Caitríona licked her lips. The woman somehow managed to make last night, as magical as it had been, sound so cheap and tawdry. She glared resentfully at Olivia’s back as she carried her breakfast dishes to the sink and began to rinse them out.
“It wasn’t just a fling,” she said crossly to Olivia’s back.
“Well, what else could it have been? You’re married and”
“I’m not!” Caitríona denied hotly.
Olivia froze, her hands immersed in the water in the sink. Then slowly, she turned on one heel and faced Caitríona, her green eyes wide and distressed.
“You’re not?”
Caitríona shook her head, wondering why Olivia was acting so weird.
Olivia’s full lips trembled, her green eyes glittering with unshed tears.
“Then how could he?”
Fear clutched at Caitríona’s heart as an ugly premonition shot through her that she was about to learn something truly horrible about Alec.
“How could he what?”
“I thought you were just having fun and I despised you for it. But I know he was just Well, how do I say this?”
“Just say it! What is it?”
“Alec’s married,” Olivia said simply. “I’m sorry.”
The words slammed into Caitríona like a sledgehammer and her eyes shut in dismay as she digested this bit of news. He couldn’t be married! No! She wasn’t making any claims on him, she told herself desperately, but the thought that she had helped him cheat on his wife made her want to hurl.
Her gaze flew to Olivia’s and she surprised a satisfied look in the other woman’s eyes. Suspicion filtered through her. Olivia had never liked her and she would have every reason to tell such a cruel lie. “Alec is not married! You’re lying!”
“Wait here,” she said simply.
She disappeared into the bedroom Caitríona had just exited and Caitríona followed her immediately. She saw Olivia rifle through Alec’s bedside drawer and pull out a sheaf of photographs. She extended them to Caitríona with a pitying look on her face. Shakily, Caitríona looked down at the pictures in her hands. A younger Alec grinned up at her, wearing a wedding tuxedo with his arm around a smiling woman who was dressed in a mermaid-style wedding gown.
Caitríona shook her head disbelievingly. The next picture showed the couple locked in a kiss before a minister; there was no doubt! He was married! The next picture showed the exchange of rings!
Disbelievingly, she looked up at Olivia and the other woman held up her right hand. A chain dangled from it and at the end of the chain was a wedding ring. It was the same ring Alec had on in the picture.
“He’s married?” Caitríona whispered.
“Yes, to Sophie,” Olivia confirmed sympathetically, solicitously coming around and leading the other woman to sit on the bed. She took the pictures and returned them to the drawer.
“Do they ” Caitríona tried; her throat was dry and parched. She licked her lips and tried again. “Do they have kids?”
“Not yet. Apparently, Alec doesn’t want kids,” she said slowly.
“He didn’t mention it,” she said wonderingly. How could she have been so wrong about him? How could she have read him wrong?
“Honey, most men conveniently forget they are married when they want to cheat,” Olivia said gently.
Caitríona shut her eyes, feeling her heart shattering into a million pieces in her chest. How could she have been so impossibly stupid?
“Could I have some privacy, please?” she said, looking up at Olivia, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
With a nod, Olivia turned and quietly departed from the room.
Caitríona buried her head in her hands, tears seeping from the corners of her eyes as she recalled the way she had virtually thrown herself at the bastard like a lovesick idiot and then she had actually told him she had never met anyone as amazing as him. No wonder he had just grinned smugly and continued to make love to her without a word; he must have thought she was a desperate fool.
Anger surged through her and she sprung to her feet. She grabbed her sandals and purse and dashed out of the room. A thought occurred and she ran back into the bedroom, scribbled a note hastily on a sheet of paper and pinned it to the pillow. There! He couldn’t possibly miss that.
She heard Olivia moving around in the kitchen and she stealthily made her way to the front door, jerked it open and ran out of the cabin.
She had had enough of Hawaii, she decided dry-eyed as she walked toward her cabin; it wasn’t far from Alec’s. She still had over a week for her holiday, but if she had to stay one more day in Hawaii, with the possibility of running into that bastard, she would lose her mind. The thought of somehow running into Alec was so distressing she hastened her steps automatically, anxious to put as much distance between them as possible.
By the time she reached her little rented cabin, she was running and out of breath, with tears coursing down her cheeks. She impatiently dashed them away as she moved around the room, rapidly throwing her clothes and cosmetics into her bags. In less than five minutes, she was done. She called for a taxi and also called the airport to book and hold.
Ten minutes later, as the taxi slid toward the airport, Caitríona wondered if she would ever be able to step foot in Hawaii, as long as she lived, again.
***
Alec Durante whistled to himself as he returned to his cabin later, carrying takeout bags. Last night had been more than a little wild. Caitríona had been so passionate, he had been surprised when he didn’t see actual scorch marks on her body.
He started with surprise when he saw Olivia rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen; his sister had avoided him like the plague for days now, especially since she’d met Jorge, her holiday fling. What was she doing here?
“Hey Olivia, what’s going on?”
“Alec. I came to have breakfast and then I had to remain until you got back coz I don’t have a key to lock up with.”
“That’s great, but you didn’t have to wait behind. Caitríona’s in the bedroom.”
“Who?” she asked with sham innocence, her green eyes wide in her slim face.
“The lady from the yacht,” he said.
“Oh, her? She left,” she said and turned to lick some peanut butter from a spoon in her hand.
His heart clutched in his chest. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. She just up and left. Said something about needing to go,” she said.
Alec dashed into the bedroom, unable to believe Caitríona had left like that without so much as a goodbye, especially since he had been so looking forward to breakfast in bed with her. She had seemed to like him as much as he liked her. What happened in the space of time he was away, he wondered as he stared around the empty bedroom.
He stalked back into the kitchen. “Olivia? Did you say anything to her?”
“No. I didn’t. She’s so hoity toity I doubt anyone gets much of a chance to say anything to her,” Olivia said carelessly.
His eyes narrowed as he stared suspiciously at Olivia. It wouldn’t be the first time his sister had decided she didn’t like his date and ran the person off.
He grabbed her arm, and enunciated through gritted teeth, “If I find out you had anything to do with Caitríona leaving, it will be one of the last things you do.”
“Get your hands off me, you Neanderthal! I’m sure she probably left you a note or something, so why don’t you go read it and find out why she left,” she shot back, wrenching her arms from his grasp.
His head snapped back in surprise. He hadn’t noticed any note; he had been too upset. He bounded into the room and sure enough, a note lay pinned to the pillow.
With shaking hands, he took it and read what was written on it in bold cursive, letters: I would hang around, but once was enough. C.
Alec re-read the note, disbelievingly, five good times, but the words didn’t change; there they were, in black and white, taunting him with how little he had meant to her.<
br />
Anger coursed through him as he squeezed the note in one fist, crumpling the tiny paper into a ball.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Ms. Michaels?” someone said hesitantly from the doorway.
Caitríona didn’t bother to look up. If her co-workers had thought she had one hell of a temper before, now they positively lived in fear of crossing her. Even Ciara had had to remark that while most people went on vacations and came back in a better mood, Caitríona was a baffling exception; she had returned with the disposition of a bear with a sore paw. These days, it was common to see executives slinking out of her office with their tails between their legs after a severe tongue-lashing; people dashed about in unusual frenzy anxious to avoid her saber tongue and mistakes popped up everywhere she looked as a result. The more she snapped, the more harried her staff became and the more they scrambled to avoid mistakes, the more they made mistakes; and then she snapped some more. It was a vicious circle.
“Ms. Michaels?” the voice said more insistently as its owner came into the office more fully.
“Yes?” she snapped, finally looking up. It was Gareth Davies.
“The Waller group will see us tomorrow at twelve noon,” he said quietly.
Caitríona nodded and turned back to her laptop, dismissing him. She didn’t have to look at him to feel his surprise. Given her raging fury when they had mucked up the last meeting just before her vacation and her intense pursuit of the Waller group since her return, her co-workers could be forgiven for expecting a little more enthusiasm from her. But these days, she couldn’t dredge up much enthusiasm for anything besides a crying jag and sleep.
It had been eight weeks since Hawaii and her temper had been steadily getting worse and worse. It didn’t help that she seemed to have picked up some sort of bug too because she had been unable to keep anything down lately. And worse, every time she shut her eyes, Alec’s face floated before them. Had it really been just one night she had spent in his arms? He had branded her so completely with his essence that she thought of him every time.
Then when she remembered that for all his charm he was nothing but a cheating cad, she wanted to hit him.
Another wave of nausea surged through her and with a sigh, Caitríona rose to her feet. She really did need to go see her doctor, she thought. She hadn’t made an appointment but seeing as Harvey was also her childhood friend, she knew she didn’t need an appointment to see him.
Twenty minutes later, she was seated across from him telling about all her symptoms from the weakness to the dizziness to the nausea.
As she tried to tell him about the tenderness in her breasts, Harvey’s lips twitched and Caitríona glared balefully at him. This was what came from having a best friend as one’s personal doctor. Good thing she hadn’t gone to Sam; but then, why would she? Sam was a heart surgeon.
“What is it?” she asked angrily.
He laughed openly, “What can I say, Caitríona? Maybe you missed school that day, but you’ve just described the classic signs of pregnancy. Who’s the lucky bastard?”
The words slammed into Caitríona with all the subtlety of s sledge hammer and she froze, her face a ravaged mask of shock.
Harvey’s teasing grin vanished when he saw how white her face was and he sat up straighter in his chair, “Um, there’s no proof yet. We need to do some tests and even if you are pregnant, you don’t need to look so ashen. There are options,” he continued.
Caitríona wasn’t listening anymore. Her thoughts whirled with dizzying intensity; a baby! Alec’s baby! True, he was a cheating cad but she had stupidly gone and fallen for him, she finally admitted to herself. She wanted to loathe him till the day she died, but some traitorous part of her kept thinking wistfully of him. She kept remembering his grin, his smile, his teasing, the way his hands held her, his impeccable manners; it was all enough to make a body weep.
How would she run CaiCia as a single mother? What would her employees say if they learned she was pregnant? What about her old-fashioned staunchly Catholic mother and relatives?
Resolutely, she sat up in her chair; if she was pregnant, she would have this child, she decided and the Devil fly with public opinion! This was the twentieth century. Besides, the pregnancy was a reminder as though one were needed that at least for one night, someone had thought she was so incredibly attractive that he had lost all control and made love to her without any thought for protection. She could never regret having this baby; she already wanted it with every fiber of her being, she thought, her hand going protectively to her still-flat stomach.
***
Caitríona’s lips trembled with a secret smile as she led four members of her staff into the conference room at Waller’s Group Inc. She was pregnant! Harvey had almost keeled over from shock when she had said she wanted to keep the baby, but she hadn’t been able to stop smiling since.
She threw Andrea a grateful smile as she was seated and whispered to the girl, “Has Mr. Waller indicated his possible stance at all?”
The girl bit her lip, her face distressed as she whispered, “I’m afraid Mr. Waller won’t be attending this meeting.”
“What do you mean?” Caitríona asked with a frown.
The door opened just then, and three men and two women filed in for the negotiations to begin. Caitríona hid her worried frown and turned to face them with a bright smile even as her mind frantically grappled with what Tyson Waller’s absence meant from a meeting where his company stood to make, at least, thirty million dollars in profit.
Why would he slough them off to his juniors? Had his mind already been made up?
She aimed the smile at the head of the table and then felt her world tilt as she stared into a pair of very familiar and hostile bright green eyes. Alec!
No hint of recognition flickered on his bland features as he stared steadily at her with an insolently bored expression on his handsome face. Instead, he nodded politely at her and then at the rest of the group before saying in a weary voice, “Ladies and gentlemen. You’re all welcome to Waller Group Inc. I am Alec Durante the new CEO of Waller Group Inc., and I would love to hear your proposal. I should warn you, though, that I’m jet-lagged and I have several meetings backed up, so please, a hasty presentation is just the ticket.”
He scrubbed a hand down his face and hid a yawn, his green eyes clashing with hers across the large expanse of the conference table and setting every pulse in her body skittering.
Caitríona swallowed. Was this some sort of trick her mind was playing on her, she wondered, gaping at him across the space that separated them. But no, this didn’t seem to be a trick; he was as real and solid as a brick wall. He was also about as friendly as a briar bush.
Hesitantly, she launched into her presentation, deftly putting up their power-points when needed and handing data around the table. Her eyes bounced restlessly around the table, frequently coming inevitably to rest on Alec Durante; funny, she had never even known his last name or she would have recognized it as belonging to one of the wealthiest and youngest billionaires in the history of the States. Alec’s gaze was remarkably unimpressed and even insultingly bored as he listened to her presentation with the rest of the team.
Questions and comments bounced around the table, but the blond-haired Greek god at the head of the table remained stonily silent, his very silence finally casting a pall around the table until one by one, everyone else fell silent, except Caitríona.
Her eyes flew defiantly to his face as she wrapped up her presentation. He was acting like an impossible jerk, which confused her because given what she had learned about him, in her book, she was the injured party.
Alec finally straightened in his chair when she fell silent and then he tossed out, “Are you the CEO of CiaCai?”
“Yes, Sir. But it’s actually CaiCia for Caitríona and Ciara.”
“Splendid. Could you tell us, just how CiaCai plans to fund this project without a clearly outlined and objective examination of its impact on the hig
h-end market?” he asked, still mispronouncing the name. “I mean we’re in business to make profit and I’m not sure why your targeted clientele seem to be … masons and carpenters with dirt under their fingernails.”
Everyone else around the table was understandably confused, but not Caitríona. Her cheeks burned with the famous Irish temper as she sternly fought the urge to throw a stapler at his head. She had haltingly confided in him that she hated poverty because her only memory of her dad had been of a drunken mason with dirt always under his fingernails until a falling crane killed him at a construction site.
Unshed tears burned in her eyes as she glared at him. “If you have something to say, Alec, then do us all a favor, stop being a coward and just spit it out!”
Everyone gasped. Silence rigid with tension reigned as Caitríona’s eyes clashed and held with Alec’s. How one man could cast a pall over a crowd of people was beyond her.
He regarded her silently for a minute and then he said slowly in a voice that brooked no argument, “Let’s have the room, please.”
Everyone filed out silently, Caitríona’s workers shooting disbelieving glances at her as they left. She could almost hear their thoughts: why would she jeopardize a relationship they had worked so hard to cultivate for months by calling the Alec Durante a coward to his face? If he could take over a giant like Tyson Waller, what would happen to the CaiCia Corporations Inc. which was relatively small fry?
“Where do you get off trying to embarrass me like that?” she spat the moment the door shut behind the last person.
“I don’t know, you tell me. You embarrassed yourself. I didn’t hold a gun to your head and force you to lose your cool just now,” he told her evenly.
“You have some nerve!” she spat.
“No, Caitríona, actually that’s you,” he countered, finally rising to his feet from his seated position to tower over her. “You couldn’t wait for my back to be turned before you sped off and you didn’t just go home; you ran clear across to the States just to get away from me. Now you traipse in here with all the arrogance of a regular drama queen expecting what? That I would fall at your feet and declare my undying love?”
DECKER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 9) Page 127