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  Drew chuckled humorlessly. “Indeed. So I was just going over certain tasks and assignments to help him achieve his goals, so that he doesn’t have to go behind my back.”

  “I wasn’t aware that was what I was doing,” Alex murmured. “I am as open a book as you are.”

  Drew clearly didn’t buy that. “Then why turn down my suggestion, again, to go to Mexico? Why not play to your strength, working with the horses and building our stables, than skulk around here like you know what you’re doing?”

  “One, I have no interest to go to Mexico, nor to work with anything affiliated with your good friend, Senator De Havilland. That hasn’t changed nor will it.”

  “Stop being so damn idyllic, Alex. This is business.”

  “If it’s so important, why don’t you go to Mexico, Drew? Take the whole family. Make it a vacation.”

  “That sounds like fun!” Jonathan decided at once. “Can we, Dad?”

  Drew’s jaw clenched as he stared at his brother. “Horses were always your specialty, little brother,” he commented coolly. “I simply wouldn’t have your expertise.”

  Jonathan was undaunted. “I can teach you everything Uncle Alex taught me.”

  My eyes shot to Alex’s. I understood the dangers posed with the businesses in Mexico. I suddenly understood that Alex’s comment was really a dare, one that Drew was not ready to accept.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I interjected. “There’s too much to do here closer to home.”

  Jonathan nodded as he accepted my answer. “You’re right.” Then his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Hey, I have an idea. Why doesn’t Alex work with us? I’m learning about the business anyway. And there’s no better teacher than Rachel.”

  Alex’s face was expressionless as he answered. “I suppose the best way to learn about our business and this company is under the tutelage of a proper educator.”

  My eyes widened as I stared between Alex and Drew. Were they freaking serious?

  Drew drained his glass before he continued. “Seeing as how Jonathan is here a couple of times a week to do exactly what you wish to do, it likely would be far more expeditious if you all work together.”

  I gulped. Throwing us together was the ultimate test and he knew it. Was that why they entertaining Jonathan’s innocent suggestion when surely nothing good could come from it?

  “It sounds like an awful lot to take on, Jonathan,” I dismissed immediately.

  Jonathan pouted. “It could be fun. Just like on the ranch, at the stables.”

  Drew’s eyes met Alex’s. “Yes. Just like the ranch,” Drew agreed. “A family should be close,” he replied before he glanced my way. “Isn’t that right, darling?”

  I said nothing. I merely glared at him.

  Jonathan turned to me. “It’ll be fun! Come on, let’s do it, Mom.”

  Those wide hopeful eyes made it nearly impossible to say no. “It’s a lot to think about,” I sidestepped with a smile. “I think I’d like to speak to Drew privately before I commit to anything.”

  Jonathan knew what that meant. His face fell immediately. Alex was quick to stand. “Come on, buddy. Lunch is on me today.” He looked between Drew and me. “Let’s leave your parents to talk.”

  I grimaced slightly. He avoided my eyes completely as he herded Jonathan out to the outer offices.

  I turned to Drew with a hiss. “Are you crazy?”

  Drew’s jaw clenched as he surveyed my face. He leaned back in his chair. “Is there a problem?”

  “You know damned well there is, Drew,” I snapped. “It’s only going to complicate everything for everyone.”

  “Everyone except Jonathan,” he pointed out. “He’s not going to understand why putting you and Alex together might be … awkward. You’re his mother. Alex is his uncle. This is just an extension of the dinner party. Family unity and all that, everyone playing together nicely like we all really give a damn.” He poured himself another drink and drained it in one gulp. “This could not come on a worse fucking day. Elise picks him up in less than four hours, and you know she’s going to throw a wrench in the works.”

  “Let me guess. Your brilliant plan to move her across the country failed.”

  His mouth hardened into a thin line. “I guess there’s no appeal in her working for a living when she can sponge off me for the foreseeable future.” he muttered. “She stays right here in Los Angeles, in ‘a manner to which she has become accustomed,’” he added bitterly. “And she gets partial custody of Jonathan, which puts more of his money in her pocket as well. At this rate the only hope I have of getting her talons out of my hide is if she finds a bigger, better sugar daddy.”

  “Drew, she is his mother,” I tried to reason, but he slammed the glass on his desk.

  “Stop with the Madonna martyr shit, Rachel! She doesn’t give a damn about Jonathan, she never did. Have you really forgotten the debacle with Justin Deneke last year? He could have died. As well as Max. And you,” he added, his jaw clenched angrily. “Sometimes I think that’s the only thing that will satisfy her insatiable need for revenge.”

  My heart sank as I remembered that horrible afternoon when Justin had gotten Jonathan high on synthetic marijuana, which resulted in both Max and I nearly drowning. Yet I still felt I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was a mother after all. “She probably felt that she couldn’t tell him no. He hated everyone at that point. She took the wrong route to reach him by trying to be his friend rather than establish boundaries. But I don’t think she did it with the intent of hurting anyone.”

  “Bullshit,” he said in a lethally calm, low voice. “She was trying to cozy up to Justin’s parents because they are rich and famous and make her look better by association. It’s always about her, Rachel. Always.”

  I sighed. “Alex told me that she didn’t have a good relationship with her parents. That was her example to parent her own children. It’s unrealistic to expect more from her, Drew. She needs to learn just like everyone else, through mistakes and failure.”

  He chuckled. “You’re unbelievable, Rachel. You still defend her, even when she’s trashing you to everyone she meets. To her, you’re the gold-digging whore who turned the heads of not one but both of her former conquests. Do you have any idea what that’s doing to her ego right now?”

  “I don’t care,” I answered simply. “Her opinion of me is none of my business.”

  “That’s very enlightened,” he said. “And foolish.”

  My stomach recoiled from the stressful conversation. I rose from the chair. “I’m going home,” I declared. “You guys really need to figure out how to untangle your relationship, because you’re strangling everyone to death with this unnecessary bullshit.”

  I spun on my heel and stalked from his office. I thought he might follow me, but I made it all the way home without any sign of him. I ate a light lunch of soup and crackers before I escaped outside to sit on one of the lounge chairs, sucking up as much vitamin D as I could.

  That was where Alex and Jonathan found me when they arrived an hour after I had. Jonathan was concerned as he approached. “Dad said you didn’t feel good. Are you okay now?”

  I nodded. “Just needed to cut the day short, hon. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got plenty to do here.” He glanced back at Alex. “Thanks for lunch, Uncle Alex.”

  Alex nodded and we watched Jonathan disappear into the house with Yoda right on his heels. It was the first time Alex and I had been alone since New Year’s Eve, and butterflies exploded in my stomach as he walked around the fence and approached me where I sat. He perched on the chair opposite mine. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “No,” I answered honestly. “You know that if we work together, Drew is going to make my life miserable. He’ll constantly be testing both of us to make sure that there’s nothing left between us, and torturing us if he finds that there is.”

  “And is there?” Alex wanted to know.

&n
bsp; I squeezed my eyes shut. “I can’t keep having this conversation, Alex.”

  “Why did you ask me for dinner, Rachel?”

  “It’s what Jonathan wanted,” I answered quietly.

  “Is that all?” he persisted.

  My eyes met his. “What else do you need?”

  He gulped back any answer as he looked toward the pool. “I’m scared for you, Rachel. For you and for Jonathan. And the more I learn, the more scared I get. There’s a lot of shady stuff going on, and I’ve only scratched the surface. Drew thinks he’s untouchable but eventually it’s all going to come back to bite him in the ass. I’m there at that office every day, not because I want to be, but because I don’t know how else to save you.”

  “You could have saved me if you had answered just one of my phone calls last year,” I reminded. He turned to face me. “I needed you, Alex. And you left without a word. You never even told me goodbye.”

  His eyes shined bright. “If there’s one thing I can never say to you, it’s goodbye.”

  My heart ripped at the seams time had only just begun sewing. “Then why leave at all?”

  “I don’t know. I was hurt. I was stupid. Turns out I’m every bit my father’s son, just like Drew. I tested you even though I knew you’d fail.”

  I closed my eyes. “I did fail you, Alex. And I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.”

  His eyes had softened by the time I looked back into his face. “Then we’re even. Because I’ll regret leaving you for the rest of mine.”

  My stomach twisted with the angst of our situation. “So where do we go from here?” I asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered as he ran a hand through his hair. “All I do know is that I can’t make the same mistake twice. I can’t leave you again. Not when the stakes are this high.”

  I snickered. “Seems like the stakes have been high ever since I opened Drew’s first email.”

  The events over the past two years since then lay between us like scattered debris. “I don’t regret it,” he said in a voice so quiet it forced me to look at him. “I got to love you for a while. And that was more than I deserved.”

  I clenched my eyes to fight more damnable tears. I heard him rise from his chair, but by the time I opened my eyes again, it was to catch him walking away.

  I joined Jonathan in our office shortly after, and he was hard at work on one of his latest assignments. He was concerned as I approached. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  I gave him a brave smile. “Some days are tougher than others, you know that.”

  He nodded as I sat. “Sorry I ambushed you at Dad’s office. I just thought having Alex work with us would make things better between Alex and Dad. If you’re mad at Alex,” he started but I cut him off.

  “I’m not.”

  “So what’s wrong?”

  I sighed. There was no way I could tell him. “Like I said, some days are worse than others. I just feel a little overwhelmed sometimes.”

  “I can help you,” he offered hopefully. “So can Alex. Like last year.”

  The knot in my stomach twisted. “Give me some time to think about it,” I said. “Now you have to go get packed. Your mom will be here before you know it.”

  He nodded and closed the folder he was working on before he left the room. As if my day wasn’t stressful enough, I would soon have to face off with the ex-Mrs. Fullerton. I wasn’t looking forward to it.

  Just as I expected, she wore a hateful expression on her face from the moment I opened the door. She brushed past me. “I’m here to pick up my son.”

  “He’s packing,” I explained as I followed her to the living room.

  “Good,” she said as she spun to face me. “That’ll give us some time alone.” Her eyes were icy blue as she glared at me. “You may have everyone else fooled, but I saw through your game from the moment we met. You’re nothing but trailer trash that got lucky, and you’ll never fit into this family, I don’t care how many of these idiots you’ve snowed.”

  My jaw clenched as I crossed my arms in front of me. “When are you going to get it, Elise? I don’t care if you hate me. This isn’t about us. This is about Jonathan.”

  “Please,” she sneered. “Once your baby is born you’re going to forget all about him and you know it. He’s not your winning lottery ticket anymore. Now that you have a Fullerton heir of your very own, they’ll have to blast you with dynamite to get you away from this family.”

  My eyebrow arched. “I guess you’d know.”

  Her face screwed into a scowl. “You don’t know what I’ve been through for this family. I earned my place here. You weren’t around when Malcolm marched around here like the maniacal tyrant he was, making everyone miserable from the very moment I walked into this house.”

  “Then why make it harder than it has to be?” I asked.

  She stepped closer. “Because they don’t deserve easy. They got everything they ever wanted only to throw it away, used and damaged and ugly.” She held out her arms. “Just look at me. And don’t think Alex is any different. He’s not. In fact, he may be worse. At least Drew never denied being a womanizing, sexist jerk. He never said, ‘I love you.’ He never promised to be faithful.” She glared down her nose at me. “You think you’re the first one they’ve bounced between them like a tennis ball? That’s their favorite game. I can guarantee you won’t be the last, no matter what they tell you now. Maybe it’ll be a new secretary down at the office. Or you’ll end up with a new nanny for the new baby. As you get fatter, incubating a precious Fullerton offspring, a new crop of gold-digging whores will jump right in to take your place. A beautiful new girl will fall for the moony, romantic, unattainable Alex and Drew will go from chasing after you every night to sleeping in his study because he had to ‘work.’ He won’t stop until every woman alive knows who the real alpha male is, and just like us, they’ll all be powerless to resist. Then they’ll get the diamonds and the trips and the sex, while you get to smile pretty for the camera like nothing is wrong, and you’re perfectly content being just another brood mare for the stables.” She snickered. “So, yeah. I’ll take every goddamned dime I can get out of them.”

  She glanced me up and down before she said, “You know, you should be down on your knees thanking me for giving Drew a reason to seduce you. As long as I’m around, he has something to prove to the world. The wholesome bride, the saintly Madonna, to cleanse his palate from the selfish socialite he couldn’t get enough of just a few years before. That should clean his image right up in time for a senatorial run. But deep down he’s hungry for more. He needs it. He needs to be wanted. He needs to be adored. It’s a lust in his blood. You’ll never be enough, no matter how many heirs you breed. Take my advice. Divorce him and take him for as much as you can get out of him. Otherwise he’s just going to make a fool out of you, too.”

  She stepped away from me when she heard Jonathan’s footfalls in the hallway. She was all smiles as he entered the room. “Hey, sugar,” she greeted with a feigned sweetness I knew Jonathan could easily detect.

  His face was resigned as he allowed her hug. They turned to leave and she sent one last hateful glance at me over her shoulder before the door slammed behind them.

  Chapter Nine

  I was sleeping when Drew came home early that evening. I was worn out by the confrontations of the day, which had me feeling queasier than normal. Cleo sent me straight to bed, and who was I to argue? I dozed immediately and all the way until Drew made it home. I woke to find him standing beside the bed, packing clothes into an open suitcase. I pulled myself into a sitting position. “Where are you going?”

  “Where are we going,” he corrected. “Since Jonathan won’t be home until Sunday night, I thought we could get away ourselves for the weekend. I don’t know about you, but I could use a change of scenery.”

  My first impulse was to decline, unable to muster the enthusiasm of an impromptu trip. “Drew…,” I began.

  He snapped th
e suitcase shut and placed it on the floor, rolling it to the hall. “Thank you, Harrison,” he said to the waiting valet as he handed off the baggage. He turned back to me. “It dawned on me today what a delicate balance we walk week in and week out. We sacrifice time with each other to meet the needs of our child, because that is what one does as a parent. But we are also a newly committed couple, and that demands just as much attention. It’s up to us to steal what chances we can to strengthen our relationship, which benefits our children most of all.” He stopped in front of me. “Jet is fueled and waiting,” he said as he reached out a hand. “Let’s be spontaneous.”

  “I haven’t packed,” I offered helplessly.

  “You don’t need to,” he assured.

  I placed my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet, and then led me down the hall and down the stairs.

  “Do I get to ask where we’re going?”

  “No,” he decided on the spot. “You get to trust me.”

  He took my arm and led me to the car.

  Drew’s plane was even more luxurious than the one he had originally chartered to transport me from Texas to Los Angeles. The interior of this plane was sleek, in blue, white and gray, with leather bench seating and swivel recliners and small tables. There were red roses around the cabin. The beautiful blonde flight attended named Bethany welcomed us aboard with complimentary champagne for Drew and sparkling cider for me.

  We took our seats and accepted our drinks, and within minutes we were lifting off into the darkening sky. Once we reached our cruising altitude, Bethany informed us we could unbuckle our seatbelts and get comfortable.

  “Will there be anything else, Mr. Fullerton?” she asked.

  “Not at the moment,” he replied with that show-stopping smile. “Thank you, Bethany.”

  Professional though she was, even Bethany couldn’t help blushing a bit from Drew’s attention. She disappeared into the rear cabin, which gave us some privacy.

  Drew rested his arm along the back of the bench seat where we sat, snug like a love seat. He was quiet as he traced my jaw with his finger. “This is only the beginning of what I want to show you,” he murmured finally. “This weekend you will learn what it means to be a Fullerton. Anything your heart desires can be yours for the having. This is my world, Rachel. And I want to give it to you.”