His Ex's Well-Kept Secret

Why did she keep thinking that?

She felt like she was standing in a field planted with land mines and she needed to carefully pick a path to safety.

“I would give a rare red diamond to know what you are thinking,” Jaeger said, breaking into her thoughts.

Piper blinked and refocused. She pushed her hair back and briefly closed her eyes.

“I’ll make us coffee,” Piper capitulated, resigned.

Jaeger put a hand on her lower back and pushed her toward the stairs leading up to her living quarters. “Sounds good. It would sound better if you offered a shot of whiskey with it. I’ve had a rough day, too.”

Three (#u4ec0f40d-391a-5bc8-84e4-b7933e9cf5f1)

Piper took her cup of coffee into her den-slash-office and found Jaeger standing in front of the fireplace, admiring a series of ink and pencil drawings hanging on the wall, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand.

Piper hesitated in the doorway, taking a moment to catch her breath. Every inch of Jaeger’s six-foot-something frame reflected his masculinity; his legs were long and muscled, his hands were broad and his fingers blunt-tipped, his chest wide. He made her feel smaller, feminine and sexier.

Smoking hot she could deal with, sort of, but he looked so at ease in her messy space—and it felt so right for him be here, with her... The thought liquefied her knees.

“These are fantastic. Who is the artist?”

“She’s Danish. I bought those from a gallery in Copenhagen, and I’ve never found any more of her work. Pity, because she’s fabulous.” Wanting to delay the subject of Milan and her unanswered calls, she gestured to an oil seascape on the opposite wall. “That’s Joonie Paul, also unknown, equally fabulous.”

Jaeger, tall and broad and a work of art she could look at all day long, turned so those fabulous eyes met hers. “You obviously love art,” he stated.

“I’m an art appraiser. It comes with the job.”

Jaeger sat down on the ottoman, rested his forearms on his thighs, the glass almost disappearing in his big hand. He stared at the multicolored Persian carpet between his feet before raising his face. Under his gaze, Piper felt like a deer caught in the headlights, his eyes pinning her to her spot on the couch.

“Let’s talk about Milan.”

Okay, here we go. She was finally going to get an explanation about why he’d acted like a hemorrhoid. And his explanation had better be good...

“Apparently we met in Milan, at Ballantyne’s, in late April?”

Met? Is that what the most elusive, popular bachelors in Manhattan were calling three fun, fabulous dates and a night of off-the-charts sex? Geez, things were different across the Brooklyn Bridge. Piper nodded. What else could she do? It was the truth, after all.

“I presume we discussed your sapphires in Milan, and that’s why you left so many messages for me in the fall of last year?”

Yeah, that’s what happened. It took all of her willpower not to roll her eyes. Piper watched as Jaeger shot to his feet and swiftly walked over to the window, pushing the heavy drape away to look outside. His big shoulders were up around his ears and tension radiated from him. Okay, what was happening here?

“Why are you asking me these questions? You were there.”

Jaeger turned and pushed the ball of his shoulder into the wall, crossing his foot over his ankle in an attempt to look relaxed. The expression on his masculine face was inscrutable, but she saw the emotion churning in his eyes, the tension in his sexy mouth. His clever lips were thin and tight. Jaeger looked confused and unsettled.

Why? Why would he...?

“You don’t remember?” she asked. It was the only plausible scenario she could think of.

Jaeger pointed his index finger at her in a you’ve-nailed-it gesture. Piper sucked in a long breath. Jaeger, tall, ripped and oh-so-sexy, genuinely didn’t remember her, Milan, their dates, the stones. Or that they slept together. God, Italy was so fantastic, and he didn’t remember? Piper’s mind raced. Was that a curse or a blessing?

But how could he not remember?

“Seriously? You don’t remember anything about Milan?” Piper clarified. “You don’t remember us meeting? Going to dinner—”

You don’t remember anything about the night we spent in your hotel room? Me kissing my way down your body, the last time in the shower when we shook the foundations of the hotel? Your gasps, my screams? The way we struggled to say goodbye the following morning?

She scratched her forehead. “What happened, Jaeger?”

Jaeger linked his hands behind his head. His big biceps pulled the cotton fabric tight across his arms. The shirt gaped open and she saw a hint of tanned, muscled flesh above his belt. And just above his belt buckle would be a thin strip of hair. Her lips had traced that line of hair, going lower and...

Jaeger dropped his arms and jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants. His straight black brows pulled together. “I’ll tell you why I don’t remember, but would you mind telling me about us meeting in Milan first?”

Piper crossed her legs and linked her arms around her knee. How much to say? Keep it simple...

“I had some free time in Milan and I walked into your store, wondering if someone could tell me about the stones, even though I only had a photo on my phone. You were there and, because you’re you and you work fast, you invited me to dinner.”

“We ate at a trattoria I often go to, the one in Linate?” He saw her confused expression and explained. “Credit card receipts. I paid. The date was April the twenty-ninth. Is that right?”

Sure was; she remembered the date she conceived Ty as well as she knew his birth date. Since it was also the last time she’d had sex in, oh, about forever, it wasn’t a date easy to forget. Piper started to explain they’d met the day before, but Jaeger interrupted her. “Will you tell me about that night?”

Should she tell him they slept together? No! If she did then he might do some math and suspect Ty could be his. He’d see the resemblance between him and his son and then he’d know. Six hours after meeting him again, she wasn’t ready to go there, to deal with Jaeger’s reaction to having a son he didn’t want.

One problem at a time, she decided.

She’d delay—or even avoid—the issue, but she wouldn’t lie to Jaeger. If he asked whether they’d slept together, she’d answer and roll the dice.

She might not believe in lying, but she did believe in distraction. Besides, she was being eaten alive by curiosity. “Jaeger, why don’t you remember?”

Jaeger walked back toward her, picked up his glass, took a sip and stared at her over the rim, as if he were trying to decide what to tell her. “I was leaving Milan, on my way to the airport. The police reports said that a...”

“Police reports?” Piper interjected, her voice rising.

Jaeger frowned at her interruption. “I was in a taxi when a truck slammed into us. I was in its direct path.”

Piper just stared at him, not sure whether she was hearing him properly. Jaeger was in a car accident the morning they’d said goodbye? “But—”

“Do you want to hear this or are you going to keep interrupting?” Jaeger muttered. “I was in a bad way. I had various injuries, the most serious of which was swelling and bleeding on the brain.”

“God, Jaeger.” Piper placed her hand over her mouth, horrified. She stood up and faced him, wishing she could touch him. It wasn’t enough that he was standing in front of her looking healthy and fit—deliciously healthy and fit. She needed to examine him to make sure, dammit!

The thought of him being so injured made her world tilt upside down.

“My siblings and a medical team came to Italy and accompanied me back to the States. I had a couple of surgeries, and then they kept me in an induced coma for six weeks. When I woke up, the last thing I remembered was landing in Bangkok a month before the accident. After that, nothing.”

“God, I’m so sorry. I had no idea!”

“Nobody did. We kept it very quiet. My siblings put the word out that I was hunting for an emerald in a very remote area of Colombia where communications were dicey. They told anyone who asked that they weren’t sure when I would return.”