Intense (Dark Hearts Book 1)

  Intense

  Dark Hearts Series

  C.M. Steele

  Copyrighted © 2021

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Cover design: C.M. Steele

  Cover Image: Deposit Photos

  The use of actors, artists, movies, TV shows and song titles/lyrics throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes and should in no way be seen as advertisement. Trademark names are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and please purchase your own copy.

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Blurb:

  The memories of your childhood can haunt you as an adult, and Roman wasn't any different. Yes, he had money, he had the looks, the dream career, but what he didn't have was trust...in women.

  Then along came a pretty little stepsister who just forces him to change his ways. Can he?

  Or will the weight of the past ruin any chance at a future?

  Arrogant, rude, demanding, and dreamy.

  Amelia had had a crush on her stepbrother before she landed in his family. Will his downright lewd behavior be enough to destroy any feelings that she has for him or can they find a way to work past the animosity?

  Prologue

  Roman

  I enter the charity dinner alone as always. My tuxedo’s already testing my patience with this stupid bow tie and collar that make it feel stuffy in here. I wear a suit every day, so maybe it's not the clothes that has me chomping at the bit. I promised to give a speech at dinner as one of the prominent benefactors, but as I walk in, I see a man I haven't seen in a decade. A man I loved and trusted. A man who abandoned me.

  "Mr. Danvers, is it?" he remarks with a hint of frustration like he has the right to be angry with me that I changed my name.

  "Mr. Edwards." I'm blunt, rude as per my usual, but it's years of bitterness that has me grinding my teeth.

  He sighs, running his hand through his thick brown hair that’s gotten much more grey than I remember. "You know—” There’s a long pause as he rubs the back of his neck. “I thought that when you finally got out from under your mother’s thumb, you’d seek me out, but all these years and nothing.”

  "Why the fuck would I look for you? So you could abandon me again?” My voice raises, but I quickly drop it down before people hear us.

  “Abandon you? I never ever abandoned you, Roman.” He looks completely confused, angry, hurt, all the damn feelings I should be feeling, not him.

  “Bullshit. I heard the conversation between you and Mom that night. The night you learned I wasn’t your biological son.”

  “You only heard what your broken heart wanted to hear, but I assure you I wouldn’t have let you go for nothing. If she hadn’t snuck out with you while I was gone, she wouldn’t have had a chance to take you.” I stare at him like he’s crazy, full of shit. Then I see something in his eyes. Tears.

  He pulls out his handkerchief and wipes gently. “Please, let’s have a minute before this starts. Please tell me the devil didn’t come with you.” He looks around the room as if my mother’s going to pop up behind him.

  “No. My mother isn’t here.”

  “Come this way, for just a minute. Please.” I nod, and he leads me off back into the corridor and then into a small alcove. We sit down on a bench out of the way of the arriving guests. “Right after my stint in the hospital, I learned that not only had I been poisoned, but that you didn’t have the right blood to donate to me. They check family first, and you were my only known blood relation. It came back, and they said you were not my child. At first, I was devastated, but a part of me always had a feeling. After all, you look exactly like your real father. I confronted Anna about it, and she told me that I was just a patsy, her way out of her shitty life, but that she hated me. I told her to get the fuck out and never come back, but I told her that you were staying and that you were my son.”

  “Are you serious?” I’m trying to process everything he’s saying. As much as I don’t want to take it at face value, I have a sinking feeling in my gut.

  “Very. I planned to take you on that trip and consult a lawyer, but the next day, you fell off your bike and broke your arm. I knew she tampered with your brakes because she wanted to get back at me, but I had no proof since your bike rode into traffic and had been run over after you fell.”

  “I remember her insisting I go out for a ride. I didn’t feel like it because I was psyched about the trip.”

  “Yes, I know. I didn’t want to go without you, but you insisted I not bail on my friends and that it was only for the weekend. I had no idea it would be the biggest mistake I’d make.”

  “You wanted me?”

  “I fought the courts for you. She claimed that I’d abandoned you to go fishing and that since I wasn’t your biological dad, I had no rights to you. I even said that I signed your birth certificate, which means that legally I had a right, but they pulled the birth certificate, and it no longer had my name. It had been removed the day I got out of the hospital. Then, when I went to court, she had photos of bruises on her, and diary notes claiming I abused her. I was lucky not to end up in jail. There was a restraining order put out on me to stay away from you.”

  “If you knew all this, why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

  “The restraining order ran out two days ago. I decided now was my best chance of seeing you again. You may not believe me, but here’s the proof.” He hands me a document with a court stamp. It’s a restraining order against him. If he’d really abandoned me like my mother had claimed, then why would he need one of these? It’s too much to puzzle out.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. Excuse me, I have to go.”

  “I’m still proud of all you have done, son.” I nod, walking away, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. It’s nearly time for me to give my generic speech, and I do with little to no zeal as I would normally have. Something in me has lost the angry way I’ve approached my world that has driven me to succeed.

  I head home to my penthouse, feeling empty. I’m going to see my mother first thing in the morning whether she likes it or not.

  I toss and turn all night thinking about the years since we left the house in Wisconsin. I remember feeling so angry and los
t. My mother kept me in line and one day introduced me to a new man that I’d never met before, although I felt like we had a resemblance. Two years later, I learned he was my birth father. We never had a bond, but in his will, he left so much to me it made no sense. I’ve chalked it up to none of my life being normal.

  When the sun’s up, I rush over to my mother’s dressed in a suit, shaving having been all but forgotten. I didn’t have time for that. My head needed the answers that were burning in my heart.

  I speed through the streets of New York City and make my way to her condo. It's the best of the best, too much of my hard-earned money spent on it, but until yesterday, I felt like she'd kept me when I'd been abandoned, so that was the least I could do. I take the elevator up and bring out my key.

  She's on her sixth husband, always looking for another meal ticket. She's the reason I stay away from women altogether. When I was younger, I might have completely understood what she did to Mr. Edwards, but as I grew and started liking girls, I found them always with another guy. I’d never made it to second base because they’d already moved on, cheated on me, and my mother was always there to stick by my side, reminding me that women are only out to ruin a man like me. I stayed away from them. When I thought about how she tricked my father into raising someone else’s kid, I realized even the woman I trusted was corrupt. No woman could be trusted. Now, if what Mr. Edwards—the man I once called my father—is telling me is the truth, I don’t know if I’ll ever trust a woman again.

  As soon as I enter her house, I hear the telltale signs that she has snagged another sucker. I step back outside because I don’t want to hear my mother fucking, something I could have lived without all these years—forced to sit in the room next to hers while she faked orgasms to win her men. Another knock against women: fake orgasms. I shudder and want to pop my own eardrums. I wait another two minutes because I know the charade is over. Then I saunter in and see him. Pathetic. He’s my former step-uncle from stepdad number four. “Wow, vying for stepdaddy number six?”

  “Nah. Keep your mouth shut.”

  “Roman won’t say a thing. See you soon.” She kisses his cheek and pats his ass.

  “Like a good Mama’s boy.”

  “Get the fuck out of here before I bust your head. And she faked it, by the way. I got here a few minutes ago, but I gave you your privacy.”

  “I didn’t fake it.”

  “Who gives a fuck, boy? I got off. I don’t give two fucks if she does.” He winks and walks out.

  “Mother, so charming. We need to talk.”

  “What’s the matter, son? You seem a little grumpier than usual,” she says, pinching my cheek before walking over to her bar in the corner of her living room. The house is white on white with glass tables and shelves everywhere.

  “I ran into Theodore Edwards last night.”

  She gasps and stops in her tracks. “What?”

  “Yes. Funny thing. He showed me this.” I pull out the copy of the restraining order I requested from the police department that was sent over to me first thing this morning. I had no idea that it existed, which is strange because it should have come up somehow, some way.

  “He probably faked it. You can get anything off the internet these days.”

  “Really? You mean like this copy I got from the police department here? You know, it’s funny that I’ve just seen this for the first time, and yet here is my signature. Well, a knockoff of my signature. Care to explain?”

  “He’s crazy, and I was worried about you. He poisoned himself and tried to blame me. He tried to steal you away when we left.”

  “Why would he want to do that, Mother?”

  “Okay. I may have lied. He was going to keep you away from me. I couldn’t let him do that.”

  “From this point on, don’t ever speak to me again. I want nothing to do with you. Find your own way. Fuck some other poor sap into giving you everything, but you’ve fucked up my life for the final time. Goodbye.”

  I pull my copy of her key out of my pocket, rub it with my handkerchief so my fingerprints aren’t on it and then dump it in the bowl by the door and walk out, slamming the door behind me.

  I choke on the truth as I take the elevator down.

  As soon as I’m in my car, I speed out of the city. Then I take out my phone and dial.

  “Dad,” I whisper.

  “It’s good to hear from you, son.” Tears slip down my cheeks as I think about all the time wasted. “How about we do lunch?”

  “Name the place.” I make a quick turn-around and head back into the city to right a wrong.

  Chapter One

  Roman

  I loosen my tie after another long day at the office. It’s been two weeks of straight meetings, including the weekends. That’s what I asked for. That’s what I wanted. I own an empire at the age of thirty because I live a life without distractions. I sigh as I power down my computer. It’s nearly six, and I’m just calling it a day. My soul is tired. Sometimes, I wonder if I’ve really lived at all, though.

  My phone rings, and I don’t want to pick up the damn thing. I’ve chased dreams, tackled goals, and made a name for myself that my dad would be proud of. Well, the man I call my dad, although we haven’t spoken in two months. Normally he reaches out to me, but lately I’ve been unavailable for more than a minute or two because I’m at the point where I’ve reached global status and everyone wants my time. I’ve just purchased another failing company, and I have six months to turn it around. It’s what I do, and I’m great at it.

  Running my hands through my thick black hair, I make a mental note to visit my barber. My cell phone rings again, and I angrily pick it up to curse out whoever’s calling when I read the caller ID. Madison General Hospital. What the fuck? I answer immediately. “Roman Edwards speaking.”

  “Hello, my name is Jenny Stewart, and I’m a nurse at Madison General. I’m calling because your father has been taken into surgery and you’re his emergency contact.”

  I can actually feel the color leach from my face. “What? I’m on my way there.” I hang up without asking for any details because I’m too damn frantic to think straight. I buzz for my assistant, and she enters my office while I’m packing up. “Inga, I need you to cancel all my meetings for the next twenty-four hours. I have to head to Madison now.”

  Her brows knit in confusion. “Madison?”

  “Wisconsin,” I add.

  She sighs with a frown. “Oh. I thought you’d finally found a girlfriend.”

  Now it’s my turn to look at her crazily. “Don’t be silly. Forward anything important to my email.”

  “Yes, boss. What about the Mitchem meeting? It’s a big one, and you pushed it back last week to handle the Sorenson one.”

  “Damn it. Okay—keep it on the books. I’ll be back for it by then.” I hope it’s a minor scare. Suddenly I feel like a little boy all over again.

  Storming out of my New York office with my briefcase in hand, I call my driver. “Be ready to get to the airport in ten. Call my pilot. I need to be in Madison ASAP.” My penthouse apartment is in my company’s building because I don’t like to waste time on travel, so I head to the elevators, pressing the button frantically. As soon as I’m up there, I see my housekeeper, Grizelda. “I’m leaving in five minutes. No need to cook for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow night.”

  “Yes, Mr. Edwards.” She’s a nice older woman who came highly recommended three years ago, but I don’t speak to her about anything other than my home and food requirements.

  I dash into my bedroom and pull out my typical travel case, in which I quickly pack a change of clothes and my toiletries. I’m walking out the door within three minutes.

  My relationship with my dad has been strained over the years because of my mother. I cut ties with her five years ago when I learned of her deception, and then I begged my dad to come back into my life. He welcomed me with open arms. Still, it hasn’t been an easy road because I’ve let go of any love for anything b
ut money. I don’t chase women. I don’t believe in happily ever after. Fuck, I’m a thirty-year-old virgin because one woman fucked up my whole reality, turning me into a soulless machine.

  My mother destroyed all my faith in women and love in general. Now, I’m running to the side of the only man who’d ever cared about me. I wish I’d known the truth sooner, but we can’t go back in time and change the things we hate. He tried to help with my feelings, but I let work take priority.

  I don’t even know why he’s in the hospital and what’s wrong, which freaks me out a bit. He’s old, but he’s not that old to pass naturally. Something serious had to have happened, knowing the truth about his marriage to Anna. My chest pounds, and I wonder if I’m having a fucking panic attack.

  “Sir, we’re here.” I look to see my driver has the door open, waiting for me to exit. Holy fuck. Where the hell is my head?

  I run up the stairs and board my private jet, giving my crew a quick nod. The pilot approaches me and shakes my hand. “We’re going to need another twenty minutes, and then we’ll be up in the air.” I’m annoyed, but I know that this is a last-minute thing. I’ll be sending them all a bonus for this.

  “Of course. I need a glass of scotch on the rocks, please.” My flight attendant nods and then leaves me to take my seat. My cell phone hasn’t rung in the past half hour, so this is really making me nervous. I call the hospital and bring the phone to my ear as Douglas hands me my glass. “Thank you.”

  “Madison General.”

  “Hello, my name is Roman Edwards. I’m calling about my father, Theodore Edwards.”

  “I’m sorry, sir…I can’t give out any patient information.”

  “What? Why not? They called me from the hospital.”

  “Yes, but his wife has asked—”

  I cut her off. “Wait. Hold the fuck up. Did you just say ‘wife’?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Edwards is with him at the moment.”

  “There is no Mrs. Edwards,” I snarl. My bitch of a mother was the last one in that position and she sure as hell didn’t deserve that title.