The One (The Only One Book 1)

by Belle Ami

  Life at Green Way Farms had returned to a normal rhythm that was now dictated by the needs of Fallyn Lindstrom Bremen and Liam Lindstrom Bremen, who had been named in memory of Faye and Lars, the grandparents whom they would never know. Both babies favored Adelia with their thick, wavy, black hair, although Liam’s was noticeably fairer. Fallyn had inherited Faye’s green eyes, and Liam’s eyes were blue like Adelia’s. But given Adelia and Karolin’s uncanny resemblance to each other, except for their hair color, the babies could easily have passed as their aunt’s children.

  After just two months of strenuous exercise and a healthy diet, Adelia’s athletic body had returned to its former shape. She was desirous to regain her husband’s physical affection, but Miles was reticent, not wanting to inflict pain on her by beginning too soon.

  Adelia lit the candles in the bedroom when she heard the crunch of the limousine’s tires announcing Miles’s return from New York. She took a last look in the mirror, satisfied that she looked alluring. She listened in the hallway as Karin did as instructed, sending Miles to her in the bedroom. The babies had been fed and bedded down in the nursery, with the nanny in the adjoining bedroom. Adelia and Miles would not be disturbed for several hours, until the babies’ next feeding.

  When Miles entered the room, Adelia sat waiting, dressed in the lace negligee that she had worn on their wedding night. She stood when Miles entered the bedroom, ablaze with candlelight that cast a rosy glow on her.

  “Wow, what’s this?”

  “This, Miles, is your wife wanting you.”

  She walked toward him, her eyes aching with desire. He could feel his pulse quicken. She reached him and kissed him, her tongue, soft and prodding against his. The heat from her body passed through him like an electrical current. As she continued to kiss him, her hands deftly removed his suit jacket, dropping it to the floor, and then went to work quickly untying his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. Her fingers caressed each well-defined muscle of his body as she removed his clothing until he stood naked before her, his eyes burning into hers. She whispered, “Don’t move.” Slowly bending, she planted soft, wet kisses down his body until she reached his stiff cock that pulsated with excitement. She looked up to see his eyes hungrily locked on her. Then she took him fully into her mouth and sucked slowly and methodically, his moans tingling within her.

  “Oh, baby, it’s been so long…oh…yes…I’ve been so afraid to touch you. Oh…my…God. It feels so good.”

  She sucked him harder and took him deeper into her mouth.

  “If you keep this up, I’ll come.”

  With a last lick, she released him from her mouth and stood. She kissed him again, her hand still firmly holding his penis as she slowly manipulated him. “I need you, Miles. I need you inside me. I’m beginning to think that you’ve forgotten how to make love to me. I promise you I won’t break.” She pressed her pelvis against his stiffened cock and her lips against his ear as she whispered, “That is, unless you don’t feel up to the job.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, hiking her nightgown to her waist. There would be no foreplay. Her challenge could not go unanswered. He had to have her now. Plunging himself into her, he heard her groan as he filled her. His body had never felt such aching hunger as he moved in and out of her.

  She nibbled his earlobe, her breath hot as she moaned, “More, Miles, don’t stop. I want you never to stop. I’ve missed you inside me.”

  He pulled out of her, and she moaned, “No.”

  Turning her over, his hands glided down her back to her waist and caressed her smooth, round buttocks. Then, like a knife cutting through butter, he slid into the velvety, wet hole of her vagina. Rocking her body with his steady thrusts, he realized how much he had missed fucking her. Her moans of pleasure and the arch of her back as he slapped against her were driving him wild. The months of self-imposed abstinence, and the heightened stimulation of her seducing him, quickly drove them both to an explosive climax.

  They lay in the aftermath of lovemaking, woven together as one. “You never fail to amaze me, Mrs. Bremen. Who would have believed that the horsey girl I met a little over a year ago would become such a sexy goddess.” His lips caressed the back of her neck. “Falling in love was never my intention, but look at me now. I can’t imagine my life without you.”

  “I know; sometimes I still can’t believe we found each other. It seems so serendipitous. To think that if Karolin hadn’t invited me to the party after the horse show, we might never have met.” Adelia turned to search Miles’s face for a trace of guilt or a forthcoming confession that perhaps it wasn’t an accident. If he would only admit to how well he had known Lars and that their meeting each other wasn’t just happenstance.

  “My lucky day. The first time I saw you, you seemed so vulnerable. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

  “You mistook my sadness for vulnerability.”

  “I certainly have learned that you are a woman of many talents.” He nuzzled her, and she could feel him grow hard against her.

  Turning to kiss him, she responded, “I wouldn’t mind if you indulged yourself with one of those talents again.”

  Adelia was putting Spitfire, a powerful bay stallion, through a light exercise routine of different gaits, called hacking, when her cell phone rang. She slowed Spitfire to a walk, dropped the reins, and retrieved the phone from her back pocket.

  “Hi, David. I’m glad you called. I wanted to talk to you.”

  “How are you, Adelia, and the twins?”

  “I’m great. Liam and Fallyn are growing like weeds. Thanks for asking.”

  David still hadn’t fully come to grips with the idea of Adelia being the mother of twins. It made the distance between them even larger. It pained him that what he was about to say might mean he would never see or hear from her again. “I’ve been thinking…maybe we should end the investigation.”

  “Why? Don’t you think it’s going anywhere?”

  “That’s the problem, Adelia. I do think it’s going somewhere.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Look, I pulled the service history for the Cayenne, and according to the records, your father had it at the dealership the day before the accident. I went there and kibitzed with a couple of the mechanics. They remembered the accident and afterward, when I came and questioned them during my investigation. The brakes were checked and were found to be fine. That’s exactly what’s in the official report, but what I never picked up the first time was that the Porsche stayed on the lot overnight, and your dad picked it up in the morning.”

  “So what’s so unusual about that?”

  “It isn’t unusual; it’s just incorrect. Something must have happened, because the car remained on the lot for two nights. Your parents must have picked it up on their way home from the Solarian board meeting. It means the Cayenne could have been tampered with after the mechanics had finished servicing it, on a day when the dealership was closed. Someone could have jumped the fence, entered the lot, and tampered with the brakes. No one would have been the wiser for it.”

  “How is that possible? What Solarian board meeting? I thought Lars was speaking at an environmental symposium.”

  “In answer to your first questions, anything is possible when someone is intent on murder. Lars did speak at a conference at UCLA first. Solarian called an emergency board-of-directors meeting to accommodate Lars, and everyone flew to LA for it. Faye went shopping in Beverly Hills while Lars met the board for lunch at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. I’m pretty sure Miles was at that meeting.”

  Adelia felt her pulse quicken. “OK, even if Miles was in town when the accident happened that doesn’t mean he had anything to do with it. Where’s the cause?”

  “Solarian is in trouble, Adelia. I think it was in trouble then, and that’s why the emergency meeting was called. My th
eory is your father wanted out of the deal, or at least he wanted to go public with the truth. I think your father was fed up, based on the speech he was writing and planned to deliver in Germany. This Solarian issue, Climategate…he may have hit his limit, and a lot of people were going to lose a lot depending on what your dad did.”

  “But you don’t know if Miles—”

  “No, I don’t, Adelia…but he did stand to lose a lot. Look, Miles is your husband and the father of your children. If you want, we can end this now. You can go on with your life. Your parents’ deaths and the fact that Miles may have been here could just be coincidence. I don’t want to see you suffer any more than you already have. I’ll leave it alone if you ask me to.”

  “I wish I knew that this was going to turn out to be nothing. But even if it doesn’t, I can’t leave it. I owe it to my parents to finish it. What happens next?”

  “I need you to help me with the next step.”

  “Me? What do you want me to do?”

  “I need you to get into Miles’s travel receipts and his credit-card bills for April, May, and June; everything prior to the accident. Also, last year’s appointment book and e-mails would be really helpful. Executives always keep them. I need to see where he went, who he saw.”

  “How the hell am I going to do that? Everything’s in his office in New York.”

  “Go with him to New York. Suggest a romantic getaway for a couple of days.” The thought of Miles spending a romantic weekend with Adelia made his stomach churn. Why can’t I get her out of my system? I need to keep this on a professional basis. “Make sure it’s when he has meetings. Go shopping; meet him early in the office while he’s still busy. Come on, Adelia; think of something—you’re resourceful. There is no way I can get hold of this stuff without breaking and entering.”

  Adelia rubbed her forehead under her helmet as she continued to walk Spitfire around the ring. She felt a terrible headache coming on. “I don’t know. What if he catches me?”

  “Hey, the man loves you. He isn’t going to be suspicious. You can always turn it around. You just need to have a plan and a reasonable explanation.”

  “I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know.”

  “OK. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

  Chapter 18

  Adelia looked out the taxi’s window at the rain-soaked streets and the parade of umbrellas that seemed to slither like an undulating snake down Fifth Avenue. The cab inched its way through traffic toward Forty-Second Street and Midtown. Their romantic getaway to Manhattan had been surprisingly easy to arrange. Miles was very busy with work, and not having to return to the farm in New Hope each day gained him valuable working time. Besides, spending a few days alone with his wife in their pied-à-terre at Trump Tower was an assignation he couldn’t pass up.

  It was Thursday, and he had one last meeting at his office. Following the meeting, they would have dinner at Babbo. Miles’s offices in the Bank of America Tower were a straight shot up Fifth Avenue, right on Forty-Second Street at One Bryant Park. Adelia had only been to the offices a couple of times and had been impressed by the award-winning, fifty-five-story, glass-and-steel monolith. Miles had gushed over the building’s environmental attributes, which ranked it one of the most sustainable in the world. It boasted a gray-water recycling system; floor-to-ceiling, insulated, self-dimming e-glass; and an air-filtration system that recycled contaminants and exhausted air that was cleaner than the air outside. This third-tallest building in New York had been constructed of nearly all recycled materials and was the most energy-efficient building in the world. The way Miles extolled the virtues of the building, you might have thought that he had designed and built it himself. It was a perfect habitat for a company whose spectrum of expertise was in green investments.

  Miles had insisted that Adelia spend the day shopping while he was in meetings. He hadn’t seen her buy a thing for herself since the babies were born, and he was nonplussed to understand why. To please him, she acquiesced and bought several new outfits at Bergdorf’s—shoes, bags, belts—everything necessary to convince him that she was the spendthrift that he wanted her to be. She wore a new red-leather Gucci pencil skirt and jacket and a Burberry patent-leather raincoat, which she knew even he would find extravagant. The crowning feather had been having her hair blown out and a manicure and pedicure of red lacquer applied. If she had any doubts as to the picture of perfection that she presented, they were quickly dispelled when she acknowledged Donald Trump’s appreciative smile and hello as he entered his namesake building just as she exited and jumped into a waiting cab.

  Purposefully, she had planned to arrive at Miles’s offices an hour and a half early, just as his meeting was set to commence in the boardroom. Feigning boredom, she would wait in his office for him to finish. She figured she would have plenty of time to search for what she had come to find. It hadn’t escaped her attention that she was dressed for her foray into espionage like a clichéd Mata Hari, raincoat and all.

  The high-speed, wood-paneled elevator raced to the corporate offices of Green Way Capital on the forty-eighth floor. When Adelia exited the elevator, she was greeted by a receptionist, who quickly notified Karin that Mrs. Bremen was in the lobby. Within seconds, Karin was by her side, escorting her to Miles’s office.

  “I thought Miles was picking you up at the apartment in two hours. He’s just about to go into a meeting.”

  “I know. I just thought it would be fun to surprise him. I don’t mind waiting in his office. I have a book to read on my iPad.”

  Karin swung open the wood-paneled doors to the plush interior of Miles’s office, with its expansive view of the New York skyline and East River. The ultramodern interior echoed the carapace of luminous glass that enclosed the space in a see-through cocoon. On this rainy day, the room felt like it was in a cloud on Mount Olympus. It’s like dwelling among the gods, Adelia thought as she surveyed the view.

  “I’ll grab Miles before the meeting begins,” Karin said as she exited.

  Adelia stared out the windows nervously as she contemplated what her next move would be.

  “Adelia!” Miles burst through the doors, his open arms embracing her. “I thought I was picking you up in two hours. What’s up?”

  She kissed him lightly and, turning, removed her raincoat so he could better see the effort she had expended on his behalf. “I was bored, and I wanted to see you in your kingdom. I hope you don’t mind. I thought I would read and take in the views. I’m such a country girl, but it’s nice to once in a while sample the treasures of the city.”

  “Wow, you look incredible. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were trying to seduce me, which, come to think of it, sounds very provocative and enticing.”

  Her face lit up with her most beguiling smile. “What, and have you ruin my hours of dutiful preparation? I just wanted you to be excited about our dinner date…I am.” Again, her sexual overtones could not be mistaken.

  Miles ran his fingers through his dark hair as he weighed the possibilities in his head. “This meeting is only going to last a little over an hour.”

  “Go, Miles. I’ll be fine. Work before play. I’m not going anywhere.” She lightly brushed his cheek with her lips and sat on the leather sofa, pulling her skirt down. Ignoring him, she pulled her iPad from her purse. “Go on. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done.”

  “Right!” Miles fled the room, leaving Adelia to herself.

  As Adelia had expected, Karin entered. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, I’ll get water from the minibar. Go, Karin. Don’t worry about me.”

  Finally alone, Adelia rose and walked to the doors, pressing her ear against them. Silently, she opened the door and peered out into the hallway, which was empty. Closing the door, quietly, she surveyed the room. She would start with the credenza that ran the length of the room behind the desk. Sliding open the d
oors, she slid out a rack of hanging files and quickly thumbed through them, finding nothing that piqued her interest. She slid it carefully back into place and started on the next one.

  “Bingo,” she whispered to herself. The file was labeled Solarian. She ran her finger down the table of contents, pausing halfway down. Board-of-directors meeting, June 26, 2010—the day of the accident. She could feel her heart racing as she began to read the notes. She frowned. Clear as day, both Miles and her father had attended the meeting at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. There was no question; Miles had done more than just omit how well he knew her father. He had lied to her from the beginning.

  She saw that a board vote had been taken, in which Lars was the sole dissenter. He alone opposed going back to the US government agency for additional funds. The company’s revenue projections hadn’t panned out, and without additional funding, Solarian was headed toward bankruptcy. The new, state-of-the-art factory was running at half its capacity, and layoffs were imminent. Lars suggested that instead of getting in deeper with the government, they go back to the private equity markets and the original investors. The board overruled him and planned to dig deeper into Uncle Sam’s pockets. They were adamant about not putting up more of their own money.

  She heard voices in the hallway and quickly shoved the file back in the drawer and slid the cabinet shut. She dashed to the couch and opened her iPad as she held her breath. The voices continued down the hallway without disturbing her. She walked back to the desk, took the file out again, and, grabbing her cell phone, snapped photos of the documents before neatly returning the file to its alphabetical position.

  She opened the next door and pulled out a stack of past years’ appointment books. Opening the one labeled “2010,” she turned to the months of April and laid the book open on the desk. Again, she quickly snapped photos of the pages with her cell phone and then did the same for May and June, after which she stuck the book back on the shelf.