Alexander (12 page)

“
It’s going to be nice having you there with us, kiddo. I’ve missed you and I know that Jack has. He can’t seem to settle down much without you.” She missed them both too. “Jack wanted to stay home today, but he had that test. And yeah, I’ve been studying with him.”

“
I didn’t say anything.” She took a deep breath before she continued. “Grandda, there’s something you should know. It’s about Mr. James and me. We…that is to say, he and I are—”

“
Hello, Miss Laird,” the doctor said as he entered the room after a brisk knock. “I guess you want to go home today, right? That’s good. Very good. Now I don’t want you going back to work right away. You’ll need to keep rested so there is no relapse.”

She didn’t answer and she didn’t look at her grandda either. She was going back to work as soon as she could find a job and since Caroline had called her and told her she could come back there—of course with a permission slip from the doctor—she had that job as well. Her arrangement with Mr. James notwithstanding. She was going to get out of this as quickly as possible.

“
And now…Mr. Laird, I was wondering if you might step out for a moment? I’d like a word or two with your granddaughter, please. You understand.” The doctor, Fredrick Sams, shook her grandda’s hand as he left. “Now, there are some things that you wanted to discuss?”

Heather had spoken to the nurse yesterday about getting on the birth control pill. She’d also asked the nurse about making sure she’d never get pregnant, again but the nurse had told her that they didn’t do that to single women unless there was a medical issue that required it.

“
I want to get on some sort of birth control. I don’t…I can get the prescription at the clinic, but I want to make sure I get something really strong.” She felt her face heat up. “I have a child and I’ve no wish for anymore.”

He looked at her for several seconds. “Shelly told me that you wanted to have a tubal ligation. I try to recommend that single women, especially single women as young as you are, Miss Laird, not to do something that may not be reversed later. You may change your mind and your husband will be upset with you for doing something so drastic.”

She didn’t point out that it was her body and that the chances of her getting married, much less having another child, were slim to none. She just nodded. “Yes, she told me. I still want to get on the pill, please. Can you write me something up for that?” She didn’t know anything about this sort of thing, only what she’d read in the pamphlet that she’d been given last night.

“
Of course. But you will need to take precautions before you depend on this method to prevent you from conceiving. I would recommend at least an entire cycle. Two if possible.”

Heather didn’t plan on ever taking just the pill to keep her from getting pregnant. She was planning on Mr. James taking his own necessary steps to prevent a child.

With her prescription in hand, she and her grandda left the hospital. The taxi ride was exhausting, but worth it. Grandda had told her that Mr. James was out of town until tomorrow night.

“
Don’t think he thought you’d be getting out before a few more days. He’s going to be a bit disappointed that you got sprung early.” Heather doubted that unless it was because he wasn’t going to get his first payment. “But he’ll be back. Had a friend of his pass. Heard him tell his momma that he and this Brick feller were close as brothers.”

Heather knew he’d gone to Cincinnati, but didn’t know why. She didn’t think that they would be on a personal level anytime soon, if ever. He didn’t like her anymore than she liked him. This was just a means for them both to get what they wanted. She just hoped that when they left, and leave they would, that Jack wouldn’t be too upset with her.

She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She had planned it out to the letter, this arrangement with him. She would have sex with him whenever he wanted to and she would save her money. She figured it wouldn’t take any more than two months to save enough money to put a deposit on another apartment. Sometime after the new year, she thought.

She had called her other landlord and he said that she wasn’t getting her deposit back because there wasn’t any place for him to look over. He’d thought it was funny that because of a fire, he was getting to keep all the tenants deposits.

By the time they pulled up in front of the house, she felt like she’d been run over several times and left for dead. But when she got in the house, she nearly wept. She didn’t have a clue where she was supposed to sleep. Her grandda took her to the second floor.

“
I called Alex last night to tell him you sweet talked the doc into letting you go. He said I was to make sure you were put into his room.”

He’d spoken so quietly that she turned to look at him. “I’m sorry, Grandda. But I needed—”

“
I don’t know what you’re doing, girl. I don’t think I wanna either. You sleeping with this man, it’s your business, yours and his. But if I find out you…you’d better not be doing something I’ll be ashamed of, girl.”

She lowered her head. She was ashamed. More ashamed in that moment than when she’d gotten pregnant.

“
It’s not what you think. You don’t…it’s not what you think.” He lifted her chin and looked at her. “It’s not. Please, just let it go.”

He stared at her for several seconds longer. She felt as if he was looking deep into her soul. Heather knew there were tears falling, she could feel them as they spilled over her cheeks, but she didn’t move to wipe them. She let him look his fill.

“
I see. Yeah, I see.” He moved away then turned back to her. “You do what you have to do and I’ll do the same. I don’t want Jacky-boy to know about this, you hear?”

“
Yes. Grandda, I’m—”

“
Don’t. I don’t think…just don’t. I’ll be going out for a bit. Will you be all right? I’ll pick up Jack on the way back through.”

“
Yes, sir. Thank you for Jack.” He didn’t even turn back to her, just nodded and when down the stairs.

Heather turned back and looked at the room that Mr. James had sent her to. He’d done this on purpose. Made it clear to the man she loved that she belonged to Alex James. She was his whore. Without thought as to how pissed the master of the house would be, Heather moved down the stairs and to the opposite end of the house where Grandda had told her he and Jack had rooms.

She found a small room just off the kitchen. It looked as though it might be a servant’s room. Thinking it suited not only her position in the house, but also her status as a person, Heather crawled into the bed and cried herself to sleep.

~~~

Alex was exhausted. The trip to Cincinnati and back in one day had taken its toll on him. Then there was the added stress of going through Brick’s things at the office. Amy had told him that he could take it all, even the things he had at the house. Even, she said, the things he had hidden in their mattress.

“
He was afraid, Alex. He kept telling me that he should have listened to you, should have known that after all these years you were the smarter of the two of them.”

Alex didn’t say anything. He hadn’t known what to say to a grieving widow of his best friend. He held her hand until she stopped crying then went to their room and gathered the files and disks that were under their mattress. He then went to the office.

Alex knew there were safes in the building, safes that only he and Brick had known about. Mostly they had used them as fire safes, back-ups of files, payroll, and accounts. On occasion, they would put payments in there, checks that they’d get over the weekends when neither of them had the time to go to the banks. It had also been used to hide the bottle of scotch. The one they had said they would share when they were fifty and rich as Midas.

At first glance, it looked as if Brick’s office had been tossed. But Alex, knowing his friend, knew it was just the way he’d left it the last time he’d been in. The man had no sense of tidiness in his office. Alex stepped over a shoe and several wadded up balls of paper on his way across the room. Sitting behind the desk, he looked around the room.

It was a mess and other than the things strewn across the floor, if one looked hard enough, they could see that there was a method to his clutter. It only took Alex two minutes to find what he knew was there.

The pictures on the desk had been sorted. Rather than the plethora of pictures of his wife and parents, there was now a single photo of him. Alex picked up the picture and looked at it.

He and Brick had gone to Italy a few years back. The shot was of him toasting the wine they’d been drinking. Alex smiled at the memory. They’d had a good time together. And Brick had met Amy.

He didn’t bother opening the frame. He simply put it into his coat pocket and went out again. He met no one either on his way in or his way out. Going to his old office, he went directly to the office safe and pulled out everything that was there then left again.

Now he was home. The silence of the house was the first thing he noticed. He thought that Tom would be there with Heather. When he’d called him to tell him that she was being released, Alex had made the decision to come back. Now he didn’t know what to do with her.

He went up to his bedroom to see her and found the room, like the rest of the house, empty. Going down to the lower level, he saw her going across the living room toward the kitchen. She stopped when she saw him. He nearly burst out laughing when she raised her chin at him.

“
Heather. Tom was supposed to tell you where my bedroom is. Maybe you changed your mind.” A large part of him hoped that she had, but even more of him hoped that she hadn’t.

“
He did. And if you don’t mind, I’ll take the room down off the kitchen.” She crossed her arms over her chest as she continued. “I said I’d have sex with you, not sleep with you.”

He wanted her. He wanted her with a desperation that he’d never felt before. The clock in the hall chimed eleven times. Alex moved down the stairs toward her.

“
It seems that we have plenty of time to get some things squared away between us. You said that I was to provide you with protection. I’ve done that. You’ll find condoms in my room, next to the bed.”

She stiffened when he was a foot from her. She didn’t back away, but he could see the strain of the need to do so in her eyes. He wanted to taste her, he found. He wanted to taste every part of her before he buried himself deep inside of her. Reaching out to her, he ran his knuckles down her soft cheek.

“
It’s…its daylight out. You can’t mean to…you don’t want this now.” Her breath was warm against his hand.

“
Oh, but I do.”

Cupping his hand at the back of her neck, he pulled her forward. She resisted slightly, he didn’t expect anything less, but she didn’t fight him. When her mouth was only a breath away, he felt her hands touch his waist and he groaned. If a simple touch from her could make him feel like this, he wondered what her body would feel like beneath him.

The first brush of his mouth over hers sent his heart pounding. When he nipped at her lower lip, brought it into his mouth, and suckled it, he felt his cock lengthen and harden more. He felt her tremble when he pulled her close to him, felt her pulse pound in her breast even as he pulled her hips to his.

Time had no meaning. The colors of the room, bright in the day, seemed to swirl around them. Sounds receded until all he could hear was her breathing hard and his own blood roaring through his head. Need, a living, breathing thing, was coiled tight inside of him and he wanted to let it go.

Lifting her up by his hands at her ass, she wrapped her legs around him. Turning, Alex started back up the stairs. He had to stop twice, once to suckle at her neck, the second because he was sure they weren’t going to make it and the stairs would have to do. By the time they got to his bedroom, her blouse was off and her bra pushed up over her full breasts. Alex had his pants undone and his cock strained to be released from his boxers.

When he laid her on the bed, her legs still tight around him, he took her nipple into his mouth and nipped at it. Heather arched up off the bed, her back bowing up as he sucked hard on the tip.

“
Please. Please, I need you.” He wanted her as well. Moving off her, he nearly whimpered himself when he pulled away.

“
Take off your pants. Hurry. I need to be inside of you right now.” As she did what he asked, he stood and took off his jeans. His shirt was almost off when he looked down at her bare body.

Christ, she was perfect. Her rosy nipples were peaked hard against large, full breasts. The flush of her skin, dewy with her need, sparkled and shown in the morning sunlight that made his mouth water. Her tiny waist and the flare of her hips made him hungry, hungrier than he’d ever been for a woman, but it was her face that held him. The darkness of her eyes, the blue nearly black, the pink of her cheeks and her swollen lips made him want more, need more than just her body. It also made him take a step back. Then another and another until he was several feet from the bed. Before either of them could say a word, he snatched up his pants and left the room.

~Chapter
13~

Jimmy watched the man leave the house. He’d been watching this house for three days now and this was the first time he or his brother had seen the man they’d been sent to find. Jimmy thought it was sort of stupid. The man was right where they’d thought he’d be, at home. But now, he was off again.