SWNOVELS : Chapter 50
Alexander
“Have you had a chance to think over everything we discussed?”
I winced and lowered the volume on my phone. Uncle Conrad’s booming voice served him well when commanding crowds of subordinates at the firm. But phone conversations with an individual who lacked volume control could be unpleasant.
“I have thought it over,” I told him. “It is not the right time to move our plan forward yet, Uncle.”
I glanced at the door that adjoined my office to the bedroom Fiona and I shared. She had still been fast asleep when I rose early and began my day, creeping around the room in the dark as quietly as I could. It was the weekend, and I hoped she would rest as
much as possible this morning.
“Ah,” Conrad said, failing to mask the disappointment in his expressive voice. “I see.”
“We have been patient on this subject for many years, Uncle. Let’s wait a little longer. We cannot rush this.
We must do it right.”
I could hear Conrad frowning as he muttered, “Hmm.
Uh-huh. Yes. Of course, you are right.”
My uncle was freshly eager to act against Fiona’s father, and it’s not as though I could blame him. Ever since I saw the despicable villain on the day I stole Fiona away from her wedding, my desire for vengeance had been stronger than ever.
But Conrad’s new impatience did have me wondering what more he might have on his mind, beyond what
he had revealed to me so far. He was spending a lot of time with Fiona now that they worked together.
Surely her presence in his life had some sort of influence on his thoughts about our unfinished business with her father.
Delaying our plan had never been an easy thing to do. But waiting for exactly the right time was the only way Conrad and I would be able to make my mother’s killer pay for his crime properly – and come away unscathed ourselves.
I returned to the bedroom to find Fiona in exactly the same position where I had left her an hour prior. On her side in bed, with her silver hair splayed all around her head on the gold pillow. But she began to stir at the sound of my movements and soon was looking in my direction with heavy-lidded eyes.
“Hi,” she said sleepily, stretching her arms overhead.
I shrugged, making my way over to the bed and taking a seat on the edge next to her. “Still early. How are you feeling?”
Fiona writhed slowly under the sheets, waking her muscles from the stiffness of sleep, and letting out a low mmm sound as she stretched. “I’m good,” she said. “I feel a lot better than yesterday.” She blinked up at me, taking in a long inhale that made her chest heave up and down dramatically, and smiled.
My hand went out to touch her, landing in the valley between her breasts. She looked up at me intently, batting her dark eyelashes, with a look in her eyes that seemed to say: I dare you.
I hardly remember undressing. I was on top of Fiona the next thing I knew, pressing my mouth and nose to
her neck, desperate to breathe in her smell. I could smell her desire for me, too.
Her hands went into my hair, sending chills down my body as she dragged her fingernails across my scalp, and she pressed my face to her breast. I tugged her nightgown down with my teeth, then licked her nipples and watched as she reacted, gasping, the small of her back arching involuntarily.
There was no more waiting after that. I pushed her legs apart and pressed my hips to hers, sliding myself inside her wet heat, making her moan. We clung tightly to each other and fell into a rhythm, moving and breathing together slowly at first, getting faster and more frenzied every minute until she lost control and went, shaking, over the edge of pleasure, taking me along with her.
“Do you really need to work today? Whatever it is you
want to do, I’m sure it could wait until Monday.”
Fiona turned to look up at the ceiling. “I just started a new project, and I have so much research to do. I want to get ahead so I’m not starting from zero on Monday.”
We had collapsed side by side, our bodies still entangled, and laid there for several minutes motionless and panting before Fiona had made a statement about wanting to get up and do some work.
“You need to take care of yourself, too, though, Fiona.” I dragged my fingertips down the length of one of her arms, distractedly enjoying the soft texture of her skin.
She sighed, looking deep in thought. “This project… I don’t know. My coworkers are telling me that what Conrad is asking me to do simply cannot be done.
I shifted my weight to prop myself upright against the tufted headboard. “Is that so?”
Fiona frowned and nodded, her eyes still on the ceiling. “I know that this project is important to the company, too. The budget is huge, and I can’t be responsible for all that loss if it fails.”
I took a drink of water from a glass on my bedside table, nodding. I hoped Fiona would continue, but needed to be careful about saying too much, or really anything at all, on the topic of her work at Crescent Ventures.
“How about this?” she asked, sitting up. She gathered a loose sheet and wrapped it around her chest, then leaned against the headboard, facing me. “I’ll take a quick shower, then we’ll go eat breakfast together…
before I come back here and do just a little work.”
“Sounds fair,” I answered.
Fiona looked at me appreciatively. Her blue eyes were light, sparkling, and full of energy. “I’m glad you understand.”
“It’s admirable that you care so much about wanting to do good work. Not many employees would have that kind of dedication after just starting a new job.”
She narrowed her eyes, giving me an intense and penetrating stare that had me, for a moment, concerned I had given myself away somehow.
“It’s not just a job,” she said. “I’ve been entrusted with a tremendous amount of responsibility, and I intend to do right by everyone with a stake in this project. And not only that…” Fiona’s eyes flicked away from mine,
and she fidgeted with the sheet. “This is a chance to prove myself. They’re expecting me to fail, and that only makes me even more determined to succeed.”
She chuckled, her shoulders dropping, then brought her eyes back to meet mine. There was a fresh surge of confidence and passion in them.
“I really don’t know how yet,” she said, “but I am going to make this thing happen one way or another. Failure is just not an option.”
Suddenly I was reminded, vividly, of my departed mother. The fire in Fiona’s eyes felt so familiar, sending me back to a childhood memory that had not surfaced in my mind for many years. My mother had, of course, also been a savvy businesswoman. But that was not all she and Fiona had in common.
Fiona’s passion and unrelenting determination to overcome any obstacle in her path… these were things that reminded me of my mother, as well.
“I have no doubt about that,” I told Fiona. “It sounds like they picked the right woman for the job.”