Taming Eric

by J. a Melville

  “No boat?” She asked.

  He shook his head. “I have a yacht baby, but she’s too big to moor here.”

  “So you do have a boat then?” She smirked at him.

  “No baby, I don’t have a boat. The Bella Rose would be greatly insulted if you referred to her as a boat.”

  Natasha looked over at the cottage that was on one side of his property. It was painted white with blue trims and a garden filled with flowers in the small yard around it. When she asked who lived there, he told her it was Alice’s home. “I told you she lives here baby.”

  “So where is Alice?” She asked.

  “She’s out shopping sweetheart. I gave her instructions that I wanted the house well stocked with food for you.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously Eric? You don’t have the poor woman running around for me do you? I’m sure whatever she would normally prepare for you will be fine for me.”

  “Baby you heard what the doctor said. You need to build yourself back up. You lost weight, a lot of weight.” His eyes travelled over her body. She still had such a fragile look to her and he wanted to see her back to her normal weight again. “You’re pregnant and you need plenty of good food. Not just for you but for our babies.”

  Natasha stared at him looking slightly annoyed and he met her gaze stubbornly. He was not backing down when it came to her health. The whole idea of having her in his home was to take care of her and between himself and Alice he was damned well going to make sure that happened.

  Kathryn cleared her throat drawing the attention from their mental locking of horns and back to her. “I think it’s time for me to leave you two alone.”

  “You don’t have to go Mum.”

  “I do baby girl. I just wanted to get a look at Eric’s place, see where you were staying and I’ve done that. Now I need to go and give you a chance to get yourself sorted and settle in.”

  They all headed inside and after she had hugged Natasha and even surprised Eric by hugging him, she climbed back into the limo which was taking her back to the hospital so she could pick up her car and go home.

  Once she’d left, there was an awkward silence. Eric felt suddenly nervous and Natasha wasn’t looking much better than he felt. “Can I get you something to drink baby?” When she nodded he led her to the kitchen. “Come and see what we have.”

  He went straight to the fridge but when he turned around she was staring at everything. “Wow. I bet Alice loves this kitchen.” She wandered around running her fingers over the granite benchtops.

  Eric loved his kitchen. He might not cook for himself much anymore, but he still liked a good kitchen and he’d made sure his one was exactly what he’d wanted. The fridge was huge, double doors with an upright freezer next to it, both in stainless steel as were the stove and oven.

  A long island bench ran through the centre of the room and there were cupboards everywhere. He watched Natasha disappear into the pantry and when he followed her she was staring at it in amazement. It was a room in itself, lined with shelves on both sides. “Do you do anything on a small scale?” She asked and he grinned at her.

  “I have the money and I have the space for the best baby. Why wouldn’t I make the most of that? So what would you like to drink?”

  He walked back to look in the fridge. “Do you have any kind of juice?” She peered over his shoulder and Eric tried not to let it affect him having her so close.

  “There’s orange, apple, pineapple, tropical blend, take your pick baby.”

  “Pineapple please.” He poured her a glass watching as she drank it, his eyes on her face. He still couldn’t believe that she was with him and that she would be living with him in his home, even if it wasn’t for all that long.

  “Ok, do I have something on my face?”

  He grinned at her. “No baby. I just like having you standing in my kitchen.”

  “I bet you say that to all the girls.” She joked.

  “None of my girlfriends ever came here baby. This place is like my home in Tasmania, my sanctuary.”

  The look she gave him was filled with surprise. “Well, if they never came here and they never went to Tassie, where on earth were they? Did you do some sleazy hotel thing with them did you?”

  He chuckled at her choice of words. Had she already forgotten that they’d done the hotel thing? “I did the hotel thing with you baby and trust me, nothing about our time in that hotel felt sleazy.” Watching as she blushed at his words. “I have an apartment near work. If I’ve had a long day and can’t be bothered coming back to here, I’ll stay at the apartment, plus it has a conference room for after hours meetings and that’s where I took my girlfriends.” He walked over to her cupping her face between his hands. “You’re not like them, you’re more important to me, that’s why you’re here.”

  He lowered his head, his lips closing over hers and he felt her arms come up and slide around his neck. Her lips parted and he groaned, deepening the kiss, tracing his tongue over her lower lip before sliding it into her mouth and finding hers. Their tongues duelled with one another and Eric could feel his excitement growing. His cock hardened, pushing against his jeans. He backed Natasha up until she was pressed against the benchtop, his hands roaming over her body. He could feel her fingers in his hair and she pulled him closer, her arousal matching his.

  Eric thrust against her and she moaned, arching into him. Damn but he was just about ready to lift her onto the benchtop and fuck her. Things were rapidly getting out of control until the sound of a door banging snapped him right back into reality. He jumped back moving to the other side of the island bench as he struggled to get his breathing under control and to hide the bloody great hard on in his jeans. Fuck Alice’s timing but at the same time, fuck Alice’s timing. He couldn’t have done anything anyway. Natasha was just out of hospital and already he was wanting to jump her bones. He was a fucking animal.

  Alice walked into the kitchen armed with bags of groceries and her gaze shifted from him to Natasha, a knowing look showing in her eyes as she watched them.

  “Mr Rothman, you’re home and this must be Miss Barrington.” She smiled.

  “Please call me Natasha.”

  Eric watched the exchange between the two women as he willed his cock to go down. He couldn’t hide behind the fucking kitchen bench all day but he didn’t want to walk away from the cover it was providing until he thought he could do so without his erection being so obvious.

  While Natasha and Alice talked about the babies, food and where her clothing was, Eric half listened to them while he thought about as many non sexual things as he could until finally he got his cock under control enough to step away from the island bench.

  When he realised the conversation was on the sleeping arrangements he stepped in. “Natasha will be sleeping in my room Alice, so if you could please move all her things to the closet, I would appreciate it.”

  Natasha tried to argue that she could do it but no way in hell was he having her do something like that when she needed to build up her strength. “The fact that you were about to throw her over the bench and fuck her senseless doesn’t count as too strenuous?” That annoying little voice in his head pointed out.

  He took her hand and led her from the kitchen once Alice had told him she’d move the clothes to his walk in robe soon.

  “Eric, you should have let me move my things and anyway, that’s a bit presumptuous isn’t it? Telling Alice I’ll be sharing a bed with you.”

  He walked her onto the lift before turning to her. “Don’t you want to sleep in my bed baby? You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to jump your bones, I promise, despite what happened downstairs before Alice turned up. I know you want to go slow plus after what you’ve been through, I don’t want to risk harming you or the babies. I’ll be the perfect gentleman even if it kills me.” He assured her as they stepped off the
lift.

  Eric opened the door to the blue bedroom and showed her where her clothes were for now until Alice moved them into his walk in robe. There was more than enough room in it for all her clothing. She suggested that she could sleep in the room where her clothes were but he turned on her. “Hell no Natasha. You’re coming in with me. I need you close so I can keep an eye on you and the truth is, I sleep better when you’re in my bed. Don’t argue with me on this one. You’re sleeping with me.”

  Of course telling her she was sleeping with him and living with the reality of it were two different things. After a week of her living with him and warming his bed at night, Eric was beginning to think he must get off on torture and pain to insist that she sleep with him. It was driving him crazy having her so close and not being able to touch her. He seriously thought his cock was going to fall off from being almost permanently hard or he was going to black out from all his blood supply constantly being in it to keep him in a state of endless arousal.

  He found himself showering more and more frequently just so he could jerk off to try and get some relief. He hadn’t been game to do anything more than kiss her sometimes but even that threatened to get out of control and he’d have to step back before he tried to make love to her. She was in his home so he could take care of her and he’d promised her he would respect her desire not to have a sexual relationship with him even though it was killing him.

  He was sure she was trying to drive him out of his mind when she would dress in front of him, bend over, stand in some provocative pose and at night she would curl up against him leaving him unable to sleep due to the discomfort of his raging erection. Sometimes he could have sworn she was doing it deliberately, that she got off on testing his control and although he only had a very tenuous hold on it sometimes, he was determined not to fail and give in to his burning desire for her.

  She was finally starting to look better. She’d gained a little of the weight back, her colour was healthier and Alice had organised her with dry biscuits by the bed for first thing in the mornings as they seemed to help with the morning sickness although she had medication that the doctor had prescribed for her.

  Things were going well. He was happy, he had the woman he loved with him so of course he was happy, sexually frustrated, but happy.

  One week rolled on to two, then three and they’d settled into a routine where he went off to work each day and Natasha hung around home or went out with her mother. Whatever she did, he was just pleased that she was looking better every day and he could even see the tiny curve to her once flat stomach. It made the fact that she was pregnant seem more real. Natasha was starting to show just a little.

  He thought he was going to become a permanent fixture in the shower as he almost wore blisters on his hands jerking off so he wouldn’t give in to temptation and touch her. She still drove him mad with lust by continuing to dress and undress in front of him and at times he wondered if she might want more when he’d catch her watching him, a frown on her face. Still, she’d been very clear about their relationship, there was to be no sex. He wondered what she would do if he touched her but he was too scared to. He didn’t want to upset her so much she insisted on leaving and a part of him was terrified of touching her and causing something to go wrong with the pregnancy or to have her accuse him of rape again so for now it was just him wearing a path in the carpet to the shower and nearly rubbing himself raw jerking off.

  * * *

  Eric was at work a few days later struggling to concentrate on the spread sheets in front of him. His new PA Alex who although efficient just wasn’t the same as Natasha apart from the obvious difference of being a man, was busy typing up a series of letters Eric needed him to email to clients. The phone rang and Alex took the call immediately telling Eric that it was his housekeeper on the phone.

  His heart dropped, fear taking over at the thought that something was wrong with Natasha. “What is it Alice. Is Natasha ok?” He barked down the line.

  “Oh Eric, Natasha’s ducked out somewhere. She must have snuck out. I never saw her leave but she’s not here. I thought you’d want to know.” Alice sounded worried and although he was tempted to snap at her and ask how Natasha could have possibly got past her, he had too much respect for Alice to be rude to her.

  “Thanks Alice. I’ll try calling her now. Thanks for letting me know.” He hung up and immediately punched in the number for Natasha’s mobile phone. Where the hell was she and what did she think she was doing sneaking off like that? He wasn’t keeping her a prisoner of his home, Henry would have driven her wherever she needed to go for fuck sakes.

  Fortunately she answered fairly quickly and he was too irritated with her for running off that once she’d said hello to him the best he could do was snap. “Where the fuck are you?”

  “Hello to you too.” Her tone was filled with sarcasm which only frustrated him more.

  “Don’t mess with me baby, where are you? You took off and didn’t bother to tell Alice you were going out let alone where you were going. Why?” For some reason Eric could just imagine her either rolling her eyes at him or poking out her tongue at his words so he decided to play mind games and said. “Don’t be sassy with me Natasha.”

  When she was silent for a moment he couldn’t help grinning. He was pretty sure he’d been right about her making some sort of gesture at his comment. “I didn’t say anything Eric. What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I know you baby, you probably stuck your tongue out at me, didn’t you?”

  Again she was silent before she said. “What do you want Eric?”

  “I would have thought that was obvious Natasha. I want to know where you are and what you’re doing and why you felt the need to leave the house without warning Alice you were going out.” He was getting impatient with her now as she continued to evade his questions. Why wouldn’t she just tell him where she was and what she was doing?

  “Would she have let me go if I’d told her I was going out Eric?”

  “Dammit Natasha. No, Alice has been instructed to drive you if you need to go somewhere, so I’ll ask again. Where are you?”

  He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it in surprise when she suddenly exploded down the line at him. “Well fuck you Eric. I’m not going to be held prisoner in your home and I don’t need a damned baby sitter everywhere I go, ok?”

  Eric felt his stomach tighten. She seemed to be so angry with him and was it possible that all her protesting was to cover that she might have been seeing another man? He’d pushed her to live with him against her will. He’d basically forced her to be with him and despite carrying his babies, maybe she didn’t really want him at all?

  “Since you seem so reluctant to tell me where you are, I have to wonder if you’re meeting a man.” He had to ask even if the answer ended up tearing his heart out of his chest.

  “Oh for crying out loud Eric, wake up! I’m pregnant with your babies. Why on earth would I be out meeting a man? When the hell have I had time to meet a man and what man is going to want me when I’m three and a half months pregnant with twins, seriously.” She snapped.

  “Me, I want you.” He answered her softly and his heart leapt when he realised he’d said that out aloud. Fuck, she’d gone silent. Had he just fucked up everything? He tried to recover from his slip up. “Plus, have you forgotten that bronzed idiot from the beach Natasha? He certainly wanted you and you seemed to like him.”

  He could almost hear her grinding her teeth down the line. “Eric for an intelligent man you can be such a fool sometimes. I barely know Brodie. That’s his name by the way, not the bronzed idiot and don’t pretend you want me. You want me with you out of some misguided guilt or whatever the hell motivates you but you don’t want me. That’s pretty obvious.” Her voice shook with anger.

  Eric was in shock at her words. How could she think he didn’t want her? Fuck he loved her, h
e wanted her so much his body ached with the need he had for her. She sounded so bitter. Did she really think he was just going through some sort of act because he felt guilty or something? She couldn’t be further from the truth.

  “Why would you think I don’t want you Natasha? Haven’t I proven to you that you mean more to me than any other woman has? You’re in my home, you’ve stayed with me in my Tasmanian home. No other woman has before you.” He found himself getting more and more frustrated. Why couldn’t she see how important she was to him? He’d shown her in every way he could that he cared but he just couldn’t bring himself to express his feelings to her. A part of him was still terrified at the idea of laying himself out vulnerable to her, to be in such a position where she could just trample his feelings under her feet. “You’re a chicken shit Rothman.” That little voice told him inside his head and he knew he was but he couldn’t break through the insecurity and fear that held him back.

  Natasha gave a loud sigh down the line. “Eric, I’m going. I’m heading home now anyway so you can call off the police search or whatever you were going to do alright?”

  “You still haven’t told me where you are.”

  She snapped at him again. “Where I am is none of your business Eric. All you need to know is that I’m not meeting up with a man. I’m not running naked down the street or sitting in a bar drinking myself under the table or whatever the hell else you think I might be doing. I just needed to get out on my own for a little while. Alice is nice and she’s very good to me but I feel like she’s got her eye on me all the time. I’m not used to that Eric. I’m not used to having to explain my every move to someone first and you need to bloody well loosen up and let me get out on my own too. I’m not going to do anything stupid or put our babies at risk.” She yelled before hanging up on him.

  Eric stared at his phone for a moment, shock, frustration and finally anger surging through him. Ok, he could concede that suddenly having to explain her every move was probably hard for someone who was independent but he only insisted on it being like that for her own health and safety. She’d hung up on him though, still having not answered him and now he was pissed, seriously pissed.