Of course, it never occurred to me to question Mr. Clemson or Boyd about other grandsons. Grandsons of daughters with married names. And no one at the Bookmark had said a word about Kason until Phoebe brought him up. That was strange to me. Once his name was out in the open, they didn't seem reluctant to talk about him at all. I wondered how that was possible. Surely he would have told them to keep his relationship with the shop a secret.
I finished my second glass of wine as the conversation turned to dinner plans. The threesome invited me, but I declined. "I have some things I really have to take care of tonight. You guys go ahead." I gave Phoebe a little hug goodbye. "I'm so glad I got to meet you at last. I hope we can see more of one another."
The three of them headed down the block for a pizza joint that had some of the best calzone in the city. Boyd had brought some into the Bookmark. We had shared them at work and I was hooked.
I thought one more glass of wine might help lubricate my thought process and provide some liquid courage. My cell phone tallied three missed calls, all from Kason. I resisted listening to the messages he left. There were texts, too. He never texted. He said it was a method of communication for kids. But there they were: "Where are you?", "Why aren't you answering me?", "I want to see you now!". In spite of my mood I had to smile at those. He didn't know the abbreviations—'u' for 'you' or 'c' for 'see'—every word was painfully spelled out.
I turned the phone over again and again in my hand as I contemplated what I was going to say to him. It wasn't the best idea in the world, but I ordered a fourth glass of wine as I watched the phone light up with yet another call. Finally, I turned it off.
It was only a few blocks walk to the Dakota. Thinking the cold wind would clear my head, I started to walk toward his building. I wanted the walk to last longer than it did. Too soon I found myself staring up at the imposing old building. Once inside, I had the urge to flee. Suck it up, Annalise. Get it done.
The doorman recognized me and gave me a little nod. He was a vigilant gatekeeper who kept the unwashed masses from buzzing the apartments of the luxury apartments of the wealthy and reclusive residents. I pressed the button for Kason's apartment. He didn't ask who it was. He simply said, "Annalise?"
"Yes, it's me."
The door to the inner sanctum sounded a jarring welcome as I let myself in. The elegant elevator slid up noiselessly until I reached Kason's floor. When the doors opened he was standing there, waiting. I hoped for anger so I'd have an excuse to pit my own against his. But he gathered me in his arms with a fierce protectiveness as a father might embrace an almost lost child.
"Oh Annalise. Annalise," he murmured into my hair. "I was so worried." He rained kisses on my face clutching me and running his hands over me as if he was trying to reassure himself that I was real. I had been so keyed up with alcohol and anticipation that I hadn't noticed how cold I was. The lightweight coat I wore was no match for the bitter wind tunneling down the streets. I shivered.
Kason pulled me into his apartment and took my coat. He wrapped me in an afghan and settled down with me on the couch. The room was just as I had left it; decorated and scented with the cinnamon of Christmas. I observed my handiwork as a stranger.
"What happened? Where were you? Why didn't you answer me?"
"I was out," I answered him as I groped for some way to begin.
"You didn't have your phone?"
"Yes, I had it." Kason looked at me, waiting for more. "I was with Boyd and Phoebe." I paused too long.
"And my grandfather."
"Yes."
"I can explain."
"You lied to me."
"I didn't lie."
"Then what do you call it?"
"A sin of omission."
I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Don't play me for a fool. You lied. I asked you to butt out of my life—to leave me to make my way without your interference. You just couldn't stop controlling me, could you?"
"Will you listen to me? Please?"
I just stared at him. The cold was leaving my body, but it stayed in my eyes.
"You hadn't laid out your stupid conditions when I . . . when I thought of Grandfather's shop. The whole situation was well under way when you put the brakes on. Think about it. It was the day your mother returned. I was about to tell you all about the Bookmark, about the perfect opportunity it was for you when you pulled that stunt about how I couldn't give you what you wanted."
I thought. And he was right. The conversation about my employment was the catalyst for that awful separation. The separation I couldn't manage to maintain.
"By the time I saw you again, you already had the job. I was too afraid that you'd bolt again if you knew I had a hand in it."
"But you let me believe I got that job on my own."
"You did get the job on your own. Grandfather didn't know anything about you. All I did was suggest he needed an upgrade and Boyd agreed with me. I set the stage, but when you went to the shop to talk to him you were just a girl looking for a job. A job that was a perfect match. I swear I didn't tell him to hire you."
"But you enlisted my father's help, too. And you never told me that."
"Again, your father didn't know I had anything to do with arranging the job. I've gotten to know a few of the guys he works with. I mentioned the job to one of them. It was all very casual."
"That sounds all too convenient."
"Look, my grandfather is an old man. He can't keep that shop forever. He legitimately needed help and the Bookmark needed to move into the times if it was going to survive. Can you at least agree to that much?"
"Okay . . . but it's awfully coincidental."
"Who is better qualified for that job than you? Who?" He got up and paced. His tone was almost pleading. "You've got the right degree. You have experience in complex retrieval systems. You know your way around web sites and technology. I didn't have to suggest you to Grandfather. All I had to do was get the two of you together."
"But you never let on . . ."
"What would have happened then? I know you by now. You're ready to run at the slightest provocation."
"Like you did the day my mother came home?"
"Touché. That was a mistake. I was miserable. And scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Lots of things. Scared of opening up to you. Scared of letting you inside the wall. Scared, most of all, that I'd love you and lose you."
My heart started to pound.
"But I came back. I wanted to try. I couldn't stand being without you."
Boom. Boom. Boom.
"I wanted to tell you several times. But you kept going off on me. You told me you had 'no commitment to me' at the very moment I wanted to . . . Anyway, you set me off."
"What did you want to do, Kason?"
"I don't like your terms. I don't like the arbitrary limits." He came over to the couch and pulled me to my feet, holding me close and squeezing the breath out of me with his embrace.
"I want to know that you'll be there for me. That you won't bolt out of my life. I've stopped being able to imagine a future that doesn't have you in it." He put me at arm's length and trained his magic eyes on mine. "You've brought something back that I thought I'd never feel again. I stopped looking past next week a long time ago. You have me dreaming again. But in every dream I have, you're the star."
He touched his lips to mine and kissed a tender ache into my core.
"I love you, Annalise. It still scares the devil out of me but I swear I love you. Without limits, without conditions, and with every glorious expectation that my life is by your side."
I couldn't stop the tears that spilled blissfully down my cheeks. "Oh, Kason, I love you too. With all my heart, I do."
He reached up and caught a salty drop and brought it to his mouth. "Sacred tears." I saw his eyes glisten, too. Every breath, every hour had led to this moment.
"Make love to me. Tell me with your body and then tell me again with your words."
We joined
together in an act of willful forgetting. Our bodies slid past the valleys of doubt and the shadow of fear into a place so filled with light that it warmed away all angles. We were made into a circle, eternally without beginning or end.
Every man or woman who's ever said "I love you" knows the power of those words newly uttered. The pleasure of our bodies was elevated, crystallized and transformed. He kissed me with promises. His lips burned against mine and fused our mouths in more than simple desire. His touch was sanctified by a simple phrase.
There was new born urgency in us. We both knew that there'd still be plenty of play, that there was a lifetime of games and giggles ahead of us. But on that night our coupling was a consummation.
"I love you. I love you now and I'll love you more tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that."
"Kason."
"My queen."
He claimed me with a ferocious passion. We gripped each other hard, releasing only when the aftershocks faded and our breath leveled.
We lay in silence for a while, just basking in each other. Finally he spoke. "Thank you for what you did for me today. The Christmas thing."
"That was my pleasure, darling. I didn't know what to give you for Christmas. I didn't think you needed another sweater."
He propped himself up on an elbow and smiled at me. "It's the perfect gift. You made my house a home. Our home?" He sounded like a hopeful child. Even though it was sudden, I couldn't refuse him. Not that night, maybe not ever.
"Our home," I agreed. I reached over and held his hand in the quiet, blessed night.
Epilogue
Bradley Royce surprised us by coming to New York two days before Christmas. If he was surprised to find his son's apartment a happy gingerbread kind of place with me already comfortably making bridge mix in the kitchen, he didn't let on.
His stated purpose in coming was to tell us that he had rattled cages at the highest level of the Chicago union that sent the thugs out to bedevil my father and that he felt sure there'd be no further trouble from them again. Apparently Kason hadn't bothered to tell his father to put the brakes on with respect to my dad's difficulties. I no longer cared. The whole 'sting' operation never had to happen. Dad was safe and I was living with Kason. All good.
But I like to think the real reason Mr. Royce came was the simple desire to be with his son for the holidays. He could have easily delivered his happy news by phone. But he wanted family and that felt so right to me. Amazingly, I could almost envision calling him Dad.
We had Christmas Eve dinner at the Dakota with Grandpa Clemson, Boyd, Phoebe and my family. My sister had flown in from Oklahoma with her husband and her eyes nearly dropped out of her head when she met Kason and saw how he—now we— lived. Mr. Royce was a little quiet at first around his former father-in-law. They hadn't seen each other in years. But, as the evening wore on, sweet Mr. Clemson wormed his way into Brad's damaged heart and they wound up reminiscing about old times with more warmth than I could have hoped for. Maryann Royce was surely smiling down from heaven that night.
The entire clan gathered again at my parent's house in Park Slope for in the early afternoon on Christmas Day. My father brought up two folding tables from the basement and we all managed to squeeze in. Mom cooked a turkey and a ham. The table groaned under the weight of the magnificent meal.
On New Year's Eve, snow began to fall lightly as dusk settled in. It was just as well. Kason had asked me if we could have a quiet night at home instead of 'doing the town'. I was more than happy to stay in. He had champagne, caviar and foie gras that I intended to prepare as close to the way I had it in France as I could get it.
We toasted the New Year in our favorite outfits—me in my red velvet robe and he in his elegant silk. We watched the little gas fire twinkle in our candlelit nest. I tried to act suitably surprised when Kason presented me with a diamond ring so big I thought I might be afraid to even wear it. But the way I loved him didn't leave much room for fear of any kind.
He slipped the ring on my finger and kissed me. "Can I admit something to you?" I asked him.
"Anything."
"I have great expectations." He kissed my hand and held it to his cheek. "We're going to have the best year of our lives this year, my only Queen."
"Until the next one and the next one, my darling Royce," I smiled.
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Copyright © 2016 by Alissa Adams
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. This book is intended for adults only.
Dear reader,
I also write highly explicit erotic versions of the Love Unexpected contemporary romance novels. My followers have told me that my stories are compelling even without the extreme heat, hence my more traditional contemporary line was born. If you would like to obtain a copy of the story (with names changed to protect the innocent) that throws the bedroom door wide open please drop me a line at [email protected] and I will send you an un-censored version of the first part of this series free of charge. Please understand that you will be receiving access to material suited for mature audiences who enjoy a five-chili type of read.
Happy reading! Alissa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty one
Twenty two
Twenty three
Twenty four
Twenty five
Twenty six
Twenty seven
Twenty eight
Twenty nine
Thirty
Thirty one
Thirty two
Thirty three
Thirty four
Almost Always: A Love Unexpected Novel Page 22