Читать книгу Always My Baby - Martha Kennerson - Страница 12

Chapter 2

China woke to the sound of her cell phone beeping. She was naked and lying on top of a sound-asleep Alexander. At some point in the night they had made love again, but this time decided to forgo showering or clothes. Making love with Alexander had been better than China had ever imagined. His powerful yet gentle touch had awakened emotions that she knew she had to bring under control. China eased off Alexander, reached for his dress shirt that was now on the floor and quickly wrapped her body in it.

The automatic shades on Alexander’s windows had kicked in, preventing the morning sunlight from shining completely through the room. China picked up her phone, read the message and moved over to the conference table that sat on the other side of Alexander’s large mahogany desk. She hit her phone’s redial button and waited for the call to connect.

“Good morning, Jackson.”

Jackson Weatherly, a successful pediatric surgeon from a wealthy family of physicians, was China’s date from the previous night.

“You okay? I got worried when I didn’t hear back from you,” he stated, his voice full of concern.

“I’m fine,” she said, not quite sure if she really believed that. “Things got a little crazy here last night.”

“You’re still at the office?” Jackson’s voice raised an octave.

“Yes.”

“Wow, talk about dedication,” he replied.

“That’s one way of putting it.” China covered her eyes with her left hand and shook her head.

“How about I come pick you up and take you out for breakfast?”

“Not today, Jackson. I have some loose ends I need to tie up here.” China knew that no matter how wonderful their night may have been, giving in to her desires for Alexander had been a mistake. He wasn’t prepared to give her the one thing she so desperately wanted: a child. “How about brunch tomorrow?”

“Sunday it is. I’ll pick you up at eleven,” he promised.

“See you then.” China ended the call, sensing she was no longer alone.

“A loose end, am I?” a deep baritone voice asked.

China turned to find a naked and erect Alexander standing with his arms folded, glaring down at her. She quickly diverted her eyes, but her body was already responding to the sight. No matter how hard she tried, China knew she couldn’t hide her physical response to the man who’d provided her with an unendurable amount of pleasure all night.

“Put some clothes on, Alexander.” China shifted in her seat, trying to relieve the instant pressure rising between her legs.

Alexander’s expression dulled. “Oh, it’s Alexander now. Last night it was yes, Alex...right there, Alex...how do you like this, Alex?” He turned like a defiant child forced to follow his parents’ orders. Alexander reached for his pants and quickly slipped them on.

“That was last night, which was—”

“Don’t you dare say it was a mistake,” he said to the back of her head.

China placed her phone on the table, turned and met Alexander’s angry leer. She could almost see the fury radiating from his body. China stood, walked over to him and placed both hands on his chest. She stared up into his eyes and said, “No, it wasn’t a mistake. Last night was curiosity being explored. It was a magnificent experience that’s over and can’t happen again. We’re friends, remember?”

Alexander dropped his arms, placed his left hand over hers and sighed. “Always.”

“Good.” She pulled her hands free. “Now finish getting dressed and give me a ride home.”

“You really don’t think we should even talk about last night?” His forehead puckered. “Maybe see where this thing could lead.”

“No. One night doesn’t change the people we are...what we want. Our friendship works because we don’t try to push our individual needs and wants onto each other,” China reminded him.

“That’s because for years our needs and wants have always been in sync.”

China twisted her neck and raised her left eyebrow. “Almost all of our needs.”

“You mean the kid thing.” Alexander placed his hands in his pants pockets.

“Yes, the kid thing. I want them and I’m building my life around having them, and you’re indifferent on the subject. That alone prevents us from going any further than last night.” China placed her right hand on her hip. “You can wait until whenever to have children. Women aren’t so lucky. I know firsthand what it’s like to have an older parent and I won’t do that to my child...hopefully children.”

China had been raised by a single mother in the military, and while she’d loved the travel and different adventures they got to experience, having an older mother with sensitive, fair Irish skin prone to wrinkles had made things uncomfortable for China growing up; people assumed that her mother was her grandmother. Her mother’s love of the sun hadn’t helped the situation, either. She’d died from an aggressive form of skin cancer before China’s twenty-first birthday.

“You’re barely twenty-nine years old, China, and you sound like you’re on some deadline,” he declared, his apathy on the subject clear.

I am. “I need someone who’s of the same mindset as me when it comes to having children, and I think I may have found someone.” China started gathering up her clothes.

“Have you, now?”

“I’m not discussing this with you right now, Alexander.” Between thoughts of her mother, China’s own desperate need to create a family and dealing with feelings that being with Alexander unleashed, the last thing China wanted was for Alexander to see her break down; his kind heart and big strong shoulders would be hard to resist. She was drowning in emotions and needed space to pull herself together. China disappeared into the bathroom.

* * *

Alexander watched China retreat to his private bathroom. “Dammit,” he said, as he pounded his right fist into his left hand. Even after a rambunctious night of lovemaking with China, Alexander’s body still craved her unlike any other woman he’d had. He wasn’t sure what this thing between them was, but he was determined to figure it out. He was not going to just give up. Alexander was moving toward the bathroom when he heard his office door open. He turned just in time to see his family’s matriarchs cross the threshold. Watching China walk away from him while his mother and aunt walked toward him as he stood in his office shirtless had Alexander wondering if the last couple of minutes had been a nightmare.

Victoria Langston Kingsley and Elizabeth Langston Kingsley, Alexander’s mother and aunt, had inherited their father’s floundering corporation, and with the help of their husbands—brothers Alexander and Harrison Kingsley—the sisters turned their struggling company into one of the most successful privately held oil and natural gas companies in the country.

“I told you he’d be here,” Victoria proudly declared, entering the office wearing a gray-and-white St. John suit with gray pumps. She wore a small amount of makeup and her hair was pulled back in a tight, conservative bun. Victoria was athletically built and looked nowhere near her fifty-plus years. She was carrying a white cardboard box with a large envelope on its top, placing it on the desk before Alexander could offer his assistance. “In a crisis, where else would he be?”

“That you did, sister dear. Like mother, like son,” Elizabeth said, brushing a long, curly strand of hair behind her ear and looking just as young and fit as her sister.

“Mother...Aunt Elizabeth, what are you doing here?” Alexander asked, briefly looking over his shoulder and grabbing his T-shirt as he moved into his office out of the lounge. He pulled the shirt over his head before kissing his mother on the cheek.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Victoria replied, tilting her head.

Alexander placed his right hand over his heart. “My apologies. Good morning, ladies.”

“Better!” Victoria said, her mouth set firm.

“Good morning, nephew. You do realize that you have a striking home, right? Try staying in it more often,” his aunt advised before pulling Alexander into her arms for a hug.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Alexander promised, stepping out of her arms. “Don’t you both look lovely this morning.”

“I look lovely.” Victoria pointed to herself. “In that long, flower-print dress, with its giant matching hat that’s in the car, Liz looks like a painting.”

“A Rembrandt,” Elizabeth snapped back before taking a seat at the conference table.

“More like a Warhol,” Victoria countered.

Alexander laughed. “What brings you two here on a Saturday morning?”

“If you’d checked your messages you’d have seen I’ve been trying to reach you,” Victoria explained.

Alexander retrieved his phone from his desk. “What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until I got back to you?”

“Or at least until after our board meeting this morning,” Elizabeth added, checking her watch.

“Board meeting?” Alexander’s eyes danced between his mother and aunt.

“At the Children’s Museum,” Victoria clarified.

“Yes, of course. You did mention that,” he said, nodding.

“Son, you seem to forget anything I say that’s even remotely related to children. You automatically assume it would lead me to requesting grandchildren.”

“That’s because it usually does,” Elizabeth said as she examined the nails on her outstretched hand. “Do you think this lime-green polish is too much?”

“For you, no,” Victoria replied.

Alexander stifled his laugh. “Where was I?” Victoria asked to no one in particular. “Oh, yes, grandchildren.”

Alexander ran both hands down his face. “Not you, too.” Alexander was in no mood to deal with another one of his mother’s lectures on the importance of him having heirs, especially with China in the next room thinking basically the same thing, only about herself.

“Not me, too...what?” Victoria frowned at Alexander.

“Never mind. I assume all this is for me,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the box and envelope as he leaned against his desk.

“Yes, but Alexander, why did you stay here last night?” Victoria glanced around the room. “I know this is like a second home, but really, son, how can you get any rest on that thing?” Victoria questioned, pointing at his sectional sofa.

China’s face, her body and the smell of her skin flooded his mind. Alexander felt his body start to stir and he quickly moved away from his mother and took a seat behind his desk. “It’s fine, Mother. What’s in the box?”

“My source came through early,” she said, smiling and handing him the envelope. “You might want to call China. She’ll need to help us on this one.”

“I already did. We’re just waiting for this.” He tapped the envelope.

Elizabeth rose and ran her hand down the front of her dress. “Now that that’s done...”

“I could stay and go over all of this with you and China,” Victoria offered.

“No, you can’t,” Elizabeth chastised. “We have other pressing business to attend to.”

Victoria turned and faced Elizabeth. “Sister dear, this is our company we’re talking about.”

“And we have four of our six extremely intelligent and very capable children helping us run it, too.” Elizabeth went and stood next to her sister. “Children that you trained, I might add, all being led by your handsome husband’s clone. Our company is in excellent hands.”

Victoria released a quick breath. “You’re right.” She turned and faced Alexander. “I’ve done my part...now you do your job, son. Find out what the hell is going on and put a stop to it. Quickly!”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I don’t expect anything less.” Victoria picked up her purse and followed her sister to the door.

Alexander heard his aunt ask his mother, “Did you see it?”

“Of course I did.” Both sisters laughed, closing the door behind them.

Alexander dropped his head and sighed. “You can come out now,” he called, breaking the seal on the envelope with a letter opener from his desk.

“Victoria’s something else,” China said, taking a seat on the edge of the high-backed chair in front of Alexander’s desk.

“Yes, she is.” Alexander marveled at China. He always thought she was a ravishing woman, but never more than when she was in such a relaxed state, free of makeup and with her hair down, still wet from the shower.

China was wearing last night’s clothes and had a pair of Alexander’s socks on her feet. “So, what do we have here?”

“I was just about to find out.” Alexander slid the contents of the envelope onto his desk to find several smaller ones, a set of legal documents and three flash drives. He opened the box to find several binders and a number of different-colored folders.

China reached for the legal documents and began flipping through the pages, reading each word with blinding speed. “We’re going to need to bring everybody in on this,” she said, frowning. “And I mean everyone.”

“Why? What is it?” Alexander got up, walked around his desk and came to stand next to China, reading over her shoulder. He had to fight hard to focus. His shampoo, which China had used, mixed with her own sweet scent, was assaulting his senses, sending his hormones into overdrive.

“In a nutshell, the government alleges that we systematically and purposely misled the EPA with our ongoing practice to dispose of gas cylinders. They state that we did so in order to save money.”

“That’s ridiculous. We submitted our disposal plans for approval, which we received, and we’ve been following them ever since.” Alexander’s jaw tightened.

China shrugged and shook her head. “They claim to have proof that we submitted false plans in order to get the approval, then changed the procedures to save money. They claim to have a witness and documentation to this change, a whistle-blower, so to speak.”

“A whistle-blower? There’s nothing to blow,” he said, slamming his palm against his desk.

“Stay calm, Alexander,” she said, as she continued to examine the papers on his desk.

“We pay you to stay calm.” Alexander returned to his desk and powered up his computer. “Let’s see what’s on these flash drives.”

China looked around the room. “Where’s my phone?”

“It’s on the conference table. By the way, they know you were here.”

“Who?” she asked, rising to go collect her phone.

“Mom and Aunt Liz.”

China’s face was marred by confusion. “How?”

Alexander laughed at the shocked look on China’s face. “They saw your phone. Not many people have a pink diamond-encrusted phone case exactly like the one that they had specifically designed for you and gave to you.”

“Oh, no...” China dropped her face into both hands, and her hair fell forward.

Alexander had to force himself to concentrate on the problem at hand, when all he really wanted to do was lower her hands, brush China’s hair to the side and kiss her senseless. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure they figured it was a business-related visit,” he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

“Yeah, right, and how do I explain not coming out and greeting them like always?” China flopped back down in the chair and started dialing her phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Joyce. We need her here and I want her to stop by my house and bring me a change of clothes.”

Joyce was China’s legal assistant and good friend.

“Clothes?”

“Yes, clothes, pants, a shirt and underwear—”

“Underwear.” Alexander smirked.

China rolled her eyes. “Stop it. I’m not going commando the rest of the day.”

Alexander felt his sex spring to life and was relieved that he was sitting. He reached for his desk phone. “I guess I’ll call in the rest of the cavalry. They won’t be happy about us interrupting their Saturday.”

“Too bad. It’s either us or your mother.”

“Good point,” he agreed just as his computer beeped and several documents popped up on both of Alexander’s screens. He stared in disbelief.

China leaned over the desk to get a better view of what had captured his attention. “Call Morgan...” she ordered.

Alexander shook his head. “I don’t know anything about this—”

“Call your brother...right now,” China said, her voice icy and emotionless.