by Katie Dowe
“What would you like to drink?” David asked her as soon as Nicholas pulled her down onto his lap, ignoring her attempt to get off him.
“Something fruity if you have it, thanks,” she said, giving up the fight to get up.
“I saw where you opened a new restaurant in Japan. How is that going?” Graham Senior asked her as he took his seat. He had noticed how possessive his son was where she was concerned and had to hide a smile at his unusual behavior.
“Very well.” Kelsey smiled her thanks at David as he handed her the drink and she unconsciously leaned back against Nicholas’ solid frame. “I am contemplating opening another one there because it is doing so well.”
“You did not tell me that,” he whispered against her ear.
She squirmed on his lap and he was beginning to think that it was not such a good idea to have her sitting on him. “You did not ask,” she whispered back.
His mother watched the exchange and felt the soft glow in her heart. This woman was good for her son!
“How are you planning on raising a child with your busy schedule?” The question came from Graham and she felt when Nicholas stiffened beneath her.
Kelsey felt the tension around and with a smile she responded, “Just the way you as a busy man work and are able to see to it that your sons are taken care of.” She had picked up that he did not approve of her but was far from being offended or really caring one bit! “I will make sure I am there for my child and I am sure Nicholas will be playing his part as well.”
He looked at her for a moment and then nodded.
They were called in to dinner after that and Kelsey found that she was actually enjoying the evening. She had never had the chance to be a part of a real family and although she knew that everything was not perfect because she sensed the tension between Graham and his wife and also with him and Nicholas, she had the feeling of the warmth that a real family was supposed to feel like.
The boys tore off towards some theater room as soon as the meal was finished and they adjoined into another room to have dessert and coffee. Maisie kept looking at them, her eyes straying towards Nicholas ever so often, and Kelsey felt absurdly jealous and wondered if he had ever been sexual with her.
She asked him when he took her on a tour of the place. They had stopped in the game room where there were several pool tables and table tennis tables in the room. “Have you ever been with Maisie?” she asked as she picked up one of the cue sticks and started fiddling with it.
“Why do you ask?” He sat on the edge of the table and looked at her in amusement. He was so proud of her and had felt like a proud father with an A student when she had talked about her restaurants.
“She kept looking at you.” She shrugged. “It’s none of my business.”
“It is your business.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “I am yours.” He nuzzled her neck. “And I am insulted that you would think that I would be with my brother’s wife that way.”
“She wants you to,” she moaned and sank against him, wrapping her hands around his neck. “And you are not mine.”
“Am I not?” He lifted her chin, and bending his head, he took his lips with hers in a slow erotic kiss that had her curling her hands into his green sweater. Kelsey felt her breath backing up inside her throat and all credible thought left her immediately. He lifted his head after a while and looked down at her, his green eyes stormy. “Tell me again how I am not yours,” he ordered hoarsely.
She was still gripping his sweater and her lips were parted as she stared up at him.
“Good.” He kissed her hard on the mouth. “Let’s go back out before they send a search party for us.”
His mother hugged her when she was leaving. “Please come again, my dear.” Even Graham held her hand a little bit longer, and Maisie and Linda wanted to know if she would have lunch with them.
Nicholas held her back as she made to get into her car. “Whose place?”
“I thought you were staying with your family.”
He wanted to tell her that his family was right here, but he knew it was too soon. “I want to be with you.”
“Your place.” She wrapped her hands around his neck. “I think your family is kind of cool.”
“Wait until you meet Alexandra. She is crazy about you.” He bent his head and nibbled at her lip.
“Yeah?” She moved closer to him.
“Hmm.” He was busy exploring her lip with his tongue.
“Nicholas,” she whispered.
“I am right behind you.” He lifted his head and moved away his breathing labored. “Drive good, the road is icy.” He stood there looking at her for a moment as she got in and drove off before he went to get his car.
Graham stood at the window and watched the intimate display, his expression bleak. They looked like a poster for a romantic ad. He turned away and caught his wife looking at him before turning away. They had never had anything like that!
Chapter 9
“Let’s take a trip,” Kelsey told him one evening after they had come home from their offices. It was two days now since she had had dinner with his family. She had just come in and had taken off her business suit and put on faded denims and a chunky dark blue sweater. He had come in shortly behind her with the intention of sitting by the fire with her in his arms.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Come on.”
“Am I going to get a chance to change first?” Nicholas asked her dryly, loving this side of her. Funny and playful.
“You got five minutes,” she told him in a serious tone. He hurried to the room and undressed, dragging on a pair of faded jeans and a black and white sweater. He combed fingers through his long wheat blonde hair and he was ready.
“Let’s go,” she urged.
She travelled a few miles before turning off the highway towards an area he was not familiar with. She had turned on Jeffry Osborne and he realized that she was particular to his songs. The farther she drove, the shabbier the houses got, and he knew instinctively that she was going to the place where she had grown up. She finally stopped at a white picket fence that leaned drunkenly to one side. The house looked abandoned with its green paint peeling and the yard badly in need of cutting. The other houses around it looked bright and cheerful making that one even shabbier.
“I grew up here,” she said, switching off the engine and resting her hands lightly on the wheel. She had been bent on selling it, but for some reason she had kept it. She had asked her father if he wanted to come back and live in it, but he had told her no, that she should do whatever she wanted with the place.
“I kind of guessed,” he said quietly, seeing the tenseness of her shoulders. Before he could say anything else, she opened the door and got out leaving him to do the same. She pushed the gate open and went up the cobbled path with him behind her. The snow was heaped on both sides of the pathway giving the indication that someone had come and shoveled. The tiles were cracked on the porch and the three steps and the columns were peeling. She did not use a key but opened the knob and went into what appeared to be a tiny living room minus a fireplace. There were coverings over the sofas and spiders had made their homes in every corner of the place.
“I put a Christmas tree here once when I was about fifteen because I wanted him to be pleased with me for once.” She wandered over to the pane glass window and stood there staring outside. “I was so excited about it! The next door neighbor had given me some lights and I cooked for the entire day. I was determined that we were going to have a nice Christmas. But he came home drunk and in a very bad mood.” She turned to face him. “He destroyed the tree and threw the food on the floor.” Her tone was emotionless and Nicholas felt the emptiness inside her. It was going to take a gigantic effort on his part to get her to love him! “I never put up another Christmas tree, even now.”
He reached for her, holding her arms firmly and forcing her to look at him. “We can make our own memories,” he insisted.
“It does not have to be like this, Kelsey. I get it that he hurt you and I wish to God that I could have been there to save you! But please do not let that stop you from experiencing the wonders of having someone love you and want a family with you. I am here and I am never going to be like that. I promise you.”
She stared at him, and with a sinking heart he realized that her expression remained unchanged. She pulled away from him and turned left and he followed her towards a passageway where she opened another door. “My bedroom,” she said with a flourish. It was tiny with only a single bed and a dilapidated looking dresser in one corner. There was only one window that opened out to what appeared to be a tiny vegetable garden that was now choked by weeds. “My mother had a good hand with herbs and seeds and she used to plant her own. I used to sit out there and watch her until she got me my trowel and tiny fork and I started helping her. We were so happy then.” She smiled whimsically as she stared outdoors. The glass had frosted because of the cold and she used her palm to wipe against it so that the view became clearer. “I saw your family and I like the fact that there are normal families around, but I am never going to be like that.”
“What are you saying?” he demanded as he came closer to her.
Kelsey sighed as she looked into his amazing green eyes. She felt her knees going weak and that was the problem. She could not think straight when she was near him. “I am saying that you are expecting too much.”
“You think that bringing me here is going to change the way I feel about you?” he asked her roughly.
“I used to spend my nights curled up in this very corner crying my eyes out,” she told him matter of factly.
“And in time I am going to help erase those awful memories.” Before she knew what he was doing, he had gotten down on his knees and placed his hand on her still flat stomach. “We are going to be a family, whether you like it or not, Kelsey, and we owe it to our child to at least make the effort.”
She looked down at his head, the light from the moon bathing the wheat blondness and turning it almost white. He was a gorgeous man and she had seen heads turn whenever they went out together. He was quite a catch and she was aware of it, but she could not see past her incredible disillusionment to accept that at least not right now.
“We owe it to him or her to make sure of the love and care he or she is entitled to and that I can promise,” she whispered.
He got to his feet and swung her into his arms much to her surprise and carried her out of the room and into the living room. She clung to him for balance, her arms going around his neck as he sat with her on one of the sofas.
“What are you doing?”
“Showing you that I do not care.” He removed a tendril from her cheek, his touch tender. “I don’t care where you came from but that you are who you are. I am in love with you, Kelsey.” He almost smiled as she stiffened in his arms. “I am totally and irrevocably in love with you and I am prepared to fight for us.”
She stared at him. She could not help it. She had wanted to get up and wave away his admission of love for her, but something kept her there. This gorgeous man was telling her how much he loved her and all she wanted to do was to run the other way as far as she could! She started struggling to get off his lap, but he held her firm and she stopped fighting.
“Deal with it,” he told her huskily as he took her lips with his. Right there in the shabby living room where she had spent so many unhappy moments, Nicholas slowly and thoroughly replaced the memories with one that had her sobbing against him as he took her to the heights of ecstasy and beyond!
*****
“I want to meet him,” he told her later that night as she snuggled in his arms wearily, contented and sated. He had made love to her right there on the sofa and had held her in his arms as they trembled together in the aftermath.
“Who?” She stirred and looked up at him. He had made her tea as soon as they came inside and rubbed her feet for her.
“Your Dad,” his green eyes met hers and held.
“No point.” She dropped her gaze to his chest, fascinated by the play of muscles and the glint of blond hairs there. “I hardly ever see him.”
“Regardless of what he did to you, baby, he is your dad and it is partly because of him that you are here. I want to meet him.”
“No.” She was agitated and moved out of his arms. He let her go, watching as she reached for a robe and put it on. “I am asking you to drop it.”
“I am not going to force you to allow me to see your dad, Kelsey. As a matter of fact, I can very well go and see him myself, I know where he is.”
He saw the flash of resentment on her exquisite face before the shield came down. “Do whatever you please.”
“I need you to be there when I meet him,” he continued.
She turned and looked at him. He was propped up against her pillows, a soft relaxed expression on his handsome face. He had thrown off the covers and laid there with his magnificent body in full view. “You are very pushy, aren’t you?”
“When it comes to us, yes, I am. Look, baby, I know he was a bastard and he should be punished for what he did to you, but you are carrying his grandchild and he is going to be a part of our child’s life.”
She came back and sat on the edge of the bed. “Okay,” she murmured, reaching out the touch his chest. “You are naked and I have a hard time saying no to a body like this.” Her hand wandered down to where the hair narrowed and lingered. Her mouth practically watered as she looked at his hardening penis.
He captured her hand as it touched his flesh. “I am glad.” He pulled her over and she climbed on top of him. “I am going to make you so happy,” he promised huskily. Kelsey did not answer but responded to the kiss with all the desire and passion he evoked in her!
*******
Kelsey rubbed her back absently as she sent off the email. She had not been feeling so hot this morning and Nicholas had wanted to know if she would stay home. They spent every night together and every weekend except when they had to go out of the country.
“A delivery for you,” Heather said cheerfully as she came in with a brown paper bag that smelled heavenly.
“Who sent it?” Kelsey asked curiously, already feeling her mouth watering.
“There is a card inside.” She put the package on the desk. “I am guessing it is one besotted and caring ‘daddy’.” She said with a smile as she went out and closed the door behind her.
“’I hope you feel better. This is guaranteed to make you and our child feel as good as new. Remember we are going to visit your dad later.’” She opened the package and took out the large foam package of conch and shrimp soup. She opened the cover and sniffed appreciatively. He always knew exactly what she wanted, she thought with a pang. She tasted it and sighed in contentment. Mother Leonie’s Soup and Pastries was a small restaurant with a personal touch and she had told Nicholas about it several times. She reached for her phone and called him.
“Hey.”
“What are you doing?”
“I have no clue what you are talking about. How is it?” There was a smile in his deep voice.
“Excellent and hit the spot. I am scraping the bottom of it now.”
“I will order another one for later. How are you?”
“I am very well. Thanks.” She paused. “Thank you for being here.”
“You have not seen anything yet, darling,” he told her lightly. “I have a meeting to go into. Don’t work too hard.”
She sat there long after he had hung up and stared at the wall opposite her. She had a feeling she was in big trouble!
*****
Nicholas did not let go of her hand even though she tried to make him but held her firmly as they walked in the rehab center together. It was a classy place, he noticed, and he realized that she was shelling out big bucks to keep her father here. He wondered what her motivation was.
The woman in charge greeted them respectfully and told Kelsey how improved her father was. He h
ad met her at her office and they had taken his vehicle and left hers.
They found him in the recreational area sitting by himself reading a book. He looked up as they came towards and placed the bookmark between the pages of the volume. Nicholas felt the tightening of her hand in his and wanted to protect her so much that he could not believe it. She had his nose and the shape of his eyes, but the resemblance ended there. He got to his feet shakily, and Nicholas could see where the liquor had ravaged his body and dimmed his eyes.
‘This is Nicholas Peterson,” she said to him coolly, not letting go of his hand. The man extended his hand and Nicholas took it feeling the dryness of the handshake.
“Kenneth Jordan.”
They sat. She next to Nicholas and her father opposite them. Nicolas noticed how he looked at her with that wary longing expression on his face and felt his heart going out to him. He had come expecting to hate him for what he had done to the woman he loved but instead he felt sadness at what they had both lost. Kelsey was not saying anything, so it was left up to them. “How are you?” Nicholas asked him.
He looked at his daughter swiftly before responding. “Fair to fine,” he said with a laugh. “I understand you are soon to be proud parents.”
“Yes.” He lifted Kelsey’s reluctant hand and kissed it briefly. “I am trying to persuade her to marry me.”
Kelsey sent him a murderous look which he ignored. “We will not be staying long,” she said stiffly. “Do you need anything?”
“Nothing.” The man shook his head hastily. “You have done so much for me.”
“We share the same blood.” Kelsey got to her feet, forcing Nicholas to do the same. “I understand that they are planning a birthday party for you. I will make the necessary arrangements.”
