Billionaire’s Quarry: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Boxed Set) (178 page)

“Laura!” I shout. “Stop, he didn’t do anything wrong.”

She ignores me as she directs her anger straight at Kyle. “Then you let Ally get out of the truck. You helped her out, for God’s sakes,” she yells at him. “Those fucking dogs could’ve ripped her apart. Then what? You don’t think. You don’t fucking think!”

Kyle looks shell shocked. “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel, Laura?”

“Okay, Laura,” Eden says as he takes her hands in his, standing in front of her, looking into her eyes. “We’re all okay. That is what’s most important. I can see we need to work a lot more on how we handle situations. You’re right about the danger we put ourselves in. However, Kyle is not to blame for any of this.”

Laura shakes her head back and forth. “The Hell he isn’t.”

“This is my fault, Laura. I shouldn’t have taken the chance of flying around a place that’s so close to the capital of Texas. It was dumb and reckless of me,” Eden tells her.

“You just wanted to have some fun with your wife, Eden,” she tells him. “You two have had little fun and so much more drama. You saw a chance to cut loose, and you took it. The reason I’m upset with Kyle is because he needs to take this commitment to your safety seriously.”

Kyle moves towards her as he sees Eden has finally calmed her down. “I’m sorry Laura,” Kyle tells her. “You’re right. I should’ve directed that a whole lot better. I am a little new to this, though, so cut me some slack, please.”

She smiles at Eden, then takes her hands out of his, turning to Kyle. “I’m a bitch, I know that. I’m sorry for over-reacting.”

“You are not a bitch,” Kyle tells her as he takes her in his arms. “You take your responsibilities very seriously, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Eden comes to me, putting his arm around my waist. “Let’s give them some privacy,” he whispers in my ear as he leads me quietly up the stairs.

“You want them to be happy together, don’t you?” Eden asks me as we sit on the bed in the guest room.

“I do, but we may have to get used to the fact they might not be together.”

“Why would you say that, Alyssa?”

Changing into a silky, red nightie, I glance at him as I say, “Like so many relationships, this one is built on their physical want for each other, and that seldom lasts. At least according to my mother’s theories.”

“I see. She must have confided in you,” Eden says.

“Yeah, and get this, Eden, she heard him dreaming last night. That’s why I sent you guys the message not to say anything about how he and I are sharing them.”

A knock sounds at our bedroom door. “Can I come in?” Kyle asks.

I slip under the blanket to cover myself, then Eden answers, “Yes.”

The door opens, revealing a very unhappy Kyle. “Laura left.”

I pick up my cell phone and call her, but she doesn’t answer, so I call her again. “She still isn’t answering her phone.”

“I don’t like this at all. Why would she do this?” Eden asks me.

“Do you think she’s going back to Cloudcroft?” Kyle asks me.

“I don’t know. Kyle, tell us what happened, exactly as it happened,” I say.

Kyle sits down on the bed. “I thought everything was going alright between us after that fight. Then she went all crazy again, telling me I didn’t really love her, and I only wanted her for her body. Like a dumbass I agreed with her, then she stormed out the front door.”

I shake my head. “I can’t believe you said that to her. Are you trying to get her to break up with you?”

“I’m not, Ally. It just came out of my mouth before I could stop it. You don’t know what a jackass I feel like. If she would just answer her phone I know I could make it better,” Kyle says. “I was just kidding!”

“How long exactly do you think it was before you went outside to look for her?” Eden asks.

Kyle plays with the bottom of his shirt. Something he does when he’s nervous. “I waited about thirty minutes, so she and I both could cool off. Then I walked out to see the garage door open and her car gone.”

“She never came back inside the house. Did she have her keys with her?” Eden asks him.

“The keys were in it. She left them in it. She has a very bad habit of doing that.”

“It’s just going to take her a little while to calm down. She has the credit card we gave her. She’ll probably stay at a motel, and come back or at least call one of us in the morning,” I say.

“It’s late, let’s get some rest. I’m sure she’ll be back before we know it,” Eden says.

“I’m going to sleep on the sofa, so I can hear her if she comes back,” Kyle tells us.

“See you in the morning, Kyle. It’s going to be okay. I love you,” I tell him as he leaves our bedroom.

He turns back to look at me. “Thanks, Ally. I love you too. Eden, I’m sorry for making more drama. You guys get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning,” Kyle tells us, then shuts our bedroom door behind him.

Eden stands up, taking my hand as he does, pulling me up as well. He turns and slips his arms around me, hugging me tightly to him. His breath tickles my neck as he nuzzles it.

I giggle a little at the sensation. His hands move up my back, pushing the straps of my nightgown down once he reaches my shoulders. The light weight of it moves off of my shoulders. The softness of his lips on my shoulder makes my knees weak.

“You are mine, Alyssa,” Eden says, as his hot breath warms my neck.

My eyes fly open with his words. “Eden, don’t,” I say, but he cuts me off.

He grabs a handful of my hair, pulling it, so my neck is exposed. Suddenly his mouth is on my neck, biting me. I rake my nails down his back. He stops, then tosses me down on the bed. Quickly he undresses. My heart is pounding in my chest.

He turns and walks out of the room, into the bathroom. I hear the shower start.

What the hell? What is he doing?

I walk into the bathroom, to find him in the shower. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” he replies, offhandedly.

“Eden, you started something in the bedroom. Don’t you want to finish it?”

“Do you?” he asks me.

I look down, feeling embarrassed. “Damn, Eden, do you want me to beg you or what?”

“Maybe, why don’t you join me in here, and we can see if you can convince me,” he says as he opens the glass shower door.

I step in and look up at him. “What can I do to convince you?”

A smile crosses his lips, and a twinkle shines in his gorgeous emerald eyes. “I’m sure you can think of something. I have faith in your abilities, Mrs. Fontaine.”

Chapter 65

ALYSSA

A bright white light is shining in my eyes. Kyle is standing on one side of me. I’m so hot and sweaty. A sudden tightness wraps around my stomach. I look down to see what’s squeezing me. All I see is a light blue sheet. My legs are up in some type of a device. I can’t move them, they’re strapped down.

“You’re doing great, Ally,” Kyle tells me and then taps my forehead with a damp washcloth.

Through clenched teeth, I say, “It hurts Kyle. It hurts so bad.”

Kyle pats my leg, and I feel like choking him. “Ally, it won’t be long now, and she’ll be here. Just try to be tough, okay.”

My words come out a bit louder than I mean them to as I yell, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I changed my mind, it hurts too bad. I want drugs, I want them now.”

“It’s too late for that, Mrs. Stevens,” a man in a white mask who’s standing at the end of the bed tells me.

The squeezing stops, and I can breathe again. “Kyle, please never do this to me again.”

Kyle leans down, kissing me on top of my head. “I’m so sorry, Ally. I thought you were ready for this. You just have to get through it. You’ll be holding your daughter before you know it.”

The squeezing starts again. “No, no, no!”

The man at the end of the bed tells me, “Mrs. Stevens, you need to breathe.”

“I can’t,” I yell at him. “Where’s my mom? I need my mom.”

Kyle holds my hand, or rather I’m squeezing his. “She’ll be here as soon as she can. You went into labor earlier than expected. Don’t you remember, Al?”

The pain eases up, and Kyle takes his hand away from me, rubbing it. I look my hand, which has an IV in it. It’s not him who has to endure this pain. He’s just standing there, feeling nothing. This isn’t fair.  And the squeezing starts again.

The doctor glances at me over the sheet. “I can see the top of her head,”

Kyle smiles, and it makes me want to smack that smile right off his face. “Okay, Al, it’s almost over.”

On top of the squeezing, I feel an uncontrollable need to push. “I have to push,” I yell.

The doctor looks at me, and says, “Not yet.” Completely messing up my world.

“What?” I yell.

Kyle puts his hand in mine and kisses my forehead. “Ally, just do what the doctor tells you.”

This is all too much. Neither one of them feels this pain, this urgency to push. “Fuck you both, I’m pushing.”

The doctor’s tone is stern as he says, “The cord is wrapped around your baby’s neck. If you push before I unwrap it, you’ll choke her.” His words take the little bit of air I had in my lungs away.

Pressure on my shoulder makes me look up at Kyle. His jaw is set, his tone commanding as he says, “Alyssa, get a hold of yourself. That’s our daughter. You can do what you have to so she doesn’t get hurt.”

The squeezing and the need to push fade away. Tears stream down my cheeks. “Oh my God! Hurry before it starts again. I won’t be able to stop myself again.”

Kyle takes the washcloth and wipes my tears away. “You can do this, Al. I have faith in you. Our daughter needs you right now. Control yourself for her.”

The massive pressure builds again, I squeeze Kyle’s hand. “Jesus, Kyle, it hurts not to push. You did this to me. I hate you! I hate you so much, you fucking bastard! You better never come near me again, I’ll fucking kill you!” I scream as the pain wracks my body.

The doctor finally sets me free as he says, “Okay, Mrs. Stevens, the cord is free. You can push now.”

I let my body do what I’ve stopped it from, and feel relief immediately. Then the urge passes. I breathe in several times, and then feel the tightness begin again. I push as soon as the urge hits me. Suddenly I feel a relief and hear a cry.

“You did it, Alyssa. She’s here,” Kyle says softly to me, as he leans down to kiss my forehead.

“Mr. Stevens, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” the doctor asks him.

He looks at me. “You okay?”

I manage to nod, weakly. He lets my hand go, and goes to the end of the bed. I lay my head back, I’m exhausted.

How in the hell do women do this shit over and over again?

“Look who I have here, Momma,” Kyle says, as he walks back up to my side, holding a red-faced, little, wrinkly, black-haired thing.

He puts her on my chest, and I raise my arms to hold her. “So you’re Junior. You just about made me hate my husband,” I say.

Kyle laughs. “Not, just about. I’m pretty sure you’ve hated me for the last few hours.”

I smile at him, then look back at the little human we created. “Thank you, Kyle. Thank you for this. She’s precious.”

A nurse wearing scrubs with baby ducks all over the shirt comes into my view. “We need to take the baby for a little while, to make sure she’s fine.”

Kyle takes the little wrinkly red baby and hands her to the nurse. “Bye, Kyla, see you soon,” he says.

My heart fills up with so much love for him. “I love you, Kyle. I’m sorry I turned into a super bitch.”

“You weren’t a super bitch, Al. You were just a big, wimpy baby,” he teases me.

“A big baby? Watch yourself, boy.”

His sky blues eyes twinkle, and he moves closer to me. “Can I give my wife a kiss?”

“You need permission now?” I ask him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare touch you without permission,” he says, with a grin.

I manage a smile. “Yes, Kyle, you can kiss your wife.”

His lips touch mine softly. My heart beats hard in my chest. I move my hand up to pull him to me, kissing him harder.

He pulls away slowly. “I love you, Alyssa Stevens.”

***

“Time to get up, Alyssa,” a smooth, velvety voice whispers in my ear.

I open my eyes to see emerald green eyes looking down into mine. “Good morning, Eden.”

I’m wrapped in his arms as he looks down at me. “I had to wake you up. I was getting a little uncomfortable with your dream.”

I drop my eyes. “I’m sorry Eden.”

“No need to apologize. It’s not your fault,” Eden tells me, then he gets up out of bed.

I pick up my phone and call Laura again. It goes straight to voice mail. It’s still early, maybe she’s still mad. I decide to get up and get dressed. My body hurts. I can’t tell if it’s from my dream, or if Eden and I got too rough with each other last night.

***

I meet Eden downstairs. He and Kyle are eating muffins. “Good morning,” I call out to them as I enter the kitchen.

Kyle smiles at me, then looks at Eden. “I don’t envy you being the father of her children, and having to be with her through all that. She wasn’t very pleasant to deal with during the delivery of the baby. I can still feel the pain in my hand from her squeezing it,” Kyle tells him.

Eden’s eyebrows raise. “Can you really feel that?”

Kyle nods. “Unfortunately, the answer is yes. That’s going to be a problem if this continues.”

“Kyle, those feelings are not real. You have to come to terms with that,” I say as I go to sit on the stool at the breakfast bar with them, and wince when I try to sit down.

Damn it! It hurts so bad!

“Not so fast, Alyssa,” Eden stops me. “Let’s get you to the sofa.”

“The dreams aren’t real,” I say as Eden and Kyle help me to half sit, half lay on the sofa. “Kyle, we have to stop giving in to these feelings.”

“Are you finding it so easy to do?” Eden asks me.

“No, it isn’t easy, but it has to be done. That life might have been one we would’ve had, but then again it might be a figment of my imagination,” I say as I move a pillow under my aching ass.

Damn this is insane!

Kyle looks at me, then sits next to me, searching my eyes for answers I don’t have. “How could I have the same dreams then?”

I take his hand in mine, stroking his knuckles with my thumb. “I’ve no idea. Nothing which has happened to me in the last few months can be logically explained. Perhaps it’s just my dreams, and you’re picking up on them telepathically.”

He pulls my hand up to his chest, placing it on his heart. “Then why do I feel like this? Why does it hurt that I can’t hold that little girl right now? I miss her and want to see her again. I want to go back to sleep, and back to that world.”

I reposition myself on the sofa, my ass is aching, and my stomach is sore. “Eden woke me up when we kissed. Is that where the dream ended for you?”

He lets my hand go, and looks away. “Yes, I woke up too.” He runs a hand through his blonde curls. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about our dreams at all.”

“I don’t know,” Eden says. “Maybe they should be discussed. Things should never go ignored. We wouldn’t resolve anything if we ignored things, and hoped they’d go away.”

Kyle is so close to me. His leg touches mine, and I have to fight the urge to reach for him. I want to be wrapped up in his arms, and feel the comfort I know is there. “I don’t think there’s much for us to discuss. Kyle was there, I was there, and even you were there for all but one of the dreams. No need to talk about it too.”

His hand touches my arm, and my eyes shoot to his. Kyle sees what his presence is doing to me, and gets up, moving away from me. “We don’t have to talk about them, if it bothers you, Al.”

I watch him move clear across the room. “I hope it doesn’t hurt you, Kyle, but it makes me feel bad that I’m cheating on my husband in my dreams. I don’t ever want to hurt Eden. He’s everything to me.”

Eden comes to my side and sits in the spot Kyle vacated. His hand runs up and down my arm, making me grow warm inside. “Alyssa, you have no control over this. I don’t want for you to feel bad about it. Just like anything else in life, I would hope you’d embrace it, and learn everything you can from it.”

I look up at him. “You’re crazy mature, Eden. I wouldn’t be so open to this if it was you dreaming about being married to someone else.”

The no-nonsense expression he wears makes me feel worse somehow as he says, “How would you change it?”

How would I?

Placing my hand on top of his, I stop him from moving it over my arm. I take his hand and place it on my stomach. “I couldn’t, could I?”

His eyes move to look at his hand lying on my flat stomach. “Acceptance is the key to moving forward with life, and learning all you can as you go along the way. You’ve been given a gift. You get to see what could have been. Explore that, not many people get to.”

Kyle sits in the chair across from us. “Dude, that sounds wise.”

I laugh at his words. “Yeah, he’s wise and exceptionally good natured. We should all strive to be a little more like him.”

Then Eden goes and acts so unlike himself I feel as if I’m in another world. His hand goes up, he leans towards Kyle and the two bump fists. “It’s crazy, guy! Like, as long as I touch my mate I can see the dream, and it’s real. But I’m like a spectator. That baby was so cute!”

My eyes go wide, and I look at my husband. “Eden?”

He looks back at me and grins. “She was.” Then his eyes move to Kyle. “Alyssa was pretty cranky through the whole thing. I’ll make sure she has plenty of pain killers when she and I have our children.”

Kyle laughs and rubs his hand. “Hell yeah, guy. As much as they’ll allow.”

I groan as I pull myself up to a sitting position which hurts but I can’t take these jokers anymore. “Let either one of you feel that horrible pain, and I bet you’d be cussing like a sailor and throwing things at the person who got you in that spot. I think I handled it all pretty well, considering how many times I thought about doing some pretty bad things to you, Kyle.”

He smiles at me with that million-dollar grin. “I am aware of all you thought, even in the dream world, Al. Choke me?”

I nod, and get up, slowly and painfully.

I will not be wanting to experience real childbirth anytime soon!

“Okay, let’s lighten this up then, shall we?” I say. “I need to call Laura’s mother, to see if she went home.”

The phone rings several times before Laura’s mother answers it. “Hello.”

“Hi, Mrs. Tanner, this is Ally.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Why do you ask that?” I ask her.

“It’s awful early, and Laura hasn’t called me in two days.”

“Oh, I see. I was hoping you’d heard from her. She and Kyle got into a little argument and she left. I thought she might be on her way back home.”

“How would she get here? Did you send her on that plane?”

“No, she took her car.”

“What car?” she asks.

“Oh, we gave her a car. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll cool off today, and come back or call or something. I just wanted to be sure she wasn’t up there before we started looking for her around here.”

“You gave her a car?” she asks.

“Yes, I’m sure she wants to tell you all about that. If she calls you, please let me know.”

“You do the same for me.”

“Yes mam, I will. Talk to you soon,” I say, and then hang up.

“Not there either, huh?” Kyle asks me.