The Final Chapter
A few days passed, and everything at the office seemed to transition to a strictly working environment. She was glad to see it happen and relieved that Kyle seemed to take her at her word. She had been serious about it, and he believed her and acted as she had asked. It was hard on them both, but she knew that it was for the best.
Aleisha was home a few nights later when there was a knock on her door, and she was utterly nonplussed to find that it was Damien knocking to get in. She opened the door and planted her hand on her hip.
“What are you doing here, Damien? I told you to leave before, and I meant it.” She frowned at him and sighed sharply.
He shook his head. “I am not giving up on you. You were the best woman I ever had, and I’m not quitting you. Now, let me in so we can talk. Please. You can’t just keep pushing me away like you did.”
She glared at him. “Actually, I can keep pushing you away like I did, because that’s what I want. I want you gone. This is my house, this is my life, these are my babies, and you decided that you didn’t want any part of it.
“Now, you think you can come waltzing back in here and just pick up where you left off and be a part of all of it; well, you can’t. It’s too late for that. We had our chance and our time, and you blew it. Now, be gone with you, and stop coming around here. There’s nothing here for you.”
Damien pushed his way in through the door and closed it behind him so that he was standing right in front of her. He looked down at her and closed his hands over her shoulders. “I don’t think you get it. I’m not losing you again. I’m not giving you up. I want us back together.”
“No, Damien, it’s becoming quite clear to me that you aren’t getting it. You can’t lose me because you don’t have me. I’m not yours. We’re not together anymore. I’m not an option for you. I’m your past, and you’re my past, and there is by god no future for us. There is no back together.” She continued to glare at him.
He grew angrier and shook his head. “That’s not good enough for me! I want you!”
“That’s too bad for you, Damien, because I don’t want you, but that’s not my problem. That’s your problem, and you’re going to have to deal with it.” She meant every word.
He gave her a little shake and raised his voice. “You don’t have to do this alone, baby. You don’t. Can’t you see that? Who you gonna have come in here and look out for you and them babies? Who you gonna have taking care of you and loving you? No one! There’s no one in your life, babe; there’s just me, and I want that job. I want that place in your life and in your home. Now, stop trying to push me away! You got nothing without me! Nothing but lonely nights and empty days. You nothing without me!”
She thought about what he’d said for a long moment as she watched him reason his position with her. She didn’t have anyone there, that much was true. She had thought that she’d had Kyle, but with Jennifer in the picture, that put her squarely out of the picture, and there was nothing for her but the kids.
He saw her thinking about it, and he looked overly confident. “Here, maybe this will remind you about how it was and why you my girl.” He pulled her toward him and nearly nailed her with a kiss on her mouth, but she turned her head at the last moment, and he wound up kissing her cheek.
“Aw, now why you go and do that? C’mon, baby. Give me some sugar. Give me some of your sweet brown sugar. C’mon.” He tried to kiss her again, and she pushed him away and reached for the door handle, yanking the front door open again.
“No, there’s no sugar for you. I’m not your girl. You need to get the hell out of here, and don’t you ever even think about coming back. We’re done. Get it through your head. We are finished,” she snapped at him hotly.
He shook his head. “I’m not quitting you. You think about it. I’ll be back. I’m gonna keep coming back, ‘cause you mine. You just think about it, baby. I’ll be seeing you soon.” He turned and left then, and she slammed the door closed and locked it.
With another scowl at the door, she turned and walked over to the window behind her sofa, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out over the city, glittering like a jewel in the dark night. When she thought of all of the reasons why she didn’t want Damien, they kept turning over in her mind and becoming all of the reasons that she did want Kyle.
Groaning in frustration and annoyance, she closed her eyes and willed herself to stop thinking of Kyle. It had to stop. Someday, it had to stop. She couldn’t keep falling for him. Eventually, she would have to find a way to fall out of love with him because as much as she hated to admit it, she had fallen in love with him.
It was stupid and crazy that it had happened so fast, but she couldn’t deny it; she had fallen in love with him, and that was why it had hurt her so much. It wouldn’t have hurt if it wasn’t love, but it was, and it felt like she was dying slowly inside.
When she woke up the next morning she saw a message from Kyle that he wanted her to come to his house to work that day and that he wanted her to bring the kids with her. She was angry about it, but she knew that it was her job on the line, and she wasn’t going to be able to tell her boss no, especially since the next message was from Julie, saying that she couldn’t come in. There was no sitter, and there was no choice. Her sister and her grandmother hadn’t come back, and there was no word at all from Cara.
With a heavy heart, she loaded up the babies and drove them to Kyle’s house. He was waiting outside to help her with them and bring them into the nursery. She didn’t say hardly anything to him about it. They got the babies settled into the nursery, and he took her to the office and gave her a stack of files to work on.
She sat there angrily, going over each one and wondering where he was and what he was doing because he wasn’t working with her that morning. She finally got curious enough to put the files down, and she wandered into the little kitchen and didn’t see him, so she walked into the nursery and saw him sitting in the rocking chair with Hailey passed out asleep on his chest and Harry sleeping in his crib. He was rocking Hailey slowly and patting her back gently, his head leaning against hers.
Aleisha was livid when she saw it. It cut at her like a dagger being plunged straight into her heart. He was the perfect man; he was beautiful, he was wealthy and successful, he was an incredible lover, and he was such a good father figure, but he belonged to another woman, and she couldn’t have him.
She bit her lower lip to hold back the tears that welled up in her as she watched him get up and walk over to Hailey’s crib, laying her down gently in it and covering her with a blanket. The pain in her heart grew too much for her to bear, and she turned and went out into the hallway, leaning her back against the wall and weeping as she covered her face with her hands.
She wasn’t there for more than a minute when she felt him in front of her. His voice came to her soft and low. “Please, don’t cry… please… stop crying. I can’t stand to see you cry.” He pulled her hands from her face and wrapped his arms around her, closing her in against his chest, and though she struggled at first, she breathed in the scent of him, and she felt the solid and secure wall of his muscled chest, and all she wanted to do was melt into him.
“Let me go!” she whispered, wishing she meant it as much as she wanted to mean it.
He shook his head. “I’m not letting you go. I want you too much,” he whispered, lowering his face to hers and kissing her tenderly.
She tried to turn her face away, but he raised his hands and held her face gently in his palms, moving his lips over hers, opening her mouth, and twisting his tongue against hers. She resisted as much as she could, but she had ached for his touch and his kiss without even realizing it, and feeling it was like a healing balm on all of her wounds and her broken heart.
“Stop… please…” she whispered as his mouth moved hungrily down her throat and his hands rushed to the buttons on her blouse.
“No…” he whispered back gruffly. Then he cupped her breast in his hand and lifted it to his mouth, tasting her nipple and sucking gently at it. Everything in her body turned to flames, and she burned for him.
“Kyle… we can’t do this…” she begged quietly as she found her will evaporating with all of the heat in her.
He looked up at her then seriously, his face mere inches from hers. “If you really want me to stop, I will. But you don’t mean it. I know you don’t mean it… do you, Aleisha? Do you really want me to stop?” he asked, grasping her body firmly in his hands and pulling her close as he kissed her mouth passionately.
Her determination left her completely. “No,” she finally whispered.
“Good. Because I can’t stand this distance between us any longer. I have to have you.” He took her by the hand and pulled her upstairs to his bedroom, peeling her clothes off of her body faster than she could have imagined.
He laid her back on his bed, and in moments, she was engulfed in the warmth of his skin, the sweet scent of him, and his delicious kisses. He spread her thighs apart and thrust himself into her, gasping at the feel of her body around him.
Every ounce of resistance that she felt was gone as he began to move inside of her, and pleasure overcame her. She needed him, and she still wanted him more than any other man she had ever known. She clung tightly to him, moving with him in tandem as they made love a long while. They came together, and she was so wearied by all of her emotional upheaval that she fell asleep in his arms almost right away.
When she awoke a little while later, she moved to get out of the bed, regretful that she had succumbed to her desires and passions, but he shook his head. “I’m not done with you yet. Come back here,” he spoke quietly, drawing her back to him as he moved his mouth and his tongue all over her, driving her mad for him until she couldn’t take it any longer and he finally entered her again, making her cry out with her orgasms again and again.
He looked deeply into her eyes as they moved together, and he spoke earnestly to her. “I love you,” he said in a soft voice and then kissed her without waiting for her to respond.
She came hard and strong, wrapping herself around him, and he released himself into her then as well, and when they were finally spent, she looked back at him, and he said it again. “I meant that. I love you, Aleisha.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered sadly, “but I can’t have you. We can’t do this again. Not ever again.” She pushed herself up from the bed, and he tried to protest, but she grabbed her clothes and left him. She dressed in the hall bathroom as fast as she could, and then loaded up her babies and left.
He was a luxury that she could never afford. Not even part time on the side, no matter how good a lover he was, no matter how good a man, a boss, a father figure, and a friend. There was no way for them to be together while he was with another woman.
Her grandmother and her sister finally returned from their trip, and she visited them, so glad that they were back, wondering how she had ever made it without them. Julie still came by to watch the babies since Cara was still gone to Boston with her father.
Three days had passed since Kyle had made love with her in his bed the second time, and they were at the office. Everything in the office was as it should be, or at least it was on the surface. They still struggled with their feelings around each other, but he didn’t push her to be with him. He respected her, though they both wanted one another.
She was more than surprised when he called her in to a meeting and she saw that it was with Jennifer Evers. She tried not to stare as she walked into the conference room and sat with them.
Jennifer and she were both annoyed that she was in for the meeting. Aleisha turned to leave, and Kyle stopped her.
“I don’t think I need to be here,” she said as she was about to walk out of the door. Kyle called out to her.
“Aleisha, you are required to be here for this meeting,” he announced loudly. She frowned and turned around and came back in, closing the glass door behind her.
“Why does she have to be here?” Jennifer gave Aleisha a frown.
“Because she’s my associate, and she’s one of the best damn attorneys at this firm. You’re lucky she’s here; now, let’s talk about this.”
Aleisha felt good about what he had said, but it still made her sick to her stomach to have to be in a room with the two of them together.
“Now, we have business to discuss. What is your decision on me becoming the attorney of record for Granger Corp?” he looked at Jennifer directly.
She smiled slyly. “I told you what the deal was. I get you back, or you don’t get Granger Corp. We’re a package deal, or it’s no deal.”
Aleisha stared at her. Kyle stood up and shook his head once. “Then it’s no deal. There’s the door.”
Jennifer’s eyes grew wide, and she raised her voice. “What in the hell are you talking about? You can’t afford to turn me away like that!”
Aleisha frowned and looked at them both. “Wait a minute. I thought you two were engaged.”
Kyle stood near her, one hand on the table, the other at his side. “We were. We were going to get married, and I wanted to start a family. There was a funny twist of fate, though, and I had a cancer scare, so I froze some of my sperm so that Jennifer could carry my babies when we were both ready to start a family. The cancer scare turned out to be benign, but then she backed out, saying that she didn’t want kids. We broke up.”
He sighed and shook his head as he watched Jennifer, who lifted her chin and raised her voice again. “I didn’t want kids then, but I’ve changed my mind, and I want them with you now.” She looked as determined as she sounded.
“Well, you can’t. It’s too late because I already have kids,” he stated flatly. Both women turned and stared up at him.
“What?” they both said in unison.
“Who in the hell did you have kids with?” Jennifer shot angrily at him.
Kyle looked over at Aleisha. “I have twins with Aleisha.”
Aleisha’s jaw dropped open. “What? How in the world can you possibly… that’s not true!” she argued with him.
He held up his hand. “It is true.” He handed a file to her. “This is from the fertility clinic where I had my sperm frozen, and where you went for your in vitro fertilization procedure. There was a mix up at the fertility clinic, and they gave you my sperm by mistake. Harry and Hailey are my babies. The proof is in that file you’re holding. That’s why I’ve been trying to spend time with them and why I hired you. I wanted to be part of their lives. I just never counted on falling in love with their mother.”
Jennifer’s mouth fell open then, and she jumped straight up from her seat. “How dare you! How could you do this to us? How could you do this to me?”
Time seemed to stop for Aleisha as she looked over the file in her hands. It was accurate. The twins were fathered by Kyle Drake. She realized then what it was about her seeing his face when she dreamed about them together. They looked like him because they were his babies. Reality began to take hold in her whirling mind, and she felt her stomach flip upside down. It couldn’t be possible, but there she was looking at it, and there was no refuting the truth.
She realized something else then, another truth that had been staring her in the face the whole time, though she hadn’t realized it until just that moment.
“Oh, my god.” She stood up and stared at Kyle. “You’ve been playing me this whole time… you’ve only been spending time with me to be around the kids. It’s always been about them. Never about us, and never about me.”
“Welcome to my world,” Jennifer spat nastily at her.
Aleisha took the file and turned and walked out of the room, glancing over her shoulder as she did so. “I quit. Right now, right here. I’m done. I’ll pack my desk, and I’m gone.” She disappeared then, leaving Jennifer and Kyle in the room behind her.
Jennifer began to laugh and reached for the file that he had given her, the one with the contract in it. “Well, now that she’s gone, I’ll go ahead and sign this because now I know I can get you back. You’re hired.” She traced her pen across it, leaving her signature behind in black ink.
She stood up and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. “It will be good to have you back, baby. There’s no one who’s as good a lover as you are. I’ve missed you.” She ran her hands over his chest and winked at him as she turned and walked out. “Call me, baby.”
Kyle sank down into his chair and closed his eyes, folding his hands in front of him.
Aleisha cleared out her desk and said goodbye to Grace without telling her why she was leaving. She only said that it was necessary. Grace nodded understandingly.
Aleisha took her box to the car and wept as she drove away from the only job she’d had since college. The best job she’d ever have, most likely. She wept that she was losing that, and that she was losing Kyle as well. There was no way that a liar like him could be part of her life.
She took the long route home, hoping to find some kind of peace before she walked into her home to face her babies with a broken heart. She wondered how she was ever going to look at them again and not see him looking back at her out of their beautiful little faces.
She finally got home and walked into the front door of her place and stopped in her tracks. Kyle was sitting on the sofa holding Harry while Hailey played next to him.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” she snapped at him as she closed the door behind her and set her office box on the floor.
He set Harry down and stood up, facing her. “I hired Julie, so when I came to the house and gave her the afternoon off, she took it. I’ve been taking care of them and playing with them.”
“Damn it! You can’t do that!” she insisted angrily.
He shrugged. “I did, though.”
She glared at him, hurt and angry. “I want you to tell me everything, right now. I know that you didn’t say everything in that conference room, so spill it, now. All of it,” she demanded, her eyes locked on him.
He sighed and nodded, sliding his hands into his pants pockets. “Alright. You deserve to know it all. I actually came to the firm because of you. I found out what had happened when the clinic called me about the error. They told me all of the details, including who the mother of my babies was. I tracked you down and found out that you were working for the Carrington’s, and it was all too perfect.
“The Carrington’s are my cousins. I contacted my cousin about a job, putting me on as a named partner. My cousin hired me and arranged for you to have the interview to be my associate. I didn’t even interview anyone else. It was always going to be you, so that I could find my way to seeing the kids.”
She stared at him in horror and shock. He continued quietly and humbly. “Cara’s dad is fine. He didn’t have a stroke. She never had to leave. I gave her a huge sum of money on the condition that she leave New York. She went to Los Angeles to study acting. She’s not coming back.
“I hired Julia because I wanted the best caregiver in the city. I also wanted to be able to tell her when to take a day off now and then so that you’d bring the kids to my house. I had the nursery built for them specifically; it’s theirs, and it always has been since I found out that they were born.”
Aleisha could not move or speak. Kyle watched her and moved close to her until he was standing before her. “It was my intention to be a part of their lives and a part of your life. I wanted to take care of them and of you, make sure you all had everything that you could possibly need. It was never my intention to fall in love with you, though, and I tried not to. God, did I try not to.” He smiled a little and laughed lightly.
“You’re just so determined; you have such dedication and strength. You’re so beautiful, and you’re filled to overflowing with love and kindness. Then, of course, there was the chemistry. The heat between us is just undeniable. I never anticipated any of it, and I know it’s happening so fast, but I am head over heels in love with you.” He reached for her, taking her hands in his.
“Please… please come back to work with me. I don’t want to do it without you, and there’s no way that I could ever find anyone who could take your place. Come back,” he pleaded earnestly with her.
Everything in her felt scattered and torn. She looked up at him and shook her head. “I… I can’t come back to work with you. I’m in love with you. We would need to be professional there.”
“I can fix that.” He smiled at her.
She shook her head. “Contrary to popular belief, you can’t fix everything, though you’ve just about got me convinced that you can.”
“I can fix this.” He said again, and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, opening it to reveal a massive diamond ring. “Listen, I know this is sudden, and we haven’t known each other that long, but we can be engaged as long as you want to.
“Say yes to me. Be my wife someday, even if it’s years from now. Come back to work as my fiancé, and someday promise me that you will be my wife, and we can be professional as a team. Let me be your husband, your partner, and the father that our babies need. Please…” he whispered at the end, searching her eyes with his.
She didn’t even have to think about it. The answer was already in her. “I know that this might be the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but it also feels like the best decision I’ve ever made. I know right now as I stand here that I’m not wrong about this. I love you, Kyle, and I want to make a family with you and our babies. Yes… Kyle, I will marry you, as long as you never keep another secret from me.”
He rose to his feet and slid the ring on her finger, drawing her into his arms and kissing her cheek. “Not intentionally, my love. Not for the rest of our lives. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Always.” She closed her eyes and buried her face in his neck, breathing him in. Just then both of the babies came up to them, tugging on their clothes. Aleisha and Kyle let go of each other, and they each bent over and picked up the babies.
Then the hug was complete; a real family, bound together forever with real love. Always.
Message From The Author:
Hiii
Hope you LOVED the book and if you want to check out the other books in my billionaire series then just check out my Amazon author page at the link below!
Or turn the page to discover the special bonus book I included for you! It is a previous bestseller from one of my friends! ;-)
Susan x