Read With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) Online
Authors: Kelly Favor
With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) (9 page)
“Get your coffee and come outside with me,” she said, grabbing his arm for a moment and giving a gentle squeeze to show that she wasn’t angry.
Red went back inside, and came out a moment later with coffee and a blueberry muffin. He sat across from her at the table, sunglasses on, and looked over the Vegas skyline. “Beautiful morning.”
“It is,” she agreed, closing her magazine. “Feeling okay?”
“Not really.” He smiled grimly. “Losing two million dollars can put a damper on your morning.”
She shook her head. “It could have been worse, I suppose. But when I think about what you could have done with that money—charities, investing in a business, heck, just giving it away to a random person…” she trailed off.
Red nodded. “It’s twisted. But I can’t take it back.”
“Should we wait to talk about the rest of it?” she asked him.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I mean, the reason we came here. We were trying to decide if it would be possible to move here as a family.”
Red laughed. “I think I know the answer.”
She looked evenly at him. “And I don’t want you splitting your time between Las Vegas and Connecticut either.”
He hesitated, took a long sip of coffee, stared curiously at his muffin. “Nicole, let me explain something to you right now.” He took his sunglasses off and stared back at her. “There’s no amount of money you could pay me, to make me want to come back to this hellhole anytime soon.”
“Oh, thank God you said that,” she moaned, putting a hand to her forehead. “I was so worried you might want to still work here.”
He chuckled. “This place is bad for me. I don’t know what it is, but something about this lifestyle just brings out the worst in me. I don’t like who I am when I’m here, and I’m ready to go home and be with you and Riley. I love my life, Nicole. I’m not looking for a change.”
“Promise?”
“That’s a damn promise,” he said, slapping his lap. “Now come sit closer, darling.”
Nicole laughed, got up and went to him.
***
As they were leaving the hotel, Patrick and Jeb saw them off. Red was loading their bags into a black town car and Jeb was talking softly with him.
Patrick stood next to Nicole, watching them. “Red belongs out here, you know,”
he told her out of the side of his mouth. “You should have seen him last night—life of the party.”
“Is that what you call it?” She smiled.
“What would you call it?” he replied.
“A set up.”
Patrick turned to her. “I think if anyone set Red up, it was you, honey.” He tapped his own stomach lightly. “And I think you know what I mean.”
She felt her cheeks flush. “You’re as big an asshole as I thought you might be the moment I laid eyes on you. But now I know it for sure.”
Red came over to where they stood, hands on his hips. “Well, we’re ready to go.”
His eyes shifted from Nicole to Patrick. “Something wrong?”
Patrick shook his head. “No, just chatting.” He smiled. “I really hope you come back soon, man. We loved having you.”
Red stared at him for a long moment. He reached out his hand and then Patrick took it, and they shook. Nicole could tell that Red wasn’t letting go of the handshake, and Patrick’s eyes began to shift back and forth nervously. He grinned. “Hey, relax, pal.”
“I’m not your pal, Patrick. I haven’t seen you in years, and you’ve turned into a little prick.” Red let go and Patrick stepped back with a cocky, sneering grin.
“I might be a prick, but I didn’t get taken for two million. You might as well have bent over and just let Bill Icenhower fuck you in the ass—it would have been quicker that way.”
Red grabbed him by the shirt and slapped him hard across the face with the back of his hand.
Patrick squealed and tried to fend him off. “Wait, hey, don’t touch me asshole!”
“Or what?” Red said, letting him go. “You going to sue me, you little shit? I’d gladly pay another two million to beat the piss out of you.”
Patrick glowered, but said nothing. He slunk back inside the hotel, and Red watched him go with a tiny smile playing on his lips.
Jeb sighed. “Well, work’s sure going to be fun today.”
Red clapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t know if you were just trying to get me here to dump money in that game or not—”
“I would never do that to you, Red.”
“I’ll pretend that’s the case. I love you no matter what, you know that.”
“Love you too.”
They hugged quickly, and then Red and Nicole got in the car.
“Take us to the airport,” Red said. “We need to get the hell out of Las Vegas.”
The driver nodded. “You’d be surprised how often I hear those exact words.”
And then they were going home—finally—back to their life, back to their daughter, back to each other. Nicole knew that everything was going to be okay again.
KALLIE
“I’m so dreading this right now,” Kallie said, as Hunter pulled into the driveway of Sean and Lydia’s house.
Hunter turned and looked at her as he put the car in park, hand on the ignition.
“What do you think? Should we make a break for it?”
She knew he was joking, but another part of her thought that he might actually mean it. “Kind of.”
He put the car in reverse. “Fuck it, let’s go.”
“Hunter, no!” she squealed. “Don’t back out, they’re probably watching us out the window right now.”
They both peered through the windshield, and, sure enough, a dark silhouette of a woman’s head was visible from the first floor window of the house, just beside the front door.
“She’s insane,” Kallie muttered. “I can’t believe she’s going to be in my life for the next however many years.”
Hunter put the car in park again and turned the ignition, killing the engine.
“Listen, it’s just dinner. What are they going to do—poison us?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Hunter shrugged. “I’ll taste all your food for you, if you want. It might look a little weird, though. Not sure how you’re going to explain that one.”
Kallie sighed deeply and put her head back against the seat. “Why did I agree to this? I don’t want to be here right now.”
“I told you we shouldn’t do this,” Hunter said. “I have so much work to do, and—”
“That’s part of why I said yes,” Kallie replied. “We need to get you out of the house and away from your computer.”
“We’re definitely not getting into this again,” he said. “I think I’d rather take my chances in there with the two-headed monster.”
“Hunter!” she cried again, laughing a little despite herself.
He was already getting out of the front seat and striding up the walkway, and Kallie quickly got out of the car and hustled after him. She grabbed his arm as they arrived at the front steps, and she was giggling. “Please don’t make me laugh in there,”
she whispered.
He glanced at her. “I don’t know what you’re even talking about right now,” he said. “I take dinner with your angry brother and crazy sister-in-law very, very seriously.”
Hunter knocked on the door, rapping it three or four times.
A moment later, it swung open, and Lydia looked at them with an enigmatic expression on her heavily made up face. “Hey, guys. So, so glad you made it. Come inside, come inside. Sean’s just finishing something up downstairs.”
“Oh, what’s he working on?” Hunter asked. “Is he building something in his workshop?”
Lydia glanced at him. “No, he’s praying.”
Hunter nodded as if this made perfect sense. “Oh, okay. Will he be up soon?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it depends how long he prays for.” She led them inside the modestly furnished home, that looked like something that Kallie’s mother and father might have decorated.
It’s not that the place was bad or ugly—it was just…dated.
“I love your house,” Kallie lied. “It’s so cozy.”
Lydia shrugged. “This was my grandmother’s house, and when she passed away last year, Dad was going to sell it. But I guess he couldn’t part with it or something—so when Sean and I announced we were getting married, he decided to sell it to us for next to nothing.”
“Well, it’s beautiful.”
“I have big plans for it,” Lydia said. “All of this old junk is going and I’m bringing in new, modern furniture. But it’s going to take time, I’m not made of money like some people.”
Hunter examined a hutch in the living room. “Well, I’m not an expert, Lydia, but I think some of your furniture might be considered antiques. This is nicely crafted stuff.
It might not be your style, but it’s definitely not junk.”
Lydia’s eyes narrowed momentarily, but then she just shrugged again. “Enough boring furniture talk. Do you guys want a cocktail? I’ve got wine, beer, whatever you’d like.”
“I’ll have a glass of wine,” Kallie said.
Hunter smiled. “Me too. Let’s live a little.”
“Great,” Lydia said. “Hold one second, I’ll be right back.”
She hustled out of the room and into the kitchen.
Kallie and Hunter looked at one another with mortified expressions.
“Oh my God,” Kallie whispered through her teeth. “It’s even worse than I imagined it would be.”
“I hate to say I told you so…”
“Shut up.”
“I didn’t realize your brother was the religious type,” Hunter said, walking over and examining the grandfather clock that sat against the far wall.
“He’s not—at least, he never was before. Maybe the ordeal we went through changed all of that.”
“If anyone should have become more religious, it’s me,” Hunter said.
“Maybe we should start going to church,” Kallie replied.
“If we get through tonight in one piece.”
“Stop saying stuff like that, I’m nervous enough as it is.”
Hunter grinned.
The next second, they heard footsteps coming upstairs from the basement and then the door opened off the hallway. A moment later, Sean appeared, smiling and apologizing for keeping them waiting. He approached Hunter, hand outstretched, and the two men shook firmly.
“Good to see you, Sean,” Hunter told him. He even sounded like he genuinely meant it.
“Hey, sis,” Sean said, looking at Nicole.
“Hey.” She was surprised and a little hurt that he didn’t come over and hug her, but she just attributed it to him being distracted.
Lydia came out of the kitchen with two wine glasses. “I hope red is okay,” she said.
Kallie took hers and sniffed gingerly as she lifted the glass to her lips.
Don’t be silly. She’s not actually going to poison you
.
All Kallie knew was that she felt distinctly uncomfortable at that moment—
maybe she wasn’t about to be poisoned, but she knew something was coming.
Something she wasn’t going to like one bit.
Lydia brought out a cheese tray with some crackers and set it on the ancient looking coffee table, and then she and Sean sat in two chairs opposite Kallie and Hunter, who sat on an old blue couch with an afghan thrown across it.
They made small talk for a few minutes. Sean inquired after Hunter’s health, and Hunter told him he was doing better every day. Lydia commented (for the millionth time, it seemed) how she was so proud to know two real celebrities.
Kallie tried to enjoy this seeming friendly atmosphere between the couples, but something was rubbing her the wrong way. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she was having a hard time staying engaged in the conversation. Occasionally she nodded or laughed or made a little comment, but beneath it all she just felt—wrong.
And she noticed that despite the fact that Lydia was being bubbly and gregarious as per usual, Sean seemed extremely subdued and fidgety. He wasn’t making eye contact with Kallie at all, and when she tried to catch his attention, he seemed to purposefully ignore her.
Finally, Lydia got up and checked on the pot roast and announced that the meal was ready. They sat down at the dining room table, which was in the same room as the living room furniture, but set off a bit from the couch and TV.
“Let me help you,” Kallie offered.
“No, no—you two are our guests,” she replied. “It’s not every day that Sean and I have celebrities over our normal little home in the sticks.”
“Come on, Lydia,” Kallie said. “We aren’t celebrities.”
“You could have fooled me,” she said, and for a moment the mask of friendliness dropped away and Kallie swore she saw nothing but pure, unadulterated hatred in the other woman’s eyes. But then the look of hate was gone and she was serving pot roast and encouraging them to eat.
The food was decent, if not amazing, and the table fell into silence as the four of them ate.
“Really good,” Hunter said. “This is hitting the spot, Lydia.”
Kallie nodded and agreed.
Sean and Lydia exchanged meaningful glances, and then Sean cleared his throat, dabbing at the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “So, I need to say something to you both.”
Kallie stiffened. She stopped chewing her food and put her fork down.
Next to her, Hunter sat up a little straighter in his chair. “Everything okay?” he asked.
Sean wouldn’t look at them. His eyes were staring down at his plate. “The thing is, we invited you two here for a reason.”
“I was hoping the reason was that you wanted to have dinner with your sister and your sister’s fiancé,” Kallie said.
Lydia flashed a steely look at Kallie. “Just let him talk, Kallie. You don’t get to run the show in my house.”
Kallie noticed Hunter’s jaw tighten and his shoulders hunched with tension, but he didn’t say anything to Lydia. He just looked at Sean. “Tell us what you want to say.
We’re waiting.”
“I’m here to give you both a message from the whole family. We all spoke recently and everyone discussed their concerns about this impending marriage.”
“I assume you mean your impending marriage to Lydia?” Hunter said drily.
Sean looked at Hunter. “I think you know that’s not what I meant.”
Kallie’s heart was hammering in her chest and her hands were clenched to together. “Go on, finish your story, Sean.”
Sean finally made eye contact with her. “After a lot of discussion, we decided as a family that we can’t, in good conscience, attend your wedding and lend support to the course you two are on.”