Pretty Packages (23 page)

“Yes,” Giada replied in a tone that told him that she trusted him completely even though she had no idea what he was about to do. “I’m just so grateful for all those yoga exercises I do on a regular basis.”

“Me, too,”
Kentucky
replied and then proceeded to show her exactly what he had in mind.

Still in the same position, he reached over to caress the backs of Giada’s smooth thighs. His gently kneading and squeezing hands continued to move toward her garden. Sending one hand farther up to her bottom, he allowed the other hand to linger in her trimmed meadow.

Giada purred as he began to erotically stroke her in two places with those large hands of his. When he bent to taste her in that position, her body shuddered. She began to tremble with release.

Realizing how close she was to climaxing,
Kentucky
rose to a semi-standing position and then did the most amazing thing. He grabbed her bottom firmly with both hands, used it for leverage and flipped her over until she was on her hands and knees with him right behind her.

* * * *

Giada lost all her bearings after being flipped.

Kentucky
didn’t give her a chance to get them back as he quickly joined her to the hilt and began to stroke her in a different way now, with something other than his hands. Each stroke was rhythmic, steady, and with the right amount of force behind it.

“Oh, Kenny,” Giada said as heat radiated from the top of her head down to the soles of her feet. When she went over the edge a few seconds later, she finally understood what it meant to make mad, passionate love, emphasis on the mad part.

Either Giada had lost her mind or she was having an out-of-body experience because her eyes had ceased to see the eggshell-colored wall in front of her. No, they seemed to be looking into the future, far into the future.

Giada saw her and
Kentucky
gray-haired and sitting next to each other at a long table. Around them in the other chairs were their four adult children and their spouses. The two male children were tall, fair, and muscular like their father, but with most of Giada’s facial features and thick, wavy hair. The two female children were short like Giada, but their hair was brown like their father’s. They also had her facial features.

There were at least ten grandchildren. The youngest sat in a high chair next to a wrinkle-faced woman who couldn’t have been anyone but
Kentucky
’s stepmother based on the lively twinkle in her eyes. They were all laughing and smiling, obviously very happy.

Suddenly Giada was back in the present.
Kentucky
was still stroking her, her body was still trembling with release, and she was still in awe of his ability to love her clear into the future.

Humbled by this whole experience, joyful tears began to roll down Giada’s cheeks. She began to repeatedly mutter how much she loved him. Her walls clenched and pulled his seed from his loins, even though that day of fruition wouldn’t be for several years to come.

“I love you, too,”
Kentucky
said, shifting their bodies on the floor until she was in his lap. He held her close to him as she sobbed with happiness.

Giada relished his tenderness. When she was calmer, they disengaged and went into the bathroom for round two. The music was long forgotten as the lovers continued to seal the bond between them tighter than ever.

Chapter Twenty

Giada could barely concentrate at work the next day. She kept thinking about
Kentucky
’s private show, about all the tricks he’d done, and about that open-eye vision she’d had of their future.

Giada also thought about the business idea
Kentucky
talked about later in bed last night. How she should open up a specialty gift business that supplied Debutante Boxes to public and private schools. He even volunteered to help her write a business plan.

I’ll think I’ll call my company Pretty Packages.
Giada recalled
Kentucky
using that phrase once upon a time. He’d used it to refer to men with pretty faces and fat wallets. She thought the phrase was more appropriate to serve as a reminder of what
not
to look for when it came to people, but only when it came to shopping.

I can’t wait to call Kenny and let him know my decision.
So deep in her thoughts, Giada barely noticed the lawyer standing in front of her desk addressing her at that very moment.

“I’m sorry, sir. What was it you wanted again?” Giada asked, blinking to refocus.

The look in the gray-haired man’s eyes said,
“I want you,”
but with sexual harassment suits abounding in the land, Mr. Kerrigan said the second thing he wanted instead. “Have you finished conducting that research on the Nash case?”

“No, sir, I haven’t. But if you give me a little bit more time, I should have it done before the end of the day,” Giada replied, giving him a charming smile.

Mr. Kerrigan blushed. “Take your time, Giada.” He smiled before hurrying away to regain his composure.

Giada’s less attractive coworker, Velicity, scowled at her in protest of the clear favoritism that she’d just been shown. Someone else would have gotten reprimanded for being lax in his or her work.

Jealous heifer!
Giada seethed, using that as additional confirmation to explain why she didn’t have or want any female friends her own age. They were too competitive, too prone to jealousy.

To show Velicity that she was more than just a pretty face, Giada reluctantly pushed all thoughts of
Kentucky
to the side. Then she put her focus solely upon her work and was able to get everything done before the end of the day.

It gave her great satisfaction to see Velicity’s look of shock when Mr. Kerrigan praised her diligent efforts and rewarded her with two tickets to the opera. That satisfaction was even better than the day she walked into the office wearing her engagement ring.

Giada couldn’t wait to share today’s good news with
Kentucky
. She also couldn’t wait to tell him that she wanted to marry him now, not later. She wanted to tell him that she didn’t care how much money he had. That all she wanted was to lie in his arms every night and know that only she had title deed to do so.

I’m going over there right now,
Giada thought, headed to
Kentucky
’s home instead of the house on
Wilmington Street
after work. Fortunately, she didn’t have to study tonight and could sleep over if he wanted her to.

When Giada arrived at
Kentucky
’s home, she saw a familiar car parked outside. “No, that can’t be . . . Bartley’s car?” she muttered to herself as she rapidly got out of her vehicle.

When Giada opened the door to
Kentucky
’s home, she realized that that was indeed Bartley’s car outside. His sour-looking presence on the sofa confirmed that.

“What is
he
doing here?” Giada asked
Kentucky
, deliberately ignoring Bartley. She saw no need to play nice now. She wasn’t with Fabian anymore. She no longer had to hold her tongue, lest she lose access to certain gifts.

“I’m here to save you and your boyfriend a world of trouble,” Bartley replied, also showing his open contempt for Giada.

“My fiancé,” Giada replied, holding up her left hand to show off her impressive engagement ring. As she talked, she walked over to the leather recliner where
Kentucky
sat.

“You must have more money than I thought if
she’s
willing to marry you,” Bartley said, looking at the scowling man in the recliner.

“It’s none of your business
what
I have,”
Kentucky
snapped as he gently lowered Giada down upon his lap.

“I know what you won’t have, your school and your bodyguard service, if it becomes public knowledge that you stole a woman from a client,” Bartley retorted.

“Watch your mouth in my house and toward my woman!”
Kentucky
warned, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. “If I wasn’t so concerned for those kids at my school, I would have wrung your puny little neck at that first disrespectful comment. Either way, don’t push your luck.”

The smug look on Bartley’s face instantly flew away and was replaced by fear.
Kentucky
looked as if he meant every word he just said.

“And for the record, Kenny didn’t steal me from anybody. We were together long before I ever met Fabian,” Giada added, trying to set the record straight on exactly
when
her and
Kentucky
’s relationship started.

“So you really did go back to an old flame, huh?” Bartley said, looking amazed that she hadn’t lied to Fabian.

“Yes.” Giada smiled tenderly at
Kentucky
. When he planted a tender kiss on her forehead, she snuggled even closer to him. The depth of their love was obvious.

“Too bad people aren’t gonna believe we have history together since we never openly dated before,”
Kentucky
noted in frustration. “And if Fabian wants you back as bad as Bartley says he does, he’s gonna use the media to try to ruin my reputation as a bodyguard and to bring bad publicity down on the school during its pivotal first year. I can’t afford for either of those things to happen right now.”

“So what do you suggest we do? Stop seeing each other? That would break my heart, Kenny. And I’m not going back to Fabian under any circumstances,” Giada replied, frowning at even the thought of doing either.

“
None
of us want you back with Fabian under any circumstances,” Bartley said, “which is why I came to
Kentucky
to offer him, or shall I now say, the two of you, a proposition.”

“Which is what?” Giada’s frown deepened.

In reply, Bartley began to explain what he’d been in the midst of explaining right before she arrived. How he could distract Fabian with a lucrative around-the-world tour and also various collaborations that would keep him busy for the next nine months. How, in that amount of time, his client’s interest for Giada would surely wane since it had only taken Fabian four months to get over his last serious relationship.

“Yet me keeping Fabian away for any length of time won’t do a lick of good if he finds out the two of you are not only dating openly now, but also engaged to be married,” Bartley concluded.

“Which means he wants us to keep our relationship a secret,”
Kentucky
said, cutting to the chase.

“At least until Fabian has moved on emotionally,” Bartley added. “Can you do that?” He looked from
Kentucky
to Giada.

“We can, but whether we actually
will
is up for discussion,” Giada said, defiantly crossing her arms in front of her.

“There’s really nothing to discuss, baby,”
Kentucky
countered. “If we don’t keep our relationship a secret for the next nine months to a year, I stand to lose everything I’ve built up over the years, which will, in turn, affect what I’m trying to build with you for the future. Now had this been the school’s
second
year of operation, it wouldn’t have mattered. Or at least not as much since we would already know whether the school was able to stand on its own without constant financial assistance from me.”

Giada glared at
Kentucky
, then Bartley, and then back at
Kentucky
again. “Fine!” she conceded reluctantly, snatching her engagement ring off her left hand and placing it on her right. “Happy now?” Giada raged before springing to her feet and stomping out of the room.