Page 63 of More than Paper

I stroke her hair. “That’s okay. Will you tell me now?”

She hesitates but then says, “I found out when I was eighteen who he was.”

“He?”

“My father.”

“All right. Who is he?”

She gulps. “Maximillion Evinrude.”

“TheMaximillion Evinrude?”

“Yes,” she whispers.

Holy shit.Maximillion Evinrude is a one-hit-wonder famous actor turned politician. He’s the governor of Illinois.

I kiss her forehead and wait for her to tell me more.

“My mother had a one-night stand with him and had my brother. He wouldn’t marry her, but they moved in together. But he had another family she didn’t know about. Then, when I was six months old, he left and took his other family to California with him to pursue his acting career. When he came back to Illinois, he hired my mother as a personal assistant, and they’ve been carrying on their affair ever since. My mother has never been able to move on with her life. He keeps sucking her back in. He showers her with expensive gifts, which always makes her go back to him.”

“Ah. So that’s why you had a hard time accepting the laptop.”

“Yes. My mom knows she shouldn’t be with him, but she can’t stop. She’s still his mistress. And all she ever told me was, ‘Don’t be easy, or you’ll never be anything more to a man than sex.’ “She looks away, and her face flushes.

So this is why her brother thinks what he does.

I cup her face in my hands. “Quinn, you don’t believe I think you’re easy, do you?”

She furrows her brows. “I don’t know. We had sex the first night we met.”

“Yeah, we did. That doesn’t make you easy.”

“Quinn, do you regret our week together?”

“No,” she whispers.

“Good. You know you’re more to me than sex, right?”

She nods, but I don’t think she truly believes it.

“Quinn, I adore you. I couldn’t stand being away from you. You mean more to me than just sex.”

A tear drips down her cheek. “I know.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong. You’re thirty years old, and we’re consenting adults.”

Another tear falls on her cheek.

I wipe it away with my thumb and peck her on the lips.

How much guilt is she feeling, when she shouldn’t be feeling any?

I wrap my arms around her and hold her. She snuggles into the curve of my neck.

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