Hearing that he might be blood-related to Trystan would devastate Dax, and he was still dealing with the idea that Bruno was his father. Adding anything new to the mix would send him into turmoil, and there wasn’t the time for him to fight his way out of that now.
Finding out if the men were related was irrelevant because Dax would still despise Trystan just as much if it were a proven fact. But Ivy didn’t like to withhold information from Dax so she would have to tell him that the possibility existed. She’d have to pick an appropriate moment to discuss it with him, and this sure wasn’t the environment to be thinking about it.
‘Well Mr and Mrs Harrow, what a surprise,’ Trystan said as he strolled the width of the room.
‘You called us,’ Ivy said, not missing the chance to show him up.
‘I heard you were in town, and we are all family, aren’t we?’
Trystan settled his focus on Dax, Ivy glanced around to observe the frost Dax returned to his surrogate brother. They would try to stare each other to death all night if Ivy let them. It was about as violent as Trystan would get with Dax, he wasn’t quite crazy enough to believe that he could conquer Dax in a fight.
‘Where’s Rosie?’ Ivy asked.
‘Still asleep,’ Trystan said. ‘We had quite an eventful night.’
When Trystan had emerged from the bedroom in his robe, Ivy had feared what that meant, but the glint in his eyes confirmed her suspicions.
‘You had sex with her?’ Ivy asked.
Dax’s hand closed around hers, he must have sensed her desire to leap across the room and throttle the smug bastard.
‘What can I say?’ he grinned. ‘She wouldn’t take no for an answer.’
On coming here Ivy had worried that Trystan would irritate Dax, but she hadn’t given full merit to how much he’d grate on her. Getting any kind of rise from another person as a result of his behaviour was what thrilled Trystan and Ivy was his chosen target tonight.
Dax body blocked her when they both rose at the same time. Breaking her view of Trystan was a relief but that didn’t quench her need to see him exposed for the cruel coward that he was. Ivy looked forward to the day that would happen, and she hoped to have a front row seat.
‘Since we’re all here,’ Trystan said. ‘What do you say to a swop? Hmm? Yours for mine, Dax?’
Grabbing for Dax’s waist, it was Ivy’s turn to hold him in place, silently reminding him not to rise to Trystan’s bait. ‘Not a chance,’ Dax said.
‘You were happy to do it before, when dad suggested it. You were happy to give up your wife to me then, just so you could stay in the family.’
Dax started to move forward, but Ivy wrapped her arms around his torso and pressed her breasts into Dax’s spine. ‘He wants to upset you,’ she murmured into him.
‘You didn’t tell her that?’ Trystan asked. The smile in his voice was the sugar meant to make the poison slither down their gullets. ‘Yeah, Ivy, it’s just one of those things, you know, Stark men share women all the time.’
So she had recently heard, if Carina was right, then Mauri shared his wife, though he might not have known it at the time. ‘It’s a good thing that Dax isn’t a Stark then, isn’t it?’ she said, loosening her grip on Dax to slink around his body and into Trystan’s view. ‘He’s nothing like you. He’s a better man than all of you.’
‘No way for you to know that unless you agree to the swop,’ Trystan said. ‘Rosie’s in the bedroom, all warmed up for you, Dax. Don’t you worry about the wife, I know just how to get her going.’
‘Going? Yeah, if you touch me I am likely to leave you in my dust, just like I did the first time you tried to touch me, remember that? Does anyone ever ask you about your scar?’ She pointed toward his face though he was still a good twenty feet away. ‘Do you tell them that it’s there because you tried to touch what wasn’t yours?’
‘I can have any fucking thing that I want,’ Trystan asserted. His smile was long gone, he didn’t appreciate it when the shoe was on the other foot, and he was the one in the spotlight being irritated.
Leaning forward, her ass pressed into Dax, and his hands slid onto her hips. ‘You can’t have me,’ she murmured and widened her smile. ‘You are a sick fuck who seduced my sister because you thought it would be like having me, didn’t you? But it’s as close as you will get, Trystan. You will never have me. I will never want you. And you will live the rest of your life knowing that you’re far inferior to the street rat who your daddy always preferred over you.
‘Dax was Mauri’s number one, and now he’s mine too. No one wants you, and no one ever will, because you are a spoiled, pathetic mess still living off your daddy. Women want a real man, and you are a joke, you can’t provide for a family or protect them. Why would any woman choose you?’
‘Your sister did,’ he snapped.
‘While she was drunk and possibly high, we know what you’re like. You love to drug your women and then take advantage of them. You are a child stuck in a man’s body. What are you going to do when Mauri isn’t around anymore to protect you?’
‘You’re a fucking bitch,’ Trystan snarled. When he stormed toward her, she didn’t recoil, she didn’t have to because Dax sidestepped and inserted his body in front of hers.
‘You think about touching her and you’ll regret it,’ Dax warned in a guttural tone. ‘I’ll take you to pieces, I’ve been looking for an excuse to do it for years.’
‘And how will you explain that to Mauri?’ Trystan barked. ‘You can’t touch me.’
‘I’m not on Mauri’s choke chain anymore, Tryst,’ Dax said. ‘For years I put up with your shit because I didn’t think that there was another way. Now I know that there is.’
The tone of his last sentence was a threat. Just like he’d done on the night they met, Dax had managed to make a threat without using a single negative word. Touching her lips to his arm, she grazed her fingertips down the back of his hand.
‘Mauri would take you apart,’ Trystan said.
‘You won’t have him to hide behind forever,’ Dax replied. ‘You shouldn’t be hiding behind him now. Ivy’s right, you’re spoiled and pathetic. Brad won’t tolerate you risking his operation. He’ll have far less patience for you than Mauri does. You’re going to find yourself in the street without anyone to watch your back.’
‘I don’t need anyone to—‘
‘Yeah, you do.’
‘Dad will look after me, when the will is read—‘
‘You’re going to get a shock,’ Dax said. ‘He’ll provide for you, but Brad will have the power and then what will you do?’
Trystan didn’t have an answer for this and Dax was happy to remain silent and let the truth sink in. When Mauri passed away, he might leave money for Trystan, but Trystan would have no control of the business or the house and other assets. Mauri had offered Dax what he would never give to Trystan.
The youngest Stark was too irresponsible to be trusted with anything that mattered. Maintaining the business and reputation of the family was what mattered to Mauri and Trystan wasn’t capable of that while his father was living and around to guide him.
For years, all of his adult life, Trystan had proved that the only thing he cared about was himself. His antics had jeopardised the family more than any of their business dealings. Being spoiled and selfish, Trystan was happy to push boundaries and keep taking what he wanted without considering the consequences, or how it would affect the Stark name.
‘I should go to Rosie,’ Ivy said. ‘I have to wake her so that we can get out of here.’
‘You’re welcome to join mine and Rosie’s party, I won’t say no to sisters in my bed,’ Trystan said. ‘I can handle two of you at once, piece of cake.’
‘Dream on,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m going in there to get my sister back. I’ll wake her up and get her dressed, then we’re going to get the hell away from here, away from you.’