Until Naomi.
Naomi had him reevaluating everything he held dear. He was in uncharted territory and had no idea where to go. Those were his last thoughts as he eventually drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Brrring. Brrring.
“Lucius.” He could feel Naomi pushing his shoulder. “That’s your phone.”
“Hmm...?” He was luxuriating in lying close to Naomi. His hand was on her breast and he could register her heartbeat, which had gradually returned to normal after their lovemaking session in the hot tub caused them to retire to the bedroom. He’d wanted to sleep in, have a leisurely morning sexing her like crazy again before they had to get back on the road to Long Beach.
The shrill of the phone continued until Lucius had no choice but to throw the covers back and jump out of bed. Annoyed, he snatched up the phone and without looking at caller ID said, “This had better be good.”
“Lucius, I need you.”
“Who’s this?” Lucius recognized the voice, it was his mother, Jocelyn.
“What do you want? And how did you get this number?” Not many people knew his personal cell phone number other than his grandmother, Adam and Naomi. He’d only ever given Jocelyn his work cell phone, which he’d purposely not brought with him to the cabin. And since their last meeting had been less than pleasant, Lucius hadn’t expected to hear from her.
“Something terrible has happened. You’ll see. It’s all over the news. And I need your help. I called Adam and he told me where you were and gave me your number. He didn’t want to, but this is urgent.”
“Don’t be overly dramatic, Jocelyn.”
“This is life and death, and you need to come quick, Lucius. I’m at...” She began rattling details into the phone.
“Wait! Wait!” Lucius searched for a pen, saw one on the desk and rushed over to take down the particulars. “Okay, go ahead.”
Seconds later, after she’d given him the information, the phone went dead.
Lucius stared down at the phone in shock. Jocelyn had never asked him for anything, much less his help. And it would have to be serious for Adam to break his confidence and give Jocelyn his personal phone number. Then he frowned.
Uncaring of his nakedness, he walked over to the nightstand to grab the remote. He clicked on the television, whirling the room with light as he turned to the local news. That’s when he saw it.
“Socialite Jocelyn Turner was found in bed with married shipping magnate Arthur Knight, who has been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital from what appears to be a massive heart attack.”
“Lucius.” Naomi was behind him. He glanced down and saw she’d wrapped a sheet around her torso. “What is it? Who is that?”
He turned to Naomi. “I suspect that man is my father.”
* * *
Naomi was hurt. After watching the news report, she’d wanted to accompany Lucius to the hospital. It was his mother, after all, and she was in one helluva mess, having been caught in bed with a married man. Arthur Knight had a wife and a son. The fact that he’d been having an affair with Lucius’s mother would be big local news. And if Lucius’s suspicions about Arthur were true, he would need her.
But Lucius didn’t want her to go with him. Instead, after they’d showered and dressed, they’d packed in a hurry and fled Big Bear to get back home to Long Beach. And instead of taking Naomi with him, he’d given her a quick kiss on the forehead and dropped her off at home with a terse “I’ll call you,” which he’d thrown over his shoulder as he’d raced back to his car.
She knew she shouldn’t be upset. He was dealing with a lot. On the drive home, he’d called Adam and ordered him to contact their public relations department. Adam must have fussed about it being a Sunday, because Lucius had stated quite clearly he couldn’t care less. It still didn’t mean that she didn’t want to be there to support him. Who would be in his corner?
Tears sprang to her eyes as her love came pouring out with no place to go.
* * *
“How bad is it?” Lucius asked Adam when he met him in the hospital garage. He’d driven to the hospital on auto-pilot. His mind spinning with the knowledge that after all these years, he’d finally found him. His father. Lucius had finally decided to park rather than come through the front entrance, where a throng of reporters had already congregated.
“Pretty bad. Every major news outlet is all over this story,” Adam said as he walked into the hospital with Lucius. He was dressed in jeans and a pullover sweater, same as Lucius. Adam grasped his shoulder. “Perhaps you and I should talk before—”
Lucius shrugged off his hand and interrupted him. “No, I have to go now. Where is she?”
“In the waiting room.”
“Take me to her.”
They marched down the hall toward the waiting area, where Lucius found his mother curled up in a ball in the corner sobbing into a handkerchief. She wasn’t in her usual fashionable attire. Instead, she was wearing jeans, a tank and cardigan that she must have thrown on before the ambulance arrived.
“Mother?”
She looked up when she saw him and jumped out of her chair to rush into his arms. “Oh, Lucius. It was so horrible.” She sniffed into his shoulder. “And the press. They’re such monsters. Saying all kinds of terrible things. And calling me names.”
Lucius patted her on the head. Unsure of how to handle this Jocelyn. “I’m here now. And I’ll take care of everything.”
She glanced up at him with tearstained cheeks, “Can you help me see him?” Hope evident in her voice.
He took hold of her by the shoulders. “That’s not a good idea. You do realize how serious this is? The repercussions of how salacious this story is. You were caught with a married man in bed, they’ll think he died during sex.”
She jerked away from him. “I don’t care about the darn repercussions. I care about Arthur. I want to see him. Matter of fact, I’m going now.” She pushed past him.
Lucius glared at Adam before following her quickly down the hall. “Jocelyn, this is not a good idea. Besides, we need to talk. I have some questions that need answers.”
“I don’t care about what people think,” she replied over her shoulder. “I have to know how he’s doing. We can talk later.”
When they rounded the corner, they saw a group of people huddled at the end of the hall. The instant they saw his mother, Lucius knew she’d made a critical mistake.
A tall, elegantly dressed woman with a smooth mocha complexion rushed toward his mother.
“You hussy!” she cried. “How dare you show your face here!”
His mother stepped backward, recoiling from the harsh words and Lucius watched the whole scene play out as if he was an observer instead of a participant. “And look who you brought with you? Arthur’s bastard son!”
Chapter 15
Lucius nearly choked when he heard aloud what he’d begun to suspect as he drove back from Big Bear. His mother had been caught in bed with married shipping magnate Arthur Knight. His last name was Knight. How had his investigators missed their affair? During their research, they’d found no connection between Jocelyn Turner and Arthur Knight. Clearly, they’d been good at covering up their deception.
But now, he finally knew his biological father’s identity.
Lucius stared wide-eyed at the woman and then turned to his mother.
“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t know,” the woman continued. “You and your harlot of a mother have been basking in Arthur’s money for years.”
“Mother.” A tall, caramel-toned, clean-shaven brother with deep-set dark eyes and an athletic physique came forward. He was dressed in dark trousers and pale blue dress shirt. “What do you mean for years? Are you saying Dad has another son?” The shock in the man’s face was clear, because it mirrored
Lucius’s. He, too, had no idea what had been going on between his father and Lucius’s mother.
The woman turned and caressed her son’s face in her delicate slender hands. “I’m so sorry, Maximus, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“No, it can’t be,” Maximus responded, glaring in Lucius’s direction. “It can’t be. Dad wouldn’t do that to you. To us.”
“It’s true, Max,” she whispered softly, “and I’m sorry for blurting it out this way, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Now seeing the evidence—” she motioned to Lucius “—of their affair, right in front of my face. The truth has to be told.”
Maximus’s face hardened and his eyes turned cold as he looked at Lucius and then at Jocelyn. “That may be true, but you don’t need to do this here and make a scene. Let’s go.” He tightened his hand on her arm and began leading her back down the hall, where their remaining group stood in shocked disbelief.
Lucius caught Maximus’s long glare before he turned and huddled back with the group.
“Lucius...”
He heard his mother’s voice, but it was as if it were in the distance. He couldn’t breathe. He had to get out of there.
He blinked several times, trying to clear the fog in his head. “Adam, can you take my mother home, please?”
The look of pity in his best friend’s eyes angered Lucius.
“No problem. I’ll call you later.”
Lucius barely heard a word as he turned on his heel and stormed down the corridor.
* * *
“Is everything okay, baby girl?” Naomi’s father asked later that evening when she arrived glum faced to their weekly Sunday dinner. She hadn’t been in the mood for socializing, but knew if she didn’t attend it would raise more suspicions. So instead, she’d arrived an hour early, because she’d wanted some alone time with her father before Gemma and Tim got there. They’d retired to the den while her mother finished dinner.
“Is it because that young fella, Lucius, didn’t accompany you?” he inquired.
Naomi shrugged and reached for the chip bowl. She grabbed a large Ruffle and took a generous scoop of onion dip before placing it in her mouth. “Partly,” she answered with her mouth full.
Her father mimicked her and she smiled. They’d always been alike. She was a daddy’s girl, through and through.
“Talk to me,” he said, reaching for another chip. “What’s going on?”
“I take it you haven’t been watching the news,” Naomi replied.
Her father shook his head. “You know Sunday is football day, but eventually I’ll get to it. Is there something I should know?”
“No! No one should, but instead Lucius’s life is being played out in public, in front of everyone, and I’m powerless to help him.”
“What’s being played out?”
“The fact that Lucius’s mother has been having an affair with a married man.”
“Oh.”
“That’s right. And on top of that, Daddy, he suffered a heart attack while in bed with her and was rushed to the hospital. Lucius barely had time to get dressed before we left Big Bear.”
“Big Bear?” Her father’s brow rose. “A weekend away sounds awfully romantic, if you ask me.”
Naomi waved her hand. “Forget about me right now, if you can, Daddy. I’m worried about Lucius. As soon as he heard about it, he—he changed right in front of me. He became so cold and distant.”
“You mean he became the ruthless corporate raider you’d read about?”
She nodded. “But he’s never been that way with me. Ever. If you could have seen him this weekend, Daddy. We were having so much fun, laughing, talking, going bobsledding or just enjoying a beer like a normal couple.”
“So you admit that you’re dating?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it that.”
“You have to remember that he’s not like us, baby girl,” her father said, rising to his feet. “He might not have the same life experiences or the coping skills to deal with life’s curveballs that I hope I’ve taught you. I suppose the only way he can deal with all the turmoil is turn off his emotions.”
“With me, too?” Naomi knew she sounded weak, but if she couldn’t be honest with her father, whom could she be honest with?
“Sometimes we hurt those we love the most.”
Naomi snorted. “Love? I doubt that word has ever crossed Lucius’s mind when it comes to me, Daddy. I’m just—”
She never finished her sentence, because her father clutched her shoulders. “Don’t you dare make light of this, young lady. I taught you better than that. I taught you not only how to love, but that you deserve it. And you should settle for nothing less.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I know that, Daddy, I do, but—” She spun away from him. She didn’t want him to see her despair.
“You don’t think he returns your love?” her father asked.
How had he guessed her feelings? Probably because she was an open book, just as Kelsey had said. She nodded.
He grabbed her chin and turned her to look at him. “I don’t know if that’s true, baby girl. The man you brought to dinner was head over heels for my daughter.”
Naomi shook her head. “You’re wrong. He only wants me for sex.”
Her father didn’t blush at her words. They’d always had an open and honest relationship, and she didn’t mince words.
He lowered his head and was silent for several beats. “That may be so, but I also think that young man doesn’t know what to do with the feelings he’s developing for you. Why? Because he’s never had an example. Didn’t you tell me he was raised by his grandmother? That his mother has been nonexistent in his life?”
“Yes.”
“So, he’s never seen real and abiding love between two people until he met me and your mother. It’s foreign to him, Naomi. You’ve got to give him time to come to terms with it. And if what I saw the night you brought him here is true, he’ll find his way back to you.”
“Do you really think so?”
Her father nodded.
She wanted to believe that Lucius could love her. But was her head in the clouds?
* * *
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Naomi wiped the sleep from her eyes. What time was it? She glanced at the watch on her nightstand. It read 2:00 a.m. After coming home from her parents’, she’d given up on hearing from Lucius and retired to bed. They’d made it back that afternoon and he’d had plenty of time to go to the hospital, help his mother and still phone her. But he hadn’t.
He was showing her exactly what he thought of her. She was good enough for a romp between the sheets on any given day or in a destination of his choosing, but when it came to matters of the heart, he was closed off to her.
That’s what she thought, at least, until she padded to the front door and saw a haggard Lucius leaning against the side of her door. His eyes looked haunted, as if he’d seen a ghost. “Lucius?”
“Can I come in?”
“Of course.” She grabbed his hand, pulling him inside. She led him to the sofa in her living room, but instead of sitting, he started pacing her wood floor. So she sat with her legs underneath her and waited for him to talk.
“I can’t believe it.” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe it. Even though I heard it with my own ears.”
“Believe what?”
“That I—” he pounded his chest “—am Arthur Knight’s son.”
Naomi sucked in a deep breath. Of all the things she’d been expecting to hear, that bombshell wasn’t one of them. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. I learned tonight—or should I say yesterday, at the hospital—that I’m Arthur’s bastard son. Apparently he and my mother have been carrying on some elaborate
affair for over three—” he held up three fingers “—three decades. How is that even possible? That kind of duplicity? And that she would go along with it? For God’s sake, has she no shame?”
Naomi knew he meant it as a rhetorical question and didn’t answer. Her heart broke for Lucius. To find out this sort of news like this—so publicly. It was a horrible thing for a mother to do to her son. She should have told him the truth long ago. If Arthur didn’t make it, it might be too late.
“Wow!” Lucius finally sat down in the large chair opposite Naomi and held his head in his hands. “I—I don’t know what to do with this news, Naomi. What do I do with it?” He glanced at her, and she could see tears glistening in his eyes. “My entire life I’ve been yearning for the truth, but not like this.” He shook his head. “Not like this.”
Naomi immediately sprang from the sofa. “Lucius...” She wanted to comfort him, but instead, he gripped her robe by the waist, pulling her to him. She held his head to her body. “I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered as he cried. “I’m so sorry.”
She held him, and once he began to quiet, she sat in his lap holding him to her bosom. When he lifted his head, his dark brown eyes were hooded and cloudy with tears. She wiped them away with her hands. “Let me go get you some Kleenex.”
She rose, but he grasped her around the waist and brought her back to his lap. “Don’t leave me.”
Naomi used her index finger to raise his chin. His eyes bored into hers as if they were looking into her very soul. She was startled by the intensity and cast her eyes downward, but Lucius wouldn’t let her.
Instead, she felt a tug on her robe as he released it and it fell to her shoulders. Naomi wasn’t wearing much, only a satin nightie that showed a fair amount of her cleavage and barely reached her thighs.
Lucius’s eyes darkened, turning from hurt and anger to blazing passion. He clutched the back of her neck and brought her lips to his. His mouth was soft and tender at first, but then he steadily increased the pressure, his kiss becoming harder and greedier.
Taming Her Tycoon Page 14
