“Yes, Samantha.”
“I’m sorry Marla stole your weekend,” she starts.
Connor lets out a big sigh. “Thanks. I’m pretty used to it. The reason she chose this weekend is exactly because I haven’t seen Arabella in a month.”
“Why didn’t you say no?”
Connor’s face turns serious. “I try to pick my battles with Marla. She’s been more and more difficult since we divorced. Well, I guess since we met, really.”
“She seems…” Samantha pauses to choose her words carefully.
“Speak openly, Samantha. Don’t hold back with me. Ever,” he commands in a way that makes Samantha’s heartbeat pickup up the pace.
The corner of Samantha’s mouth pulls up with the turn-on. She wants to say, All I do is hold back with you! but instead says, “She seems crazy.”
Connor exhales hard, and after a moment he says, “She is. I’m sorry for that.”
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
“Margaret told me that she’s been notably rude to you. I didn’t see anything this afternoon, but I definitely know how awful she can be. She feels threatened by you.”
“Why? I’ve been Arabella’s nanny for a month. Arabella loves her very much!”
Connor leans back in his chair and eyes Samantha like a delicious dessert waiting to be eaten. “It’s not because of Arabella.”
Samantha’s cheeks and chest blossom red, and she turns her eyes towards the floor with a shy smile.
“Well, luckily I’m pretty familiar with crazy. She acts a lot like my dad. He is both charming and an unstable asshole.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Connor scoots forward in his chair a little, and their knees are only an inch apart now.
“It is what it is. I’m a stronger person because of it. But, this isn’t actually why I came in to talk to you.”
“Oh?”
“Traffic back to the city is going to be a nightmare. Would you be OK with me staying the night and heading back in the morning?”
“Why do you need to head back at all?”
Samantha smiles.
Connor continues, “Of course, you’re free to go, but this estate is also a great getaway. You could go riding, walk along the river, spend some time in the hot tub. I keep a massage therapist on-call who you’re welcome to use.”
“I wouldn’t want to be in your way,” Samantha offers.
“You could never be in my way,” Connor says more earnestly than he expected. “Anyway, I blocked off the whole weekend to be with Arabella. I could use this time to do more work, or…” he looks at her suggestively and continues, “Or, you could save me from myself.”
“All work and no play makes Connor a dull boy,” she says as she crosses her legs, leans back in her seat, and places her hands slowly on the arms of the chair.
Connor looks at her with delighted surprise. “Oh really? And we wouldn’t want that.”
Samantha shakes her head slowly in agreement, and then stands up, her body stretching out close to Connor’s face. She hears him take a long inhale of her scent.
He asks, “And where are you off to now?”
“I think we should take a ride, don’t you?”
At this, Connor looks mildly shocked.
“A horse ride,” she winks at him. “Meet you down at the stables in half an hour?”
He agrees and Samantha heads for the door.
“And, Samantha,” he says more in his employer voice.
“Yes, sir,” she says with a twirl back towards him.
“Wear a skirt.”
“For horseback riding?”
“Yes.”
Samantha is puzzled, but she nods her head and curtseys playfully.
At 5 PM they are standing in front of a large stable, with the stable boy handing them reigns to two beasts made of pure muscle.
Samantha takes hold of the saddle, left foot into the stirrup, and swings her body up onto the horse, her little black skirt fluttering up in the breeze, red panties flashing just long enough for Connor to get a good look.
Samantha can feel the heat of Connor’s gaze on her. She finally turns to look at him, and he’s on his own horse, broad shoulders looking more powerful than ever. Her thighs instinctively tighten around the horse a bit. She waits for him to lead them out into the trees.
“Do you want to go the easy way or the fun way?”
Samantha thinks for a moment, “Is the fun way the hard way?”
“It might get a little hard,” he says laying the innuendo out in plain daylight.
Samantha raises one eyebrow, and before she can answer, Connor rides off in front of her. “Hey! I didn’t answer,” she calls after him.
“No need. You obviously like it a little rough.”
Her heartbeat picks up.
CHAPTER SIX
Connor leads them in a loop around the property, and they talk the whole time. Her childhood alone with her mom, what it was like to watch her mom struggle to keep a roof over their heads, how hard she’d worked to go to college, the heartbreak of losing her mother two years ago. Many of these details are things they have in common, and it feels so easy understanding each other like this.
Connor feels his heart wanting to tug closer and closer to Samantha. Her drive, her ambition yet humility, her easy sense of humor are all things he had looked for in a woman before he’d casually gotten involved with Marla. Marla had somehow gotten pregnant within the first few weeks of their relationship, and he’d decided to make it work because, as always, he wanted to do the right thing. He’d almost forgotten about what he’d been looking for before having to manage so much unpredictable behavior. At moments in their conversation, Connor is so absorbed in what she is saying that he almost forgets how lovely she looks astride her horse. Her thick hair glowing red and gold in the sun, and her bare thighs looking smooth as silk. He longs to run his fingers over all of her.
He chose this route for one reason: the hills. The last part of the journey before returning to the stable takes them up and down several small hills. As they approach the first one, they both lean forward to stay more comfortable on the horses. Within a minute, Samantha has a small smirk growing on her face. He feels a growing excitement. Connor wants to watch every little detail of her face now.
“How’s the ride?” he asks playfully.
Samantha bites her lip a little and turns to look at him directly. “This is why you brought us this way, isn’t it? This is why--” her breath catches in her chest for a moment and she then exhales through her open mouth with a little laugh.
“This is why I told you to wear a skirt? Yes, yes it is,” he says slowly as if teasing her. “You have to lean forward to ride up hills, which means the saddle rubs in just the right place. Every step the horse takes is just a little bit more—“
“Torture,” she completes his sentence, then draws in another deep breath.
He smiles and holds her gaze for a long moment before answering, “Indeed.”
On the second hill, Samantha’s breathing starts to speed up a little. He imagines her in his bed, holding her head in his hands, looking down into her eyes, never wanting to look away. He loves the sounds of her arousal. His body feels on fire, the throbbing in his own groin is only encouraged by the motions of riding.
“I only discovered this little trick last month, you know.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It was the day after the SpaceMark party,” he says with a satisfied look. “I ride out here pretty often, but this time my mind had wandered to a beautiful little thing I’d helped with a stained dress the night before.”
Samantha smiles playfully at him but lets out a little moan when the horse stumbles slightly. Connor sees her thighs tighten with the moan, and it takes his heartbeat from a brisk jog to a run.
“Shall I continue?”
Samantha takes a deep breath and says, “Yes...please.”
That please, small and eager, makes him a mix of naughty
desire and daddy wanting to protect his little girl. He remembers his thoughts on the plane home from Hong Kong, how he’d resolved himself to keep things professional with Samantha, who is his daughter’s nanny after all. But, the moment he’d laid eyes on her, swinging Arabella around on the back lawn, golden grass stuck in her hair, the sun behind her, revealing the shape of her body through her thin dress, he’d lost the battle with himself.
He wants her, desperately, but it is more than that. She isn’t just beautiful or intriguing. Being in her presence makes him feel at peace with the world; like nothing could truly go wrong as long as he is with her. Something about her, from that first moment at the party when he ran off that asshole who mocked the mess he’d made of her dress--he’s never felt this way before. Samantha has made it through so much hardship, and it’s made her strong, but somehow all this just makes him, even more, want to be her protector, her shining knight.
As the horses see the stable over the final hill, they pick up their pace. Connor’s focus comes back to Samantha, to the fact that they’re almost home, to the reality that she is spending the night three doors down from his bedroom. He can hear her trying to control her breathing. She is teetering on the edge of bliss but then the landscape levels out. The hills are gone, and she is sitting up straight again. Beautifully frustrated and slowing her breath back to normal.
At the stable, he dismounts and then takes her by the waist to help her down. She is so small between his hands. Back on solid ground, they stand face to face for a minute, breathing in the sunset air in unison. He never wants to let her go. He thinks he sees in her face that for her, too, everything has changed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
After dinner, they sip brandy in the library, and Samantha’s cheeks glow rosy with the alcohol. She relaxes enough to talk for a long time about all sorts of things, eventually ending up on the topic of career and how she came to be Arabella’s nanny.
“I’ve had the same goals for four years. I went to university knowing what I wanted: to lead the advertising department of a major brand. Everything I did in the school built towards that. I worked so hard, and I’m good. It may not seem that way since I’m here, being a nanny, but I really am good!”
“Oh, I’m sure you are,” Connor says with full sincerity.
“But, when I got out of school and moved out here to finally make it happen, well...” she takes a sip of her drink, “well, nothing happened. If it hadn’t been for Cheri, I’d be back in my tiny town, probably following in my mother’s footsteps.”
“That could never happen,” Connor says with total confidence.
“You never know.”
“I do know. There are few things I know like the back of my hand: swimming, Arabella, how to make an excellent breakfast, and business.”
“Breakfast, huh?” Samantha arches an eyebrow.
“That’s right. You haven’t lived until you’ve had my Swiss soufflé,” he says with a grin. “But business, that’s the one I know the best. I’ve always had a sense for it. And you have the sense too. I can see it in you. You’re driven and focused in a way most MBAs would kill to be. You have the instinct.”
“You’ve seen me play with a four-year-old and ride a horse. How could you possibly know this?” Samantha uncrosses her legs and stretches them out on the ottoman in front of her, challenging him to prove himself to her.
“You are a fighter. You don’t just give up and anybody who ever meets you must be aware of that fact. You’ve got something in you, Samantha. Something that makes you stand up from the rest.”
“Nah, you just say that,” she waves her hand trying to brush off the compliment.
“Well, let me ask you this: when I unzipped your dress if I’d pulled it to the ground instead of treating the stain, would you have given in to the moment?” His eyes are probing her now.
Any good negotiator knows not to ask a question he doesn’t already know the answer to, and Samantha knows this.
She blushes brightly like the sun has burnt a stripe across her nose and cheeks. She looks away shyly.
“Mmhm. Exactly,” Connor seems very satisfied with himself. “I count that as a meeting, even without the names.”
“Fair enough,” she answers and looks like she has just been beaten in a game and loves it.
“And, I’ve seen you negotiate when you had zero bargaining chips on the table.”
“When?”
“Have you forgotten the details of our first date already,” he jests, enjoying their banter more and more.
“Ah, the interview,” she replies.
“Yes. I couldn’t believe I offered you such a generous compensation package, and you tried to negotiate me up! Your boldness, your confidence…” his voice trails off, and he takes another sip of brandy like he’s trying to hold his words in.
“Tried? I feel like I was pretty successful,” she says with a self-satisfied expression.
“Damn straight you were. Because you have the instinct. And it’s so fucking sexy,” he says, holding her eyes with his and not letting them go.
With this directness, Samantha loses her position of power in the conversation and feels Connor step back into that role. She likes it. The way he commands a room, the way he seems to always know exactly what he wants and goes for it single-mindedly...the way he looks at her like it’s only his incredible self-control that keeps him from taking her right there.
There’s a knock at the door, and Margaret enters. She sees them relaxing together in the library, brandy snifters in hand, and quickly hides her quiet surprise. An important call from Hong Kong has come through. Connor apologizes, bids Samantha goodnight, and quickly exits the room.
Samantha takes the last of her brandy in one shot and then rests her head back on the chair. In a month, her life has gone from struggling on the edge of ruin, to late-night brandy with the founder and CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. Replaying the way he looks at her, the way he seems to truly see her for who she is, sends her whole body into a flutter.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After an hour putting out fires in the Hong Kong office, Connor retires to his room, but finds himself full of electricity.
Tiger-like, he paces the sizeable sitting room that adjoins his bedroom. His body is tight, muscles ready to pounce, and all he can think about is Samantha. He feels the magnetic pull of her being only a few yards away. It’s as if a switch inside him has flipped, and now when he is away from her part of him is missing. This makes him uneasy. He tells himself he just needs to get laid. That’s all it is. Between work and Marla, and taking every extra minute to be there for Arabella, it’s been a while since his body has known the intimate touch of another. But deep inside, he knows the truth. He is falling in love with this young woman. When he lets this truth float up to the surface, where he can no longer deny it, it stops him in his tracks, and he stands in place, stunned.
Should he try to keep his distance? Should he tell her they can’t encourage their connection? Just the thought of this feels like an impossibility, like he’s trying to rewrite the laws of physics.
How did this happen so fast, he asks himself and falls into a chair. He runs his hands through his hair. Rubs his hands over his face. And finally, begins to accept his fate.
A moment later there’s a knock at his door. He told Margaret he’s not to be disturbed for the rest of the night. He marches to the door, and swings it open with annoyance, but it’s not Margaret standing there. It is Samantha, in a simple white cotton chemise. They don’t say anything, just stand looking at each other in the doorway for a moment. The heat between them pulses. Connor feels a primal hunger for her run through his body. Unable to restrain himself a moment longer, he pulls Samantha in by the waist. The door slams behind her, and he suddenly has her against the wall, his open mouth locked with hers, and the taste of strawberries and brandy drawing him further in. His hands search her body, hungry to touch every part of her. She moans softly as his tongue dances in her m
outh. And then, he pulls away. They are breathless.
He holds her face in his hands, taking in every inch of her face, and they break into joyful laughter at the relief of touching. She pulls away, walks over to his desk and leans against it, trying to catch her breath.
“Maybe we should talk about this,” she starts, chest still heaving.
“OK. What shall we say?” He plays with her from across the room.
“I don’t know. You’re my boss. I love Arabella so much.”
Her love for his daughter almost makes him want to propose right in this moment.
“Look, I’m not the kind of guy who sleeps with his employees. I’ve actually never done it. As a policy.”
Taming The Billionaire Page 27