“When will you come back home?” Jordan asked.
Kari could see the strain on Alex’s face. He hated leaving them as much as they hated for him to go. But the kind of high stakes negotiations he was involved in was like working a job. A job that had to be done. “Soon,” he said. “A week maybe, if we can iron out all the details. But I’ll be back in the States in a couple days.”
This surprised Kari. She looked at him. “Really? What for?”
“Reno Gabrini’s going to be in New York on his own business, but he agreed to meet with me.”
“About that situation?”
Alex nodded. “He made it work when he ran into difficulties similar to mine,” he said. “I need to find out how.” Then he looked at Kari. “I’ll make a pitstop here in Florida, to pick you up. I want you to come to that meeting with me.”
Kari nodded. “Of course I will,” she said.
“Then I hope I’ll be able to get back to London and finalize the deal. And I’ll be home soon after that, Jordan ,” Alex said.
But Jordan leaned against him. “Still not soon enough,” he said.
Alex smiled and placed his arm around Jordan, and around Kari, and both mother and son leaned closer against him.
Oz stared at his brother’s new family. Love like that was what he craved for himself. But he was too far out there to settle down, and he knew it. But if the right woman came along, a woman like Kari, then he’d actually consider giving it a go. He might decide against it as he gave it that go, but at least he would have tried. Because a loyal, faithful, good woman like Kari Grant-Drakos, he knew like he knew his name, was hard to find.
But then his eyes met his brother’s gaze. And he saw the worry in his big brother’s eyes, something he rarely ever saw. Something Alex never wanted seen.
It was Alex who looked away.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Ma, hurry up! Dad’s waiting. You’ve got to go!”
It was two days later. Kari was at her dressing table inside the penthouse at The Drakos, putting on her earrings- the last thing she had to do, as Jordan stood at her bedroom door hurrying her along. She was supposed to have been at the airfield a half hour ago. She knew how late she was!
“Just make sure my driver’s ready,” Kari said as she put on the final earring.
“He’s ready. Oz is driving you.”
Kari looked at him. “Oz? I know better than that, Jordan.”
“He’ll get you there in record time.”
“Or not at all with his crazy-ass driving,” Kari said. But she knew she couldn’t worry about that now. She was that late.
She grabbed her clutch and gave herself a final look over in the full-length mirror. She wore a bright-white minidress that looked as if it had been stitched onto her body, and red heels with white accents. Her hair was down her back, in thick waves of bounciness, and her makeup, highlighting her smooth brown skin and high cheekbones were, as Jordan saw it, perfect.
“You look great, Ma,” he said as she hurried by her soon-to-turn sixteen-year-old son, a son who still looked eleven to her, and began hurrying downstairs.
“Behave yourself while your father and I are in New York,” she said as she hurried down, her heels stepping high.
“You know I will,” Jordan responded, hurrying behind her.
Then Kari glanced back at him. “And don’t you dare be partying with Oz.”
Jordan inwardly smiled. His mother knew him like a book. “I won’t,” he said.
“Liar,” Kari said, as she hurried out of the door. Jordan laughed and hurried out behind her.
Oz was already in his Porsche 911, and he was already revving the powerful engine like the showoff he loved to be. He had an unlit cigar between his perfect white teeth and wore a big hat that made him look like Indiana Jones. And he drove like he was that Harrison Ford character, too, Kari thought. She almost turned back around.
“Stop worrying,” Oz said through his pressed-down passenger side window. “You’ll safe with me, my love.”
“He’ll get you there safely, Ma,” Jordan said as he piled into the backseat. He was always a defender of his beloved uncle. “He’s right. Don’t worry.”
“Easy for you to say,” Kari said as Oz laughed. “And who said you could ride to the airport with him?”
“I wanna see you safely off,” Jordan said.
“Yeah, right,” said Kari as she got into the front passenger seat.
Jordan laughed as Oz sped off so fast that Kari, still putting on her seatbelt, was jerked backwards against the seat.
“Slow your ass down, fool!” Kari yelled at Oz. “Alex will kill your crazy butt if you kill me!”
Oz laughed. “I want my big brother to try to lay a hand on me,” he said.
Kari glanced at him with a no, you didn’t say that look. Alex used to beat Oz’s ass routinely, and Oz knew it.
Jordan put in his earplugs and listened to music on his phone.
Oz glanced through the mirror and saw that Jordan was doing his own thing. He then looked at Kari. “But you do know what’s funny, right?” he asked her as he drove.
“Funny?” Kari asked. “No, I most certainly do not know what’s funny, the way you’re driving.”
“What’s funny is how we cater to Alexio,” said Oz. “Here I am rushing to get you to his plane, even though he’s been out of town for damn near a week except for that quick trip to J’s graduation ceremony. He could have at the very least come here and picked you up. But here you are rushing to get to a man who’s only in Florida to snatch you up, take you to New York for a meeting with Reno Gabrini, and then he’s going to put you on the corporate jet and head right back overseas on his private plane.”
“It’s vital, Oz, and you know it,” said Kari. “He has to make that merger work. At least he invited me along to meet with Reno.”
“And then after the meeting?” Oz asked.
A sad look appeared in Kari’s eyes. “He goes back to London.”
“Bingo,” said Oz.
“It can’t be helped,” said Kari. “He’s in major negotiations. It’s a billion dollar merger. What do you want him to do? Just walk away from it? Why you acting like you don’t understand what’s going on?”
“But why does he need it, Kare? You ever asked yourself that question? Why is he always chasing money when he has more than almost everybody else on this planet as it is?”
“Nothing’s guaranteed in this life,” said Kari and she looked at Oz. He was behaving as if he didn’t hear Alex mention that half a billion dollar loss he recently took. “His money is tied up into other things,” she continued. “It’s not cash on hand, and you know it. He has to liquidate for cash, and if his companies keep losing their value, there won’t be anything to liquidate.” She thought about Jordan in the car, and didn’t continue.
“Okay, so he won’t be superrich,” said Oz. “But he’ll still be in the top one percent of wealth regardless. That’s why I still say his workaholism is a tad excessive, especially since he has a brand new family that needs him too. And while he’s out of the country notching another billion under his belt, what do we do like the suckers we are for him? You run his housekeeping department at his hotel, and everything else related to that hotel since he’s gone so much. And I run his massive casino as if gambling is my life, too, just like his customers. Funny how we cater to him so easily. That’s all I’m saying.”
Kari didn’t respond to that, either, but she understood what he meant. Alex was falling back into his old habits again. And chief among them: he was out of town more than he was home. She knew, when she married him, that they would be splitting their time between his Hudson Valley home in New York and their penthouse at The Drakos in Florida. She also knew he would be traveling a lot too. But Oz was right. It was getting out of hand.
Oz glanced at her. “And I’m sure you aren’t looking forward to that dinner tonight either,” he said.
Kari was yawning and thumbing through
the text messages on her phone. “Why would you say that?”
“Because,” Oz said. “You guys are having dinner with the Gabrinis.”
“Right.”
“Right,” said Oz.
Kari looked up from her phone and looked at him. “What do you mean right? We’re having dinner with Reno Gabrini. I like Reno.”
“You guys are having dinner with Reno Gabrini and his wife,” Oz reminded her.
“Yeah, so?” Kari asked. “I like Trina too.”
Oz looked out of his side mirror. “Yeah, I know you do. And from what I’ve heard, Alexio likes her too. A lot,” he added, and then looked over at Kari. Their eyes met, and then Oz looked away.
When he looked away from her, Kari released an exhale of frustration. There was a time, she knew, when Alex had a major thing for Reno Gabrini’s wife and would have probably had an affair with her had she been willing. But she wasn’t willing because she wasn’t that kind of lady. But that was why Kari liked Trina. She was a woman with an unquestioned moral core who lived her life on the right side of integrity, which was a trait Kari was also known to possess. Alex had a hoard of women before he met Kari and had no intentions of being faithful to any of them. It was the way he was at that time.
But Kari was nearly certain he wasn’t that way anymore.
They arrived at the airstrip in record time, thanks to Oz’s crazy driving. Alex’s massive private jet was on the runway idling for takeoff, and two of Alex’s bodyguards were waiting at the bottom of the plane’s stairs. Kari felt a little cheated. Her husband hadn’t seen her, except for that brief time two days ago, in nearly a week, yet he had his guards standing ready to escort her onto the plane rather than doing it himself?
She wouldn’t do him that way, she inwardly thought, but then she quickly dismissed such a thought. He could have remained in London, on that billion-dollar merger deal they suddenly desperately needed for insurance against his major losses, and he didn’t have to come back until it was all done. But he needed to meet with Reno Gabrini and he wanted to see her too. And wanted her in on the meeting as his full partner. She wasn’t going to complain.
But Oz was staring at her when they arrived at the airfield, and he saw the disappointment in her pretty eyes. “Don’t be,” he said to her the way she imagined he spoke so soothingly to his women.
Kari looked at him. “Don’t be what?” she asked him.
He moved his hat slightly back from his forehead and lifted his head up. “Don’t be happy that my brother wants to see you for a few hours before he goes back overseas. Alexio should be the one waiting to walk you up those stairs, not his goons.”
Kari was always astounded by Oz’s perceptiveness. “How would you know what I’m thinking?” she asked.
“Unfortunately for you, your eyes tell it all, Karena. Your eyes are the most expressive I have ever seen. When you’re happy, it shows. When you’re sad and disappointed, it shows. When you’re pissed, it really shows.”
“Oh yeah, Miss Cleo?” Kari asked, smiling too. “Of all of those emotions you claim I have, which one am I experiencing right now?”
“You’re all three, my love,” Oz said breezily. “You’re happy that you get to see Alexio again,” Oz continued. “You’re sad that it’ll only be briefly. You’re disappointed that he isn’t out here to meet you. And you are royally pissed that you have to go through all of these emotions to begin with.”
Kari smiled. “You think you have it all figured out, don’t you, Oz?”
“Think it? No, my dear, I don’t think it.”
Kari looked at him. Oz owned his arrogance like a badge of honor. He was who he was and he wasn’t changing for anybody. And Kari loved him for that.
Oz exhaled. He wished Alex would be more attentive to his wonderful wife, or he was convinced some other man was going to be. But he and Kari both knew that Alex was who he was, too, and although Alex wasn’t arrogant with it, he was stubborn as a mule with it. “You’d better get on that plane,” Oz said, “before he comes out here and cuss both our asses out.”
Kari wanted to smile, but couldn’t fake it enough. She unbuckled her seatbelt.
But just as she was opening Oz’s car door, they both noticed a figure emerging from the plane. When they both realized it was Alex hurrying down the steps with his tie flying wildly in the wind, but not a hair on his head out of place, they both smiled. Kari started grinning. Especially when Alex hit the tarmac and began walking swiftly toward Oz’s Porsche. Even Jordan saw it and removed his earplugs.
“What man would be relaxing on his own plane in a suit?” Oz asked.
“My man,” Kari said as if she’d just walked around the corner and it was Christmas. “Because my man,” she added, as she began getting out of Oz’s car, “don’t be coming for me looking any kind of way!”
Oz and Jordan laughed happily. About time his brother showed some signs, Oz thought. “And let him come to you, Kari,” Oz advised. He was a man’s man himself and knew how those things worked. “Don’t go running to him like you’re desperate for him.”
But he said it too late. Because Kari was already off and running to Alex. She knew it made more sense to play the nonchalant. She knew it gave her more power to behave as if seeing her man again was no big deal to a sophisticated lady like her. But seeing that gorgeous smile on Alex’s wonderful face slapped any airs and pretenses right off of her mind. She was too happy to see him to play games.
Alex’s heart soared with joy, too, when he saw his wife running to him. One of the things he loved most about Kari was that she understood what he was trying to do. She got him! She knew that if he closed that deal, he would ease up on his travels again. She understood that. He couldn’t envision any other woman on the face of this earth who would.
And because she wasn’t riding him to be at home more, and wasn’t giving him a hard time when all those other deals fell through, it made him all the more determined to make that merger a reality. It was the largest merger of his career. And if successful, he’d have the cushion against losses he now needed more than he thought he would. The second phase of his life, he’d already decided, was going to be as family man.
“My darling,” he said with that hint of a Greek accent he still possessed, as he swept Kari into his big, muscular arms and lifted her off of her feet. He placed his hand on the back of her head and looked into her eyes. Her big, expressive eyes, he was thrilled to see, were smiling back at him.
“It’s so good to see you again, my darling,” Alex said as he looked from her eyes to her mouth, with his own eyes suddenly becoming hooded. “And to taste you again,” he added, as he moved in and kissed her, passionately, on those lips.
Kari wrapped her arms around Alex as he kissed her, and both of them closed their eyes and enjoyed the passion of the moment.
When they stopped kissing and Alex sat Kari back onto her feet, they both waved at Oz and Jordan, who had jumped into the front seat beside his uncle, and then they made their way toward the plane.
It wasn’t lost on Oz that Alex had his hand around Kari’s waist and had her pulled against him as if there was no daylight between them. When there was plenty. When that game of neglect Alex was playing was going to one day bite him in the butt. Oz just hoped and prayed that his brother and sister-in-law would have a strong enough bond to weather the storm.
“What’s on the agenda for tonight, Unc?” Jordan asked.
“What do you think?” Oz asked as he drove away.
“Milk and cookies, and bed?” Jordan joked.
“Like hell. We’re going to party, young man. We are going to par-ty!”
And Oz shifted gear, gassed it, and jerked Jordan back against the seat as they sped off. But unlike his mother, Jordan was laughing.
As they drove away, Alex and Kari made their way onto the plane.
The plane’s crew chief met them at the door. “Welcome aboard, Mrs. Drakos,” he said happily to Kari. “How nice to see you again.”
“Thank you, Seamus,” Kari said. “It’s good to see you again too. How’s the family?”
As Seamus responded to her question, Kari could see out of the side of her eye that Alex was growing increasingly impatient. She knew why. He wanted her in bed. Because it had been a minute. And any significant amount of time without sex for a uber-virile man like Alex, might as well had been a lifetime without it.
But also, because of Seamus’s long response, Kari didn’t ask him anymore questions. When he finally finished talking, Alex took her hand, and led her to his massive bedroom.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Alex was on the bed, on his knees, with his unbuttoned and unzipped pants half pulled down, revealing only his fully aroused penis.
Kari was on the bed, and completely naked, as Alex kissed her mouth and breasts and fingered her passionately. He had missed her the moment he had left her side, and to have this time with her was alone worth the seven- thousand mile plane ride he had just traveled.
Kari wrapped her arms around his waist as he kissed her passionately on her lips and fingered her. And when he slid her down further onto the bed, and got between her legs, her butt arched up and her womanhood met his mouth with a meeting that made her bones blush.
She was trembling as Alex did her, and Alex was doing her with such urgency that his entire being quake with sensuality. He loved the taste of her so much that he could hardly contain himself, as his tongue couldn’t stop making her his. He was conquering her all over again, and he loved the feeling.
But he knew he didn’t want to walk her over that cliff. He wanted to carry her over. And that was why he stood up, dropped his pants and briefs, stepped out of them, and then got in bed on top of her. But first he turned her over, onto her stomach, and admired her tight ass as he eased into her wetness with a sense of love that overtook Kari too.
Alex Drakos: Branding Her Again Page 4