by Katie Dowe
******
It was a long time before he was able to move and leave her on the bed, her sexy body curved in sleep. He had not been able to pull out of her for a while because, to his utter amazement, he realized that he was still hard. He had made love to her slowly after savoring the feeling of her wrapped around him. They had not spoken because words would not have been sufficient.
Now he stood there watching as she slept, her body naked for him to enjoy. He had given in to the intense pull of the emotion and passion he had started to feel for her and figured that maybe if he took her one time then it would dissipate, but it had gotten stronger. He was reluctant to leave her and he knew he was treading into dangerous territory. She was very good with his daughter, and for that reason alone he did not want to lose her, but now he had gone and complicated things by having sexual feelings for her! Sexual feelings so strong that it was overwhelming in that it threatened to be his undoing. He sank at the foot of the bed and looked at her. She had the most flawless skin he had ever seen on a woman and he wanted to touch and explore her again. He started to reach out to touch her, but he drew back his hand feeling foolish. It was just sex, he thought grimly as he got to his feet. It was a lot more than that, but he pushed the thought aside. He took one last look at her, and then after a moment’s hesitation, he took a blanket and spread it over her naked body before taking up his sweater and shoes and heading to the door. He looked back at her before closing the door, his expression soft, and then squaring her shoulders, he left and went swiftly to his suite!
Chapter 6
Ciara woke up the next morning feeling the pleasant exhaustion of being thoroughly loved! She had half hoped he would be lying next to her when she woke up but knew he would not have spent the night. It would not have been a good idea anyway because Holly sometimes wandered into her room. She quickly got up and reached for a robe to cover her nakedness, rushing into the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. She touched her lips in wonder, closing her eyes as she remembered his mouth on them. Oh Lord! Was she in trouble, she thought with a delicious shiver. He was her employer and was way out of her league! He had beautiful women in his circle who were his equals and she was certainly not one of them. He had called her the help and he was right, she was the nanny and in the real world the rich and successful man was certainly not going to fall in love with the employee! Her eyes widened as she stared at herself. Oh God! She had fallen in love with a man who was as unavailable as the stars! She had fallen in love with him and his daughter and never realized it!
This was certainly going to pose a huge problem!
*****
Aiden felt the drunken punch of the lack of sleep from the night before affecting him as he made his way downstairs to get some coffee. He nodded to the maid, who was putting the meal on the sideboard, and went to pour himself some coffee. The place had been cleaned up from last night’s activities and it was as if nothing had happened. He wished it could be the same with him! He had spent the night tossing and turning on his king sized bed and in the early hours of the morning he had gotten up and gone to the window to look out at the snow drifting onto the glass. He had rested his head against the cold pane of glass and closed his eyes as he remembered every detail of every inch of her flesh against his mouth.
It was early enough for his mother and his daughter to be up and he had counted on that. He was going to take the coward’s way out and leave before she came down. He could not face her. He had broken the cardinal rule: never get involved with someone who worked for him! But how he wanted her again! He was dying to taste her lips and touch her tongue with his and her nipples! He groaned and felt his body tighten with desire. Christ! What the hell was he going to do? He downed the scalding hot coffee, not even feeling it burning down his throat.
He wanted her again and he was not sure how he was going to be able to stay away from her!
******
“Did you have fun at the grownup party, Ciara?” Holly asked her as they sat down to breakfast. Ciara had felt the sharp taste of disappointment that he was gone when she got downstairs. She had been a little nervous about seeing him after the very intimate moment they had spent together, but the admission in the bathroom about what she felt for him had her heart racing and her skin tingling at seeing him again.
“It was very good, sweetie, and yes, I had fun.” She leaned over and wiped the spot of orange juice off the little girl’s face. Angela had already gone for the morning, saying she had an early consult. “What do you want to do today?”
“I want to go outside and make a snowman. Can we?” Her blue eyes so much like her father and grandmother stared up at her.
“Yes, of course! Why not?”
“Yay!” she said, jumping up and down.
“Settle down and finish eating.”
******
Paddy wanted revenge. He had lost his job and thought that if Aiden had wanted he could have given him another chance and let him continue working and pay him back. Heck, he did not have to pay back the money; the man was loaded! Now he was unemployed and the woman who had promised to be his girl had left him when she had discovered that he no longer had a job and the means to give her the gifts he had been showering on her. His mother looked at him with sad and disappointed eyes, driving him out of the house! But he had something up his sleeve. He intended to cash in and cash in big! Aiden Carter had a little girl and he had heard the rumors that she had come to live with him recently. He was going to bide his time and wait and he was going to snatch her. It helps that he had an ally, an ex-lover of the ‘great man’ himself who wanted payback for the crappy way he had dumped her. She was a little older than he was, but she was hot and she was loaded. It felt good to be going at it with Carter’s leftover. She was a little intense and possessive, but she was a beauty and gave him what he needed.
They were making the plans together and they had every intention of being careful!
“We have to wait until it stops snowing and the weather gets better,” she told him huskily, the aftermath of lovemaking making her white skin flushed. He was not Aiden, but he was quite competent in bed and what he did not know, she showed him. He was also eager to please.
“How much do you think he will be willing to pay?” Paddy ran a finger over her white breasts with the rosy nipples in wonder. She was pampered and had everything money could buy.
“The sky is the limit, darling,” Michelle said huskily, shivering as he pinched her nipple. “He has a ton of money and I have seen him with that daughter of his. He would be willing to pay big bucks to get her back.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“He owes me,” she told him lightly, not wanting to reveal that she had fallen in love with the gorgeous man and that she missed having him inside her. No one came close to making her feel the way Aiden made her feel, and she would do anything to get him back or get back at him. He had stopped taking her calls and she felt the claws of defeat grabbing at her.
“So, you are not going to want a cut?” Paddy looked at her suspiciously.
Michelle let out a peal of laughter. “Of course not, darling! I have all the money I need.”
******
Aiden had a decision to make. He was either going to stay away from Ciara or he was going to have to let her go. He was tied up in meetings for most of the day, but instead of forgetting about her and what she tasted like, he found himself distracted the entire time. He found himself reaching for the phone several times to call her just to hear her voice.
His intercom sounded. “Aiden, Doctor Fields is here.”
“Send him in,” he responded, happy for the distraction.
Doctor Martin Fields was a top neurosurgeon who had come to Aiden and the board telling them that he had found the cure for the Alzheimer’s disease. They had looked at him askance and after hearing him out had ended the meeting abruptly, but Aiden had listened carefully and had thought that the man had something even if it sounded nonsensical.
“Aiden, thanks for agreeing to see me.” He reached out a hand to clasp the younger man’s as Aiden got to his feet. Martin Fields had thick grey hair and always managed to look as if he had slept in his clothes. His blue eyes were vague and watery, and it was rumored that his wife had walked out on him because he was married to his research.
“My pleasure,” Aiden said with a nod. “Have a seat.”
“I am afraid your board members think I have sipped the Kool-Aid, “he said with a vague smile.
“I don’t like to dismiss anything offhand. You never know.”
Dr. Fields nodded and looked down at a very bulky folder he had in his hands. “I have been working on this particular research for several years and it has become my baby. I was telling you of reversing the damage done to the brain by tricking it into thinking that it is in the body of a much younger person. I have not tested it yet, and I am going to need some financial help as all my money has dried up and the wife hit me with a big alimony payment.” He smiled again vaguely. “I am making up a serum to help with the process, but I need money to continue.”
“How much?”
Dr. Fields fidgeted a little bit and looked down at his folder again. “A million at most. I know it is asking a lot, but I feel positive that there will be results. All I am asking for is a chance.”
Aiden nodded. “Tell me more.”
******
Regina called her that afternoon. “Hi Ciara, we met at the party on Valentine’s Day. Can we meet for lunch?”
Ciara hesitated. She had been planning to go through some letters with Holly, but the little girl was becoming restless and irritable. “Only if I can take Holly with me.”
“Of course. Let me give you directions.”
Ciara got Holly dressed in something warm as she tried to calm her down sufficiently to put her coat on. “There won’t be any little girls or boys there,” she warned her.
“That’s okay, Ciara, I just want to go outside,” she said solemnly.
It was a large sprawling ranch-type house that overlooked a park in the exclusive neighborhood several miles from the Carters’ place. It was a new place, and Ciara could see even through the snow on the ground that it had been freshly landscaped. Regina waved at them from the large porch and made her way down the steps to come to them. “This must be Holly.” She took the little girl’s hand in hers and smiled at her. “You are very pretty.”
“Thank you.”
“Come on in. First we eat and then the tour.”
The dining area was large and cheerful and the table was already spread with food of all description. “What would you like, Holly?” Regina asked her.
“I want chicken, please.”
“Good choice.”
They ate and Regina told Ciara that she could not wait to put down her load.
“How far along are you?” Ciara asked the girl.
“Seven months.” She patted her belly unconsciously. “Paul is even more nervous than I am and has forbidden me to go to the center to do my normal training with the elders. I am not used to not working, but we are in the middle of getting this place fixed up before the baby comes. It’s a boy and my husband is over the moon.” Her face became soft and whimsical when she referred to her family, and Ciara felt a pang of envy.
“Okay, Holly, I have a movie in the theater room with your name on it.”
Regina settled the little girl in a comfortable chair with a giant stuffed bear before taking Ciara on a tour of the place. Ciara had glimpsed a housekeeper and a maid doing housework earlier. “This is the nursery,” Gina said proudly, opening the door to a large airy room with a stunning view of the backyard. There were murals on the walls and the place was already furnished. Regina eased herself into a rocking chair and indicated that Ciara have a seat as well. “It’s kind of hard to see myself as a wife and expectant mother,” she said with a laugh.
“Why is that?”
“I met Paul when I decided to fight for the rec center he was planning to tear down to make room for a mall in the small town where I lived. He was married before and his wife died, so I thought I was going to have a hard time getting through to him. I fell in love with him soon after meeting him.” She shook her head at the memory. “A group of us wives get together every now and then when our schedules permit, and we put on parties or charitable functions. We have become the wives of the members of the Elite Club, the same one that your boss belongs to. You should hear their stories! We met and fell in love with these men, and it took us all by surprise. Carrie got pregnant by Patrick while she was a waitress at the club. Leesa had her eyes on Bradley for years before he noticed her. Jeffry fell in love with Diana while she was the model for his company, and the list goes on. I saw you at the party the other night and saw the way Aiden was looking at you and figured that you were going to be one of us soon.”
“I doubt it,” Ciara said dryly, fascinated and hopeful at the same time at the girl’s stories. “I am not in Mr. Carter’s league.”
“None of us were except maybe Leesa who had her own money when she met Bradley. I never knew I could love a man the way I love Paul and I thank my lucky stars the day I decided that I wanted to fight for that center.” She rubbed her belly absently. “It’s a unique clique of us who are wives who have a far from ordinary love affair with our husbands. I hope you find yours.”
*******
Aiden sipped his wine and watched the image on the flat screen television absently. His usual crowd was not around and he suspected that they had gone home to their wives in this cold weather. He nodded to an acquaintance by the name of Kane Takahashi, who was a fairly new member of the club. He was hiding out and he knew it, but he did not know what else to do! He had eaten before he left the office and was now sitting here biding his time and hiding out until he was sure she had turned in for the night. He had wanted to go and tuck his daughter in for the night but that would mean getting there before her bed time.
He signaled the waiter for another glass of wine and settled back to wait until it was time to go.
******
“But I want my daddy,” Holly complained, pouting her bottom lip out and folding her arms on her chest. She was bathed and dressed for bed in a soft blue and white nightgown and her hair braided down her back. Her grandmother had read her a story and Ciara had tidied up her room, putting away the things she had used for the bath.
“Your daddy is late, darling, and it is time to go to sleep,” her grandmother told her mildly, brushing a hand against her cheek. “Can’t Ciara and I do for tonight?”
“Will he be early tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.
“I will make sure and tell him to be early tomorrow,” her grandmother promised. “I am sure he will have breakfast with you in the morning.”
“Okay.” She nodded.
Ciara waited for him downstairs in the living room. She had a feeling that it was because of her why he had stayed away and she was going to let him know that something like that was unacceptable. The fire was burning in the hearth, and looking at the clock, she realized that it was approaching ten o’clock and he was still not there. She settled back against the soft leather sofa and closed her eyes, determined to wait.
Aiden hung up his coat and strode from the foyer into the living room stopping short as he saw her curled up on the sofa. What the hell was she doing up? He contemplated going on up and leaving her there, but he knew he could not do that. With a groan, he realized that he had wasted the night biding his time to come home to the problem he had been trying to escape from!
He crouched down and shook her gently. Her eyes flew open and she looked at him hazily for a moment as if wondering where she was before understanding dawned. “I was waiting for you,” she murmured huskily. Aiden felt it and this time with an urgency that almost bowled him over! She was wearing a thin, red lace camisole that showed her breasts clearly defined. Her hair was tousled and her face was soft from sleep.
“You ne
ed to go to bed,” he told her thickly, afraid to touch her.
“Holly wanted you to read her a story.” She got up on her elbows and the top eased away, revealing the curve of her breasts. “I know what you are doing and it is not fair to her.”
“You know what is not fair?” he whispered hoarsely. “Is you looking like this and expecting me to stop from screwing you.”
“Aiden…”
“I stayed away because I did not want to see you, Ciara! Didn’t you get that? I cannot be involved with you and we have to stop.”
“I can’t,” she moaned, feeling the fire lighting inside her. She reached out and touched his hardened jaw. With a groan, he pulled her into his arms with such a force that it caused them to land on the thick white carpet. His mouth met hers desperately and Ciara curled her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. He dug his fingers into her hair, holding the back of her head as he ravaged her mouth. He dragged his mouth away and started raining kisses along her neck. “Aiden,” she moaned. “Please.”
