep in Boulder’s arms. “Cute,” he said and smiled, but his compliment only made Boulder tighten his protective hold around Raven.
“Why are you doing the paternity test?” Marco asked Finn when Tristan was gone. “I know he looks like you, but there’s no way he can be your biological son.”
“I know,” Finn said and turned his glass of beer. “But it doesn’t matter. If Tristan wants me as his father, I would be proud to call him my son. I’ll tell him that the test was positive.”
“Ah,” Marco nodded and considered the matter. “Or you could adopt him like Boulder and Christina adopted Raven.”
“Hold on, Tristan isn’t an orphan,” I interjected into the men’s conversation. “And you should never lie about something that important.”
Finn took a sip of his beer. “Then I’ll just say that the test is inconclusive but that it wasalmosta match. Either way the boy is under my protection.”
CHAPTER 35
Secrets
Finn
It was still dark outside when an insistent beeping woke us up.
“Are you going to answer that call?” Athena asked and yawned.
I groaned and accepted the call. “Boulder, this better be important.”
“I’m sorry to wake you up, but Christina has been nagging me for an hour now, and I’m tired of fighting with her.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Sorry about your domestic problems, but what does it have to do with us?”
Boulder gave a heavy sigh. “It’s about that paternity test you talked about –when you said that you weren’t really going to make it because there’s no chance you’re Tristan’s biological father.”
“Yeah?” I asked. “What about it?”
“The thing is that Khan doesn’t want anyone to know about this, but we Nmen have been donating our sperm to the Motherlands for years now. I’m not sure if Tristan is too old to be the son of a Northlander, but it started somewhere around fifteen or twenty years ago.”
I blinked my eyes open. “Hang on, even if that’s true, he can’t be my son since I never donated.”
Boulder made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “No one did. Our sperm is collected in the sex-bots and exported to the Motherlands as a part of a trade deal. The Council in the Motherlands isn’t sharing the information with their citizens either.”
Athena and I looked at each other, and my blood was rushing through my veins and heat spread in my body. “Boulder, how long have you known about this?”
“I only found out some months ago because Pearl admitted it to me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Does Magni know?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Boulder sighed again. “Khan told me not to tell anyone.”
Sitting up, I ran my hands through my hair, not sure if I should feel angry or excited.
“Look, the chance that Tristan is your biological son is slim, but Christina hasn’t slept all night because I was stupid enough to tell her that it’s possible.”
“Shit!” I drew in a deep breath and pushed my palm against my forehead, feeling a little dizzy. “I could be a father.”
“Uh-huh,” Boulder breathed. “Look, I’m sorry to drop a bomb like this on you so early in the morning, but my very pregnant and very hormonal wife can be very persuasive.”
I swallowed hard, still trying to understand the ramifications of what he had just told me. “I need to run a testnow.”
