Rise of the Billionaire (30 page)

His wife Elise rushed forward and greeted them both with a kiss on each cheek. “Ale
ssandro, can’t you say hello without mauling the guests?”

With a shrug that said his wife’s comment didn’t both
er him at all, Alessandro said, “These two aren’t guests anymore, they’re family.”

Elise linked arms with Jeisa and led her into the party. “You’ll have to pardon my husband, he is getti
ng sentimental in his old age. Come on, there is so much to talk about before Abby arrives. Everyone else is in the kitchen already.”

Surrendering to being led away, Jeisa looked over her shoulder to Jeremy, knowing that she likely wouldn’t see him again until the party officially began.
He winked at her as if he’d been thinking the same thing.

Nicole greeted her with a warm hug as soon as Jeisa entered the kitchen. “Did you and Jeremy just get in?”

Jeisa eased out of the light sweater she’d worn over her boldly flowered dress. “Yes, we flew in about an hour ago on a commuter flight. With all the work we’re doing to purify water, it’s hard to justify the pollution of flying a plane back and forth just for us.”

“Now you sound like Stephan
,” Nicole said with a smile. “We flew in yesterday on an airline for the same reason. Don’t get him started about diminishing fossil fuels.”

Lil bounded forward and hugged Jeisa. “You two are very admirable, but don’t you miss the privacy?”
When no one said anything, Lil wiggled her eyebrows and said, “Come on, I can’t be the only member of the mile high club here.”

Nicole and Jeisa blushed. Maddy roared with laughter. Elise motioned to Stephan’s mother across the room and said, “Oh, honey, we founded that club.”

Tears of laughter were smearing the women’s mascara when Princess Zhang from Najriad entered the kitchen. “I see nothing has changed here since I’ve been gone.”

Lil bolted to her side. “Zhang!” and threw her arms around her friend. “You came!”

Returning Lil’s embrace for a moment before easing out of it, Zhang said, “I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.”

With an impish smile,
Lil asked, “Zhang, tell me something. Did you fly over on a public or private airplane?”

“Private
, of course,” Zhang said, and the women burst into laughter again. “I’ve always preferred privacy and now I’m married to a sheikh.” The more she spoke, the more the women laughed. “Is our desire to fly on our own plane really that amusing?”

Wiping her cheeks,
Stephan’s mother, Katrine, said, “Only after Lil has been oversharing about why she prefers to fly that way.”

A slight red flush tinted Zhang’s cheeks, but she said proudly, “I’m sure I would have agreed with her reasoning.”

Everyone burst into laughter again.

“Oh no, what did I miss?”
a very pregnant Abby asked from the doorway.

Elise rushed forward to greet her. “Alessandro was supposed to tell me when you arrived
. I would have met you at the door.”

Abby happily received her double
-cheeked kisses. “With all the fun you ladies are having, he may have tried to call down, but don’t worry, I’m fine.”

Lil gave her sister a huge hug. “Did you see who came?”

Abby exchanged a light hug with the princess. “Thank you, Zhang, I appreciate you coming all this way for the party. I know it’s a long flight.”

Zhang smiled and stepped back. “A very long flight. Thank goodness.”

Lil laughed so hard she was gasping for air as she said, “Oh, my God, stop, my face is starting to hurt.”

Abby looked around the room
for help. “I don’t get it.”

Nicole greeted Abby with a kiss to the cheek and said, “We’ll explain later
, although I suspect that you’re also a member.”

Abby
turned to another source for information. “What are they talking about?”

Jeisa wasn’t sure where to begin. Instead she jo
ined in the fun and said, “We borrowed one of Dominic’s planes, so I have to agree with Nicole. He has beds everywhere.”

Abby blushed and
chided the women around her even as she began to smile. “I can’t leave you guys unsupervised for two minutes . . .”

Her sister teased her a bit more.
“Don’t even pretend you haven’t gone there with Dominic. I’ll be surprised if you don’t name your baby after one of his planes.”

That had Abby laughing out
loud until she stopped and held her side. “Don’t make me laugh. I’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions for the past week and they are only getting worse.”

Suddenly serious,
Nicole looked at one of the new mothers in the room and asked, “Maddy, wasn’t that what you said you were having the day I delivered your baby in my limo?”

Abby rushed to reassure her.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been to the doctor, these are not real contractions. Well, they feel real, but I’m not in labor. I have two more weeks before I’m even at my due date and first-time mothers often go past that date.”

Nicole paled. “All of that sounds painfully familiar.”

Abby moved over to sit in a chair Katrine held out to her and said, “I’m not even having contractions right now, it’s just that it seems like anything can set them off lately. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Not looking particularly reassured, Nicole waved her hand in the direction of Abby’s stomach.
“I want to make it clear that delivering a baby was a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me and I want to keep it that way—as just that one time.”

“Why don’t we change the subject before I start getting nervous?
” Abby suggested. “Jeisa, I didn’t see Jeremy out there, did he come with you?”

Zhang answered instead.
“Rachid asked about him when we arrived. I believe Alessandro said he’d stepped into the library to talk to someone.”

Lil and Abby’s eyes met. “It’s not Alethea
,” Lil blurted then instantly looked contrite. “Oh, my God, Jeisa, I didn’t mean to say her name.”

All eyes turned to Jeisa, who smiled because she realized that Jeremy was right
—there was nothing in the past or the future that could threaten their love. “You can say her name, Lil. She’s your friend. I should have trusted Jeremy that day. It would have saved me a lot of heartache. I’m not about to make that mistake again.”

Lil wrinkled her nose at Abby.
“See, I told you it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. Does that mean I can invite—”

“No,” Abby said in a tone that implied that was the end of that particular discussion.

Marie walked in with Colby, Lil’s little girl, who high-stepped proudly as she clung to both of Marie’s hands for support. “It looks like almost everyone is here. How is our mommy holding up?”

Abby pushed herself awkwardly to her feet. “Ready to get this over with.”

Lil bent to rest one knee on the floor so her daughter, Colby, could take a few independent steps into her arms. She hugged her daughter to her even as she spoke to her sister above her head. “Oh, come on, Abby. This is going to be great. Imagine the presents you’re going to get.”

Abby braced her back with one hand. “Really, there was no need to register for anything. We have more tha
n we need. In fact, I asked for donations to the maternity ward of the hospital in lieu of presents.”

Colby raised her hands greedily in the direction of a woman who had never been comfortable with children, but who now also dropped down onto her knees to greet the child. “Ni Ni!” Nicole didn’t seem to mind how
her drool-covered little hands wrinkled her silk blouse. She stood and twirled with the girl on her hip and after they both came to a laughing stop, she said, “Stephan and I gave a donation, but we couldn’t help ourselves—we also bought you a present.”

Marie added,
“By the look of the growing pile of gifts out on the patio, I’d say that everyone did the same.”

“Did you finally tell Dominic the sex?”
Nicole asked her sister-in-law.

Abby rolled her eyes skyward
. “I wanted to keep it a secret until the end, but that man is unshakeable when it comes to anything related to the health of this baby. He’s already hired a bodyguard for her. Can you imagine—she’s not even here yet and she has her own security.”

With a smile of approval, Marie said,
“You know he does it out of love.”

Abby laid a hand on top of her
rounded stomach. “I don’t even want to think about what he’s going to be like in the delivery room.”

Lil wrapped an arm around her sister
and rubbed her belly playfully, earning a not-so-playful swat from Abby, which only amused Lil more. “That’s why you invited me to join you. I’ll handle him.”

Nicole turned to Jeisa
and in a stage whisper said, “Now that is something I’d pay to see.”

Me, too,
Jeisa thought. “If she’s smart, she’ll have Jake as backup.”

From a corner of the kitchen, Maddy’s husband piped in
. “My money is on Lil.”

Maddy turned with her
young son in her arms and admonished him playfully. “Richard, what did I tell you about listening in?”

His wide grin was unabashedly unapologetic. “You can punish me later.”

Marie shook her head while the other women gave in to laughter. “In my day we weren’t quite as open as this new generation is.”

Elise and Katrine exchanged a look and then Elise asked, “Aren’t you our age?”

Marie looked a bit flustered at the question. With her chin held high she said, “Yes.”

As Jeisa looked on with sympathy,
she noticed the beautiful dress Marie had chosen to wear. It was one she’d sent her months ago as a thank-you. The dark-blue fitted top took years off her age, as did the additional makeup she’d chosen.
Marie, you sly dog.
“Not too old to have caught my father’s eye. You were the reason he agreed to come here for Christmas last year. He still asks about you.”

Marie flushed a bright red but said nothing.

Lil interjected her own brand of wisdom. “At your age you probably shouldn’t make him wait too long. The life expectancy of men is shorter than it is for women. However, thanks to Viagra, at least you know everything will still function.”

Abby
clapped a hand on her forehead. “Lil!”

“What?
” Lil asked, unperturbed. “Do you think Marie is too old to want a piece of that Brazilian stud?”

Jeisa choked on bubbling laughter as she imagined her father’s reaction if he’d overheard this conversation.
Brazilian stud. You go, Dad.

Maddy
clasped her hands together in excitement. “I’ve never tried my matchmaking skills on an older couple. This could be fun.”

Despite the futility of it,
Abby cautioned, “Or, it could be none of our business.”

Lil
’s and Maddy’s eyes met and they dismissed Abby’s advice in unison. “Nah, Marie, you’ll thank us.”

Marie cleared her throat and said, “Enough of this foolishness. We have guests arriving and presents to open.” With that, she led the way to the doorway.

Jeisa spoke softly so the departing Marie wouldn’t hear. “We should invite my father to your wedding, Lil.”

Maddy bounced her son gleefully on her hip
. “That’s perfect. He’ll be irresistible in a tux.”

Lil danced with excitement beside her.
“We can figure out a way to give them some time alone—and let nature take its course.”

“Speaking of nature, I have to pee again
,” Abby said as she retreated. “So, you ladies can plot away and I will waddle back to meet you on the patio.”

Being summoned to the Andrade library to speak with Dominic and Jake gave Jeremy a moment of apprehension. He ran through a quick list of what might have gone wrong that would have necessitated the privacy they’d requested. Had Sliver broken through? Had he been naive to believe a dictator like Alvo would let him live if he backed out of their negotiations?

If something bad had happened, it hadn’t stopped Jake or Dominic from enjoying Alessandro’s 1939 Macallan scotch and his Nicaraguan cigars.
Still, these men might face the apocalypse with the same nonchalance, so Jeremy felt compelled to ask, “Is something wrong? What happened?”

Dominic
let out a puff of smoke and asked, “Does something have to be wrong?”

No, but I don’t normally get invited unless something is
,
Jeremy thought, but instead asked with some sarcasm, “Oh, so you missed me? I just saw you at Christmas.”

Dominic
flicked his cigar ashes in a tray and motioned to the empty chair across from him. “Have a seat.”

Jake poured a third glass of scotch and handed it to Jeremy.
“We want to talk to you about something.”

Jeremy took the open seat
and the drink. “I don’t need any more advice. Jeisa and I are fine.”