For His Pleasure: The Boxed Set, Books 1-6 (For His Pleasure, For His Taking, For His Keeping, For His Honor, For His Trust, For His Forever) (47 page)

Some of the anger drained from his face as he considered her words. “I know. I know, and I suppose I’m really just mad at myself for putting you in the position where Kane Wright could take advantage.”

“There’s more,” she said.

“Of course. There’s always more.” He laughed, but it sounded like a bark.

“Come here, sit next to me,” she said, patting the couch.

“I’ve got to put this food away.”

“Red, don’t do this. Don’t withdraw because you’re upset.”

She could see the conflicting emotions on his face. His difficulty in trusting anyone was coming to the surface once again.

“I’m not withdrawing, Nicole. I’m just putting the food away,” he said. And then he went to the bags and began unpacking them and putting things into the cabinet and the refrigerator.

After a minute or two, he walked back to her carrying a few magazines. His eyes were softer. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m listening.” And he gave her the magazines, which she put to the side for now.

“Come sit,” she told him.

Sighing heavily, he sat down on the edge of the couch. His head was sagging as if he were a whipped dog. “So, tell me everything.”

“I’m going to just warn you that this is probably going to piss you off…”

“Please, don’t torture me anymore, Nicole. What happened?”

“Promise me you’ll listen to the whole story before you make assumptions.”

“I’ll do my best. I can’t promise anything.” His hands were clenching and unclenching on his lap.

“Okay.” She took a breath. “Kane threatened me that if I didn’t do as he asked, he would leak all this terrible stuff about you to the media. We were in his club and—“

“You went to one of Kane Wright’s clubs? Which one?”

“Venture, I think it was called.”

“Right.” Red’s teeth were practically grinding in his jaw.

“He wouldn’t tell me much, Red—just that if I didn’t meet him there he’d destroy you completely.”

Red barked another humorless laugh. “I’m going to destroy his face next time I see him. I’m dead fucking serious.”

“Please calm down.”

“I’m doing my best Nicole, but this story of yours is really starting to make me crazy.”

“Nothing happened. I’m fine. I’m here with you now.”

He glanced at her, his jaw twitching. “Keep going.”

“I went to the club and he had some creepy people around. He’s definitely into something illegal like drugs or…I don’t even know what.”

“I’m sure he is. The guy is a piece of garbage.”

“But he was fairly polite to me, aside from threatening to destroy the reputation of the man I love, that is.”

“Oh, yeah. He’s very polite.”

“Anyway,” she continued, grabbing his hand in hers, “he told me that he was interested in getting to know me better.”

Red’s face positively turned purple. “Please tell me he didn’t say that Nicole.”

“And he invited me with him on a trip to the Cayman Islands.”

Red stood up now, his hands clenched into fists. “That’s it, I’m going back to the city. Right now. Where’re my fucking car keys?”

“Red, stop.”

He looked at her and his eyes were full of fury. “This man—this man who destroyed my company and practically stole my sanity in the process—tried to make a move on my pregnant wife. And you want me to just sit here and listen? I can’t do that, Nicole. I’m going to wring that asshole’s neck.” He walked toward the kitchen. “Now where did I put my goddamn keys?”

“This makes me not want to tell you anything,” she called after him. “Every time I tell you something like this, you freak out and then we end up apart again.”

He put his head in his hands. “I can’t take it, though. I need to do something.”

“You need to grow up.”

He took a few deep breaths and straightened, nodding with resignation. “Okay.

Okay. You’re right. I just…I’m not very good with this sort of thing.”

“I’m well aware. Now come over here and sit.”

He came back and sat once more. They held hands and he met her gaze.

“You ready to hear the rest?” she asked.

He nodded dutifully. “Sure. Why not? It’s only one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to listen to in my entire life.”

“Kane invited me to go with him to The Caymans. Of course I said no. He made it clear that he didn’t expect me to have sex with him, he said there’d be no strings attached.”

Red snorted. “What a class act,” he said with more than a little sarcasm.

“Again, I said no thanks. Well, I think I just told him I needed to leave and he asked me to sleep on it.”

Red looked at her. “So did you tell him no or what? I don’t understand.”

“I think I was leaving it a little bit open-ended because I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

Red closed his eyes and licked his lips. “Remain calm,” he said, as if talking only to himself. “Calm.”

“And then the last thing that happened,” Nicole said. “He picked Danielle and I up in his limousine while we were walking in Manhattan. He must have been following me or something.”

She could feel Red’s entire body tense up as she said the words. She knew this whole thing was his worst nightmare come true. But he didn’t say a word.

“Danielle was telling him he was a jerk, and Kane didn’t seem to mind one bit. He made it clear he’d done enough research to know who she was and even how much money she owed on credit cards and student loans.”

“Well I can see where this is going now,” Red sighed. “Don’t tell me, you guys let him pay off her fucking debt.”

Nicole hesitated. “This is the part I’m not so proud of.”

“Oh, Nicole. You didn’t.”

“I did. I said I’d go with him to The Caymans if he would pay her debt—nearly a hundred thousand dollars worth—and also keep you out of the media spotlight.”

Red pulled his hand away from her and rubbed his jaw. “Fuck.”

“I’m sorry, I know it was stupid. I just—I thought…it was only going to be a couple of days and I couldn’t reach you. Danielle was in trouble and you were in trouble and maybe it would be fixed.”

“I hate to say it, but that was not the brightest move you’ve ever made,” he said. “I want to say a lot worse, but I know that I love you and that you didn’t intend to hurt me.”

“I didn’t. I was honestly trying to protect you, Red.”

He rubbed his hands on his knees. “Okay. Okay. I’m going to stay calm here.”

“I’m scared that if I back out on the deal—“

“Of course you’re going to back out,” Red told her. “I don’t give a shit what evidence he has on me. Yeah, I employed undocumented workers. You know why?”

Nicole shook her head.

He continued talking, his voice low with barely suppressed rage. “These were people seeking political asylum, but they couldn’t get into the United States anymore because of all the red tape and the Homeland Security crackdown. I’m talking about good people who were speaking out against their horrific governments and their lives were in danger. Occasionally we would find a way to help them. Very, very rarely, but we did it and I’m not ashamed of it either.”

Nicole couldn’t help but say what was on her mind. “But you’re sure they weren’t terrorists or something? You’re sure they didn’t just fool you into believing they had good intentions?”

Red laughed. “Yes, I’m sure. They were the very opposite of terrorists. These were reporters, peace activists, men and women who were brave enough to speak out against dictators and abuses of power in their respective countries. What we did wasn’t legal—but I think it was moral. And I don’t care if Kane releases those so-called incriminating documents. Fuck him.”

“I love you,” she said, smiling at his passion and his bravery. This was a man who was willing to do the right thing even if it put him in jeopardy.

He smiled at her. “Well, I love you too, buttercup.”

“But now that Kane’s paid Danielle’s loans off, I’m also scared for her. I can’t imagine what he’ll do if he’s not compensated in some way.”

“Listen, I’m going to take care of this right now.” Red stood up and walked to the cabinet, opened it, rummaged around. “I know I put my cell phone in here somewhere.”

“Clearly you intended to forget about it.”

“It felt good to stop using the phone for awhile,” he said. “Ah. Here it is.” He picked it up and showed it to her. “I’m going to make a call to Kane Wright and deal with this little situation.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“I’ve never been more sure.” He smiled at her. “I don’t get any service in the cabin, I need to drive up the road a bit to get a signal. You wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t do anything crazy,” she said, suddenly afraid.

“I’ve never been this clearheaded in all my life.” He grabbed his keys from over by the sink and wrapped his hand around them in a fist. He was smiling, and in that moment Nicole realized something.

Red Jameson had come back to life.

***

He returned to the cabin about fifteen minutes later, looking satisfied.

Nicole was walking around the cabin on her slowly healing ankle, trying to regain some mobility. It was a lot better, the swelling was down and the bruising had gone from a dark purple to a lighter smattering of blues and greens. “So?” she asked. “How did it go?”

“It went. I took care of it.” He threw the car keys on one of the bookshelves and looked at her. “You’re getting about nicely.”

“All credit to my doctor. I’m not sure if it was the frozen peas, or maybe late last night when he found some creative ways to rehab my ankle.”

“Speaking of which, I’ve got some new positions in mind for today.”

She expressed a mixture of feigned surprise and genuine pleasure at this statement.

“I’m a very willing patient.”

“I noticed.” He walked to the cabinet and started to rummage through it.

“Hungry?”

“Yeah.” She plopped herself down on a chair and watched him. “So, are you going to tell me exactly what happened or not?”

Red glanced over his shoulder at her. “I told Kane Wright to stick whatever evidence he has against me up his ass.”

She laughed. “No you didn’t.”

“Ummm…yeah. I did.”

“And that was it?”

“I told him to leave my fiancé alone, and I assured him that he had plenty of money at his disposal and there were lots of desperate escorts and sex workers who’d be pleased to relieve him of some of it.”

“Oh, boy,” she sighed, putting a hand on her forehead. “This doesn’t sound like it went well at all.”

“Actually it went great. Shitheads like Kane Wright respond better to a show of strength. That’s the only thing that backs ‘em off.”

“But what about Danielle?”

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.” Red opened a package of bagels, went to the fridge and took out some eggs and bacon. “Breakfast?”

“Sure. Besides, that’s the only other meal you know how to cook.”

“True. I suppose I could have just made you toast.” He started the burner and grabbed a pan from above the stove.

“I’m still waiting to hear about the Danielle situation.”

“There’s no situation,” Red replied. “Kane started bitching about how there’d been an agreement and he was being ripped off. He gave me the sob story about how he’d paid off her debt under false pretenses, yada yada. So I told him I’d take care of it and I did.

Phoned my accountant and had him wire Kane the money right after we hung up.”

“So you just spent a hundred thousand dollars on Danielle’s loans?”

“Why not? That’s nothing to me—and it’s worth getting him out of our lives for good.”

“I feel awful,” Nicole said. “I didn’t mean to start this trouble for you. That’s a lot of money. I’m sure Danielle would be happy to pay you back over time…”

Red shook his head. He was throwing bacon strips in the pan and they started to pop and snap in the grease. “I don’t want her money. Consider it my formal apology for being such an asshole and running away from my responsibilities. If I’d been around, you never would have been in that situation to begin with.”

“I guess. It just feels weird to me.”

Red turned to her. “Nicole, that’s our money. What’s mine is yours. Do you mind that I spent our money to help your friend out of a jam?”

“I suppose not.” She still felt uneasy, though. “I’d like to call her and let her know what happened. She still thinks that Kane paid off her debt and I’d rather she know the current situation. I’m sure it’ll put her mind at ease.”

“After breakfast I’ll drive you up the road so you can call her,” he said. “You can’t drive on that ankle.”

Nicole couldn’t help but smile. Even now, Red was trying to protect her, if only from driving a mile up the road on a sprained ankle.

When he was done cooking breakfast, they sat down at the table together and ate.

“Not bad,” Nicole told him. “I’m impressed. You sure you don’t have any other recipes up your sleeve?”

He winked. “Maybe one or two.”

She playfully slapped his arm. “You liar! You can cook!”

“Who do you think taught Chef Roland everything he knows?”

“Well, which is it? I thought he taught you.”

Red shrugged and refused to answer. “So. Moving on, we’ve got bigger fish to fry—so to speak.”

“We do?”

He broke off a strip of bacon and popped it in his mouth, nodding and pointing at her belly. “The little elephant in the room. Specifically, in your belly.”

She automatically put a hand on her stomach and looked down. “Is it crazy that I sort of forgot for a second?”

“I don’t know. I just know that we have a lot to discuss.”

“Like?”

“Like, when do we want to tell people that you’re pregnant? And, what’s the next step? Don’t we need to make you a doctor’s appointment and all of that stuff?”

Nicole swallowed. “I—I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. I’ve never been pregnant before.”

“Neither have I, so I guess we’re going to figure it out together.” He chewed his bacon and grabbed her hand in his. “I’m so happy we’re doing this,” he said. “Starting a family together.”

“Do you have a preference?”

“I’d prefer our child not have Kane Wright’s accent.”

“I mean gender.”

He sat back in his seat and appeared to give it genuine thought. “No. No, I think either way could be amazing. Having a little girl that looked and talked and behaved like you would be exquisite. But then again, it might be a blast to have a boy that I could do boy stuff with too. Know what I mean?”