The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin (19 page)

"I'm not little, dammit,
will you stop calling me that,
Lance.
"

Lakota had reared back in
shock, and she had regretted that outburst instantly, but when she'd put a hand
on his chest, he'd shaken it off with an annoyed growl and turned toward
Selina.

"Let's go, we’re late
enough as it is. Alice here was just leaving, weren't you?"

He'd given her a polite nod,
and she had followed them meekly to the lifts. Once on the ground floor they
had gone their separate ways. Lakota had not come home on time that evening,
and she'd eaten a miserable meal on her own in their vast suite. He'd left a
message with Forrester, for her not to stay up.
Have been detained at work.
Go to sleep. I'll see you at Beth's party.

It had taken her ages to fall
asleep without him, only for her to wake up with a start, when he'd finally
come home. He'd gone straight to the shower, and her overactive imagination had
gone into overdrive. She'd feigned sleep when he'd gotten into bed, and for the
first time in their married life they'd not had sex that night. She must have
fallen asleep eventually, because when she woke up in the morning he was gone.

The papers a reluctant
Forrester had been unwilling to give to her were full of pictures of him and
Selina at a night club. They weren’t the only ones in the pictures by any
means, but Alice had felt like burning them anyways.

So much for business keeping
him away. It hadn't helped one iota when she'd found his discarded clothes from
the night before. Not only did they reek of Selina's expensive perfume, his
shirt collar also carried the unmistakable evidence of her fire red lipstick.

Alice pulled the door of the
deserted dining room shut behind herself now and groaned. No, she couldn't tell
any of this to her mum, but she would have to have it out with Lakota soon.

Her gaze fell on the picture
on the mantel piece. It had been taken on Beth's birthday two years prior, just
before she had been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, and it showed Beth looking up
at her mum, Mary. Those had been happy times when Daddy was still alive, and
Alice had been in the final year of her studies, oblivious to what was to come,
and that she would one day be married to a man from the tribe whose history
she'd been researching. Alice traced the smiling faces of her sister and niece
until the picture blurred, and she burst into tears.

****

Lakota kissed the sleeping
little angel and disentangled himself out of her embrace. Beth stirred but
stayed asleep, and he went in search of his little Alice. She'd been off with
him all day, ever since he'd come across her in his office in conversation with
Selina. He ground his teeth in annoyance remembering that scene.

Selina had clearly said
something to Alice, because she hadn't looked happy, and he was well aware that
he hadn't handled that situation well at all. In fact he was pretty sure right
now, Alice would nominate him for worst husband of the year award.

"Okay, that's it. Now
you're
looking as though you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. What is
going on between you two?"

Alice's mother stood scowling
at him in the hallway, and Lakota suppressed a sigh. He knew that look only too
well. Elizabeth Wanderlund had a bee in her bonnet, and he wouldn't get a
minute's peace until she'd found out the truth.

"And don't tell me it's nothing.
I got that spiel off Alice already, and I didn't believe her either. So,
you," she pointed at him and gestured down the hall to the kitchen.
"In there and tell me why my daughter is miserable with you. And I warn
you now, if you're indeed playing around like she seems to think you are, I'll
be the one cutting off your goolies."

"She's thinking
what?" Lakota growled the words in annoyance, and Elizabeth rolled her
eyes.

"Keep your voice down. I
don't want her to hear this. In there—now!"

Lakota swallowed his angry
retort and followed his mother-in-law into the tiny kitchen at the back of the
house. It just about had enough room for a bench seat squashed into one corner,
and he perched his large frame on the edge of it, and accepted the mug of
steaming black coffee with a muttered "thanks".

He squirmed under Elizabeth's
intense gaze.

"For the record I do not
believe for one minute that there is any truth to the rumors, and I told Alice
that, but she's young and she's in love, and—"

"She's what?"
Lakota had a hard time drawing air into his lungs, and he couldn't hear what
Alice's mum was saying over the roaring in his ears and the rising panic
threatening to overwhelm him. By the time he had himself back under control,
Elizabeth was stood in front of him.

"Jesus, boy. Does that
thought scare you that much? I thought you were actually going to pass out on
me there for a second."

"I'm fine. I don't pass
out. Ever." He ground the words out through gritted teeth and forced
himself to relax the tight grip he had on the delicate mug. Somehow he didn't
think Elizabeth would appreciate him breaking it. "And I'm not
scared."

"Uhuh, sure you're not.
Alice loves you, though I doubt she'll tell you that, when you act as though
you're issued with a death sentence at the mere mention of the word. Most men
would be pleased their wife was in love with them." She paused to regard
him thoughtfully, and Lakota got the distinct impression that she was once
again seeing far more than he wanted her to. "I don't even want to hazard
a guess at the demons that drive you, but I've seen the way you look at my girl
when you don't think anyone is watching you, so, you go and sort it. And get
rid of that Selina bird. She's trouble waiting to happen."

"Don't you think I know
that?" Lakota chose to ignore the first half of that speech. He couldn't
be in love with Alice any more than she was in love with him. In lust, yes,
sure, but love, no. He refused to put such a definition on whatever he was
feeling for his little Alice. All he did know that she was his, and the thought
that she was unhappy cut him to ribbons inside. When she'd called him
Lance
in front of Selina it had hurt so fucking much he hadn't known what to do,
other than shut down. She never called him Lance. That person was his business
self, not the man he had become around her, the man he'd allowed himself to be,
the man he had thought lost forever.

"Selina is complicated.
I need her for this merger. Her father has set this up, and it's beyond fucking
ironic that the fact that I've decided to save Langton Enterprises now means
it's driving a wedge between Alice and me. She was the one who urged me to
reconsider in the first fucking place."

"If you don’t stop
swearing, I will make you eat the washing up liquid, boy. I will not have that
language in this house."

Lakota smiled grimly and
inclined his head.

"I'd like to see you
try."

"Oh no, you really
wouldn't." Elizabeth sat back down and sipped her own coffee. "Ask
Alice! In fact, you need to go and find her. Beth's birthdays are always hard
for her since Mary upped and left like she did. She blames herself, you see,
though why she should is beyond me. We certainly never blamed her, but she
doted on her baby sister from the minute Mary was born, and when it all went so
wrong, she thought she'd failed her. So the last thing she needs right now is
to add worries over you to the pot."

Elizabeth wiped a tear off
her face, and Lakota grasped her hand.

"Do you have any idea
where she might be?"

His mother-in-law sighed and
looked incredibly frail all of a sudden.

"We did all we could at
the time. Even employed a private investigator until we ran out of money. He
didn't find anything noteworthy, and we had to give up. Mary has always been
difficult.
Brian, Lord rest his soul, always hoped she would come home. It was his dying
wish to see her, but of course there was no way she could have known, so she
never did make it home."

"Have you got the name
of that investigator you used?"

"Yes, I have the whole
file. Why?"

"Would you like me to
try to find her? For you, and Beth, and Alice?"

This time Elizabeth didn't
bother to try and hide her tears.

"Lakota, if you could do
that … I can't even begin to tell you how much that would mean to all of us.
And most especially to Alice." She hugged him close, and he shut his eyes
for a minute, savoring the motherly affection he hadn't felt in years.
"You've done so much for us all already."

He snorted and disentangled
himself out of Elizabeth's embrace.

"Hardly. Anyone can
throw cash at a problem, that's all I did here." He stood up, ignoring her
frown, and looked around the kitchen. "I do wish you'd let me buy you a
bigger house though. This place is not big enough to swing a cat around
in."

"As I'm not planning on
swinging any cats it will not be an issue, will it? And besides, this is my
home. I've lived here for nigh on thirty years. There is no power on God's
earth that will persuade me to move. Some things your money can't fix,
Lakota—think on that."

It was his turn to frown.

"Now you sound like
Alice. She said you would respond like that, and I wasn't to keep on harassing
you."

Elizabeth laughed.

"You should listen to
your wife more." She gave him a hard shove to get him moving. "Now
shoo, go sort things with Alice and think on what I said. Stop fighting your
feelings, and you two will be just fine."

He found Alice in the dining
room and
fuck it
, she was crying. She didn't hear his approach, her hand
clutched around a picture of a younger Beth, and what must be her mum Mary. The
family resemblance was there for all to see. Seeing Alice this upset darkened
his mood further and tightened an invisible vise round his heart. Somehow he
had to make this all right, but he was fucked if he knew how.

He drew Alice against him,
relieved beyond measure when she didn't fight his touch like he had been half
expecting her to. Instead she turned round in his arms and snuggled into his
chest. His shirt grew wet with her tears, and he found he didn't care one bit.
When she had herself back under control, she drew away and accepted the tissue
he handed her with a watery smile.

"Sorry, I'll be okay in
a minute. Are you ready to go home? Is Beth asleep?"

He smiled at her and wiped
the last few remaining tears off her face. With her eyes all red and her skin
blotchy from crying she still looked utterly beautiful to him, and he shifted
his weight to ease the ache in his groin, as his cock showed its eagerness, but
sex was not what Alice needed right now.

"Beth is fine. But you
look exhausted. Let's get you home, and we discuss all this in the
morning."

Alice woke up with a start at the
sound of smashing crockery. What on earth was going on?

"Sir, if I might suggest
that—" Whatever Forrester was going to say was lost in Lakota's angry
retort.

"Get the fuck out, Forrester.
The day I need the advice of a butler, is the day I slit my fucking wrists.
Out."

Another piece of something smashed
against the wall, and Alice winced. It seemed Lakota wasn't in any better mood
than he had been in last night.

They'd had their
chat
, which
had quickly turned into an argument over Selina.

"Selina is business, that's all,
Alice. I need her on my side until this merger is over and done with. I thought
you'd be pleased I am turning my father's company around. You're the one who
kept on and on at me that I need to make my piece with him. Now that I am,
you're moaning at the time I spend doing it. Jesus, I can't win here. What the
fuck do you want me to do, Alice? What do you want from me?"

He'd looked exasperated with her,
running his hands through his hair until it had all stood up at far too sexy
angles and her hands had itched to untangle his raven tresses. She hadn't acted
on that impulse though. Instead she had wrapped her arms around her middle and
swallowed her angry tears back down.

"The mere fact that you have to
ask shows how hopeless this all is."

"Oh for fuck's sake, Alice. Stop
talking in riddles and give me a clue here. You went into this … this marriage
with your eyes wide open. I didn't force you into anything, and I never
promised you the happily ever after. If you've now decided to change the
parameters, then … then … fuck it, I can't do this sober." He'd stalked
away from her and had poured himself an over generous measure of Scotch, which
he'd downed in one angry swallow.

"I haven't changed any
parameters
as you put it. I am well aware this is just another
business
arrangement
for you. That's fine. Contrary to what my family seem to think I wouldn't be so
stupid as to fall in love with you."

He'd flinched as though she'd had
physically hit him, and the hurt she'd seen in his eyes for a brief second had
made her almost want to tell him the truth, but she couldn't expose herself
like that, she just couldn't. So she'd rambled on, her hurt feelings and
jealous suspicions spurring her on like some demented fish wife.