Paying Her Debt (12 page)

“It went under?”

Andy nodded.

“How?”

And here came the nasty part. Andy sat down on the couch, pulled
her knees up, and wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to let the
memories of that awful time hurt her. “I was in a car wreck. You know that
already though. It was… a bad one….” She paused and took a deep breath.
Skip
those fucking memories, Andy!

“
I was trapped in the car. No one saw me. It was at the
bottom of the hill, and Pete…” she trailed off.

“Who is Pete?” Alex asked. There was an odd note to his voice
that even in her shivery state Andy picked up on.

And here comes the super nasty part. “He was my fiancé,” Andy
explained. “I called him whilst I was there trapped. There was just enough
battery left on my cell—though who knows how it survived the crash. It didn’t
even occur to me to call the emergency services. I thought first of him, and… well,
he didn’t pick up.”

“How long were you trapped?” he asked.

Andy shuddered and felt goosebumps erupt over her arms. Alex
surprised her by reaching out and rubbing them. His heated fingers dispelling
the chill. “A day.”

“
Dios
….”

“Pete was too busy fucking someone else to take my call. So I
waited, trapped in the car, whilst the metal twisted above me, pushing against
my spine….”

The horror was obvious in his voice as he cursed. “Andy,
Gatika
,
I’m so sorry.”

Not wanting his sympathy, lest it make everything that much
worse, Andy shook her head. He wanted to know, didn’t he? He wanted all the
gory details! Anger came to the fore, as it so often did when she remembered
those times, and she spat the next words at him. “He left me there and didn’t
even come to the hospital when I was found. Turns out his affair had been a
long running thing. Whilst fucking someone else he’d been busy emptying my bank
accounts, too. They needed the money you see for a new start.”

“The business,” Alex breathed.

And Andy nodded, the anger draining and tears pricking her eyes.
Fucking
hell. I will not cry!
“There was nothing I could do. I spent days in and
out of consciousness and all the while bills were being called for, and there
was no money to pay them. And then I spent so long in hospital it just
crumbled. They closed it.”

“But your staff?” Alex asked. “Could they not have stepped in?”

A tear fell then, a single tear and Andy brushed it away hastily.
“There was only the one, and she was busy fucking my fiancé.”

“Andy….”

“I vowed there and then that I would pay everyone back, Alex.
They were small business owners like me. People I owed a lot of money, too. People
who depended on that money. I made arrangements with them all so that I
wouldn’t be declared bankrupt. I thought I could pay them all and re-open you
see. But it’s been so hard.”

“How much?” he asked.

“It was fifty seven thousand,” she admitted, shame burning again.
“I’ve paid nearly fourteen. I’d thought another few years, and I can pay it
all.”

He gripped her arm, before sitting down next to her. “Another few
years working this sort of pace?”

Andy nodded slowly. “I can do it, Alex. I will.”

He placed a kiss on her cheek, smudging the tear track. “No,
Gatika
.
I’ll pay these trifling debts for you. I will remove this obstacle, and you
will stop running off trying to find jobs and scrub floors, and whatever else
it is you do.”

Horror hit Andy, and she shook her head quickly. “No, Alex. I do
not want you to! I pay my own debts, look after my own responsibilities.”

He nodded. “I know that, Andrea. But you have more than just this
responsibility now. I won’t have you running around stressed to death. Not
now.”

Andy jumped up and stalked to the front door. “Don’t you dare
interfere, Alex. We might be lovers but you have no say in my life.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Andy,” he said, following her to the
door and pulling her into his arms. Andy pushed him away but he simply held on
fast. “It may have escaped your attention but I did not use a condom last
night. Not once.”

The blood drained from Andy’s face and she shook her head. “What?
Oh my God, Alex. Why the hell not?”

 “An oversight.”

“You fucking idiot!” Andy shrieked.

“Language,
Gatika
,” he chided.

Thoughts running frantically, Andy raised a hand to her head and
rubbed. “It’ll be fine,” she whispered—trying perhaps to convince them both. “Of
course it will. I’m sure I won’t be…pregnant. Not after one time.”

“Four actually,” he corrected, and she glared.

“It’ll be fine….” Though deep inside her body was screaming
something very different. If she was ovulating at all, it would be about now in
her cycle. The worst possible time for unprotected sex.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“We do not know that,” Alex replied. “Even now my seed could be
fertilizing one of your eggs. Until we know otherwise, you’ll be staying with
me, and I will remove all stress from your life. I will not have the mother of
my child worrying about money.”

“The mother of…no.” Andy breathed. “It’s not possible.”

He looked down. “I guess we will see, no?”

Chapter
Twenty

“So that’s about the extent of it.”

George shook his head, shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth,
and shook his head again. “Good God, man. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Alex bristled. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You got sleeping beauty with child, and you don’t know what I
mean?”

“It is not certain,
Vre
, like I said. It’s a possibility
though.”

“What were you thinking? No, don’t answer that. You weren’t, not
with your head at least.”

Alex helped himself to a side of bacon and scowled. “I don’t know
what the hell that woman does to me! You realize it has been just over a week
since I met her? I’ve had to bully her and threaten her to get any agreement to
anything. This morning for instance, I found her on her way to her apartment.
Said she had to go and pay her rent. Her rent!” He recalled that particular
conversation with Andy and shook his head. Why did she have to make everything
a battle? Why could she not understand that he was trying to take care of her?

“What did you do?” George asked around a mouthful of bread.

Alex shrugged. “I paid it already. The debts, her rent for the
next six months—all of it. You’d think that would please her, no?”

George opened his mouth to speak but Alex continued. “Did it,
hell. She calls me overbearing. Says I’m trying to run her life. Insists she
does not need my charity. Charity! A few God damn grand.
Dios
, the woman
is driving me insane.”

“She’s proud. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There is when she could be carrying my child. I can’t have her
scampering around the place making herself ill. She is never to step foot in
that area again, as I have told her.”

“I bet that went down well.”

“No, it did not.”
To say the least.
But Alex was set upon
it. Andy would stay in the good part of town, where he could keep an eye on
her.

George pulled across a plate of tomatoes and shot Alex a
thoughtful look. “You realize you cannot keep her cooped up in this suite
forever. The woman has been used to activity. She’ll get bored. You don’t want
a bored woman on your hands.”

“I am aware of that,” Alex replied. “I have already taken steps
to deal with it.”

“Well, I’m not sure what else to say,” George commented after a
moment. “You clearly know what you’re doing.”

Alex paused, wondering just how honest he should be with his
friend. He needed a second opinion though, and George could always be counted
upon for that. “Though it pains me to admit it friend I do not.”

“I see….”

“I have rarely, if ever, felt so conflicted. She drives me mad,
yet at the same time I cannot get enough of her. I am at a loss to understand
how this could have happened in such a brief time.”

“Love can do that to a man, Alex.”

Alex shot a horror filled look at his friend. “
Dios
… love?
Do not be ridiculous. I may have feelings for the little waif, but love? No, it
is far too soon to be thinking anything of the sort.”

“A relationship is not a business,
Vre.
You cannot expect
to plan it out, no?”

“You realize I asked this woman to be my mistress. Now you
suggest something completely different?” What was George thinking? Did he not
realize what he was suggesting? Alex planned to marry a quiet, biddable type of
woman. Not a spitfire like Andy. Doing as she was told was the minimum he
required of a wife. Andy would never obey except in bed.

“If she is with child, you won’t marry her?”

“Of course I will! My honor demands it. Love will play no part in
that decision.”

“And what will you do if she is not with child?” George asked.
“Have you even thought about that?”

He’d thought of little else for the past few days. In between
implementing some changes at the store, changes that included a wide-spread
uniform change, at Andy’s insistence, and sorting out the old house he’d
thought and considered. At the moment there existed a strange little truce
between them. Andy had agreed not to look for another job until she knew either
way, and he’d agreed not to bully her anymore.

Each night he took her in his arms and fucked her for hours, and
each time he slipped into her wet, waiting pussy it got better. Alex had never
known sex like it. The orgasms were overwhelming. The sensations he found in
her body exquisite. He began to resent the condom he wore, wanting nothing
between his cock and her sensitive inner walls. She did everything he asked of
her. On her hands and knees, riding him, curled up with her little ass pushed
into his cock.

In short, Andy was the perfect mistress. Only she didn’t want to
be.

Though he would admit it to no one, Alex even found himself
hoping she was pregnant. At least then he could marry her without having to
consider why. Andy would be his, and that would be that. He could continue to
enjoy her body, continue to hold her in his arms and quiet her when she mumbled
in her sleep.

The idea of letting her go, leaving her to look after herself,
filed him with horror. And though he did not know exactly what he felt for her,
he was set on one thing. Child or no Andy was his.

“I’m not letting her go,” he said quietly. “Pregnant or no she is
mine.”

“Marriage?” George asked.

Alex shook his head. “No.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know.” Because he didn’t. Alex wanted his
Gatika
,
but he had no idea how. He knew he wanted to fuck her constantly. The idea of
never having access to those pert little breasts ever again made his jaw clench
and his anger rise. He knew his feelings for her were confused, difficult to
understand. He felt something. Only he didn’t know what. Desire,
protectiveness, and admiration. Beyond that? He was lost, and Alex was not a
man who liked that feeling. But marriage? He snorted, he doubted Andy would
even accept if he asked.

“She’s mine, George. But beyond that? I do not know.”

George piled another load of eggs on his plate and clicked his
tongue. “Might be an idea to find out,
Vre
. Women generally like to know
a man’s feelings before they agree to stay with them.”

Alex laughed. “You think she has a choice?”

Chapter
Twenty-One

God damn periods!
Andy glared at the sheets as she made
the bed. For possibly the first time ever she’d hoped to wake up to the
Japanese flag, not a clear white expanse. Her cycles were never perfectly
regular, so she had no idea if she was simply late or up the duff. She
fervently hoped it was the former. Just the idea of having Alex’s baby frightened
her half to death.

Liar, liar
…. Okay, maybe a small part of her found the
idea intriguing. Not to mention exciting. Andy loved babies, always had. She’d
begged Pete to make a start on their family as soon as they got engaged. He, of
course, wanted to wait, and Andy seethed to herself whilst promising she’d
change his mind as soon as that ring was on her finger.
The best laid plans….

Still now there was a possibility of a child, an olive-skinned,
dark-haired little lovely. Andy hoped for a girl. And she would be free to
actually look after it. No working fifteen hour days anymore. Alex had taken
care of that.

Though Andy had been angry with his presumptuous actions, the
weight she’d felt when he’d told her the debts were cleared had been enormous.
The luxury of not worrying day after day—not to mention the pleasure of being
able to make plans again. In fact, Andy planned to visit the bank this
afternoon to see about re-starting the business. She’d promised Alex not to
look for a job until she knew either way. She’d said nothing about making one
of her own.

Grabbing a robe, Andy checked her hair in the mirror—loose
because Alex preferred it that way—and made her way to the sitting room. Though
Andy had tried to cook her own meals, Alex ignored her and had them delivered
anyway. Andy would be a liar if she said the pampering wasn’t wonderful. She
could already see the difference on her breasts and hips. Curves suddenly appeared
again—and it felt great.

 Andy knew she was so deeply in debt to Alex she’d never crawl
her way out. She was well aware of that. Part of her, a small part, the dark
fairy maybe, insisted the money was small change to a multi-millionaire and not
to worry. The good fairy insisted she would pay him back every single penny.
Not that he’d let her but still.

“Good morning.”