“Eric darling.” That voice he’d hoped to never hear again immediately grated on his nerves like fingernails down a chalkboard. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Natasha tense up and his heart sank that his ex was going to spoil their evening now.
When he reluctantly looked up at her, Vivian was smiling at him and there was a predatory gleam in her eyes that made him feel sick. She bent down to kiss him, obviously intending to kiss him on the lips but he turned his head so she only got his cheek instead.
She wasn’t deterred by his less than enthusiastic response to her presence though. “Darling, fancy meeting you here. I’ve missed you Eric. You should have given me a call. We could have hooked up.” She ran her blood red painted fingernails through his hair and he almost couldn’t contain his shudder of revulsion at her touch. How the hell had he ever been involved with this woman? She hadn’t even been that fucking good in bed as sex was too messy for her. She hated anything that left her less than her usually perfectly groomed self.
“I didn’t call you Vivian because we don’t see each other anymore. I ended our relationship, remember?”
“Oh darling, I thought you were just going through a phase. I know that my career kept me busy so I didn’t have as much time for you, but I have plenty of time now.”
Eric stared at Vivian in amazement at how she was acting like he hadn’t ended their relationship in his office all those months ago. “I wasn’t going through a phase and I have no desire to spend any time with you at all Vivian. Now if you could excuse us please, Natasha and I would like to enjoy the rest of our meal.” He said dismissively but she merely laughed at him before her eyes turned to study Natasha.
She gave his wife barely more than a cursory glance before turning back to him. “How nice of you Eric. You always were a good employer taking your little assistant out for a meal like this.”
“Natasha isn’t my PA anymore Vivian, she’s my wife. We married yesterday, obviously you hadn’t heard although it was mentioned in the papers that we were engaged and due to be married.” Eric was getting tired of this conversation now. He suspected Vivian already knew Natasha was his wife, she was just trying to mess with them. She wouldn’t like losing and she’d definitely lost him, a long time ago.
“I’ve been out of the country the last couple of months Eric and I heard something about you getting married but the papers are known to exaggerate at times. I thought it might have been a publicity stunt or something.” Vivian’s eyes shifted to Natasha again. “Well, well, well, so your little assistant who was always making moon eyes at you finally managed to tie down the great Eric Rothman. How ever did you manage that?” She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at Natasha and Eric felt his anger threatening to boil over. He needed to get that bitch away from his wife before she upset her and he knew the longer Vivian hung around, that Natasha would be hurt. He could already see the discomfort in her eyes as she stared up at his ice cold ex.
When Vivian’s eyes shifted to her pregnant stomach and Eric watched the way her eyes filled with a mix of contempt and something else he couldn’t decipher he just wanted Vivian gone. Before he could say something she sneered at Natasha. “You have got to be kidding me. You used the oldest trick in the book to snare him? Who could have guessed it? Ms Quiet and Unassuming Barrington landed the millionaire by shotgun wedding. Why didn’t I think of trying that one myself?” Her voice dripped venom and Eric had heard enough. The pain showing on Natasha’s face which had lost all colour sent rage flowing through him until he tightened his hands into fists. He longed to wrap them around Vivian’s neck and he leapt to his feet grabbing her by the shoulders and hauling her towards the entrance to the restaurant. He was trembling with the rage she had brought out in him and he wanted her as far away from his wife as he could get her. “Get the fuck out of here you heartless, soulless bitch. I don’t want you anywhere near Natasha or myself again. You are nothing but ice inside, you have no idea what she is like. You are nothing compared to her. She has a heart, she loves me as I love her and she’s beautiful and intelligent where as you are nothing more than a product of your cosmetic surgeon with nothing but a cold, dark sorry excuse for a heart beating in your chest, so piss off!”
Once he’d shoved her back well away from their table he released her feeling repulsed at having touched her for even just a few moments. “No wonder I dumped you. There’s no way in hell I’d ever want a woman like you Vivian.”
Despite his fury and the disgust in his eyes when he looked at her, Vivian still stood before him looking cool and unruffled by his harsh words. “Well, you protest a lot darling, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself immensely whenever we made love.”
He couldn’t help himself, he laughed at her words. “Do you want to know what I did when we had sex Vivian, because no way in hell was that making love, do you want to know how I got through it, what I had to do to even come with you? I pretended it was Natasha. I had to pretend I was making love to Natasha to get through fucking you.” He shot her one more contemptuous look and walked back to the table, his body rigid with his anger and frustration. When he turned Vivian was still standing watching him. “Don’t bother us again.” He warned her.
“I’m here with my lover anyway. I only came to say hello when I saw you here. It was good to see you Eric and congratulations on your marriage to… to the little woman.” She spat out, her eyes full of venom in their ice blue depths when she turned her gaze on Natasha.
He sat down, tension still radiating off him in waves. He was so fucking pissed off that Vivian had turned up at the same restaurant as them and ruined their evening. Natasha was looking very pale and strained around the eyes and it angered him to see her like that. He hated that his wife was upset and he silently called Vivian everything from A to Z and back in his head.
He reached out to take her hand. “I’m sorry baby. Don’t let that bitch get to you. She sure as hell isn’t worth it.”
“Do you think I tricked you into marriage.” She asked, her voice quivering and Eric felt his heart clench painfully in his chest. Fuck what that bitch had done.
“For fuck sakes baby, no. I know you didn’t trick me into marriage. Damn that bitch for what she’s done to you. Baby, you know I’m the one who proposed marriage. Not once have you ever so much as hinted that we should marry, even when you knew you were pregnant. It’s my fault you got pregnant because I forgot the condom. Don’t let Vivian’s venom get to you. That’s what she wants baby. Don’t give her the satisfaction, please.” He begged.
“Yes Eric, but if I hadn’t have fallen pregnant, would you still have wanted to marry me?” Her eyes searched his face and he cursed silently.
“Of course I would have wanted to marry you pregnant or not Natasha. I wanted to marry you because I love you and because I wanted to make you mine. I wasn’t going to risk another man taking you away from me. Don’t do this sweetheart, don’t let that woman’s venom poison your mind.”
Before Natasha could respond the waiter turned up with their main meals and he kept silent until the food was served and they were alone again. “Do you still want to share our meals baby?” He asked and she nodded. Eric served them both half of each meal just wanting to try and get their evening back to where it had been before Vivian showed up.
They ate in silence but he kept shooting glances at Natasha who seemed caught up in her own thoughts. She wouldn’t look at him and he felt his heart rate kick up as he became more and more tense. Surely she wasn’t angry or upset with him? He couldn’t stand it if they’re marriage was already under strain because his ex had showed up.
Once they’d finished eating her asked her if she wanted dessert but she told him she wanted to get back to the hotel. “I just need to go to the bathroom before we leave.” She told him.
“Ok baby, I’ll give Henry a call to bring the limo to come and get us.” He told her, pulling his phone from his pocket as he w
atched Natasha rise from her seat and head off towards the back of the restaurant where the restrooms were.
After he’d called Henry he sat thinking back over his encounter with Vivian while he waited for Natasha to get back from the ladies’ room. She was gone a while and he hoped she was ok. He was considering sending someone in to check on her when he finally saw her heading back towards their table. She looked like she was close to tears and he jumped up. “Are you ok baby? You were gone so long. Are you sick?”
“I’m fine Eric, I just want to get out of here.”
He searched her face for a few moments but she averted her gaze from his and he couldn’t read what was going on behind those stunning blue green eyes of hers.
With a deep sigh he took her hand and headed to the restaurant entrance to pay their bill before they walked outside to where Henry and the limo were waiting for them. He opened the rear door for her and waited while she got into the car. She slid across the seat to the opposite side and sat there in silence for the drive back to the hotel. Eric was worried about her as she looked so sad and he could see the distress in her eyes. He was so pissed off that Vivian had turned up at the restaurant and ruined their evening but he was worried about the effect it had had on Natasha as her mood had changed dramatically since his ex had first showed up at their table.
When they got back to the hotel she was still silent on the ride up in the elevator. She wouldn’t even look at him. He could feel the tension mounting and his stomach tightened as he felt the first wave of fear run through him over Natasha’s continued silence. Fuck but if she hated him or blamed him for Vivian’s behaviour at the restaurant, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. He loved his wife so much and the thought of her being upset and hurt and possibly angry with him now scared the crap out of him.
Once inside their suite Natasha kicked off her shoes and went to sit down on the lounge while Eric walked straight to the bar and poured himself a scotch. He walked over to the lounge with his drink in hand and stood staring down at her.
“Alright baby, talk to me. I know something is wrong and don’t you try and tell me everything is fine.” He sat down alongside of her.
“It’s Vivian, what she said.” Her voice was so low Eric had to strain to hear her. “When I went to the bathroom, she came in and she told me a few things that upset me.”
He stiffened, his anger building within him again at her words. Fuck that bitch. So she’d got to Natasha when she went to the bathroom and she’d been alone with that nasty piece of work. “What did that bitch say to you baby?” He asked, trying to keep his tone gentle with her and not let her see how angry he was feeling inside.
“She told me that you would get bored with me, that I don’t have enough sexual experience to hold someone of your needs. She said that you two had a great sex life and that you didn’t dump her, she dumped you because you got too possessive.” Finally her eyes met his and Eric felt himself starting to shake as the rage surging through his body threatened to overwhelm him.
“Fuck that bitch.” He got up off the lounge and kneeled down in front of Natasha, parting her legs so he could crouch between her knees. He took her hands in his and held them tightly, trying to warm them as they felt cold to his touch. “Baby please, don’t do this. Vivian is lying. Can’t you see she’s just trying to cause problems for us? She didn’t take it very well when I called it off with her. She kept ringing me for days afterwards until I changed my mobile number just to try and get her to leave me alone. Sweetheart, I love you. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved and the only woman I’ll ever want.” He could hear the note of desperation in his voice as he tried to convince her that he was telling her the truth.
“She just sounded so convincing Eric and to be honest a lot of what she said made sense to me. I’ve wondered myself why you chose me when I’m not one of your usual model type girlfriends. I do worry that I’m not interesting enough in bed for you when you’re so much more experienced than I am and I still wonder why you married me. A man doesn’t have to marry the woman he got pregnant anymore. Times have changed.”
Eric swore at her words, a long string of vehemently thrown out curses. “Dammit Natasha, I’m going to say this only once and then I don’t want to waste any more time talking about that heartless, soulless bitch, ok?” He waited for her nod of acceptance.
He raised her hands to his lips and began to kiss her over her palms and wrists, trying to put all the love he felt for her into each kiss. “Sweetheart, I love you, only you. I admit when I first suggested we have that week away I had only intended for it to be that week and then it would be over. I’ve never done the happily ever after thing. I’d never met a woman I wanted to do the happily ever after thing with until you, but then somewhere over that week, I think when I came back from that meeting I couldn’t get out of and found you gone, I panicked. I thought you’d gone at first until I realised all your things were still here and then I got mad because you’d gone out like you didn’t care that I wasn’t here.” Natasha’s mouth opened as if she was about to interrupt him and he held up his hand to silence her. “Let me finish, please baby. By the time you got back to the hotel that day I’d worked myself up into quite a state and I went nuts when I saw you. It was anger, relief and as you know, it got of hand very quickly and that’s where for the first time ever, I forgot all about a condom. Think about it baby. If that bitch Vivian was so hot, how come I never forgot about a condom with her? God I couldn’t think of anything worse than her carrying my child. Well, she wouldn’t, she’d have had an abortion for sure. All she cares about is herself and how she looks. No way would she risk a pregnancy that could destroy her body. That’s how she would look at it anyway. You can trust me baby, that if the worst had ever happened and Vivian had fallen pregnant with my child no way in hell would I have married her. Please believe me, I didn’t marry you because you got pregnant. I couldn’t marry a woman I didn’t love no matter the circumstances and I am aware of the times sweetheart. I know a man and woman don’t need to do the shotgun wedding anymore.” He kissed her hands again as he waited to see how she would react to his words.
“You wanted me to have an abortion though Eric, remember? You were so determined to not become a father.” She pointed out and he felt his heart sinking. He couldn’t seem to get through to her. Bloody Vivian had done a lot of damage. He couldn’t handle it if she’d done too much damage though, too much for them to come back from this now.
“You know why though baby. You know how scared I was. I was so convinced I’d make a terrible father that I’d be the same way my own father was with me and I wouldn’t want any child to have to grow up feeling so unwanted and hated by their father as I did. I’m still scared Natasha, I’m still terrified that I’ll be a bad father, but I can promise you that I will try to be the best father I can possibly be.” He dropped his head into her lap suddenly feeling tears burning at the back of his eyes.
“Please baby, please listen to me, don’t let Vivian poison our marriage. I love you, god I love you so much. I hate what she’s done to you, the doubt I see in your eyes now. She dares to tell you that you won’t be able to hold my interest, that you’re not the kind of woman that I normally feel attracted to and that you won’t be able to satisfy me in bed? Dammit, think about that. The reason I’ve never gone out with a woman like you before is because I never wanted to put my heart at risk of being broken baby. Those other women, ones like Vivian served a purpose, but I could never have fallen for women like them. I used them for my own purposes, I admit that, but they didn’t exactly walk into the relationship with their eyes closed, they knew what they were getting. They got everything they needed, all that shallow, self centred women like them wanted. They got my money, gifts and dare I say it, the publicity but you were different. You’ve never shown any interest in my money. You’ve never asked me for anything baby.”
He lifted his head to give her a tiny smile. “
I knew I was in trouble during our week here sweetheart. I was reeling from you giving me your virginity, feeling overwhelmed by the sex because despite what Vivian tried to make you believe, the sex between you and I is the most exciting, most intense of my entire life. I can never seem to get enough of you. No matter how many times we make love, I’m thinking about sex with you and then I want you all over again. You turn me on in a way no other woman has ever been able to do, but it’s not just sex. I can’t wait to get home from work to just be with you. I love it when you get sassy and tell me off, I love that you stand up to me, I love everything about you baby. You think that Vivian is more attractive than you? That bitch is nothing more than an empty shell that is a walking advertisement for her plastic surgeon. Hell, I don’t even know what’s real on her anymore. She eats like a bird, constantly worried about her weight, her appearance, but she is too shallow to realise that it’s pointless having a nice cover on your book if the story inside is dull and boring. Vivian bored the crap out of me baby. Please believe me when I say that she means nothing to me, nothing at all and I’m pissed off that we’re giving that bitch so much of our time now.” He dropped his head back in her lap and closed his eyes when he felt her fingers combing lightly through his hair.
They were both silent for a while. Eric simply enjoying her touch as she ran her fingers through his hair and he hoped that she had listened to everything he’d just told her and realised that he loved her and that she would stop letting Vivian’s hateful words affect her.
He raised his head to her again. “You are so beautiful sweetheart. You are a true beauty, beautiful on the outside and beautiful on the inside. You have a big heart and when you look at me with those gorgeous loving eyes of yours, you make me feel like everything is going to be alright. You are smart and witty and everyone loves you. Trust me, Alice has met some of my ex girlfriends and she’s never given a damn about any of them but you, well, she loves you. I never introduced Alice and Vivian though. Vivian doesn’t play well with others as you’ve probably worked out. I couldn’t have her belittling Alice. She tends to treat my staff like they’re the dirt on the soles of her shoes and I won’t have them exposed to that level of disrespect.”
Taming Eric Page 53