Page 8 of Fierce King (L.A. Ruthless 1)

Alejandro

I kissedmy mother on the cheek before closing the car door behind her and watching as her driver turned out of my driveway. I’d suggested that she spend the night, but she wanted to visit her old friend while she was in L.A. She also made it clear that she was keen not to intrude on the newlyweds.

The irony of that wasn’t lost on me. The fact was, Alana and I got along much better when my mother was around – even if it was all only for her benefit.

I walked back into the house and looked for Alana. Whatever I thought about her, she had managed to convince my mother that this thing between the two of us was real, and for that I was grateful. I wondered what, or how much it might cost me, to repay that particular favor.

I found her in the kitchen helping Magda clear the dishes from our late lunch. They were laughing at something but stopped when they saw me walking into the room, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they’d found so funny.

Perhaps my mother’s tales of my misspent youth? Magda had worked for my family since I was a child, so they weren’t new to her. But, I had seen how much delight Alana had taken in listening to my mother’s stories.

‘I’ll just go and fetch the glasses from the garden,’ Magda said and excused herself, leaving Alana and I alone.

I walked towards her and she looked up at me with those huge brown eyes of hers.

‘Thank you for today,’ I said quietly.

‘Pardon?’ she said, cupping her hand to her ear in an exaggerated fashion.

I frowned at her. Could she not make anything easy? She was getting much bolder around me and I couldn’t work out if that was a good or a bad thing. ‘You heard me,’ I growled. ‘You have my mama fooled anyway. She loves you.’

‘Well, I’m actually very lovable,’ she said with a grin. ‘Your mom obviously has very good taste.’

I snorted and stuffed my hands in my pockets.

Alana tilted her head and looked at me for a few seconds before she spoke again. ‘Well, she is lovely,’ she finally said. ‘I really liked her being here. It’s a shame she had to leave so soon.’ Then she turned to look out of the window and I thought I saw tears in her eyes, but she blinked them away.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ she sniffed as she wiped her eyes quickly. ‘Being with your mom today just reminded me how lonely I am here,’ she said softly. Then she shrugged and turned back to the dishes.

I stood watching her and felt something for her that I couldn’t quite work out.

A pang of guilt, perhaps?

Despite my general apathy towards her, she had made my mom a very happy woman today. It was easy to forget that she had given up her whole life to move here.

‘Well, what would it take to make you feel less lonely?’ I asked her.

She turned to face me. ‘I don’t know. Friends?’ she said with a shrug. ‘But I’m not that great at making them. What do the women around here do to occupy their time if they don’t work?’

I rubbed my hand across my jawline and shook my head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘What do your friends wives do?’

I frowned. I didn’t have many friends and the ones I did have didn’t have wives. But I knew what the wives of other rich men around here did. They had plenty of liquid lunches, spent their husbands money and justified it by raising a few bucks for charity once a year. I’d bet that would be just her kind of deal.

‘There’s a group of wives who run a charity committee. I think they meet a few days, a week,’ I suggested.

I saw her eyes light up as she confirmed my suspicion. ‘Oh, that sounds perfect. Can I just show up? Or do you need to introduce me or something?’

‘Amelia Grant is the chair. I’ll have a word with her and tell her to expect you … when?’

‘Tomorrow?’ she said, all bright-eyed and shiny.

I nodded. ‘Tomorrow.’

‘Great. Thank you,’ she said with a smile.

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