A Kiss of Color: The Complete 3 Book Collection (18 page)

Or what she might think of him.

He liked to think that Brandy had some influence on Emily’s image of her elder brother, but if his parents had anything to do with it, she probably thought he was the worst human being on the face of the planet.

The thought made Xavier frown. Despite the high he’d just been flying on, it was enough to ruin his entire morning. Leaning back from his desk, he stared, for a moment, at his cell phone in the center of it. He could call Brandy. No doubt his sister would have a way for him to be in contact with Emily. The problem was considering the tight hold his parents still operated over the lawyer and her husband. While Xavier prided himself on escaping the pitfalls of his family name, Brandy was still under their parents thumb – and would remain that way. Unlike himself, she had a lot more to lose if they decided to pull their support.

Just as he was about to reach for the device, his landline rang, startling him slightly. Recovering quickly, the programmer and CEO reached out to pick up the receiver. “Yes?”

“You have two visitors here, Mr. Thompson.” His receptionist, Julie, surprised him completely with the statement. Opening his planner, Xavier flipped through the pages quickly, looking for the meeting she mentioned. He was fairly sure that he didn’t have any major engagements for the next two days.

“Um…Julie…I don’t see anything about visitors on the schedule…” Before he could finish his sentence, however, the double doors to his office swung open.

At the sight of his older sister’s broad smile, Xavier’s good mood immediately returned. “Brandy!”

How long had it been since he’d seen her? Ten months? Eleven? His sister looked dashing as always – an immaculately groomed, perfectly coiffed blonde clad in the latest fashion. However, the young CEO would always be of the opinion that the most beautiful thing about his sister was her warm, welcoming smile. With their parents on the opposite coast, they had nothing to hide from one another – no secrets, and no lies.

“Xavier!” She crossed his office in three strides to leap into his arms, and he laughed aloud in delight. “I’ve missed you!”

“It’s been forever!” He hugged her close, delighting in the comfort of his true family. Brandy had never abandoned him - never discouraged him from following his dreams. She’d been there when his parents had tried to destroy him, when he had first discovered his love for technology – and when he had met the love of his life. One of the best things about seeing his sister was knowing how happy Helena would be to see her as well. The two women had grown exceedingly close over the years, and were now as thick as thieves.

“It’s not MY fault you’re impossible to get ahold of.” She teased him drawing back to cup his face warmly. “You’re all over the place these days! I can’t leave the house without hearing something about XTech.”

“Well, we’re slowly taking over the world.” He joked with her, before hugging her close once more. “It’s great to see you, sis. Helena will be excited too.”

“…Xavier?”

At a soft, tentative feminine tone, Xavier drew back from Brandy in disbelief. His sister had the presence of mind to look sheepish a moment before he looked past her for his first view of his second visitor.

For a moment, all Xavier could do was stare in disbelief.

The young woman in his doorway bore a passing resemblance to the small girl that he remembered, but she was completely and totally different as well. She was, he realized, a full blown woman, and he had missed her transformation by years and years.

“
Emily
.” When he said her name, his voice was hoarse as his brain tried to process the sight before him. His youngest sister was actually here – in the flesh.

She had grown up, he realized, to heavily resemble their mother, though without all the harsh lines that gave the elder woman’s face its distinctly unfriendly cast. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back from a pretty face with blue eyes that mirrored his own – and she was tall. Taller, even, than Brandy’s lofty five ten height.

If there was one thing that hadn’t changed about Emily, it was her willowy, almost waif-like thinness. She would be what, twenty one? Twenty two, now? When she was a child, he’d called her a little twig because she’d weighed approximately as much as a newborn kitten. It didn’t look like much had changed. She was still thin – almost painfully so – though the tentative smile she wore was more than enough to make up for it.

Ten years.

It had to be at
least
ten years since he’d last seen her. “Hi Xavier.” The young woman waved meekly. Without a word, the programmer moved past Brandy to advance on his youngest sister. She came up past his chin, and as he enfolded her in his arms, he found his heart twisting as he realized just how absent he’d been from her life.

“
Emily
.” He exhaled, holding her against him for a long moment before withdrawing to take her in once more. “You’re…you’re…”

“I’m all grown up.” Her grin was just as adorable as he remembered. “Still at Julliard, though.”

That, he had never forgotten. His parents wouldn’t let him, or any other affluent family, for that matter, do so. According to them, Emily was one of the leading cello scholars in the country. While Xavier had no problem believing that his sister was talented, he had never actually had the opportunity to hear her play. He’d been too busy proving his parents wrong over the years.

“You’ll be almost done now, right? Another, what, year?”

“Half a year. Then I’ll be starting as first chair at the New York Metropolitan.”

Damn. Not that he’d ever suspected his parents of flat out lying, but he knew they tended to exaggerate about their children when it came to the prestige involved in their chosen profession; or, at least, the profession their parents had chosen for them. But, for Emily to have been accepted as first chair for the famous Metropolitan Orchestra group…that was quite a feat indeed – especially for someone as young as she was. “That’s
amazing,
Em. I’ll have to get season tickets to come up and see you!”

“But…you’re in California.” She ventured shyly. “I’ll be three thousand miles away.”

Xavier put on an expression of mock affront. “Do you think that’s going to stop me from seeing my baby sister?”

Emily’s grin lit up the office as she threw her arms around him and they embraced for the third time in as many minutes. Standing off to the side, Brandy looked on with a soft laugh. “I knew it would be a good idea to bring her. She’s taking a little break for some preparations for a show later on this summer, and I figured I’d bring her over….while Mom and Dad are out of the country.”

Their parents were currently in Europe on some grandiose tour of all the major cities that was costing them a fortune. The trip would keep them away from their home in the North East for a good month and a half. Xavier secretly caught his sister’s eye in an inquiry that both of them knew all too well: How much had Emily suffered at the hands of their stifling family?

It was something, Xavier knew, that they couldn’t talk about in front of the young woman. It would be a conversation for later, when Brandy and he got some time alone to discuss things. For now, it would be a better plan to take off an hour or two and have lunch – to revel in a family that hadn’t been together like this in over a decade.

“Well, ladies, to thank you for this wonderful surprise, I say we go and get some lunch on me.” Both of his sister’s beamed at his suggestion.

“Awesome, I’m starving.” Despite Brandy’s near constant state of hunger, she seemed to never lose her svelte, size four figure. A product, he was sure, of her rigorous exercise regime (and a little bit of their mother’s pressure on her to be the perfect socialite), but today, he planned on testing her appetite with one of the best restaurants in town.

That was, at least, until the cell phone he’d contemplated using earlier started buzzing on his desk. Excusing himself, the young programmer reached for his suit jacket as he proceeded to answer the phone. At the words on the other line, he felt his heart stutter in his chest and his blood run cold.

Helena had collapsed at work. She was fine, but she wasn’t feeling too well, and her mentor, Doctor Forge, recommended that she have someone come pick her up.

There was no question of who that someone would be. Frowning, Xavier hung up. He was sure his sisters wouldn’t mind a slight detour, but he was more concerned with what had happened to the woman he loved. Was she overworking herself
again
? Or was there something more serious afoot here.

Only she would be able to tell him.

“I’m
fine
, Xavier, I promise.”

Eying the woman sitting across from him skeptically, Xavier bit his tongue. He didn’t want to argue with her in front of his sisters, especially if he was trying to make a good impression upon Emily.

The young cellist had been thrilled to meet Helena, even if his lover was pale and haggard, her greeting a bit half-hearted. Being the person she was, Helena, of course, apologized, explaining she’d been feeling a bit under the weather.

And that was
all
she explained.

Despite the fact that her mentor and administering physician had personally called him to come get her, she wouldn’t say anything more about what had caused her incident in the workplace. She was just tired, she assured him. She needed food and some rest and she’d be perfectly fine.

But she didn’t look fine.

In fact, Helena looked even more wan than he’d ever seen her – including the times when she’d denied herself sleep trying to pass exams. He knew that she was getting rest every night – he was personally seeing to it – and she was eating well. He supposed that she really could just be catching a bug, but there was a lingering worry in the back of his mind. If it was a bug, somehow, he doubted it would seem so much like Helena was avoiding the topic of her health.

Reaching across the table, he took her hand in his with an earnest smile. “I trust you, honey. I just want you to be OK. You look a little pale.”

The dark-skinned woman met his eyes for only a split second before looking away – almost as if she were uncomfortable. When she smiled, it was nervous – almost on edge. “Well, I am
starving.”

“Exactly what I said.” Brandy grinned at her from her position next to her brother before picking up the bistro’s menu. “What are you thinking about ordering, Helena?”

As the women considered the menu, Xavier looked over all three of them. Emily seemed to take instantly to Helena, despite the fact that the gray-eyed woman seemed somewhat out of sorts. She’d immediately offered her some ibuprofen from her bag and now glanced over at her ever few moments, as if checking to see if she was still upright. Emily was like Brandy in that respect – she had the mothering instinct of their elder sister.

Both of his siblings would make amazing maternal figures someday, he realized. Brandy had always attested to wanting children – and though she was nearing her forties, she was aging gracefully. Doctors had apparently informed her that having a child was still very much in the cards for her, and the blonde had informed her brother that she was merely waiting for the right time to address the subject with her husband. Emily, of course, was a bit young to be considering motherhood just now, but when she did, he was sure that she would do splendidly.

Which had him hoping that they would break the often-toxic cycle that his family had entered when it came to their parents. His sisters would mother their children with love, support, and affection.

Just as he would his.

With a faint smile, Xavier glanced at the woman sitting across from him.

Whenever he spoke to Helena about children, the physician-in-training always changed the subject. She was still relatively young, he knew, and her first and foremost interest was finishing her degree; but it seemed hard for Helena to think of anything beyond her eventual career. On one level, Xavier understood completely. Success was very important to Helena, especially coming from the background of poverty and exploitation that she had.

Her father, the only positive influence she’d ever had in her life, had been stolen from her before she’d finished college, leaving her with an amazing legacy but no real emotional support. Helena was bound and determined to become a physician that he would be proud of – and to prove her mother wrong.

In that respect, they were very much alike. While Xavier’s parents were filthy rich, they had never given him the love or attention he craved. Atop that, they had pulled even their financial support when they realized that he wasn’t going to allow them to control him like a puppet on a string. Helena’s mother never had the money to provide her daughter with what she needed, and she had used that very fact to try and control her, sucking her dry emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Helena, too, had broken free of her poisonous influence and was now chasing the dream instilled in her by her father. While her mother rotted in jail for attempting to kidnap her and force her to sell her body for the money the woman had so desperately needed.

Yes, Helena was now very safe from her mother, but Xavier saw Janette’s presence linger in his lover’s behavior – in the way she reacted to certain situations.

She was still scared – not only of the woman who had never loved her properly, but of what kind of mother she herself might become because she had never experienced a proper mother-daughter- relationship. The very thought of having her own children seemed quite incomprehensible to her – so much so that he’d never gotten a straight answer about whether she wanted them or not.

But, Xavier told himself, he still had plenty of time to work on her. There was no rush. She had, at least, let him purchase the house that they were moving into – which meant that she couldn’t be completely against the eventuality of starting their own family.

Now, if only he could be so sure that she was at least being honest about her health.

Lunch, at least, went off without a hitch. Everyone present was starving, and food began to disappear the moment it arrived. Brandy complimented him on his restaurant choice, as did Emily. Xavier was surprised to see that, despite his youngest sister’s willowy figure, she could tuck in with the best of them. When he looked to Brandy in inquiry, the elder woman’s expression said merely that she would have to speak to him about Emily later.