“Fucking hell.” He thought to himself. Definitely the words any man wanted to hear but she’d better be prepared to stand and deliver because he had a lot of time to make up for and although the sex they’d just had was amazing, he knew it wouldn’t be long and he’d want more. Just thinking about it was enough to have him feel his cock stir in his jeans.
“So does that mean you’re going to wear me out? You’re going to be using and abusing me?” Amusement shone in his eyes. God he hoped so. No matter how many times he got to sink himself into her warmth, it was never going to be enough. She was really like his drug. He could get his fix which made him feel satisfied for a while but eventually the need and desire for her would have him ready for more.
Natasha gave him a sly grin and he wondered what was going through that gorgeous head of hers. He didn’t have to wait long. “Well, there’s always Mr Jack Rabbit if you find you can’t keep up.”
Damn her, she sure knew how to push his buttons and mentioning that fucking vibrator sure pushed them. No fucking way was she using a vibrator on herself when she had him. He was just as reliable as the fucking thing and when it came to her he could just about keep going as long as the batteries would last in it too. “There will be no Jack Rabbit unless I’m using it on you baby.” He growled.
She smirked at him but then that smirk became a look of horror. What the hell brought on that reaction he wondered. “Oh god, the damned vibrator was on the bed and now Alice is up there. I’m going to die. How will I be able to look her in the face again?”
Eric couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. The images flooding his mind of Alice finding that damned vibrator and the look on her face were priceless, at least in his head. He stopped laughing when Natasha hit him on the arm. “Ow baby, you’re so violent.” He complained as he rubbed where she’d hit him. “Stop worrying. I’m sure Alice has seen a vibrator before. She might even have one.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Plus she’s very discreet.” He teased, knowing he was probably making things worse but she was just so easy to tease. He loved it.
“Still you didn’t have to make it so obvious what we’d been doing.” She grumbled.
“Sorry baby, but with the noise you were making, I’m sure the whole neighbourhood knows what we’ve been doing. Alice knew, I could see it in her face when we walked in the kitchen. Stop worrying, stop getting embarrassed baby. I’m sure Alice would have been thrilled to know things are better between us.”
She slapped his arm again. “I wasn’t the only one making some noise Mr.” She punctuated each word with a poke to his chest. He conceded that she was right. He’d done plenty of shouting, yelling her name and groaning but it didn’t embarrass him like it was Natasha.
Alice walked back into the kitchen and Eric tried to keep a straight face when Natasha blushed and refused to meet the older woman’s eyes. Alice set out a large platter of sandwiches she’d made for them and as they both sat down at the kitchen bar to eat Eric told Alice about feeling the babies move.
Her face lit up with a broad smile. “Oh that’s wonderful. You two must be so excited now.”
He went back to eating lunch his eyes on Natasha’s bent head. She refused to look at either him or Alice and he couldn’t help himself, he had to stir her again. “Mmm, these are great Alice. Suddenly I feel so hungry, can’t imagine why.” That brought her head up and she shot him a death stare again but he just grinned at her.
It was Alice who chastised him. “Oh Eric, leave the poor girl alone.”
That got a smile to Natasha’s face and she turned to Alice. “Eric was saying you’re a friend of Maggie’s?”
Alice nodded. “Yes, we’ve been friends for over 10 years. That’s how I came to know this one. I’ve been working for him for about 8 years now.
Natasha’s lips twisted. “You poor woman.” She smirked at him and Alice laughed.
“He’s not so bad pet, just doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone sometimes.” She shot him a stern look and he made some effort to look suitably chastened.
While they finished eating Alice cleaned up the kitchen, asked if they had anything more they needed her for and when they both shook their heads she told them she was heading to her home until she had to come and cook dinner. “Well I’ll see you two later and you leave the poor girl alone.” She warned him and walked out, leaving them on their own.
* * *
Eric and Natasha settled into their new routine now they had come to a better understanding of what they both wanted. They made love almost every night and occasionally he would wake her in the mornings with a gentle caress which quickly turned into lust for both of them, followed by hot and sweaty sex.
The time was rapidly approaching for the 18 week check up and ultra sound so they could see their babies for the first time. The swell of Natasha’s stomach was becoming more and more obvious with each week that passed but Eric still found her the sexiest woman he’d ever known. Now that her morning sickness had settled down she almost seemed to glow. He’d never seen her already near perfect complexion look so smooth and unblemished and her hair had a silky shine to it that had him constantly reaching out to touch it. Despite the shaky start, pregnancy definitely seemed to be agreeing with her.
With every passing day he realised more and more that she was the woman he wanted by his side until he was old and grey. He loved her so much he couldn’t imagine his life without her and he knew it was getting to the time where he needed to grow himself a set of balls.
He’d spent all his adult life avoiding situations where he could fall in love and he’d achieved it until Natasha. He didn’t want to just live with her, he wanted to marry her but confessing his love, proposing to her were so incredibly terrifying to him that he broke out in a cold sweat just thinking about it. Still, he knew he had to lay his feelings on the line, place his heart in her hands and hope like hell she didn’t crush it between her fingers.
Once he’d finally committed himself to bearing his heart to her and proposing, the next problem was choosing a ring. He didn’t want to just ask her and then go with her to choose a ring, assuming she accepted of course, he wanted to buy one for her and go the whole nine yards, getting down on one knee.
He decided he was going to have to enlist the help of someone and he finally decided that Samantha from Accounting would be his partner in crime and hopefully help him choose a ring that Natasha would love. Samantha was recently married herself so bursting over with love for everyone it seemed. The perfect person to take ring shopping with him.
It worked out that both Samantha and Eric had a couple of hours to spare in the morning of the day he had to go with Natasha for her 18 week check up and first ultra sound. The timing wasn’t ideal because he couldn’t afford to be late for the doctor’s appointment but Samantha’s enthusiasm was infectious and he was so keen to get out and buy the ring, he didn’t worry about whether they might cut it too fine for time.
Samantha was obviously nervous being with him and she occupied his mind with almost endless nervous chatter in the limo as they drove to the first jewellers she recommended. She was a nice girl, pleasant personality, sure loved to talk but her perfume swirled around him in the car giving him a headache. What was it with some women and perfume? Did they feel it was necessary to bathe in it or something? It was heavy, brutal on his nostrils and he couldn’t wait to get out of the car and drag some much needed fresh air into his lungs. Samantha’s fragrance was so very different to the subtle perfume Natasha wore that always teased his senses and had him wanting to simply bury his head into the side of her neck and breathe deeply of her sweet scent.
It was a relief when the limo finally pulled up and they climbed out at the first jeweller on the list. They ended up looking at numerous rings and once Eric convinced Samantha that price wasn’t an issue and she stopped looking through the lower priced rings and moved on to the expensive
ones it didn’t take long to choose.
“Oh Mr Rothman this is it.” She said her voice filled with awe as she stared at the ring before her. Eric leaned over her shoulder to see what had her so wide eyed and had to concede it was a beautiful ring.
The lurking sales assistant turned on her biggest smile when she realised which ring Samantha was staring at and Eric smirked to himself. Of course she’d be interested now when it was one of their most expensive rings they were looking at. He asked to have a closer look at it and when it was removed from the display case an armed guard stepped closer to them.
Samantha slipped the ring onto her finger so Eric could see what it looked like on a finger and with a raised eyebrow at his accountant and her excited nod, he agreed that it was the one he was going to buy. It was an antique styled ring in white gold. The huge square cut diamond was slightly wider than Samantha’s fingers and it was flanked by four smaller diamonds either side of it which were mounted into the band. When the overhead lights hit it, it sparkled, sending shards of light around the shop.
He wrote a cheque for the ring and once a check was made to make sure he was good for the money which made him smile, they were free to leave with the engagement ring. He slipped it into his pocket and they headed back to the office.
The whole outing had taken longer than Eric expected and once they were back at Rothman Enterprises Samantha hugged him and wished him good luck. Her hugging him took him by surprise and he hugged her back awkwardly before she got out and he headed for home. Damn, it was going to be touch and go as to whether he made it back in time without pissing Natasha off. Things had been so good between them, he didn’t want to fuck up now and set their relationship back a notch or two.
When the limo finally pulled into the driveway of his home and he climbed out letting himself into the house he was immediately confronted by the sound of Natasha’s voice as she talked to Alice. She sounded pissed off. Her words to Alice proved just how pissed off she was. He walked into the room just as he heard her say. “I’m going to kill Eric I swear.”
“Why am I about to die?” He asked and Natasha swung around at the sound of his voice.
“Where the hell have you been? I almost left without you. If it hadn’t of been for Alice offering me a lift I’d be late. Of course if someone wasn’t such a bossy, overbearing pain in my butt most of the time, I’d have driven myself.” She snapped, anger flashing in her eyes.
As she continued to rant and rave at him Eric felt himself growing more and more enraged with her. He’d been so happy ready to man up and tell her how he felt and here she was screaming at him like a fucking banshee. It hurt to have her talk to him the way she was and his stomach started to knot and ice formed around his heart or it felt like it as he went into his familiar self protection mode and shut himself down emotionally.
“Are you going to stand here for the rest of the day yelling at me or are we going to get going before we really are late for your appointment?” He asked, his voice hard and cold. At this point he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to shake her or strangle her.
“Well, I guess now you’re here, you might as well come with me.” She stormed past him and out the front door.
“Sorry about that Alice.” He said quietly before following Natasha out to the limo.
The drive to the doctor’s was done in silence. Natasha was obviously still very angry with him and he was frustrated and annoyed with her. This should have been a good day for them. They were going to see their babies for the first time but instead there was nothing but tension between them and all he could think about was the engagement ring sitting in his pocket which may very well have been an extremely premature purchase at this point.
After a while he became aware of the fact that Natasha was looking at him accusingly and sniffing the air near him. What the fuck was she doing now? He’d had more than enough shit from her today and he wasn’t in the mood for more. When she continued to sniff and stare at him he knew he couldn’t endure the rest of the drive with her bizarre behaviour. “Dammit Natasha, enough with this crap now. I got held up and I was almost too late but that’s the key word, almost. If you think I’m going to sit through the rest of the drive and then the ultra sound looking at your scowling face, you can forget it.” He ground out through gritted teeth.
“Where have you been? Why were you late? Why do you smell like perfume and don’t try and tell me that’s your aftershave because that’s women’s perfume I can smell.” She sniffed at him again.
Fuck she must be able to smell Samantha’s perfume. Well the woman did smell like she’d bathed in the stuff. To have Natasha going about as close to accusing him of being with another woman hurt though. How she could even think that when he’d been as attentive to her as he possibly could, he made love to her almost every fucking day because he loved her and she aroused him like no other woman ever had and yet here she was treating him like he’d cheated on her? He thought their relationship had progressed to the point where they were as close as they’d ever been, hell he wanted to marry her and now with just a few angry words she was tearing at his heart and making him doubt they were going to be ok. He should have guessed of course. Any time anything went well for him something always happened to destroy it for him. He couldn’t live with a woman who didn’t trust him and she was acting like a woman who didn’t trust him despite the fact he’d never given her any reason to feel like that.
“Are you serious Natasha? You’re going to act like a jealous housewife now? We’re on the way for your ultra sound.” He turned to her, forcing his expression to not show how much her lack of faith and trust in him was hurting him.
“Why won’t you tell me where you’ve been? I can smell perfume on you. Just tell me where you were. Why were you so late? Dammit Eric, say something.” She yelled at him but he remained silent, watching her. He couldn’t answer her because he couldn’t tell her what he’d spent the morning doing and he wasn’t game to try and give her any kind of answer because her anger and lack of trust in him was tearing him a part inside and he didn’t trust that his voice wouldn’t show how much she was hurting him.
Finally he said. “I’m not having this discussion in the car Natasha. If you can’t trust me, that’s your insecurities showing. I haven’t done anything wrong so stop trying to turn this into a pointless argument.”
He was spared her answering him back by the limo pulling up outside the doctor’s clinic. As they walked into the clinic, he went to take her hand trying to improve the mood between them when they were going to be seeing their babies soon but she pulled away from him and his hand dropped back to his side. He shot her an angry look over her behaviour but kept his mouth shut.
The doctor ushered them both in straight away and Eric sat on a chair by the examination table as Natasha was told to move her clothing to bare her stomach. He put some of the clear gel on her skin and as he watched the monitor he began to move the probe over her stomach until he found their babies.
Eric watched the doctor for signs that everything was ok and he studied the monitor but he couldn’t make out anything on it.
“Would you like to know the sex of your babies?” The doctor looked between the two of them.
“I didn’t want to know at first but I think I would like to now.” She turned to Eric. “What about you?”
His eyes met hers and he nodded. He could feel the doctor looking at them both which didn’t surprise him much given how much tension there was radiating off the two of them right now.
“Well, your babies are growing nicely, everything looks fine and I can tell you that you are having one of each, a boy and a girl.” The doctor told them.
“Seriously? Did you hear that Eric? A boy and a girl.” Natasha’s face filled with wonder and when he met her eyes, a little of his anger towards her melted away at her expression.
“Yes I did.” He turned his gaze back to th
e monitor.
The rest of the examination passed fairly quickly with them getting to hear the two heart beats and another lecture about looking after herself and maintaining a healthy balanced diet plus to make sure she got some gentle exercise. Eric’s dark mood lifted slightly when he wondered to himself if making love daily would be considered gentle exercise. Although he wasn’t sure there would be any more love making if neither of them could move past their kind of Mexican standoff over him being late and her not trusting him.
When the doctor was finished he told Natasha she could go to the bathroom since she had to have a full bladder for the ultra sound and Eric waited in the doctor’s office for her.
The drive back to the house was in silence as he was still frustrated over her lack of faith in him and she was busy studying the little black and white photo of their babies. He watched her press her hand against the curve of her stomach and his heart contracted. They both should have been so excited right now but instead everything was fucked up with the tension that radiated off both of them.
When they walked into the house Alice came to greet them, took one look at their faces and hers fell. “Oh dear.” Eric greeted her then walked through to the staircase and headed upstairs to the bedroom. He just couldn’t face Alice right now.
He strode into the walk in closet and removed his suit before continuing through to the bathroom naked to have a shower. The warm water beating down on him did little to improve his mood, in fact he’d gradually moved from anger to an overwhelming sadness. It cut deep that Natasha didn’t trust him. Ok, smelling of another woman’s perfume probably wasn’t the ideal situation to find himself in but their relationship had been almost perfect for several weeks now. He spent all his free time with her and did everything he could to prove how much she meant to him without actually telling her he loved her and yet she’d been so quick to assume he must be seeing someone else.
When he finally stepped out of the shower and dried off, he wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom to go and get dressed. Natasha was sitting on one of the lounge chairs in the bedroom and he hesitated briefly when he saw her before continuing on into the closet to find clothes to wear. He pulled on faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt before joining her in the bedroom.
Taming Eric Page 43