“I’ll think about it,” I responded. “Tell them out of respect for your brother, I’m taking time to consider the gracious offer and I’ll have an answer to them by the end of the week. In the meantime, they can consider Ben my personal liaison. I need to discuss this with Mason. Ben, take the night off, we’ll talk soon.”
The brothers stood and nodded their thanks as they left the room, closing the door behind them.
“What the fuck?” Mason asked as he took a seat in front of the desk.
“I have no idea.”
“Let Ben handle it and keep him on the payroll.”
“What?”
He shrugged. “He becomes the leader through you. You pay him, but don’t have to deal with the day to day shit. If you want something done, he makes sure it happens, but your hands are clean in the end.”
“So, we’re taking over a gang?”
He chuckled. “We’re adding a few more people to our list of friends.”
“Did that just come out of your fucking mouth? It actually sounded intelligent.”
“Jackass. I’m not as stupid as I look.”
I swallowed my drink and gave him a doubtful look. “You deal with Ben. You’re closer to him. And for fuck’s sake, tell them that we run a semi-clean business and all that crap. You’re going to have to deal with the majority of all this one of these days. After we bring down the King family I want to spend my time watching my kids grow up.”
“Right,” he said with a non-committal tone. “It’ll never be over, Mick.”
A knock at the door, was the only warning before Alisa walked in. She was carrying a shopping bag with her.
“Later,” Mason said as he got up. Before he left he planted a chaste kiss on top of Alisa’s head even though he knew it infuriated me every time he did it. God only knew where his mouth had been.
“So, I have some clothes,” she said as she laid the bag on the desk in front of me.
“Hmm,” I said as she rattled off her shopping adventure. I was more interested in the dress she was wearing and what was under it. Her belly was starting to become more pronounced as she carried the baby, but something about her being pregnant made my already uncontrollable libido around her go haywire. It was like the more I saw her grow, the more I wanted to put five more in her immediately.
Grabbing her hips, I lifted her onto my desk and ran my hands along her thighs.
“Are you even listening?” she asked when my hand slid under the hem of her skirt.
“Mmhmm. Every word.”
“So, you’re okay with triplets?”
I blinked for a moment, my hand freezing in mid-exploration.
“The wha—?”
She smiled sweetly down at me. “Didn’t think so. No, it’s still one baby. But you should pay more attention and keep your mind out of my panties for once. The doctor called, and I bought some clothes. Would you like to see?”
She was going to pay for that one later when I finally got her in bed. Triplets. Fuck me. Small heart attack avoided.
“Sure,” I said as I ran a finger along the inside of her thigh.
She brought the bag around and dumped the contents in my lap. Once again, my attempts at seducing her on the desk were thwarted by having to catch half the clothing.
“Blue?” I asked as I lifted a tiny outfit.
She smirked at me. “Told you the doctor called. I went in this afternoon and we looked.”
“You didn’t tell me. I should have been there.”
Her hands slid around my face as she smiled. “And ruin my surprise? No. The doctor hates you anyway. So, this just made it easier.”
Frowning at her for only a second, I glanced down at her belly. “My boy.”
“Yeah,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “Your boy.”
Standing, I grabbed her around the waist and leaned into her. When her hips met mine, I slanted my mouth over hers and gave her a deep kiss.
“You’re my life, Alisa,” I whispered against her lips after a moment, savoring the taste of her.
“And you’re mine,” she said. “Always.”
I glanced at the couch over her shoulder and smirked. My day had been long and interesting, to say the least, but it was about to get so much better with her in my arms.
The End
Coming Soon!
Alex: Kingston Corruption Book Two
Alex
Three years earlier…
“Congratulations on the case, Alex,” the blonde next to me said. I couldn’t remember her name, but I smiled at her anyway.
“Thanks, it was pretty tough,” I responded then tipped my glass of brandy back. It was smooth as it went down, and I had no doubt that my father had spent quite a bit of money on it.
The blonde bumped into me as she made her way past me. She gave me a clever smile meant to entice my interest, but it did little for me. She was just another amongst our circle that knew who I was and wanted something.
I felt a rough slap on my back and flinched.
“Son,” my father’s deep voice said. I glanced at him as he watched the blonde walk away. Her thin waist led south to her best feature. Clad in a silk open back dress, as she swung her hips, the material glided over her taut ass.
My father’s eyebrows shot up in a lecherous way as he turned back to me. He’d been admiring the view.
“You could do worse son. That’s Howard Morton’s daughter, Shannon. You know he’s loaded and she wouldn’t be hard on the eyes if you dated.”
I chuckled. “Dad, I’m not really looking. I don’t have a lot of time on my hands. We just opened the office and I have a million things I need to do.”
“It’s never too early to start looking. Hell, marry one, bed her and forget her. Simple as that.”
Clearing my throat, I scanned the room, trying not to comment on my father’s opinion of how a marriage should function. It wasn’t a secret that he’d married for money. They all did. It was a King family trait and tradition.
The disturbing part was that there were plenty of women in the upper echelon of Kingston, that for some reason didn’t mind being seen as a means to an end. My family saw them as assets and they saw us as ostentatiously rich, born with a last name that signified our place in the city’s long history.
I spotted two of the lawyers in the firm across my father’s enormous living room and raised my glass to them in greeting. They did the same, then went back to their conversation. There were so many people mingling and talking that it was a waste to have music playing lightly in the background but occasionally I’d hear it filter through the chatter.
A woman approached us carrying a tray of champagne. As my father grabbed a glass, I set my tumbler on the tray and took notice of her. She was brunette with soft features and lips that any number of women in the room would have paid a fortune to replicate. She didn’t look at us, never once glanced up, simply looked at us mid chest and no further like many of the servers at these parties did.
When she left, my eyes followed her, wondering if she’d been born with money whether she would have been married to one of the rich assholes my father called friends. The likely answer was yes. She was no less pretty than the people she served tonight.
“Eye on the prize, Alex,” my father said beside me.
“What?” I responded, dragging my eyes away from the pretty brunette.
He laughed and took a drink and he nodded toward the woman. “If you want to make her a pet project, do it. But we’re here tonight celebrating your first case and a win for you. Forget the staff and mingle.”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “She’s pretty, that’s all.”
My father eyed her and pursed his lips. “If you say so.”
“And it wasn’t really a win.”
“Now, Alex, we said we weren’t going to talk about it.”
“I didn’t win that trial fairly.”
His jaw twitched for a moment before he gave a tight smile to one of his attorneys. Aft
er a moment and another drink, he leaned toward me and gave me a serious glare.
“We’re not talking about this again. You won’t bring it up, you won’t think about it. You won the case and that’s all anyone cares about. Winning, son. You defended a man that committed a crime, proved his innocence in a court of law and it’s done.”
I shook my head feeling as strangely as I’d felt right after the verdict was read in court. Not guilty. The man I’d defended was now free. The problem was, I’d had very little to do with it, and I knew he was guilty.
He gave me a small grin. “Come to the office in a few minutes. We’ll have a talk. Meanwhile, enjoy your night. This is all for you and everyone here wants to see you succeed. Lose the attitude and have another drink.”
I tipped my head at him, acknowledging that I’d heard him. One thing about him that I’d learned a long time ago was that arguing with him was pointless. He’d been an attorney for most of my life before he’d become Kingston’s District Attorney. He knew how to press the right buttons to get me worked up, which he did frequently. But as my father I owed him my career and college education.
Ambling toward the open bar in the corner of the room, I passed several people that knew me, some family, and some people they knew. Lavish parties were normal in this house, and although the faces sometimes changed, the connections didn’t. The Mayor and half the city council was here, attorneys and business associates. Everyone was decked out in suits and expensive clothing.
All to celebrate a win that wasn’t really mine. But it helped the firm, launched my career and made me one of the most sought after defense attorneys now that a month had passed since the verdict. Hell, the judge who ruled on it was probably here too.
I wasn’t going to lie to myself and say that I didn’t enjoy the reputation I’d suddenly built. It felt good to be known for something other than my last name. But the way I’d won didn’t sit well some days.
Shannon circled the room like a shark smelling fresh prey and cornered me for a few minutes, chatting about the latest news and my success. She was good, I’d give her that. She stuck to topics that might interest me rather than ones that likely interested her. She’d been groomed to be the perfect woman on the arm of a rich man.
After a few minutes, I made my excuses to leave, extracting myself from any further matchmaking ideas she might have and went to my father’s office.
Shutting the door behind me with a soft click, I glanced at my father sitting behind his desk writing something, while the brunette I’d seen earlier sat on the couch. She leaned back with a glazed look on her face and gave me a lazy smile.
Dad glanced up at me and waived me forward. “Come in, I have a gift.”
As I approached, he signed what looked like a check and handed it to me.
“What’s this?” I asked as the brunette behind me giggled.
He smirked and glanced toward the woman. “It’s a check. A present for a job well done. For my son, not the defense attorney that Kingston now respects. Take it. And then take her.”
I didn’t reach for the paper in his hand but looked over my shoulder instead. The woman was standing and unbuttoning her shirt as her slacks slid down her thighs.
I blinked when I turned back to the man behind the desk. “What’s this about?”
He waved the check at me with annoyed look. I took it from him as he stood up. He reached in a drawer to his right then motioned for the woman behind me to come join us.
When she did, he produced a small baggie of white powder that he laid out in a line on the desk. The woman laughed for a moment as she sidled up to me.
“Enjoy, Alex,” my father said with an almost proud look in his eyes. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, anyone can be bought. You want her, you can have her. You want to win, you can and you did. All it took was money. Everything you ever wanted is yours. Lose the tie, put a little of that up your nose like you did in college, and I’ll clean it all up later.”
With that, he came around the desk, and passed by both of us without saying anything more. The door shut as he exited, and I watched the woman in front of me snort a line of cocaine. She smiled and giggled once then she got on her knees in front of me.
Looking at the check in my hand I noted it was written for the exact amount that I owed on my house. Something that would benefit me a great deal as I started my practice and paying off some of the loan on the office building that two other attorneys and I had just started working out of.
I looked up at the ceiling and leaned back against the desk as the woman in front of me unzipped my pants and tugged at them. I jerked and slid my hand into her hair when her eager wet mouth finally found me.
Being a King was good sometimes, but I felt like my accomplishments had been bought and paid for. The part that angered me and settled like a festering pit of hell in my stomach, was how utterly tempting it was to let them. Especially in moments like this.
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Jennifer Vester is a romance author whose ambition is to entertain readers with quirky, off-beat female characters and the men that love them. Her work is infused with humor and suspense, while exploring relationships from the female perspective. Characters are often facing difficulties in life and love.
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Mick: Kingston Corruption, Book One Page 26