Enraptured Page 15

  For some reason, Sloane had assigned herself a very untraditional fairy godmother for the duration of her stay. She took care of me like I was her friend, though we rarely spoke unless Drew and Troy had gotten together. But the fact was that I was tired, and the solitude of my room felt a lot more welcoming than sex talk with Sloane De Havilland.

  Drew staggered in around three-thirty in the morning, and smelled like whiskey as he collapsed, half-naked, onto the bed. “You missed a great party,” he murmured as he spread out on his back. “We raised quite a bit of money.”

  “Congratulations on your success,” I mumbled. “Sorry if I left you in a lurch.”

  He shrugged. “Troy and Zoe were there,” he said absently. I wondered what he was thinking behind those hooded, cloudy eyes.

  “Still, that’s not your wife,” I pointed out.

  His eyes met mine. “Very true,” he agreed. He pulled me down for a hot kiss, but then turned his back toward me as he settled down to sleep.

  Tired as I was, I couldn’t sleep at all. I ended up giving up entirely and headed downstairs by daybreak. When I saw Troy reading a paper at the kitchen table in his robe, I nearly turned back. But he called to me.

  “There you are,” he said with a slick smile. “I was hoping to spend some time alone with you this visit. Please. Sit down.”

  I grabbed some juice from the fridge before I joined him.

  “You look positively resplendent,” he said. “A more womanly creature I would be hard pressed to find.”

  “Seems like you found one just fine. Sloane tells me that you are responsible for hiring Zoe.”

  “My friend had a need and I met that need. That’s what friends do,” he added with a wink.

  “Good friends, anyway,” I remarked, off-hand. “Did you hire her to sleep with him, Troy?”

  He paused a bit, taken aback by the direct question. “I’m sure that is no concern of mine. I just thought it would help to have someone around to take the burden off of you.”

  “Like making love to my husband,” I filled in.

  His eyes narrowed. “Are you accusing me of something, Rachel?”

  “No, of course not,” I murmured. “You just provided the temptation. It’s up to Drew to act on it.”

  Troy chuckled softly. “My dear, I think the one with the problem is you. But you should know that insecurity is an unattractive quality in a woman. You’re the wife. It’s up to you to set these rules for yourself.”

  “And what if I told you one of my new rules is that Zoe is out of here, that I neither need nor want her ‘help’?”

  He chuckled a little louder. “That’s certainly your choice. And I can make that happen for you tomorrow with a simple phone call if that is what you truly want. The question is… what are you willing to do for me?”

  I balked immediately. “What do you mean?”

  “Tit for tat, darling. Quid pro quo. I’m willing to do everything in my power to make you feel secure and happy. But how far are you willing to go for me?”

  I clasped my robe just a little tighter. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Don’t worry,” he assured. “I’m not attracted to pregnant women. No, what I want from you is far simpler. I want you to convince Alex to go to Mexico.”

  I shook my head. “He won’t go.”

  Troy’s eyes drilled into me as he leaned closer. “He will if you tell him. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Rachel. You could tell him to walk through fire and he likely would. All I need is for him to get the hell out of Drew’s business.”

  “FEI is his business, too,” I pointed out with a scowl. “And besides, isn’t the ranch in Mexico business-related?”

  “Of course,” he answered far too easily. “But it gets him out of our hair for a while so we can actually get things done without hearing from the Morality Police.”

  “Because that would be terrible,” I agreed sardonically.

  “I know that you have your misgivings due to the violent history there. But I give you my personal guarantee of his safety.”

  I killed the last of my juice and rose from the table. “No good,” I answered. “I’ve heard too many of your campaign promises.”

  I exited the kitchen and headed back up to my room.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Now that I understood what Zoe’s true purpose in my house really was, I was no longer willing to dismiss the warning signs I had previously ignored. Once the De Havillands returned to New York, I began asserting myself more and more, confusing the young blonde with my firmer, more no-nonsense tone.

  I was back, baby.

  Every time she tried to edge me out of my life, I straightened my spine and treated her like the employee she was. If she was there to help me, she was going to do what I said. That started with getting the hell out of my way. I cornered Drew during one of his late-nights in the study to establish more proper working boundaries.

  “You don’t want her sharing meals with us? Isn’t that a little rude, Rachel?”

  I shrugged. “Harrison and Cleo are on our payroll, too. Have you ever invited them to share a meal at the table?”

  “No,” he admitted. “But you have. So why treat Zoe any differently?”

  My eyes narrowed as I glared at him. “It wasn’t too long ago that I was Zoe. The innocent, single woman brought in to raise your child. How long did it take for the boundaries to blur and the lines to cross, exactly?”

  He chuckled to himself. “What are you suggesting, Rachel? That I would start an affair with my son’s nanny right under my wife’s nose?”

  I tilted my chin. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  His eyes hardened as he looked at me. “I told you those rumors were false.”

  “I just find it interesting that the woman you hire to take care of our children looks a lot like your first wife and your last fiancée.”

  Drew grew angry. He slammed his fist onto his desk before he rose to pour himself another drink. “I don’t care for your accusations, Rachel.”

  “And I don’t care for the late nights and the emotional freeze you’ve put me through. If Alex isn’t around for you to wag me under his nose, then it is like I don’t exist at all.”

  His mood soured even more. “I don’t appreciate my behavior being questioned. This is the nuts and the bolt of running one of the most successful companies in America. You know that. You were bitching at me about it two years ago before Zoe was even an issue. Or don’t you remember?”

  “Fine,” I conceded. “Run your business. But this house? And these children? They are my business. That is the job you hired me for, isn’t it?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  He killed his glass of whiskey before he walked back to his desk. He shoved papers into his briefcase.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “To the office,” he snapped. “For peace and quiet.”

  “It’s nine o’clock at night,” I reminded.

  He offered a derisive chortle as he sneered down his nose at me. “Why worry? Zoe is staying here.”

  He slammed out of his office and didn’t return until after two in the morning.

  A chill descended over the house that left Jonathan quiet and pensive. I was sharper than I needed to be with the sweet girl he had come to adore, and his father was surly if ever bothered to show up at all.

  Elise reveled in the tension when she came to pick him up, and I once again had to shoo Zoe away from doing what was my job alone: dealing with his other mother. Elise watched the young girl slink from the room. “Kudos for finding your back bone,” she said. “But it’s useless. The war was lost the minute she walked in the door. And you know it,” she added before she swept from the room to collect her son.

  I spent my evening in my office, preparing Jonathan’s lesson plans for the following week. Though she was studying to be an educator, I refused to turn the reins over to Zoe just yet. Jonathan had been and still was my student. If she was t
here to assist me, then that was precisely what she would do. She would follow my orders and work according to my plan, not the other way around.

  That night she opted to dine alone in the kitchen. I realized that my demeanor was making her uncomfortable, but every time I looked at her I saw her for the carrot on the stick she was. It was time both Drew and Troy learned I wasn’t going to just roll over while they toyed with the rules of decency to get whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it.

  Drew was still playing by his own rules that evening, when eleven o’clock came and went and he hadn’t yet come home. I sent texts asking where he was, but he hadn’t seen fit yet to respond.

  I stared at my phone, debating on how bitchy I was going to be about it. Finally I picked it up, but it wasn’t Drew I called.

  It was Alex.

  “What’s up?” he asked casually.

  “Drew’s not home,” I said. “Do you know where he is?”

  “I think he mentioned something about a video conference to London,” he said. “I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.”

  “In his mind he is a god, and it was my job to worship him. Answering my nagging questions doesn’t hold any real appeal.”

  He paused. “Are you okay?”

  Finally I blurted out about Zoe and Troy and even what Sloane suggested about letting him canoodle with the help while I was debilitated by my pregnancy. It felt good to say it to someone who might understand, and Alex knew these mixed up rules and the people that made them far better than Nancy ever would.

  I heard him sigh. “I can’t say I’m surprised. For the record, I did try to warn you that this wasn’t Texas. We have our own rules here. And they suck.”

  “I know,” I grumbled. “I just thought if I gave myself to this marriage and committed as his wife that he would see there is another way.”

  “Valiant effort,” he said. “But wasted with Drew. He’s too broken. It would take something drastic for him to get the message.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  A pause. “I have some ideas.”

  “Like what?”

  “Going to Mexico,” he answered flatly.

  I sucked in a breath. “Alex, you can’t.”

  “If I can uncover that Teton Tech and their Mexico holdings are linked with the cartel to smuggle illegal drugs and guns, and link it back to Troy, then maybe I can get rid of his worst influence.” He paused. “That’s the only thing that will release him from Father.”

  “Not at the expense of your life, Alex.”

  I could picture him shrugging on the other end. “I’ve always been the expendable one, Rachel. The spare, the backup plan.”

  “Not to Max,” I argued. “He needs you.” I need you.

  “If I can’t fix this, what kind of life can I offer him? This threat hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles is only going to get worse the further entrenched Drew gets. I can practically hear the fibers of the rope snapping now. That puts us all in danger, including Max. He’d be better off raised in England with my mother’s family.”

  He was scaring me. “You can’t go,” I reiterated.

  “I don’t think you have a say in the matter. It’s my life.”

  “And it’s my fucking family,” I snapped as tears poured down my face. “I don’t want you to go.”

  The long pause that followed was finally interrupted with “Don’t want who to go?” It was a question slurred by Drew as he entered the bedroom, and I glared at him through my tears.

  “I have to go,” I told Alex before I disconnected the call and placed the phone back onto the nightstand.

  He saw Alex’s face on my phone, which curled his lip up in a snarl. He ripped his shirt off of his shoulders. “I don’t answer your texts and you go crying to Alex?” He shook his head with a disgusted sneer. “Your conversion into Elise is almost complete.”

  I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. “If this is how you treated her, I understand her better than I ever wanted to.”

  He spun around, enraged. “And how do I treat you? Just because I don’t jump when you snap, somehow I’m failing you? Look around you, Rachel. I plucked you out of nothing and made you a queen!”

  I grew angry. “I never asked for any of this, Drew! Not one diamond, not one dime. I don’t give a shit about your money or your power. I love you. I want you. I want us to be a family.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Family,” he repeated with disgust. “The code word for Alex.” He stalked to my side of the bed. “I already told you that I don’t share.”

  “But I’m supposed to, is that it?” I shot back.

  “I told you that nothing is going on with her,” he growled as he leaned down to face me.

  “Your good buddy Troy will be so disappointed,” I murmured. “After all the thought he put into finding the perfect ‘assistant’ for your needs.”

  “I am not Troy,” he snapped.

  “Thank God,” I replied.

  He crawled along the bed, backing me against a pillow. “I don’t need Troy’s help finding a woman to warm my bed. I don’t need to pay one, and I certainly don’t need to mope around the house and diddle the help. I can have any woman I want,” he snarled. “At the office, on the street, they’re everywhere. They smell the money,” he said in a quiet, lethal voice as his mouth hovered over my mine. “They see the car, the clothes, the wedding ring,” he added. “They all want to be the one who is kept on the side, in some luxury Brentwood apartment, with jewels and cars and money to fill the absence while I go home to my wife.”

  I glared at him. “And that makes you a big man, does it? A god?”

  He ran a finger along my pajama top before he ripped it open, sending buttons flying across the room. I gasped and tried to cover myself, but he shook his head. “You know what makes me a god, baby. You feel it every single time I touch you.” He kissed me roughly until I was forced to submit. He groaned deep in his throat as he pressed me onto my back.

  Even as mad as I was, my arms wrapped around his neck and I pulled him closer. I was hungry with need. He wore a satisfied smile as he dragged his mouth from my swollen lips. “Maybe it is time to remind you why I chose you, and you alone, to be my bride.”

  He kissed his way down my sensitive body, over the swell of each heavy breast and the generous curve of my full tummy. He eased the pajamas off of my body before diving between my legs. I gasped as his tongue found its target. I cried out as he teased me with the tip of his finger and his nimble tongue, swirling together until I convulsed against his face, my thighs clasping his head into me deeper. He turned me over onto my knees as he stepped out of his pants. He was hard as rock as he eased up behind me and slowly slid into me as his hand slid up my back and into my hair.

  He rode me until we both were crying out. He reached places I forgot even existed. When he clasped my hair in his fingers, I screamed out in a mix of pleasure and pain. It only encouraged him more. He released himself with a loud, primal grunt. When he fell onto the bed, he pulled me to his sweaty chest. As the fog of our white hot passion cleared, his touch turned gentle.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

  I shook my head as I rolled onto my back. “No. You didn’t hurt me.”

  He spread his palm against my vast belly. “Did I hurt them?”

  Again I shook my head. I held his hand to my stomach and watched his face as I waited. His eyes grew wide as he felt the tiny fluttering movements under my skin.

  “When?” he asked breathlessly?

  “Today,” I confessed. “But I wasn’t sure until just now.”

  He kissed his way along my bare body to rest against my pregnant tummy. “My babies,” he murmured softly before he looked at me. “My wife. This is my family, Rachel. Never doubt what I would do for any of you.”

  I ran my hand through his thick, dark hair. “Prove it. Don’t send Alex to Mexico.”

  His eyes hardened as he stared at me. “What?”

  “You heard
me. It’s time to be your brother’s hero again. Don’t send Alex to Mexico and get the hell away from Troy De Havilland.”

  His face was hard as he pulled away from me, put on his robe and slammed out of the bedroom.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I lay awake most of the night, waiting for Drew to return. Around dawn I slipped into my robe and headed downstairs, where I found him asleep on his sofa in his study. There was a half-empty bottle of scotch in one hand, and with one leg up on the edge, his robe had gaped open.

  There was no clearer invitation to kick dust on the line of propriety and skip happily toward unrestrained lust than a drunk, naked bazillionaire in his private study.

  After all, I had done exactly that a couple of years before.

  I closed the door behind me and walked over to where my husband lay. His eyes fluttered open as I pried the bottle from his strong fingers. “I wasn’t done with that,” he muttered.

  “Yeah, you are,” I replied as I carried it back to the bar.

  Drew ambled up into a sitting position. “What time is it?”

  “A little after seven.”

  He rubbed his eyes with his hands. “I should get to the office.”

  “It’s Saturday,” I reminded.

  “I told you a long time ago that this isn’t a nine-to-five job.”

  “Yeah, well neither is marriage. You don’t get to alienate me every time you get pissed at me.”

  “Works so well for you,” he countered.

  I sighed and crossed my arms as I faced him. “Can we take a break from the sniping, Drew? It’s not helping anything.”

  He stood. “You don’t have to hear it if I’m at the office.”

  “Please don’t go.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Why?”

  “I want you here. With me.”

  “So you can campaign to spare Alex from going to Mexico?”