An invitation

That morning Kieran woke up, all groggy and rumpled, he opened his eyes slowly, the room was bright and the pounding in his head was terrible, the sun ray that filled the room hurt his eyes, squinting, he push back the arms wrapped around him, and crawled his way out of the enormous bed. Kicking through some empty bottles, he almost stumbled, but he braced himself quickly, looking around the corner where there was an ice bucket and empty bottles, he knew he had one hell of a party last night. He stiffened a yawn, walked towards a coffee table, and sat on one of the velvet chairs, pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

"Girls!—" he yelled, taking a sip from the glass, then setting it back on the coffee table. He watched the ladies turn in his bed, then he clapped his hands to wake them. "It's morning... That was one hell of a night, right?—time to go… chop-chop."

They got up and picked up their clothes from the floor and left the penthouse. Kieran wore a silk robe over his bare torso, then sauntered across the living room to the balcony with the glass of whiskey in his hand.

He seethed over being cast for that role by Emily Decker. Even if he told himself it was just sex, he was disturbed by the fact that she still dumped him either way, he couldn't see it any other reasonable way, given her readiness to leave him when the situation no longer Suited her. Toy with the Prince for a while, fulfill a few sexual fantasies, enjoy whatever entertainment he provides, but keep him in a part of her life-marked playtime.

Is that all you are going to say?—I guess I just expected something more than just ok.

Her voice repeated in his head again, but the disappointment in her eyes when he gave her his nonchalant replies, made him wonder if she might be falling for him, and it assured him they were not done with each other just yet.

The infuriating part was all the signals had been there. She just wanted to use him for the little time, if he hadn't been so blindly arrogant about his selfish desires too, he could have saved them both all the stress and ended it a long time ago.

After all the muse and nursing the bottle of whiskey, he decided to hit the gym, then go back to the mansion.

Two hours later, after a punishing workout, Kieran was leaving the gym when his cell phone rang. The number on the screen reminded him of his Photoshoot with the Bishop magazine, which had completely slipped his mind. Cursing under his breath, he made the connection and offered his apology.

"Sorry! Paul, I'll be there in a few, Vic is at the mansion, right?"

"Yes sir, he's here."

"Good, just set up, I'll join you shortly."

He broke the connection, tucked the phone in his jacket pocket, unlocked the Ford Explorer, sat in the driver's seat, and drove to his mansion.

Soon he got there, they were all set up and waiting for him, as soon as he stepped inside, they began the makeover. The Bishop magazine paid millions to have him as their ambassador, and they did everything he wanted to make him comfortable because they wouldn't risk losing their center of attraction.

After dressing up in skinny dark blue jeans with a fitted black shirt tucked in, he sat down to get his hair dressed, so they can start with the photo shoot. Victor suddenly approached him and handed him an invitation that came in earlier.

"Sir, this came in, from Mr. Baxter."

"What's inside?"

"An invitation."

"Invitation?" he raised a brow. "Now what is Jackson up to this time." He said sarcastically.

He collected the card from Victor and took a quick read, and all the expression flushed from his face as he read… You are solely invited to the engagement between—Jackson Baxter and Emily Decker…

Emily Decker?...

"What the hell is this?—" he muttered under his breath, confused about how to react, he tossed the card aside and grimaced. Emily?... Like that Emily Decker? Could this be that all this while… I've been sleeping with my—oh God. He never saw that coming. Now he was looking forward to that evening. She would melt when she finds out he was a guest of honor at her engagement.

"Nonsense!" Burt Lancaster slammed his hands against the wide round table angrily.

"Pope, are you telling us you trust one man to get the job done?" The chubby Asian man asked looking at Pope as they murmured around the table.

It was a cozy, expensive, conference room, where some powerful men had their private meetings. A meeting Richard Decker III was once a part of before they discovered a fortune that was supposed to be shared among the members, then he took it for himself and killed everyone that stood up to him for it. Five of them sat at the table, and five armed bodyguards in tuxedos were stationed around the room too.

Pope shook his head as he bumped a cigarette. "Not one man, Lee, I'm calling the shots here—and most certainly, you should not doubt me for a second. All I'm waiting on is the combination to that vault, once we get hold of the money, then, We can stop having this conversation and move forward."

"You are not calling the shots, Pope… we are, and you'll have to do whatever you are told to."

Osborne said, drumming his fingers on the table. "I agree with Burt, this is total nonsense… Richard shouldn't be a problem at all, not even the vault combination, if we could take control of the situation… we all have our limits because of our lifestyle, we can't afford the press lurking around our homes, offices, our political career is shooting for the peek… so we can't be carried away because of some God-forsaken—Now, you keep driving us knots with Richard still breathing, is it until he takes us out?"

"He won't," Sylvester added. "Pope is right. you just said it, Osborne, we can't involve ourselves in taking Richard out, the press will sniff it out. But Pope can, he's a roach, and like he said he's calling the shots—let us let this play out."

They were quiet for a moment as they thought about their decision. Richard seem to be taking them out, looking at the empty seats, and the life of the other member they'd lost, they knew they had to stick with Pope's plan. Too many hands on deck will rash things out.

"Alright!" Burt said finally. "As long as the bastard dies, not us… I'll take my chances."

Pope smirked when he saw the rest of them nod. "Good talk, see that's the difference between y'all and Richard. Richard gets his hands dirty and knows how to wipe 'em. But you boys only talk hired hands. " he said and stood up. "Don't worry, I assure you, the next meeting would be about a celebration of life—if you may excuse me, I have the plan to execute. Let us get the bastard by the balls."

As Pope left the room, he asked Marcos to deliver a package to Jackson, some pieces of stuff that might be of help in getting the job done on time… well seems he had to cancel his dinner with Emily; which he hated to cancel by the way, but he had to.

After the shopping spree earlier that day, Colette decided they should join Alice and her son at the beach since they were free earlier than they'd thought.

"I'm so glad you guys Made it," Alice gave them a slight hug, kissing the air. "That's my son, Carl," She said pointing at the six-year-old running around with a cute blonde male by the wave, the blond man was almost six foot tall, fit body, with a hairy chest.

"Aww, cute kid," Colette smiled warmly as she sat on one of the deck chairs.

"Too cute—" Emily added, "—is that his Dad?"

"Oh, no… he's not, Carl's Dad and I are separated," Alice replied.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Emily said softly.

"It's nothing, it's been two years and we've both moved on, he's married now… And I'm… me, I guess… always trying to squeeze a fun time for myself, between work and being a single mother." her eyes linger around the blonde guy playing with her son, by the beach, then she looked back at Emily. "That's Travis, I met him here at the beach, he comes here to relax just like I do, Carl seems to like his company though, he's pretty good with kids. We only do small talks, nothing more"

"Hmm—Good with kids? I see. It's quite hard to miss the way your cheeks turned red when his name rolled out your tongue." Colette teased and Alice blushed harder.

"Colette isn't wrong," Emily agreed and they chuckled. "He's stunning."

"Hot!" Collette corrected and they laughed. "Alice, you need to get laid, you know, and stop putting so much pressure on yourself, our girl needs a little fun… invite him for dinner or something…" Alice shook her head as Colette said it. "Don't shake your head—oh, that reminds me, he can be your plus one to Emily's party—Come on…"

"No, I don't know…."

"You don't know what… he's not playing with your kid for exercise."

"Colette is right," Emily grinned. "He looks very single to me."

"Speaking of Single," Alice said, reminiscing about the other day at the hotel. "I saw you at the Dove hotel the other day, asking of the wealthiest bachelor… Kieran Davis."

"Kieran Davis?... the billionaire?... You know him?" Colette asked wide-eyed at Emily.

"Oh… no, um-mm," she said quickly, clearing her throat. The only question she heard was… Are you sleeping with him? Being the guilty one. She shuddered a bit, trying to hide the nervous tension in her voice. It never occurred to her that anyone could ever see them together, she was always careful. "—I'm a doctor remember—"

"Thought as much... I heard one time, he had a heavy mental breakdown, that he attacked a member of the press at Star Island." Alice said quickly, and Emily swallowed, as relief build up inside her. All those attacking questions almost made her want to explode. "I use to think, the man was so heartless—"

"Oh, that's all media crap and rumors. And did you say heartless" Colette cut Alice before she went further, " No-no-no, you got it inside-out, girl? He's charming. That guy is free-spirited, spoke to him once and he was... *Muah*"

"You didn't let me finish, Colette." Alice rolled her eyes. "He can be frustrating, but he's kind of nice, in his way, I guess… And he's hot as hell."

"That is solid, he's the hottest man on the planet right now… I'm I allowed saying that?" Colette flinched and they laughed. "Oscar will kill me, but I have to admit."

Laughing, Emily freed her hair, "What were you doing at the Dove hotel in the first place?" she asked. "You should have called me when you saw me."

"Oh, I didn't want to interrupt your chat with the receptionist…and, yeah, I work there, I mean, the company I work for is in charge of redecorating his hotel… and I'm in charge of the team there."

As the women kept chatting, Travis and Carl came back to where the women sat.

"Mrs. Grimes… I hope we ain't interrupting?" Travis said with a grin.

Alice could only shake her head, not trusting her voice as she stared up at him. She had to bend her head back to do so, and that fit body went on, high against the sky. The women greeted Travis, introduced themselves, and exchanged hugs with Carl.

Carl giggled. "You call her Miz Grimes." He turned to his mother. "But she's Alice most all the time, aren't you, mom?"

"Well," she began, grateful for the distraction as her gaze swung to her son from his great body. "I think—"

"Aunt Piper always calls you Alice, right, Mom?" Carl grinned at her, crinkling blue eyes swinging merrily to Travis, the back again, before picking up the soccer ball.

"Of course, big man, we all call your mother, Alice," Colette added and cleared her throat.

The imp! Alice thought. He's making sure we're on a first-name basis.

Alice chuckled as she met her son's not-quite-guileless gaze, feeling her tension melt away. "Alice, it is." She agreed, then gestured at Travis. "Won't you join us, uh, Travis?

Emily and Colette gave her a teasing wink and she tried so hard to keep a straight face.

"Thought you'd never ask," Travis murmured just for Alice's ears as Carl let out a whoop of approval. His wink was also for her alone as he hunkered to pick up the ball that dropped from Carl. "Here you go, buddy."

"We should go," Emily mouthed to Colette, and she nodded.

Emily got up and picked up her handbag.

"You're leaving?" Alice said.

"Yeah," Colette smiled. "we should get going."

"I have a date with Jackson tonight…and precise, we should leave you to it."

"Really?" Alice giggled.

"See… you've started giggling," Emily whispered in a tease. "Have fun."

"Ciao!" Colette smiled, then said in her ear. "He likes you."