Alexandra fought off a sudden wave of nausea as she digested this latest bit of information. The Alarico? “What is his name?”
“He’s a Spaniard…Leandro Alarico. He’s a big deal apparently.”
“Claire, do they know where this Alarico person is at the moment?”
“Um, I actually demanded to see him and tell the man off myself and the pissy rep assured me that he was out of reach. Something about him needing a working holiday or some such thing.”
Alexandra felt a great chill chase up her arms and straight into her bones. Her eyes swung to the briefcase lying open on the bed across the room. Wordlessly, she replaced the receiver and turned to stare around Leandro’s suite with new eyes. Who was this man?
Muffled singing from the bathroom told her he was still in the shower and she hurriedly rushed to peep into the documents lying in his open briefcase. Her heart stopped; it was a copy of a bid by Lead Inc for the same contract. The envelope beside it also revealed some pictures of her as well as some reports detailing her life and her personal habits. Tears blurred her vision. Was this why he had sought her out in Hawaii? Obviously their meeting had not been an accident at all. Everything that had happenedthe lovemaking, the laughter, the companionship it had all been nothing but a master-seducer at work!
Her sense of betrayal was absolute and complete as she stared at the document. With a flip of her hand, she flung it back into his briefcase and with quick jerky movements, picked up her clothes and fled to the sanctity of her room.
***
Leandro whistled to himself as he emerged from the bathroom. The world suddenly seemed brighter. He felt more cheerful and happier than he could remember. He was interested in finding out more about Alexandra, he wanted to know everything! That was a first for him, most women he dated, he barely knew more than their first names. There was just something unique about her. As much as he was captivated, it also that scared the hell out of him. At some level though, he thought, maybe that’s what I have needed – someone who can really see me.
He loved her, he realized. He waited to feel choked or trapped but all he felt was exhilarated.
He would tell her the truth today, he decided.
“Alexandra?” he called as he dried his hair with a towel, looking around the room. It was empty. Where had she gone? He strode into the adjourning bedroom, but she was not there either.
A niggle of unease trickled down his spine and he immediately swung about the room, searching wildly for something. He didn’t know what it was but he couldn’t shake the sudden feeling in his guts that there was something he should look out for. His eyes fell on the open briefcase and with a sense of dread, he walked closer. Instantly he knew what had happened. Dammit, he thought to himself. She had found the pictures and the bid. What a mess. He had not gone through the papers yet, but he knew, essentially what he had asked his people investigate for him. He picked up the first document and his jaw tightened as he read what was written on it; the idiot had even detailed where she shopped for lingerie!
Had she seen these? Of course she had.
Hurriedly he shoved his legs into his pants and dragged a tee-shirt over his head. He barely remembered to shove his foot into his loafers before he was barreling towards the elevator. He reached her room and shoved open the door; it was just as he had feared! All her belongings were gone.
Cursing in rapid Spanish,”Mierda, mierda, mierda” Leandro rushed downstairs, his heart in his throat as he looked over the crowd for any glimpse of her.
“Where is she?” he demanded of the receptionist.
The young woman took one look at him. All of the staff knew exactly who he was. She responded without asking who he meant, “She left Sir. She checked out.”
“When?” he bit out so furiously, that the startled receptionist drew back.
“A few minutes ago Sir. She was in quite a hurry.”
“Did you see which way she went?”
“No. But I’ll take a wild stab and say she was heading for the airport.”
Leandro didn’t wait to hear more; he left at a run, searching even as he headed for the door. But she was already gone. Weakly, he sank onto the pavement in front of the hotel. Whatever brightness had illuminated his day a scant twenty minutes ago had gone out completely.
Chapter Six
Alexandra Jordan was a mess. It had been seven weeks since she’d left Hawaii and while Lead Inc had not contacted them at all, she had been unable to get its conniving CEO out of her mind.
She had also been a nightmare to be around at work because she was so sensitive these days that the least thing set her off. In a single day, she had berated her CFO, fired a janitor and sent two new interns crying from her office after an intense scolding.
Three weeks after she had returned, the tension around her had been so palpable that Claire had pulled her aside and reminded her she was supposed to have gone on the break to relax and not to return an ogre. She had the temperament of a bear with a sore paw and she knew it.
When she had noticed that her normally stoic secretary now blanched every single time she so much as looked at the woman, and that even Claire was giving her a wide berth, she had gone home and had a good crying session just to get it all out of her system. These days she was more withdrawn and quiet which was a decided improvement from her earlier raging-bitch persona.
The past week, she had forced smiles until her cheeks hurt. She had smiled for real though when she learned that Beautiful Designs had somehow clinched the Alistairs Plc contract. Things were looking up, she had thought as she joined her colleagues for a toast in celebration.
But just when she had started to convince herself that Leandro was not worth her tears, her doctor had delivered what might have been amazing news under other circumstances, but felt pretty grim as things stood now; she was pregnant!
She had lost some weight, rather than gain some as one might expect, and the bags under her eyes were so prominent they threatened to dwarf her nose. She hadn’t been sleeping much either, she admitted but all that had to change now that she had a baby to think of. She looked around at the park; it was midday and she was pretty much alone. A few kids played in a nearby swing set while adults sat on some benches similar to hers, watching over them.
Alexandra’s hand rested both pensively as well as protectively on her stomach as she leaned back against the park bench and shut her eyes. She wasn’t showing yet but she already loved the tiny human being inside of her with all her heart. It wasn’t its fault that its father was a two-faced rat! But still, this was not how it was supposed to be!
“May I sit?” an achingly familiar voice said from right in front of her.
Alexandra’s eyes flew open disbelievingly. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The two-faced rat was standing right in front of her looking so unbearably handsome that she unconsciously started to grind her teeth. He was wearing a pair of well-washed jeans and a tee-shirt with simple sneakers and yet somehow he managed to look utterly respectable, male and delicious. He was also slimmer than she remembered; he actually looked a little gaunt.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered, her throat almost closing up. She had been torturing herself with images of his handsome, lying face since Hawaii but seeing him in the flesh was even more painful than her fevered anticipation had imagined.
“I need to talk to you Alexandra. You left the Island in a hurry and I had no chance to”
“To seduce me further just so you could get me to reveal secrets about my business? Well you failed; we got the contract!” she cut in acidly.
“Cara mia, I’ve hurt you but you will let me make amends yes?” he said, his Spanish accent thicker as he dropped his long frame onto the bench beside her.
Alexandra felt as though the entire air around them reverberated with the very force of his presence and vitality. She edged away from him a little on the bench.
“Alexandra? Come on, don’t avoid me, Cara mia,” he pleaded,
his hand grabbing hers to still her nervous movements.
“You have a lot of nerve showing your face here,” Alexandra spat jerking her arm from his light grasp. “So all you wanted was a contract and you had to sleep with me too? The humiliation couldn’t just end at me warming up to you? You could have simply asked me to withdraw as a friend and I would have considered it. You didn’t have to pretend to like me and actually fucking take me to your bed!”
Pun was really not her strong suit, she thought distractedly.
“It looks bad I know, but I swear it was nothing like that,” he said gruffly, taking her hand in his.
She sprung to her feet, flinging off his hand, her heart racing as she said frigidly, “Leave me the hell alone.”
Something glinted fleetingly in his dark eyes but was gone before she could ascertain what it was and he said, “I can’t. I have tried a thousand times to let you go but I can’t. I tried to forget you. I can’t undo what is done.”
“You’re damn right you can’t! I hate you and I curse the day I met you,” she lied.
Leandro looked weary and deflated all of a sudden and Alexandra felt her heart constrict in her chest as she looked at him. In this moment he didn’t look the part of some corporate raider as she had painted him; he looked almost like a little boy whose heart was breaking.
“I never set out to seduce you. I came to Hawaii to persuade you to withdraw Beautiful Designs from the bid. Lead Inc has been trying to take over some companies, mostly subsidiaries of Alistairs Plc and this contract would have been like a leg in the door for us. Before I met you, it was just business, but once I saw you, I had to have you. I wanted to be with you, I should say. Seducing you was never my agenda. I swear it. I tried everything I could to stay away but I just could not forget you. Now that I know you exist, nothing is the same. All that I have accomplished means nothing without you. I was going to tell you everything that last day but you found out on your own before I had the chance.”
“Yeah you should have done a better job of hiding the papers I said,” she said bitingly.
He sighed, “That was the worst day of my life.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.”
“Alexandra, I pulled Lead Inc out of the bid. That was the first thing I did when I returned. You can verify from them, I swear. I didn’t want to take it away from you; not if it meant I would lose you.”
Her heart thudded in her chest. He had pulled out of the contract when it meant so much to his company?
Alexandra took a quick step back as Leandro rose to his feet and took her hand in his once more. “I’m sorry Alexandra. Please forgive me? I feel like I know you as much as I know my own self. Can’t you see? You are a part of me and I am a part of you. Our meeting was a gift. Can’t you see that?”
“You only know so much about me because you read it up in some report!”
“I never read the report. In fact I had only just printed them out that same morning. I never read them I swear. Our connection surprised me too. You are the funniest, kindest, sweetest, most beautiful woman I know.”
His dark eyes stared into hers, open and searching and she read the blazing sincerity and remorse in his gaze. She believed him, she realized.
Her resistance melted away and she nodded, “Okay fine. No harm done.”
“There’s something else.”
“Huh?”
Before her surprised eyes, he went down on one knee and pulled a little black box from his pocket, his dark eyes gleaming as he looked up at her. Alexandra’s throat closed up as she stared at him, her hands flying to her mouth when the box opened to reveal the biggest and most amazingly cut diamond she had ever seen in her life.
“I love you Alexandra. I know I absolutely do not deserve you but will you make me the happiest man on earth and say you’ll marry me?”
“II’m pregnant,” she blurted instead.
His eyes widened in surprise even as his gaze automatically dropped to her flat stomach before flicking up to her face.
“You’re” he began hesitantly.
Alexandra nodded, happy tears springing into her eyes as she grinned down at him. He rose to his feet immediately and gathered her into his arms, his hands encircling her waist as he crushed her to him.
“You’re perfect. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted,” he breathed against her lips. His kiss was tender and gentle. His tongue stroked hers sweetly sending waves of a calm and soothing peace shooting through her nerve endings as she clung to him. An almost indescribable feeling of happiness washed over her.
“You never answered my question,” he reminded her, lifting his head and looking into her eyes with all the love in the world shining from his.
“Yes Leandro, I’ll marry you. I love you too,” she told him.
As she kissed him, all the walls around her heart melted away completely leaving her free to embrace this wonderful love that was hers to savor forever.
THE END
My New Billionaire Stepbrother
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Table of Contents
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1
Jennifer wished that she didn’t have to be there at all. But there she stood in a hideous pink bridesmaid dress, standing next to her mother while she married the man of her dreams. She was having every girl’s fantasy wedding. Her fiancée had told her that money was no object, and by the attention to detail and the spare-no-expense feel of this affair, it was clear he hadn’t been lying. Jennifer hated his constant show of wealth, but her mother Darla apparently was looking for the financial reassurance of stability over the spiritual connection of emotional attachment and chemistry. At the same time, Jennifer had to admit that the chocolate fondue fountain her mom had planned would be pretty awesome. The light show would be cool too, for that matter. Still, she would have rather stayed home.
Her mother’s new husband Ryan was a bit older than she was, maybe by ten years. Jennifer was never privy to their exact age difference, but everyone with eyes could tell when the couple was out together. To be fair that was really not a big deal. If she had really liked the guy she wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But Jennifer never really did warm up to him during the whirlwind three month courtship. She kept that to herself as best as she could though, because her mother just seemed so happy. She couldn’t bear to be the one to rain on the woman’s parade, so she just kept her mouth shut and tried as best as she could to be supportive.
Jennifer was happy to see that the ritual ceremony was over and people were getting up to head to the reception. She went to congratulate her mother one last time before leaving them to go change and get to the other venue.
“Congrats mom, you look so adorable.”
Jennifer was being honest, as her mother was radiating a glow that was hard to surpass. She looked as close to radiant as she ever got and the dress was just beautiful. That dress probably cost more than Jennifer would make in a year, and it showed. All of the detail and embroidery really made it stand out.
“Thank you baby. Stick around Jenny, so you can meet your new brothers.”
Jennifer looked confused since she had never heard of Ryan having any children. She envisioned a couple of teens that he had from a previous marriage.
“I didn’t know I was getting new brothers out of this deal, mom. No one ever tells me anything. I go off to school fifty miles away and ….oh, never mind. I will see you at the reception and meet them then, okay?”
The blonde tried to smile, hiding her true feelings from her mother. As always h
er mother was distracted and didn’t seem to notice her daughter’s annoyance. She walked away as she heard her mom gushing to her oldest friend, Ruth. Jennifer pulled her hair out of the fancy up-do which had taken an hour to create. Shaking her hair out, she slid into her old Mazda, which had been parked in front of the church, and headed down to the country club where the reception was to be held. Well, at least she wouldn’t have trouble finding her car in that parking lot later. Being almost 10 years old, it would certainly stand out, she thought, shaking her head.
Jennifer sat in her car for a few minutes after she pulled in. She hunted for her party dress and pulled it on after taking off the pink fluffy nightmare dress that her mom made her wear. It was now the tackiest, most expensive dress she owned and she hoped to hock it on Ebay as soon as she got back to school. Maybe someone would buy it, or at least she hoped so. She figured it would at least pay for a few books if nothing else.
Jennifer fluffed her hair and re-applied some light pink lipstick. She lit and took a few quick drags on a cigarette before stubbing it out and going inside, blowing smoke out of her lips as she went. She knew almost no one there and Jennifer found herself walking towards the bar. The buffet would be her second stop.
“Do you have an I.D. miss?”
“Oh come on, I’m the daughter of the bride. If I have to be here, the least you can do is give me a couple of shots.”
GUNNER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 4) Page 32
