Page 4 of Forever His (The Donovans: Secret Son #6)

He would have been afraid his son was going to bolt right out the window if he hadn’t been fastened into his seatbelt. Still, Trent thought, there was no need in taking chances. He kept his hand on Trevor as the little boy settled down, for a much as a first grader who loved to fly could.

“Look daddy, look at the houses turning small,” Trevor told him.

Trent leaned over then and chuckled. “Yes. The higher we get the smaller the houses seem. Soon we won’t see them at all.”

“’Cause we’ll be up in the clouds. Up. Up. And away!” Trevor continued.

There was a toy plane in his son’s lap and two more packed in his suitcase.

At home, Tia had decorated Trevor’s bedroom in an aerial theme with great pictures of some of the first airplanes that were built.

While Trent had taken Trevor to visit the Aerospace Museum in California, when he’d been away on a business trip, Tia had taken their son to the National Aerospace Museum in Washington D.C.

And each night when Trevor insisted on sleeping with one or more of his toy airplanes, Tia was the one to talk him out of it, without too much fuss.

With Trent, there was always a negotiating war that took place, one in which Trent usually ended up promising Trevor some sort of treat in the morning if he left the airplanes in the toy chest where they belonged.

She was a great mother. There was no question about that.

So why had Trent been thinking non-stop for the last week about Tia’s request to have another baby?

Maybe because Tia had been talking about ovulation and fertility and baby names every day of the past week.

It had been stressful to say the least. Trent had always been a very virile man.

He loved sex and enjoyed having sex with his wife even more.

Over the years that they’d been together and had come to learn what each other liked, Trent even enjoyed the times when Tia would just “take it” as he’d often told her.

Those spontaneous times she would simply climb on top of him and ride him into pure sexual abyss were some of the best sexual moments they’d ever shared.

When she’d begun working on the lingerie line with Camille, those spontaneous moments had increased.

Just yesterday when he returned from wrapping up a case with one of his more high-profile clients, Tia had shown him the ovulation calendar app that she’d downloaded on her phone. He hadn’t known how to respond.

A bell dinged and the pilot announced that it was safe to get out of their seats. Trevor immediately released his seatbelt and jumped up. He went to the bigger window towards the front of the plane to look out. Potter, who wasn’t a big a fan of flying, moved over to sit beside Trevor.

“He loves this,” Tia said. “We should make time to take him more places by plane. Captain Rayner said he could spend some time with him in the cockpit when we land. I think he’ll love that.”

Trent nodded. “Yeah. He will.”

“Is everything alright?” she asked as she undid her own seatbelt and stood.

Trent watched her walk to the bar. She leaned over to open the mini-refrigerator and pulled out a bottled water.

He watched the curve of her bottom in the fitted white pants and smiled appreciatively at the yellow top that wrapped seductively around her breasts when she turned around to ask him if he wanted one.

“No. Thanks. I think I’ll have something stronger,” he said.

Trent unfastened his seatbelt as well and went to see if there was a beer in the refrigerator.

“This one is okay, but I think we should both cut down on the alcohol,” she told him.

“Right,” Trent said and opened the bottle of beer to take a long drink.

In two more gulps he’d emptied the bottle and wanted another.

Lucky for him, Trevor called Tia away at that moment.

He took out another beer and kept his back turned to her as he drank this one a little more slowly, and tried desperately not to think about making another baby with his wife.

One week later

Las Vegas

The Gramercy I was a phenomenal hotel. So was The Gramercy II in St. Michael’s, Maryland, but the Vegas location was the flagship as was noted by the luxurious décor and stately ambiance that greeted guests as soon as they walked through the doors.

With a world class smoking and non-smoking casino, and upscale shopping, the hotel was almost always completely booked.

The restaurants had received starred reviews and now hosted one of the nation’s top chefs and television personalities.

The hotel had been doing so well Linc was toying with the idea of taking it international, or at least he had been considering that before the past year’s events.

Now that their parents’ house was gone, Trent wasn’t certain what his brother was going to do regarding the business.

He was meeting up with Trent and Adam tonight for dinner, so he’d ask then, but he was almost positive he already knew what Linc was going to say.

Nobody wanted to do anything but put Roslyn and Jaydon behind bars.

“There’s my baby boy!” Beverly cooed when she opened the door and immediately bent down to scope Trevor up into her arms.

Trent and Tia both smiled as they waited for Beverly to walk into the penthouse so they could follow.

“Hi, Mom,” Trent said when his mother was still hugging Trevor tightly and kissing him on the cheek.

Trevor was a champ, he took all the kisses and wrapped his little arms around his grandmother’s neck, giving her all the affection she needed, as if the little boy knew specifically what Beverly was going through.

“Hello, Trenton,” Beverly said and offered her cheek for Trent to kiss.

He did obligingly and continued further into the living room area. Tia had already spoken to Beverly and walked ahead of Trent into the room where Henry was seated. Trent watched as his wife hugged and kissed his father.

“Hey, Dad,” Trent said and went to his father to shake his hand.

It didn’t matter what was going on, Trent had been raised to respect his father.

He wasn’t going to stop just because his father had broken his own rules.

It had taken him a couple of weeks to come to terms with what Henry had done, but eventually Trent had concluded that there was really nothing he could do to change the past. Besides, he figured his father was now reaping what he had sown bigtime.

Nothing Trent could say or do would change that.

“Trent. It’s good to see you, son. Good to see you and my beautiful daughter-in-law,” Henry said as he took his seat again.

He sounded old and looked tired, Trent thought. Dressed in beige slacks and a white dress shirt, Trent noted the slight slouch in his father’s shoulders as the older Donovan attempted a smile. That was for Trevor who had finally been put on the floor and came running to greet his Papa.

“Boy oh boy, you’re getting to be a big fella,” Henry told Trevor when he was sitting on his lap.

“That’s ‘cause I eat all the green stuff like mama tells me,” Trevor replied.

Tia and Beverly chuckled. “That’s a good boy. Your father never liked the green stuff. Always wanted the meat and potatoes.”

“And I still grew up to be big and strong,” Trent replied.

“That you did, and handsome too,” Beverly said as she moved closer to Trent and touched her palm to his cheek.

“As old as he is and still spoiled rotten,” Tia quipped and shook her head at her husband.

She’d sat on the ivory colored couch and crossed her legs while watching Trent with his mother. Trent helped his mother take a seat in the chair across from Tia, while Henry still sat in another chair holding Trevor. They were all smiling, all pretending—Trent didn’t have the patience for that.

“So what have you decided to do about the house?” he asked his parents.

Beverly shook her head and Henry continued to play with the plane that Trevor was showing him.

“Linc says the insurance investigation is complete. Not that you needed the money or anything, but you can move forward now,” he continued.

“Move forward,” Beverly said. “Yes. That’s what we’ll do.”

Her words sounded hollow and Trent almost cursed.

His mother was a vivacious and spirited woman.

She was still gorgeous even with her head full of snowy white hair that was professionally styled.

Today she wore gray slacks and a black blouse, diamond studs sparkled at her ears and on her ring finger, black leather shoes on her feet.

She was the epitome of style and grace and she was as unhappy as Trent had ever seen her before. He looked directly to Henry for that.

“You can’t live in this hotel forever,” Trent replied.

Henry shook his head but he did not look up at Trent.

“No we cannot,” Henry said. “I think we’ll rebuild. Something a little smaller and on the shore. Your mother loves to watch the sunset over the water. Don’t you, Bev?”

Beverly did not look at Henry.

“I do love the water. When I was younger my father had a vacation house at Tiki Beach in Galveston. My sisters and I loved going down there. They liked to swim with the waves but I just lay out on my towel and watched the sun shining over the water and later in the day I’d sit on the balcony of the house and watch the sunset.

I loved it,” Beverly said nostalgia clearly washing over her as her eyes glazed and she continued to smile.

“We don’t have to stay in Vegas. You boys are grown now,” Henry continued.

He was flying the plane over Trevor’s head, making his grandson laugh.

“What about the company? If you leave Vegas, who’s going to run Donovan Oilwell on the west coast?” Trent asked.