She was also incredibly brave. During those first encounters, I’d always threatened to fire her. She’d had everything to lose and she’d constantly put it on the line. She’d never stopped and for what? A kiss, a touch?
It was an admirable trait which I believed she invested in the wrong thing.
I thought I heard the elevator open but I wasn’t expecting anyone. The penthouse was my escape and no one bothered me when I was there.
The front desk always informed me whenever I had a guest so I dismissed it and turned my attention back to the beautiful view before my eyes.
“Mrs. Gallagher?” Her voice was soft and gentle so it didn’t startle me.
I turned slowly and found her standing in my living room, looking right at me. She was wearing a nice casual dress and a pair of heels. Her hair was falling on one side of her face giving her a lovely innocent look.
She had a couple of books in her hands and was carrying a small bag over her shoulder which I assumed had her laptop. I couldn’t help notice it was way past midnight. Was this how late she finished her studies?
“I know our plans were for tomorrow night,” she said nervously.
It almost felt like my mind had projected my thoughts of her into reality.
“My brother showed up at my place uninvited today.” Her voice was low as she spoke. “Being around him is a bit stressful, so I just thought…” she trailed off.
I placed my wine glass over the railing and slowly made my way over to her. When we were standing just a few inches apart, I stopped.
Her eyes moved over my physical frame and settled on my face. She had that intense look of desire and restraint.
When most people looked at me, it was with a kind of poorly concealed lewdness that over time I’d come to ignore.
When Olivia looked at me, she had the power to make me feel like the most beautiful creature in the world. Her gaze was always accompanied by so much more.
When she looked at me the way she was looking at me at that moment, it felt like she wanted to tear off my clothes and make love to me right there and the odd thing was, I had no intention of stopping her.
“To be honest Mrs. Gallagher, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
I wanted to reach out and touch her, but I couldn’t because I could see there was more in her eyes, more than what her words portrayed and that slightly frightened me.
“Olivia, there can’t be anything more between us other than this. You understand that, right?” I asked.
“I know, and I understand. But that’s not going to stop me from developing feelings for you.”
How could she be so confident? “It should, Olivia, because you’re only going to get hurt.”
“I don’t think you want to hurt me,” she said.
I turned and walked away from her. “I don’t, but circumstances have a way of doing so. Look,” I faced her, “I need you to understand that what we have, here and now, it’s all it’s ever going to be. I’ll never be able to give you more than this.”
She placed her books and bag down and took a step towards me. “Here and now, you’re not my boss and I’m not your employee. Here and now, we’re two people who are attracted to each other. Here and now…,” she placed her arms around my waist. “We get to have equal say.” Her voice grew unbelievably soft. “Here and now, Mrs. Gallagher, you’re mine and I’m yours.”
She stared deeply into my eyes as her words took effect. Her confidence was so sexy I couldn’t help being swayed by her passionate words.
I closed the space between us and kissed her, she softly responded, holding me closer, more intimately and my heart seemed to expand in my chest. This was what I’d been craving to feel all night.
I shouldn’t have let the words or the moment mean so much to me, but every time I tried to put up a wall of resistance, Olivia always knew how to work her way past it. It was like she had a manual written about me. I would’ve given anything to get my hands on it.
I broke the kiss and slightly pulled back. I touched her face and lightly ran my fingers over her lovely features. Her green eyes were always filled with so much life and so much light. I enjoyed looking into them.
“You want to sit down and tell me more about your brother?” I asked, feeling the need to want to know her better.
She smiled at me. “Can we go to the balcony? It looks so beautiful out there,” she said.
“Why don’t you go make yourself comfortable while I get you a glass and some more wine?”
She pecked my lips and slowly released me. I watched her as she made her way out to the balcony and the turbulence of emotions going through me calmed.
When I joined her, the night seemed to have grown even more beautiful. I couldn’t explain it. Olivia was standing where I had been earlier on, with her chin high and her eyes closed.
I silently watched her before she knew I was there and took in how her presence seemed to have changed everything around me.
“So your brother showed up uninvited, huh?” I said, trying not to let myself get sucked in by the moment.
She turned to face me and nodded. I handed her the glass, uncorked the bottle and poured her some wine. After placing the bottle down, I reached for my glass and took a sip, then silently exhaled.
“His name is Greg. We’re very different,” she said.
I was already aware of everything I needed to know about him, about her family, but I wanted to hear Olivia’s thoughts. I wanted to know how she felt.
“Sometimes I think one of us was adopted.” She laughed softly as she looked into the horizon. The starlight was illuminating her face and giving her an angelic glow. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
“He has a girlfriend and a kid and they’re all living with my parents. He can’t keep a job so my parents, who are already struggling, support his family. I started helping them out and he found out where I lived, so when I went home, I found him at my door.”
I could already tell he was going to be trouble. Olivia was working so hard. His presence was only going to disrupt her life. “What does he want?” I asked.
She shrugged her shoulders. “He says he came to check up on me, but I’m pretty sure the cheque I sent home is what brought him here.”
“He’s here for money?”
“He’s my brother and I know him. So I think, yes. He’s going to find an angle and he’s going to exploit it regardless of whether or not I get hurt.”
I tightened my jaw in aggravation at the thought. “Why don’t you ask him to leave?”
“I love my parents. I wouldn’t want them to think that I kicked him out after he came all this way to see me.”
“Don’t they know the kind of person he is?”
“They have an idea, but they always choose to see the best in him.”
“So what are you going to do?” This was a family problem that I couldn’t get involved in. It was up to Olivia to deal with it.
“Well, tomorrow I’m going to find him another place to stay. He said he wants to try out his luck in New York, which is silly because I’ve been here for years and he’s only been here for a day.”
“Is he unlikely to cause you trouble then?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Olivia,” I reached for her hand and turned her to face me. She’d shown so much strength, I would’ve been disappointed to think she’d let her brother take advantage of her. “You’re not who you were a few months ago. You’ve changed and you’ve grown, far much more and in such little time. I’d hate to see you show weakness when it comes to your brother, someone you know will hurt you at any opportunity he gets.”
“I’m doing all I can right now,” she said.
“It’s not enough.”
Her eyes grew a bit wider as her pupils dilated.
“You can’t let him get in the way of what you want. You need to stand up to him. You need to stand up to your parents. You cannot let anyone have so much power over you,
” I said. “You’re not weak anymore, Olivia.”
She straightened up.
“You have the power to do anything and everything you want right here,” I closed my hand around hers. “You need to exercise that power, couple it up with your strong will. The results will amaze you.”
I was trying to empower her and for the most part, I thought it was working because her stance grew bolder and more defined, but when she closed the distance between us and kissed me, I realized what she’d been projecting on.
Her arms slowly came around me and I found myself automatically responding to her. She was sweet and slow but ravenous and passionate.
I wrapped my arms around her and responded in kind, but just when it was about to create a dangerous flare, she broke the kiss and pulled away.
I could still feel her lips on mine when I opened my eyes. I found her looking at me with an acuteness I’d never seen before, which froze my entire being.
I’d always known how to read people, but once again, this was a quality in Olivia that was new to me. She seemed to always know how to surprise me.
She ran her index finger over the neckline of her dress and slowly went to settle on her throat, then moved down to her chest.
Her finger slowly trailed the buttons, which somehow seductively came undone. It was the sexiest move I’d ever lived to see, as I tried hard to swallow a ball of air in my throat.
My sexual yearning was at the peak. I wanted to reach out and kiss her senseless, but what she was doing was drawing such an insanely intense carnal reaction from me, I was too eager to see what she’d do next.
I felt silly to think I’d been prepared for it, but when she pulled down her dress and stepped out of it to reveal a seductive pair of a sexy red bra and a matching g-string, I closed my eyes and inhaled because the sight of her was irresistible.
She took a few steps back and went to sit on one of the lounge chairs and leaned back. She had the body of the Greek goddess Cytherea. Her eyes were looking at me with that familiar lust, her arms were laid right above her head and her lean sexy body was lying on the lounge in that alluring two-piece that made my insides hurt.
I did what any other red-blooded human being would have done, because I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. I went to her.
She welcomed me with a smile and wrapped her arms around my neck and our lips met in a kiss. It was odd that the tables had turned and I was the one trying to restrain my desire for her.
I trailed my hands over her body relearning the contours of her flesh against my fingers and deepened the kiss. Her mouth tasted of wine and something else, something stronger that merged with mine and made me lose myself in a kaleidoscope of confusion that extracted some form of self discovery.
I was no longer, Amelia Gallagher or Amelia Winston. I was someone who was learning what it was like to feel something for the very first time; without restraint, without doubt, without fear and without responsibility. I was, Amelia.
“Mrs. Gallagher,” Olivia said hoarsely in between our kiss.
“Amelia,” I breathed.
I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was surprised.
“When we’re here, when we’re together…” I took a deep breath to fill my lungs. I’d never given anyone else the personal privilege to address me by my first name. “I want you to call me, Amelia.”
She kissed me so fiercely when I said that, I felt everything she felt for me in that single moment and it was more than I was prepared to feel, so I pulled back in a battle to fight myself, to fight her and then she said my name for the very first time.
“Amelia.”
I lost the battle.
Chapter Forty
“Where are you going?”
My first sneak out attempt and I was barely out of bed before I got caught. I bit my lower lip and slowly turned around. “Uh, home... I have to go shower, change, deal with my overbearing brother… then head to work.”
I’d never woken up to Mrs. Gallagher… wait, Amelia… A smile curved up on my lips. I’d never woken up to Amelia sleeping right next me before.
“How about breakfast?” she said.
I was about to respond when I noticed the inviting smile on her lips and realized I was fully naked. “I could use some breakfast,” I said, failing to conceal my joy.
I had exposed a fraction of my heart to her and soared, so I refused to let myself submit to weakness. I had to admit though, knowing Amelia responded to confidence both empowered and motivated me.
She sat up on the bed and looked me up and down. “You think your boss could give you the day off?” she asked with a bit of a crooked smile.
I stood upright, ran both my hands through my hair, combing it back over my shoulders with my fingers and took in a deep breath, pushing my chest forward and intentionally, slightly, parted my legs. “You tell me,” I said in a low seductive voice.
She threw her head back on the pillow and released a soft laugh as she pulled the bedsheets and tightly clenched them between her legs as though smothering her yearning. “Get over here,” she said.
I laughed and got back on the bed, a bit too eagerly. I’d never seen this side of her before. She’d always been so unapproachable.
Now, she had this upward curve in her eyes which widened when she smiled. I’d always found her so breathtakingly beautiful; I’d never imagined there being an extension to that beauty. But there it was; the greatest discovery of my life and in it, a flower that bloomed from the seed.
As my heartbeat started to grow in speed and intensity, I watched her, realizing for the very first time, she was exposing a vulnerable side of herself to me.
When our lips recaptured, the kiss was so deeply intense and her lips so delicately soft, I could feel the hairs of my skin rising.
Her hands, even though free to roam about my body, stayed still along my waist, almost as if she was afraid to explore me further. Something about that simple touch made me feel like I could never live without it.
I broke the kiss and slightly pulled away just enough to meet her gaze and that was when it occurred to me. I was falling in love with her. This stunning enigma had captured my heart.
The realization hit me harder than I expected and a wave of panic traveled through me. “Wait,” I said.
I had no idea why I exercised my willpower at that exact, intimate moment. I was naked and on top of her while she was covered by a white satin sheet from her chest down, but still managed to be the loveliest sight I’d ever come across.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I closed my eyes shut as thoughts spiraled across my head. Had I really put enough thought into this whole thing? I wanted her, desperately. She made me strong, better, brave and powerful. I liked being that person.
My feelings for her were way beyond anything I’d ever experienced before. I’d felt it grow from mere attraction to admiration but now, it was something stronger, something deeper.
“I have these two meetings I can’t get out of,” the coward in me said. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.” I got off of her and almost fell face first on the carpeted floor, as I got off the bed and reached for a robe to cover myself up.
It was a grave moment of fear.
“Olivia,” Amelia said as she sat up.
I needed to get out of there. I needed to put my thoughts in order. It was so irresponsible of me to fall for her when I knew she’d never reciprocate my feelings.
“Livvy…” Her soft calm voice stopped me.
I faced her as my heartbeat violently pounded in my chest. She’d never called me Livvy before.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
A wave of overwhelming emotion took complete control of me and I realized I wasn’t just falling in love with her; I’d already passed that point.
“There’s nothing I’d love more than to spend more time with you, but I still have responsibilities,” I said as my heart continued to pound loudly in my chest.
&nb
sp; She smiled lightly and nodded.
“Are we still on for tonight?” I asked.
I knew she was eventually going to break my heart. Not because she’d want to, or because she was my boss or a married woman with kids, but because I knew she’d never see me the way that I saw her.
She slowly got out of bed, fully exposing herself as the bedsheet slid down her body and my jaw dropped. She closed the distance between us, just barely touching me and said in that sultry voice that haunted my dreams. “That’s entirely up to you.”
My eyes hungrily feasted on her as she moved past me, gently and lightly running her hand over my belly then she stopped and faced me. Her hand rose up my belly, to the valley between my breasts, over my throat to my neck and rested on my chin.
“You dropped something,” she said, gently moving my jaw to close my mouth, then smiled, reaching for the robe I was still clutching in my hands. She covered herself up and went to the bathroom.
A bittersweet pain moved through me and went to settle on the spot between my legs. I groaned in sexual yearning because it was self-inflicted and fell backwards on the bed, tightly clenching my legs together to relieve the ache.
That incredibly sexy image of her was going to haunt me for the rest of my natural life. I bit my lower lip to alleviate my longing and took a deep calming breath as I got to my feet, grabbed a sheet to cover myself and went to search for my clothes.
Mrs. Gallagher had taken me on the balcony, creating one of my most alluring sexual encounters yet. So I found my dress and undergarments exactly where I’d left them the previous night.
As I put them on, I fondly remembered her reaction when I’d stripped out of the dress. I hadn’t planned it. I hadn’t even known I’d end up at her penthouse. I’d been thinking about her. I thought about her all the time. It was the constant wondering and the waiting that made me grow anxious and drove me to her.
Luckily, I found the same guy at the front desk during my first night there and getting the key to the penthouse became an easier task.
I was always afraid Mrs. Gallagher would rebuff me, but even though she never opened up to me, I was still slowly getting to know her and knew there was a part of her that cared about me.
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