Taming Her Tycoon

by Yahrah St. John

  “And I will. While my mother is watching Bella, I’m going to get a couple of hours in downstairs in the lab. I just want to be sure he gets it right. I slaved on the stove a long time to get just the right scent.”

  Naomi released a long sigh. “Only if you’re sure.” She was hesitant to allow Kelsey to work at the office instead of her home, this late in her pregnancy. Her gut told her it wasn’t the best decision.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Kelsey tried to reassure her.

  “Well, get on down to the lab before your mom starts calling you that Bella has gotten into her makeup bag again and we’ll talk later.” There was so much they needed to discuss, primarily her burgeoning relationship with Lucius, if she could call it that. And more.

  Kelsey gave her a suspicious look. “All right. I’ll stop in before I leave.”

  Once her door closed, Naomi trotted to her large executive chair and plopped down. Kelsey had known something was wrong and uncharacteristically decided to let the matter drop. And thank God she had. Naomi wasn’t looking forward to telling Kelsey the other reason for her distress—she was no closer to raising the money to buy her out than she’d been a month ago when she’d returned from Anaheim. In that short time, her financial team had arranged for meetings with three separate banks and all of them had turned her down. Not a one of them was willing to take a risk on her.

  It reminded Naomi of when she and Kelsey were first starting out and no one would loan them the money. The only difference was back then, it had been her and Kelsey against the world, but now she was alone—and she had run out of options.

  * * *

  “Naomi was turned down for yet another loan yesterday,” Adam said when he walked into Lucius’s office later that afternoon wearing the latest in designer men’s suits. The look of pure glee and satisfaction in his eyes as he rubbed his hands together made Lucius feel slightly ill. And why was that? Adam was only doing what he’d asked. He was trying to get Lucius Brooks and Johnson.

  “Is that right?” Lucius inquired as he put down his pen. “And how many does that make now?”

  “Three since she first started inquiring,” Adam stated as he sat in one of the two leather chairs opposite Lucius, unbuttoning his suit jacket.

  Lucius nodded. Naomi failing to find the necessary funds to buy out Kelsey should have excited him, but instead he felt apprehensive. Brooks and Johnson meant everything to Naomi, and if she lost it, it would kill her.

  Since when had he started to care about her feelings? Since he’d begun sleeping with her, Lucius thought to himself. Ever since they’d become lovers, Lucius was beginning to feel different about his quest to obtain Brooks and Johnson.

  “What’s wrong?” Adam inquired. “I thought this was what you wanted—Naomi on the run. Well, she is now. And with Kelsey’s baby due in a couple of months, her back is against the wall.”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Lucius responded, rising from his chair. “I’m just not sure that taking over Brooks and Johnson is what I want anymore.”

  “Since when?” Adam folded his arms across his chest. “You’ve been singularly focused on acquiring this company’s stock for months, and now you’re not interested? That’s not the reason at all.”

  “Oh, no? And what’s the reason?”

  “Naomi. You have the hots for the woman, and it’s making you soft. I don’t know if you’ve acted on your attraction, but maybe if you did, you’d get back to having that killer instinct you’ve always had.”

  Lucius remained silent, because Adam had hit the nail on the head. An image of Naomi popped inside his mind and he could feel his member get thick. If just thinking about her caused this kind of reaction, then he was hot for her—more than that, he craved her.

  “Wait a sec.” Adam sat forward in the chair with his feet planted firmly on the ground. “You’ve already acted on your lust for the woman, haven’t you?”

  “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”

  Adam snorted. “You don’t have to tell. I know you, Lucius. And you’ve hit that.” He stared Lucius directly in the eye. “And if I’m on the money, more than once.”

  Lucius swallowed hard. He hated the way Adam was talking about Naomi, like she was one of the women he usually spent time with who wanted his money, power and fame. Naomi was nothing like them. She was beautiful and sexy, yes, but she was genuine with a kind heart.

  “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “Why, because I dare to call you out on your bull?” Adam inquired. “Fine, have it your way.” He rose from the chair, rebuttoning his suit jacket, and started toward the door. “The only reason I’ve been hell-bent on getting you Brooks and Johnson was because that’s what you said you wanted. Why don’t you let me know when you’re ready to get back down to business, all right?”

  Lucius snorted when Adam closed the door behind him. If anyone else had dared to speak to him like that, they’d have been fired on the spot, but Adam was his closest friend and the only person other than his grandma Ruby that he would allow to talk to him any kind of way.

  Speaking of his grandmother, he hadn’t seen her in weeks. It was time he paid her a visit. And maybe talking to her would help him put his priorities back in order and figure out why he was losing his edge where Naomi was concerned. There was no place in his life for more than a casual fling. Or at least that’s what he told himself, but the harder he clung to the thought and denied what he wanted, the more his body betrayed him, as it had done just now with Adam.

  Yes, he would go to talk to his grandmother and get some perspective.

  * * *

  “Naomi, come quick.” Darryl’s voice came through the intercom.

  “Darryl, what is it? What’s wrong?” Naomi asked when she picked up the receiver.

  “It’s Kelsey. She’s bent over in pain. I think something is wrong,” the chemist said from the other end of the line.

  He never got to finish his sentence because Naomi had already dropped the phone and was racing toward the laboratory. Naomi didn’t even bother with the elevator; instead she took the stairs two at a time from the fourth floor to the first. She ran down the hall to the lab, where she found Kelsey seated on a chair, hyperventilating.

  “Kelsey.” Naomi rushed to her side and fell to her knees. “What is it?”

  Tears were streaked down Kelsey’s cheeks, and her face was flushed pink. “It’s the baby, Naomi. Something’s wrong.”

  Naomi took Kelsey’s hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was cold and clammy. “It’s going to be fine, okay? Did you call an ambulance?” She looked up at the chemist.

  “Yes, of course. As soon as she started having contractions,” he answered.

  “Contractions?” Naomi’s eyes grew large as she looked into Kelsey’s baby blues. “Kels—are you sure?”

  Kelsey shook her head. “Yes, no, I don’t know. But it’s just so painful.” Just then another pain must have stabbed Kelsey in the abdomen, because she cried out, doubling over in pain. “Oh, my God, this can’t be happening now. It’s too soon, Naomi. It’s too soon.”

  Naomi was worried. Why hadn’t she gone with her instincts and sent Kelsey home when she’d arrived? And now look at her. “Breathe, baby girl. Breathe.” Naomi mimicked the breathing techniques they’d practiced during Lamaze class. “C’mon, breathe with me. One. Two.”

  Her calmness was enough to begin to quiet Kelsey’s hysteria until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later. As they placed her in the back, Kelsey held Naomi’s hand tightly. “Please don’t leave me.”

  “Of course not, sweetie,” Naomi stated. “I’m with you.” She joined Kelsey in the back of the ambulance as they shut the double doors. She squeezed Kelsey’s hand. “I’m here for you. Right here with you.”

  * * *

  Lucius arrived at his g
randmother Ruby’s house later that afternoon and found her sitting outside on her large wraparound porch, crocheting in her rocker. He’d tried unsuccessfully to move her to a nicer home in a better neighborhood, but she’d been stubborn and told him this was her home and she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Lucius?” his grandmother called out to him after he’d parked and approached the house.

  “Yes, it’s me, Grandma.” He climbed the steps of the porch and came to her side.

  Ruby Turner wasn’t an average grandmother and didn’t sit at home waiting to get older. She walked several miles a day and had an active social life, attending church and her women’s group functions. Lucius supposed that’s why she’d been able to maintain her figure. At eighty-two, she was still as slender and spry as when he’d come to live with her when he was nine years old and had gotten kicked out of one too many boarding schools. She dressed in the latest fashions, thanks to the generous stipend he placed in her bank account each month. There was no way his grandma would live off Social Security benefits alone. With her smooth café au lait complexion, Ruby didn’t look a day over sixty.

  “You’re looking beautiful as always,” Lucius said just before he kissed her on the cheek.

  “Oh, you charmer you.” She waved her hand at him. “Come sit with me and have some sweet tea.”

  His grandmother’s answer for everything was a jug of her famous sweet tea. He supposed it came from her having been raised in Georgia before moving out west because his grandfather worked in the shipping business.

  “Sweet tea sounds great, Grandma.” Lucius joined her in the adjacent rocker next to hers. He watched her pour the tea into a mason jar. “Thanks.” He accepted the jar and took a sip. “Just as good as I remember.”

  “I’m a Georgia peach,” his grandmother responded with a smile. “Of course I know how to make sweet tea. But enough about me. What brings you by in the middle of a workday?”

  Lucius gave her a sideways glance. “Can’t I just come by to visit my grandma?”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “C’mon, Lucius. I raised you. Don’t you think I know when there’s something on your mind?”

  He shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “Then out with it. I don’t have all day.”

  Lucius laughed to himself. Of course, she didn’t, his grandma stayed busy. “There’s this woman.”

  “Of course,” she murmured, “it had to be a woman.”

  He glared at her, but then his grandmother gave him the evil eye and he quickly corrected his look before she backhanded him. “The thing is, I’ve been seeing this woman. Naomi’s her name.”

  “And?”

  “And she has me twisted, Grandma,” Lucius stated, leaning back in his chair. “The only reason I sought her out was because I wanted her company, but when I met her—I don’t know. Something just kind of clicked. And we kind of fit together, ya know?”

  “And that scares you,” his grandmother finished, judging the situation rightly. “Your feelings for this woman?”

  He nodded. “How did you know?”

  “You’ve always held your emotions in check, Lucius. You have since the moment you came to live with me. Nothing and no one could get to you. You wouldn’t let them. You’ve built walls so high and so thick, but I always knew it was just a matter of time before someone would break through the barriers you have erected around your heart.”

  “I don’t know about all that,” Lucius said. “All I’m saying is that I’m conflicted. I wanted her company and...”

  “And now you might want the lady instead?”

  “I dunno. Maybe. It’s too soon to tell. All I know is she’s causing me to feel all these emotions that I’ve never wanted. And I don’t know what to do about them.”

  His grandmother eyed him suspiciously, as if she didn’t believe a word that was coming out of his mouth.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “What are you so afraid of, Lucius?” his grandmother asked. “Of loving someone? Of being loved?”

  “I love you,” he returned.

  “That’s not the same and you know it,” she said softly. “Is it because of your mama? Did she damage you that much that you can’t allow yourself to be happy and to love this woman?”

  Lucius’s cell phone vibrated in his jacket pocket and he reached for it. It was Adam. “Yes?”

  “I don’t know if you’re interested in this news, but I reached out to Owen Johnson to talk about the selling his wife’s shares and he informed me that Kelsey was taken by ambulance to Long Beach Memorial Hospital. If ever there was a time to strike while the iron is hot, it’s now. If the stress of work—”

  Lucius didn’t allow Adam to finish his sentence and ended the call. He rose from the rocker and started for the steps. “I’m sorry, Grandma. I have to go. It’s an emergency and can’t be helped.”

  “Wait!” She jumped from her recliner as fast as she could and rushed toward him. She grabbed both sides of his face in her small palms. “Lucius, if you’re starting to fall for this woman, don’t run away from it. Embrace it. You’ll never know just how much joy love can bring into your life if you’re not willing to allow it in.”

  He nodded and then bounded down the porch steps to his Bentley. He had to get to the hospital. To Naomi. She would need him.

  Chapter 12

  “This is all your fault,” Kelsey’s husband, Owen, yelled at Naomi as soon as he saw her in the hospital corridor.

  Naomi was so taken aback, she could only stand there in shocked disbelief. She’d just left Kelsey’s side and was stepping outside to handle some Brooks and Johnson business when Owen attacked.

  “You’re the reason Kelsey’s in there.” He pointed to the hospital room behind him.

  “Listen, Owen, I know you’re upset.”

  “Upset?” His voice rose. “I’m furious. Kelsey had no business being at the office. You and I both know that the doctor told her to take it easy with this pregnancy after her two miscarriages and difficult pregnancy with Bella, but you just couldn’t let it rest, could you?” He circled around her, letting all of his anger and rage out on her.

  Naomi was strong enough to take it, because she knew she’d done nothing wrong. She hadn’t asked Kelsey to come to the office. In fact, she’d advised her to leave, but Kelsey had a mind of her own and was going to do what she wanted to. But Naomi wasn’t about to tell Owen that—not when he was enraged.

  “You had to get her all riled up when you reminisced about the past and how you both started the business. But things have changed, Naomi. It isn’t just you and Kelsey against the world anymore. Kelsey is a wife. She has a family and husband and people who need her. I know that might be hard for you to understand since you’ve always been alone, but—”

  Owen never got to finish his sentence, because Lucius stepped in between them.

  * * *

  “Now wait just a darn minute,” Lucius said, facing the red-faced man who’d been bullying Naomi when he arrived on the maternity floor. He’d expected they’d be pulling together in a time of crisis, but instead the man was unleashing his hurt on Naomi. It wasn’t fair. But she was just standing there, taking it. It made him respect her even more, because she refused to kick a man when he was down. “This isn’t Naomi’s fault.”

  “Isn’t it? She’s the reason my wife was in the lab because she was afraid to let go and allow Kelsey to sell her shares.”

  “Naomi is not responsible for Kelsey’s condition. Now what you need to do is calm down and then go in there—” he pointed to the door “—and be with your wife.”

  Owen huffed but didn’t speak another ill word to Naomi as he entered his wife’s room.

  Lucius pulled Naomi aside and touched her arm. “Are you okay?” He searched her eyes for a
sign that Owen had upset her.

  “Y-yes, I’m fine.” She stared back at him. “But you, what are you doing here? How did you know?”

  Lucius wasn’t about to tell Naomi that Adam was speaking with the Johnsons on his behalf. “I called your office and asked for you. Sophie told me you were in the hospital.”

  Naomi nodded, accepting his answer. “Well, thank you for that.” She glanced at the door Owen had just disappeared behind.

  “Why in heaven’s name were you allowing him to speak to you that way? If I hadn’t gotten here when I did, he would have decimated you.”

  “I—I don’t know...” Tears immediately formed in her eyes, and he could see her blinking them back, trying to keep them at bay, so he slid his arms around her shoulders and brought her closer to him.

  “It’s all right, baby,” he crooned softly in her ear as he rubbed her back. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

  * * *

  Later, once she’d calmed down, Naomi sat with Lucius in the waiting room. He’d gone to the cafeteria earlier to get her some dinner, which now sat uneaten in the disposable container it came in. Naomi didn’t have an appetite—not after everything that had happened.

  Kelsey being rushed to the hospital and Owen unloading his anger at her. Thank God for Lucius. If he hadn’t gotten there when he did, who knew what other hurtful words would have spewed from Owen’s mouth. But she would never tell Kelsey what went down. Her friend was battling to keep her baby in her womb.

  Naomi had never been so frightened in her entire life. Despite what Owen thought, she would never want anything to happen to the baby and Kelsey. So what, Naomi couldn’t hang on to her company? Naomi wasn’t that superficial. She valued her friendship, her sisterhood with Kelsey more than any company. She hoped Kelsey knew that and resolved to tell her just as soon as she could.

  “It’s okay,” Lucius said, breaking into her thoughts. She felt his firm grip on her trembling hands.

  Naomi turned to him. “Thank you for being here.”