Her Real Alpha

by Sherie Keys

  "What payoff?" Mary asked, trying to smile politely as she kept up.

  Kyle turned and looked at her for a brief moment. "I thought she took a fifty thousand dollar payoff and left New York with it."

  Mary's eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open. "Fifty thousand dollars? Brandy, you didn't tell me you had fifty thousand dollars!"

  Brandy took a deep breath and sighed again. "I didn't take fifty thousand dollars!"

  Kyle frowned and looked confused. "Wait. I'm confused," he told Brandy. "Veronica said you took the money and left town."

  Brandy sneered when she said the woman's name. "Well, Veronica lied. I didn't take the money, I just left town. I'm as broke as I ever was, thanks to you and her."

  "Who is Veronica?" Mary asked, still smiling politely.

  Brandy frowned. "She's Kyle's wife."

  Oscar's eyebrows went up, Mary's mouth fell open, and Riley turned and glared at Kyle.

  "You were cheating on your wife with my girl? Then you got my girl pregnant?" Riley looked like he was ready to punch Kyle.

  "I'm not your girl, Riley," Brandy interjected.

  "Don't you worry about it, honey, you will be, and I'll take care of this mess for you and I'll take care of you and your baby. No need to worry about this loser,” he carried on, his eyes locked in sheer hatred on Kyle.

  "Why didn't you take the money?" Kyle asked in confusion.

  Brandy threw her hands down in frustration. "I didn't take it because her contingency was that if I took it then I could never see you again, and I had to be able to see you again to give you the chance to involve yourself in the baby's life if that's what you wanted to do.

  “If I left and never contacted you again, like she ordered me to, then you'd never know you had a child and I couldn't take that away from you or the baby, so I left without the money.

  “Besides, it's only fifty thousand and when you have it all at once, it seems like a lot, but if you look at it over time, you realize that it isn't that much money. Not that there is any amount that would make it okay for me to take your child away from you and never let you know it existed."

  Riley held his hand up. "Wait a minute, so he got you pregnant and his wife was going to buy you off with fifty grand so you'd get out of the picture, and you turned her down?"

  Brandy nodded. "Yes. Essentially, that's it."

  Kyle shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you'd do that for me. Even now you still act out of love for me."

  Riley jumped right back in. "That's because she's a damn good woman." He looked at her proudly and smiled. "And she's mine."

  Kyle shot him an exasperated look and then returned his gaze to Brandy.

  "It's obvious that we need to talk. I can see that you have other company, but if you wouldn't mind, I would like to at least clear the air with you. May I take you to dinner and go for a nice long drive?"

  Riley turned red and the hatred in his eyes could have melted the first few circles of hell.

  Brandy nodded and lifted her hands in the air as if she was giving up in defeat.

  "Alright. We can go talk." She stood up and Riley moved toward her.

  "Do you want me to wait here until you get back? Just to be sure that you get back safely? I better wait here,” he said firmly, nodding his head at his own question.

  "I'll be fine, Riley,” Brandy said with sigh. "Thank you, though."

  "I'll wait outside in my truck." He looked at Kyle. "Don't have her gone too long, you bring her back soon. There are others waiting here to see her."

  Kyle bit his tongue and turned to look at Riley. "I'll have her gone as long as it takes to work everything out. If you're still here when she comes back, then you can see her."

  The rivalry between the two of them was almost tangible.

  Brandy rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration, and then kissed her mother on the cheek, followed by her father, who was watching her closely with worried eyes.

  "Be careful with my baby,” he told Kyle.

  Kyle nodded and led Brandy out of the front door with his hand on the small of her back and every eye in the room on him.

  He put her in his car and made sure she had her seatbelt on, and then he started the car and it disappeared down the road.

  It was quiet in the car for the first few moments and then Kyle shook his head. "You're pregnant... and you knew and you didn't tell me. Why didn't you tell me?" he asked in what sounded like strangled agony.

  She looked out of the window. "I didn't tell you because there was so much going on, I had other things to deal with; I dropped out of school, I lost my job, I couldn't afford my apartment anymore, and I had to pack everything up and move up here to my parent's house. I've had a lot going on. I was going to tell you when things settled down."

  He looked at her worriedly. "Are you alright? Is everything with you and the baby alright?"

  She nodded. "Yes, everything is okay. I went to the first doctor appointment and the doctor said everything is fine and she set me up for another appointment, but then I left and she's in New York and now I'm here, so I'll have to change doctors."

  Kyle shook his head in disbelief. "I am absolutely stunned. I can't tell you how much this means to me. I didn't think I was going to have children; Veronica didn't want them, but now here you are, and you're... we're... going to have a baby!"

  Brandy watched as a huge smile spread over his face and the reality of it hit him with overwhelming joy. She smiled as she saw him light up with happiness. It was the first time she had ever felt really, truly happy about the baby growing in her.

  "You know you don't have to worry about money or anything; you know I will take care of all of it, right? This isn't something that is going to cost you anything."

  "What are you talking about? This has already cost me everything! I had to leave school, I had to lose my apartment, I lost my job.... all of it because of you, and I'm here because of this baby! It's already cost me everything!" She tried not to shout at him.

  Kyle parked the car in front of a big hotel and held his hands up. "Listen, there's a lot to talk about. None of what happened is your fault. Most of it was Veronica. I'll explain, but first let's go in and get a meal, okay?" he asked, smiling at her sweetly.

  She nodded and let him help her out of the car. They walked into the restaurant and he requested a private table.

  After they were seated and drinks were served, he looked at her with excited eyes. "So, when did you find out about the baby?" he asked happily.

  She shook her head in irony. "Right after I broke up with you."

  "Ouch. That’s bad timing."

  "Tell me about it. Then, I lost my job right after that and had to move." She looked up at him in confusion. "Why is that Veronica's fault and why did you think I took the payoff?"

  He sighed heavily and placed both of his hands on the table, looking at her seriously.

  "There's a lot to tell you, and I think that if I tell you my side, and then you tell me your side, all of our questions will be answered and we will know everything that happened." He looked at her, asking with his eyes if he should go on, and seeing in her eyes that he ought to.

  "Okay, so you and I were at the island and there was a woman we saw there while we were getting ice cream."

  "I remember her. Dark hair. Veronica's friend," Brandy said in a low voice.

  Kyle shook his head slowly. "That's her, but I don't think she's much of a friend. Anyway, she saw us there and then when we got back to New York, she came to my office in a trench coat and lingerie and tried to seduce me. She said she didn't realize that Veronica and I had an open relationship, and she wanted to have an affair with me."

  Brandy's mouth fell open in shock and she gasped in horror.

  Kyle nodded. "That was pretty much my reaction, too. Anyway, she throws herself at me and I turned her down flat and told her to get the hell out of my office. Well, when I did that, she decided to threaten me, telling me that she would go to Veronic
a and tell her she had seen us on the island if I didn't sleep with her. She was trying to blackmail me."

  Brandy scowled fiercely and Kyle found it so cute that he had to stop himself from smiling at her so he could finish what he was telling her.

  "So, of course I didn't sleep with her so she told Veronica. You and I were having some problems and you broke up with me, which was devastating to me, by the way. There I am with a broken heart and all of a sudden, Veronica starts acting like she likes me and she tries to seduce me, too, in my bedroom of all places, and actually, in my office once as well.

  “I turned her down and she just wouldn't take no for an answer; it was like she was pursuing me all over again just as she did when we were dating. I couldn't figure out why she had a sudden interest in me. She hasn't had any interest in me at all for years, so it was suspicious to me."

  Their food was delivered to the table and he took a few bites and then continued. "So, she and I got into a massive fight because I kept telling her to leave me alone, and she kept coming on to me, trying to get me to sleep with her. I was going so crazy missing you and getting fed up with her, that I went down to the spa to make a surprise visit and try to win you back, but I found out that you'd been fired, and that witch of a woman Hannah and I had it out. She's a piece of work. That woman is going to go down, mark my words."

  Brandy laughed out loud and listened to him as he told her the rest of his side of it. "I forced her to tell me what she had done with you, and when she told me, and I think she told me everything about firing you and smearing your reputation, she also told me that it was Veronica who paid her off to do it."

  Brandy stopped still, her fork halfway to her mouth and she stared at him, and then lowered her fork to the plate. "Did you say paid her off?" she asked in surprise.

  Kyle nodded. "That's what I said. Veronica gave her fifty grand to fire you."

  Brandy gasped in anger and surprise. "Well, that would have been the same fifty grand that she offered to me and that I turned down flat," she said angrily.

  Kyle continued. "I made her tell me where you were, and she gave me your parents’ address. Then I went home and confronted Veronica and asked her what the hell she was doing and she said she was worried about you stealing me away from her because she could see that I was in love with you.

  “She didn't want to lose me because she wants to keep her billionaire's wife lifestyle, and she was just sure that if she didn't step in, that I would divorce her and marry you, so she was hell bent on getting rid of you and trying to win me back by seducing me and keeping me married to her."

  "She told you all of that?" Brandy asked in amazement. Kyle nodded.

  "The big turn in the conversation, at least for me, was when I heard her tell me that she could see how much in love I am with you, and it was then that I realized that she was right. I do love you. It's just crazy to me that she could see it and I couldn't, and it took her telling me, for me to finally accept it and understand that I am truly, madly, deeply, in love with you, and you are the only woman I want.

  “If she hadn't been so hell bent on keeping me, I probably wouldn't have ever admitted it to myself, but she did. I realized it right in the middle of our argument, so while she was there telling me that she only wanted me for my money, I was realizing that I love you more than anything or anyone on this earth and I can't live without you. I told her right then and there to get her things packed and get out of my house. I told her that I wanted a divorce, and that's when I decided to come and get you and beg you to come back to me."

  She was staring at him in complete shock.

  "So, what I need to say to you is, Brandy Keller, I love you with everything in me, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, starting yesterday. Please come back to me, please say that you still love me, please promise me that you will be my wife, and now I guess the mother of my children, all of my children, because I wouldn't want this one to be the only one. Being an only child is not fun. Please... Brandy, please be mine. I love you. I will always love you, for the rest of my life."

  He pulled a small box from his jacket pocket and opened it in front of her. Her hand flew to cover her open mouth as she gazed down at the giant diamond that was nestled on a wedding band in the box.

  Tears filled her eyes and she couldn't see as she nodded slowly and he took her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. She wiped her tears away and as she did, he pulled her close to him and kissed her softly and sweetly, savoring her lips and the feel of her in his arms, and then he let her go.

  She wiped her eyes and her face again and shook her head as she looked at him.

  "I didn't think you loved me. I thought you were just using me. I couldn't handle the heartbreak of loving you and needing you when I thought I was only there for your... pleasure." She gasped as she looked at the brilliant ring shining on her finger, and then she looked back up at him.

  "When we broke up and then I found out that I was pregnant, I didn't know what to do, and Veronica came to see me at the spa-"

  He gasped and looked at her with an anger in his eyes. "She came down to see you there at your work?"

  Brandy nodded. "She came down to see me, pretending to have another name and an appointment, and then once she was in the room she told me that her friend had seen us on the island. She told me that you didn't want me, which was easy for me to believe because you wouldn't say that you loved me. She tried to buy me off with that fifty grand in exchange for me never contacting you again.

  “I told her I'd have to think about it and she gave me two days, and in that time, after a lot of thought, I knew that I couldn't take her money because I couldn't keep this baby from you. You have just as much right to it as I do, and the baby has a right to know both of its parents, and so I called her and told her no, and she told me that I'd have hell to pay.

  “Then I went to school and dropped out, thinking that I could work full time to make enough money to support myself and the baby, since I didn't know what you were going to do about it yet, if anything at all. After that, I went in to work only to be called into the office and fired, and Hannah made me feel horrible. I didn't know she had taken money from Veronica."

  Kyle was shaking his head with a deep anger.

  "After I was fired, I knew I was running out of options, so I called my friend Alice and I asked her to help me pack up and she did. Then I moved back to Boston to be with my parents while I try to get back on my feet again and figure out what I'm going to do with my life."

  Kyle looked at her with a wide smile. "Well, now you know exactly what you're going to do with your life,” he told her happily.

  Then he cocked his head to the side and raised one eyebrow. "I just have one question."

  "You do?" Brandy asked in surprise. "What's that?"

  "Who is the Riley guy and why does he think that you're going to be his wife?" Kyle tried to frown, but he was too happy to do it, so he just laughed instead.

  Brandy nodded and laughed. "Riley... yeah. He's a guy I grew up with. He's had a permacrush on me since we were born, and he doesn't want to give me up. He's pretty bent on me being his wife. He has been parked at my parents since I went back home, in hopes of changing my mind, but he hasn't been able to change my mind yet my whole life, so I wouldn't worry about it too much," Brandy told him with a grin and a wink.

  Kyle frowned slightly as he teased her. "Didn't he say you kissed him the other night?"

  Brandy waved her hand in the air dismissively. "He kissed me, and I wouldn't even actually call what he tried to do a 'kiss', it was more like mouth to mouth resuscitation."

  Kyle shook his head. "Well, no more of that. You are my lady, and these lips of yours are only for me to kiss." He smiled, pulling her to him and kissing her again.

  The time and distance between them caught up with them and they felt the heat growing between them swiftly as their bodies began to ache with need for each other.

  Kyle pulled away from her, breathless
and hungry for her. He waved at the waiter and signed the check, and then took Brandy by the hand and they went upstairs to his suite in the hotel.

  "You brought me here because you thought that I would-" she gasped and laughed at his audacity as she looked at his big bed in the hotel room.

  He held his finger up in the air. "Ah-ah... I didn't think you would; I hoped that you would. After all, you did say you never wanted to speak to me again. I had to give it my best try."

  She grinned at him and wrapped her arms around him. "Your best try is more than enough for me."

  He walked with her to the bed and slowly peeled her clothes from her body, enjoying every tantalizing moment of it, touching and kissing the skin he had missed so much, and she closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his fingers, his lips, and his tongue on her body.