Enraptured (10 page)

In fact, we didn’t speak about Alex, the business or Jonathan during dinner. He regaled me with tales from his worldwide travels, from the busy streets of Tokyo to the hiking along the Great Wall.

“I didn’t realize your busy schedule allowed for such things,” I commented casually.

He chuckled. “Not much anymore,” he confessed. “Most of my travels that didn’t involve an office or business meetings happened prior to my taking over as president of the company. I had to grow out of such hobbies once Father got sick. The family needed me here.”

“Sounds as though you had to grow out of a lot of things at an early age,” I mused as I took a sip of water.

“Haven’t we all?” he challenged softly.

“
Touche,” I grinned. I studied his face. “What was your father like, Drew?”

“You should know,” he clipped tersely. “I’m sure Alex read you chapter and verse of our sordid family history.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

He leaned back in his chair. “My father was a powerful man, Rachel. And all that implies. He came from a long line of powerful men, and all that implies.”

“Did you find him cruel?” I asked softly.

“I found him ruthless,” Drew admitted. “But that was why he was so successful. It
is the nature of the business. He had enormous expectations of everyone, and woe to anyone when they were not met.”

“Like Alex.”

Drew’s jaw clenched. “Alex was the exception to the rule, mostly because Mother was there to protect him.”

“As were you,” I pointed out.

He stared at me for a long moment before he wrenched his eyes away. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have been. It made him soft.”

“It made him compassionate,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”

Again he chuckled. “It will not serve him in this world. To truly be successful, one must have a certain level of selfishness. In order to win, someone else must lose. And you have to be okay with that.”

“And that’s the legacy you wish to leave to your children, is it?”

His featured softened. “Excellence is a journey, Rachel. It builds upon the lessons and mistakes of the past and hopefully strengthens the future. That is my hope for my children.”

I reached across the table to place my hand on his. “Mine too.”

His eyes never left my face as he pulled my hand to his lips.

While Drew was ready to take on Sin City with relish, I was
jonesing for a nice soft bed. I was on my third yawn as we were leaving the restaurant, so Drew turned us toward the villa. “I thought you wanted to play poker,” I teased.

“I’d rather play with you,” he teased in return.

He lifted me up and carried me over the threshold of our villa, carrying me all the way to our room. He laid me down onto the bed and I watched through sleepy eyes as he took great care to remove each accessory, and finally strip me from my brand new dress. He was still fully dressed as he stretched out next to my bare form. I closed my eyes as he trailed one delicate fingertip along my skin. I reached for a kiss, but he kept his passion in check as he complied.

This night was about tender exploration. He warmed me with chaste caresses and strategically placed kisses, until I drifted off to sleep on a sensual wave of pleasure that felt exactly like a dream.

Drew was already dressed and gone by the time I woke the next morning. Breakfast waited for me, which I ate in my robe, since there were no clothes to change into.

My
new husband was about to change that, too.

There was a knock on the door by ten o’clock, and Annabelle ushered in a virtual team of people who were there for the sole purpose of dressing me. A petite brunette named Jocelyn announced that she was my own personal buyer, and she had two racks of clothes for me to try on. There was a sampling of everything, from casual to dressy.
Slacks, jeans, skirts, tops or dresses, there was a complete ensemble for every occasion. There was also an entire trunk full of lingerie, all in my size.

Jocelyn worked with me closely, to figure out what I liked and I didn’t like. By early afternoon there were two more racks and another trunk. I had enough clothes to spend a month in Vegas and not wear the same thing twice. I
t filled the luxurious villa’s cedar closets to overflowing.

I changed into a silk maxi dress with a colorful floral print and curled up on the crushed velvet sofa in the living room of our villa as I waited for Drew to return. When he arrived, it was closer to four in the afternoon. He looked enormously pleased with the result of his spending spree. “You look lovely,” he praised as he walked toward the sofa. “I’m so glad you found something to your taste.”

“If I didn’t, I’d have to walk around Vegas naked,” I quipped.

“That would be to my taste,” he teased with an evil smile that made my stomach drop.

“I didn’t know what you had planned tonight so I didn’t know what to wear,” I confided as I stood. “You make it hard for a girl to prepare.”

He chuckled as he took me into his arms. “
There is no way you could prepare for the life I want to give to you, darling.” He dragged his warm mouth across mine. “But as a matter of fact, you look perfect. We’re just spending a casual evening with friends.”

My eyebrows rose.
“Friends?”

As it turned out, the friends in question were
none other than Troy and Sloane De Havilland, who had vacation property in Las Vegas. Their modern colonial estate faced a country club golf range, and in fact that was where both Troy and Drew spent their day while I experienced my very own fashion show.

Sloane greeted me with a happy kiss on both cheeks. “Darling,” she said as she pulled me into the house. “You look absolutely breathtaking. Doesn’
t she, Troy?”

His eyes glittered as he looked me over. “Our Drew is a lucky man.”

Drew beamed under his praise. “You are right as usual, Troy.” He offered a bottle of wine to our hosts, who led us through the foyer with smooth marble flooring and an enormous crystal chandelier.

The ceilings of the magnificent home were vaulted with impressive crown molding and a dramatic fireplace that nearly took up an entire wall. A uniformed maid was ready to take my light jacket and offer me ginger ale in a crystal flute. “Thank you,” I muttered as I followed everyone else toward the living room. I sat close to Drew as we faced our hosts.

“You have a lovely home,” I managed when I recovered from this unexpected surprise enough to find some manners.

Sloane curled on her expensive sofa with a contented smile. “Thank you,” she said. “I told Drew you didn’t have to stay in that tacky hotel, that you were more than welcome to stay with us, but he insisted that you were still on your honeymoon,” she ended with a wink.

I figured only a woman with her own private island could refer to a five-star luxury hotel as ‘tacky.’ “I didn’t realize you had a home in Las Vegas.”

Troy chuckled. “Some people collect stamps. My wife collects property.”

She gave him a playful nudge. “My father was a real estate developer in Virginia,” she explained. “So that is where my true passion lies.”

“Instead of diamonds, I buy her houses,” Troy winked.

“There’s nothing quite like buying a new house and decorating it in a way that is completely different and fresh and exciting. I figure, why choose when you can have it all?”

I smiled but said nothing. Drew placed his hand on my knee as he confided, “Our Rachel is still getting used to her new world. I’m not sure she’s figured out she can have it all yet, but that’s what I’m committed to showing her.”

I glanced at him, wondering when exactly I became “our” Rachel to people I wasn’t even sure I liked.

“Get used to it, sweet Rachel,” Troy advised over the rim of his glass. “Your husband is a determined man who can and will get whatever he wants.”

“Don’t I know it,” I quipped.

Troy, apparently over the small talk with me, turned to Drew.
“Which is why you need to go to New York and talk to Carrington yourself.”

Drew sat back against the sofa as the maid brought him a tumbler of whiskey. “It is on my to-do list,” Drew admitted. He glanced at me.
“How do you feel about a weekend getaway to New York City, darling?”

My eyes met his. “You’re the boss,” a comment that made our guests chuckle.

Dinner was served almost immediately after that, with Drew and Troy dominating the conversation with current events and political strategy. After a few bites of food, Sloane was bored with it. She insisted we go outside to enjoy the fire that raged in a stone fireplace next to their pool. She was on her third dirty martini, and from her tiny figure I began to suspect she lived more on those little olives than she did actual food.

But
it always served to loosen her tongue, which I used to my advantage. “Why does Drew need to go to New York? Who is Carrington?”

Sloane laughed. “You have to be kidding,” she said with a slight slur. “Jasper Carrington, Carrington Media,” she added, as though I should know who that was. I shrugged to indicate I did not. “He only runs one of the biggest entertainment labels in the world. He used to work primarily with musicians and popular acts, but the scandal surrounding his first divorce a few years ago forced him to expand into all forms of media. He bought out three prominent newspapers and expanded into network news.”

My brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. Why does any of that interest Drew?”

She chuckled. “You control the message and you control the money, honey. You really think it’s an accident more people can name more cast members of reality shows th
an they can their own governing representatives?” She drained her glass. “Originally we just wanted a place to stow Elise away, but she didn’t go for it.” Off my look, she went on. “She keeps her hands deep in Drew’s pockets because she swears she can’t make a living in the way she was trained, as a professional dancer. If Jasper finds a lucrative spot for her in his media conglomerate, she won’t need any more alimony and it’ll put her on the entire other coast away from Jonathan. Win/win.”

“Except for Jonathan,” I gritted. “He needs his mother.”

She made a face. “He needs
a
mother, but not
his
mother. That is why he has you, dear.”

I sat up straighter, ready to argue my case. But Sloane was prepared.

“There is not a maternal bone in that woman’s body, Rachel. She’s one of the most selfish and entitled women I’ve ever met, and I’m in politics. When you and Drew were on the island, she was there in New York with us, flirting with every eligible – and not-so-eligible – sugar daddy she could get her claws into.” She made another face. “She was even gunning hard for Troy, again, and she was a guest in our house.”

I shook my head. “Maybe she was just reeling from her breakup,” I suggested.

“Ah, yes. Derek. Derek was a distraction, dear. A convenient piece of ass that happened to piss off Drew for a while. But there was no competition there, and I rather think she needs there to be. Why do you think she kept her talons in Alex for so long? And she used her son to do it. That is the kind of ‘mother’ she is.”

I was still reeling from the revelations as Drew and I headed back to the hotel. I was quiet and he waited until we were locked behind the privacy of our bedroom before he asked what was wrong.

“Sloane let me in on your little plan,” I said as I slipped out of my dress.

He was amused. “And what plan is that?”

“To get rid of Elise,” I commented as I reached for one of my brand new nightgowns.

“Peruvian hit men?” he joked with a sardonic grin. “How dare she?”

“Drew,” I admonished.

He just shrugged. “
Elise always claimed that I ruined her life when I got her pregnant as a teenager, forcing her to quit dancing in order to be a full-time parent. I figured if she had another shot at her dream, it’d work best for everyone.”

“What about Jonathan? You really want to split him between two families on two opposite coasts?”

He scoffed. “What family? She’s a single lady now, Rachel. So she’ll definitely have other priorities, like finding her next rich husband.”

“And you thought Jasper Carrington would fill the bill?”

Again he shrugged. “I don’t care who it is. As long as it is someone other than me.” He peeled his shirt from his torso. “Besides, Carrington is already married. Not that it would make much of a difference to Elise. She flirted with Alex right under my nose even when his wife was dying of cancer. How he could canonize her into some model mother is beyond me, unless it was to further stick the knife in my side.”

“Your mother told him to be there for her and support her,” I informed him. Drew’s spine straightened as he glared down at me where I now sat on the bed. “
Elise was always unhappy, Drew. And when she was pregnant, she felt abandoned. Your mother was the one who encouraged Alex to be her support system when you couldn’t. Or wouldn’t.”

“Please,” he scoffed. “She’s not some victim, Rachel. She never was.” He unzipped his pants and stripped down to his undershorts before he slid into bed with me. “You’re right. She was unha
ppy when we were married, but it didn’t start there. She was in a self-destructive tailspin when I met her. She thought the stage would give her the love she was missing at home, but her talent was limited. After enough critiques and failed auditions, she had to face the fact she couldn’t be the prima ballerina she had always hoped to be. That left her only one option to live the grand life she thought she deserved. She had to find a wealthy husband instead.”