Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (152 page)

thought
he
was handsome in a sort of California surfer dude way, but then she’d gotten to
know him and now she found him distinctly unattractive and didn’t particularly
like to be around him.

“Hey,
Kallie.”
 
He glanced around the room.
 
“Is this comfortable enough for
you?
 
Probably a lot different than
the college dorms.”

“I
was
living off campus,” she said, trying to pull the covers further up, angry with
herself for putting on this little nightgown instead of something less
revealing.

His
eyes landed on her and lingered for a
moment, but then he broke off and looked elsewhere.
 
“Yeah, so, I just wanted to swing by and
tell you how great a job you’ve been doing lately.”

This
was
unexpected.
 
A compliment?
 
Kallie tried to think of the last time
either of the parents had said so much as a thank you, and came up blank.
 
“I really appreciate that,” she said,
and she honestly did.

“I
know
it can be tough sometimes.”
 
His
gaze focused on her again.
 
“We’re
so busy and Trina expects so much of everyone.
 
I feel the pressure too, believe
me.”
 
He grinned and Kallie couldn’t
help but smile in return.

“It
must be tough when you work long hours and
have little kids,” she said.

He
nodded.
 
“It is tough, but I do feel badly that I
haven’t been more welcoming toward you and made you feel appreciated.
 
We do appreciate your work and your
effort—it’s been super helpful.”

“Thanks.
That means a lot.”

“Well,”
he
said, sipping from his beer and seeming to want to come in or say something
else—“I guess I’ll let you catch up on some much needed sleep.
 
Good night, Kallie.”

“Good
night, Brad,” she said.

And
then
he stepped out of the room and closed the door, and she heard his footsteps receding
down the hall.

***

For
the
first time, Nicole felt like something was off between her and Red during sex.

Maybe
it was too early in the morning and that
had something to do with it.
 
But
somehow Red had gone to the bathroom and she’d woken up, and then when he’d
come to bed, they’d started kissing and touching—and one thing had led to
another.

All
of
which sounded amazing in theory…Except that something wasn’t quite right.

She
couldn’t put her finger on exactly why she
felt this way, because he had been completely loving and generous and
sensitive, as always.
 
She’d
climaxed multiple times, and Red had also finished.

But
there had been that moment, in the
beginning.
 
Red had been treating
her so gently, caressing her softly, and she’d tilted her butt up and actually
taken his hand and tried to make him spank her ass.

Red
had
laughed, rubbing her behind softly instead, and basically blowing off her
request for some slightly rougher play.

At
the
time it had hardly registered, but suddenly Nicole saw it as emblematic of what
was missing.

Red
was
holding her from behind now, spooning her the way she liked, as Nicole tried to
relax and tell herself it was just crazy hormones (a convenient excuse used to
blame just about everything she felt these days).

“You
okay?”
he whispered, nuzzling her neck.
 
As
always, Red knew things without Nicole even needing to tell him what was
happening.

She
sighed.
 
“I want to ask you the same question.”

“I’m
great,”
he rasped.
 
“Well, I’m kind of
tired, since it’s not even six in the morning, but other than that…”

“I
feel
like you’re being different with me,” she said.

“Different how?”

“I
don’t know.”

“Well
how
can I answer this accusation if you can’t even explain it?”

“It’s not an accusation,” she said, pulling
away from him slightly.

“Hey, where are you going?”

She
sat up and grabbed a large t-shirt and
pulled it on over her bare torso.
 
“I

don’t
want to lie in bed
naked looking like a beached whale.”

“Nicole, don’t say that,” he warned her.

She
knew
he hated when she commented negatively on her body since she’d really begun
putting on the baby weight.

“It’s
just
how I feel.”
 
She turned toward
him.
 
He, as always, looked to be in
spectacular shape, which didn’t help matters.
 
“Couldn’t you at least have gained some
sympathy weight?
 
You look trimmer
than ever!”

Red’s
expression
was momentarily stunned.
 
“What?
 
You’re mad at me now
for not gaining weight?
 
Nicole…seriously…”

“I
am
being serious.”
 
She looked at
him.
 
“You’re not the same.
 
Something’s changed with you and I know
it’s not just my imagination.”

Now
he
sat up, still unabashedly naked.
 
He
didn’t need or want to cover up anything, Nicole thought.
 
No wonder he couldn’t possibly relate to
how she was feeling right now.
 
“Nothing’s changed with me, Nicole.”
 
His eyes burned into hers.
 
“Nothing. I love you more than anything
in the world.”

She
thought
about what she was sensing from him, and she closed her eyes and tried to
articulate it.
 
“I know you love me,
but I can’t help but wonder why you don’t spank me anymore.”

She
heard him laugh.
 
“Is that what this is about?”

Nicole
opened
her eyes.
 
“It’s not funny.
 
And it’s not just about spanking.
 
You don’t want to do any of it anymore.
 
We have sex, but you don’t treat me the
way you used to treat me.”

Red
seemed flabbergasted by her
revelation.
 
His mouth hung open and
he just shook his head.
 
“I don’t
know.
 
I never even thought about
that part of things.
 
I guess over
time I’ve outgrown it?”

“I
don’t believe that.”

“But
I’m telling you, it’s not a problem for
me.
 
I enjoy making love to
you.”
 
He slid closer to her and
grabbed her hand.
 
“You can tell how
much I enjoy having sex.
 
We do it
just as often, if not more, than we ever did.”

Nicole
looked
him in the eye.
 
“You stopped
spanking me.
 
Why did you stop? Tell
me the truth.”

He
blew
air out of his nostrils in frustration.
 
“Well I’m certainly not going to spank my pregnant wife.
 
What if I hurt the baby somehow?”

“Hurt
the baby?
 
Are you kidding me, Red?”

Now
he
was angry.
 
His cheeks flushed.
 
“No, I’m not kidding.
 
I’m not going to slap and tie up my
seven months pregnant wife.
 
I think
that would be bizarre.”

Nicole’s
eyes
were wet.
 
“I want you to want me
just the way you always have.”

“And I do.”
 
He squeezed her hand and she pulled
away.

“I
don’t think so.”

“Give
me
a chance to show you,” he said.
 
“Let me love you, let me hold you.” And he pulled her in close and
kissed her lips and cheek.
 
His hand
cupped her breast over her t-shirt.

“I
know
you love me, I’m just being crazy.”

“You’re fine.
 
You’re perfect.”

“I
don’t
want things to change between us, Red.
 
Promise me they won’t change.”

He looked into her eyes.
 
“I promise they won’t change.”

“Ever?”

“Ever,”
he said.

***

Kallie’s
alarm
woke her at a just before six a.m. and it was painful to open her eyes.
 
She turned off the alarm and moaned,
looking at the novel sitting next to her in bed as if it was her sworn enemy.
 
It lay there—inert, dog-eared,
with maybe only seventy or

a
hundred pages left to read.
 
She’d ended up staying up far later than
she should have, completely engrossed in the story.

Even
now,
as exhausted as she was, Kallie had the thought of trying to squeeze in another
fifteen minutes of reading time before she got up for the day.

But
no, that would never do.

As
it
was, Kallie had just enough time to grab a quick shower, shave her legs and get
dressed.

And
then
it was time to go in and wake Ben and Melanie, get them dressed and down for
breakfast.
 
Cereal was rarely good
enough for the Danvers kids.
 
Kallie
was expected to make them eggs or pancakes or French toast, and oftentimes
Trina left Kallie “healthy” recipes to follow that used turkey bacon or “whole”
ingredients so that the kids weren’t eating anything too sugary or fattening.

The
one
bright spot for Kallie was that this was the day where Trina would actually
take Ben and Melanie to the country club and leave Kallie at home alone.
 
It seemed as though Trina occasionally
liked to take the kids to the club and show them off, so she could pretend that
she was actually parenting them (which was why Kallie was conspicuously never
invited to join them on these forays).

In
any
case, it was just fine with her.
 
She
would have time to catch up on the laundry, do a bit of light cleaning, and
maybe even finish reading Blue Horizon before Trina and the kids returned early
that afternoon.

Normally,
Brad would have already left for work,
since he tended to work long days as it was.
 
Apparently the compromise was that he
left around five in the morning and came back around five or six at night.
 
He was still working twelve-hour days,
but made it home early enough to keep up appearances.

Kallie
had
Ben and Melanie ready and eating breakfast, and then Trina came down before
long to collect them for their weekly trek to the country club.
 
Trina was very put together in her
blouse, skirt heels, with glittering diamond earrings and a diamond bracelet to
match.

“Help
me
get Melanie and Ben out the door, please, Kallie,” she said, without looking at
her.

“Absolutely,
Mrs. Danvers.
 
You look lovely, by the way.”

Trina
nodded but didn’t really respond to her
compliment.
 
Instead, she grabbed
her purse and grabbed her phone, texting in the kitchen as Kallie washed the
children’s sticky hands and hurried them to the front door.

At
the
last moment, Trina took them by the hand and turned to Kallie.
 
Kallie thought for a split second that
the woman was going to thank her for getting everyone up and ready.
 
Instead, she merely said, “We really
need a few loads of laundry done this morning.
 
It’s getting messy in the laundry room
and we’re running low on towels.”

“Absolutely,
I’ll get to it right away.”

“I’ve
heard
that before,” she drawled in her rich Hampton’s accent, which made her sound
simultaneously bored and frustrated with Kallie’s stupidity and incompetence.

And
then
Trina Danvers was gone and Kallie was closing the front door, thankful that she
finally had a moment of peace and some time to herself.

Smiling
as
she thought about Blue Horizon and reading it out on the back deck with a cup
of coffee, Kallie ran up to her room and grabbed the book.
 
Then she went downstairs to the kitchen
and made herself coffee and toast.

She
figured
to have anywhere from two to three hours before Trina arrived home, after which
the older woman would certainly disappear and make sure that Kallie didn’t have
another free minute until late that night, when the kids went to bed again.

Kallie
walked
outside, bringing a plate with the toast on it, and her coffee, and set
everything on the glass patio table.
 
She sat down and opened Blue Horizon, first glancing
at Hunter Reardon’s picture and then going
to the first page, which was just a one-line dedication.

I
wrote
this book because you said that it was the one thing you looked forward to, and
that was enough for me.

Kallie
wondered
whom it was meant for.
 
Most
inscriptions were written to someone in particular.
 
Usually it was, “For my wife,” or “To
Mom, because you always believed in me.”
 
But this dedication was to someone secret, a person unnamed.
 
Was it a woman, an ex-lover—a
sibling, perhaps?

She
didn’t
know why she cared.
 
Maybe it was
because she was so gripped by the characters and the story, and it made her
curious about the author.
 
Well,
that and his picture.