Billionaire Season 2 (7 page)

“Well now, William, that’s a question a lot of folks would like to know the answer to. As for me, I’m his attorney and there exists between us a bond of client privilege that cannot be breached. Of course you could always put that question to him, couldn’t you? Now I’ll be on my way, good night,” Mr. Warren said, settling into his car and sighing deeply as the memories of those long ago carefree college days flooded over him. Liza, she had been such a wonder and it was a certainty that every male on campus had been in love with her. Her love for William Warfield the third had burned white-hot as surely as his desire flamed for her. But they had both been distracted for a day or a night or who knew how long and she had left him bereft and miserable and the rest was history.

“Are we going to be civil about this Wills? Are you and I and Alaina going to sit down together and discuss Father’s wishes? If not then I’ll speak to her on my own and you can do the same, but I hope you’ll be upfront about what’s going on. Realistically, this whole scenario could send her running for sunny California, so we should probably be smart about the way we break the news to her. I don’t know if this angel of a girl is a just passing fling for you, I doubt that you’re even sure at this point. But I am certain about my feelings for her and I’d say from her eyes and her lips and her body’s reaction when we were together at the club that she is attracted to me on more than one level,” Walden said as he slid behind the wheel of the black Maserati he had claimed as his own.

“Do you live to piss me off these days Walden? Because you are sure as fuck doing a good job of it. I’m happy as hell that you’re getting your life together but you’re not taking something— someone who’s already mine in order for you to stop the voices from screaming inside your head. You seem to be doing great but I think you need to give it some time and make sure the old demons have been put to rest. I swear to God I hope you’re done with the past, I’ll throw a party and invite all of New Orleans to celebrate your return to the real world. Until then, there’s no reason for you to talk to or see Allie and no matter what, Walden, she and I are a couple now. We’re in love, it’s real and it’s serious, end of story,” William said and he slammed the door of his former car. “You know I really liked this car and you’ve obviously claimed it as your own, I’ll concede that point but Alaina Darling isn’t a car. She’s the woman I love and she and will decide when and if we want to get married. Not to mention that she’s twenty-one years old, it’s not like she’s remotely interested in having a baby in the near future!”

“Answer my question Wills, because I’m in good shape mentally, no more ghosts or angels and I’m not going back to that dark world ever again. Seeing Alaina and then meeting her was my reason to turn my back on all the morbid shit I’ve been carrying around for years, but the way I feel about her, it’s not imaginary. I’m not fixing myself just so I can win the girl, she’s made me want to be the best man I can be, can you understand that? Now, should I contact her on my own or is this going to be a family discussion?” Walden asked, he had rolled down the car window and pulled a cigarette from a pack but then crushed it between his fingers and tossed onto the driveway. He revved the engine and glanced up at William with a crooked grin and all the trust and hope in the world in his eyes.

“I don’t want you to I’ll talk to her and call you tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. Keep your fucking shirt on little brother and slow down, this is not the time for you to fuck both of our lives up. Do you hear what I’m saying?” William said and the joyful light in his brother’s eyes caused his heart to fill with both happiness and dread.

“Got it, let’s meet for drinks at the Old Absinthe House on Sunday afternoon, I’ll see you and my future wife there at six. Later, bro,” Walden said, and he roared off down the gravel driveway leaving William in the dust.

*

Allie had spent the rest of the day with the intriguingly peculiar Emmeline “Remy” Lesairre in the little bookshop that time seemed to have forgotten. Remy could easily have been a character out of one of the many historic romance and adventure novels that lined the musty shelves that were scattered maze-like throughout the many rooms of the ancient but sturdy Creole townhouse.

“Tourists come here all the time wanting to see the rest of the building,” Remy told Allie as she led her on a meandering tour through the stacks of books that were arranged in no decipherable order. She was a thin girl with a lack-luster quality about her. No one would ever bother to look twice at Remy Lesairre. She was practically invisible with her nondescript pale eyes lost behind horn-rimmed glasses and lifeless brown hair pulled into a haphazard bun. She wore a dress that might have belonged to a housewife from the fifties, with a full skirt, Peter Pan collar and rick-rack edged pockets. “It’s the architecture, don’t you know? This is what they call an Entresol house and sadly, due to the fires way back when, there are barely a dozen of them left in the Quarter. You see there is a low ceilinged storage area between the first floor retail space and the upstairs living quarters. The fanlight windows you see on the outside, they actually open into the storage area giving it ventilation and light and so forth. That area is off limits just so you know… if you’re to take the job and want to work here with me in the bookshop, I don’t allow anyone in there.”

“Oh, no problem,” Allie said as she ran her hand over the books nestled tightly together on the shelves and heaped on every tabletop and chair. They were all leather-bound and in excellent condition, she could only guess that there was a fortune in inventory in the
You Wish
bookshop. “So you live upstairs? I mean, above the shop and the… storage area?”

“Yes, I live alone, not even a cat to keep me company any longer. I did have a cat, a fraidy-cat you might say, he ran off. You see I travel a lot, well, every now and then. Whenever I can and on the spur of the moment mostly. That’s why I could use someone to help out here in the shop. Hold on a minute Allie, let me find my extra key to the front door for you and then we’ll lock up and run down for coffee and beignets, what do you think?” Remy asked, as she searched through a cluttered basket near the antiquated cash register, found they key and slipped it in the front pocket of her vintage dress. She smiled and pushed her glasses up although they slid right back down her nose immediately. The smile changed her face, without it she was mousy and nondescript although Allie hated to think such a thing about this nice woman or anyone, for that matter. But when Remy smiled her true self was unveiled and Allie saw a girl about her own age who, without a doubt, was very happy in some deeply secret part of herself.

“It was nice of William Warfield to think of me and send you over here, I can’t even imagine that he remembers who I am. I guess our families must have crossed paths somewhere in the past, practically everyone who’s from New Orleans knows everyone else. I was in the same class as his brother Walden every single year through the eighth grade over at St. George’s Episcopal. That’s how he remembers me most likely, although we didn’t run in the same crowd of friends. They were the popular boys, extremely over the top handsome and nice too, nice to everyone. You would never have guessed they had more money than God other than the fact that a fancy car and driver picked them up from school every day,” Remy chattered on as they settled at a table on the covered patio at Café Du Monde and a server sat two mugs of steaming coffee and plates of hot beignets in front of them.

“Whoa, these look wonderful! What are they exactly?” Allie asked and Remy laughed when Allie bit into one and powdered sugar from the hot doughnut cascaded down the front of her dress.

“They’re sort of a French doughnut and I suppose it’s too late to warn you about the abundance of powdered sugar! Mmm, I just crave them. I have to admit that primarily my diet consists of Lucky Dogs from the cart on the corner and these beignets from right here at Café Du Monde. Except when I travel… So, Allie, how did you and William come to be acquainted?”

“My mother and his father went to Tulane University together, is that how most people meet I wonder, going to school together? I was so busy studying most of my life I barely had time for friends and my mother didn’t allow me to date until I was in college. Which means other than a semi-hippie granola-child roommate I can’t say that I’ve ever had a close friend. I did have a halfhearted relationship with a guy at Berkley but William is my first real love affair. Can I tell you something Remy?” Allie asked, sipping her fragrant coffee and trying in vain to dust some of the powdered sugar from her hands and her clothes.

“Sure, I’m a good listener and I’m very good at keeping secrets. Besides, I don’t talk to anyone, not anyone you will ever meet, believe me.” Remy said and she tucked a wayward lock of thin hair behind her ear before she readjusted her glasses leaving a powdery fingerprint on the lens.

“I’m in love with William, I mean I think I am, but how do I know for sure? It’s just that this whole relationship with him is overwhelming and it practically came out of nowhere and has knocked me on my ass. I can’t think of anything but him anymore and before we met nothing mattered to me other than excelling academically, like if you Googled ‘perfect student’ there would be a picture of me! I was valedictorian of my graduating class in high school and in the top two percent at UC Berkley. I don’t get along with my dad at all but he’s a college professor so I probably got the whole in-depth learning gene from him. Anyway, as far as my relationship with William goes I’m thrilled and deliriously happy and scared shitless all at the same time. On one hand I hardly know him
and
I’m living in his house and we’re doing
IT
every way and everywhere and he just gave me a car that is mind-bogglingly expensive. The thing is, he told me from day one that he isn’t the boyfriend type and that I shouldn’t waste my heart on him. Right now he’s totally into me and us, but I could get hurt, like really badly hurt if he has a change of heart so when I think about it, it’s scary. I’m telling you, I am so out of my league here, but what choice do I have? I’m like ridiculously head-over-heels crazy in love with him! Oh my God, it’s exhausting just thinking about it,” she said and finished the last beignet while she waited to see what affect her words had on Remy.

Remy sat her coffee cup on the table and added an enormous amount of sugar to it, then she looked up and tilted her head as if Allie’s words didn’t surprise her in the least. “Honestly, I find Walden the more attractive of the two brothers, but that’s just me. It’s my weakness, I have a terrible habit of falling for the absolute baddest of the bad boys. So, can you start work on Monday? I’m thinking it’s time for me to get away from all this oppressive summer heat, if you can handle the bookshop I might just take a little trip somewhere with white sand and nice cool breezes. Listen, if things get too overwhelming between you and William you’re welcome to stay in my guestroom. Just go up the stairs against the side wall toward the back of the shop and then take the spiral staircase on up to my apartment. That storage area I mentioned earlier, the ‘in between’ floor? I keep some pretty rare books and original manuscripts in there, so don’t bother them, alright? I make sure that area is locked all the time but I’m just saying,” Remy smiled her beautiful face-altering smile, fished the extra key out of her pocket and slid it across the table to Allie. Her eyes took on a faraway look as if she had a glimpse into worlds unseen and she whispered in a low and dreamy voice, “Pirates, I am so into pirates right now.”

Chapter Five

“I’m just gonna assume that you know where we’re going. I’ve counted more than a dozen men dressed in camo shorts and filthy wife-beaters and at least a hundred mangy dogs of no particular breed that I’ve ever seen before. Are you sure we’re still in America? I packed an overnight bag but I haven’t spotted a Holiday inn or even a Motel 6, are we gonna sleep with the fishes?” Allie asked, but she felt happy and content as she and William drove along dirt and grass covered roads that were hardly wider than footpaths as they skirted the marsh lands surrounding the Atchafalaya Swamp Basin.

They had taken her new convertible and put the top down and the air rushing past them was pungent with the smell of green water and greener vines and vegetation. Cypress trees, some more than six hundred years old, reached skyward from their watery home. Their roots, known as “Cypress knees”, broke the murky surface of the brackish water and as the evening mists swirled amongst them they took on the appearance of a legion of hunch-backed sentinels standing watch.

“I thought we would get out of the city for a couple of days and have a romantic weekend in the middle of the largest swamp in the good ol’ U.S. of A.,” William said, smiling as he reached over to tug on Allie’s silky ponytail causing her to blush and roll her eyes. “Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, I’ll bet none of your other boyfriends have ever taken you to such an exotic destination. Maybe you’ll see there’s more to me than fine automobiles and a bottomless bank account… actually there is something I want to tell you and then a minor issue we should discuss. Hey, it’s nothing to worry about, I don’t have an STD or a wife hidden away… I come from a dysfunctional family, Alaina but you already know that. So… let’s eat boiled crawfish and etouffee and French fried ‘gator tail and dance to zydeco music. How’s that sound? Tanya’s father has a place in Breaux Bridge, a Cajun resort you could call it, cabins, café, dance hall, the works. So, we’ll hang out in a log cabin with a big feather bed and lie around in a couple of hammocks under the oak trees keeping a lookout for alligators and water moccasins. Maybe we’ll join some of the locals for a fais do-do when all the children have gone to bed.”

“Mmm, I especially like the part about the feather bed, and the hammocks don’t sound half bad. As for the ‘fye dough dough’ and other stuff, I’ll just have to follow your lead as usual, but it seems like a safe bet. You make me happy, William, and I can’t imagine that I could ever be disappointed with anything you decide to surprise me with.” Allie said, unbuckling her seatbelt so she could scoot onto the center console and wrap her arms around William’s warm, wide shoulders.

She nudged his chin up with her own and her lips skimmed down his neck trailing feathery kisses to the top of his shirt collar. She loved the smell and feel and taste of this man, she loved the way he took over without taking control. It was as if he knew what made her happy, simple things like the roses he brought to her office or a weekend in a ramshackle cabin when he could have flown her around the world on his jet. Yes, he had given her a Maserati when she would have been happy with a Ford Fiesta. But it was just so cool that this man who only weeks ago was notorious for “fucking” and had zero interest in “making love” had certainly done a complete one-eighty in the romance department.

“Darling girl, I’m gonna have to pull over right here if you keep that up,” William said, pulling her soft, full lips up to his while trying hard not to let the car slip off the narrow road and into the swamp. “You should be wearing your seatbelt in a moving vehicle, Alaina. Come on, I’m serious, you are definitely distracting me and we’re nearly to the cabins.”

The watery world of cypress trees with their knees poking up out of the muck, the incessant click of insects in the thick air and the splash of swamp creatures gave way at last and William steered the car through an open gate. A freshly painted sign was nailed to an enormous oak tree proclaiming “Baptiste’s Bayou Haven” and a wiry little man with a bald head and an enormous smile rushed down the steps of a log cabin to meet them. 

“Hey William, where y’at, welcome back to da bayou! I got your cabin all ready for you, chere, and who dis pretty gal you brung along? Dis Miss California I been hearin’ ‘bout?” As soon as William was out of the car Alphonse Baptiste clapped him on the shoulder with gusto and then held the door open for Allie kissing her hand and nodding his approval with enthusiasm.

“I’m good, Alphonse, how about you? Are the gators biting, have you got the boudin on the grill and the mudbugs on the boil?” William asked the craggy old gentleman, “This is Allie Darling, my girlfriend. Allie this is Tanya’s father, Alphonse Baptiste and this wonderful patch of Cajun history belongs to him. His grandfather owned this land and built the first cabin here.”

“Oh ya, chere, even my old daddy he grew up right here on da water. He never set foot en ville, you know, he never been to town, to Nawlins. Dat’s right he stayed all his days and nights on da bayou and in da swamps huntin’ gators and such. Why, he was borned and deaded right here in this petite maison what his own grandpapa built. Ya chere, he was a Cajun through and through but mon filles, my girls Tanya and Abigail, they don’t want nothin’ to do with their Cajun daddy. Ain’t that right, bebe?” He said as Tanya trotted down the cabin steps and gave him a kiss on his whiskered cheek and rolled her eyes. “Ya, most times she think her daddy too country for her, she da city gal now, ain’t dat right chere?” He said to Abigail with a twinkle of pure affection in his eyes. “Nah, my girls are good girls, every time we get together down here in dese woods for the fais do-do, here dey come to join in and make merry. Just wait ‘til da music start up, you’ll see, man dis gal, she can cut a rug!”

“You’re Tanya’s sister?” Allie asked and she could feel Abigail’s startling blue eyes sizing her up. It was easy to see that Tanya and Abigail were sisters but Abigail, the younger of the two, was exceptional to look at. Her skin had the sheen of a cup of pale white-chocolate mocha and her hair hung nearly to her waist in soft caramel waves. She was small like her father, probably only five feet one or five-two. Her body was curvaceous in the stop-the-clock sexy way of movie stars from the nineteen forties, she was blatantly beautiful like an exotic Marilyn Monroe.

“Yes, I’m Tanya’s sister, Abigail Baptiste,” she said and her breathy whisper once again conjured the image of Marilyn Monroe in Allie’s mind. “I work for Walden Warfield, I handle his… business for him.”

“Oh, and you can cut a rug, is that like something to do with house decorating?” Allie asked and Abigail along with her father and William had to laugh.

“Soc au lait!” Alphonse fairly shouted as he laughed hard clutching his little round pot-belly. “You are one pretty girl who don’t know much about our way of life ‘round da Big Easy. You gonna let William teach you a thing or two? He’s da man who can do it and that’s for sure. When da sun goes down and da fiddler strikes up da music, William here he can teach you to cut a rug. That’s right chere, he’ll take you in his arms and dance with you like you never been danced with before!”

“Cut a rug, chere, where you been all your life?” Alphonse draped a skinny arm around Allie’s shoulders and led her down a rock-strewn path to a log cabin on the banks of the bayou. “Oh dats right, you from the fancy state of California. Well, chere, dat means to dance. The kinfolks get together and pass a good time and when da sun goes to bed and so do the kids then that’s when the band strikes up and we have the fais do-do. Dats big fun, you gonna see tonight, ain’t dat right, William?”

Allie could barely understand a word that Alphonse said but she could have listened to him talk all day long. His voice had an enchanting musical quality with the way he wove together English, French and bayou Cajun slang. The words rolled easily off his tongue and were as beautiful and filled with mystery as the flamboyant landscape he was so naturally a part of. 

William quietly asked Abigail if Walden had come with her to the bayou and when she sadly shook her head he collected the bags from the car and followed Alaina and Alphonse to the cabin. No, of course not, Walden wanted nothing to do with any bayou other than the Bayou Teche that ran through their father’s property. Too many bad memories of his time spent tied to a cot, hurt and hungry, bleeding and screaming with the smell of rotting crawfish and muddy water tainting his young mind. All the while his mother and her boyfriend laughed and fucked and snorted cocaine and shot heroine and God knows what else without giving a thought to anything other than the ransom money that would buy their ticket to happiness.

“You know he doesn’t come out here to the bayou,” Abigail said. “He changed the door locks at The Cathedral just this morning and told me to stay away. He thinks he’s in love with your girl, you know. I let him break my heart over and over and I always forgive him for the wrong he does, but this time is different. He’s different, William, he surely believes his heart is bound to that girl from California. I wonder what it is about her and what it was about her mother to make the Warfield men love them so. I wish I had just a handful of that magic for myself. I’m staying out here with my daddy for a day or two and then I’ll go back to town and see if he’s changed his mind. Tanya says she can use a hand at your office, so I guess I’ll work there if Walden really doesn’t want me anymore. I’d better get over to the café, Daddy’s got a new cook making the gumbo and there’ll be hell to pay if she gets heavy-handed with the sassafras file’,” Abigail said and she left him at the steps to the cabin and wandered off toward the café and dance hall.

*

Allie had never had occasion to go out dancing before. She and her mother had danced around their tiny living room to songs from Disney musicals when she was growing up, but that was the extent of her experience. Cajun dancing was something else entirely and with William’s strong, sure arms to guide her, Allie fell in love.

That night William and Allie lay entwined in a bed crafted by Alphonse from weathered cypress wood and piled high with the softest of linens that smelled of sunshine and rainwater. The windows were flung open to the screened porch and the swamp lands teaming with life just beyond, and the ceaseless melody of the bayou crept in like a lullaby and mixed with the sounds of their lovemaking. As they lay together, sweat soaked and satisfied, Allie finally broached the subject they had both avoided since the day William found her with Walden.

“William are you and Walden speaking to each other? How are things between you two?  You hit your brother, you made him bleed and I’d be willing to bet that you broke his heart worse than you broke his nose,” Allie said and she felt his body go rigid and pull away from her in the dark.

William sat on the edge of the bed and turned on a lamp, piercing the heavy blanket of air in the cabin. A fan whirred overhead and since there was no air-conditioning, the song of the swamp cicadas was nearly deafening.

“Yeah, my brother. What can I say to you about my brother? That he was born unlucky and because of a particularly horrible event he’s spent most of his life making things worse for himself? Are you aware that he’s decided you’re meant for him, Allie? Fuck, the worst part is I can see how you might get caught up in the idea that you could save him or even fall in love with him. But you’re mine and I’m not saying that to deny him, you know it too, don’t you, that you and I belong together? Believe me, Walden can have any woman he wants. There’s something about him, he’s always had it. Maybe it’s that ‘little boy lost’ quality, but women can’t wait to fuck him. He lost his virginity years before I lost mine and I’m the older brother. I don’t want to lose you to him or to any man, Alaina. I brought you out here to Alphonse’s place because it’s real and it’s romantic. It’s far removed from money and power and the way most people see me. So I really meant to say this tomorrow in the light of day sitting under a perfect oak tree like we did when I first knew the true reason I was alive. That reason is so that I can love you. I do, I’m in love with you Allie Darling. I’m sure of it and it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me and I pray to God that you’ll come to love me and I just hope it doesn’t tear me and my brother apart forever.” William said, the words tumbling out in a rush of truth and also of fear. He had found the girl he’d never dared to hope for and now that she was here and she was real, she might not love him back, especially when she learned of the idiocy of his father’s will. 

“What Walden thinks or wants won’t change anything, William, it can’t. I love you too, I’ve known it since probably the first moment I saw you standing there in the rain. I love you, all of you, every single thing about you, and with my whole heart,” she said, and she reached for him across the sheltering softness of the bed and he let himself be drawn down to her warm waiting body.

“Alright darling girl, alright, I believe you,” he said as he kissed her sweet lips and lay back on the feather bed lifting her body on top of his. Her face was like a miracle in the soft lamplight and his fingers traced the smooth high ridge of her cheek as his lips claimed hers again in an ever deeper and more sensual kiss. She was his and what they felt, what they
knew
in the deepest depths of their hearts and their souls couldn’t be ruined by Walden or his father or anything as trivial as mere words.

“I’ll show you that I’m in love with you tonight, Alaina. And then I’ll tell you again tomorrow under the oak trees and again when we lie together in the hammock and every day for the rest of our lives,” he whispered as her hands slid over the tautly ridged muscles of his stomach to grasp his erection. “For now you tell me what you want Allie. Tell me what you need, I want you to ask for it.”