With These Four Rings - Book Five: Wedding Bonus (Billionaire Brides of Granite Falls 5) (7 page)

“Her loss, sweetheart.” He traced a finger down her cheek, hooked it under her chin and pulled her in for a lingering kiss.

Melting at the tender caress, Kaya yearned to prolong the kiss and toyed with even taking it to the next heated level, but harnessing her desires, she drew back and smiled. “You know I left my number with her and told her to call me if she ever needed anything. I’m not holding my breath that she will, but if she does, I’ll be there for her. I pity her. I don’t know if she’ll ever seek counseling and healing, and reach out to me, or if we’ll ever have any type of a mother-daughter relationship, but I’m fine, either way. I have forgiven her.”

“You can easily forgive her because she’s your mother. The Summerses—”

“The Summerses are the catalysts to your demons, Bryce. Those demons in turn have the power to resurrect your ghosts of the night Pilar was murdered in front of you. I know for a fact that each time you see a Summers, you’re filled with rage and hurt and regret all over again.”

His lips twisted and he tried to pull his hand from her grasp, but Kaya held on to him. “My demons don’t compare to yours. You lost your wife. Someone you loved was brutally taken away from you. I know you’re not bound by Pilar’s love anymore, but you’re bound by your anger and unforgiving spirit. It’s been almost ten years and you’re still not completely healed. Aren’t you tired, Bryce? Wouldn’t you love to walk by a Summers and not feel that pinching in your chest, that heaviness in your heart?”

He twitched, but did not respond.

Kaya squeezed his hand. “It wasn’t all in vain, you know. As horrible as your experiences were, they brought us together. We’ve adopted three awesome children and have created two more beautiful ones from our love. It’s time to eliminate your demons once and for all so they never have the chance to wiggle their way into our lives again. Our kids and I want you completely whole, Bryce. We want
a one hundreds-of-percent
of you.”

He chuckled softly at her
a one-hundreds-of-percent
imitation of Alyssa. Then just as quickly, he grimaced and glanced through the door of his office as if the work he’d left in there had called his name.

Kaya’s gaze followed his, then a thought crept into her mind. “How can you continue working with Marcus Spencer?” she asked.

“What?” He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“You and Massimo made him the chief engineer of Fonandt Energies even after his twin brother tried to destroy Andretti Industries.”

“Marcus is a great engineer, one of the best in the area.” He shrugged dismissively. “Why should we hold him responsible for his brother’s misconduct? He was not an accomplice in Maurice’s schemes.”

“My point, exactly! Desire is not Victoria, Bryce. She’s her sister. She wasn’t an accomplice to Victoria’s crime.”

He cringed each time she spoke the name of the woman who’d murdered his wife. “That’s different, Kaya. Maurice Spencer was a greedy, vindictive bastard who tried to steal something he thought belonged to him. He didn’t kill anyone.”

“Not directly, but his actions started a chain of events that led to Shaina’s father’s death. You can’t deny that.”

He spread his hands in compliance. “In a sense you’re correct, but still—”

“Still, I agree that Maurice’s crime pales in comparison to—” Kaya paused, deciding it was best she not mention Victoria’s name again. “Desire’s sister’s crime,” she continued in a soft, yet persistent tone. “Just as you didn’t judge a man by the actions of his brother, you can’t judge a woman by the actions of her sister, or her mother, for that matter. My mother is a despicable human being, but you don’t hold that against me. Give Desire a chance, Bryce. Allowing her to plan our wedding will open the door of communication between you and the Summers family. Communication that is well overdue.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible, Kaya, and I honestly don’t have the time or the energy to give it any thought right now.” He looked at his watch, pushed to his feet, and pulled her up beside him. “I hate to do this, baby, but I have a meeting that starts in fifteen minutes and I still have to go over some reports before—”

“I understand.” She’d done what she came to do, which was to lay down the foundation to the road to emotional freedom. He’d listened to her argument. She hoped that he would at least consider it.

The faint sounds of voices and the clicking of heels in the corridor alerted Kaya that Elaine and Libby had returned from lunch, and that the tenth floor of Fontaine Enterprises was back in business. She picked up her purse from the sofa and led Bryce over to the elevator—away from the line of sight of the corridor and Elaine’s desk. “I love you,” she said, as she waited for the doors to open. “And I’m sorry to resurrect your ghosts, but it’s for the best.”

“I love you, sweetie.” He drew her into his arms and fastened his hands on her buttocks. He molded her and rocked against her intimately as he captured her mouth for a deep, passionate kiss.

Kaya was breathless when he lifted his head and eased her away. “I miss you already.” His black eyes smoldered with fire as they raked down her body. “By the way, you look ravishing in that dress, Mrs. Fontaine. If I didn’t have a meeting, you wouldn’t still be wearing it.” He cocked his head to one side. “Does your husband know how sexy you are?”

The walls of Kaya’s sex contracted. “I don’t know. Does he?”

He turned his head and cased the area. “Take off your panties,” he said in a throaty voice, his eyes flashing like summer lightning cracking a dark cloud.

Kaya flushed all over at the indecent command—a command she’d come to expect and eagerly obey over the past three years. It was the first time he’d made it in public with the possibility of… She swallowed and licked her lips. “Elaine or Libby can come by any minute.”

“Then you’d better hurry. If you want me to consider Desire, give me your panties, Kaya. It might work in your favor tonight when I’m—um—considering,” he said with a salacious smile.

“Bryce—” Her breath caught in her throat.

“Now, Kaya. I don’t have all day.” He held out his hand, palm up.

Kaya’s knees buckled and she would have collapsed to the floor if his other hand wasn’t still on her shoulder. She wanted him to consider Desire, so if giving up her panties would work in her favor, then…

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears as she hung the strap of her purse over his extended arm. She kept her eyes glued to his as she slowly pulled her dress up and hooked her thumbs into the waistline of her thong.

His eyes shifted to her bare thighs and her hands fumbling under the dress. “Yes, baby, take them off for me. Are they wet?”

“Soaking. The way you like them,” Kaya whispered in a breathless murmur as she slid the damp material down her thighs, over her knees, and felt them fall around her ankles. Without the barrier to catch the flow of hot juices churning inside her, it ran freely down her thighs.

“Mmmm,” Bryce groaned as his gaze landed on the white pool of lace at her angles. Without saying a word, he bent down and, lifting her feet one at a time, he freed her of her feminine garment. “Mmmm,” he groaned again, standing and lifting the thong to his nose and inhaling deeply. “Yes, this will definitely help. Thanks, babe.” He pushed them into the pocket of his suit pants, and gently nudged her into the elevator. “Now get out of here, you tempting little hussy. I have work to do.” He graced her with a wicked, handsome smile before turning on his heels and striding away.

Kaya’s heart thundered in her chest as she admired the tightness of her husband’s buttocks pressing against his pants. She was licking her lips and fanning her face with her hand when he disappeared into his office and closed the door without even looking back at her.

Her belly tingled from the imprint of his erection against her, and her thighs were wet and sticky from the hot juices flowing copiously and unrestrained from inside her. She was trembling so hard from the memories of Bryce thrusting deep inside her this morning during their long goodbye session that she had to hold on to the railing inside the elevator for support.

When the steel doors came together, Kaya reached into her purse for a tissue. Maybe two.

CHAPTER FIVE

LaCrosse Estate – Same day. Monday, early afternoon…

“It’s a touching article, Michelle. My son leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind how he truly feels about you.” Felicia closed the magazine and placed it on the table near her lounge.

“No, he didn’t. Made me fall in love with him all over again.”

“I would too, if Philippe wrote something like that about me.”

Michelle smiled at her mother-in-law, who occupied the lounge next to hers under a bamboo cabana in one of the many courtyards at the LaCrosse Estate. A few yards away, Little Erik and Tiffany, along with Alyssa and Anastasia, were splashing around in an Olympic-size, in-ground kiddie pool with Philippe, and Catherine—the LaCrosse children’s nanny. The lifeguard of the day, perched on his umbrella chair, kept close watch over them. The children’s squeals and laughter brought peace and contentment to Michelle’s soul. Life was good.

“I actually cried while I was reading it, not just at Erik’s story, but all of them,” she added, leaning over to straighten the blanket over Fiona, who was fast asleep in a basinet next to her. Members of the household staff were cleaning up the outdoor grill and clearing the buffet tables, but the pleasing aroma of steak, chicken, seafood, and vegetables still lingered in the air.

“It could not have been easy for him to open up to the world, to admit that he was wrong to treat you so poorly,” Felicia said. “But I’m proud of him for doing it. That mess about your father had a lot of tongues wagging negatively five years ago. Now let them wag about something positive for a change.” She picked up her pina colada from her table and twirled the straw around the white liquid before taking a sip.

“I don’t care what people say about me, Mom. I know what Erik and I have, what we had during the rockiest time of our first marriage.” Michelle adjusted the straps of her black bikini top—still a little damp from her romp in the pool with the kids—and buttoned the front of her white cover-up.

“I was mad at him, too, for not going after you, bringing you back home where you belonged. Agh! He was so damn stubborn. I wanted to box his ears, whup his behind or something.”

Michelle pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. Everybody blamed Erik when her actions had played just as much a role in their eight months of separation. She turned sideways to look at Felicia. “Mom, I’m gonna say something that I should have said a long time ago, and I’ll be frank about it, but please don’t think I’m being disrespectful.”

Felicia unclasped her lips from around her straw and set the glass back down. “Okay,” she said slowly, eyeing Michelle with uncertainty.

“I’m tired of people beating up on my husband, calling him a heartless jerk,” Michelle said in defense of the man she loved and had almost lost. “Erik wasn’t the only one at fault. Yeah, initially he acted poorly when he learned that my father had killed Cassie, but it was a reaction to my misplaced distrust of him.”

“You told him you were sorry. You asked him to forgive you.”

“Yes, for a week after my lie blew up in my face. He was still in shock. His pain was still too raw for him to see past my deception. I lied to him. But what I did after that was worse.”

“What exactly did you do?”

Michelle focused her gaze on the white netting around the cabana flapping in the afternoon breeze as she recalled her insightful revelation during a visit with Samantha a couple years ago. Erik was the only person she’d shared it with and, being the sweet man he was, he’d blamed himself for causing her to react that way. It was time to get out of the shadows and let the rest of the world know that she’d also misbehaved.

She caught Felicia’s questioning eyes. “Because of pride, fear, insecurity, and probably revenge, I kept the fact that I was pregnant from Erik for eight months, Felicia. I could have picked up the phone and told him. I could have gone to see him, but I didn’t.” She waved her hand around in the air. “After his pain lessened,
he
tried to reach out to me in that letter of apology—the one I didn’t get because Jessica hijacked it. Consequently, my nonresponse led him to believe that I was through with him. The one thing he asked me never to do was leave him. Yet I did. I left him, like you had left him by giving him up, like Cassie had left him by dying. The moment I walked out of that house in Amherst was the moment he shut the door to his heart. And then thinking that he’d move on, I punished him by denying him the joy of watching his child grow inside me. Don’t you think that was mean of me?”

Felicia merely shrugged, obviously not wanting to call her out.

Michelle allowed her gaze to wander toward the pool where her son was splashing water on the girls, and then swimming away when they tried to splash him back. Her heart leaped with a mixture of love and regret. “I plotted to raise Little Erik alone and deny him and Erik a father and son relationship. That amazing, loving bond they now share almost didn’t happen.” She shuddered at the thought. “Keeping Little Erik’s existence from Erik, and you and Philippe, too, was selfish of me, especially when I knew firsthand what having an absentee father could do to a child.”

Felicia’s eyes softened. “My God. We’re always so focused on a man hurting his woman and then not going after her to make it right, we seldom stop to evaluate the woman’s part in the breakup.”