by Martini, Mae
“Oh, I love this dish,” Kara said as she smiled. She was so hungry she was salivating.
“I know. Dig in.”
Without asking her twice, she reached for the grating cheese and sprinkled on two full spoons then she passed the cheese to Richie and dug in.
“So, why the formality?” she asked before scooping up a couple of pieces of the little potato based pasta.
He shrugged. “Something different, I guess. You always look beautiful for me. Too much?”
“Oh, no not at all. What a nice surprise.”
He nodded. “So, how were your trips,” he asked in-between bites.
“New York went well. She lifted her eyes up. “Victoria got me an appointment with her hairdresser, and my clients already got back to Victoria with a work order and I have to run back there in two weeks to supervise.” She set her fork down and reached for her wine as she leaned back. “And the trip to Seattle was quite exhausting. Mr. Buckley keeps altering the designs his wife picks. We had already ordered this rare granite, but when he saw how much it cost, he canceled it and went with a less expensive stock granite. Victoria took a fit, but ate the cash. And Mrs. Buckley was not happy either. I was privy to their little fight… and I learned more than I needed to know about them.” She harrumphed.
Richie looked up from his plate. “Oh, yeah? Like what?”
Kara set her glass down and giggled. You’re dying to know, aren’t you?”
He let out a short laugh. “It’s always good to know your competition.”
Mr. and Mrs. Buckley owned a small chain of hotels geared more for the businessperson, but they had two elegant hotels, one in Aruba, the other in Dubai, that usually topped the best hotel lists in all of the travel magazines, with the Warren coming in second.
Kara speared some more pasta and wrapped her lips around her fork as she glanced at Richie. She shook her head, smiled, and chewed before she answered. “Well, did you know Mrs. Buckley has a young suitor? Mr. Buckley made mention when he brought up all the money she wasted on one of the bedrooms in their mansion.”
“What? No? Are you kidding?” Now Richie dropped his fork and picked up his wine as he sat back, looking at her sideways with a grin on his face. “She’s got to be in her eighties now, maybe mid to late.”
Kara nodded as she picked up her glass and took another sip of wine.
He reached for the bottle and refilled their glasses as Kara continued. “Irma,” she dipped her head, “Mrs. Buckley, made mention of the fact that Mr. Buckley couldn’t get it up for the past fifty years.”
Richie chuckled and Kara giggled. “I was dying. I just wanted to get out of there. I tried to walk backwards toward the door, but Irma looked to me and said ‘don’t you go anywhere’. That woman is sharp, and geez, still has a sex life as she’s pushing ninety.”
Richie pushed back his chair and got up and gathered their empty plates. “We can only hope,” he said. “I got it,” he added when she made to get up, then he walked out of the room. He came back and walked over to the chafing dish and picked up the two clean plates he left next to it earlier.
When he came back to the table and set down their dishes Kara gasped in surprise. “Is that a champagne butter sauce?”
“Yep.”
“Oh, my God, did you make this?” In her dish was a piece of filet mignon and four sea scallops drizzled with the light sauce.
“I’d like to say yes,” he said as he reached for a little covered dish in the middle of the table and spooned some string beans in her dish. “But I’d be lying.” He chuckled and looked at her. “I had it bought in.”
“Not form Bella Donna’s. From where?”
“Yes, this is Bella Donna’s.”
Her eyes shot up to his. “Huh! Are you kidding? They flew it in?”
He nodded.
“Oh, Richie, thank you. It’s my favorite meal. I love you.” She began to cut a piece of the steak as he looked on and smiled.
He cut his steak and thought about how pleased he was that she liked his dinner choice. It did cost a pretty penny, but seeing her face, knowing she was enjoying it, he determined it was well worth it and he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
They made small talk during the rest of their dinner and toward the end of it they were tossing sexy innuendoes to each other with Richie undoing his tie. The two of them left the table and went upstairs to Richie’s bedroom with Richie stripping Kara as they went.
Kara paused and got serious. “We should really clean up the dishes first. I’d hate to have to do it later.”
“It’s taken care of.”
“What?”
“The cleaning lady is coming in to clean up.” He looked at his watch. “She’ll be here in about an hour.”
“You got Fran to come in on her day off?”
“Yes. Now get those panties off, I’m gonna pleasure you all night long.”
Forty-five minutes later and the two of them were trying to catch their breaths. She had lost track of all the orgasms he had given her and because he held out that long, his climax wiped him out.
She turned to him, and with his eyes closed he reached for her and tucked her in against him and fell asleep.
Chapter 49
About an hour later Richie woke up to see Kara staring at him with a small smile on her face. His lips curled up as he stretched. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she replied. “The Fran just left.”
“You heard her?”
She nodded, as she watched him turn his upper body and pull something out of his night table drawer then turned back to her.
“Kara,” he said her name as he looked at her.
Kara saw he held a little black box, different from the one he had presented to her over and over again that she had turned down. Then she looked up to his eyes and saw a light there, a warm loving feeling enveloped her but she also began to panic. Please don’t ask me. Please don’t ask me. She repeated to herself over and over as she began to sit up.
He took a breath. “You know how I feel about you. I know you feel the same way about me. As I said before, I haven’t been with anyone else for a while now. You’re it. And I know you haven’t been with anyone since your, er,” he grinned, “fake boyfriend.”
She’d been nodding but cracked a smile.
He sat up now. “I want to build a life with you, I want to have kids with you, and I want to grow old with you.”
She bit her lip trying not to shed the tear that was forming in her right eye.
He flipped open the box and Kara stared at the large square diamond with smaller diamonds all around it. She looked up to him then back to the ring. “Oh, Rich, you bought another ring? That is so beautiful.” She looked back up to him, that tear she was trying to hide slid down her cheek along with some others.
He jumped off the bed and dropped to one knee. “Marry me, Kara. I would be so proud to call you my wife. Will you marry me?”
She couldn’t stop the flow of water now as she shook her head. “I want to, Richie, every time you’ve asked me I wanted to say yes…but I can’t.”
He hated to see her cry and he hated that she said no again. “Why?” He got back on the bed and sat beside her. “Why do you keep shooting me down?”
“I love what we have. Don’t you?” she asked.
“I want more.”
With her hand she swiped her eyes, her body rocked with little tremors, and Richie wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to him. “Please tell me.”
“My past, the videos. It’s just a matter of time before it all comes back. Who knows when another video of mine will surface, and who resurfaces it?” She pulled away from him and looked him straight in the eye. “You accused me of fucking your cousin when he barged into that hotel room with one of my videos. And, God knows how many more are out there that could link the wife of an heir to the Warren fortune to it.”
“Kara, I apologized back then, but I’ll apologize again.” He clasped her hand
in his. “I’m truly sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. And before you say it, I know I was cruel in bringing it up at your apartment when I saw you and Matt in your hallway together. I don’t think I ever apologized about that. So, I will now. Again, I am truly sorry. I have shit for brains.”
She smiled, shaking her head when she saw his charming grin.
He got off the bed and walked to his closet. He came back out a moment later hefting a file sized storage box. After placing it down on the floor by the bed, he held up his index finger and went back into the closet.
“Is this your porn stash?” Kara chuckled.
He came back out with another box and placed it down beside the other box and again he held up his index finger and walked back to the closet. When he came out with yet another box he locked eyes with her and after he placed the last box down he swept his hand toward them. “Check it out.”
“I’ve been in your closet countless times. I think there are more of my clothes in there than yours.”
He chuckled. “No doubt.”
“I don’t recall ever seeing your porn stash there.” She looked to the boxes than back to him. “What are you trying to tell me? Should I be worried?” she joked.
He shook his head. “Open them.”
She jumped off the bed and knelt down, happy the conversation steered away from marriage. Gleefully she opened the first box he brought out and leaned in. “Well, at least I rate. My vids are at the top.” She rummaged around. “Though, you have more than one of each. Do you have one for each—” She stopped searching in the box and looked up to him. He was smiling. Then she went back to rummaging. She looked back up before she opened the second box he brought out and rummaged around, much quicker that time because she wanted to open the third box and yep sure enough, all these boxes had her videos in them and nothing else save for the one lone DVD case in the last box with no title. She held it up in question.
His lips briefly became flat lined. That is the video Lou shot of you and Danny.”
She gasped as she looked from him to the case. “How?” She looked back up to him.
“Poppy gave it to me as soon as he got out of rehab. He told Lou to hand it over if he wanted to keep his job.”
“You had it all this time?”
He nodded.
“Did you watch it?”
He nodded again. “Not the whole thing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For what?”
She nodded. “Do you know if there are any more of these floating around?”
“Poppy assured me there aren’t, but you never know, and I’m not saying that’s all of them.” He gestured to the other videos. “There may be a few more of those out there. Maybe a few hundred more in people’s homes or something, but there is nothing on the shelves, nor online anymore, from retailers anyway. And I make a commitment to you right here, right now. I will continue to hunt down any that pop up anywhere.”
She stood up, the damn tears threatening again, and walked to him. He pulled her in and she clung to him. “You did this…for me…? I’m speechless,” she said into his shoulder.
“I love you so much, Kara, I’d do anything for you,” he whispered by her ear before he bent his head and kissed her.
“She pulled her lips away, feeling slightly dizzy from that kiss. “What if your family finds out about me?”
He continued to kiss her, her cheek, her neck, her shoulder. “They already know,” he said just before he dipped his head to kiss the top of her breasts.
“What!” She yelped as she pulled back.
He looked up to her and let out a breath. “Kara my parents have known since that photographer snapped a picture of us at the very first auto auction I took you to.”
“Oh, my God.” She moved out of his arms and spun around trying to catch a breath.
“Kara.” The sound of his soft voice by her ear calmed her. “It’s okay.”
She turned around. “They knew when I first met them in Aruba and the few times they were here? Oh, my God. Oh, God.”
Nodding his head, Richie said. “Yes. And you know what?” He turned her to him. “They adore you.” His lips were so close to hers, he could feel her sweet breath and he kissed her again.
“Come on, get dressed,” he said when they broke the kiss.
“Where are we going?”
“To a bonfire.”
Earlier that day, Richie had cleared some bush from his property and piled it up. While he carried the boxes down to it, she set up a couple of folding lawn chairs. He ran back to the house to get the lighter fluid and matches and pulled out a little bottle of Crown from the cabinet in the living room.
After spreading the liquid on the twigs, braches, leaves, and rooted weeds, he pulled out the matches from his pants pocket and gave them to her.
It only took one match to ignite, but she threw another on the pile and stepped back. They watched as the fire grew then Richie opened one of the boxes of DVDs and handed her a couple. She threw them into the fire and took a breath, then she looked to him, a smile began to form and lit up her face. The two of them flung DVDs in until all three boxes were gone.
After all of the DVDs were thrown in the fire, they sat back on the chairs and sipped the Crown as they watched every last one of them burn.
“You know, while I began doing this for you, as I hunted them down, I found it therapeutic for me. I was quite sure about us before, but now, I can unequivocally state I am one hundred percent sure.”
Back in his bedroom with the fire extinguished, their love making started out slow and sweet but soon turned into a frantic need for each other. “Will you marry me, Kara?” Richie’s breaths were short, but he maintained control.
“Yes,” she said, by his mouth, just before she tightened her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips.
He slammed into her and came as she clung to him. Still panting, and without moving from inside of her he looked into her eyes. As their heavy breathing subsided, it hit him, “Yes? You said yes?” He smiled wide.
“Yes.”
“Finally.” He dipped his head and kissed her again before pulling out of her. “We could have saved some time if you had just told me you liked square rings instead of round.” He chuckled as he moved off of her and removed the ring from the box.
“Hah! Both rings are beautiful. You have exquisite taste.”
“Then both rings you shall have. I’ll call my jeweler in the morn—”
“Nooo. Stop it. One is enough.” She turned to her side and he reached for her hand and slid it on her finger.
Epilogue
Three months later…
The front few pews of both sides of the aisle in the little church were full with family and friends of Richie, even the crew from Fredericksburg was there. Kara’s only family were in the bridal party. Her mother had passed a few years ago. Kara was grateful she resumed a relationship with her before she did. Her brother had told her to invite their father, but she adamantly refused. The last time she saw her father, he showed up at her home a week after that picture of her and Richie was snapped at that auto auction in Pebble Beach. And he had asked her if her boyfriend would front him a loan for a gambling debt he owed, a sizable loan. She had no idea he knew where she even lived.
Jon Storm had ceased being a father to her when he remarried and started another family, and when she was in need of some financial help he refused her, saying ‘It’s for your own good. How else will you learn to be responsible’? She was eighteen years old and struggling to pay the rent. She had mentioned it to Richie in the past and he had told her if she wanted to help her father out he would give him the money. God, she loved this man. He had been so good to her over the years, wanting to please her and give her anything she wanted. She truly felt so loved by him. She had never taken advantage of him and she was damn sure she wouldn’t allow anyone else to either. Eric did maintain a relationship with their father and told Kara t
hat he always asked how she was doing.
Victoria Madison and her sons were present as well as Kara’s colleagues and assistants from work. Even Richie’s cousin, Will, was present along with Will’s estranged wife and twin girls. Bridgette had caught him in bed with her best friend and threw him out. Will’s family stood by Bridgette and the girls and Will did a stint in rehab for two months. They were taking it day by day, but Bridgette lost a best friend.
A month prior to the wedding day, Will asked Richie for a chance to meet with him and Kara to apologize for his transgressions. Kara had agreed. How could she say no? He was working his way through the twelve step program, and Richie had told her stories of how close they were while growing up, along with the fact that he beat the shit out of him for her that night at the hotel.
When Richie and Kara began planning their wedding, Richie told her it was up to her where she wanted to get married. He offered to fly her family to Aruba if that was an option. Only a moment was spent on thinking about that destination. Kara had brought up a good point. That choice would cause chaos if and when the news got out that Richard Warren III was going to marry there.
They had discussed getting married in California. His parents had offered their home, but Kara was uncomfortable being there, and Richie understood. He even mentioned New York City or New Jersey, but it didn’t seem right. One place had no meaning for them and the other, bad memories. Kara had asked to keep it low key so as not to draw attention, but that was only after Richie said he’d be all for a simple, elegant ceremony and reception. In fact he was grateful she wanted it. In the end they agreed on marrying right there in Wimberley, in the little church down the road. And given the fact that Richie didn’t want to wait it would be easy to plan something on short notice. He just wanted to settle down with her already.
“Oh, Heath,” Logan said, shaking his head and laughing. Only Richie heard him. They were watching Heath, Kara’s nephew Max, and Max’s sister, Emily walk down the aisle on the white runner as they stood by the altar.