ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR (14 page)

“And I’m not about to sit back and let it happen again, Shay!” Then he exhaled, a

cloudy look piercing his eyes. “When I was told it was you, that you were the young lady that

some joker had assaulted, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I thought I . . .”

He couldn’t continue. He just sat there. Then he seemed to make up his mind. “Shay,

I need you to not fight me on this. I know it cramps your style, I know it challenges your

independence, but that’s not what this is about. I’m not trying to control you, I’m just trying

to protect you. I’m out of town a lot lately, you know that, I’m not just forty miles away most

of the time anymore. When I’m not around I have to know you’re safe, I have to. I can’t

concentrate on what I have to do and worry about you, too.”

Shay just sat there. She hated worrying Matty, but what did he expect from her?

“What about Jessica?” she asked him. “Could she stay--”

“No,” he said flatly.

“Why not, Matty?”

“Because I don’t want her anywhere near you. Is that clear enough?” He didn’t mean

to sound harsh, but that roommate of Shay’s rubbed him the wrong way.

“And why’s that? It wasn’t her fault what Hector did. How could you blame her?

You don’t even know her.”

“I know her type, all right? Now get your things, Shay,” he said as he stood to his feet.

“It’s late, I’m exhausted, and I want to get to bed. With you.” He said this without stuttering.

Shay just sat there. She felt almost as if it was all already decided, and she couldn’t

understand why she felt that way. But she got up, got her things, and then left with Matty.

***

Dresden home. They had been at it for nearly three hours, pounding and pounding, and now

he was exhausted. He loved the way Alex did him. She was always good for a good fuck.

But now she wanted so much more.

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“It’ll work.”

“But what if it doesn’t, Alex, what’s the game plan if it all blows up in our faces?”

“If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You’ll go on with your life, and I’ll go on with

mine.”

“And what if Driscoll wants to make trouble for me?”

“What kind of trouble, Clive? Besides, this scheme won’t ever be uncovered unless

you and me uncover it-which neither one of us will. Matty may not go for it, he may treat me

the same way he treated me when I told him about the pregnancy. That’s a chance I’ll have to

take, but it’ll be my chance. Not yours. None of this will blow back on you.”

Clive was sold, Alex could tell by the glint in his big eyes, but it wasn’t a hundred

percent sale. “I don’t know, Alex,” he eventually said, “Driscoll’s a powerful man.”

“And you aren’t? You’re a renowned surgeon for crying out loud!”

“I just don’t know if I want to be on that man’s bad side.”

“You won’t be on his bad side. Stop over-thinking this, Clive. You’ll be helping me to

get my man, that’s all this is about.”

Clive looked at Alex, at her very desirable dark body. “And what’s in it for me?” he

wanted to know.

Alex smiled.
No he didn’t ask me that
, she said to herself. Then she moved over and

straddled him, sliding her womanhood over his naked body. And then she moved up further

and further until her womanhood was hovering over his face.

“This is what’s in it for you,” she said as he began to lick and then to suck and then, as

she knew he would, to eat vociferously, as if he’d never had a meal like Alex in his life.

***

wrapped in each other’s arms. Matty was fatigued from too much work and Shay was

exhausted from too much emotion, and all they wanted right here and right now was to be

together. After a long time of quietness, where nothing could be heard but the low hum of the

central air conditioning, Shay, who was turned into Matty and had her head on his chest,

looked up at him.

“Matty?” she said. Although his eyes were closed, she knew he had not yet fallen

asleep.

“Yes, babe?” he replied, his eyes so tired that he kept them closed.

“You work too hard.”

He smiled weakly. “Lately, I do. I’ll slow down soon. This economy is bad for many

failing businesses across this country, but it’s been fantastic for DSI.”

“Because you buy up all of those failed businesses?”

“Precisely that,” he admitted. “A business fails, we buy it rock bottom cheap, or

partner with the owners, restructure it and eventually sales it at an inordinate profit.

Everybody wins in the end.”

“And what about us?” she asked.

He opened his eyes. “We win too, Shay, is my prayer.”

“But it’s not clear, is it? I mean, not like your business model. With us, it’s not so cut

and dry.”

“I would have thought that it was.”

“Come on, Matty, how can you? We never even discuss our relationship. I mean, I

have no idea where I stand.”

“You’re my heart, Shay, where do you think you stand?”

Shay liked the sound of that, but it still sounded evasive to her. He didn’t say,
you’re

my lady, my one and only girlfriend and we’ll keep progressing from there
, or
I hope one day

for you to be my wife
. It was no kind of commitment like that. He just reaffirmed what she

already knew: that he cared about her. But what about that higher standard? What about

love?

She snuggled closer against him as his arms wrapped around her tighter, and they again

fell into that companionable quietness. This condo was her home for now, this beautiful,

lakeside home. But she somehow felt uneasy, as if this wasn’t really hers at all. Forget the

fact that Matty never said I bought this for you. But, as Jordy had said, it was more like he

bought if for her use. Which meant his use, too. Which meant, she knew, that any time he

wanted some, all he had to do was come on over and get it.

She didn’t like that particular fact. Didn’t like it at all. She didn’t know if she wanted

to be that available, that accessible to any man. But by making this move into this condo of

Matty’s, into the home of a man who had yet to confess any love for her, she knew she was

doing exactly that.

But before she put the last of her clothes in her suitcase, before she even left Devender

Hall with Matty, she had already convinced herself that this move would be a temporary one.

That she was merely appeasing Matty’s worries because he had been so good to her. That

once she graduated, once she landed her own job and was making her own money, she would

still have enough of her independence intact to tell Matty thanks, but no thanks, she was now

able to handle her own business. She knew Jessica would say she was being an
in the

meantime
whore, or some such person, but she wasn’t trying to let the likes of Jessica

Malveau bother her now. Because she cared about Matty, too, maybe even loved him deeply

if love was what she thought it was, and she didn’t think she was robbing her own values or

self worth, to simply be in tune with his concerns for her.

Besides, she kept telling herself, this was only temporary. And she’ll be singing her

own tune
soon and very soon
, she found herself musing, as her eyes closed the way Matty’s

already had, and she, too, slid into that kind of restful, peaceful sleep that was too often

equated with the calm before the storm.

NINE

Matty, along with a handful of his senior staff, sat at the large conference table within his

suite of offices at DSI and attempted to make sense of a barrage of new acquisition

possibilities. As each senior manager spoke, giving their pros, he gave the cons. Whenever his

cons outweighed their pros, he passed on the acquisition. Whenever their pros outweighed his

cons, he agreed to table the offer and investigate further. When the intercom buzzed, he was

livid.

“Didn’t I tell you I was not to be disturbed, Irene?” he barked at his secretary, surprised

that she would disobey his very direct order.

“I know, sir, and I apologize. But it’s Dr. Graham on line four and she says it’s an

emergency, sir. Otherwise, I would not have interrupted.”

Matty hesitated. Alex was a drama queen when she wanted to be, the dramatic way

she announced her news about her pregnancy proved that, but she never would disturb him at

work unless it was vital. “I’ll take it,” he said and pressed line four. He glanced at his

managers. They all knew he had had a long-term relationship with Alex Graham and they all

were careful to feign disinterest, all looking at the papers in front of them, the walls, each

other, everything and anything, but Matty.

“I’m super busy, Alex, can it wait?” He said this as soon as he picked up the phone.

“Hi, Matty.”

Her voice sounded hoarse, strained. “What is it?”

“Could you come to Dr. Stewart’s office?”

Doctor who, he wanted to say. Then he remembered. Clive Stewart, a medical doctor

of some sort and one of those supporters of Franklin’s he always saw at various fundraisers

and other elite functions. “Why would I need to come to his office?”

He heard what sounded like sobbing come from Alex, what then sounded like a phone

dropping, and then another voice on the phone: a male’s voice.

“Hello, Mr. Driscoll?”

“This is?”

“Clive Stewart.”

“Oh, Dr. Stewart. Is Alex all right?”

There was a slight pause. “No, sir. I’m afraid not. I was wondering if you could come

over. She’s in a bit of a state.”

“May I ask what this is about?”

Alex’s voice could be heard sobbing greatly in the background, with
no, no, no, this

can’t be true
, singing out from her hysterics. Matty thought it could be related to her

pregnancy, but her plaintiff wails sounded too personal, too deep down, to be only about that.

Unless the complications were about deformities, or even life-threatening.

“Please come, Mr. Driscoll,” Clive said more urgently. “I’ll explain when you get

here.” Then he gave Matty the address, and hung up.

Matty held the phone in his hand for some time longer, his heartbeat beginning to

quicken, and then he hung up too. After he dismissed the room, agreeing to meet again with

his staff later that afternoon, he sat alone at the big table, and prayed.

***

reception area of the busy medical practice. She wore her standard designer skirt suit and had

her long, shapely legs crossed. She didn’t look sick, she didn’t even look pregnant. All she

looked, to Matty, was radiant.

Clive stood from behind his desk and extended his hand. He looked worried. “Mr.

Driscoll, good of you to come,” he said as they shook.

Matty immediately looked at Alex. “Hello, Al,” he said to her. It was only when she

looked up at him could he tell that something was wrong.

“Have a seat, please,” Clive insisted, and Matty walked over to Alex and sat beside her

on the sofa.

“You okay?” he asked when he sat down.

Alex looked at him and did all she could to summons tears. They came, they didn’t fail

her now as she knew they wouldn’t.

“What is it?”

“I’ll get to the point, Mr. Driscoll. Your wife, I mean Alex here, has been diagnosed

with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.”

“ALS?” Matty asked, astounded.

“Also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, yes, sir.”

Matty’s heart dropped. He looked from Clive to Alex and back at Clive. “But that’s . .

. I mean, it’s awfully degenerative, isn’t it?”

“There’s very few diseases more degenerative, I’m afraid.”

“But. . .” He looked at Alex. “When were you diagnosed? Did you just find out?”

“We’d been running tests for a long time now,” Clive chimed in. “And by we, I mean

specialists at Johns Hopkins. We were hoping against hope, of course. But to no avail. It’s

definite now. She has it and there’s no cure.”

Tears streamed down Alex’s face as if on cue, and Matty quickly pulled her into his

arms. He was no expert on ALS, but he knew enough about it to know that it was a horrible

disease, that Alex would get progressively worse and worse, that her days of caring for herself

are probably soon to be over. He looked at Clive.

“How long? I mean. . .”

“She’s experiencing the generalized muscle weakness now. Soon, there’ll be muscle

wasting with cramps, and then muscle twitching. Eventually, full blown paralysis where she’ll