by Mary Peart
“Hmm,” Lorna drawled skeptically. “I have not spoken to you in a couple of days and I have not seen my god daughter in a week. I am beginning to have friend and god daughter withdrawal. I am also thinking that I am not good enough to be hanging around some people.”
“Cut it out,” Sophia told her mildly, a smile playing around her lips. “So how was the dinner date with Julian on Saturday?”
“It went so well that we ended up in his bed in his apartment and made love until the sun came up the next morning,” she said with a sigh. “I am paying for it now with all sorts of aches and pains from being in positions I have never being in all my life. The sex was amazing girl but the consequences not so hot. I had to get out of there in the middle of the day before he proved to himself and me that he is much more flexible than I am. That man has moves.”
“Okay, I definitely did not need so much information but I am happy to know it went so well.” Sophia said with a laugh. Her friend was a junior high school teacher and a pastry chef on the side and found it increasingly hard to settle down. “So when is the next date?”
“At his apartment later tonight.” She said with a sigh. “I am still recovering from the weekend but that brother has a dick that just does not quit! Even if this is just physical I am going to go for it because I have not had things to my body like that in forever and it has certainly woke me up. So with that aside how is my god daughter?”
“It amazes me how much you can switch gears.” Sophia said with a laugh. “She is fine and determined to have her own way. Her dad spoils her rotten and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. They just ignore me and team up against me, it’s frustrating.”
“Girl you hit the jackpot with that man and I have a feeling that’s the reason I am not finding a half decent man to settle down with. You took my share and several other sisters’ shares as well.” Lorna said in an aggrieved tone.
“I am sure there is someone out there for you,” Sophia told her. “You just have to keep looking. Who knows? It might just be Julian.”
“I strongly doubt it,” Lorna said dryly. “Anyway thanks for boosting my spirits. My lunch break is almost at an end and I need to get back to those persons whom their parents call children but does not behave one bit like their ages. See you later and kiss my baby for me.”
Sophia went back to the figures she had been studying with a smile on her face.
Chapter 2
Jeremy hated his life and the job he was forced to do. He had thought he had settled down when he was shipped off to Australia by that bastard Sophia had marry and he had made strides in the sales office he had been placed in. He had risen to the top sales representative status because he knew his job and because of his good looks but that had gotten him in trouble again. He had gotten another girl pregnant and this time it was no Sophia who had been prepared to let him walk out of her life without putting up a fight. This girl meant something in her community with her father being very wealthy and who doted on her, he was well and truly trapped.
“We are going to have to get married.” She had told him in no uncertain tone in her damned Australian drawl which grated on his nerves except when he was thrusting inside her and she was calling out his name. “Daddy will be so delighted.”
So now he was looking down the barrel of a shotgun wedding. Sheila had tricked him! He thought angrily. She had told him that she did not want children right now and was not interested into getting married just yet but was jut willing to have a good time and he had bought her act because she had no hesitation in spending her money on him. She was not half bad, certainly not a looker like Sophia but she had ample breasts and was up for anything between the sheets. Where she lacked in experience she made up for in enthusiasm and was a very apt student, willing to please.
He never intended to live in Australia for long but had decided he was going to stay there to appease the son of a bitch who had him by the balls and get the hell out of the country and hightail it back to America where he belonged before too long and now this! He banged his fist on the desk in his office and winced as the pain winged its way up to his already overloaded brain. Now he was going to be stuck in this dead end country with a wife he did not mind screwing but certainly had no love for and a kid he certainly did not want. But the father had already started planning the wedding and the mother was all a thither about her only child getting married and giving them a grandchild in one go. He clawed at the collar of his shirt and felt as if the tie he had chosen to wear was choking him; it felt like a damned noose.
He had stopped screwing her ever since she had told him she was pregnant although the damage had already been done but he could not bear to be with her knowing she had his kid inside her, it was quite a turn off. Last night she had cried begging him to make love to her because it had been two weeks since they had done it and she missed having him inside her. She had taken to sleeping at his little cottage since she had found out she was pregnant and aside from telling her to leave him the hell alone there was nothing he could do about it. He had told her he was just trying to protect the baby but she had told him that she had done her research and having sex with him was not going to hurt the baby, as a matter of fact it was required.
She had then proceeded to pull down his underwear and latched her lips onto his penis, sucking it inside her mouth enthusiastically. To his disgust his body had betrayed him and he had grown bigger inside her mouth, and very soon he was digging his fingers into her strawberry blonde hair and thrusting inside her, making those little animal cries that had her doing more. She had been very clever and had let go just as he was about to erupt inside her mouth and climbed on top of him, sinking down on him and had started moving frantically, closing around him tightly. He had let go and held her wide hips, pushing up inside her with no thought to her or the baby inside her but just seeking his own desperate release as he felt it rushing headlong through his body. He had come loudly, his body shuddering against hers and had not missed the triumphant smile on her lips. She had refused to leave him alone after that and had continued touching him rubbing her ample breasts on his chest until he had made love to her again and again, latching onto to her large nipples and sucking as if he was starving.
He felt as if his life was spinning out of control and he did not know what to do about it! In another three weeks he was going to be Mr. Sheila Copeland, because although he was the man in the relationship, he had no doubt he was going to be under the family’s thumb as soon as he married their daughter and he was no longer going to have a say about anything. He was thinking of a way of getting out of it without getting himself killed but so far he had not come up with anything yet. All he knew was that he had no intention of being saddled with a wife and child and a mother and father who doted on their only daughter. He needed to get out.
*****
“Why are you selling?” Christopher asked her curiously. It was a modern day bread and breakfast and although Tang Holdings had feelers out about something like it, he had no idea this one was on the market until the owner had called and asked that he come and have a look at it. The owner was Dahlia Grooves, a voluptuous brunette with a very white complexion and who had lost her husband in a car crash a year ago, leaving her with the business and a three year old son to take care of.
“I am tired of getting up at four a.m. every morning and having to take care of my son.” She shrugged. She brushed past Christopher and her perfume tickled his nose. She had her dark hair pinned on top of her head and it exposed her very long white neck, making her look like a swan. There was a fire blazing in the hearth and she invited him to sit while she poured tea for them. She had told them when she called that she would talk to the owner of the company and no one else. “Do you have children Christopher?” she asked him in her lilting voice as she passed the cup to him.
He nodded automatically. “A daughter,” he told her briefly settling back against the sofa and looking around the place. It was very cozy in spite of
it being so modern. “She is my delight.”
“Brandon is a handful but I would not trade him for anything.” She told him with a sigh. “I miss having his father around so much and this place is too much of a reminder of him.” She looked at him quizzically. “Do you know what I mean?” she had large dark eyes that drew you in and held your gaze.
He nodded. “If something happened to my wife I would not be able to function.”
“Ah the power of love.” Dahlia said with a nod. She looked at him speculatively and wished he was not married, he would make a perfect replacement for her husband, bless his soul. “Want to see the rest of the place?”
She showed him the different rooms and bathrooms even the ones she had shared with her husband and her son’s room filled with all his toys still scattered around. “Don’t you want a son?” she asked him softly as they stood there looking at the toys and little boy’s paraphernalia scattered all around the room.
“In due time,” he had not realized that she had been so near to him, that she was almost touching him. He started to move away when he saw the glint of tears in her dark eyes.
“I am sorry.” She whispered burying her head in her hands and started to sob. He stood there uncertain for a minute then he held her to him. She sagged into his arms and rested her head on his chest and cried all the more. She stepped out of his arms after a while. “I am so sorry,” she whispered, rubbing her hands against her cheeks. “I have gotten you all wet with my tears.” She looked at the front of his shirt and he looked down and saw the patched there.
“It’s okay,” he told her. “Are you all right?” he suddenly felt as if he had cheated on his wife and he needed to get out fast.
“I am, thank you,” she touched his hand briefly and moved downstairs as soon as she heard a voice in the hallway. “That sounds like my Brandon.”
She introduced him to her son and the sitter and he watched as the child chattered on excitedly about the things they had seen on their way back from the store. It was then he felt the longing inside him. He had told Sophia that he was quite fine with just Christine but he realize that he wanted a child that came from him, he wanted a son to carry on his name, he wanted a son who would play basketball with him or any game he chose, he wanted what Dahlia had.
“He is such a delight,” she murmured as she watched him looking at her son, a smile curving her lips. “So what do you think about this place?”
“I think we might be interested.” He told her and his eyes caught hers for an instant and he felt something, and then he dismissed it forcibly from him. It was just sympathy for a widow and her young son and nothing more.
*****
“So how was it?” Sophia asked him that night while they were getting ready for bed. She had reached home before him and had put Christine to bed this time before he came home. He had told her he had a meeting and would be home late so she had gotten their daughter ready for bed and had taken a shower.
“What?” he looked at her broodingly. She had put on a red silk nightgown that looked great against her complexion and had wrapped her thick black hair on top of her head. Her face was scrubbed of all makeup and she looked like a sexy teenager.
“The place you went to look at that I could not have gone to take a look at myself?” she asked him teasingly. “How was it?”
“It is something we can think about acquiring,” he told her brusquely heading for the bathroom. She looked after him, frowning and wondered what was bothering him. Usually he would be sharing with her about things like that but now he was being evasive. She waited until he came back out with his dark hair damp from the shower and the water still on his muscled body. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and he looked enticing enough to eat.
“Are you okay?” she asked him softly as he removed the towel and reached for his pajama bottom. He did not normally sleep in anything and the only reason she put on a nightgown was because he sometimes like the challenge of sucking her nipples through the material and taking it off her.
“Why?” he asked her climbing into bed.
“Because you have not touched me since you came home, you are not talking to me and you have on pajamas in bed,” she pointed out.
“I am just tired Sophia, it’s been a long day.” He told her brusquely.
“That has never been an issue before,” she told him, a flicker of alarm going through her. He looked so cold and distant.
“I need to get some sleep. I suggest you do the same.” He reached out and turned off the light beside his bed.
He turned on his side and pulled the sheets over him leaving her there staring at his back. He always slept with his arms around her no matter what and they had never gone to bed without him touching her in some way. Even when she was having her period and she was experiencing some sort of cramps, he would rub her stomach and they would end up necking and him pulling on her nipples causing some explosion inside them. He had told her it was impossible for him not to touch her and she had believed him until now.
Why was he behaving like this? What had happened to him when he had gone to the bed and breakfast place? Had he met someone there? No! She cried inside her head. He loved her unconditionally and he had proven that over and over again so that could never be it. Suddenly all the uncertainties and the doubts she had about not being able to get pregnant came rushing back at her. What if he had finally seen it for himself? She was not able to give him a child so he was having massive regrets about marrying her. What was she going to do and what if she could not give him a child? Would he leave her?
She spent part of the night torturing herself.
*****
She had already left by the time he had woken up. He had not been able to sleep and had heard her beside him not sleeping as well but he had been too buried in his own thoughts to deal with her. He had betrayed her somewhat by taking Dahlia into his arms and felt the longing for a son inside him. He thought she was in the kitchen or was in Christine’s room but Lindsey said she had left half an hour ago. It was not yet seven o’clock and they always left together unless he was out of town. He kissed his daughter and left for the office.
The place was not its usual hive of activity because it was way too early and he nodded briefly to the security at the front and went up. Her assistant was not yet in and he saw her door partially open and her dark head bent over her notepad. She had put on a dark blue wool pants suit and her thick hair was in one big plait and pinned intricately at the side of her head. She did not look her usual serene self and he knew he was to be blamed for that. “You left without waking me up,” he said from the doorway. He saw when she stiffened and schooled her expression before looking up at him.
“I did not want to wake you,” she told him coolly.
He came further inside the room and stood in front of her desk. “You always did before,” he said softly.
“What can I do for you Christopher? I wanted to have a conversation with you last night and you practically told me to shut up and now you want to talk?” her voice was icy and he felt a shiver because she had never spoken to him like that before.
“I am sorry baby; I was out of it last night.” He apologized.
“Why, because of the widow Dahlia and her son Brandon?” she asked him coolly. He saw the flaring of her dark eyes and he felt the tremor of her heart. She had brought up the place as soon as she came in this morning and read up everything on the bed and breakfast and had seen the picture of the woman – she was beautiful, hauntingly so and her husband and been drawn to her when she was pregnant with another man’s child. What’s to stop him from being attracted to a woman who had a son when he did not have one for himself.
“It was a business visit,” he told her stiffly, offended that she had checked up on him but admiring her for doing what he would have done.
“Of course it was.” She moved from around her desk and came and stood in front of him. The suit she had on was new and classy and obviously expensive and fit
ted her as if it had been made especially for her. There was a hint of cleavage and the material molded her ample breasts as if they were gloves. She was wearing gold knobs at her lobes and a slim gold necklace around her neck and a tastefully expensive watch on her left wrist. She looked utterly and completely confident and unbelievably beautiful.
“I am going to tell you something and it’s up to you if you consider it a warning or not. I am in love with you and we have a family together. I am never going to stand aside and let anyone, no matter who it is come in and break up my family. I will fight for that Christopher and I am prepared to fight dirty. If I get the slightest inkling that you have an itch for another woman I am going to deal with it in my way. Do I make myself clear?”
He stood there staring at her. The petite dynamo he had fallen in love with and married. He nodded and still stood there uncertainly as if he was expected to say something else.
“I have work to do,” she told him coolly going back around her desk. She watched him as he reached the door. “And Christopher, I don’t appreciate you turning your back to me again when we are in bed, I will not tolerate it.”
He hesitated and turned to look at her keenly as if seeing her for the first time. “It won’t,” he told her briefly and left, closing the door behind him.
Sophia sagged against her chair and closed her eyes wearily. She had spent the night telling herself over and over again that she was not going to lose her husband but it had not worked and she had got up this morning and fled the apartment and had turned on her computer to look up the place and specifically to look at the woman’s picture and had felt the sword of despair digging inside her heart. She had stared at the woman’s milk white skin and her raven hair and her rosy red lips and had almost cried out in hopelessness. She was aware of how handsome and appealing her husband was and how he would come across as extremely attractive to other women and she had wanted to cry but then she had stiffened her spine and made up her mind that come hell or high water, no woman was going to take him away from her and Christine. He had married her and had told her time and again how much he loved her and she was going to take him at his word.