by Rena Manse
“I’m never leaving,” she whispered.
“Thought you’d be catching up on your beauty sleep. You’ve had a long day.”
Aaron’s voice gouged a deep scratch on her record and the vinyl screeched to a halt. Determined to play nice, she turned to smile at him. Her heart jumped. He’d not only sneaked up in bare feet, he stood there bare to the waist.
She took in dark silk pajama bottoms, then cast her eyes down the empty stretch of balcony, clearing her throat. “Do you enjoy creeping up on people?”
“I don’t creep, Miss McKenny. People aren’t aware of my presence.”
His words earned him an icy stare. “Right.” Word-master. “I would have heard you if you weren’t being careful.”
“Any mind can get distracted on a night like this.” His eyes roamed her thin, tacky t-shirt and boxer shorts. “Like now.”
She turned her back. Maybe he’d leave. The nerve of him coming out here. Without the threat of eyewitnesses, did he expect round two of their conversation from this afternoon? What he insinuated, what he accused her of, nothing coming out of his mouth would surprise her anymore.
“Speaking of distractions, your display earlier was certainly uncalled for.”
“My display?”
“Strutting down the stairs, flirting with the guests. May I remind you, you’re a hired hand in this house, not an honored guest.”
She swung around and glared. “You are prejudiced. The owner of Revealing. Who’d’ve thought?”
“What?”
“Prejudiced, biased, perverted sense of—of—high mindedness—whatever you want to call it. I knew it, but here comes the truth, charging right out of your own mouth.” She raked her eyes over him. Disgust rose like bile knowing she lived with a modern-day bigot. “You probably eat little children for lunch.”
“Why? Is it Wednesday?” His eyes cut even as he sneered. “You’ll have to educate me, prejudiced against…you? Miss McKenny, my thoughts of you are something far different altogether.”
Heat flooded her chest and cheeks while her arms chilled. Pushing past it, she wanted to rip at his calm as he’d just done to her. “Everything about you is cold, degrading, and controlling, with no regard for anyone else’s feelings because you’re too proud in your self-righteous zone to care. You can’t even see when someone’s trying to make an honest hard-earned living.
“I don’t care what your business title is, you’re the pinnacle of what a leader is not. Just a malicious, arrogant—” She cut the rant. Boss man here. “There was no display downstairs. No flirting. And it’s pretty impossible to forget I’m under your employment since you want to declare every two minutes that I’m nothing more than a piece of property for you to toss around.” She took a breath. “Shackle me under the stairs at night, why don’t you.”
“I’m the product of a mixed family background. We endured extreme social resistance and blue-color labor to get where we are today.”
She’d seen family photos. Maybe he thought dirt poor and wealth constituted a mixed family. “The way you treat me is a dead giveaway, Mr. Gilyard. You detest that a black person, below your pay grade, has the grace and fortitude to walk in upper society.”
Hard eyes narrowed.
She didn’t want to audibly scream “racist”, but she’d said it all the same. Waving her fingers at him, she wrinkled her nose. “Are you trying to forget we exist? Ignore the servant until there’s something you can’t scrape off the bottom of your shoe?”
“You’re telling me about myself?” The indignant slow rise of an eyebrow made her angrier. “My family doesn’t—”
“This isn’t about your family. I’m talking about the personal vendetta of Aaron Gilyard. You’d love to pretend you’re open-minded, but to have me living in your precious house, sharing your coveted balcony, no less, and not being placed under your thumb like some all-compliant servant, is a little too much for your inflated ego. With an attitude like—”
It wasn’t that he moved quickly, she just believed he would have stopped before he reached her. Out of breath from her verbal hemorrhage, she unevenly sucked in magnificent cologne-filled air while watching the wall stop a foot from her. Aaron’s arms strapped securely on either side, bracketing her into the balcony rail. Ashley comprehended rippling muscles, roped biceps, six pack, strong clavicle, chiseled pecks…
What kind of a desk workout created this?
“You were saying?”
“You’re joking.” Not hiding her snide attitude, she steeled her gaze back to his eyes. “Three seconds to let me go or I guarantee you’ll regret this move.”
Two men in her intimate space in one day—not as flattering as she’d believed. They took what they wanted. But she wouldn’t give up anything to Aaron. Certainly not because his closeness dared unique consequences should she choose not to shut up. Now.
His arms fell away. His insolent gaze roved her body again, their proximity making the glance downright obscene.
Her tired limbs didn’t take the opening though. It couldn’t be the wonderful cologne, the flower scented air, the warm summer breeze, or the memory of a great party. Just slide to the side, sweetheart, and go. Ashley curled her fists but remained. She didn’t know if staying proved she wouldn’t be intimidated, or if he did have a hold on her in some other way.
It wasn’t a soft smile on his lips, it was more like, he asked. The look stunned the scorch right out of her anger. This wasn’t a simple scare tactic. The man expected an intimate moment for real. She almost laughed. Count on Aaron to think he could throw her off with a cheap move, like she was some loose dame in a black and white movie.
Staying didn’t mean she agreed. No. Her prone stance and mute state didn’t count as consent to the question posed.
Her eyes took a slow tour down his neck to his chest. Her pulse raced at whatever a man like him would bring to the table. And curiosity for a tender Aaron, whose glances at times said he found her attractive, shoved its way to the surface.
Slow motion couldn’t have highlighted his moves any more. He lowered to eyelevel, studied her before she averted her eyes, then slowly leaned behind her ear and inhaled. Silenced by the action, she refused to believe she heard a raw growl. But her eyes closed after he braced his arms against the rail again, his lips over hers. Without touching. Without moving.
“Open your eyes.”
She didn’t obey—she reacted—feeling warm air, but unsure he’d even uttered the words not even the deathly silent night wanted to allow. When her lids flew open, she drew in a shallow breath. Lips, she could only imagine were pliable but firm, barely gained motion as Aaron’s breath alone carried the burden of the kiss.
From corner, over top, to corner. Warm and light, his slow caress lowered her defenses. She fought the inebriation of the seduction. Didn’t breathe, made a point not to move her lips, wanting to touch, starved to make contact, feel the force of what he kept out of reach.
Holding up further restraint she wasn’t sure would last, she denied the natural inclination to tilt her head when his slanted to the side. What is he doing to me?
His lips parted wider as if to take her. They leered when neither moved. Aaron lifted an eyebrow at her fortitude—or dumbfounded reaction—but looked pretty confident with his non-contact progress. She didn’t know if she was thankful or full of regret that he’d stopped.
He’d made her eat her words. She’d been seduced and rendered suggestible, not by him, but by the atmosphere of the night and this place.
Her eyes had a conversation with his pecs and clavicle as he straightened. Who could understand what she was going through? She’d liked the so-called kiss, but felt ashamed for receiving it. She hadn’t allowed Jonathan to kiss her that morning, and big boy here was the last person she wanted to be with.
“Ashley, I don’t attach myself to things I don’t find worthwhile. I doubt a bigot would want to go near those lips considering the things they just spewed.”
Sh
e cut her eyes at him, and he grinned.
“But, see, that mouth could be put to such better use…with practice.” The cold eyes returned. “If you haven’t noticed, my employees are good at what they do, that’s why I have them. So let me tell you one thing to keep you from making a further fool of yourself.
“I don’t care what color you are, just do the job and do it right. You cross me, you’re gone. And don’t kid yourself into thinking I haven’t been at the bottom, I didn’t get what I have because of a hand-me-down.”
She didn’t doubt the hard man hadn’t met with scrapes and bruises along the way.
“I don’t want to hear anything more about my attitude, my employees, or my business practices. You stay out of it. I find you sneaking around, or doing harm to Valerie, employment issues will be the least of your worries. Shall we go to bed?”
She scoffed. “We’re going to our own separate beds.”
His laugh humiliated her before he said a word. “Of course. Do you think because a man holds you for a moment he wants to hold you for the night? Hmm, I did say that you were worthwhile, didn’t I?”
“Actually, you said I was a thing.” Her tense jaw helped control her voice as he literally stared down his nose at her. “You said you wouldn’t attach yourself to things. You just blew your own worthless theory, ‘cause you never touched me.”
Grinning, he bowed close enough for just a scrap of paper to slide through. His defiant attitude gave her nothing but a whiff of expensive cologne and pure Aaron G. All of it said the same thing as his words. “Yes, I did.”
Aaron left the doors open. Vigilant, he listened to the sounds of the night, then, he set his back against the cool wall and folded his arms over his chest to wait.
He hadn’t touched her out there, yet he could smell her aroma of wild orchids.
“Let’s face it, if I wanted what you pretend to be so terrified to admit, I’d still be with Jade,” he’d told her as he backed up toward his room just now. “Though I’m not above being proven wrong, Miss McKenny.”
Her dropped jaw had been priceless.
“Pleasant dreams.”
He’d sure have pleasant dreams.
Ashley McKenny. There were no words to sum up the impudence of that woman. He’d toyed with it, found it fired back. Yeah, he’d caught enough of it this afternoon. Then, of course, there was tonight. Talking and laughing—in his company’s latest creation—on her second night here. Second. Acting like the lady of the house.
He couldn’t help but notice her moves, much to Jade’s disapproval. Whenever he spotted Ashley, she was smiling that perfect smile.
He liked her smile. Free, effortless, hinting at something underneath just begging to be seduced. There’d been no smile on the balcony, but he’d watched her mouth long enough to know what those lips were capable of doing.
Closing his eyes, he inhaled again, recalling how her body seized when he’d impounded her. Tension radiated off her like heat. She’d hated him taking control of her scheming play. Kissing her had fast become a necessity not an option. He’d wanted to put the pressure on and discover how those lips would please him, draw out whatever it was hinting beneath. He would—
A noise distracted him.
“Hmgh.” Aaron crossed the sitting area to the lonely king-size bed at the sound of Ashley’s balcony door aggressively sliding closed. Guess he wouldn’t have pleasant dreams after all. “Should’ve kissed her.” He flexed his shoulders before stretching out on the cool sheets to stare at the ceiling.
She hadn’t taken his bait. Wants to prove a point first. But the woman wasn’t afraid of him. He squinted in the dark. He could get used to her blunt fortitude, something to keep him occupied for a while. He smiled at the new challenge. Sandra’s job notwithstanding, he and Ashley could come to an understanding. As long as she didn’t drag Valerie into the company mess.
Aaron frowned and adjusted his head on the pillow. Valerie finding out wasn’t an option. He’d play Ashley’s game, to a point, then—What if there wasn’t a game? Closing his eyes, he pushed back the panic. What he wouldn’t give to know the truth. If he and Kavin didn’t figure this thing out soon, they were dead in the water, and no amount of supple brown skin, orchid scents, or tantalizing lips could relieve him of that worry.
All of his muscles clenched at the thought of what he had to lose.
Everything.
CHAPTER NINE
Ashley, anxious to escape the house early for Val’s doctor’s appointment, rejoiced to see Aaron’s car gone when they returned for breakfast. The man was geared up to spit insults, then primed and ready to sneak private moments in the dead of night.
Pleasant dreams indeed. Probably wanted her to dream about him. Well… Heat tunneled head to toe…yes, she had for the better part of the night, washing out healthy thoughts of Jonathan—but that was only because he’d supplanted himself in her head.
Stiffness in her thighs remained. The inactivity overnight doubled the awkwardness and made her want to confiscate Valerie’s wheelchair for the day. Sitting by the pool, sipping iced-tea wasn’t so bad though. One couple from England strolled through the garden, another woman in her sixties, sporting a thirty-year-old silicone body, mastered the breast stroke in the pool.
Valerie remained in high spirits since waking this morning, and worked on distracting Ashley from her discomfort.
“You and Jonathan made a handsome couple last night.” Val ate ham and eggs while Ashley worked on her oatmeal. “Do you two have anything planned over the next few days?”
Jonathan. Handsome, fun, charming, and he wanted to see her again. “He wants to go out on Friday, but I thought you might have plans.”
“I have tickets to the theater tomorrow night if you’d like to join me. I chose something interesting so you wouldn’t be bored easily. Ella will be joining us. She loves the theatre.”
Ashley checked on the former actress floating in the shallow water.
“But we already agreed you’re free on Fridays and Saturdays unless there’s something pressing. You need to be around people your own age. Enjoy your personal days.”
“Are you sure?”
“I said it, didn’t I? All work and no play? Look at me, I play all the time.” She chuckled sneakily. “I’ll be a busy bee on the weekends, maybe give the gardeners a run for their money. Don’t be so intent on not having fun.”
“It’s not that. I work for you. If I’m spending half my time doing my own thing, there’s no point in being here.”
“You’re on call twenty-four hours a day. Better to have insurance and not need it than to need it for a minute and not have it.”
Unless she was the wrong insurance.
“I hope you’re not feeling guilty about expensive gifts. Have you stopped to think about what you give me? Youth, activity, companionship, and a different point of view of life.”
“None of which can be bought.”
“I know what money can do. I gained wealth, and with the help of God, learned not to lose myself in the process. I’m the same girl I was in my youth, and that poor girl didn’t let money corrupt her.” Valerie smiled. “If I didn’t have riches, and I bought you a little summer dress and told you to go have fun, would you feel the same as you do now?”
She and Christine bought clothes and appliances for each other all the time. “No. But I have a job to do.”
“If I were just a job you wouldn’t be here. Don’t feel guilty because I’m buying you free time instead of a trinket.”
Ashley grunted and she shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
“That makes two of us. I know you’re young and need a social life.” Val charged on. “Now then, did you open your other presents?”
“I wore the white shoes last night.” She pictured the contents of the other boxes. “The metallic-sand party dress and sandals are perfect, and the black dress. But the other shoes are a bit tight.” Ashley lifted a leg and pointed und
er the table. “Wide feet. Do you still have the receipt?”
Val waved a hand. Of course there were no receipts. “There must have been a mix up. I’ll have Richard call the shop and tell them to expect you. You can make the exchange after lunch. That will give me more time to spend with my friends.” Val gasped.
Ashley reached out and took one of her hands, covertly sliding two fingers to feel the pulse on her wrist.
The older woman patted her chest. “Feeling the excitement from last night.”
“We both are, trust me on that. The doctor taking your blood this morning didn’t help, but today is a day to relax. Time with your friends is the only thing on your agenda, Val. Consider last night a treat.”
“Oh, wasn’t my party such fun? Friends I haven’t seen in years were there! It went beyond what I expected. So many people!”
“You’re well loved, Val, I could see that from the moment I met you.”
“I’ve lived a long life, dear. You tend to know everybody. When you reach my age everything is precious, especially family and friends.” She smiled, seemingly at memories years beyond last night. “Isn’t my Aaron precious for putting it together?” She looked overjoyed.
Ashley smiled but nowhere near mirroring a verbal compliment about him. He’d planned the party and monitored every step. Hands on, entertainment, follow up. Though he’d left the menu to Janet, he’d immersed himself in the project.
Ashley had dined at their table and witnessed the acts of a caring man first hand. With or without his girlfriend at his side, Aaron stayed close to Val for most of the night. He seemed attentive. And they talked. They said little things that would make each other laugh. Ashley had a good relationship with her mother, but she didn’t have what they had. Where had that Aaron gone when he came to the balcony?
Savoring a little time on her own to get to know the area, Ashley left the old friends to exchange her shoes. The SUV they’d used yesterday was a fully loaded monster, and she had fun driving it around. Unfortunately, getting lost downtown and not able to figure out the GPS, put a damper on things until she relied on her sense of direction to navigate home. She nearly rear-ended a dark green sports coup trying to figure out who owned the tease.