His Every Touch (For His Pleasure, Book 8) (2 page)

“Kallie, you sound disappointed. We haven’t seen you in six months, you’d think this would be good news.”

“It is. I’m happy, I swear, Mom.”

“Well…” Her mother sighed. “We’re really excited to come and see you and find out what all the fuss is about—New York City and all. Your brothers are going to be running wild, I’m sure.”

Kallie could imagine. Her brothers were all great guys, but they could get a little crazy. And they were very, very protective of her as well. She didn’t imagine they would take too kindly to Hunter, if they ever met him.

Her mother talked a little more about things like the weather and some scandal with one of the neighbors (the son was apparently a miscreant that drove around drunk late at night). Kallie humored her, feigning interest and doing the best she could to stay upbeat until they got off the phone a minute or two later.

She laid her phone down on the seat next to her, still hoping it might ring again with instructions from Hunter.

Every once in a while, as she drove home, she’d glance down and see if a call had come through that she didn’t notice—or maybe even a text message.

By the time Kallie arrived at Nicole and Red’s house, it was getting late in the day, and she’d received no calls or texts from anyone else.

She was more tired than she could remember being in quite some time. She wanted nothing more than to go to her room and lie down.

But when she walked in, Nicole was coming down the stairs and saw her entering.

“Hey, Kallie. How was your trip?” she asked, smiling brightly.

“My trip?”

“Red told me you needed to borrow his car to go and see Hunter.”

Kallie nodded and sighed. “Yeah. I just…you know. I had some stuff I needed to get off my chest.”

Nicole crossed the marble floor and gave her usual, sympathetic smile. But Kallie found that she didn’t much want to discuss this with Nicole right now. She wasn’t going to tell her the truth—that she’d driven to Hunter’s house with a new contract and begged him to dominate her.

“It must have been hard, telling him how you feel,” Nicole said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Just tired.”

“I know this kind of thing can be really confusing. I remember when Red and I first started seeing each other—“

“Nicole, I’m sorry. I’m just so tired. Can we talk another time?”

Nicole blinked, and Kallie could see the hurt in her eyes. She instantly regretted being so rude and hurting Nicole’s feelings when she’d been nothing but nice to Kallie from the moment they’d met.

“Sure, we can totally…totally…some other time.” Nicole managed a smile and turned around, going back up the steps she’d just come down.

Kallie was horrified at the way she’d just treated her friend and boss. At the same time, she really was exhausted, and once she’d gotten some sleep, Kallie was sure she could patch things up.

***

She awoke from her nap feeling slightly better than when she’d gone to sleep—

but only slightly.

It was as if she’d had too much to drink or something. Her equilibrium was off and she was in a low mood. The first thing Kallie did was check her phone, but once again, there were no messages or missed calls.

After going to the bathroom and washing her face, Kallie went to look for Nicole.

She felt badly about the way she’d reacted to her innocent questions earlier.

Kallie found Nicole and Red sitting out on the veranda, chatting. Just from the way Red looked at her, Kallie could surmise that Nicole had mentioned their conversation to him.

“Hey guys,” she said, smiling with some embarrassment. “Mind if I join you out here?”

Nicole shrugged. “Sure,” she said, but her normal smile was absent.

Red looked away entirely.

There was a nice breeze and although the light was starting to fade, the sky was still relatively bright and the property looked as serene as ever.

“Nicole, I just wanted to say sorry for how I spoke to you earlier. I was short with you, and it was totally uncalled for. I’m really sorry.”

Red turned to Kallie now. “I know this is none of my business,” he said, “but can I chime in for a second?”

“Sure,” she said, suddenly anxious about the reprimand she knew was coming her way.

“Nicole and I really like you, Kallie. We both enjoy having you in the house.”

“Thanks.” She smiled, grateful for the compliment.

He continued. “But as both of us have found out the hard way, there are people in this world that will prey on us if we let them. People who don’t have our best interests in mind.”

“I guess you’re telling me that I might be hanging out with the wrong crowd?”

Kallie said, trying to lighten the conversation.

“I don’t know if you are or not. But I do want you to be careful, both for your sake—and for the sake of Nicole, as well as our daughter.”

Kallie looked Red in the eye. “Just so you know, I would never, ever do anything to jeopardize your family.”

“Not intentionally,” he replied, and his dark eyes were stern and intimidating.

She looked down.

“Red, could you give us a second alone?” Nicole said.

“Sure.” He got up and left the veranda.

Kallie looked up to see Nicole watching her. “Red’s a bit overprotective sometimes,” she said, the first hint of a smile forming.

Her smile allayed some of Kallie’s fears.

“It must be nice to have someone who cares that much about you,” Kallie replied.

“It is nice. But I think he was being too hard on you. I just wanted to have a chance to let you know that I’m not mad about earlier.”

Kallie looked down at the floor again. “The thing is,” she began.

Nicole waved her off. “You don’t owe me any explanations. I shouldn’t have put you in that position, asking you personal questions like that. Your private affairs are your own. If you need me, I’m here. But I won’t insert myself into your business ever again.”

Kallie nodded uncertainly. “I want to be able to talk to you about stuff like that.

But it does get confusing, because you’re still my boss.”

“I know. And that’s why I’m going to let you decide what you’re confortable divulging to me. Let’s just pretend it never happened and move on.”

Kallie was relieved to be able to do just that, and so the two of them made small talk about how Nicole was feeling, and Red still being worn out from the last week of visits to the hospital coupled with work meetings and emails.

They stayed away from anything to do with Hunter Reardon, and for that Kallie was grateful.

***

Over the course of the next few days, things settled into a familiar routine. Kallie and Nicole spent most of their time together. Much of it was devoted to shopping and prepping for when Riley came home from the hospital. Nicole wanted everything to be perfect, and she was stocking up on all sorts of supplies to be sure.

At the same time, when they weren’t out getting things for Riley or fixing up the nursery, Nicole had to be resting—although she was resistant to the idea. But her blood pressure was starting to climb again just a little bit, and Kallie insisted that she get more downtime.

Kallie cooked for her when Chef Roland wasn’t around, brought her drinks, kept her comfortable. Nicole balked at all of this special treatment, even though she needed much of it.

Kallie imagined that she would be much the same way had she been in Nicole’s position. Coming from a more modest background, it was probably very difficult to suddenly have people serving your every need.

The days passed by quickly in this way, and if Kallie would sometimes stop for a moment in the middle of some banal task and think of Hunter Reardon—well—nobody was the wiser. She kept her disappointment about his lack of contact to herself.

At night it was worse. Unless she dropped right off to sleep, Kallie had plenty of time to think about the deafening silence from his end. She would lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, wondering if he was ever going to contact her with his instructions that he’d alluded to the last time they’d spoken.

As each day ran into the next, however, Kallie began to suspect that there weren’t going to be further instructions.

If he’d ever intended on continuing the relationship—which was anybody’s guess—it certainly appeared as though he’d ultimately decided against it.

One of the few calls she did get was from her father, alerting her to the fact that he and Mom were going to be coming into town on Friday night, while the rest of the family wouldn’t get in until the next day.

He let her know that they wanted to see Kallie on Friday for dinner, if possible.

Kallie instantly agreed. It would be great to have some time with just the two of them. It was a rare occasion indeed to get all her parents’ attention at any one time, given that she had five brothers who all were demanding and boisterous, with big personalities.

Her folks were staying at The Marriott over near Times Square, and their plane was scheduled to arrive into the city at around four on Friday afternoon. Kallie arranged for Nicole and Red’s driver to take her into the city at around six o’clock to meet them.

She was wearing a summery light green dress with white and yellow heels, and a new yellow Coach knock-off that she’d gotten from one of those street vendors. For the first time in days she was feeling truly good, not just pretending. She had the window rolled partway down so the cool night air was blowing inside the town car.

The closer they got to Manhattan, the more alive and excited Kallie felt. After all, she thought—I’m in New York City, working for a wealthy celebrity couple that lets me take their car and live at their enormous house. I’m basically living the fantasy that every girl dreams of.

She smiled, picturing her parents—seeing them for the first time in months was going to be extremely emotional.

Finally, they got to the hotel. Kallie stepped out of the town car and headed inside, immediately sensing the energy of Manhattan on a Friday night. It was like no other place she’d ever been—the variety of people of all ages and ethnicities and cultures—everyone seeming to have their own big nights ahead of them.

In New York, it was as though everyone was part of the show, not just the actors on Broadway. The vendors, the police, construction workers, business people, tourists—

they all had a role to play.

It would be fun to take her parents out and show them Times Square. Neither of them had been there before, and she was certain her father would be overwhelmed by the mass of people and electronic, flashing billboards.

Taking the elevator to the fourth floor, Kallie quickly hustled to their room. She knocked, getting a surge of adrenaline as the door swung open and her father stood there with a huge grin on his face. “Kallie!” He cried, picking her up in his arms. Her father, although older and carrying a substantial paunch, still was strong enough to sweep her off the ground if he wanted. “We missed you so much!”

“I missed you too,” she said, burying her face in his shoulder and not even minding that he was treating her like she was eight years old and coming home from sleepover camp.

And then her mother was running over too, and taking her turn to hug her only daughter. Mom held the back of her head and kissed her cheek and then pulled back to look into Kallie’s eyes. “You look more mature,” she said. “You’re an adult!”

“Mom,” Kallie cried, embarrassed but pleased as well. “I’ve been an adult for a little while now.”

“No, this is different. When you graduated college, you were still a kid. But something’s changed in your face. I can see it—a mother always knows.”

“Thanks, Mom. You look great too.”

Her mother shook her head in awe. “I can’t believe it. Kallie, New York suits you.”

“It’s growing on me,” she admitted. “But it’s a lot to get used to.”

“So where are you taking us for our first night in the city?” her father asked.

“We’re ready when you are.”

Kallie was about to answer him, when suddenly she felt her phone buzzing away.

“Oh, hold on a second,” she said, taking it out and checking the Caller ID.

Oh my God, she thought. Of all the times in the world he could have called, leave it to Hunter Reardon to pick the absolute worst possible moment.

“Is everything okay?” her mother asked. “Do you need to answer it?”

Kallie hesitated, but eventually she put the phone back in her purse. “No, it’s fine. It can wait.”

Her parents began chattering away again. They couldn’t wait to tell her about Sean’s proposal to Lydia and how beautiful it was and how happy Sean had been ever since they’d announced the news.

Kallie was listening with half an ear. She was terribly distracted now, and her heart was racing. In the middle of one of the stories about Sean’s everlasting love, she interrupted. “Is it okay if I run to the bathroom before we go out?” Kallie asked.

“Of course. Go right head,” he dad said, moving to the desk to check out the hotel guest directory. He’d probably read it from cover to cover, Kallie thought, as she walked quickly into the bathroom and shut the door.

She was shaking and sweating already. Kallie took out her cell phone again, even though she told herself that doing so would only make her more anxious.

But she couldn’t resist. She needed to know if Hunter had left a message for her.

When she checked the cell phone, however, there was only the one missed call and no messages.

A part of her was deflated. She wanted to at least hear his voice and know why he’d called. Did he want to schedule a time to meet again? Or had he somehow called her by accident?

She didn’t know, and the only way she’d figure it would be to call him back.

Her finger hovered over the touch screen. One quick tap and she’d be ringing his line.

No.

She resisted, sighing deeply. The intense urge to call Hunter back passed as quickly as it came, and Kallie sat on the toilet instead. She peed quickly and then got up and washed her hands.

Just as she was drying them on the hand towel, her phone buzzed yet again. This time, it only buzzed briefly—it didn’t keep ringing.