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) (67 page)

And of course, I’m not proud of the way I treated my son, either.

The truth is that I was scared. I was scared because for the first time in Red’s life,
he’d found a woman that he cared about more than me. I know that sounds silly and
perhaps even sick.

But it’s the God’s honest truth and I feel I owe it to you to be honest.

I miss having my son in my life, Nicole. And I miss getting to know the daughter
that I could have had, if I’d only been able to see past my own selfishness and insecurity.

I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me and perhaps allow for the
possibility of me returning, in some small way, to play a part in your new family.

Hopefully this email finds you well. I am so happy to know that the two of you are
married and starting your lives together.

I will wait to hear from you.

Love,

Erica

Nicole closed the email and turned away from the computer, suddenly aware that her stomach was churning and bubbling in a most unpleasant way.

“Oh, God,” she muttered, before leaning over and throwing up into her wastebasket beside her desk.

She quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped her mouth, crumpled it, and threw it in the basket.

Was it possible that reading that email from Red’s mother could have so upset her?

Nicole didn’t think so. In fact, as she considered it further, she realized that it had been too long since her last period. And this upset stomach was incredibly similar to what she’d experienced the last time…

She shook her head. No, she couldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up again.

But what if?

Nicole thought back to the wedding. It had been just about seven weeks now, and so it made sense from that perspective as well.

Heart pounding again—but this time for a different reason—she got up and ran from the office.

She went down the stairs two at a time, jogged about a block and a half to the nearest CVS, and bought a pregnancy test.

Even doing it, Nicole thought it was impossible. It was a coincidence, it had to be.

A few minutes later, she was in a stall in the office ladies room, peeing onto a stick and then sitting there, watching to see what came up.

Her forehead and armpits were sweaty from running down the street and back, and she was basically a mess at this point. But Nicole didn’t care about any of that—all she wanted to know was the answer to this one question.

Minutes later still, she was walking into Red’s office and closing the door behind her.

Red looked up from his computer, distracted. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Nicole was holding the pregnancy test in her hand, and she was shaking. “I threw up this morning,” she said.

“You—what?” His eyes suddenly took in what she was holding. Red stood up and pointed at the test. “Is that what I think it is?”

Nicole nodded slowly. “Red, I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe this happened.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Look for yourself.”

He came around the desk and took the pregnancy test out of her hand, and looked at it, his mouth forming a smile, his eyes lighting up. “Oh my God. Nicole!”

“We’re pregnant,” she cried.

And then Red hugged her so tightly, and both of them were holding each other so tight, and laughing. There were some tears too, but they were tears of joy and relief.

“We’re going to have a baby,” she said, unable to believe the words were coming from her own mouth. “It’s happening.”

And Red squeezed her even tighter, and she knew that this was how it was supposed to be. But still, a tiny part of her wondered if she would be hurt again—if somehow, something would steal this happiness from her…

For His Forever (For His Pleasure, Book 6)

By Kelly Favor

© 2012 All Rights Reserved

The wave crashed onto the shore.

The sound of the ocean brought Nicole back to reality, and she realized that she’d been daydreaming.

She’d been thinking about the water in Belize, and swimming with Red—those mornings and afternoons of sun and surf and the nights dancing and drinking. It seemed like it had all happened just a moment ago, or maybe it was years ago and Nicole had dreamt everything.

Now she was sitting under a large umbrella with her skin smelling of sunscreen, a one-piece red bathing suit covering as much of her as humanly possible, and large round sunglasses that allowed her to watch the other beach goers as they frolicked and played in the water and laid on their blankets.

Red was in the water, so far out she could hardly even see him from where she sat. But then again, Nicole was used to Red swimming for long stretches of time.

She put a hand on her belly and rubbed the smooth roundness of it, something she did often—it comforted her. Sometimes she felt the baby kick, and that was even more reassuring still.

Seven months gone by.

Nicole still couldn’t believe that those warm, sunny days in Belize were seven months in the past.

In that time, she’d lived dozens of lifetimes, it seemed. She’d experienced the fear of waiting for things to go wrong, waiting to tell family and friends of the pregnancy until Dr. Rosen had conducted the sonogram, this time finding the fetus and the heart beat.

And then there had been tears of joy and hugs and phone calls had been made, celebration dinners had been planned.

But life had still gone on. The business was growing faster than even Red had ever imagined it would—he’d found the eye of the tiger and he was winning again. He was renewed, it seemed, wanting to prove himself to the world and his new family.

Nicole continued working by his side, faithfully, even as her stomach slowly grew and sleeping became more difficult, and her hormones raged.

When they’d eventually found out the sex of the baby—and that it was a girl no less—they both agreed that fate had intended it just so.

She no longer felt so sprightly and beautiful as she had in the first months of pregnancy. Now she felt like a balloon about to pop, and in this red bathing suit, she wondered if some kid might mistake her for one and try to poke her with a thumbtack.

Red finally swam his back to shore and made his way to the umbrella, still dripping wet. He sat down next to her, sighing contentedly. “We needed this, Nicole.”

“I think we earned some time off after pulling seventy and eighty hour work weeks the last six months,” she agreed, picking up a bottle of water that had been sweating in the shade and taking a long drink.

“How are you feeling?” Red asked. He kept his voice light, but Nicole knew how much weight that question still carried.

Even though every test had come back fine and Dr. Rosen told them the pregnancy was progressing smoothly, neither of them could truly shake the feeling that something was bound to go wrong.

“I’m feeling huge,” she said with a grin.

“You look amazing,” he replied, and grabbed her hand, squeezing. She knew he wasn’t just saying it. The way Red looked at her, she saw the love and softness in his eyes.

“Thanks, babe.”

Suddenly, Nicole’s phone was ringing. She picked it out of her beach bag and looked closely. “I think it’s your mother.”

“Great,” Red replied, without enthusiasm.

“I should answer it,” she said, even though she didn’t want to. Since the first email Erica had sent Nicole seven months ago, the two had begun tentatively communicating. Red hadn’t been in favor of it, but neither had he expressly forbid her to speak to his estranged mother.

Nicole was conflicted about Erica Jameson, but she thought that ultimately Red would want to have his mother in his life in some fashion—not to mention the life of his baby girl. And so Nicole had continued corresponding intermittently, usually just talking about silly things like the weather, and Nicole asked about Erica questions about work and her other son, Jeb.

Things changed when Nicole wrote Erica of her pregnancy. The older woman asked for her cell number and then immediately called her, seeming to be overjoyed by the news. Since that time, Erica called once every few weeks, usually just asking how Nicole was feeling and being nice and supportive.

So why did Nicole still get that strange knot in her stomach when Red’s mother’s number showed up on her called ID? She wasn’t completely sure—maybe it was just that little nagging sensation that Erica had an agenda and she hadn’t revealed it yet.

“Hello?” Nicole answered, as Red muttered something under his breath and got up from his chair.

“I’m going to grab an ice cream,” he said. “You want?”

Nicole shook her head no.

“Nicole, it’s Erica!” the older woman squealed. “How are you? How is your vacation going?”

“It’s going great,” she said.

“Well, I have a bit of a surprise. And I really hope you don’t mind.”

“I’m listening,” Nicole said, feeling even more uncertain now.

“Yesterday I came to a work conference in Manhattan with Jeb. As it turns out, Jeb is so busy hobnobbing with the other doctors, that I’ve got time on my hands. So I thought, why not come up to The Hamptons to see you tomorrow?”

Nicole didn’t know what to say. The smile was frozen on her face. “Tomorrow?”

“I’ll take you shopping and to lunch,” Erica said. “It will be lovely to catch up and see how you’re coming along.”

Nicole looked out at the beach, were Red was standing in line at the little restaurant that served everything from fried clams to ice cream. There was a very long line of people and Red was at the back of it. He was waiting there, arms crossed, looking annoyed.

“That sounds like a plan,” Nicole said, wishing she had more time to consider the offer.

Erica was overjoyed, and said she’d call her first thing in the morning to nail things down.

After hanging up, Nicole was deeply uneasy.

Everything had been going so well up until now, she thought. Was it possible that this was the sign of their luck turning bad?

“Kallie, could you bring the children back here please?” Nicole was once again shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a woman’s voice, loud and demanding.

“Kallie?” More insistent this time.

“Coming Mrs. Danvers!” the young woman—who Nicole could only assume was the aforementioned Kallie—called out from the shallow water, where she was holding a toddler in one arm, as another child splashed in the water beside her. Kallie started back toward the beach blanket with the one child in her arm and the other holding her hand.

On the blanket, the owner of the demanding voice—a middle-aged woman with leathery skin and fake boobs—sat spraying herself with tanning lotion.

Kallie came back and put the toddler down next to the woman, where he started to instantly try and get up and walk away.

“Ben, come back here!” the woman yelled, not moving a muscle to stop him.

Kallie laughed and knelt down, scooping him up. The girl giggled and jumped into the sand, kicking it so that it sprayed up. Some of it peppered the older woman, who scowled.

“Kallie, is it too much to ask you to keep them from making a mess every single place they go? For God’s sake…”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Danvers,” the younger woman said.

“They need to have sunscreen reapplied every two hours.” She lay back on her beach towel and adjusted her designer sunglasses. Mrs. Danvers had a manner and tone of voice that Nicole recognized as coming from someone who’d grown up wealthy, used to ordering people around her whole life.

Nicole couldn’t even imagine treating people that way, but she was used to seeing a lot of this sort of behavior since marrying Red and moving in social circles that included the very richest of rich people.

And now, vacationing with Red in The Hamptons, she seemed to have found a class of people that took the word entitled to a whole new level.

Kallie went about putting on the sunscreen, diligently applying it to the two children who seemed intent on keeping her from doing the job at hand.

Nicole had to give it to her—the young woman had a good attitude and kept a smile on her face better than Nicole would have done in that situation.

Mrs. Danvers lay on her blanket like a log, occasionally opening her eyes to make a comment or to critique something about what Kallie was doing with the children—

meanwhile never offering to help even once.

Nicole was getting angrier and angrier as she watched the scene unfold. It was typical in its own way, especially in these parts.

Still, Nicole kept her sunglasses on and tried to appear as though she were resting in the shade, rather than watching every moment of every interaction.

Mrs. Danvers’s phone rang and she answered it as Kallie played and laughed with her children nearby.

“Hello, Brad? Are you here?” Mrs. Danvers asked, sitting up on her elbow. Her fake breasts swayed as she moved. “I’ll bring the children to the car. Kallie can’t do it by herself, she’s been having a great deal of trouble all day.”

Nicole watched Kallie’s expression, which didn’t change, even as the woman continued to belittle her. She was a beautiful girl, with sky blue eyes, honey blond hair, and the body of a dancer.

No wonder Mrs. Danvers seemed so annoyed with her, Nicole thought. She was probably sick of looking at this natural, gorgeous girl and wondering why she couldn’t buy breasts and a face to equal hers.

Nicole felt a little guilty for judging the older woman so harshly, but than again, she’d behaved terribly every single moment that Nicole had been watching so far.

The older woman suddenly noticed Nicole looking in their direction. She stared directly back at Nicole without moving a muscle. “This is what you have to look forward to,” she said, in a hostile tone that was couched in humor. “Enjoy the piece and quiet while you still can.”

Nicole didn’t respond, she just nodded slightly and turned away from the scene.

“Kallie, it’s time to go,” the woman commanded loudly. “Could you help me get the children’s shoes on? Please remember to wipe their feet off beforehand, because otherwise there will be sand all over the Range Rover.”