CHAPTER SEVEN

KNOX

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I slide into the remainingempty seat and slap Jacob on the shoulder. “Hey, good to see you.” I glance around. “No Leilani?”

“Dominic has an ear injection, so we didn’t want him in the chopper. I’m flying straight home afterward,” Jacob says, referring to his wife, Leilani, and baby.

Our half-brother made his money in hedge funds and moved his company to New York after Leilani fell in love with the Hamptons. The Dufort’s own multiple properties there and we are often guests.

Bella and Leilani are not only sisters-in-law, but best friends. There are a lot of links keeping the Montgomery and Dufort families close.

“I hope it”s nothing serious.” I smile as Blake hands a dinner roll to my gorgeous little niece, Jamie. “Hey, little princess, are you behaving?”

She kicks her legs up in the air and her roll goes flying.

“Uncle Knox,” Blake groans.

“Sorry.” I laugh.

I glance around the table and note that everyone in our immediate family, except Leilani and baby Dominic, is here, which means everyone took the request to get together to discuss Dad’s retirement seriously.

It was short notice.

With some luck, we might get him to wait another five years to give us all time.

“Alright, kids. Lay it on me,” Ward says, glancing around the table. “I know I surprised you all yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t get everyone together to make the announcement, but to be honest, it was a sudden decision.”

My eyes widen.

Sudden?

What the fuck. He didn’t tell me that. First, that’s very unlike my father, and secondly it worries me.

“That’s a big life choice to make out of the blue.” Atlas says what we’re all thinking and then takes a sip of whisky. “What’s really going on, Dad?”

“Are you sick?” Bella asks, her voice full of worry.

Fuck. I hadn’t given that a thought.

I understand why Bella would. Ward is not her birth father. Our mom met my father when Bella was a baby. I know she went through a little bit of a crisis when our mom died. Unnecessarily. All three of us are wildly protective of her, and Ward loves her as his own. She will never be without us as her family, or Ward as her father.

He”s told her since she was a baby that he considers her his despite DNA.

We all turn to him. As I wait for his answer, all my selfish frustrations fall away. I’ll be fucking furious with life if they take my father so soon after my mother.

My stomach drops as he stares at each one of us.

“Dad—” I start, beginning to freak out.

“I am fine,” Ward says, holding up his hand. “And that’s the point. I want to enjoy my life, not keep working as hard as I have been for years and years. Then one day only to drop dead at my desk.”

“Oh, thank god.” Bella sighs loudly and Blake squeezes her hand.

Now that I know he’s not dying, I relax.

But very quickly I want to dig into his reasoning. He’s fifty-seven, not seventy-seven.

“That’s fair enough. You’ve worked hard. But does it need to be so sudden?” I ask. “Why not spend a year preparing to hand over? Or cut back on your responsibilities and slice out some spare time.”

Blake and Atlas nod in agreement.

“Makes sense to me,” Levis says.

“He’s right, Dad.” Atlas spins his whisky on the table in front of him. “This is very sudden. Just take some time.”

“I’m just glad you aren’t dying,” Bella says. “Do what you want, Dad.”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Ward says, and then shoots me a dark look.

Fine.

Make me the bad guy, but he knows I’m right.

Which doesn’t mean a thing. While my father has guided us kids to be strong and independent people who speak our minds, one thing we never question is who the boss is.

At work.

And at home.

No one manipulates Ward Montgomery.

“When I was a young man, I remember my father deciding to sell our house,” Ward says.

Atlas rolls his eyes and gives me an amused glance.

I smirk.

“Story time, Dad. Really?” Atlas says.

Ward gives him a friendly clip around the ear, and we all laugh.

“Your uncles, Brandon, and Rex, and I were so angry. We loved our home. But Mom was suffering from arthritis, and he was working two jobs.”

“That’s sad,” Jacob says.

“They had to make the decisions that were right for them,” Ward says. “Children don’t see their parents as people. They’re just parents who we think exist only to love and protect us. Which we do, but we’re also people with needs and wants of our own.”

I lift my drink and ruminate on that.

Is that true? Do I not see my father as a human being? As just a parent, who should serve me?

Bella and Blake glance down at Jaime who tosses a bread roll across the table, and they immediately leap into action.

Oh, shit.

“I’ve always let you kids make your own choices in life while guiding you. Well, my job is done. You are all grown up. It’s time you saw me with new eyes.”

Bella sniffs.

“I am a man. A man who does not want to waste the rest of my years behind a desk or in the boardroom,” Ward says.

What’s happened to make him want to completely walk away from the company he built from scratch?

Is this about Mom?

“What does that even mean?” Levis frowns.

“It means, son, when you lost your mom, I lost a wife and my best friend. It means when I recently heard that a close childhood friend dropped dead from a heart attack, I spent a week walking around in a daze, questioning my priorities in life.”

“Shit, Dad,” I curse. “Why didn’t you tell us? Was it John?”

I know he’s kept in touch with the man over the years. I only met him a handful of times, but the two men would go on fishing weekends and every year share birthday and Christmas cards.

“Yes.” He nods, and I watch as Ward gazes down the table and looks each of us in the eye.

Bella.

Jacob.

Atlas.

Levis.

Then back to me.

“These are the moments in life that a man has to decide the path he is going to take,” he continues in his timbre voice. “I am not a young man anymore—” The table breaks into debate given he’s only fifty-seven. “Stop. Save your compliments for my next birthday card.”

Jacob sniggers.

“Come on, Dad,” Atlas cries. “I get that losing John and Mom was horrible, but you love what you do.”

“Listen,” Ward says, taking a long slow sip of the golden liquid in his glass. “I’m a billionaire many times over. Few people on this planet have the financial freedom I have.”

That’s the truth.

But still. I play with the cutlery on the table in front of me, searching for an argument.

“I want to live. I want to spend time with you lot and my grandkids.” He winks at Jamie, who giggles. “And...I might want to date.”

Eh, what?

We’re all quiet until Levis, who is the youngest, curses quietly.

“Your mom made me promise I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life alone,” Dad says, his eyes wavering.

Bella nods sadly.

“Fuck, I hate this.” Atlas tosses back his drink.

“Fwuckkk!” Jamie suddenly cries out.

“Oh, my god,” Bella startles, looking around the restaurant as we all burst out laughing. “Baby, no. Bad word. Uncle Atlas says bad words.”

“Great. Teach my kid to curse,” Blake grumbles.

“You’re welcome.” Atlas grins.

“You’re banned from our house.” Bella points a finger at our brother as she fusses with the toddler.

“Fwck, fuck, fauck.” Jamie continues loving the attention.

Ward is grinning like the happy grandfather he is and suddenly I get it. He’s always been a family man first.

“This is what you want,” I say quietly while everyone else is clapping and encouraging Jamie to curse.

Except her parents.

Ward nods.

“I’ve raised four kids. One I missed out on.” He looks over to Jacob. “I have two grandkids now. Life is short. You don’t realize that until you hit your fifties and then it starts flying past you.”

“Does that mean we can rely on you for babysitting duties now, then?” Jacob smirks.

Ward barks out a laugh.

“In between golf and, hey, maybe I’ll buy a yacht. Or go diving in the Great Barrier Reef.”

“Nice. I think I might retire too.” Levis, who is twenty-two, grins.

Ward lifts a brow. “The amount you spend, your trust fund won’t last you a decade.”

“I know, but what a f...fluffing decade it would be.”

“Nice save.” Blake snorts.

Our meals arrive and the bantering continues through the dessert with Jamie entertaining us with more f-bombs. Bella is worried she’s going to repeat it to her little toddler friends and all the moms will hate her.

While I’m considering getting her a little Verity Co. leather jacket made and some stick-on tattoos.

Seeing Bella react to her little princess all decked out like a badass, cursing toddler would be totally worth it.

“I’m announcing the news to the board tomorrow,” Ward says after dessert. He places his cutlery down and wipes his mouth on the white napkin. “This will hit the media in the coming days.”

“No one is to comment, please,” I say.

As the director of marketing, media relations falls into my remit, although Dad is the big cheese of everything.

But the last thing I need is my family commenting on me not automatically being named as his replacement.

In three months, I will.

Watch me.

THE VIEW FROM my penthouseat night is stunning. So why is it that I’m nursing this scotch and imaging my cock sliding between Payton Mills’ tits?

Then it’s a short adjustment to my position as I lift her head and slide inside her hot mouth.

Fucking hell, she was one gorgeous surprise.

I reach and drop my glass on the side table and stretch out my leg as I unzip.

I need to get this over with. Better on my own than with her. Well, it’s not better, but I have no fucking option. I can’t fuck her, and I won’t risk my future and the future of Montgomery Enterprises by touching her.

I pull out my hard cock and begin stroking. My eyes close as I see her on her knees and instruct her to rip open her top.

She does because this is my damn fantasy.

I stroke harder, leaning back into the sofa, and tighten my grip, imagining my cock just slid down her throat as I hold her face and that I’m fucking her vigorously.

Those big green questioning eyes watch me as my thick cock uses her airway. Her saliva and gagging encourage me and I thrust into my hand, letting out a guttural cry as I jerk and come on my pants.

Jesus.

That had to be a record, even for me.

Now, I can move on and ignore this attraction that couldn’t have arrived in my life at a worse time.