A Wicked Seduction by Janelle Denison Page B

private his reasons were for needing the time off, he opted to stick with the truth. Hopefully, when his real identity was revealed in a few days, she’d remember how honest he’d been with her from the moment she’d taken him into custody. Besides, he had no reason to lie.
    â€œI haven’t had a real vacation in years and I needed time away from work and life in general to think about an important decision I need to make. So, yes, I suppose on some level stress does come into play.” He turned his attention back to his mousse cake for another bite, then continued. “When my father passedaway from a heart attack three years ago, the responsibility of Colter Traffic Control became mine, whether I wanted it or not. And every bit of my time and energy since then has been spent making sure the business remained profitable and successful, to the point that I’ve sacrificed a personal life, among other things.”
    â€œYou don’t sound like you were too thrilled about taking on the reins of the family business,” she commented lightly.
    Did she believe his story? He searched her carefully composed expression for some kind of sign, found none, and guessed that she was just catering to what she no doubt assumed was a big, elaborate tale. “I’m not sure how I felt at the time, honestly. After graduating college I went to work at CTC because that’s what my father wanted and it seemed like the right thing to do. But I can’t say that it would have been the choice I would have made if I hadn’t felt pressured into it.”
    She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, which drew his gaze to her shapely breasts and the enticing way they pushed against her cotton tank top. “Why did you feel pressured?”
    He ignored the stirring of desire making itself known and finished the last of his cold soda with a loud slurp. In that moment, it dawned on him that he was on the receiving end of a subtle interrogation. She was bombarding him with questions, waiting for him to crack or reveal an inconsistent thread in hisstory. Hard to do when everything was the bottom-line truth.
    â€œI’m an only child, and spent most of my life listening to my father tell me that the sacrifices he’d made, all the late hours and weekends he spent at work, and all the Little League games and even my high school graduation he’d missed, were all for me, because he wanted to make sure he left me with a legacy, unlike his own dad who’d skipped out on him when he was ten and left him and his family with nothing.” Unfortunately, that pressure and guilt his father had instilled in him at such an early age had lain heavy on his conscience as an adult.
    â€œSo, when Dad died, I had this misguided notion that I had his legacy to carry on. Not only that, but one of the biggest lessons my old man ever taught me was that you don’t shirk your responsibilities, and this was a huge obligation for me. There was no other person to take over the business, and my first concern and priority was making sure that my mother was taken care of financially so she wouldn’t ever have to worry about money. She received a nice chunk of life insurance that she used to pay off the house they’d bought a few months before Dad’s heart failed, but she was also accustomed to the steady income that came in from the business. It was only logical, for so many reasons, that I keep the company and make the best of an unwanted situation.”
    It was a choice that had caused a whole lot of dissension between him and his fiancée at the time, until Lora finally came to the conclusion one night, whenhe’d had to cancel dinner plans once again for work, that she couldn’t handle being second to a business that was absorbing more and more of his time. Their breakup had been painful and hard on both of them, yet Dean hadn’t been able to slow down long enough to