Nicholas (Members From Money Book 10)
Page 17
“I have never been with a man like that,” she whispered.
“I suspected,” he told her gently as he crouched before her. “I will try not to hurt you.” His body felt as if it was exploding! He wanted to explore every inch of her body. He did not care what happened after this, but he just wanted to feel her and be with her. He entered her a little bit at a time and felt her close around him tightly. He stopped and framed her face with his hands, a wry smile on his face. “I have never met anyone like you.” He pushed into her and tried to distract her with his words. “I am not used to someone like you and I find myself being surprised every time I talk to you or I am with you.” He pushed inside her without warning and she cried out sharply as he cleared the barrier, her body arched against his, arms clinging to him. He swallowed her cries inside his mouth. He waited for her to adjust to his erection and then he started moving inside her, slowly at first then increasing the pace as she moved with him. Kimberly dug her fingers into his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist, lifting her hips as the fire inside her refused to be quenched!
He felt the pressure building up and he knew he did not want it to end just now. He wanted to go on for the entire night and he did not want to be with anyone else but her. His thrust became desperate and he held her closer to him, his mouth soft on hers, their bodies moving together so in sync that they were almost as one, their souls touching and mingling, flying high on the desire that coursed through them.
They came together in a crescendo of music and she clung to him, the unfamiliar emotion lifting her body against his. He held her closer to him and called out her name, his body shuddering against hers. They were both swept away by the strange new feeling and the almost overwhelming wave that carried them along!
He kissed her eyes, her cheeks and her nose and then her mouth, his tongue venturing in and exploring. Kimberly was still trying to recover from the maelstrom still rocking her body with its force.
They held each other and she curled up against him and drifted off to sleep. He held her and stared off into the darkened room. He had thought it was just an attraction and maybe he could have her and then after he got married he would be able to look at it as a wonderful experience and remember it when he was in his loveless marriage. But it had become more than that, so much more. His body was hers and tonight had proven that. How could he go back from this? How was he to go into a loveless marriage after this intense emotion he shared with her? How could he stay away from her knowing that she held the most important part of him inside her? What the hell was he going to do?
She woke up and stirred against him, stretching languidly, her breath on his chest. “I want you to stay, please?” she murmured.
“I can’t leave,” he told her hoarsely. He bent his head and kissed her desperately, reaching between them and inserting his erection inside her.
She sighed and closed her arms around him, closing her eyes as he moved inside her again!
*****
He did not leave until late that afternoon because they had not left the bed until way past noon. He had woke her up with his mouth on her body exploring every inch of it and she had felt the passion unleashed inside her as his mouth wandered over her body.
“Want to go out for breakfast?“ he asked her gently. They had showered together and it had further delayed them. “Or lunch?”
“Hmm.” She wrapped her hands around his neck and standing on her toes she kissed him softly. “I guess,” she murmured. She stepped out of his arms and started dressing. She pulled on black leggings and a red sweater and knee-length boots. She twisted her thick hair into a bun and applied lipstick and eye shadow and she was ready.
They went to a pancake place out of town and had stacks of pancakes with whipped cream and coffee. “I don’t think I can move,” she said rubbing her hand over her tummy. “You should have stopped me, Peter.”
“I enjoyed seeing you gorge,” he told her in amusement. She had whipped cream on the side of her lips and he used his thumb to wipe it away.
They were so engrossed in each other that they did not notice someone watching them and then hurried away.
*****
“I thought you wanted to try this place,” Charles looked at her puzzled as she hurried back inside the car.
“Please drive,” she told him quietly, visibly shaken. John had gone to a meeting for the day and she had decided to take the chance to be with the man she was starting to fall in love with. And he had decided to take her to a little pancake place he knew that served this side of town. She knew her son had not come home last night and her husband had not said anything to her, but he never usually did.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked her as soon as they reached a little distance.
“We are kidding ourselves by being together like this.” She was near tears as she felt her world crumbling around her. She was having an affair and cheating on her husband and it does not matter that she kept telling herself that she was trapped in a loveless marriage, the fact remained that she was in a marriage and the commitment meant that she was in it until death. Seeing her son with that girl and the way they looked at each had triggered something inside her. He was basically in the same position as she was. He was not physically married to the girl that had been picked out for him, but they were bound together by a contract that was as strong as the marriage contract itself. Her poor son!
Charles stopped the car and turned to face her. “What happened back there?” He was ready to ask her to leave her husband and marry him, he knew it was not going to be easy to do but he would wait because he had fallen in love with her and he never expected to be getting a second chance at love. If she was in love with her husband, he would have walked away even though he felt this way.
“We have to be hiding, at least I have to be hiding because I happen to be married and I am bound to someone else.” She was not about to tell him about what she had seen at the pancake place.
“I know we did not sign up for this, Mits, it just happened and we could not help it.” He turned her to face him. “I am not losing you,” he told her gently but firmly.
She stared at him and bursting into tears, she went inside his arms.
*****
He finally went home in the late afternoon. He had wanted to stay so much, but he knew staying one more night was going to lead him to want to stay another and another. Neither of his parents were there and he was happy about that because he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He went straight up to his suite of rooms and stood at the window looking over the already darkened grounds. It was almost December, and he was not looking forward to it because he knew he wanted to spend it with her. He shuddered as he remembered her body underneath his! The explosion of desire and the way he had swelled inside her and the way she had closed around him like a well-fitting glove. His heart shuddered a little bit as he wondered if she was pregnant. It was something he had considered and thought about using protection, but he had swept the thought away. What if that happened? Would his father forgive him enough to allow him to marry her and hand the company over to him? Now he was not so sure the company meant anything to him anymore. He knew she meant more to him than anything else and he did not want to lose her!
*****
Kimberly stripped and pulled on her nightgown as she got ready to go to bed. She had never felt such an onslaught of emotions in her life and she knew her body was not going to feel the same way again!
Chapter 5
There was a discreet knock on the door of his bedroom and he frowned wondering who it could be. His father had gone on an overnight trip out of town and he had not seen his mother when he came in. The night air was chilly and they had thought it would have snowed for Christmas, but they had only gotten a few flurries. He had spent the evening with Kimberly and had driven home reluctantly. “Come in,” he called out briefly.
His mother came inside slowly and he looked at her in surprise. “Mother, a
re you okay?” he asked her formally.
She nodded and stood by the door her hands folded.
“Please sit,” he said politely, indicating one of the several sofas in the room. He had changed and showered and had pulled on a sweatpants and a t-shirt.
“I have not been inside your rooms since you were a teenager,” she smiled slightly, perching on the edge of the chair and looking around at the purely masculine and impersonal room. “You have not done much with it except removed the posters.”
“What is it, Mother?”
“I know you are unhappy with the arrangement your father has made for you.” She folded her hands inside her lap and stared down at them. “I never have a say about what happens in this house or in the business. I am regarded as a very decorative addition and I have come to live with it because it’s our tradition. I sense that you want more and you are struggling with it, maybe you have met someone and realized that what we believe is not all there is to life.”
Peter looked at her in surprise. For the entire time he had known his mother, she had never hugged him or told him that she loved him and had hardly spoken to him but had left everything to his father who ran the home like he ran his business, with an iron hand and he would never dreamed of going to her to confide and ask for advice. “You seem okay with the arrangement,” he said to her briefly.
“I have never known any other arrangement,” she said, looking at him closely. He looked more like her than he did his father, only taking his height. He was extremely handsome but very somber and looked unapproachable, except when she had seen him with that girl at the pancake place. “But there is still hope for you,” she told him.
“You make it sound like a death sentence.” His mouth twisted into a facsimile of a smile and he moved over to look out the window, noticing absently the wind blowing the bare twigs on the trees, giving them a ghostly appearance.
“Sometimes it feels that way,” she told him frankly.
“And yet you stayed,” he commented, turning to look at her.
“I stayed because I have parents who would disown me if I ever left and I stayed because I had a son to think about.”
He came over and sat on the seat opposite hers. He had never known she felt the way she did and he suddenly felt his heart going out to her. His father was not an easy man to live with and never shown the slightest hint of emotion and he provided for them but that was it. “You stayed because of me?”
“That was the biggest part of it,” she said with a smile. “I am duty bound to stay with him, Peter, but you have not taken the vows yet so there is still time for you.”
“Mother, what are you saying?” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her.
“I know the company means a lot to you because you have worked so hard since you were a little boy and he promised to hand the reign over to you, but there comes a time when you have to decide if it’s worth giving up something worthwhile for.”
“What do you think you know, Mother?” He was not willing to tell her about Kimberly, he was not comfortable with her that way. She was his mother and she was a stranger.
“I know your heart is not in it,” she told him sadly. “I don’t want you to end up like us in a loveless marriage because of tradition.”
“But you have money to spend any way you want to and you do not lack anything materially. You live in a big house with people at your beck and call and credit cards with unlimited money on them. Isn’t that worth it?” He had leaned forward in his seat and looked at her closely.
“What do you think?” She looked him squarely in the face.
“I think you would give it all up for love and happiness,” he said slowly. “So would I,” he said quietly.
*****
“I think he looks okay now, Marlene,” Kimberly said, looking at the little furry dog closely. He had been looking listless and not his usual vibrant self the other day, but she could see that he was coming around.
“I think he misses me a lot when I am away,” the woman said worriedly. “Don’t you, my baby?” She took her pet from Kimberly and kissed his wet nose fondly. “Thanks,” she told the girl with a smile before heading out.
“I think that woman needs to get herself a man,” Brian murmured as soon as the thin-looking woman exited the store.
“Keep your voice down!” Kimberly rebuked him mildly, trying not to encourage him. It was three in the afternoon and December was coming to a close with snow and rain intermittently. He was giving the cats their last meal for the day before the owners came to get them. He had told her that his girlfriend had left him the week before Christmas and he had been down ever since. Her mother had invited him over for dinner several evenings and he had been so grateful, he had cleared away the snow for her. “Maybe you can put that in your application now that you are single again,” she told him teasingly.
“Not my type,” he muttered, giving her a pained look before going off to empty and clean the bowls.
*****
He picked her up from the store that evening and loaded her bike into the back of his vehicle. Brian had left earlier, claiming that he was going to cook himself something and enjoy his single life with a glass of wine and some sports.
They picked up some Italian food on the way and he took the packages from her and went inside the house while she secured her bike in the store room.
“How about hot chocolate to warm us up first?” she suggested. She noticed that he was silent more than usual and he seemed preoccupied.
“Can we talk a little bit first?” he asked her quietly, leading the way to the sofa and taking off his suit jacket and spreading it over the back of the sofa. She sat opposite him, suspecting that he had something very important to say to her.
“What is it, Peter?”
“Have you heard about Kamato Holdings?”
She frowned and shook her head no. “Should I have?”
He mentioned the name of a supermarket and the department store she shopped sometimes. “We acquire defunct businesses and fix them up and put our people in them. Sometimes we allow the staff already there to stay.”
“You said we.” She looked at him curiously and put two and two together. “You are Kamato Holdings and you own supermarkets and stores all over the country?” She looked at him in shock. She had never put it together because she had never felt it mattered. She had thought he was in corporate and suspected he had money, but she also thought it was just a very well-placed position in a company, not this!
“My father built the company, expanding it from a supermarket his father owned when he brought them over from Japan. When he inherited it, he expanded, and now it is a billion dollar company.” He paused, his eyes on hers. “I am supposed to take over from him, but there is a condition attached: I have to marry a Japanese girl who has already been picked out for me.”
She sat there staring at him for so long that he wondered if he had lost her, wondered if he should have told her. He could have gone on as if everything was okay, but he was thinking that time was running out and he still did not know what to do.
“Say something,” he said urgently.
“You should have told me,” she said slowly, feeling as if her world was crashing down on her. She had never asked him about permanency, but she had taken it for granted that they would get there eventually.
“When?” He stood up when she did and watched as she moved away from him. “I met you when you almost injured me with your bike,” he said, smiling grimly. “I never expected to feel this way about you, Kimberly. I thought it was just something we would get out of our system, I never expected this.” His voice was pleading.
“I know.” She surprised him by answering that way. “I never thought this would evolve into something so intense, it took me by surprise. Have you met her?”
“Yes,” he said with a sad smile. “We had several chaperoned dinners at the house with her parents and mine.” He came over towards her and took her hands in his. “I was o
kay to marry her and take over from my father because I worked hard to reach there, but now I don’t think I can.”
She pulled her hands away from him and stared up at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that feeling the way I do about you I cannot marry someone else,” he told her frankly.
“You think I would allow you to give up a billion dollar company in order to be with me?” she asked him, her eyebrows raised.
“You would not be the one allowing me, Kimberly,” he said, his voice tight. “I cannot be with someone else and I really hope you are not implying that you are contented to be my mistress.”
“I am not the mistress type,” she told him loftily, rubbing her hands over her arms to ward off the sudden chill.
“I know that and I don’t want you to be my mistress.” He came and stood in front of her. “Tell me to leave you alone and I will try and do so as hard as it will be. I don’t want to hurt you, Kimberly.”
“I cannot tell you to leave me alone.” She went on her toes and framed his face, taking in the misery and the lost look in his expression. “I have never felt this way before and as long as we can be together then we will be. I am not going to tell you to leave the company that is rightfully yours so you can be with me, I cannot take that responsibility, but in the meantime I want to be with you.”
His body shuddered in relief and he lifted her into his arms and they went to the bedroom. “Thank you,” he told her hoarsely, pulling off the denim she had on and throwing it on the floor followed by the thick blue sweater she had on. He stood there looking at her in a black sheer bra and panties and he felt himself harden even more. He could never give her up for anything, but he did not want to think about it right now.
He took off his clothes and joined her on the bed. “I want you so badly that I cannot keep still.”