Jake (The Clan Legacy)

by J. S. Striker

  Chapter 9

  Kelly awoke early. Morning sunlight was just beginning to slip through blinds covering the large, master bedroom windows. Blinking, she made herself focus. It took a second for everything to come back to her.

  She was in the Stone’s house. More specifically, she was in bed with Grant Stone. She thought about how quickly it had escalated last night. They had sex, and then after Grant had returned to cooking their dinner. He had brought it to her upstairs. Kelly found that sweet. They had eaten, and had more of their conversation, which came so easily. Then it had turned into another round of sex. Kelly closed her eyes. What would Grant say to her this morning? Would he regret it?

  On top of all of that, Kelly felt a pang of shame. She had slept with another woman’s husband. It was something she had always sworn that she would never do. It did not matter if they were separated or not—they were not divorced. Grant was still legally belonged to someone else. And that made Kelly feel awful that she had crossed that line.

  Turning over, she glanced at Grant. He still lay asleep beside her. The light highlighted his features, and Kelly forced herself not to think about how attractive he was. She also forced herself not to study his naked body, and think about how good he had been in bed. He had been like no other man she’d had before. It was too good of a memory not to relive, but it was also terribly wrong.

  Kelly knew what she had to do. She had to get out of there, and get back to campus before Grant awoke. She could not run the risk of another awkward meeting—or worse yet, not being able to resist his amazing charms. Yes, she certainly could not let that happen again.

  Gently, Kelly pushed back the blankets. She eased herself out of the bed. She had to pause for a moment as morning sickness rushed to her throat and head. She felt even more guilty. What had she done to this poor child’s parents? Their relationship was already damaged; was she making it worse?

  Taking a deep breath, Kelly began to move through the room to collect her clothing. She pulled on her bra and underwear as she located them, and then tugged her shirt over her head. As quietly as possible, she slipped on her jeans. Her shoes were another matter. She stooped down to pick them up, and carried both them and her socks downstairs. She sat on the bottom step to put them on before she slipped quietly out of the front door.

  She did not want to be the person who simply ran out after a night of sex. So as she sat in the car, she pulled up Grant’s text message window.

  I’m sorry. Had to go. Keep me posted on things.

  She did not know what else to say. She was still carrying his child—that had to account for something. He could not cut her totally off. Besides, even if he and Monica did get back together, that was the best thing. Then the baby would have its family, just like everyone had intended.

  At least, that was what Kelly told herself on the drive back to campus. She was not quite ready to face the thoughts which were swirling in her head.

  Kelly parked her car in the student lot near her dorm. It was early enough that there were plenty of good spots. She headed back into the quiet building, and upstairs to her room.

  “Oh, hey!” Her roommate, Becca, turned from her mirror. “You’re up early!” Becca gave her a quick once over. “Or not. Are you just getting in?”

  “Mmhhmm.” Kelly sat down on the edge of her bed. She was already tired, and the walk had made her more nauseous. She needed a minute, and then she would grab herself a banana or something to ease her stomach.

  “Where were you? Did you stay over with the Stones last night?” Becca had been supportive of her decision, even though it seemed a bit odd to her. Actually, all of Kelly’s friends had been pretty cool about the decision. Most of them respected her for wanting to help out a childless couple.

  “Well, yes, but not how you’re thinking.” Kelly looked at the other girl nervously. Becca’s eyes widened.

  “Wait, what?”

  “I stayed over, but only Grant was there.”

  “Really?” Becca exclaimed. She abandoned her morning preparation, turning fully to face her friend. “What happened to Monica? You said that you couldn’t get in touch with either of them.”

  “I couldn’t,” Kelly told her. “So that’s why I went over there yesterday. Grant caught Monica cheating. So she moved out.”

  “Holy crap!” Becca pulled her desk chair closed to Kelly’s bed so that she could sit down. “So what, you guys like hung out all night? Was he confiding in you about his wife leaving him?”

  “Actually…” Kelly lowered her head. Becca’s eyes widened.

  “Kel, you’re kidding!”

  “I’m not.” Kelly looked up guiltily. “Becca, really, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t go over there planning on sleeping with him. I just wanted to make sure that they were okay.”

  “Which is great—but you slept with him?” Becca exclaimed. Kelly nodded.

  “It all happened so fast. I just kept thinking how lonely he was, and how much I wanted to make things right for him…and….”

  “And?” Becca pressed. Kelly sighed.

  “And I wanted to, ok? I like him. Actually—I really like him.”

  “But…” Becca hesitated. She looked at Kelly for a long moment. “What about—”

  “I don’t know,” Kelly cut her off immediately. “Really, I don’t know. I have all these feelings for him… and I know that they’re wrong. But at the same time, I’m pregnant with his child. So we have that connection. But it’s also not my baby, so not really.” Kelly shook her head, pushing her hair out of her face with one hand. “It’s all such a mess.”

  “I see that.” Becca offered sympathetically. “And I know that this was the last thing that you intended on happening when you got yourself into this deal.”

  “You’re exactly right.” Kelly told her. “Exactly right. I never intended for any of this. But I’ve always through Grant was so good looking…and then he and I started talking…and he’s opened up to me…really opened up to me. It’s like we just have this connection.”

  “That’s deep.” Becca was smiling at her. “That was really deep. It sounds to me like you’re really falling in love with him.”

  “I guess that I am.” Admitting it only made her feel a little better. She was still talking about a married man. Becca laughed.

  “Really, is this so bad? I mean, what if he and his wife break up?”

  “And then what?” Kelly gave her a shocked expression. “He marries me and we raise their baby—the baby that I carried—together? Isn’t that a little weird?”

  “It’s a weird situation.” Becca shrugged. “But there are worse ones. And think how cute it would be for the baby!”

  “That I broke up its parents?” Kelly glanced down at her middle. One hand raised to stroke her stomach. “Really, I can’t imagine if it would grow up in a world like that.”

  They were getting way ahead of themselves. Kelly had to slow herself down.

  “Regardless,” she tried to rein Becca back in, “this is impossible. It will never happen.”

  “It won’t?” Becca smiled. “Last night happened. It sounds like there’s something there between you.”

  “Okay, so maybe there was something physical between us too. But the point is, married or not, he’s still way out of my league.”

  “Why do you say that?” Becca gave her a concerned look. Kelly rolled her eyes. She was not trying knock herself, but he was him and she was, well…her. “Kelly?” Becca pressed gently.

  “Becca, I’m a broke, college student who is having the man’s baby for money to pay my way through school,” Kelly told her flatly. “And he’s the richest man I have ever met. Hell, he’s one of the richest men in the country. He’s practically a celebrity. And you want him to fall for someone like me?”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Becca stared at her. “Why is it really so unfathomable to you?”

  “Because he is not going to want a long-term relationship with a college student. A
nd that’s the end of the story.”

  Becca shook her head. She got up, going to her closet she began to dig through drawers.

  “I still think that you’re being crazy. I don’t see any reason why you can Grant can’t have something together. You can be a stepmother to your own baby.”

  “Nothing creepy about that.” Kelly rolled her eyes. She kicked off her shoes, getting off of the bed. “I need to shower.”

  “And I need to run. So I’ll run, you shower, and then we’ll go get breakfast. Sound good, Mama?”

  “Don’t call me that,” Kelly scoffed. “But yes, that’s what we’ll do.”

  She grabbed her robe and shower gear, heading off to the bathroom. Closing the door, she leaned heavily against it. She tried to picture herself with Grant, and could not. She was simply not his type.

  Chapter 10

  It had been a long couple of weeks. Grant was doing as much of his business as possible from home. He went into the office when it called for, but he was mostly keeping to himself.

  Partly, he did not want to deal with Phillip. He really, really wanted to fire the other man. After all, he had slept with the boss’s wife. On the other hand, a call to his human resources director had squashed that thought. It would be retaliation, and Phillip could sue the company. His performance ratings were too high, he was entirely too well thought of, there was just nothing that they could fire him for. The director of HR sympathized, and even suggested that if Grant could catch something, they could look into it. But right now, there was simply nothing.

  The other reason that Grant was staying so close to home was because he was distracted. His only thoughts were on Kelly. He had really fallen hard for her—and their night together had only strengthened that.

  He had been disappointed when he had awoken to find her gone. But when he had seen her text message, he had understood. She did have to go. While the night had been fun, it had added to the confusion. He had spent a lot of time trying to sort it out. At the end of the day, he had come to only one conclusion.

  He had fallen in love with Kelly.

  He had tried to tell himself that it was not true. A married man did not fall in love with a college girl. But his feelings told him that it was true.

  Now he had to come up with the proper reason and time to tell her. He had kept in touch with her the last few weeks. She seemed to be fine, and upbeat. He hoped that she would not take his confession too out of line. He could not just drop this on her. He had to be careful.

  For one thing, he was still married. While that was probably the easiest thing to handle, the second thing was the baby. The baby was his and Monica’s biological child. He was not prepared to give it away—and he knew that Monica was not. So if he was going to end their marriage, he would also have to put together a custody agreement. He would need to call a lawyer, because this was going to get messy.

  But in the end, did it matter? It would get him with Kelly. The two of them could make their own family. She would get to be a part of the baby’s life. The idea of being with this beautiful woman that he had come to love made him giddy. He felt like he had not felt in years. Grant really could not believe the twist of fate that life had dealt him.

  Grant had just finished sending a last email. He shut down his laptop, and reached for his phone. He had decided to text Kelly—just to check in, of course. Depending on how their conversation went, maybe he would ask her to come over so that they could talk. He knew that he probably would not. This was not the best time or place to get into a deep discussion with her. But it was a nice thought to have. He would do it…someday, very soon.

  He had just pulled up Kelly’s window when the doorbell rang. Frowning, Grant looked up. He wondered just who that could be. He was not expecting anyone.

  Grant headed into the front hallway. He pulled open the front door and was surprised to see Monica standing on the other side.

  “Monica.” He took a step back. He figured that she was here to pick up something that she had left.

  “Hi, Grant.” Monica gave him a soft smile. “How are you?”

  “Um…I’m fine.” He shrugged. “Is something wrong?”

  “Ah…no. No, not at all.” Monica glanced past him into the house. “May I come in?”

  “Of course.” He stepped aside. “It is your house.”

  “I guess so.” Monica chuckled as she stepped inside. Grant pushed the door closed, and then turned to face her.

  “So, are you here to pick up something?”

  “Oh, no.” Monica turned to face him. “No. I actually….” She gave him a faint smile. “I’m here because I want to make things right between us.”

  Grant was momentarily stunned. He had not expected that at all.

  “Um, you what?” Monica smiled at him hesitantly.

  “I…I want to come home, Grant. I know that I made a mistake, and it wasn’t right, but I want to put us back together.”

  He sensed a catch in this plan, and wondered just what it was.

  “Okay,” Grant answered cautiously. “And what else?”

  “What do you mean?” Monica asked. “I’m your wife. Shouldn’t I want to be at home with my husband? And our baby?”

  “Well, yes, but you also shouldn’t want to sleep with my business partners,” Grant told her flatly. Monica sighed.

  “Look, Grant, I didn’t want you to find out like that.”

  “So it wasn’t the first time?” He had not asked before, and now he wanted to know.

  “No.” Monica shook her head. “It wasn’t. He and I….” She paused. “He and I started to fool around a bit after the Christmas party last year.”

  Grant had not expected that either.

  “Well, I didn’t know.”

  “You didn’t.” Monica took a deep breath. “That was my point. But Grant, you need to understand.”

  “Understand what?” Grant pressed her.

  “You need to understand that I want to get back together, but not necessarily for the reasons you’re thinking. While I’ll always care about you, I want to make a life for our baby. It needs both of its parents, and it needs us together.”

  “I suppose.” Monica looked surprised at his words. Had she really expected that he would do nothing but jump back into her arms?

  “You suppose?” Monica asked. “You don’t want to get back together? Are you really that angry?”

  “No.” He was not angry. He had come to accept that he had been out of real love with Monica for a while now, and it was only natural that he would find it in another woman. “But things are different now.”

  “Different how?” Monica took a step closer to him. “Grant, we’re a family. We’re going to have a baby. Things can’t change between us. This is us.”

  “Not anymore,” Grant told her gently. “Monica, I’m sorry. But I have feelings for someone else now.”

  That stunned her. Monica’s eyes widened. She recoiled instantly from him. Any look of sympathy or affection on her face was replaced with a growing anger.

  “What? Who? Who is she?” He could hear the anger rising in her tone. Grant did not feel as bad as he thought that he probably should.

  “It’s Kelly,” he told her honestly. “She came over here a few weeks after you left and…she spent the night.” He might as well tell her everything. Besides, had he not been the one to catch her cheating in the first place?

  “What?” Monica snapped. Now the anger had risen to her eyes. “Grant, you cannot be serious. You’re one of the richest men in this country and you’re falling for a broke, little, college girl who has to carry other people’s babies just to earn money?”

  “Yes,” Grant answered flatly. “Yes, I have. And I will tell you, Monica, that I have feelings for Kelly that I have never had for you.”

  She looked as though someone had poured ice water on her. Grant was glad to get it out into the open. It made him feel that much better about the entire situation.

  “What is actually wro
ng with you?” Monica growled. “Have you lost your damn mind?”

  “Maybe I have!” Grant snapped back. “But what can you expect after I caught my wife in my bed with one of my coworkers!”

  Glaring at him, Monica shook her head.

  “Well, I clearly made a mistake coming here!”

  “Apparently you did!” Grant told her. “Because I won’t be reconciling with you for anyone sake—including the baby’s!”

  “You,” Monica turned for the front door, “are making a terrible mistake. But if you want to throw your life away, that’s just fine with me!”

  “I can assure you that it is no mistake.” Grant followed after her.

  “Oh, it is.” Monica yanked the door open. “It is. You will be hearing from my lawyer.”

  “I’ll save you the trouble.” Grant told her. “I will call mine right now and get the divorce proceedings in place.”

  “Fine.” Monica smiled coldly at him. “You go right ahead and you do that—but don’t you even think that you’re getting that baby! It belongs to ME!”

  Monica spun on her heel, storming out of the door and slamming it shut behind her. He heard the sound of her high heels clattering down the walk. Grant shook his head. He had a suspicion that he was about to find himself in the fight of his life.

  Chapter 11

  Kelly was feeling good—really good. And it was not just the pregnancy aspect, although that was a part of it.

  She had stopped feeling so incredibly nauseous all the time, which was huge. For a while, she had thought that it was never going to go away. While she was still tired a lot, she had enough energy to get herself out to class, and for the occasional run. Dr. Landis had told her that exercise was not going to hurt her, so she was trying to take his advice and keep herself moving. After all, she did not want to see how much weight that she could gain.