Alex McLean blew a plume of smoke toward the ceiling. He watched it swirl its way upward before dissipating then sighed and rubbed his eyes, careful not to let the cigarette tucked between his fingers fall into the blankets on the bed he was stretched out on. Next to him, his new fiancée, Renee Kemp, slept peacefully, the covers strewn haphazardly over her thin, naked form. Her back was to him and he could see the tattoo that etched its way from the base of her spine up to her neck. Rather distasteful some might say; pure genius he thought.

Renee, was a one of a kind girl that he had been dating for almost nine months. They had met at a tattoo parlor and immediately hit it off. Her love of ink and piercings had been an instant turn on for him and how well they got along and their taste in music and past time activities had only drawn them closer. Things had slowly been growing serious between the two and then one day, completely out of the blue, Alex thought he should propose. So he’d bought a ring and popped the question. In all honesty, he was sure she’d say no, that it hadn’t been long enough and they needed more time, but much to everyone’s surprise, including himself, she’d told him yes.

He was pretty confident that he wanted to marry Renee. He loved her and he could see a future for the two of them. He felt it had been the right thing to do, afterall, he was getting older every day and getting married and settling down in a house as a family with children was always something he longed for. Most of his friends were married with kids and he knew it was his time now. It was just too bad that not everyone saw the same thing. His mother had been none too pleased with the announcement and she had let him know it too. They hadn’t talked in nearly two weeks. Not to mention the few friends who disagreed with his decision and the backlash from some of the fans.

But it was his life, and he’d be damned if someone else was going to tell him how to run it; he was going to marry Renee and that was that. His mom would hopefully come around and the fans, well eventually they’d realize that he truly loved her and come to support their union, as for the friends that disagreed? If they didn’t ever change their minds then he’d just find new ones. He was good like that.

Snuffing the butt of his cigarette out, Alex pushed the covers off him and rose from the bed. It was nearly noon and he hadn’t had his coffee yet. Normally he didn’t wait this long to brew up a pot, but the newly engaged couple hadn’t crashed until five am. And from Renee’s unmoving body as he stirred, she’d probably sleep another hour or two.

Pulling on some fresh lounge pants, Alex gathered his cigarettes and lighter and quietly slipped from the room. He made his way downstairs and into the kitchen then went about setting up the coffee pot to brew some fresh, hot coffee. Letting it brew, he sank down onto a stool at the counter and rifled through yesterday’s mail. Nothing of importance and just a few bills he would pass on to his accountant. Gathering the junk mail, he slipped from the stool just as the phone rang. Tossing it back onto the counter, he scooped up the phone and made a move to the cabinet to collect a coffee mug.

“Hello?”

“Alex?”

“Mom.” Her voice made him pause and he glanced towards the receiver. This was a surprise.

“How are you?”

“I’m okay.” His eyes shifted to the phone again. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Her voice carried an uncertain tone.

Alex forgot about the mug. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Is it Tony?”

“Oh, no, we’re both fine, honey. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh, good.” He rubbed his head, hoping she wasn’t calling to persuade him out of a marriage with Renee.

“I um,” she sounded hesitant.

“Mom,” Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose, “if this is about Renee, please don’t start.”

“This isn’t about Renee,” she suddenly snapped. “Not everything is, you know.”

Touché and not to mention, rarr. “Okay, point taken.” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to ask her what it was about for fear of her reaction.

“I’m sorry,” Denise Solis sighed through the line. “I wasn’t…I wasn’t sure if I should even call you, but…well, I’m your mother.”

Alex glanced to the telephone. “What is it, Ma?”

There was a pause then Denise spoke again, “Were you in New York at the end of September?”

His brows drew together. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Were you? It’s important.”

He frowned and rubbed his jaw, rethinking back the previous weeks. “I think it was the end of September. I had some meetings for my album.”

“Did you um…” she hesitated, “Alex, did you sleep with anyone while you were there?”

Alex’s frown deepened. “What is this about?”

“Did you?”

“What does that have to do with anything, Mom? What I do in my private life really isn’t any of your business.”

“Don’t I know that,” she responded with.

He sighed, not in the mood to have this conversation with her. “What was it you needed?”

“I got an email in my Facebook concerning you and your indiscretions; particularly one you had in New York.”

“What?” He frowned.

“Uh huh, do you know a Brielle Madison?”

“Brielle Madison? Am I supposed to?”

“According to this email you should.”

Brielle Madison? He thought back over the few days he was in the city, trying to remember anyone he met named Brielle. “Mom, that name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“It doesn’t? So, she wasn’t your one night stand?”

“My what?” He nearly pulled the phone from his ear to check it over and make sure he had heard his mother correctly.

“You heard me; some girl you picked up in a bar. Apparently, you paid her bar tab and I guess she repaid you.”

Alex frowned and opened his mouth to respond when the hazy fog shrouding his memory lifted and it came clear as day. Brielle Madison; a name and a girl he could never forget.

~*~

“How often do you do this?”

Alex glanced over to the blonde girl that was strewn across the bed, the covers hiding her naked form. “What? Smoke a cigarette?” He motioned towards the cigarette between his thumb and finger before inhaling the calming smoke and letting it exhale out slowly.

“No,” she chuckled and shifted to her side, facing him, propping her head up with her hand, “pick up girls in bars.”

“Oh,” he reached to the ashtray on the nightstand and flicked his ashes then turned back to her, “not as often as I used to. You let guys pick you up often?”

“No,” she shook her head, “you’re actually the first guy I’ve been with in…well, in a really long time.”

Alex gave a nod and studied her, noting the blush that crept across her cheeks at that confession. He rubbed his chest and drew the conversation away from something that might embarrass her. “Do I look like the kind of guy to pick up a different girl each night?”

“Not at all, but your sexual appetite is voracious.” She giggled low. “I mean, three times already.”

Alex couldn’t help the slow smirk that inched over his face. “Care to make it four?”

“It’s very tempting.” Brielle sighed and turned over to her back, her blonde hair fanning out over the sheet.

“Something wrong?” The tattooed man snubbed the cigarette out and shifted to his side to face her. “You not enjoying yourself?”

“Quite the opposite.” She sent him a dazzling grin. “I’m enjoying myself so greatly that the thought of going back to the real world, so to say, is quite discerning.”

“Well,” he reached and slipped his hand under the blankets, tickling his fingers over her bare hip, “I’m glad you appreciate my skills.”

She jerked and gave a laugh. “Oh I am, but it’s also nice to feel appreciated and wanted by someone, if even momentarily.”

Alex stilled his hand, resting it on her warm skin. “I suppose that’s true.”

“Thank you.” Her striking eyes met his sensitive ones.

“For making you feel wanted?”

“And for making me feel something other than despair and self loathing.”

“You’re not in a very good place in your life, are you?”

Brielle shook her head. “No, my dreams were smashed to smithereens today. My life has completely fallen apart around me and there’s not a thing left to count on anymore.”

Alex’s dark eyes searched hers and he reached and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “I was always taught that when one door closes, a window opens.”

“There aren’t any doors or windows left.”

“Ouch.”

She sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t know why I bother anymore. Nothing’s ever good enough.”

The touched something inside the dark haired man and he shifted to his own back, mirroring her gaze at the ceiling. “I’ve been there many times in my life.”

“I just don’t know what to do to fix it.” She turned her head toward his. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” He hesitated, but something inside prompted him to continue, “You want to feel appreciated and wanted and I want to feel truly loved.”

“You aren’t loved?”

“Not on the level that I want.” He shook his head then caught her face in his gaze. “I’m loved for the wrong reasons by the wrong people. It’s hard to know who my real friends are and who the users and leeches are.”

“That must be tough.”

“It is.” Alex didn’t know why he was revealing this to her when he hardly even revealed it to himself, but there was something about her that made it feel safe to speak freely. “And most the time I get caught up in all the fakeness and end up used, abused and burnt.”

Brielle reached over and smoothed her fingers over the curve of his jaw, the hair from his beard tickling her finger. “Sometimes it’s nice to just forget all that.”

He reached up and caught her hand in his, bringing it to his mouth and placing a soft kiss to her palm before speaking again, “It really is.”

“I-” she hesitated and wet her bottom lip before continuing, “I know that we don’t know each other, but tonight has been the first night in a long, long time that I’ve really felt…alive, I guess you could say.” Her cheeks tinged and she slowly withdrew her hand from his grasp.

“Hey,” he reached out and caught it again, pulling it to his chest and holding it there, “I know how you feel and I think tonight has been one of the first nights in a long time that I’ve not worried about why someone seemed interested in me or what they could get out of the deal.”

“Just some good lovin’.” She chuckled low.

He drew her closer. “Some very good lovin’.” Alex couldn’t deny the physical attraction and electricity that crackled between them. There was an intensity and passion they had both felt during their intimate moments together and while he knew it was wrong, he found himself drawn to her more than he’d been drawn to his girlfriend. And now the vulnerability she had expressed that so mimicked his own was causing a need inside of him that at that moment could only be squelched with her warm body against his moving with his own; this time in a slow, hot, raw and smoldering kind of way.

“Mmm, are you wanting to go for a fourth?” She smoothed a hand over his side and met his gaze.

“Oh yeah,” his voice dropped an octave and he shifted her body over his own, “and then maybe a fifth. Who knows, play your cards right and we might even get a sixth before the night is through.”

Brielle lifted her head. “Ooh, you really think so?”

“I sure hope so.” He shifted and quickly flipped her to her back, rising above her. “But we’ll see how things go.”

~*~

“Alex? Alex, are you still there?”

Denise’s voice rang in his ear and he shook his head to clear the daze that had come over him. “Sorry, yes I’m still here.”

“So, you don’t know who this Brielle Madison is.”

“Um, actually…I do, Mom. I know exactly who she is.” He rubbed the back of his head, wondering how his mother knew about her, or she about his mom. He had been overly sure she had no idea who he was during their night together.

“I was afraid you would.” Denise sighed and he could just imagine the look on her face.

“What’s going on? Did she send you the message? What was it about?”

There was a pause before his mother spoke again, “Actually, a friend of hers sent it. She said that Brielle has no idea she contacted me, but she felt it was the right thing to do.”

Alex felt his heart start to beat a tad faster. “What…what’s going on?”

“Well, now mind you, we don’t know if this is true, or if she and this Brielle are even correct in their assumptions, but…” Denise paused again.

“Ma,” Alex felt like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff with the way his mother was building this up, “just tell me!”

“Brielle is pregnant, honey. And her friend, Lily, says the baby is yours.”

He blinked, feeling the blood draining from his face. “Uh…wh…wh…” the words wouldn’t come.

“Of course, this could just be someone trying to extort money from you, or just a wrong claim, but I thought it was something that should be brought to your attention. We’ll definitely have a DNA test done, if she’s really pregnant.”

But Alex couldn’t respond; his heart had slid right down to his toes, there was a loud pounding in his ears and he felt like he was about to throw up.

“Alex?” Denise’s voice came through the line. “Honey, are you okay?”

“I…I…I need to sit down.” He swallowed hard then started to sit right there on the floor, catching himself just in time to move to a stool.

“Oh, sweetheart, please don’t put any stake in this. I’m sure you’re not the father.”

“I um,” his pulse was racing so hard and fast it throbbed in his neck, “um…I…”

Denise was quiet for a moment. “We’ll get in touch with your lawyer and make sure this girl is indeed pregnant, first.”

“Mom…” he choked the words out.

But she didn’t appear to hear him. “Then if she really is, we’ll order a DNA test as soon as possible.”

Alex wiped a hand across his brow. “…Mom…”

“Of course, we’ll have to keep all this mum so the press doesn’t catch wind; that’s the la-”

“Mom!” He interrupted her, a frown creasing his brow.

“What?” She sounded surprised by the outburst. “What’s wrong?”

“I…I need to think a second, please just be quiet.” He rubbed his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

Denise fell silent and Alex leaned over the counter, his mind still reeling and his pulse racing in the vein in his neck. Was she really pregnant? How had she found him? They hadn’t exchanged numbers or even last names. This couldn’t really be happening to him, not now. What would Renee do when she found out? He glanced towards the back staircase, feeling his stomach do a twist at that thought. But this wasn’t something he could ignore. If he went about his business and tried then it could have great repercussions and who knows what might happen if the press found out; which he thought they might if he brushed it to the side. But if he faced it head on….well, he’d just gotten engaged and was planning a future with his fiancée.

“Alex…” Denise spoke hesitantly.

He ran a hand over his face and sat up fully. Somehow, he knew this wasn’t some hoax and something was telling him it wasn’t a ploy to take his money. He’d always told himself that when he did have children, he was going to be there for them every step of the way. He wasn’t going to be his own dead beat dad, who had taken off when he was a small boy, then after he became successful tried time after time to come back into his life. But Alex knew his game and hadn’t let him weasel his way back in.

“Um…I don’t think this girl is lying, Mom.” His mouth felt incredibly dry and he pushed from the stool and moved to the counter he’d set the coffee mug down on. Grabbing it up he poured himself some of the fresh, hot coffee.

“You think she’s really pregnant?”

“I do.”

“And it’s yours?”

He sighed and stared into the dark liquid inside his mug. “I…um…I think there’s a good chance it is.”

“But it might not be.”

“No, Mom, it might not be, but I think there’s a better chance that it is.” He frowned some at her attitude, knowing she was just trying to protect him and his reputation, but finding it slightly annoying all the same.

She sighed. “So, what are you going to do? You’re still going to do a test, right?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Probably, but I’m not going to go into the situation demanding one. I…” he wet his bottom lip, “I need to talk to her first.”

“Alright,” Denise relented. “I’ll email you this girl’s email and phone number right now. You can get in touch with her and she can connect you to Brielle.” A pause. “That is, if you don’t already have her phone number.”

“Thank you, Mom.” He ignored her last comment.

“You’re welcome, Son.”

He glanced toward the phone. “I’ll…call you later, okay?”

“You better. You better keep me updated on this.”

“I will.” He chuckled low and thanked her for calling then finally hung up. Shit. Was this really happening?

“Was that your mom?”

Alex whirled to find Renee sashaying in the room, her deep red, thigh length, silk robe belted loosely at the waist.

“Um…” He cleared his throat, wondering how much she had heard and praying that it wasn’t everything. “Yeah, she…called.”

Renee lifted a perfectly manicured, dark brow. “Imagine that. She must want something.” She stood on her toes and took down a mug from the cabinet, reaching for the coffee pot and pouring herself some of the hot beverage.

“No,” he took up his own mug again, “she was just calling to see how we were doing.”

“What’d you tell her?” Renee faced him, leaning back against the counter and bringing the porcelain mug to her full, rosy lips.

Alex shrugged. “That things were fine.”

“Just fine?”

“You know my mom. She doesn’t really care to hear all the details of our relationship.”

“Heh, specially considering she hates my guts,” Renee scoffed.

“She doesn’t hate your guts.”

Her manicured brow lifted again, those piercing green eyes narrowing some. “She sure as hell does. Today’s the first time you’ve talked to her in weeks.”

“She just thinks we’re rushing into things.” He set his mug down and pulled open a cabinet, searching through the food boxes for something appealing to eat.

Renee frowned. “Since when are you on her side? You don’t think we’re rushing things and I don’t think we’re rushing things.”

“Baby,” he pulled out a box of granola bars, “I didn’t say I agreed with her.”

“You act like you do.”

Alex blinked and watched her, caught off guard by her attitude. “How do I act like I do?”

“You’re defending her.” She waved a hand and frowned at him then set her mug roughly down on the counter.

He wasn’t sure where this reaction was coming from and was wondering if she might have overheard their conversation. That’s the last thing he needed at the moment. He wanted to talk to Brielle first and find out what was going on before admitting to his fiancée that he had been unfaithful and now might be fathering a child. All Hell was sure to break loose and she hadn’t flown off the handle yet so maybe she didn’t know what was going on. He hoped that was the case.

“Baby,” he moved over and took her hand in his, lifting it to his mouth and kissing her knuckles, “I’m not trying to defend my mother. I don’t think we’re moving too fast or making the wrong decisions.”

Her body relaxed as her bold green eyes met his sensitive brown orbs. “No?”

He shook his head then set the granola box down and smoothed his fingers through her silky ebony locks. “No.”

“Good.” A slight smile curled her pouty lips. “Me either.”

“Good.” Alex grinned then kissed her softly then once again before pulling back. “You know what I think you should do today?”

Renee tilted her head and smoothed a hand up over his bare chest to his shoulder. “Take you back upstairs with me?”

He chuckled low. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“Ooh,” she gently pushed him back from her some, their fingers still intertwined, “then what exactly did you have in mind?”

“I thought that I could take you out; we could have some lunch and maybe check out the boardwalk or do some shopping.”

Renee’s eyes lit up at that. “You know how much I love spending money.”

Alex chuckled then gave her thigh a pat. “Okay, go on upstairs and I’ll be up in a few. I have some emails I need to send first.”

“Okay, but don’t take too long.” She smoothed a hand down over his chest towards the waistband of his lounge pants. “There are a few ideas of my own I wanted to try out and it requires both of us and complete nakedness.”

“Ooh, I’ll try not to.” He gave her hand a squeeze then released her and watched her saunter from the room. With a sigh, he grabbed up his coffee mug. Sex was honestly the last thing on his mind at the moment. He’d just found out he might be having a child and the idea of being intimate and risking a chance of procreating once again was not something he wanted to gamble with. But he couldn’t swear off it completely; not only was it something he thoroughly enjoyed, but Renee would definitely know something was up. And he couldn’t have that.

With those thoughts on his mind, he started for his office. Maybe if he took long enough, she’d shower and get dressed without him. He could blame it on some important work emails or even phone calls and she’d be none the wiser. Renee really had no interest in his career or even anything dealing with his music. The first time one of his girlfriends hadn’t wanted to be involved in that department. Maybe that was one of the reasons he’d been so drawn to her in the first place; her blatant disinterest in the subject. Whatever the case, he hoped this would be a good cover for him and while she was showering alone, he’d be trying to figure out what his first move with Brielle should be. Oy Vey.