Boss Meets Baby

by Carol Marinelli

  Helping Keir earlier, when he’d scalded himself with the coffee, Georgia had automatically acted to do what she could—but, as well as hopefully alleviating his agony, she couldn’t deny the intense pleasure she’d received at being able to touch him without question.

  Now her gaze cleaved to his resolute jaw as he slid one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back, then carried her across the carpeted floor to the sturdy, old-fashioned brass bed.

  ‘Be careful of your wound!’ she pleaded urgently, her— voice almost breaking.

  A rueful smile touched the corners of his mouth as he carefully laid her down on the bed. ‘What wound?’ he joked. ‘I hardly feel any pain any more. The only ache that’s disturbing me now is my wanting you, Georgia…You know that, don’t you?’

  Her heart skipped at his very serious concentrated expression. ‘I know that…But do you—do you have something to…’ She couldn’t help it. Her face flamed because she’d had to ask him the question. A question she’d never asked another man before in her life…

  Wordlessly he removed a small packet from his jeans pocket. He laid it down on top of the small oak cabinet beside the bed, next to the suspense novel she’d brought from home to read. Then, stripping off his shirt, he held her gaze with his piercing blue eyes as a fierce shining star commanded and held the blackness of the night.

  Georgia wanted Keir so badly that if a spaceship had materialised in the room during those electrifying moments, she wouldn’t have noticed. Her eyes ate him up as she watched him undress. The more he revealed of himself, the more her heart pounded with ferocious joy. Confronted with his breathtaking masculinity,— registering the impact of his strong, fit physique, she felt her senses utterly enraptured by him. Her gaze lit too on the stark white dressing on his arm, and she silently commiserated anew with the pain he must have endured.

  Her breath was released on a soft onrush of air as he came to her, unfastening the tie of her robe with hands that were sure and strong, then peeling the garment easily from her body. Before he could say anything Georgia lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck.

  Hearing the ragged sigh that broke free from his lips at the contact with her bare soft skin, she whispered,— ‘I know we shouldn’t be doing this…but I don’t want to stop.’

  ‘If it’s what we both want, then there’s no reason to stop…Have you never given into pure naked desire before, Georgia?’

  She didn’t want to answer that question lest it incriminate— her. She was walking a tightrope of tension, despite the heady rush of adrenalin and need pulsing through her body, but she did not intend to let fear or doubt rule the day. It would be all right… It had to be all right. For once in her life she was thinking of no one else’s needs but her own.

  The sudden sensation of his firm warm silky skin next to hers made Georgia’s insides tighten with longing, but instead of fearing this new territory she was venturing into she found herself welcoming it. Her mouth slipped over his with unselfconscious eagerness, tasting moisture, heat and demand in one divinely erotic press, and her body knew no dissent only a deeply carnal hunger when he tipped her back onto the bed and covered her nakedness with his.

  Readily allowing Keir’s hands to explore her, Georgia heard her own breathless sighs drown out the steady repetitive hush of the rain that accompanied— them. His mouth languorously tasted her velvettipped— breasts—taking his time, giving her pleasure and receiving it, sucking and caressing them until her whole being was consumed with fierce tingles of the most erotic joy. Was this how a flower felt…opening for the first time to the miracle of rain…the caress of sunlight? As if its very being was created anew by that seductive, addictive touch? Even Georgia’s quite considerable imagination had not prepared her for the river of hot sweet delight that poured through her veins at Keir’s touch.

  Her hand brushed against his strong, hot erection with curiosity and lust, and she heard his almost painful groan in response. Inside, answering heat drenched her. Without another word he moved her hand away, and started to unwrap the little foil package he’d left on the bedside cabinet. When he’d sheathed himself in the contents, he started to slowly press himself inside her. Holding on to the broad, muscular— slopes of his shoulders, Georgia stared into Keir’s eyes and felt as if she was being consumed by electric blue fire so intense was the gaze that commanded— hers.

  Silently she told herself to relax. She knew all she had to do was surrender to the powerful melting tide that was softening her hips and making her breasts throb in an agony of desire. She’d— been made for this… Any momentary hurt would quickly pass, and then all she would know was the pleasure…

  When he finally penetrated her all the way, Georgia was unable to hold back her cry of pain. Keir’s surprised glance searched her face with stunned enquiry, and his hard jaw momentarily tightened.

  Moving her hand behind his head, Georgia leaned up towards him and pulled his face down to hers. In less than a moment he was kissing her with renewed passion, her pain forgotten, his demanding thrusts inside her body growing deeper and harder, enforcing— a rhythm between them that built with urgency at each passing second.

  Just before she sensed his whole body tense and then finally let go, the muscles in the tops of his arms bunching like iron as she held on to them, Georgia rode the sweetly fierce tide that swept her up in its powerful current and felt as if she was flying. Ripples of intoxicating delight ebbed through her body, again and again and again. A strange kind of calm stole over her in its dizzying aftermath. Dazed, she accepted Keir’s final powerful claim on her body, and then he stilled and laid his head against her chest. She sensed him shudder violently with his own release. She shut her eyes in silent awe…

  What had he done? His heart feeling like a bass drum, pounding out its rhythm inside his chest, Keir rolled away from Georgia and lay on his back, breathing— hard. Good God! He’d never in a million years anticipated such an unbelievable surprise. As soon as she’d cried out he’d known that this was her first time…her first! Astonishingly Georgia Cameron,— until a few minutes ago, had been a virgin. And Keir had accepted the gift of her innocence with scant hesitation—choosing to ignore the gravity of the deed to achieve his own lustful satisfaction.

  He knew why. Lately, instead of the common sense he could usually summon so easily to his aid, he’d— let down his guard and allowed himself to be driven by emotions and feelings as far as this woman was concerned. It was a definite first.

  Now, as he turned to regard her, the dark silk skeins of her hair tousled on the pillow behind her, Keir saw that Georgia’s eyes were curiously closed. Had she retreated into her own private world perhaps to make her peace with what had happened between them? He only hoped that she wasn’t regretting it. What if she’d secretly had some idea of saving her virginity for the love of her life? A flicker of the most profound unease assaulted his insides at the thought. Then he reminded himself that she hadn’t repelled him at any point. She’d been as eager as he had for them to make love…

  Reaching out, he captured one of the shining soft brown curls that lay coiled against her shoulder and saw her start. Her hazel eyes opened in surprise and studied him, glazed with the hazy softness of lovemaking. Her words, nonetheless, belied what had just taken place between them. ‘Moira will be wondering— where on earth I’ve got to. She was expecting— me down for my dinner,’ she said calmly.

  It was a ruse. Instinctively Keir knew that she was delaying the inevitable moment when they would have to discuss the momentous event that had just taken place between them, and he sensed her anxiety.

  ‘You should have told me,’ he said quietly, withdrawing— his hand.

  ‘Should I?’ Her voice faltered a little and she bit her lip. ‘Would it have stopped you making love to me if you’d known?’

  ‘I’m not saying that. But you should have mentioned— it at least!’

  ‘Why? Do you have something against virgins?’ she— aske
d mockingly, her expression unable to mask her hurt. ‘Don’t most men think we’re such a prize? Admittedly, twenty-eight-year-old virgins are probably— fairly thin on the ground, but sometimes it’s good to break the mould…don’t you think?’

  Before he could stop her, she’d grabbed the linen sheet, wrapped it round her naked form, and moved away across the room to the window. Presenting her back to him, Georgia gazed out at the teeming rain as though it hypnotised her.

  Confused and angry at her blasé attitude, Keir collected his boxers and jeans and hurriedly pulled them on over his own nakedness. Barefoot, he strode across the luxuriously thick carpet to join her. Before she could say anything, he spun her round and forced her to look at him.

  ‘Why?’ he asked her, his gaze hard.

  ‘Why what? Look…you’re really making a mountain— out of a molehill, you know!’

  At Keir’s answering glower, Georgia shrugged.

  ‘All right then. You want to know why I stayed a virgin up until now?’ There was a small but discernible— quiver of her prettily shaped top lip. ‘After taking care of Noah, earning my living has always had to be the top priority in my life. I simply didn’t have the time or the energy to devote to an intimate relationship.’

  ‘Other people manage.’ Keir was striving to understand her.

  ‘Well…other people have different situations and priorities. Since my parents died, mine has been taking responsibility for Noah, making sure that the mortgage and the bills are paid and that we have enough to eat.’

  ‘After your parents died, didn’t you and Noah inherit the family home?’

  ‘We did…but it wasn’t paid for. We only inherited— the mortgage.’

  It seemed to Keir as if her beautiful green-gold eyes clouded over with sadness for a moment.

  ‘My father got into trouble with his business and accumulated quite a bit of debt before he died…that’s why. I had to work hard to help pay that off too.’ She shrugged, clearly uncomfortable at having been made to reveal such a precarious situation.

  Now that he knew her reason for staying a virgin for so long, Keir was stunned. She’d sacrificed a life and a relationship of her own for her brother, as well as taking on her parents’ debts. Rarely, if ever, had Keir encountered such selfless love and devotion. Absently he laid his hand on his flat, lean stomach and rubbed it, a myriad of conflicting emotions flooding through him at that moment.

  ‘And just how long did you intend to carry on putting Noah’s needs before your own, Georgia?’ he gently enquired.

  ‘It’s not a question of—’

  ‘How long?’ Keir insisted.

  ‘I didn’t have any finite date in mind! When someone is depending on you, you just get on with things! I know he’s a man now, and the business is starting to take off, but I suppose I just got so used to doing what I was doing that it became a habit not to think about a—a relationship with someone.’

  She held the sheet tightly in front of her breasts, as— though to protect herself.

  And even though he clearly saw that she was vulnerable right then, Keir almost wanted to shake her. He could scarcely believe that she’d been willing to put her brother’s welfare above her own for so long. When he thought of his tense relationship— with his own brother—a factor that maybe he should have been more diligent in trying to improve—Keir silently confessed to feeling slightly ashamed.

  ‘But you must have dated men, surely? Didn’t you ever let anybody get close?’

  ‘I went out on a couple of dates, but I never encouraged— the men concerned to take things further,’ she— replied flatly, pushing her fingers through her tumbled locks. ‘I was always worried that the energy it would take to commit to a relationship might encroach on what I had to do to survive.’

  ‘But this is your life we’re talking about, Georgia!’

  Yes, it was her life—and hearing Keir say the words out loud made her realise that it was about time she started to consider what she really wanted for herself. The momentous event that had just occurred had awakened her as thoroughly as though she’d been asleep for the past twenty-eight years—and— finally woken up to reality. Transported to another realm by the hot tide of lust and urgent carnal demand that had gripped her body so emphatically in Keir’s arms, Georgia had at last discovered her own sensual nature. And, more profoundly, she’d discovered that she wanted to be loved by a man. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone.

  Her parents’ death had cost her dear in more ways than one. She’d expended so much time, energy and devotion on taking care of Noah and keeping their family home together that she’d honestly doubted she was capable of committing herself totally to a relationship—but— now a real flicker of hope was burning inside her, and she didn’t want to let that flame of hope go out.

  ‘I’m quite aware that it’s my life…And if you imagine that I don’t have hopes and dreams of my own then you’re wrong—because I do!’

  Tears were horrendously close, boiling up behind her lids, while her throat felt as if she’d swallowed razorblades and hot water.

  ‘Noah is a lucky man to have such a devoted sister. You’re an amazing woman, Georgia…and the man that you eventually end up with will be a very lucky man too.’ His expression was unrelenting in its intensity, and Keir knew he meant every word of that compliment. Even if the idea of her ending up with someone else seemed to trigger an avalanche of hurt inside him.

  ‘And what about—?’ She seemed to hesitate to pursue her question. ‘What about what just happened between us?’

  God, she was so innocent! Keir’s heart seemed to stall inside his chest at the realisation.

  ‘It was probably inevitable! You can’t suppress your own needs for ever…eventually something has to give!’

  ‘So…’

  He saw her absorb what he’d said with what seemed like distress. ‘What you’re saying is I could have gone to bed with anybody? It just happened to be you?’

  ‘No! I’m not saying that at all! It’s obvious that we’re more than a little attracted to each other, and you are a very desirable woman. Good God! I almost knocked your door down to get you into bed—have you forgotten that?’

  It was a cast-iron certainty that Keir hadn’t! Even now his body ached with an almost unholy ache to be inside her again. Touching Georgia, making love to her, drowning his senses in the hypnotic intoxication— of her body’s sweet perfume, had brought him the most indescribable delight. Nothing he’d experienced— in a long time could compare with it. And then there was the fact that he was her first. He would always be the keeper of that precious gift she had given him, and he couldn’t deny the surge of jealousy that all but cut a painful swathe through his insides at the thought that she might ever make love with someone else.

  Now, seeing her shoulders drop a little, Keir had to own the surprising feelings of protectiveness and warmth towards her that were assailing him.

  ‘Georgia? Did you hear what I said?’

  ‘Yes…I heard. I’d better get dressed. Moira will be—’

  ‘How can you think of food at a time like this?’ Unable to conceal the need that had been growing inside him even as they were talking, Keir knew his desire must be written all over his face as he stared down into Georgia’s beautiful startled eyes.

  ‘I didn’t get to eat my dinner, remember?’

  ‘Come back to bed.’ He hooked his finger in the front of the linen sheet she’d wrapped round herself, at— the place between her breasts, and tugged until the two ends came apart and the material slithered down her naked body.

  ‘Keir! We can’t. What will—what will everyone think if we don’t go downstairs again?’

  Keir didn’t need to see the sudden delightful contraction— of her soft pink nipples to know that she was as turned on by the idea as he was…

  ‘To hell with what anybody else thinks! They don’t even know that we’re together. I told Moira that I had some work to do. If anybod
y knocks at your door, then you can just call out that you’re tired and having an early night. Later, when the rest of the house is asleep, I’ll take you downstairs to the kitchen and we’ll raid the fridge together!’

  Secretly delighted by this previously unseen playful side to his nature, nonetheless Georgia was doubtful. ‘I can’t let you do that.’ She tried to tug back the hand he had captured.

  ‘What?’ His expression was deeply amused. ‘Raid my own fridge?’

  ‘I didn’t mean that. I came here to work for you, remember?— I know it’s too late to undo what’s just happened, but we shouldn’t be making things even more complicated by repeating it!’

  ‘Do you regret the fact that we made love?’ he demanded, his vivid blue eyes attesting to his sudden doubt. ‘Would you have preferred it if the man you gave your virginity to was the man you were in love with?’

  Keir’s words were akin to setting off a small earthquake— inside her, and Georgia almost swayed. What would he say if he discovered that she had given her virginity to the man she was in love with? Finally admitting— the truth to herself, she felt the realisation rock her very soul to its foundations.

  ‘I don’t regret it at all!’ she exclaimed. ‘And I had no grand plan about saving myself for anyone! I’ve already told you why things were the way they were. I’m simply trying to be sensible about this. I know it’s a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but we have to work together until your own secretary returns and I don’t want to ruin things.’

  ‘Nothing will be ruined,’ he insisted, impelling her forcibly into his arms. ‘We’re both adults, aren’t we? We’ll just carry on as normal and nobody else has to know anything unless you want them to.’

  Even as he said the words Georgia felt uneasy. What if Keir’s housekeeper found out? Or one of the other members of staff? What if they thought that she was taking advantage of her situation working for the Laird? She would hate any of them to imagine for even one second that she was some self-seeking unprincipled— opportunist! And she wasn’t convinced by Keir’s statement that nothing would be ruined. He had no idea that she had realized she was already in love with him, and that just made the situation even more precarious!