Pretty Packages

by Dodson, Mi'Chelle

  “Yeah,” Kentucky replied, not liking the gleam in Bartley’s eye at all. The man was a little bit too happy about Giada being gone. And although Kentucky was happy about the same thing, yet for different reasons, Bartley’s glee irritated him for some reason.

  Promptly excusing himself from Bartley’s annoying presence, Kentucky made his way to his cabin. He’d barely gotten the door closed before his cell phone rang.

  It was Alexandra. Though she’d been told that he would call her, desire for Kentucky had caused her to grow impatient. Now she wanted to know when or even if he’d be able to come see her before he left the island.

  “No, Alexandra,” Kentucky replied, determined to let her down as easily as possible with him being as honest as possible. “Actually, me and another one of my old flames decided to get back together and try to make a real go of our relationship this time.”

  Alexandra groaned with disappointment. “So duty really didn’t call yesterday, huh?”

  “Not really. I apologize for the fib. The truth of the matter is that she showed up unexpectedly yesterday, old feelings got stirred back up, and . . . well, we decided to start over fresh.”

  “Lucky girl. I wish you all the best, Kentucky. But if it doesn’t work out, call on Alexandra. I can help you get over any heartbreak,” she replied good-naturedly.

  Kentucky smiled at the classy way Alexandra had just handled herself in the face of rejection. After telling her what a wonderful person she was, he hung up and called Giada with the results of his conversation with his stepmother.

  “Mama says she’d be happy to have you and Mercedes stay with her for as long as you need to. She’s also happy to know that we finally came to our senses and got together.” Kentucky chuckled, recalling the animated conversation he’d had with his stepmother on the ride back to the marina.

  Giada gasped in surprise at his last statement. “How did she know we even liked each other?”

  “Mama claims she knew you were special to me the first night you stayed over. How any other woman I would have just taken to my place or put up in a hotel that night. The fact that I brought you to our family home, where we could be properly chaperoned, meant that I felt something deeper for you.”

  “So I take it she approves? Even though you told her I was a gold digger?”

  “An ex–gold digger. And yes, Mama approves. After you looked out for our family home, she quickly overlooked every fault you had. Didn’t all those free meals tell you anything?”

  “I thought she was the type of person to feed anybody.”

  Kentucky chuckled. “No, you got it wrong, baby. Mama will bake for anybody, but she only cooks full meals for those she has a special fondness for.”

  “That’s good to know. I’m going to make sure I give her two kisses when I see her again. One for keeping Mercedes. The other for looking past my faults.” Giada smiled. “Speaking of kisses, I miss you already,” she added, changing the subject.

  “I miss you, too, baby.” Kentucky groaned with need into the phone. “By the way, I think you were right. These are going to be the longest two weeks of both of our lives.”

  * * * *

  In order to keep from missing Giada too much, Kentucky took on extra tasks about the yacht. He helped the day crew, who came to clean the boat, fix meals, and transport them from one place to the other, with their duties. He even took on more chauffeuring assignments.

  Kentucky regretted that last thing the most because it put him around Fabian even more. It had been a tormenting two weeks to hear the man call Giada in his presence, complain about how much he missed her, and talk about how he planned to take their relationship to the next level when he returned stateside.

  Meanwhile, Giada had moved most of her stuff into storage a week ago, was staying with Kentucky’s stepmother now, and was only accepting Fabian’s calls in order to help him stay focused on his tour. And even then, she only spoke to him for a short time.

  When Fabian wanted to know why she suddenly didn’t have as much time for him, Giada cited her hectic new schedule at the law firm she’d recently been hired by. This same law firm practically hired her on the spot, by the way, right after conducting the briefest of interviews.

  Giada also told Fabian that she was spending a lot of time in the library in preparation for law school in the fall. She did not tell him that she stopped studying at 9 p.m. sharp every night so that she could spend the next three hours talking to his bodyguard.

  Kentucky felt kind of guilty going behind Fabian’s back like this. He was normally such a straight shooter, dealing with problems head-on.

  But what about the kids?

  Kentucky just couldn’t risk messing things up for all the kids who were counting on him. He also couldn’t risk losing Giada again. He loved her. And she obviously loved him, too. Why else would she be going to such lengths just for him?

  Him!

  Though any mirror could point out who was the more attractive man, Giada’s preference for Kentucky made him feel like the most gorgeous man on the face of the earth. The things she whispered in his ear at night before they went to sleep made him feel loved and so very, very wanted. The way she sighed with contentment when he whispered endearments back to her confirmed those feelings.

  Finally the two weeks were up. It was time to go home. In fact, the three men were on the private jet Bartley rented to take them back stateside right now.

  Fabian and his blond manager sat side by side on the plane. Kentucky sat across from them working on the personal laptop computer Bartley lent him to check on a few stocks and company profiles he had his eye on.

  Once again, Fabian started talking about Giada. He talked about how he couldn’t wait to go home to her, about how he planned to surprise her with a marriage proposal as soon as he saw her face-to-face.

  “M-Marriage?” Bartley choked out. “This is my first time ever hearing you speak of Giada in more serious terms.”

  “Yes,” Fabian replied. “I’m in love with Giada. I realized it after missing her so much these last two weeks.”

  Kentucky lifted his gaze from the laptop. He fought hard not to frown. He hadn’t intended on proposing to Giada for at least another three months, giving her more time to prove herself and also him time to save for the perfect engagement ring and honeymoon trip. Fabian was talking about proposing today!

  “Do you think she’s gonna accept?” Kentucky asked, keeping his face neutral.

  “Of course she’s going to accept,” Bartley blurted out. “Gold diggers always accept marriage proposals from rich guys!”

  Kentucky and Fabian frowned.

  “Watch your mouth about my lady, or you’re going to find yourself with one less client,” Fabian warned with flashing eyes.

  Less a few teeth is more like it, Kentucky added silently, unaware that his fingers had balled into a fist on the keyboard.

  Though Bartley did not know that Kentucky and Giada were secret lovers, had he forgotten that they were supposed to be old friends? But then again, Kentucky had kept so much distance from her during this assignment that Bartley might have thought he didn’t really like her, either. He might have thought that he only tolerated her for his stepmother and client’s sake.

  “I’m sorry, Fabian,” Bartley quickly apologized. “It’s just that you fall in love so easily. How do you know she won’t be like the last one? Remember how much Charlotte took you for?”

  The woman he referred to was another gold digger who tried to trap Fabian with a baby. That baby turned out to be some other man’s, despite the fact that Fabian paid for nine months of medical care, living expenses, and shopping sprees for mother and child.

  The other two women Fabian had been obsessed with had had to take restraining orders out on him for stalking. They’d had to pay dearly to make those cases go quietly into the night. Bartley even had to promise the judge to keep a closer eye on his client to make sure Fabian didn’t get obsessive again.

  “Giada ma
y have started out like Charlotte, but over the last two weeks, she has shown me that she is very different. Not only has she found a job at a prestigious law firm, but she has impressed all the right people there to the point that they are willing to pull a bunch of strings to help fast track her right into law school. All she has to do now is pass all of her exams and complete the necessary admissions procedures for the school of her choice. Again, we’re talking all of this in just two weeks’ time. I call her my little go-getter now.” Fabian chuckled alone. No one else found anything funny.

  “Did you say she’s going to law school?” Bartley genuinely looked surprised.

  “Yes, law school. I always knew that my lady was one smart cookie.” Fabian grinned, looking very proud of “his” woman.

  “If you knew this about Giada, why didn’t you insist that she put her intelligence to good use before now?” Kentucky found himself asking.

  Fabian gave him an arrogant look. “Because having a woman with a career didn’t suit me before now. A man like me needs a woman that can be available to him 24/7. Yet, after remembering how Giada helped me with some contract issues recently, I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to have a lawyer in the family after all.”

  The kids. The kids, Kentucky rehearsed, forcing himself to calm down before he wrung Fabian’s skinny neck on this plane.

  There was no trace of guilt now. Kentucky could feel no remorse for a man who would deliberately stifle a woman’s personal and professional growth for his own selfish benefit.

  “Anyway, Giada texted me just today to tell me that she has found another place to live because she wants to start standing on her own two feet again,” Fabian continued, unaware of how close he’d just been to danger. “I’m hoping I can get home in time to persuade her to change her mind about that last thing. There’s no need for her to leave now that I’m going to make her my wife.”

  Kentucky looked down at the computer again. Inwardly he realized that Fabian was going to be a little bit harder to get rid of than originally thought. As his eyes zoomed in to the computer screen, he also realized why Bartley hated Giada so much, why he wanted her gone.

  The man was gay!

  In his distraction, Kentucky had accidentally clicked on the Favorites icon. Now he saw a string of adult Web sites that Bartley had saved from the Internet, all referring to man-on-man action. There was even one that counseled gay men with secret crushes on their male bosses.

  On second thought, maybe he’s bisexual. Kentucky recalled how Bartley would often pursue ladies of the night in every port they docked at. Either way, he is definitely in love with his boss. Even now he noticed how impassioned Bartley looked at Fabian whenever the singer wasn’t watching.

  Filing this new information away, Kentucky quickly clicked off the Internet altogether and closed the laptop. He needed to focus on Fabian’s conversation right now. He needed to know what else his competition had planned for Giada.

  Whatever those plans were, Kentucky could only hope that she loved him enough to reject them and the man behind them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Kentucky went straight home after he left the airport. Giada was supposed to meet him there. His stepmother had dropped her off after work and given her an extra key to the place. This way, Giada could cook Kentucky that special welcome-home meal she promised. Hannah had supplied the dessert.

  On the ride home, Kentucky called to find out if Giada had done that other special thing she promised—officially break up with Fabian.

  “I just got off the phone with him, baby,” Giada replied after his inquiry. “It didn’t go too well at first. Before I could get past hello, the man was telling me that he loved me.”

  “I know. He confessed it on the plane. I would have given you the heads-up, but somebody was always around.”

  “I wish you had, because I was in total shock when I heard that. Even so, I told Fabian that I wasn’t in love with him, that, in fact, I was still in love with an old flame. And that I realized I wouldn’t be any good to a new man until I tried to make things work with my old man first. I also told him that I had already moved out of the condo and wouldn’t be coming back.”

  “What did he say to that?”

  “After a long moment of silence, Fabian said he understood. Then he extended the same invitation to me that Alexandra did to you, except with a little twist. Fabian said that if things didn’t work out with my old flame, I could look him up again. He also told me that if I ever needed any help with school expenses or was running low on money, that I could call him up for that, too.”

  “In other words, he’s trying to get you to follow his wallet instead of your heart,” Kentucky said, clenching the steering wheel tightly. It was a good thing he was already on his street now, because he was fast becoming too angry to drive.

  “Fabian could offer me the moon, Kenny, and I still wouldn’t go back to him. I want you, baby.

  Only you. I love you, Kenny,” Giada said fervently.

  Kentucky relaxed his hold on the steering wheel. “I love you, too, baby,” he whispered into the phone.

  Giada inhaled sharply and then moaned. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that to me?”

  “About as long as I’ve been waiting to tell you. I’ve been in love with you since our first time, too. Now seemed like the perfect time to let you know that.”

  “I wish you were here now. I would rip your clothes off and ride you until the sun came up again,” Giada said.

  “I am here.” Kentucky blew the car horn as he pulled into the driveway. “So put dinner on hold and get ready to ride ’em, cowgirl.” He smiled when he heard her squeal with delight.

  When Kentucky entered the kitchen a few short minutes later, Giada was putting the salad she prepared into the fridge. The moment she saw him, she ran and jumped upon him. As she locked her arms and legs about his neck and waist, he received a kiss that oozed with love and instantly ignited passion . . . so much passion.

  Kitchen.

  Bedroom.

  Shower.

  They all saw a bit of action today. Talk about a welcome home!

  * * * *

  After Fabian hung up the phone with Giada, he brooded for a long while. Though he put on a brave front that he was willing to let her go so easily, he was not. Absolutely not! In fact, Fabian was going to do everything in his power to woo Giada back to him.

  After pulling his cell phone from his belt clip, Fabian used it to dial Bartley’s number. He needed him to do a special favor for him.

  “Giada broke up with me,” Fabian blurted out anxiously as soon as his manager came on the line.

  “She did?” Bartley asked, sounding surprised and a little bit too happy about that.

  “Yes, she did.” Fabian frowned, wondering if Bartley was the best man for this special job after all.

  Yet when he thought about how much dirt his manager already knew about him and hadn’t leaked to the press, he reconsidered. Plus, as a loner by nature, there weren’t many people Fabian could trust outside of Bartley.

  “Why did Giada break up with you?” Bartley asked, wanting to know all the juicy details.

  “She said something about going back to an old flame,” Fabian replied through a tight mouth. His fair cheeks were aflame with jealous ire.

  “Which would explain why she was so distracted at times on the boat,” Bartley said, revealing just how much attention he’d paid to Giada.

  “Right. Now what I need you to do is hire someone to find out who this old flame is, what his weaknesses are, and if he has any real intentions of making this thing with Giada work,” Fabian concluded. “Can you handle that for me? There’s a nice bonus in it for you.”

  “I can handle it,” Bartley replied more than a bit reluctantly.

  * * * *

  When the lovers finally emerged from upstairs and had eaten the meal Giada had cooked, they went outside on the patio. They were in no mood to swim since they were fresh from a sh
ower, but they did want to be outside among nature.

  Sharing a large cushioned lounge chair, Kentucky and Giada peacefully watched the stars together.

  They didn’t say much. They only uttered a few words every now and then. Mostly they just enjoyed the serenity of being in each other’s presence again. Frequent sighs of contentment resonated from the both of them.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life,” Giada said after sighing contentedly yet again.

  “Me, either.” Kentucky kissed the top of her damp head. Her hair was still wet from their shower and drying naturally on that warm July night.

  “If I had known things were going to be this good between us, I would have gone after you the moment I met you,” Giada said, recalling the day the Joneses came over to introduce themselves to her and welcome her into the neighborhood. Hannah had come bearing another cake that day.

  Kentucky had seemed reluctant to be there and had been noticeably quiet.

  “I would have rejected you.” He chuckled. “You had gold digger written all over you back then.”

  Giada half turned her head to look up into his face. “You wouldn’t have rejected me for long. I would have seduced you into my bed.”

  “Like you eventually did anyway?” Kentucky said, referring to their first night together.

  Giada chuckled. “Hey, when it’s something I want, I go after it with everything I got.” She returned to her previous snuggling position, except she put one leg across his waist area this time. She instantly realized that something was different about him.

  Kentucky’s shorts were now prominently tented and begging for attention. “I like your aggression,” he said a bit on the husky side. Their brief trip down memory lane had stirred his libido to life again.