“Hardly. I expected that you would fall on your knees and beg my forgiveness for using me to cheat on your wife,” she raged at him.
In the silence that ensued, an ant’s sneeze could have been heard clearly.
Finally, after what seemed like endless minutes, Alec said slowly, “What do you mean?”
She glared wordlessly at him.
“I know you have a wife, okay? You should have told me that before taking me to bed and making me an adulteress.”
His eyes widened with surprise, their green depths impossibly brilliant as he stared at her in surprise. “I don’t know where you’ve been getting your information, but if you had bothered to consult Google, you would have known what the rest of the world knows: that Sophie Durante died five years ago.”
Her breath whooshed out of her in a rush as her eyes frantically searched his. The truth was written nakedly in his eyes.
“I don’t understand,” she began. “Olivia said”
“Olivia is responsible?” he interjected, his eyes hooded as he stepped closer to her, his long legs bringing her within a hair’s breadth of him. He was standing so close that his shirt grazed her blouse.
The very air crackled with electricity and tension. He hadn’t changed so much as his facial expression, but suddenly, there was this intensified, underlying aura of danger around him.
Caitríona swallowed nervously but stood her ground as she looked up into his eyes. “Olivia showed me your wedding pictures. She never mentioned that um, Sophie had died.”
“Look at me, Caitríona,” he said firmly, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “Sophie is dead; it’s been over five years now.”
She stared up into his eyes with the bone-deep certainty that he was saying the truth sweeping through her as she looked at him. Why had Olivia lied to her? What did she stand to gain? More importantly, where had he been that ugly day?
“Why did you leave me alone?” she asked now.
“I went to get breakfast. You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to wake you. Besides, I wasn’t gone long. In less than thirty minutes, I was back to see your note,” he said quietly. He didn’t say anything else, but she could see the question in his eyes. He wanted to know why she had left him that note.
Regretfully, Caitríona shook her head. “I felt used after she told me about your marriage. I was angry and hurt, and I guess I just wanted to save face.”
It was his turn to scan her eyes for truth, and apparently satisfied with what he saw in her gaze, he nodded.
“I must apologize for Olivia. She always has been rather possessive of me, I’m not sure why. Um, would you like to have dinner with me tonight?” he asked.
Caitríona stared up into his familiar green eyes and hid a grin. He’d always had a talent for saying one thing with his mouth and another with his lips. Even now, he was undressing her with nothing more than his eyes; he had that skill down to a science. She didn’t need a soothsayer to know that that was exactly what he was doing as he grinned lazily at her.
She knew now why it had hurt so much when she thought he’d betrayed her. She had fallen for him. He made her feel things no one else made her feel; he thought she was sexy and hot, even though she was worried about her weight. Lately, she had started to see herself through a fresh pair of eyes, thanks to him. When was the last time she worried about her thighs or her arms? She was perfect the way she was and she had only come to believe that because of this man.
Biting her lip, she looked down at her hands, wondering whether to tell him about the baby or not. She didn’t want to trap him in something he didn’t want any part of. Tremulously, she looked up at him and said quietly, “Yes Alec, I would like to have dinner with you.”
“Your place or mine?” he asked.
CHAPTER SIX
Caitríona was nervous, even though she hated to admit it. It wasn’t everyday one told a holiday fling that he was going to be her baby’s daddy. What if he thought she had been trying to trap him? What if he reacted nastily? What if he
The doorbell rang, cutting off her train of thought and she shot a panicked glance in the direction of the door.
Alec!
But he was early, she thought with a frown at the big clock in the hallway. They had agreed on 7pm and it was ten minutes until the time.
With shaking hands, she tugged her gown down, ran her fingers through her long, waist-length hair and dashed toward the door, almost tripping over her own feet in her haste.
She opened the door with a wide smile that promptly dimmed when she saw the five count them five happy faces on the other side of the door. Ciara, Sam and the kids, with Cindy in tow, all stood grinning at her from the other side of the door.
She looked at them, “Uh, what’s going on guys?”
“Aunt Cait!” the twins exclaimed, flinging themselves into her arms.
Everyone rushed in, smiling and laughing; well, everyone except Cindy that is. She strolled in slowly, looking this way and that, her nose upturned as though she had smelled something bad.
“Caitríona, honey, we thought we’d come spend this evening with you. Since you got back, you’ve been so moody and you’ve been keeping to yourself so much I thought we’d come cheer you up,” Ciara said, giving her a quick hug and a peck.
Sam also bestowed a kiss on her other cheek before chasing after the twins who had promptly disappeared in the direction of Caitríona’s bedroom with every intention of playing dress-up.
Caitríona grabbed her sister’s arm and hauled her closer. “I don’t suppose it occurred to you that including Cindy in the cheer-up committee was a bad idea.”
Ciara rolled her eyes. “Come on, Cindy wants to see you happy just as much as I do. She likes you.”
“Yeah right,” Caitríona said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
Ciara drew herself up to her full height. “She’s my best friend. I don’t care if you don’t like her, at least pretend to.”
“Then I’ll just watch what she does and do that, shall I? Because, trust me, Ciara, that rattlesnake doesn’t like you any more than she likes me,” Caitríona said.
Ciara’s face darkened with anger. “Sam? Get the girls, we’re leaving,” she yelled.
“Good idea,” Caitríona supplied.
The doorbell rang just then but before she could even head in that direction, the door opened and Alec strode in, “Babe?”
Silence fell as all three women turned as one to stare at him with varying expressions of surprise on their faces.
“Well hello, so many beautiful ladies in one place. What’s the occasion?” he asked with suave charm.
Cindy blushed and preened, Ciara automatically reached up a hand to straighten her hair and Caitríona resisted the urge to slap Cindy.
“They were just leaving,” she said.
“We were?” Ciara asked.
“Well, weren’t you?” Caitríona asked, glaring at her sister.
“Not on my account I hope?” Alec said, amusement clear in his husky voice.
Sam reappeared just then with a twin in either arm. It was remarkable how both girls had managed to paint lipstick on their eyebrows and cheeks in less than two seconds. The bright red and pink lipstick smeared every part of their little faces, making them look like Halloween celebrators.
Caitríona chuckled, “You do need to go home, Cici,” she told her sister, eyeing the devilish glint in the twins’ eyes. They apparently had more mischief up their sleeves.
With a nod, Ciara swept everyone out the door, barely giving Sam time to size up Alec and proffer a hard hand for his handshake.
When they were finally alone, Alec grinned down at her. “I missed you,” he said.
Then she was in his arms and he was kissing her; open-mouthed, intense kisses that made her toes curl as she wound her arms around his neck. Desire coursed through her as she clung to him, and in two seconds, she was wet. Alec always seemed to have that effect on her, she mused dimly. Just one to
uch and she was good and ready. How had she ever thought that she was over him, she wondered?
His hands trailed expertly down to her chest and slowly began to unbutton her blouse. Caitríona moaned into his mouth, almost light-headed with passion as he loved her with his lips.
“I can’t wait! I have missed this for more than two months,” he growled as he bent her over the back of a sofa and deftly raised her skirt.
Caitríona looked back at him over her shoulder, her heart in her eyes as he hurriedly unbuckled his fly. His gaze met hers and he leaned forward and took her lips in a slow, tender kiss as he slid into her pussy from behind, sheathing himself to the hilt in one deft move.
Caitríona gasped automatically as she wriggled her hips beneath his, moaning into his mouth as he began to rock against her, thrusting into her again and again and again.
His hand reached in front of her and began to squeeze her breast, kneading the swollen flesh tenderly as he made wild torrid love to her. His other hand reached in front of her and stroked her tiny nub of flesh rhythmically as moisture seeped onto his fingers.
Caitríona moaned, her breath thin and wild as she strained against his hand while his finger played with her clit and his large dick plowed into her from behind. She was losing her mind, she thought frantically, almost sobbing as he loved her.
“You are so wet, baby,” Alec crooned.
“Yes! Please!” she moaned, not even knowing what she was begging for.
He increased his tempo, fucking her faster, faster, harder until she was coming apart in his arms and screaming his name, bucking and undulating beneath his large powerful body with the force of her orgasm.
Caitríona drifted back to earth slowly, aware that Alec had stopped moving. Apparently, he had come too, she realized as he leaned forward and pecked her cheek lightly, before pulling out of her and sliding to the floor in the semblance of a dead faint.
Caitríona groaned, surprised to find her legs could barely support her. She slowly lowered herself onto the floor beside him and sprawled on his chest, her hair falling into her eyes as she strove to regain her breath.
“That was amazing,” he gasped, his hand coming up to hold her close to him.
Caitríona dropped a light kiss onto his chin, too winded to reply.
“You’re amazing,” he repeated, one large hand caressing her back as he held her tighter.
Caitríona murmured. “You’re not bad yourself.”
Alec chuckled and his hands tightened around her. She must have dozed off because about thirty minutes later, she dimly realized that someone was kissing her nipples, and biting them gently.
Still half-asleep, she murmured, “Alec, all this sex can’t be good for the baby.”
It was when he froze against her that she realized what she had said. Her eyes shot open in dismay and she stared up at him, her wide gray eyes clashing with his.
“Um, I didn’t mean ”
“Are you pregnant?” he asked.
Caitríona stared up into his green eyes. She should lie; she had to. She couldn’t bear to trap him for life, chaining him with a child he didn’t want.
She licked her lip, “Alec”
“The truth,” he said quietly. “Don’t I deserve that much at least?”
He was right, he did deserve to know he had fathered a child. She nodded.
His eyes searched hers, wide and disbelieving, while she nervously waited for his reaction. He was so busy conquering Wall Street, surely he wouldn’t want
For the third time in a row, Alec didn’t let her complete a train of thought. He leaned down and tenderly, reverently, kissed her.
Heat engulfed her anew and she squirmed in his arms.
“Marry me,” he said the moment he lifted his head.
“”You’re crazy,” she accused, even as she determinedly squashed the inexplicable rush of pleasure at his words.
“Yes. About you. Marry me.”
Caitríona shook her head stubbornly. “I can’t marry you just because you feel guilty about the baby.”
His green eyes blazed into hers for a minute then he dipped one hand into his jean pocket and produced a velvet box. He flicked it open with one hand to reveal a diamond ring nestled in the middle.
Her eyes widened.
“This was never about the baby, Caitríona. I came here tonight intending to ask you to be my wife because I love you. Please say you’ll marry me.”
Caitríona reached up and slowly pulled his head down to hers as she took his lips in a wild, tumultuous kiss of her own. This man drove her wild with lust every chance he got; it was time she did the same, she decided as she rolled, taking him with her and placing him beneath her body.
“I love you too and yes, I’ll marry you,” she vowed softly as she took him into her body again and began to show him just how much she loved him.
THE END
Babies for the Bear
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Chapter 1
Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.
Her eyes adjusted to the reflecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.
There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.
Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.
An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”
Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.
They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you hav
e a lot of visitors right now?”
“Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.
Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”
“’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.
“We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.
“That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”
Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.
“What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.
Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”
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