Nicholas (Members From Money Book 10)

by Katie Dowe

  There was a nod of agreement and from then on the tone of the party changed.

  *****

  Peter waited until she was sleeping. He went into the study and sat behind the desk that had belonged to his father and switched on the desk lamp. The place was bare and scantily furnished and the desk drawers were locked but he had found the keys in his father’s belongings that had been retrieved from the accident. He sifted through the titles and found a notebook with his father’s handwriting. It was a list of properties and stocks owned by the company and what had been done to them. His father had been very thorough and precise and left nothing to chance. He had also never trusted anyone and there was a separate list with all the members of the board and their weaknesses. His eyes widened as he came upon the name of one of the board members. He was Reeves Blagrove and he had the most interest in the company apart from his father and him. He had discovered that Reeves had been selling stocks secretly and had been planning to deal with him. So it was left up to him to do so. He laid aside the book with a tired sigh. Was he going to be able to run this billion dollar company successfully? What if he failed? He was not as single-minded as his father was. He had a wife whom he loved so much that he found himself shaking with the force of that love and he was not prepared to put the company before her.

  He heard the movement in the doorway and without turning his head he knew she had come to find him.

  “What are you doing?” She moved towards him and sat on his lap. He had neglected to put on a shirt but had pulled on his sweatpants. She was wearing one of his shirts to cover her nakedness. “Just going through some of his things.” His hand found its way underneath the shirt and felt her pubic area.

  “Are you okay?” She gasped as his fingers dipped inside her.

  “I am now,” he told her huskily, thrusting inside her slowly, torturing her. He repositioned her to put her legs around him so that she was facing him. He eased her up a little to take out his penis and then he entered her.

  “Peter,” she moaned, tightening around him. The shirt was opened and he bent his head to capture a nipple while she rode him eagerly her back arched. He pushed away from the desk and held her hips firm, thrusting inside her hard and fast.

  “I love you,” he cried out, his body trembling. “I love you so much.” He lifted her and took her with him back to their bedroom, his penis still buried deep inside her. He closed the door behind them and braced her back against the wall, his thrust seeking and desperate as he brought them both to a stunning and overwhelming release!

  *****

  Reeves Blagrove was the youngest member of the board aside from Peter. He came from a very privileged family and had been to an Ivy League school. At forty-five, he had been married twice and had no children. He was suave and handsome with thick brown hair and hazel eyes and spent his time working out at the gym inside his pent house suite. He believed in lavish living and had his doting parents to bail him out of every situation he had ever found himself in.

  “Hey Peter,” he greeted the new CEO warmly. He was not like the other old farts who believed that the younger man was going to bring the company down, he was all about changes and he had always privately thought that John Kamato was an arrogant son of a bitch.

  Peter had called him in for a meeting in his office. He had not taken his father’s office, preferring to keep his own.

  He nodded briefly to the man and handed him a folder.

  “What’s this?” He opened the folder curiously and read what was in the file swiftly before looking up at Peter. “Where did you get this?” His affable manner had all but disappeared.

  “My father had you under investigation for a while now and before the accident was planning on exposing you and having you kicked off the board,” Peter told him coolly. “What I cannot understand is why? I thought you were happy here and you wanted to become a part of the company for a long time yet.”

  “He had no right to do that.” Reeves’ hazel eyes blazed as he desperately tried to stop the trembling in his arms.

  “Oh, but that’s where you are wrong,” Peter said softly. “He had every right, this company belonged to him.”

  “What are you planning to do?” His resentment and anger was apparent.

  “That’s up to you. I noticed that you have sold ten percent of your interests and as a show of good faith I am going to allow you to buy them back and then you are going to sell them back to me along with your other ten percent.” Peter’s face was impassive and unreadable.

  Reeves sat there and felt the sweat around the collar of his shirt. The air conditioner in the office was on full blast but he felt as if he was standing before a blazing fire. “I was in trouble,” he muttered. “I owed gambling debts and I was being pressured to come up with the money, I did not have a way out.”

  “Mommy and daddy were no longer footing the bill?” Peter asked him scathingly.

  His face turned red with fury and embarrassment! It was a standing joke among the members of the board and even staff members that Reeves had parents who bailed him out of every situation and that he was not man enough to do it himself.

  “I did not want to bother them with this,” he said stiffly. “I had no choice.”

  “We always have a choice.” Peter leaned forward in the chair and met his gaze head on. “You have until the end of the week.”

  “Today is Wednesday,” the man protested, feeling his bowels turned to water.

  “So, you have no time to waste now do you?” Peter’s gaze was dismissive.

  Reeves stood up on shaky legs and headed for the door; he turned back to look at Peter but the man was already looking at his computer screen as if he had forgotten that he had been in the room. He was wrong, the son was worse than the father!

  *****

  He had meetings with all the board members separately and told them that there were going to be changes. He could feel their impotent rage, but he had to make them realize that he was not a push over and that he was in authority.

  His mother called him when he was rushing out to a meeting. “Mother, are you okay?” he asked in concern.

  “I am fine, Peter,” she answered warmly. “Just wanted to know how you were getting on.”

  “I am okay, Mother.” He paused. “How about inviting Charles over for dinner on Saturday?”

  “Oh Peter, I would love that!” she exclaimed. “I want to thank you for not judging me and for accepting him. It makes me feel so much better.”

  “You are welcome,” he told her. “I have to rush out to a meeting just now. Will you be home for dinner later?”

  “I will,” she responded. “See you then.”

  She hung up the phone and turned to face Charles. She had been spending more and more time with him lately and she could not believe how free and happy she felt. “He wants you over for dinner on Saturday.”

  “I would love that,” Charles told her, wrapping his arms around her.

  She rested her head on his solid chest and sighed with contentment. She was finally happy.

  Chapter 11

  It came unexpectedly. She had gone off the pills because she had been having an allergic reaction to them and had not found the time to go back on something else. She had been so busy with work and with them trying to find the perfect spot to build their home that she had not had the time. Besides that, Mitsui and Charles had planned their wedding date for the second of August, so there was a lot going on.

  They were having breakfast one morning; Mitsui had spent the night over at Charles’ and had not returned yet, so it was only she and Peter. One minute she was eating the oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon and the next minute she felt the wave of nausea wash over causing her stomach to clench and the sweat to pop onto her forehead.

  “Kimberly, what’s wrong?” Peter was up in a second as he saw her bent over on the table.

  “I think I am going to be sick.” She shook out of his hands and raced for the nearby bathroom where she empti
ed out the entire meal and some. She felt him behind her on the floor and when she was spent he pulled her back against him and rested a damp towel on her forehead. She took deep calming breaths to still her heartbeat.

  “Feeling better?” His deep voice rumbled against her cheek.

  She nodded. “I think I might be allergic to something,” she murmured.

  “Or you might be pregnant.” He lifted her chin to look at her closely.

  “Pregnant?” She frowned as she tried to remember the last time she had had her menstrual flows. With all the up and down she had all but forgotten about it and realized that she had not had any for quite some time. Her eyes widened as she looked at her husband. “I think you might be right,” she said slowly.

  Peter was elated! He did not want to jinx it by running ahead of himself, he preferred to consult with the doctor first. “Can you stand?” he asked her.

  She stood with his help, her feet a little wobbly as she clung to him. Throwing caution to the wind, he lifted her up and twirled her around with a whoop of joy. “I am going to be a father!”

  *****

  The doctor confirmed it. She was indeed pregnant. “Going on four weeks,” Doctor McIntyre told them after he had had finished the examination. They had decided to go into work late and Peter had canceled the early morning meeting he had set to go with her. “I am going to prescribe some iron and vitamins to help with the growth of the fetus, you are a little anemic but don’t worry what I'm giving you will help.”

  Doctor Ilene McIntyre had known the family since Peter was a child and offered her condolences about his father. “Thank you, Doctor,” he told her briefly.

  “What about the nausea?” Kimberly asked her.

  “I will give you something that will help somewhat.”

  *****

  “So, who do we tell first?” he asked her as soon as they were outside. It was a hot summer morning and she could not wait to get in the cool interior of the vehicle.

  “I will call my mom and you call yours,” she suggested.

  “Good idea,” he said with a smile.

  Both mothers were ecstatic at the news! Karen was just leaving out to go and take care of some bills but she said that could wait. “How about you come over and we talk?”

  “I have to go to the store, remember?” She forced her voice to remain cheerful. She could hear Peter in the background talking to his mother and hear the excitement from her end.

  “Honey, are you up for it?”

  “Mom I do not have a terminal illness, I am just pregnant and I do have a business to run,” she said a little impatiently.

  “I will stop by on my way home. I am so happy, honey,” she exclaimed.

  *****

  She went straight to her office the minute Peter dropped her off. She had been hard put not to show her true feelings and the strain of pretending to be happy with him had taken its toll on her.

  “Hey you okay?” Brian asked her curiously following her to the office.

  “Not now, Brian,” she told him abruptly. “I need some privacy.” She slammed the door shut behind her.

  She was pregnant! She sat on her chair. The irrational fear of child birth had always been at the back of her mind but she had dismissed it thinking that she did not have to contend with that right now. She knew Peter had been saying he wanted children but she had always avoided the subject. She loved her husband, but the thought of getting swollen with his child inside her was not something she was looking forward to! Who was she going to tell? She could not confide in him and his mother was out of the question, they were over the moon about her being pregnant and she had wanted to discuss her feelings with the doctor but she was a family friend and she was afraid somehow they would find out. She could not tell her mother either because she had sounded so excited about the prospect of being a grandmother. That only left Simone and Deidre and she knew what they were going to say. With a sigh, she bent her head on her desk, feeling her stomach rumble and realized that she had basically not eaten anything since morning and it was almost noon now.

  She was just about to go and get some soup from the nearby eatery when her phone rang. “Hello?”

  “Hey! You sound like you lost your best friend. I am still here girlfriend.” It was Simone and she realized that apart from a brief call to say that she was settling in, she had not heard from her since then.

  “Simone!” She sat back down and felt the first spark of excitement since the day started. “Oh girl, it’s very good to hear from you!”

  “Leandro is out back trying to mend a fence in the backyard and here I am waiting dinner for him. How are you?”

  “I am pregnant,” she told her abruptly.

  Simone gave an earsplitting shriek that caused Kimberly to move the phone from her ear. “I am going to be an aunt?”

  “I suppose so.” Kimberly tried to draw from her excitement but she failed.

  “You don’t sound too thrilled.”

  “I am not.” She heard how it sounded and continued. “Is it wrong of me not to be excited over the news?”

  “It depends on why you aren’t,” Simone said cautiously. “Why aren’t you?”

  Kimberly searched for a suitable response. “I think I would have preferred it to be much later in life like maybe when I am in my thirties or so. I am just getting to know Peter and with what went on with his father and he had to hide our love and then his death. I just wanted a break from all the drama and for us to get to know each other better. We have not been out on a proper date because he was thrown into running the company. I am scared Simone, and I do not feel anything for this thing inside me.”

  “Honey, I get what you are saying and that ‘thing’ inside you is barely a thing yet. As it grows into something I believe you will start bonding and the bond between a mother and a child is something very powerful or so I have been told,” Simone assured her.

  “I hope so,” Kimberly said with a deep sigh. “How are you?”

  “I am great!” she exclaimed. “I am learning to press wine and I have officially become a farmer. We go for picnics in the woods and we take very long walks in the mornings. He is a peach, Kim, and I am afraid I keep expecting him to change.”

  “Just go with it and stop being so fearful,” Kimberly told her.

  “Look who is talking?” Simone said teasingly. “Why don’t you take a week and come over and spend it with us?”

  “I doubt that will work, especially now that I am pregnant,” she said wryly. “We are looking for a spot to start making our house and Peter’s mom is getting married next month.”

  “Quite a lot going on.”

  “You can say that again,” she said with a sigh.

  “Well suggest it to Peter, you are both welcome but please let him know that this is not a pent house suite but a humble abode but the open spaces and the fresh air would do you guys great.”

  “I will,” Kimberly said with a laugh feeling her mood lighten.

  “And honey, make some time to go out. You were cheated of the dating part of the relationship because of his father, but now that he is gone there is no longer an excuse,” Simone said seriously.

  “You are right.”

  They chatted a few more minutes and then said goodbye.

  He called her every chance he got to find out if she had eaten or how she was feeling and she had to force herself to sound as if she was thrilled. “Peter, I am fine, so stop calling,” she told him impatiently. She was in the middle of grooming a dog and the smell of the soap she had used had made her nauseous and she was fighting to keep her soup down. She had not told Brian and she had no intention of telling him right now either. “Brian, can you take over please?” She stood and felt herself swaying slightly.

  “Peter, I happen to be working here and each time you call me you interrupt what I am doing,” she said impatiently going towards her office. She had to be taking deep breaths to fight the nausea.

  “I cannot help it. I am an idiot
for you right now,” he told her softly. “Do you know how I feel, baby? You are carrying my child inside you and there is nothing I would not do for you. I am sorry if I am overbearing, but I am very excited and apprehensive at the same time. My father was a lousy dad and I want to be different and I keep hearing a voice saying to me that I will not be different. I am going to be my father all over.”

  “You know that’s not true,” she told him, sitting on the chair behind her desk heavily. “You are a different man from your father and I think you know that as well.”

  “Thanks, baby, I needed that. Have you eaten?”

  “I had some soup, that’s the only thing my stomach can take right now,” she told him lightly.

  “I will buy you all the soup in the world if that’s what you want,” he told her huskily. “Thank you, baby.”

  “For what?” she asked him puzzled.

  “For carrying my child.”

  She cried. As soon as she hung up from him, she burst into tears! She knew it was partly hormones but part of it was she felt like the lowest form of human being there was. How was she going to do this? Pretend that she was as excited as he was when she was resenting the child growing inside her? How could she love her husband so much and not love the part of him he had implanted inside her? What kind of a monster was she?

  *****

  He picked her up at six. He had asked her about getting a car and she had been thinking about it. She still rode her bike on the weekends when she was home but she knew he was never going to agree to it now. “How was your day?” she asked him as soon as he buckled her in.

  “Fruitful.” He had not moved but used the opportunity to take her lips with his. “I have been wanting to do this all day.” His tongue delved inside her mouth and one hand was on her breast. She was wearing a white cotton dress with thin straps and wide skirt and he reached inside her bodice to cup her breast. She gasped as he ran a finger over her sensitive nipple and braced her back against the seat. “Baby.” He dragged his mouth from hers and taking one of her hands he placed it against his crotch for her to feel his pulsing erection. She squeezed lightly and he groaned loosening the buckle of her seatbelt and dragging her over to him, his mouth buried on hers. With a muffled groan he put her away from him, his breathing ragged and his hand shaking as he placed them on the steering wheel. “Let’s go home,” he said hoarsely.