She nearly had to drive right past her office to get across town to Alex’s rental house/office.  But she kept going anyway.  She really wanted to see him again.  She really wanted to congratulate him again.  She really wanted to be with him again.  If it appeared as if he was still asleep: namely if there was no movement around the house, she wouldn’t wake him.  She’d keep going and take her horny behind to work.  She’d feel weird for bothering to go by at all, but Kari had always been daring her entire life.  It was hard for somebody like her, despite all of that play it cool talk she gave to Jordan, to suddenly clam up.

 

If she was expecting a sleepy house, she was monumentally mistaken.  That house was as lively as it had ever been, with cars everywhere.  It was as if the victory party from last night was still going strong.  Kari had to park nearly three doors down and walk over to the house because of the glut of cars.  And when she made her way up on the porch, and saw people she knew coming out with business equipment, she was shocked.

“Hey, Kari!” said one of Alex’s men.  “Some result last night, eh?”

“A good result, yeah,” Kari said, and kept walking into the house.

“Hey, Kari,” said Priska Rahm as she was packing papers into briefcases, her European accent precise.  “He is upstairs.”

But Kari was still trying to wrap her brain around what she was seeing.  Suit cases were packed.  Equipment was packed up.  People were still unplugging equipment even as she stood in the foyer.  “What’s going on?” she asked Priska.

“We are packing up and heading back to New York,” Priska said.  “Our job here is done.  Now it is up to the builders to make the dream a reality.  But as for us?  We move on to the next project.  It is how Alex does business.”

And that was when it hit Kari.  This was temporary!  There was no way an international business mogul like Alex Drakos was going to put down roots in little Apple Valley, Florida!  Why would he?  His business was out of New York.  His home was in New York.  When his casino and hotel were built, he’d visit them.  Maybe a little more than a little.  But he was still going to be stationed in New York.  Kari was amazed how hard it hit that morning.

And it was a reality that stunned her.

“He is upstairs,” Priska said again.  “Would you like me to let him know you are here?”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” Kari said.  “You don’t even have to tell him I dropped by.  I’ll talk to him later.”

“You are sure?” Priska asked.  “I am certain he will be very disappointed to have missed you.”

Kari appreciated Priska’s support.  They both had mutual admiration for each other.  Kari knew how hard a man Alex was to work for.  Priska knew how easy a man Alex was to love.

But Kari would rather not face him right now.  Not when she still had to process this reality.  “I’ll talk to him later,” she said, and headed back out of the door.  She was about to walk across the porch and make her way down the steps when she heard that familiar voice; a voice sounding if it was coming from an intercom system.  “Kari?”

It was Alex.  She stopped when she heard the sound, and turned around.  She knew he had security cameras all over the place: it was the nature of who he was that required it.  The intercom thing, however, was new to her.

“Come here,” his voice ordered.

She’d already been told that he was upstairs, so she assumed his voice was coming from that direction.  She wanted to keep going, to deal with the reality that she was not going to be able to see Alex on any daily basis, or even close to it.  But she’d been spied.  She went back into the chaotic house, and made her way up the stairs.

Upstairs was off limits to his staffers, and it was like a different world up there.  Alex’s bedroom was directly in front of the staircase, and the door was closed.  Kari gave a couple knocks first, and then opened the door.

Inside the bedroom, Alex was standing on the side of the chest of drawers fully dressed in blue dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a matching pair of blue-and-white suspenders.  His clothes looked so expensive, and the material so silky, that Kari wanted to reach out and touch it.  But their relationship was still new.  That awkwardness was still there.

At least on Kari’s part the awkwardness was there.  On Alex’s part, he was smiling.  “Good morning,” he said to her as he put on his Rolex watch and some type of diamond ring.

“Good morning,” Kari responded.  His smile was infectious, and she forgot about her angst and began smiling, too.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to congratulate you again.”  Then she noticed his packed suit case in the bedroom, too.  “Before you left town,” she added.

“Thank you,” he said, as he placed his wallet in his back pocket.  The room smelled of aftershave and that cologne of his that she was now well familiar with.  He began walking toward her.  “I was going to come by your office before I left,” he said.

“Oh.  Okay.”  Then she added in a voice she hoped didn’t reveal her disappointment: “I didn’t know you were leaving so soon.”

Alex considered her.   She wore a dress he’d seen her wear before: a green and gray, form-fitting dress that dropped well above her knee, and high heels.  Her hair was being worn down now, and that smile he adored was plastered all over her pretty face.  She was everything he would want in a woman.  And more.  “Where’s Jordan?  At school?”

“Yeah, I dropped him off.  He’s going to be sorry he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

“He’ll get a chance,” Alex said.  They were now toe-to-toe.  Alex placed his hands on either side of her small biceps, and pulled her into his arms.

He closed his eyes as her body pressed against his.  There was something about Kari that made him want to hold her in a way that was equal parts possessive and protective and loving, and animal erotic.  The idea that he would have to be away from her, even for a little while, was going to be difficult.

But Kari remembered what he last said.  She leaned slightly back and looked into his eyes.  “You said he’ll get a chance to say goodbye?” she asked.

Alex nodded.  “Yes.  I’m going to try and get back tonight.”

Kari was confused. “Tonight?”

Alex felt somewhat embarrassed, but there was no way he was staying away from Kari too long.  “Yes.  I have meetings all day, but then I’ll get back on the plane and fly back tonight.  Maybe in time for dinner with you and Jordan.”

Kari smiled.  “He would love that,” she said.

“And what about you?” he asked.

“I’d love it, too,” she said.

“You would?”

“Yes.  Very much so.”

“Then why don’t you fly to New York with me.  We’ll spend time together,” he added, glancing down at her breasts, “and then fly back tonight.”

Kari had a business to run today.  Including servicing a new client.  “I think I can hold on until tonight,” she said.

Alex felt a little hurt by her honest response, but that was why he loved Kari.  She, unlike everybody else he knew, did not drop everything just because he wanted her to.  She, unlike everybody else he knew, including himself, was a sensible, practical person.

And then a knock on his door.

Alex didn’t like that.  Kari could see the sudden surge of anger in his eyes.  “What?” he yelled.

“Sorry to disturb you, sir, but there’s an important call for you.”  It was Priska.  All of Alex’s cellphone calls, given the volume he was still receiving the day after the victory, had been temporarily transferred to the house phone so that Priska could screen the calls first.

Alex still didn’t like the interruption.  “How important, Priss?”

“On a scale from one to ten?  A hundred.  It’s Reno Gabrini, sir, on line Seven.”

Kari didn’t know who Reno Gabrini was, but she could tell he was somebody awfully important for Priska to rank him off the charts that way.  But she could also tell it by the sudden loosening of Alex’s grip on her body.  Maybe a part of him was still upset that she had turned him down last night?

She pulled away too.  “I’ve got to get to work, anyway,” she said.

Alex hated that they weren’t able to come together again.  But all of this activity in his house, and the fact that he still had tons of work to do, not to mention her own job, made it nearly impossible anyway.  But they’d be together somehow today, even if he had to force the issue.  “Give me a moment to answer this call,” he said, “and then I’ll walk you down.”

“No need, Alex,” Kari said with a wave of the hand.  “I’m good.  Take your call.  We’ll talk later.”

Alex liked that independence about Kari too.  “Okay, babe.”  Alex pulled her back into his arms, kissed her on her lips with a kiss that made clear he was not upset with her in the least, and then he looked into her eyes.  “Thanks for coming,” he said.  “It means a lot to me.”

Kari smiled too.  Jordan was right!  Alex appreciated her dropping by.  He understood it wasn’t easy for her.  But that was Alex, she thought.  A very thoughtful man.

Besides, with all the things he’d done for her, including hiring a team of lawyers to help her son, dropping by to see him was the least she could do.  And when she left his bedroom, and headed downstairs, she was glad she had had the courage to let down all of her defenses and take the plunge.  Alex, she decided right then and there, was a man worth going that extra mile for.

When she left his bedroom, Alex walked over to the nightstand, pressed Line Seven, and answered the call.  “Reno, good morning,” he said.

And Reno, being Reno, Alex thought, came out swinging.  “So your slick ass fooled those country bumpkins and wrangled yourself a casino?”

Alex laughed.  “I wouldn’t put it quite that way.”

“But it captures the truth of the thing?” Reno asked.

Alex nodded with a grin.  “It captures it, yes, it does.”

“Congrats, old man!  That was quite a move you made there.  You’re in my wheelhouse now.”

Reno Gabrini owned the famed PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip, a casino many considered the best in Vegas.  And although they weren’t besties by a mile, especially since the first time Reno met Alex was after he learned of Alex’s sexual interest in Reno’s wife, they shared a mutual respect for each other’s success and strength.

“How does it feel the day after?” Reno asked.

“It feels great,” said Alex.  “It was touch and go for a while.  We had to pull out all the stops.”

“I know your ass did.  Apple Valley, Florida.  I had never even heard of it!  But knowing you and your business brilliance, I’ll be hearing about it soon.”

“So what are you saying, Reno?  Are you calling to tell me I won the bet?”

There was a bet on the table: Reno once told Alex that if Alex managed to get those yahoos, as Reno called them, to grant him permission to build a casino in their sweet little bedroom town, Reno would consider becoming a member of Alex’s board of directors.

Even back then Alex knew it was bullshit.  A man like Reno Gabrini, a man voted countless times as the most powerful person in Vegas, was not about to get on anybody’s board.  Not even Alex’s.  But it was Reno’s expertise Alex was after.

“I’m calling to see if we can talk about it,” was all Reno would commit to.  “How’s this weekend?  Or are you going to be too busy playing that boring-ass golf?”

Alex was always booked on weekends: either with work or, as Reno aptly mentioned, playing his beloved golf.  And, although Reno knew nothing about her, there was Kari now occupying a considerable amount of his time too.  But could he turn down Reno Gabrini?  “I can move some things around,” Alex said.

“Great!” Reno said.  “I’ll see you then.  Trina wants to talk to you also.” 

Trina Gabrini was Reno’s wife, a gorgeous African-American woman that Alex once found sexually alluring.  But she was also a woman he respected as a business powerhouse in her own right, and to whom he made a job offer.  An offer Trina was still weighing and had not yet decided to take.  Or, as Alex suspected, reject.  “Sounds good,” he said.  “I’ll see you guys then.”

And then they ended the call.

But another knock was upon his door as soon as he hung up the call.  “What now?” he yelled.

“Another must-take calls, sir,” said Priska.  “It’s Pete.”

Pete was the man in charge of Kari’s security detail.  “What line?” Alex asked.

“Five,” said Priska.

Alex answered quickly.  “Pete? Hey.”

“Good morning, sir.”

“What is it?”

“I sent a detail ahead of Miss Grant, to her office, so that they could get in place for their day’s assignment.”

“Good.”  That was what he was supposed to do.  “But you’re telling me this why?” Alex asked.

“You aren’t going to believe who just walked into Miss Grant’s office.”

“Who?”

“Mrs. Drakos.”

Alex’s jaw tightened.  “What in the world is she doing there?  Miss Grant just left my house.  She’s not even there yet.”

“I know.  But her assistant is already there.  And she walked right in.” 

Alex could feel his blood boil.  Of all the underhanded shit Linda loved to pull.  “Make sure your men keep an eye on her ass,” he said.  “I’m on my way.”

“Will do, sir,” said Pete, and Alex, angry as hell, ended the call.