Deceptive Nights (13 page)

Pulling out a check and handing it to her, he
said, “Were you looking for this?”

She read the check in the amount of ten
thousand dollars made out to her from his personal checking
account. Looking at him, she admitted, “No. I was being nosey if
you must know.”

“
What did you want to find
out?” He sat on the other side of the tray he had
brought.

“
Where did you get the
money from? Your company’s not that prosperous.”

“
Indeed, but my father was
a wise investor when I was born and decided to buy lots of stocks
in my name. My portfolios pretty thick and with lawyers and smart
accountants my father makes sure I’m never wanting anything. I see
him and my mother on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, once
and a while Easter and I get a call and a present through the mail
on my birthday. I was sent away to military school and he bought my
way into Yale by being a very generous donor to the college. I
practically raised myself, but that’s alright, I find my life in
Michigan where my mother was raised quite satisfying. I’m running
my own business while my parents, decide to track all over the
world for the rest of their lives. I figure I’ll get a phone call
when they die telling me to come pick up their bodies and bring
them back here to bury. They’ve already bought plots on the family
cemetery on the outskirts of Lansing. I’ll take you up there when I
get a chance if you’re interested. Is there anything
else?”

If that was not the most depressing thing she
had ever heard. How could a man so rich in wealth have such a
dreadful existence? She couldn’t imagine her parents leaving her to
other people to be raised. What about his values and morals and
what about that motherly and fatherly love she just couldn’t
imagine not having? Warm tucks in bed, wet kisses to the forehead,
tickles until you passed out, and hugs that just never stopped.

“
So why can’t you have
children?” she asked.

He hesitated before answering, and as he
spoke his words were slow and careful as he were controlling
everything around him. “I was four and my parents were preparing
for this huge Christmas party. About three days before the party I
told my parents I wasn’t feeling well. The nanny had gone to visit
her family and my mother insisted she could watch her own child
until the woman returned in a week. I tried my best to stay out of
my parents’ way and I understood how important this party was to
them, but I had the worst fever and by the next day it was worse. I
was throwing up and I was dizzy. My mother gave me some medicine
and sent me to bed, but I guess in all the holiday excitement I was
forgotten and by the time they discovered me I was near death on
the floor of my room laying in a pool of blood filled vomit and a
temperature of one hundred and two. They said I had to have been
there for about three days before they found me and took me to the
hospital. I had no idea how long I had been on the floor. Either
way, I didn’t wake up until a week later and so weak I could barely
breath on my own. They said I had fried a few brain cells. I had to
learn how to walk and use my right hand all over again. I was in
the hospital recovering for over a year, and my parent swore I
would never be left alone with them again. They didn’t find out
until I was ten that I was infertile. I could produce the
testosterone, but I couldn’t make them swim. A lot of people told
me to hate my parents. It was all their fault, but they were so
filled with so much guilt, I couldn’t hate him. They’ve always been
there for me when I have called upon them. They always return my
phone call and anything I’ve ever wanted they have given me. What
more could a child ask for from two people who were never ready to
be parents? They carry around the guilt that they can’t be parents
by staying away from me as much as possible and allowing other
people who can naturally nurture raise me. Besides, there are other
options. I mentored in college and I taught class for a while. If I
get married, adoption or foster parenting is also a good
choice.”

“
You don’t seem mad at
them?”

“
I never was. I love them.
They were always wrapped up in their world and I knew this from
almost the beginning of my life. I understood this and me becoming
sick was just not in their plans. I don’t blame them, and I don’t
blame myself. It’s just one of those things that happens. Life
gives you lemon and you make lemonade, right?”

She shrugged. “So you have a lot of
money?”

“
Enough. I’m not a needy
person. I’ve never been - A trip to New York once a year and I live
in the family house in Lansing. My business makes enough money to
pay for my traveling and business necessities and I don’t indulge
in a very expensive life style of partying, drinking, and so on
like Lawrence. Going into my private funds in the past ten years
has been little to none.”

“
I’m sorry about sneaking,”
she apologized.

He shook his head. “No problem.”

“
I can’t believe you gave
this to me in a check. I thought you might give it to me through a
bank transaction.”

“
That felt too impersonal.
Too business. I wanted to give it to you, but I didn’t want to walk
around with that amount of money. Is this check not
sufficient?”

It was perfect. This amount of money would
secure the debt Patricia and she were in and very well have enough
to give the twins a very enjoyable Christmas.

“
The check is sufficient.”
Her stomach broke the somber mood by growling quite
loudly.

“
I take it you’re hungry?”
he asked.

She said teasing, “Just a little.”

He picked up a piece of watermelon in one of
the bowls on the tray. “I have a confession to make, Phoebe.”

After taking a bite, she asked warily, “What
confession?”

“
I didn’t ask you to my
hotel room to make love to you. I really had plans to speak just
business then offer you more money if needed for you to make love
to me. I really just wanted to see you again. Yet now that I have
you I would like to keep you here until the sun goes down. There’s
really no strings attached to the money. If you pay it back then
fine, if you don’t I won’t hunt you down for it.”

“
I take this amount of
money very serious.”

“
I don’t, so please don’t
think of yourself as a prostitute.”

“
I was kind of finding it
kind of kinky,” she teased.

He chuckled sensuously. “Well, I brought a
bottle of whip cream too. Would you like have desert first?”

She smiled wickedly and nodded.

Chapter 16

Patricia was standing at the door when Phoebe
arrived home in a limousine driven car that evening about eight
o’clock. The disapproval in her mother’s face was quite evident,
but Phoebe waved this away and kissed her mother on the cheek as
she came in the door.

“
He didn’t bother to ride
home with you?” Patricia asked.

“
No, Mother.” Exhausted she
sat down in the nearest chair and stretched. “He was in bed when I
left if you must know.”

“
Are you
hungry?”

Phoebe giggled more to herself. “Oh no, we
ate when we had time.”

Patricia looked with even more
disapproval.

“
Oh Mother, the man is
insatiable if you must know. It’s like the more he gets the more he
wants and in between he made me feel the same way.”

“
So you like him a
lot.”

Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t know what I feel if
you must know.”

“
I don’t like him,
Phoebe.”

“
You don’t know him enough
to not like him.”

Patricia huffed and left the room not wanting
to discuss the subject any further. Phoebe relaxed and stared at
the wall thoughtfully. After they had eaten finally, he had called
up for her to have a massage and then they played checkers in just
towels on the floor of the front room. It had been an even more
interesting experience.

By that time, she had grown accustom to being
undressed in his presence and near the end of the night, there was
no place on her body he did not know. The same had went for him and
she delighted in finding new places on his body to touch to excite
him.

Just as he had asked her, as soon as the sun
had started going down, he had called the hotel desk to bring the
hotel’s limousine around to take her home. All his promises that he
had made this day, he had kept and she had really felt like a queen
as she rode home. Thoroughly loved through and through.

Phoebe decided she had enough energy to spend
some quality time with the twins and afterwards gave them a bath.
When she tucked them into bed that night, her son gave her an extra
special kiss.

As usual Patricia had set out some warm milk
on the table for the both of them when Phoebe joined her mother in
the kitchen after leaving the twin’s room.

“
What are you doing for the
weekend?” Phoebe asked.

“
Nothing,” she said waving
her hand away as if there were a pesky fly around. “I did want to
take the twins out somewhere. They have been pretty patient for the
past couple of weeks lockdown in this house.”

“
I wanted to take them on a
boat treat, then go to a birthday party. Lawrence
invited.”

Patricia brightened up. “Will you have to do
any more meetings with this other man? Or can you now concentrate
on Lawrence?”

“
Who I chose to spend time
with and how I spend time with are my business and my prerogative,
Mother.”

“
I know and in no way would
I dictate how you chose to spend your time, but I don’t want to see
you hurt again.”

“
I know you care, Mother
and it’s very much appreciated.” She touched her mother’s hands and
smiled warmly. “You are very much appreciated.”

“
Thank you, Phoebe,” she
said very glad to hear her daughter say that to her. “Sometimes
mothers need to hear that they are appreciated in some kind of
way.”

****

Just as Jacoby arrived back in Lansing,
Lawrence called him from Detroit on his cell phone.

“
I called your house and
office all yesterday and you didn’t answer. Desmond said he hadn’t
seen you either. Where’d you run off to?”

“
I was out of
town.”

Lawrence chuckled. “You came down to christen
Madeline’s new apartment with her? She had mentioned she might
invite you down.”

“
No, I wasn’t with
Madeline.” Jacoby made no attempt to go into detail on his
whereabouts. Jacoby thought Lawrence was being too nosey, but
Jacoby was being very evasive. He didn’t think he should let
Lawrence know he had seen Phoebe again considering how Lawrence had
acted the first time he had told him about Phoebe and him being
together.

“
I just wanted to speak
with you about Phoebe,” Lawrence said casually.

Defensively, he asked, “What about
Phoebe?”

“
I just wanted to let you
know there are no hard feelings between us. You got to her first
and maybe it was fate talking to me telling me that I had better
start listening when fate starts talking. Phoebe’s a good woman and
I missed that opportunity, but I’m not missing any more
opportunities like that again.”

Jacoby assumed Lawrence meant he would be
jumping a lot more bones when he felt the need to instead of
waiting around. This wasn’t unusual for Lawrence. He loved sleeping
around with women and keeping the notches on his bed quite
full.

“
I didn’t feel any hard
feelings or guilt about what I had done, Lawrence. I was just
worried you thought I had moved in on a staked claim when there was
nothing to say you had laid claim to her. I would never move in on
someone I knew you had an interest in.”

“
And do you still have an
interest in her?”

Jacoby pretended innocence not wanting
Lawrence to know just how much he felt about Phoebe when he wasn’t
sure about his own feelings. “There’s a considerable interest, but
I don’t want to press anything. Maybe when I’m in town I’ll look
her up.”

“
But didn’t she say she
wanted nothing to do with you?” Lawrence reminded him.

“
True, but that never
stopped me before. I’m sure I could change her mind.”

“
So it could be just a one
night thing then.”

“
For now. Maybe more if she
wants more to do with me.”

“
And if she doesn’t, you’ll
be moving on?”

Again Jacoby had that weird feeling Lawrence
was up to something. “Of course. I wouldn’t force the issue. I
don’t have to force myself on any woman, never have and never
will.”

“
Good...I mean, fine. I was
just wondering.” He changed the subject about something else, yet
Jacoby felt uncomfortable the whole time he was speaking with
Lawrence, because now he was sure Lawrence was up to something and
he felt he should speak with Phoebe directly about his concerns.
“I’ll be seeing you Monday,” Lawrence assured after some more small
talk.

“
No doubt,” Jacoby assured
him very eager to return to Detroit again.

“
Desmond told me of your
move planned for this weekend. I’d help you, but I’ll be seeing
some clients over the weekend in the thumb.”

“
Don’t worry. Even without
an office assistant I have it all organized and Madeline has
graciously allowed me to use the back offices at her place, while
I’m waiting for my own offices to be finished. It shouldn’t take
too long.”