"That's not true." Tilting her face, she gazed up into his amber eyes, those lone-wolf eyes that still proclaimed him an untamed animal. "Despite what you think, your mother loved you. You know she did."
"Yeah, well, maybe she did. In her own way."
"And now you have my love." She ran her fingertips across his jaw. "I love you."
Reece closed his eyes, shutting out Elizabeth's face, protecting himself from the glow of love that surrounded her. Damn, why couldn't he just tell her that he loved her? What made it so impossible?
He couldn't change his past. Not the circumstances of his birth, not B. K. Stanton's denial and rejection, not the years he and his mother had suffered at the hands of his sadistic stepfather. And no matter how much he wanted to be free from all the pain and auger and hatred inside him, he wasn't ready to forgive and forget. He had an inheritance to claim, a company to run, a sister he wanted in his life and a brother with whom he'd have to deal.
If Elizabeth would settle for the man he was, scarred and bitter and hungry for retribution, then he could offer her anything money could buy. He'd give her an engagement ring the size of a dime. He'd build her a mansion as big as the one Alice Stanton lived in.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said.
"For what?"
"For letting down your shield." The tears she had tried to control gathered in the corners of her eyes. "Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me."
He hadn't realized that he had opened himself up to her, allowing her to read his mind. "Stay here with me, Lizzie. Marry me. Teach me how to love."
"You're right, you know, Reece. You can't change the past. But you can let it go. You'll never be happy until you can do that."
Reece clasped her shoulders. "How do I do that? How do I let go of the past when the past has made me who I am? If I let go of the past, I won't have an identity."
"You'll always be Blanche and B.K.'s illegitimate son. You'll always be an outcast in the Stanton family, even if you own controlling interest in Stanton Industries. The only way you can ever let go of the past is to make peace with it, starting with the Stanton family."
"How the hell do you suggest I do that?" Reece ran his hands slowly up and down her arms. "Alice Stanton has every right to despise me. And Kenny hates my guts."
"They don't have to love you or even like you. They'll have to make their own peace with their lives."
"So what should I do, Lizzie?" He held her from him, his big hands shackling her wrists. "Should I walk away and let them have it all? Do you have any idea how much I wanted B.K. to acknowledge me as his son? Do you know how badly I wanted everything that belonged to Kenny?"
"I know, Reece. But are you sure, really sure, that what you once wanted so desperately is what will make you happy now?"
Reece dropped his hands, releasing Elizabeth. "I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. Give me some advice, Lizzie. Look into my future and tell me what you see. Are our futures still entwined?"
Yes, Reece, our futures are still entwined. I'm going to have your child. You'll always be a part of me. "Your future will be what you make it. You should stay here in Newell. Claim your inheritance. Make peace with the Stantons. And if you discover that you don't really want to take over Stanton Industries, then give that job to your sister and come live with me in Sequana Falls."
"Come live with-"
"I love you, Reece. I'll love you as long as I live. I've done all I can to help you, to save you from yourself. The rest is up to you. You have to stay here in Newell and come to terms with your past. When you've done that, and if you decide that you can love me, then come to me. I'll be waiting."
"Elizabeth?"
"You're free, Reece. Free from the past, if only you'll allow yourself to be. You're a man, not a child. You have choices to make. No one else can make those choices for you. You decide what you want from this life, and how much you're willing to give in order to get it."
Several loud, hard knocks sounded at the door, then Sam Dundee walked in, glancing back and forth from Elizabeth to Reece to Elizabeth.
"If we're going to get home in time for supper, we'd better be leaving." Sam picked up Elizabeth's bag. "O'Grady's taking Aunt Margaret and MacDatho up to the cabin, so they'll all be there to meet us."
Elizabeth leaned into Reece, circling his forearm with her hand. She kissed him on the cheek. "You take all the time you need to decide. We... I'll be in Sequana Falls."
Chapter 14
"You can't be serious," Kenny Stanton said. "Daddy would be appalled at the very idea of a woman running Stanton Industries."
"Well, Daddy isn't making the decisions." Rearing back in the tufted-leather chair behind B.K.'s desk, Reece placed his hands on his hips and glanced around his father's former office. "Chris and I own two-thirds of the stock in this little family company, and we agree that she's the most qualified person to sit behind the old man's desk and make the decisions that will keep bringing in profits for all of us."
Standing, Reece smiled at his sister, then motioned for her to sit in the chair he had just vacated. Chris, neatly attired in a dark green business suit, took the seat. Grasping the cushioned armrests, she gulped a deep breath of air, then glanced from Kenny's frowning face into Reece’s twinkling topaz eyes. Pressing her toe to the floor, she boosted the swivel chair into action, whirling it around and around as she laughed.
"Are you happy, Landry?" Kenny asked, his hound-dog cheeks flushed pink. "You send my mother to a rest home, you persuade my wife to divorce me and now you hand over my company to my sister. You've taken your revenge on me, haven't you? Everything I've had, you've taken away from me."
"I haven't taken a damn thing away from you, big brother." Reece took a good look at Bradley Kenneth Stanton, Jr., and was amazed that he actually pitied the man whom he'd envied all his life. "Your mother had a nervous breakdown after Willard Moran confessed to killing B.K. I wasn't responsible for Alice's illness. If you're going to blame anyone, blame the man who loved her enough to kill for her."
Kenny glared at Reece. "Well, I can certainly blame you for taking Tracy away from me. You just couldn't leave her alone, could you? What did you do to persuade her to divorce me? Did you promise to marry her?"
"I didn't promise Tracy anything," Reece said. "She knows I'm not interested in her. All I did was drive her to the airport to catch a flight to Reno."
"Humph!" Kenny picked up his briefcase from the edge of B.K.'s desk. "I suppose if I had befriended you the way Chris did, you'd have handed the company over to me, but because I refused to accept you as my brother, you're willing to ruin the company our father spent his life building into a small empire."
Reece chuckled. God, why had he ever thought he wanted to be like Kenny? Why had he ever envied the man his life? Reece realized that he'd been blinded by the glitter of a world forbidden to him. Now that that world lay at his feet, he discovered he didn't want it as much as he'd thought he did.
"If you and I were like this-" Reece wrapped his index and middle fingers together "-I would still want Chris in charge of Stanton Industries. I didn't vote in her favor as an act of revenge against you. I did it because she's the best person for the job."
"I suppose you two think I'll just tuck my tail between my legs and crawl out of here," Kenny said.
"No one would ever think that." Chris whirled around one last time in her chair, then stuck out her foot under the desk to stop her spin. "There's a place at Stanton Industries for you, but it isn't in administration. It's in sales. You're the best salesman I know, Kenny. You inherited that from Mother. My goodness, we both know how persuasive she always was collecting thousands of dollars for her charities. You have that same special way with people."