Legal Legacy 2 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles Book 10) (10 page)

“I have to go, I have to meet Sky and get ready for tonight,” Hadley said forcing her body away from his, the feeling
of his erection, hot and huge and hard as steel was seared into her skin and her memory.
Damn damn double damn
! This was wrong, he was not a welcome diversion and what a dirty trick recreating her parents favorite memory.

“Alright Hadley,” he said, cool as could be, “you have to go… but do you really
want
to?”

With that she met the smug look on his handsome face, tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked out into the daylight leaving him standing in the dimly lit bar all alone.
So you think I’ll just fall into your bed like all the rest of the women you focus your laser-beam charm on, well think again Mr. Townsend
! Ugh, so why in hell couldn’t she stop thinking about him and his gargantuan erection for one damned minute.

*

“Are you sleeping with Reef? Or should I say—
not sleeping
with Reef but doing bad, bad things with him? He
is
freaking hot but what about Atti?” Hadley asked raising her eyebrows in mock disapproval as she turned so Sky could fasten the last buttons on her elaborate evening gown. Her new stylist had brought dozens of offerings from top designers for Hadley to choose from and be seen and photographed in at the Women in Film event. She had picked the shockingly sexy Zac Posen mesh and sequin confection to wear to the awards ceremony and she wasn’t sure if the gown was to capture the attention of the press or Holden (who might or might not see her on TV) or Cade Townsend who was her escort to the event although she was having misgivings about that decision. Maybe she had chosen the dress because Skyler was well acquainted with wearing the most fabulous clothes in the world and she had assured Hadley it was the best of the best and she looked like a gazillion bucks in it.

“No! I haven’t slept with him, or
not
slept with him… yet. But it’s heading in that direction and I’m so glad to be free of my dreary all-consuming need for Atticus, I mean it was running and ruining my life. Here, your turn to buckle me into this mesh monstrosity that’s supposed to pass for clothing,” Sky said, and as soon as she caught a glimpse of herself in the gossamer golden dream of a dress she wished Atticus could see her and peel it off her body very slowly with that heart-stopping glint in his eyes….

“You are
so
not over Atticus, Sky. Your face gets that look whenever you mention him, I swear I could kill my brother for making you fall in love with him.”

“You’re crazy, Hads.
I don’t know… what look do you think I get on my face? And he didn’t make me do anything. I’ve loved him forever… I
used
to love him is what I meant, since before I can even remember.”

“
Yeah right, you used to love him and now you don’t cuz that’s how you are, Sky. You’re able to turn your feelings for Atticus off so easily. NOT! The look you get is the whole ‘little girl lost’ thing, like when… like when your dad didn’t come back. Fuck, Sky, I hate that I brought that up. Just please be careful with Reef because you and Atticus are not over and I don’t think you ever will be. What if you get involved with Reef and he wants you to ride off into the sunset on his Harley and be his Old Lady?” Hadley said and Skyler rolled her eyes and they laughed so hard at the image of Skyler on the back of a Harley in a thirty thousand dollar couture gown that tears ran down their faces and they had to hold their stomachs until the laughing jag passed. “Come on Sky, I’m serious. Reef is not a biker dude, I know that. But what if you both think you’re in love and you get married and have a baby and then Atticus shows up and you wish to God he was the father of your child?”

“I won’t get pregnant… I can’t,” Sky said and the lost look returned to her face as she sat at the dressing table
in the sumptuous hotel suite where she and Hadley were staying and tried to repair her ruined makeup but the tears started pouring again and it was no use to try and stop them.

“Sky, what’s happened? What do you mean you can’t get pregnant? You’re not even twenty years old yet, how could you know something like that?” Hadley asked, kneeling next to her on the floor of the dressing room
and taking Sky’s slender hands in hers. Hadley had been given the suite at the Chateau Marmont for the weekend of the awards ceremony and she and Sky had checked in the day before and treated themselves to in-room massages and plenty of room service. They had decided to give their libidos some time to cool off since the interest from Reef and Cade Townsend had happened fast and was wickedly intense.

“I got pregnant when Atticus
and I were in New York together a year and half ago. It was when Atti came to tell me he was leaving for SEAL training and he was so adamant that I get on with my life without him. I really meant to, get on with my life, that is. Getting pregnant, it just happened even though I was on birth control and Hads I have to say, I was happy when I found out. I’m doing great at NYU and it’s only going to take me another year and a half to graduate with a degree in Sociology. I’ve applied to law school at USD and your mom has written a letter of recommendation for me since that was her alma mater, she says I’m sure to get in. I thought it would be the next best thing to having a life with Atticus, having his baby, our baby. I could have been happy and oh, how I would have loved that child…” Sky began to sob then and Hadley wrapped her in her arms and cried with her although she wasn’t sure what had gone so terribly wrong if Sky had it all planned out to raise the child on her own.

“Sky, shhh, hey what happened? Dry your eyes now, come on let’s take these damn dresses off
, they’re soaking wet with tears. Here,” she said, crossing the room and pouring them both a shot of vodka from a bottle in the freezer of the wet bar. “Drink up and tell me what went wrong, what on earth happened?”

“It was an ectopic pregnancy
with the worst possible outcome. I had no idea I was even pregnant until I collapsed, no morning sickness and I rarely have a period since I take the birth control shot. So the embryo grew in the fallopian tube for six weeks or more and then the tube burst and I was horribly sick. I had emergency surgery, I was in Paris for the fall runway shows and one of the models took me to the hospital and then I had her call Beau. He flew to Paris and we stayed with Evangeline and although I didn’t tell her what happened I think she knew somehow because she was strangely sweet. At the hospital they had to remove my left fallopian tube, there was too much damage to repair it. I’ve seen several doctor’s since then to get more than one opinion but they all say the same thing— my chances of ever getting pregnant again are not good,” Sky ripped the tear-drenched dress from her body and climbed under the downy coverlet on the bed. “So you see, I might as well try and love Reef or any man other than Atticus, I won’t ever be truly happy anyway. Atticus will want a baby with the woman he loves and it would be unthinkable for him not to have a child of his own. He’s so beautiful and he has so many amazing qualities. What do I have to offer? I’m practically an orphan and don’t try and change my mind about meeting Pedro’s mother, if she is alive isn’t it obvious she only wants him? The woman has no interest in me or Beau.”

“Oh, Sky. I’m so sorry that happened and I’m mad as hell that you didn’t call me to take care of you.
I’m your best friend for heaven’s sake, you’re my sister, practically. Atticus should know about this Skyler, I’m serious. He’ll be furious that you went through this without him or me or Mom. Thank God for Beau, I hate to say it— but fuck Amanda and Ava for treating you like shit all these years. Jack, too. They’re all so fucking selfish, all of them acting like it was your fault that JP went looking for Lizzie. It was his decision Sky, he did a stupid thing for love just like the rest of us. As for Lizzie, who knows what her major malfunction is. My Uncle Christopher is busy sorting that out right now, it’s so weird with all these bizarre connections. Lizzie gives birth to you and Beau by two random lovers who happen to know each other and now there’s a fifteen year-old whose real name is Joaquin and he’s the son of my mother’s ‘lost and found’ brother. Geez, gimme a break!” Hadley said plopping down on the bed next to Sky. “Holy hot flash Batman, this fucking dress is wet and ruined and I can’t get the silly bastard unbuttoned!”

That set them off on a spitting sputtering side-splitting laughing spree that went on and on until at last they l
ay wiping tears from their eyes again.

“We have got to get over the men in our lives,” Hadley said. “Holden would rather follow my brother into battle than take full advantage of my young nubile body! Just look at us, Sky,” Hadley said sitting up on the bed and wiggling out of the exorbitantly expensive dress
that had been sent especially to her by the designer. “We will never be younger or more attractive than we are at this moment, our tits and asses are high and perky and gravity is only gonna take its toll from this day forward! Fuck Holden and Atti! Fuck Cade and Reef, too! What we need is a girl trip, just us in a convertible hitting the open road to… nowhere in particular. What do you think?”

“I think you’re right, let’s go borrow one of Charlotte’s new cars,
call all the men in our lives and say “adios motherfuckers” and just wave goodbye. It’s a great plan, now what about tonight? We have to deal with Reef and Cade and the awards ceremony.”

“
Oh Sky, sweetie, didn’t you learn anything from Charlotte? The way to convince a man he can’t live without you is to ignore his ass! You can be my ‘date’ to the event tonight.” She said and even though Kincade Townsend was not a man easily dissuaded or ignored (
and
he had pulled her against him unexpectedly before she got in her car to leave him at the beach and kissed her like she was the last woman and he was the last man on the planet!) she picked up her cell phone to give him the news that she never wanted to see him again.

*

Matilda was a Texas girl at heart even though she’d gotten out of that slow-talking oil-soaked men-rule-the-world-and-women-are-ornaments state as fast as she could. Marrying Jordan Sullivan had been a purely political decision. She wanted to be first lady and he was destined to be president. It was all pedigree and breeding on Jordan’s part, he was from a long line of politicians from the great state of Rhode Island. The first Americanized Sullivan had stepped off the Mayflower and began a dynasty that would include two United States senators, three governors, a Supreme Court Justice and now a candidate for the highest office in the land.

Jordan would be a powerful man once he was in office
but he certainly wasn’t powerful anywhere else as far as Matilda was concerned. He had a little dick and no sperm, so much for breeding and pedigree, but she was biased and who could measure up to Atticus Hale? She would be the true force behind the proverbial throne once Jordan was elected and her son would rise to greatness. She liked to think of that, power was such a turn-on; power was a pure and powerful aphrodisiac. If her baby was a girl, all the better. Women were the source of all life, they should be running the world. They would never send their sons and daughters off to fight wars that couldn’t be won by following the rules, especially since terrorists and the like didn’t believe in rules. Women knew how to settle things simply and with civility. All that was needed were a few carefully selected castrating words or a sizeable bomb dropped to wipe out the offending nation and the enemies would tuck their tails and slink back to what was left of their perpetually worn-torn sand-boxes.

“Mrs. Sullivan?” the doctor said as he sat behind his desk and peered over his glasses at the beautiful and glowing woman who waited for him. “I
t’s very early on, of course, but I’m happy to tell you the blood test is positive. Congratulations to you and your husband, you’re going to have a baby.”

“Thank you doctor,” Matilda said, standing to collect her purse and coat as the doctor walked around his desk and held out his hand to shake hers. She was so ecstatically happy that she reached up and kissed the doctor full on the lips and then laughed at the look of shock and pleasure on his face.

It was all happening, the presidency was so close
and
she was pregnant! She could barely contain her joy— a baby, her baby and best of all, Atti’s baby! A baby that would grow up in the White House, the son or daughter of the leader of the free world. And more than that, her baby was descended from a strong and indomitable bloodline. Charlotte Hale, who was now Charlotte Bly, was the strongest woman Matilda had ever known and just like her son she was brilliant and incomprehensibly beautiful. Charlotte had been Matilda’s hero from the first moment she met her and even if she would never know that this child was part of her, Matilda would do her the honor of naming the baby Charlotte if it was a girl.

*

“Your sister is anxious to see you, Ivy,” Atticus said, leaning closer so she could hear him over the noise in the giant Super Stallion helicopter. There were both Marine and Navy troops on board and they were inordinately interested in the SEAL and the stunning dark haired girl seated next to him.

“I don’t want to see her and it’s a long story, one you don’t want to hear, believe me,” she said
and she felt the urge to press her lips to the spot between his brows that furrowed in concern.

His face was enthralling just as he was. He had a rare masculine elegance that she had never seen on any other man. His face and what she had seen of his body were pure perfection, like a statue or a painting of an angel. Although he had more of the look of a fallen angel with his piercing sapphire eyes, jet-black hair and bulging muscles that no amount of clothing could cover.