“You, with your little superficial pea brain, may not find her hot,” he said, “but I do. And Jordan does. And every man with more going for him than tail-chasing would too.”
The woman was offended. She looked to Oz to defend her. “Shoe met foot,” he said. “I’m not pulling it out.”
“You are such an asshole!” the woman said, rose to her feet, and headed for the exit.
Jordan looked at Oz. “Aren’t you going to go after her?” he asked.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t like her little slick remark either.” She left out of the house and slammed the door. “And for the record, Miss Kari Grant, I think you’re hot too.”
“Oz, if you don’t stop blowing smoke up my ass you’d better,” Kari said as if she didn’t believe him for a second. “But you brought her here. You need to make sure she gets safely home.”
“Oh, I’ll catch up with her. But she needs to suffer a little first.”
“Help us pick a city,” Jordan said.
“I’d be happy to if I knew what we were picking a city for.”
“The wedding,” Jordan said.
Oz smiled and rubbed his hands together. “I do love a good party. And weddings are legendary.” But then he stood up. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to take a raincheck.” He rose to his feet.
“Why?” Kari asked.
“Because I need to catch up with Miss Mandy.”
“Brandy,” Jordan said.
“Whomever,” Oz said.
“I thought you said she needed to suffer first,” Jordan said.
“She’s suffered enough, poor thing,” said Oz. “Besides, and this, if you’re keeping score, is the main point, I don’t care to be alone tonight.”
“Oz,” Alex said firmly, “remember to get here in the morning.”
“I’ll be here, don’t worry. That’s why I’m here. Of course, I’ll be here!” And then he was out the door and gone too.
“Why does he need to be here?” Jordan asked.
“Alex has to be in New York all day tomorrow,” Kari said. “And Oz is going to be our bodyguard.”
“Oz? Really?”
“You’ve never seen him in action, J,” Kari said. “But trust you me, the man has skills.”
“I figured as much or Mister D wouldn’t entrust you to him.”
“Or you to him too,” said Alex. “Now let’s get back to the matter at hand.”
“The city,” said Kari.
“The city,” said Alex.
“What about Vegas? You haven’t said anything about Vegas yet.”
“A Vegas wedding wouldn’t be my idea of special,” said Alex. “People get married there every day.”
“Then what about your house in New York?” Jordan asked. “People don’t get married there every day!”
Kari laughed. So did Alex. “No, they do not. No one has ever been married there. But that’s my house. And it was mine before I met your mother. I want this venue to be ours. Not just mine.”
Jordan nodded his head. He and Kari both appreciated that.
“Why don’t we go totally outside the box,” Alex said, “and come up with an exotic place.”
“Like where?” Kari asked.
“Alabama?” Jordan asked. “Mississippi? Now that’s exotic! Maybe not in the right way, but exotic.”
“Paris,” Alex said. “Or Milan. Or Cape Town, South Africa.”
Kari and Jordan both stared at him. “Paris?” Kari asked.
“Cape Town?” asked Jordan. They had not even considered a wedding out of the country.
“I’ve heard of people going to the Bahamas on their honeymoon,” Kari said, “and I’m sure some go to Paris too. But to get married there?”
“Wow,” Jordan said.
“But what about our friends, Alex?” Kari asked, “if we picked a place like Paris?”
“We’ll fly them all in,” Alex said, “on private jets.”
Jordan smiled. “Auntie Faye and Auntie Lucinda will go nuts if you do that for them! Wow!”
Alex looked at Kari. He was amazed that she hadn’t even thought about the possibilities beyond America. But that was Kari. She’d been so neglected by men in this life that she had no idea what was waiting for her on the other side. And he aimed to give it all to her.
“That would be something special, that’s for sure,” she said.
“Then I tell you what: you pick the city. And I mean it had better be the best, Kari. No compromises. And I’ll handle the rest. Is that a deal?”
Kari smiled. “We’ll have to get out the old geography books, Jordan.”
“That part is going to be fun,” Jordan said, rubbing his hands the way Oz did.
Kari looked at Alex. “It’s a deal,” she said.
“Good,” Alex said and they stared at each other in that lingering way that brought back memories.
Too many for Alex to ignore. “Why don’t you put on a jacket,” he said, “and come for a ride with me?”
Jordan began snickering.
“What’s so funny boy?” Kari asked.
“Why don’t you just come out and say it?” Jordan asked. “You want Ma to spend the night with you.”
Kari didn’t find that humorous at all. “Okay, to your room boy. Enough of that!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jordan said, getting up. “That means you aren’t going with him?”
“He asked me to go with him for a ride,” she said. “Yes, I’m going with him for a ride.”
Kari and Alex both knew what kind of ride they were about to go on, and Jordan knew it, too, but with Kari, when it came to her son, she felt somethings were just better left unsaid.
Jordan went to his room. And Kari hurried to grab a coat. She couldn’t get on with the ride fast enough.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Kari was stretched out naked on Alex’s big bed within minutes of their arrival at his house. Alex was naked, too, and hovering on top of her as he traced small kisses along her face and neck and chest.
“We didn’t exactly go on a ride, did we?” Kari asked with a smile.
“Not yet,” Alex said between kisses then looked at her. “But soon.”
Kari meant a ride in the literal sense, as in a car ride, but she let it slide because of how Alex was making her feel.
He moved down closer to her as his mouth moved back up to hers and he kissed her with long, passionate kisses. Kari wrapped her arms around him and returned his passion.
And then he moved down, to her breasts, and kissed and sucked until her nipples were as hard as the big, fully aroused dick beneath her.
“I don’t think there’s anything lovelier than you in my bed,” he said as he traced kisses further down her body. “Nothing lovelier.”
When his mouth made its way between her legs, Kari let out audible sighs that caused Alex to eat her with even more vigor. He licked and sucked and slid his tongue inside her folds until she was so wet he couldn’t ease up. The wetter she became, the harder he did her, until she began cumming.
Alex stopped when her pulsations began and quickly slid his dick inside of her. And when he began stroking inside of her, that act alone took her all the way over. She began lifting her body up and pushing against his big, unmovable body, and arching as he fucked her. Her sighs became moans, as her orgasm wouldn’t stop, and Alex couldn’t.
Alex wrapped her tightly into his arms as he laid on top of her and pushed deeper inside of her with every stroke. He loved this woman, and his dick spread that love to every part of her.
He was stroking and stroking. He couldn’t stop stroking. Her vagina was so narrow, and so wet that his dick felt as if it was breaking through thickets to get deeper inside of her.
And that was what it felt like: making love to her as if it was the first time. He moved down, to her breasts, and sucked them as if he couldn’t stop there, either, as he fucked her.
And that up and down action took Kari over again. She had another orgasm. And th
e second time, because it was Alex’s dick controlling the pace, was even more intense.
And when Alex came, he let out a grunt with clenched teeth that was so loud that Kari wondered if his neighbors heard them. Because then he was pounding her with a furious escalation of passion, as he came.
The bed was bouncing, the bedsprings were creaking, and they were in the throes of a session that was all want, all need, and all love.
It took Alex several minutes for his dick to stop throbbing with an intensity that would not completely subside. He wanted Kari so badly that he stunned himself.
And when the throbbing finally eased, although not completely gone, he looked into her eyes. “You make me happy, Karena,” he said to her. “You make me feel so useful. Thank you.”
Kari smiled. That feeling went both ways. “You showed me that sometimes dream do come true. And there’s a great guy out there. I just had to wait for him. I’m so glad I waited, Alex. I’m so glad I was working in Lucinda’s diner that night, and you decided to stop. And unlike any of these men around here, you actually saw me. And paid attention to me. I thank you.”
Alex rubbed the side of her soft face, and he kissed her. And then he rolled off of her, and rolled her onto his body, and held her. He held her until they both had fallen asleep.
Later that night, he kept his promise to her, and took her back home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The next morning, Alex had a busy schedule. He woke up early, around four-thirty, and could still smell Kari’s fresh scent in his bed. He wanted to phone her, but he knew she and Jordan would still be asleep. They had a long day ahead of them too.
He got out of bed, peed, showered, brushed and gargled, and put on a no-frills tailored black suit and tie. The pants were getting a little tight around the waistline, which only served to remind him of his slow expansion, but he wasn’t about to worry about that that early. He was out of his Apple Valley home and in his Mercedes by the crack of dawn.
His first stop was the area around Kari’s house. He drove up to the lead car on Kari’s security detail. All four men were alert and on duty, he was pleased to see. The second vehicle on Kari’s detail was a van, filled with four more men and expansive equipment. They, too, were alert and on duty. And although he was satisfied that while he was in New York for a day, Kari and Jordan would be in good hands, he knew he would never be one-hundred percent satisfied.
That was why he called Oz, who had spent the night, not with Brandy or Mandy or whatever her name was, but with yet another woman he met in town. Alex ordered him to get his ass to Kari’s house by seven, and to blanket her until he returned from New York that night. Oz agreed, and although Alex trusted his brother, he wasn’t allowing his plane to leave town until Oz was in place.
By six, he was at the construction site of his future casino/hotel getting briefed and a walk-through by his project manager. All was well, although slightly behind schedule. Alex stood on the grounds and looked at what had already been erected. He gave his manager an ultimatum: get back on schedule, on Alex’s schedule, or he would be fired. Summarily. The manager voiced his understanding.
By the time Alex drove to the airstrip, and had boarded his plane, it was a quarter to seven. And Oz was phoning him, to let him know he was in Kari’s living room, “blanketing” her.
“Don’t you flirt with her,” Alex said over the phone as he headed to the bedroom on his plane. “Not even playfully.”
Oz laughed over the phone. “Don’t worry, brother. Kari will kill me if I get fresh with her. Jordan will kill me if I get fresh with her. You’ll annihilate me if I get fresh with her. Why on this green earth should I get fresh with her?”
“Just remember that,” Alex said.
“You just remember to get your ass back here by nightfall,” said Oz. “I have a hot date tonight.”
Alex shook his head. “With that same eye candy you spent the night with? Or are you back with Brandy or Mandy or whatever her name was?”
“Fuck Brandy. She disrespected Kari. And not the lady I was with last night. She’s just okay. This is one I met this morning while I was getting coffee at Starbucks. I’m telling you women are falling out of trees to be with me in this town! I was the hottest ticket on the club scene last night.”
“You’re getting too old for that shit, Odysseus,” Alex reminded his brother.
“I know that too. But until the right one comes along, I’m going to enjoy the wrong ones. Just like you did, brother.”
Alex smiled. “Goodbye, young man,” he said sarcastically, Oz laughed, and they ended the call.
Alex removed his suit coat, hung it up in his bedroom, and put on his floral print lounging jacket. He grabbed the Wall Street Journal that was on his bed, the fresh cup of coffee that was on his night stand, and he headed back up front.
After speaking with his entourage of aides, including his personal assistant Priska Rahm, who was half asleep and leaned against her seat’s window, he made his way to his private cabin. None of his aides were allowed entrance in that cabin except when they needed to relay a message. As he sat down, drank his coffee, and read his newspaper, a message came as the plane was well on its way to New York. It was Tino Castellano.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir,” he said as he entered, “but we’ve got news.”
Alex didn’t look up. He turned another page of his newspaper. “About what?” he asked.
“About Ninochka Kobalinski, sir. Narnia.”
Alex went still. Then he looked at Tino. “What about her?” he asked.
“We found her, sir.”
Alex nearly jumped out of his skin. “Where?”
“In Moscow.”
“They simply know where she’s located, or have they laid hands on her?”
“We have her, sir,” Tino said. “She’s in a remote location outside of Moscow in our custody. We have her.”
Alex could hardly believe it. Up to that point, she had only been a shadowy image he saw for the briefest of moments. A ghost. But now she was real. She was back. And under his control.
“Notify the pilot to reroute us to Russia. Now,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Tino said. He was not surprised by that order. And he left the private cabin.
Alex leaned back in his seat. Floored. Because it wasn’t just about finding her any more, or about chasing the ghost of her. She was found. He was on his way to see her face-to-face again. He had to get this taken care of. He had to see her for himself, find out what the hell was she thinking, and handle this shit.
Because if Kari found out it could devastate her at a time when she’d had enough devastation at his hands already. If Kari found out it could spell the end of their relationship, and his one shot at happiness, once and for all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Kari sat in his office quietly as he read over every word in that portfolio. She’d never had to work this hard for a contract before in her life. But then again, she also realized, she’d never had a shot at this big a contract before in her life either. If her goal was to expand her business while the getting was good, and before she went to work for Alex, she knew this contract, with Gillette Rentals, would put her goal within reach.
The company’s founder, Bill Gillette, finally sat the portfolio down and removed his glasses. “It’s a good resume,” he said. “Your little cleaning service has done about as well as could be done, I suppose, in such a depressed market.”
Kari continued to smile at the handsome businessman, but it wasn’t sounding great so far.
“But here’s the thing,” Gillette said. “I wouldn’t give you the time of day in ordinary circumstances. You understand that?”
It felt like a sucker punch straight to the gut. But it wasn’t as if it was a lie. It was, Kari knew better than anybody, an obvious truth. “Yes,” she said. “I understand that.”
“I want to be blunt with you,” Gillette said. “But everybody can’t handle the truth.”
&nb
sp; “Be blunt,” Kari said, inwardly steeling herself. “Please. I can handle it.”
Gillette stared at her. A part of him still couldn’t figure out how she won the prize. She was no beauty queen from what he was looking at. But another part of him knew exactly how she won. She was tough and smart and she had that it factor that every man craved in their women. She would stand by you. Thick or thin. She would stand by her man. Drakos was a smart man. To rise to the heights he rose to made it clear to Gillette just how brilliant a man he was. Drakos was where Gillette wanted to be. And that black chick sitting in front of him could very well get him there.
But he wasn’t going to string her along. He didn’t believe in toying with people. She was too smart for that. If he was going to get to ride that Drakos train, he had to win her respect. “Bluntly speaking,” he said to Kari, “the only reason I’m giving you any shot at all is because of your relationship with Alexander Drakos, not because of your portfolio. Period. Full stop.”
Then his desk phone rang. He frowned and answered angrily. “Didn’t I tell you I was not to be disturbed?”
But then he listened, looked at Kari, and then hung back up the phone. “That was my lawyer,” he said. “I’ve been advised that before I sign any agreement with you, I should turn on the television.”
Kari found that an odd thing to be advised to do, but Gillette wasn’t exactly understanding of it either. But he did as was suggested to him and turned on his office TV to the channel suggested.
And both of them were shocked. “To recap,” the news anchor was saying, “she’s alive! Our sources are telling us that the billionaire playboy has just found out that the love of his life, socialite Ninochka Kobalinski, is not dead as had been previously believed, but she is alive and well and living in her native Ukraine. And Alexander Drakos, according to our sources, is with her,” the reporter said as it showed old footage of a tall, brown-haired woman walking swiftly toward a limousine with Alex by her side. A limousine door was opened by a chauffeur, the two of them got into the limousine, and the limo was whisked away.
Alex Drakos: His Dangerous Affair (The Alex Drakos Romantic Suspense Series Book 4) Page 13
