by Katie Dowe
Matt reached up and helped her untangle her fingers, linking their fingers together.
"It looks amazing." He smiled and kissed her fingers. "You are amazing."
"Are you trying to flatter me again?"
"Anything to get you to stay." Matt propped himself up on his elbow and kissed her cheek, nuzzling her gently. "I know you don't want to hear it, Arlie, but I'm going to say it anyway. I've fallen for you. I didn't think I'd find a woman I'd want to spend the rest of my life with after Lucy. But then you came along and blew that out of the water."
Arlie stiffened. These were words she wanted to hear from any man. To hear them from Matt Prentice was like music to her ears. But after her shock of seeing Jason with him earlier, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know how Matt felt. While she knew they weren't the same, she couldn't get the acquaintance out of her head.
Matt let her go when she pulled away and she slipped out of bed, pulling on a t-shirt from the suitcase still on the floor. She stood and turned, trying not to drool at the sight of Matt sitting with the duvet down around his waist, showing off his chest with a dusting of hair across his pecs.
"This is a lot to take in."
"You don't have to answer me right now." Matt shifted across the bed and sat on the edge, the duvet still across his lap. He took her hand. "But think about it. You'll have a home and financial security..."
"I don't want your money."
Matt grinned.
"I can budget you, no problem." He teased. Then he sobered up, his expression softening. "And you'll be able to be a mother."
Arlie stared.
"You want me to be the baby's mother?"
"Yes." Matt stood, the duvet falling away. He stroked her cheek lovingly. "I think you'd be the perfect mother. I can't think of anyone I'd trust with my child more than you." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Would you be able to become mother to a child you didn't give birth to?"
For a moment Arlie was speechless. She couldn't believe she was getting a second chance at being a mother. It was something she had accepted would never happen.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled.
"Essentially the child is my niece. In a way, I love her already. I think I could manage that."
Matt grinned and lowered his head, brushing his lips across hers.
"Good."
*****
Matt kissed her again and Arlie came up to meet the kiss, running her hands over his stomach, chest and back. Still giddy from Arlie's acknowledgment that she would stay, he crushed her to him. His hands ran across her back, moving down to her hips and cupping her backside in his hands, pulling her closer. This last action got a moan from Arlie and she ground into him so that Matt saw stars.
Grabbing fistfuls of her t-shirt, Matt pulled her t-shirt off and tossed it onto the floor. Then he lowered his mouth to her left breast and flicked her nipple with his tongue. This had Arlie shuddering and she clutched at the back of Matt's head, urging him closer. Matt didn't need any further prompting.
Wrapping his arms around her, he took her breast in his mouth. Arlie whimpered as he lavished attention on one breast and then the other, paying close attention to her nipples. Then he lifted his head and kissed her long and hard, tongues entwining.
Turning suddenly, he laid Arlie on the bed and pulled back to look at her. While her body wasn't Aphrodite's, the gentle curves and firm muscles were in all the right places, topped off with a lust-hungry look Arlie was giving him. That look made his mouth go dry.
She reached up and took his hand, tugging him onto the bed and on top of her. They kissed long and hard, their hands going everywhere they hadn't explored earlier, enjoying the new feel of each other under their fingertips.
Then Matt shifted in between Arlie's legs and brushed his cock against her pussy. Arlie shuddered and lifted her hips towards him. Matt ran a hand under her bottom and lifted her up, driving himself in as deep as he could. Arlie cried out and clutched at him, her inner muscles clutching onto his cock that nearly had Matt exploding before he did anything.
Growling deep in his throat, Matt withdrew and thrust again, seeming to go deeper than before. They set a rhythm, Arlie wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him in deeper. The ecstasy was heaven, and soon it was building in Matt's body, struggling to get to the high it wanted. He sensed that Arlie was getting there before him and thrust faster until he jack-hammered into her.
Then Arlie was screaming, coming so hard that it set Matt's orgasm off. With a shout, he buried himself deep inside her pussy as he released his seed, his whole body shuddering.
*****
Sometime during the night, Matt woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Not wanting to disturb Arlie, he slipped out of bed and gathered his clothes before tiptoeing to the bathroom.
He dressed quietly and then exited the bathroom, stopping to look at Arlie as she slept peacefully on her front, the duvet bunched around her waist. She looked like an angel and Matt was tempted to get back into bed. But if he woke her and they made love again, they would never get any sleep.
Closing the door quietly, Matt made his way downstairs to Bates' office. He found his security chief at his desk tapping away at his laptop.
"Don't you ever sleep?"
"I did earlier." Bates didn't look up as he typed. "I thought I'd see how things were on the estate. It's pretty quiet right now, thankfully."
Matt leaned against the door frame and surveyed the other man. He wasn't wearing his tie, something he always did without fail, and a couple of buttons were undone on his shirt. Matt didn't need three guesses as to what Bates had been up to. He grinned.
"Michelle sleeping well, then?"
He knew he had hit the mark when Bates blushed furiously and looked everywhere but at him.
"I..."
Matt laughed.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to bite your head off."
"From the sounds coming from Arlie's room earlier, you were doing something else entirely." Bates quipped.
Matt smirked. He wasn't going to deny what he had been up to. While he wasn't planning on broadcasting anything, it wouldn't take a genius to know what had been going on.
"I'm amazed you didn't have a competition to see who could make their woman scream the loudest."
Bates glanced at his boss, a smile tugging at his mouth.
"I'll think about it for next time."
Matt laughed. He pushed off the door frame and turned to go when he heard a loud siren-like bleeping coming from Bates' computer. He hurried inside and came around to Bates' side of the desk.
"What's that?"
"Security breech." Bates tapped a few keys and then pointed at the map of the house he pulled up. "It's at the back in the kitchen."
Matt didn't need to be told twice. Letting his chief lead the way, they ran to the kitchen. Glass scattered across the floor and crunched under their shoes. Signaling Matt to stay by the door, Bates moved across the kitchen and inspected the window.
"I can see someone running across towards the road."
"Get someone out after them. I want to know what the hell's going on."
That was when they heard the screams coming from upstairs.
Chapter 8
"Hello, sweetheart."
Arlie woke with a start as someone grabbed her shoulder and turned her over. Then they straddled her waist and waved something that glinted in the moonlight in front of her face. She bit back a gasp when she saw the mean-looking knife and stared past it, up into Jay's face. He was leering at her bare breasts and smirking like the cat who got the cream.
Arlie acted on instinct. She knocked the knife away and screamed as loud as she could. She had no idea where Matt was but someone had to be around. They had security. Someone had to hear her.
Jay snarled and plunged his knife down. Arlie jerked her head to the side and the knife buried into the pillow. Bucking Jay off, Arlie ducked under the knife and scrambled to the other side of the be
d. Jay was knocked off the bed, the knife ripping through the pillow and sending feathers into the air.
Arlie used that distraction to grab at her discard t-shirt and put it on. She was putting her panties on when Jay appeared through the feathers and pinned her against the wall by the throat. His eyes were wild but his expression was almost serene and his voice was perfectly calm.
"Now, now, Arlie, that wasn't very nice, was it?"
Arlie tried to dislodge him but his grip tightened. So she forced herself to relax and the pressure on her throat eased.
"How did you get in here?" She croaked.
Jay grinned.
"It's amazing what you can do with a little distraction, isn't it?"
He flexed his fingers and Arlie coughed. It was getting harder to breathe.
"Let me go, Jason."
"I don't think so, honey." Jay shook her by the throat, making Arlie's head spin. "You stole from me and I'm not going to let you get away with it."
He put his face close to hers, the expression in his eyes even more wild. Arlie had never seen him like this before. Not even when she told him she was pregnant.
"Where's my money, bitch?"
Arlie swallowed.
"I used it to pay my hospital bills."
"Bullshit. Hospital bills shouldn't cost tens of thousands of dollars."
"It wasn't even a tenth of that." Arlie snorted. "I only took a few hundred dollars. I have no idea what happened to the rest of your money."
"You're a liar." Jay snarled.
"Call me what you want. It's the truth."
Jay laughed shortly and shook his head.
"You could never speak the truth, Arlie. You lied about that baby and then faked a miscarriage so you could claim I had beaten you up. Just because I refused to marry you."
Arlie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had never wanted to marry Jay; somehow she had known he wasn't marriage material. All she had wanted was some support for the tough time ahead she had been preparing herself for with the pregnancy. Jay had read that the wrong way and now there was no baby.
"You're deluded if you think that's the truth." She hissed. "You beat me up and you killed your unborn baby." She swallowed back the tears. She was not going to cry in front of him. "And you lost me any chance of having a baby at all."
For a moment Jay looked stumped. Clearly he hadn't been expecting Arlie to stand up for herself. Then his confusion cleared and he sneered at her.
"You're really good at playing the victim, aren't you?"
"And you don't listen to anything when it doesn't go your way." Arlie snapped. "Yes, I stole your money but since you attacked me it seemed fitting you should pay for my hospital bills."
"I never touched you." Jay shouted back, pulling Arlie close and their faces nearly touching. He looked like he had gone crazy. "I might be touching you now but you've driven me to this. You should've left my money well enough alone."
"So you've come to kill me?" Arlie eyed the knife that was waving about in front of her face. "How's that going to help?"
Jay smirked. Now he had gone from looking wild to looking deranged.
"You were distressed after Matt saw through you and your sister's lies to fleece him and he told you to leave. You then decided to take your own life, after you'd stabbed your sister to death." His eyes glinted. "But you didn't quite succeed in taking your life so you'll end up being arrested for murder."
Arlie couldn't believe that he actually believed it would work. He really thought that killing Michelle and botching her suicide would fool anybody.
There was no way she was going to let Jay get near Michelle.
"There's security around here." She protested. "And Matt will know the truth."
"Give me ten minutes alone with him and I'll have him believing anything I say." Jay's smirked looked positively maniacal. "And where was the security when I got in?"
Arlie didn't know but she wasn't going to wait around to find out. Either she fought back now or she and Michelle were going to suffer.
Suddenly she heard a loud cry and there was a movement behind Jay. Jay half-turned and then Michelle appeared out of nowhere, swinging a baseball bat. She hit Jay across the side of the head. The grip around her throat loosened a little and then Arlie could breathe properly again.
Her switchblade was on the dresser. Snatching it up, she released the blade and shoved it into Jay's arm. Jay screamed and kicked Michelle away, knocking her to the floor. Then he turned back to her.
Then, with a loud snarl, he brought his own knife up and down, plunging into Arlie's chest.
*****
Matt turned again and glared at the doors to surgery.
"What the hell is taking them so long?"
"Don't panic, sir." Bates said calmly. "They need to make sure that everything is fine. You don't want them to come out too early, do you?"
Matt had to concede that his security chief was right. When they had heard the screams, Matt's heart has stopped. He had been stupid enough to leave Arlie alone and now she was in trouble.
He and Bates had thundered up the stairs and found Jay standing over Arlie, who lay on the floor clutching at her shoulder. He was in the process of preparing to stab her again when Bates tackled him and pinned him to the floor with an arm across his neck. Then they had seen Michelle, unconscious on the floor by the bed. There was blood on the carpet and on her thighs.
Trying not to panic, Matt had called an ambulance for both Michelle and Arlie and the police for Jay. As soon as one of his men had taken over restraining Jay, Bates had gone over to Michelle and cradled her until the paramedics arrived. Matt had done the same with Arlie, fear gripping hold of him when he saw the blood seeping through her fingers.
The relief had been slight when the paramedic told him that Arlie had been stabbed in the shoulder and it didn't appear to have hit anything vital. Nevertheless she had to go to the hospital and get some stitches to close up the wound.
But the same couldn't be said about Michelle. The paramedics tending to her had been worried when Matt told them she was six months pregnant. They worked quickly to get her into the ambulance, driving to the hospital at break-neck speed. Now she was in surgery while the doctors checked that she wasn't losing the child.
Matt slumped into a chair and put his face in his hands. It was four in the morning and he was exhausted. But he wouldn't get any rest until he knew that the woman carrying his baby and the woman he loved were okay.
"I hate not knowing what's going on."
Bates sighed. He had been leaning against the wall with his arms folded since they had moved into the waiting room. Matt had no idea how he managed to have that much control to stay still and not fret like Matt had been doing for the past two hours.
"I feel the same, sir, but you can't work yourself up over it. That is guaranteed to drive you crazy."
"I suppose you're right."
Matt looked up as the door opened and jumped up in surprise when he saw the pale woman with her shoulder bandaged and her arm in a sling come through. He hurried to her.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"I wasn't going to sit in a hospital bed twiddling my thumbs." Arlie went to a chair and sat. "I wanted to stay with you and find out if my sister was okay."
"But you've had stitches." Matt protested.
"I'm not going to be doing any weightlifting. I'm just sitting here." Arlie rubbed gingerly at her injured shoulder and glared at him. "Don't try and make me go because I won't."
Matt knew it would be fruitless. Arlie was stubborn as a mule. But looking at her reminded him what he had nearly lost because of his former friend. It had nearly broken his heart in two. As it were, his heart had cracked and it was slowly mending again.
Knowing that Arlie was well, albeit injured, made him feel a little better. Now they just needed to know how Michelle was getting on.
"Does anyone have any idea what happened?" Arlie asked, looking between
the two of them. "I'm still trying to figure out how Jason managed to get into the house."
"He had a decoy." Bates said bitterly. "Joanna O'Toole."
Arlie blinked. She looked as stunned as Matt had been.
"Joanna? She was involved?"
Matt nodded. He took a seat beside her and reached for her hand.
"She was the one who threw a brick through our kitchen window." He explained darkly. "While we were investigating that, Jay managed to sneak in through the front door. He told the police he was furious at his name being dragged through the mud and he wanted to talk to you."
"Talk to me with a knife to my throat?" Arlie snorted. "That's a new one."
"That's what he's going for." Bates grunted.
Matt didn't like it, either. Jay was trying to wriggle out of a serious charge with his team of lawyers who had mysteriously appeared as Jay was being dragged out to the police van. His defense was ridiculous and Matt hoped that a jury saw otherwise.
Having seen him about to kill the woman he loved, Matt was prepared to say otherwise. Jay had to be psychotic if he thought that could get him off with a slap on the wrist.
"And Joanna?" Arlie asked.
"She's saying she wanted me and had found out through the grapevine that I liked you more than just a passing interest." Matt said darkly, slipping an arm gently around her shoulders. "She was furious and went in with Jay when he told her about you being his ex-girlfriend. I don't think she knew he was going to kill you but she played an active part."
Joanna had thought she could get Matt back by helping to get rid of the competition. He couldn't believe she thought it would actually work. She had asked to see him several times but Matt refused to even entertain it; he had no intention of seeing the vile woman.
"I have a feeling she wanted me dead as well." Arlie shuddered. She told them about her attack when she was out running. Matt grinned when he heard about the switchblade and kissed her head.
"It's a good thing you had your switchblade again. I don't condone carrying weapons but it was helpful then and now. There's no way I'm losing you now."
