by Katie Dowe
“Okay,” he nodded.
They stayed there waiting to get word until it became dawn before the doctor told them that there had been no change, his condition was still the same. “I suggest you go on home and get some rest and we will call you as soon as we have something to report.”
*****
His status had changed. The CEO of the company was incapacitated and he was second in command so it was up to him to step up. He called a meeting of the board as soon as he got to the office. He had gone to Kimberly’s to shower and change and tell Kimberly briefly what was going on. “I might be late coming home,” he told her as he made to leave.
“Of course ,I understand,” she told him, feeling the shift already. For the first time since they had been together, he left without kissing her.
“As you have heard my father has been in a terrible accident and is presently in a coma. I will be sitting in as CEO for the time being until I know what is happening,” he told them.
“What exactly does this mean, Peter?” Barrington, a long standing member of the board, asked him.
He looked at the man briefly. “It means I am running things right now and I will need to meet with you individually to iron out some details and to know where we are.”
“What if he does not wake up?” the man persisted.
“We will deal with it when and if that happens. Dismissed,” he told them coolly. “Barrington, please stay.”
Peter waited until the men had filed out of the large conference room before he spoke. “Are you trying to undermine my authority?” he asked the man mildly.
“I am just concerned,” the man said with a slight shrug.
“Why?”
“Because you are not as experienced as your father and…” He stopped himself.
“Go on,” Peter said softly, leaning back against the chair his father used to sit in.
Barrington McGregor shifted uncomfortably in the soft plush chair. The man was much younger than he was and yet he felt as if he wanted to flee from the room. “Your father has been CEO for many years now and as much as you have been a part of the company since you were a child, I don’t think you know what running the company entails. I am just concerned, Peter,” he added hastily.
“I appreciate your concern,” Peter’s voice was calm and cool. “But if you voice those concerns in front of the others again, you are gone.”
“What?” The man looked at him in shock. “You cannot do that!”
“Watch me.” He leaned forward in his seat. “Your alimony payments are more than you can manage and you have started drinking again. I know a lot about you, Barrington, and I would not hesitate to use it.”
There was silence in the room for a spell as the man stared at him furiously. “I thought you were better than your father,” he said bitterly.
“I am,” Peter told him smoothly. “And I aim to prove it.”
*****
“I don’t get to see you,” Charles complained as she picked up her pocketbook getting ready to leave. It had been three weeks since the accident and her husband had not made a change. She went there every day to sit by his side and read to him because the doctor had told her that it would help if he heard a familiar voice. His phone had rung constantly and when she answered the call at one time, the person had hung up. She had used her phone to call the number and had gotten a young female voice.
“This is Mitsui Kamato, who are you?” she had asked.
The girl had hesitated before saying, “I am a friend of John’s.”
“You can put it in the right context, my dear; you were sleeping with my husband,” Mitsui had told her mildly. “He has been in an accident and I take it he was coming from your place when it happened.”
“I am sorry,” she had muttered and hung up the phone. She had not called back since.
“I have to be there for him, Charles, you have to understand that. He is still my husband,” she protested. She had been torn with guilt and wondered if this happened for a reason. She had gone to the hospital every day since the accident and she felt it was her duty.
“He treated you like dirt and you were planning on leaving him Mits, you don’t have anything to feel guilty for.”
“Don’t I?” she asked him sadly. “I broke my vows to him and now he is in a coma and it happened the very night I was planning to tell him I wanted to leave. What does that say?”
“It says that this is your way out,” Charles insisted. “Please don’t look at me like that. We are both thinking it. The man was a bastard and made all around him unhappy, so don’t expect me to play the hypocrite and be sorry about what happened to him.”
“Are you implying that I am a hypocrite?” her voice was icy.
“No Mits, I am not but sadly enough even now that he is incapacitated he is coming between us. I am beginning to think we were not meant to be.”
“What are you saying?” she whispered.
“I can’t go on like this, just waiting to see what happens,” he told her wearily. “Do what you have to do.”
She had left and gone to the hospital right after. That had been two days ago and he had not called her.
She lifted her head from the newspaper she was reading to see her son come inside the room. He looked different somehow, more authoritative and sure of himself.
“You don’t have to do this every day, Mother,” he told her with a brief smile. He had started coming home more and she was still yet to meet his wife.
“The doctor says it will help.” She put aside the paper she had been reading and gave him her full attention. He did not sit but stood just inside the doorway looking at both of them.
“Do you really want him to revive mother?” he asked cynically, coming further inside the room.
“Why are you saying that?” his mother asked in alarm, glancing at her husband as if she would see him wake up and answer in his usual harsh manner.
“Because it’s the truth.” He looked down at the man who had fathered him and had tried to control his life since he came into the world. “He treated us like crap and was coming home from one of his women when he met in the accident.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.” He glanced at her briefly, his heart turning over for her. “I have known for more than a month now because I needed leverage to use against him. He was always talking about family and values and he was sleeping with a woman young enough to be his daughter.”
Mitsui stared down at the hands in her lap. What if he found out about her and Charles? “We did not have a traditional marriage,” she reminded him, her gaze going to her husband's still frame. “I guess he needed an outlet for whatever it was that he was facing.”
“You are generous for a woman that has been cheated on over and over again,” Peter said dryly. “Let me know if there are any changes.” With that he turned and left.
Mitsui sat there looking after him and realized that what her son was directing towards her was utter contempt. How could she have sat at home year after year and let him walk all over her and do whatever he wanted to do? With a shuddering breath, she felt the tears coming!
Chapter 9
“What’s going on?” He had finally come home tonight after calling her and telling her he was picking up dinner. She had not seen him since last week and he had told her he was busy with meetings and he needed to go home to be with his mother some nights and she had accepted it.
“What do you mean?” He looked cold an unapproachable, not like the Peter she knew and loved and it scared her. She had gotten home before him and had taken a shower and was in the middle of twisting her thick heavy hair when he came. He had brought Chinese food and a bottle of red wine. She had sat there in the living room while he put the things on the kitchen counter.
He had come to sit in front of her and asked her how her day was and she had asked him the question. “You are in and out and we have not made love in a week, Peter. I need you to tell me what is going on.” She piled
her heavy hair on top of her head and secured it with a thick rubber band.
“You know what is going on, Kimberly.” He avoided her eyes and stood up abruptly. “I am now running a company and my father is in a coma. My mother depends on me for everything now so I have to be there. I have asked you to come and live at the house and you refused. What am I supposed to do?”
“I am not going to live at a place where your father who did not in any way approve of me lives. What happens if he comes out of the coma? What do we do then?” She stood up as well. She had felt him slipping away from her and she could not do anything to stop it.
“What do you want me to do, Kimberly?” He turned around to face her. “I am here now, aren’t I? Instead of arguing we should be spending the time making up for when I am not here.”
“You think you can make up for when you are not here?” she asked him coldly. “I am your wife, Peter, and I am not some submissive Asian woman from your culture who is prepared to fold her arms and take whatever you mete out to her. I am different and if you don’t want to be married anymore just say the word.”
He stood there looking at her in frustrated anger and then he strode into the kitchen with her following behind him. “I need an answer, Peter.”
He slammed his hands down on the countertop causing her to jump. “I am doing the best I can, why can’t you see that?” he asked her tightly, his dark eyes smoldering as he reached for her. “Do you think I want out of the marriage?” He pulled the t-shirt over her head and he stood there staring at her unfettered breasts with their dusky brown nipples. She was wearing tiny black lace underwear. “I need you.” He lifted her and put her on the counter, pulling down her panties in the process. “I need you,” he repeated as he lifted her legs and dipped his tongue inside her. Kimberly had thought about fighting him but when he touched her, the weakness invaded her body and cutting off every logical thought she had. She gasped and settled back against the counter as his tongue thrust inside her, his teeth grazing her mound. She moaned and put her feet on his shoulders as he continued to dip inside her. He lifted his head from her and stood there staring at her moodily before undressing hurriedly. He was fully erect and with a moan he lifted her off the counter and placed her on one of the stools, entering her immediately. “I need this, I cannot get enough, so don’t ask me if I want to end the marriage, never ask me that.” He finished the sentence with a tortured groan and started moving inside her, his lips on her nipple. She wrapped her legs around his waist and met his thrusts urgently, her body trembling against his. She had missed him so much and hated being without him for even a night.
“Give me a child.” He had lifted his head and was looking at her, his dark eyes unreadable.
“What?” She shook her head to get rid of the fog of desire clouding it.
“I want to see you swollen with my child,” he told her, gripping her hips thrusting deep inside her causing her to gasp and moan.
“No,” she tried to sound firm and resolute but her voice came out shaky and trembling. He had slowed down his movements and pulled out of her, resting the tip of his penis on her mound and rubbing against it, making her almost out of her mind with need.
“Please,” he muttered hoarsely. She watched as he held his erection, wet from her insides and rested it against the edge of her opening. “Say yes,” he demanded, slipping inside her a little at a time and driving her crazy.
“We can’t.” She was trying to fight the fire licking at her but it was hopeless. “We are not ready.”
“Tell me yes,” he commanded, and with a sudden force he entered her fully, lifting her off the stool and holding her hips steady while he thrust inside her urgently. Kimberly wrapped her arms around his neck and bit down on his shoulder hard causing him to jerk against her! He came inside her with such force that he had to sit back on the stool with her on him as he spilled his seed inside her helplessly, crying out her name brokenly. She came in the middle of it and he fused their mouths together, their bodies shaking as they clung to each other.
*****
That night while they were in bed, they laid there both caught up in their own thoughts. They had attempted to eat the food but he had reached for her in the middle of ii and they had made love again up against the wall, afterwards he had sucked her dry, going down on his knees before her.
“Why do you want a child so badly?” she asked him quietly.
“I just want one, that’s all,” he told her briefly. “We are married so the next step is to have children.”
“I see.” She eased up and rested back against the mound of pillows against the bed. “I don’t have a say in it?”
“Don’t you want children?” He turned his head to look at her, taking in her beautiful skin and her breasts that made him ached with desire every time.
“I want children when we are doing it for the right reason, Peter, and somehow I am thinking that you do not want it for the right reason.” She looked down and felt her heart ached. These days it was only when they were making love that she felt close to him. What was happening to them?
He shrugged his shoulders eloquently. “Suit yourself.” He turned onto his side and turned out his light. “Get some sleep.”
Kimberly fought the tears and taking a deep breath she turned out her light and moved as far away from him as possible remembering when they used to cuddle up and sleep in each other’s arms.
*****
“You look like hell,” was the first comment from Brian as soon as she went in the next morning. Peter had left very early with a chaste kiss on her forehead telling her he would see her later. She had stayed there in bed after he had left and wondered if they had made a mistake. She loved him that much she knew and she knew he loved her as well, but she was wondering at the change in behavior sine he had taken over the company, he had told her he was prepared to walk away from it and secretly she had wanted him to, except now he was working so hard at proving himself that she was afraid he was slowly slipping away from her.
“Thanks,” she murmured going straight to her office. She bit off a resigned sigh as she saw that he had followed her. She took off her spring jacket to reveal a stunningly simple floral dress with a wide skirt.
“Is that new?” he asked her in admiration noticing how the bodice fitted her snugly and how tiny her waist looked in it.
“Don’t you have work to do?” she asked him impatiently.
“Not yet.” He took a seat in front of her desk. “I cleaned out the cages and put in fresh water so I am free for the next fifteen minutes. Asian delight giving you problems?”
“Who?”
“Your billionaire boyfriend,” he said impatiently. “I saw his picture in the papers just recently saying that he had taken over the company from his father and his father was in a coma. How does it feel to be going out with a billionaire?”
“I have no idea,” she told him coolly. They still had not made it public that they were married and it was starting to wear on her nerves. “I am dating the man and not his money.”
“If you say so.” He looked at her searchingly. “I might be out of line for saying this but you don’t look like the Kim I knew. The happy go lucky, don’t give a rat’s ass about anything kind of girl I always admired and wished I could meet someone like her. Whatever it is that’s making you so troubled you need to consider if it is worth it.” He stood up and ran a hand over his faded denims. “I think I have meddled into your affairs enough for the morning, I will now go and do what I am paid to do.” He left her there in deep consideration.
*****
“I have lost who I am and what I am about and it took Brian reminding me for me to realize it.” She dug into her garden salad. They were having lunch at a restaurant near to the store and she had left Brian in charge until she returned.
“Brian is an idiot,” Simone said mildly, drinking her iced tea gratefully. The spring day was unseasonably warm and balmy and they were in fact expecting a thunderstorm late
r in the night.
“He has a lot on his plate, Kim,” Deidre reminded her friend, referring to Peter.
“A lot on his plate that he will not open up and talk to me about.” Kimberly crunched on the lettuce with lack of interest. “We are married and he is intent on going about everything all by himself.”
“You are making me have second thoughts about marriage,” Simone murmured. She was going to be finishing the school year and packing up and moving to Tulsa in July. “You guys are so in love and now look what is happening.”
“But that’s just it,” Deidre said. “There is no guarantee that every day is going to be good. You have to be there for him, Kim, and try and understand what he is going through.”
“He was never close to his father so I do not understand the need to seek his approval even though he does not have a clue as to what is happening around him,” Kimberly said with a shake of her head.
“Have you been to visit?” Simone asked her.
“He has never suggested it to me and I don’t think I want to go.”
“Why don’t you take charge?” Simone suggested. “The old Kim I knew would not ask but would just do. Bring back the old Kim.”
*****
“Honey, you look tired,” her mother exclaimed as soon as she saw her. She had called and told her that she would be coming over for dinner. She had been putting Peter’s needs before hers and when she knew he was coming over she would be at home waiting for him, that’s all going to change now.
”I have not been sleeping too well.” She placed her pocketbook on the counter and sniffed the air. Her mother was making pot roast and the smell had hit her as soon as she came through the white picket fence. She had noticed that the garden was rioting with spring flowers and the scent had been competing with the smell of her mother’s cooking.
“Are you by any chance pregnant?” There was a hopeful note in her voice as she looked at her daughter.
“You are as bad as Peter,” Kimberly said dryly, taking an apple from the dish on the counter.