When she’d slipped her bag over her shoulder, he took her hand and together they headed down the stairs onto the sand. He glanced over at her admiring how beautiful she looked in her white shorts and sleeveless top in various shades of green. She wore flip flops on her feet and she had her hair pulled back into a high pony tail.
It was a warm day and even he had chosen to dress casually to suit the weather and location, wearing shorts, a singlet top and thongs. It was the most casually attired he’d ever been around Natasha apart from naked of course but she had grinned when she first saw his clothes and had hugged him, kissing him deeply so he was guessing she liked what she saw. Well, he hoped she did because if the bronzed idiot was here today, he needed to be able to compete with him.
There were plenty of scantily clad women getting around and although he wasn’t immune to the fact that many of them were looking at him and smiling at him in an inviting way, he had no interest in any woman other than the one by his side.
He led them down to the water’s edge and they began to walk along, the waves crashing over their feet. They were both silent as they walked, both watching people as they sunbaked, swam in the waves, and smiled as kids screamed and chased each other around.
It was the familiar sight of a group of young surfers that finally got Eric’s attention and he stopped walking, forcing Natasha to stop too since he was still holding her hand. “Well, well.”
He saw her turn towards him from the corner of his eye but he was too busy staring at Brodie to focus on his wife. “So months later and he’s still just wasting his life surfing.” It was only when he felt fingernails being dug hard into his hand that he glanced down at Natasha. “What’s wrong baby?”
“Don’t you dare start Eric.” Her eyes flashed a warning at him. “If we just keep walking he might not see us and anyway, it’s been months, he probably wouldn’t recognise us anymore.”
He couldn’t help grinning at her words. Was she kidding herself? “Oh baby, I’ll bet anything, Brodie remembers you. You’re not easy to forget.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.
She smirked at him. “Well if he does remember us Mr CEO, my guess is he’ll have found meeting you a far more memorable experience than meeting me. I thought you were going to hit the man. You were all beating your chest and grunting last time.”
He gave her an indignant look. “I did not grunt. I was merely making it perfectly clear that you are mine and he needed to back off.”
“I think he got it Eric. The whole making it perfectly clear that we were sleeping together thing, would have given him the message.” She said dryly.
“We weren’t sleeping together baby. That wasn’t sleeping. That was sex, lots and lots of hot sex.” He grinned and Natasha laughed at him while shaking her head.
They continued to walk and had almost come up to where Brodie and his surfer mates were when Eric noticed one turn to Brodie and nudge him before they both looked up and saw them. He watched the younger man’s face light up with a big smile until his gaze fell on her stomach wiping the smile immediately. Eric struggled to contain the feeling of satisfaction over his reaction to seeing Natasha pregnant. Nothing quite like planting your seed in the womb of a woman to make other men realise she was off limits he thought to himself. “You are such a jerk Rothman.” The voice in his head reprimanded him for his macho caveman tendencies.
He tightened his grip on her hand as Brodie started walking over to them but she pulled free of his firm grasp to hug Brodie and he felt the familiar wave of jealousy flood his body at the big smile she was giving that bronzed idiot.
“Wow, just look at you.” Eric ground his teeth together at the way the surfer idiot’s eyes were moving up and down his wife’s body. “I haven’t seen you in a long time. So how are you? Apart from very pregnant.”
“Eight months pregnant with twins Brodie, plus Eric and I are married.” Natasha told him and Eric pulled himself up to his full height, his look challenging when he met the younger man’s eyes. He knew he was acting like he was the top rooster in the hen house but something about Brodie just made him like that and he wanted to strut around, making it clear to everyone that Natasha was his.
“So you two finally got your acts together?” Brodie held his hand out to Eric. “Congratulations.”
Eric eyed off the hand being held out to him for a moment until he felt Natasha elbow him, telling him to stop just standing there and reluctantly he took the younger man’s hand and shook it.
“So what have you been up to Brodie other than surfing?” Natasha asked.
“What else is there in life but surfing Nat? I work nights so my days are mostly free. I surf as much as I can because I want to go Pro.” Eric stiffened at Brodie calling his wife Nat. No one, not even him shortened her name and it pissed him off that the bronzed idiot showed that level of familiarity and thought it was ok to abbreviate it. He stood by his wife’s side bristling with indignation and almost missed out on hearing the rest of their conversation.
“What about a girlfriend Brodie? Is there no significant other to share your life with?” She asked and Eric tensed as he waited to hear his response.
Natasha glanced up at him, one eyebrow raised and he smiled innocently at her. He knew that she knew exactly what was going on with him though. She seemed to have no trouble seeing through him. Ok so he was eager to hear what the bronzed idiot had to say, whether he had a girlfriend or not.
“Yeah there’s someone. She’s a surfer too. She wants to go Pro like me. She’ll be here later when she finishes work. It would have been good for you to meet Chloe, but maybe some other time.”
Eric felt relief flow through him and suddenly Brodie wasn’t such a threat to him anymore. He was concerned about his wife though and the fact she’d been on her feet for quite a while. “Baby, don’t you think we should get going? You shouldn’t be on your feet too long.”
“My feet are fine Eric, but food, I could use some lunch soon.”
Brodie’s friends started calling to him and when they all looked the other men were putting their wetsuits back on, obviously getting ready to surf again.
“I’d better get going. Hey, I’ll give you my number so you can let me know when your babies are born and when you have it on your phone, ring my number then I’ll be able to save your number to mine. Have you got your phone on you?” Brodie asked and Natasha dug in her bag until she pulled her phone out.
Eric tensed. He wasn’t happy about this at all. There was no need for them to exchange numbers as far as he was concerned. Brodie was never likely to come and see the twins once they were born so what the fuck the palsy exchanging of numbers was for, he didn’t know, but he sure as hell didn’t like it.
They had just finished with their swapping of phone numbers when Brodie was called back by his mates again. He shrugged. “I have to go. Good luck with the babies and congratulations on your marriage.” He turned his gaze on Eric, his expression serious. “You treat her well man, you’ve got a real nice lady there.” And before Eric could come back with a comment which more than likely would have been a sarcastic one, Brodie ran back to his friends.
He watched him go, grinding his teeth in frustration at the younger man’s warning to him. He didn’t need that fucking idiot telling him how to treat his wife. He caught Natasha looking up at him and he turned to her, irritation in his eyes. “Who the fuck does he think he is? I don’t need to be told how to treat you by some young bronzed fucking idiot whose only goal in life is to fucking well spend his days surfing.”
Natasha elbowed him hard and he looked at her in surprise at her attack on him. She was staring at him with anger flashing in her eyes. “Oh get over it Eric. Brodie’s just looking out for me. He saw how upset I was last time we were here. He tried to comfort me. He didn’t want me just taking off the way I did, so stop treating him like he’s the bad guy all the time. Y
ou should be happy, he’s got a girlfriend, he told us that.”
“Yeah, so he says. Let’s get out of here and go get you something to eat. You said you were hungry.”
He was relieved when his wife’s expression warmed again and she smiled at him. “I am hungry. You know what I feel like? You’re probably going to cringe. I want a donar kebab with loads of hommus and white sauce, yum!”
He couldn’t help laughing at her expression. “Fuck baby, I want to be that kebab. How can you make food into something orgasmic all the time? If a donar kebab is what you want, then a donar kebab is what you’ll get. Come on, lets get out of here.” He took her hand and together they started making their way back towards the stairs that led up to the car park. “So where are we going to get this culinary delight from?” He asked.
“When I came to the beach by myself that time I walked up the road to a big shopping centre. If there isn’t some shop in the eatery there that has donar kebabs, I’ll be very surprised.”
He frowned when she said walking. “How much of a walk is it baby? You weren’t pregnant last time. I don’t want you overdoing it.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll be fine Eric, just don’t turn it into a sprint and I’ll get there. The doctor said gentle exercise is good for the babies and me, so stop worrying. You’re not going to call for the limo when we can walk up the road.”
They kept walking and had just made it to the bottom of the steps leading up to the car park when Natasha hesitated. “Eric, that’s…” She started to say but trailed off again and he looked over at her curiously.
“What is it baby?” He asked, following her gaze up the stairs but he couldn’t see anything.
She shook her head at him. “It’s nothing.”
They continued up the stairs and started the walk to the shops which ended up taking them about 20 minutes since he insisted they go at a leisurely pace. He ignored Natasha’s eye rolling at him when he made it clear he wanted them to take their time and once they arrived they went straight to the eatery to look for somewhere that was selling kebabs.
Once their kebabs had been made, Eric found them a table in the busy eatery so they could sit down and enjoy their lunch. Natasha began to moan at her first mouthful, her eyes closed as she savoured the flavours and he watched her, chuckling at her reaction. “They should get you to advertise their product baby. When people see your face, they’re going to flock here to order donar kebabs.”
She would make a great advertisement for the food because watching her reaction was making him hard. How the hell she could make eating look like she was in the throes of a climax he didn’t know. All he knew was it drove him crazy and he found it hard to concentrate on his own meal when his wife was turning him on so much simply eating her lunch.
Much as he’d have liked to call Henry to come and get them so he could take his wife back to the hotel and fuck her until she moaned and groaned for him and not some damned kebab, he didn’t. He didn’t want to spoil her day after the shit Vivian had caused for them last night so he forced his desire down and simply watched her as she ate and looked around at the crowds of people in the eatery. She was watching a young girl eating chips and gravy, her face covered in gravy which her mother finally wiped off her and Eric watched Natasha’s small smile as she absently rubbed her pregnant stomach. Was she trying to picture herself one day wiping down Erica’s face maybe?
He asked her what she wanted to do next but she shook her head. “Nothing Eric. Can we go back to the hotel please? I feel a bit tired.”
“Of course baby. You need to get your rest.”
He pulled out his phone to call Henry to bring the limo and pick them up and once that was done, he took Natasha’s hand, pulled her to her feet and together they headed back through the shopping centre to the doors which led outside to where Henry would be waiting for them.
Back at the hotel Natasha lay down on the bed to have a rest and Eric climbed on with her, curling his arm around her waist. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep baby.” He said, pressing his lips to her ear.
“I love you Eric.” She told him sleepily and he chuckled quietly at the tone in her voice.
“I love you too Mrs Rothman, now sleep baby. I’ll see you when you wake up.” He kissed her neck and as he lay there behind her, his arm around her, he felt her body relax and her breathing even out as she drifted off to sleep.
While his wife slept Eric pulled out his laptop and started going through his emails and answering any that required his attention. He gave Alice a call to find out how the progress with the nursery was going and if her enthusiastic cries were any indication, it was all going well and looking ‘simply beautiful’ as she told him several times.
He got off the phone with a grin on his face after about half an hour of Alice’s excitable chatter and she didn’t normally do ‘excitable chatter’ so the nursery really must have been coming along nicely.
Natasha was still sound asleep and he considered going and lying down with her for a little while when his mobile phone rang. He looked at it in surprise since it was only supposed to be ringing if there was an emergency. Given he’d just spoken to Alice, he was curious as to who the hell was ringing him.
It was his new PA Alex and Eric sighed. Alex was good but he was no Natasha. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be ringing him unless it was an emergency and anything work related wouldn’t be an emergency since he’d made sure everything was running smoothly before he took the time off work for his wedding and honeymoon.
“What is it Alex?” He snapped impatiently down the line.
“There’s been an incident at the office Eric. A woman has broken into your office and it would appear she’s taken the disc with all the company staff files on it.” Alex’s voice was tense.
“What the fuck Alex? What do you mean a woman’s broken into the office? Where the fuck were you when this was taking place?” He exploded down the line.
Alex started explaining that he’d been updating the company staff files and had left the office to go and get lunch. It was when he’d come back to eat in the office that he’d seen a blonde haired woman about to leave and when he’d questioned her, she’d told him she was hoping to surprise Mr Rothman.
He’d attempted to question her more but she’d brushed him off and left. It was when Alex had gone back into the office to continue the work he’d been doing before lunch that he noticed the disc was missing.
“When did this all happen?” Eric sighed impatiently.
“It was several hours ago now. I’ve been trying to ring you for ages. The hotel’s reception said they’d pass my messages through to you, did you get them?” Alex asked.
His PA’s words really pissed him off. There had been no messages from the hotel’s reception and he needed to firstly check that Alex had in fact contacted them and if he had, someone had better have a fucking good explanation as to why he’d not received any messages.
He wrapped up his call with his PA and immediately called the police. It sounded like Vivian had been the one in his office and she had stolen something of his and he wanted it back. “Fuck her.” He ground out, raking his hands through his hair impatiently. She had gone too far now.
The police were reluctant to do much given there was no proof it was Vivian since Alex didn’t really know her. She was before his time after all so he couldn’t verify for sure that it was her, but they did agree to go around to her home and question her at least.
Once he got off the phone he checked on Natasha but she was still in a deep sleep, a small smile curving her lips. He wondered what she was dreaming about to be smiling like that, but he didn’t want to disturb her and he needed to get downstairs and tear the head off whoever it was that hadn’t passed on messages from Alex.
He headed down in the elevator, bristling with anger. When he got down to the lobby it turned out that th
e hotel had been through a staff change over for the afternoon to evening shift and somehow the information from Alex had been misplaced. He made it perfectly clear he was pissed off with the service or lack of it and after the manager was brought out to apologise profusely and the staff member who had neglected to pass on the information to the staff for the next shift was contacted and made to apologise, Eric went back upstairs so Natasha wouldn’t wake and find him gone. The manager had offered to fire the employee but as pissed as he was, Eric wasn’t prepared to have the young man fired. It wouldn’t change anything. Vivian would still have gone to his office and stolen the file and as angry as he was, he wasn’t that big an arse. He knew his wife would be upset with him if he’d insisted the hotel fire the employee anyway.
His phone rang on the way back up to the suite and it was the police officer he’d spoken to earlier. It seemed Vivian was not at her home and from what neighbours had said, she’d flown out of the country on business.
When he got off the phone to the police he walked into the bedroom. Natasha was still asleep and he crawled onto the bed carefully. “Baby wake up.” He shook her gently but she simply turned with a sleepy smile on her face and reached out to him. He grabbed her hands holding her back from touching him and her eyes shot open, hurt evident in her gaze. Fuck she didn’t understand why he was holding her back obviously.
He groaned at her expression. “Baby don’t look like that. I need to talk to you and I can’t concentrate if you touch me.”
She looked up at him and must have realised there was something going on. “What’s wrong?” She reached up to cup his cheek.
“Alex called baby. A woman got into the office and has gone through the personal files for everyone.”
“Everyone? Who? What are you talking about Eric? What woman?” Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh god you don’t mean Vivian?”
He nodded. “Alex doesn’t know her for obvious reasons and we only ran into her at the restaurant last night so I didn’t think we were going to potentially have a problem with her, but yes, from Alex’s description, it sounds like its Vivian. He caught her coming out of the office, but she managed to bluff her way through why she was there. Fuck I could kill Alex for not keeping an eye on things. He’s my PA for fuck sakes.”
Taming Eric Page 55