The Alpha's Choice by Jacqueline Rhoades Read Free Book Online Page B

his shoulders look broader, his legs look
longer, his whole body look more powerful. Whatever it was, Mrs.
Martin shifted back in her chair and averted her eyes.
    "Day before yesterday," she confessed.
    "Why?" It was another demand.
    Mrs. Martin hung her head, clearly ashamed.
"I spent the last of our money on the gas to get us here."
    "Why didn't you tell Begley you needed money?
He would have billed it to me." Charles' eyes never left the older
woman's bowed head.
    "I didn't want you to think we came
a-begging," she whispered. She started to rise again.
    "You sit until I tell you to do otherwise,"
he snapped and Mrs. Martin sat.
    Kat wanted to be anywhere but in that room
witnessing this proud woman confess her penury and she was shocked
by Charles brow beating her. Her fist was clenched, ready to do
battle on the older woman's behalf. She started forward.
    Charles hand snapped up, one finger raised.
Stop. Kat was brought up short. Charles didn't look to see if his
gesture was obeyed. His eyes never left Mrs. Martin.
    "Becoming a member of this... family," he
went on in a stern voice, "was a condition of your coming here;
that and a release from your previous... employer. Do you honor
that agreement? Do you stand for me?"
     At his repetition of the same words
he'd used when speaking to her, Kat's fist unclenched, her
curiosity aroused. It was like being eight years old again, sitting
at the kitchen table doing homework, listening to her
parents talk about one thing while meaning something
else. She'd known they were talking in code, but didn't have
the key to break it.
    "Of course I do and Buddy, too," Mrs. Martin
said, offended. "Where I go, he goes and you know he'll be
loyal to you." A little of the snap was back in her voice.
    "Then why would you shame me."
    "I didn't..."
    "You did! It's my duty to see my p... people
are cared for, fed, housed. What would it look like if I let
someone I stood for go hungry, a widow no less?" His finger poked
the soft arm of the chair for emphasis and Mrs. Martin jumped.
"We're small. We're new. I'll be observed and tested and I
will not be found wanting. I stand for those who stand for me,
Tilda Martin. Don't you forget it."
    "I won't, sir," Mrs. Martin said, nodding her
head sharply. She smiled at Charles like a mother proud of her son.
"It won't happen again."
    "See that it doesn't."
    He held out his hand and the housekeeper
placed her hand in his, he patted it and smiled affectionately. His
whole bearing changed as he returned to role of affable
painter.
    "You sit right there. I'll get you some
water. Katarina will keep you company."
    "It's Kat and I want to know what the..."
    "So do I. We'll talk about that later,"
Charles said in that voice that oozed authority and expected
obedience. He turned to Mrs. Martin lowering his chin and raising
his eyebrows in a significant look. "You're right, she doesn't
belong here. You keep that in mind."
    Mrs. Martin's nod contradicted her words as a
body hurtled across the room.
    "No!" she shouted as the huge man wrapped his
arms around Charles and lifted him from the ground in a bear hug
that had the power to break the smaller man's ribs. "Buddy,
no!"
    "Charlie!" Buddy danced around the room with
Charles dangling from his arms like a big rag doll. "I'm back,
Charlie. I'm back. I come home."
    "Buddy Gregory, you put him down!"
    "That's great, Buddy," Charles choked out in
a strangled voice, "Could you put me down now."
    "Sure, Charlie, sure."
    Charles bent in half and rested his hands on
his knees while he gulped in enough air to replace what had been
squeezed from his lungs.
    "Well," he rasped out a laugh, "Buddy hasn't
changed much." He straightened and then bent backward with a groan
to realign his spine. "Good to see you, man, but I sure hope you
don't hug the girls like that."
    Buddy was tall, six-six or seven to
Charles' six feet and where Charles' well-muscled shoulders and
chest narrowed to slim hips and long legs, Buddy was simply