“But that bowl of soup would be nice,” she says smiling at me.
I bring her the simple soup I made and watch her as she bring it up to her plump lips. How I wish it were my lips on hers and not that soup.
She’s so damn beautiful, even when she’s doing something as simple as eating. And the dinner table is the last place I remember seeing her three years ago.
“What?” she says in between spoonfuls of soup.
“You,” I say. “You’re so elegant when you eat.”
“I’m not,” she says and I see those porcelain cheeks fill with red.
“My house so you can’t argue with me,” I say as I smirk.
She stops for a second and surveys my face. I like the way she’s looking at me and apparently my cock does too. I feel it twitch in my board shorts and realize these thin things that are made mostly to avoid a bit of sun and some rubbing and rashes from the board are not going to conceal my desire for her. Not even close.
“Okay, that’s fair enough,” she smiles. “Plus I came here to relax. No arguing. I get enough of that at work.”
“So you’re here for a holiday?” I reply quickly.
“We call it a vacation, but I think it’s the same thing.”
“Holidays can last a month, especially for Europeans. Vacations are something you can do in a weekend.”
“I’m here for a week. I mean if that’s okay. I didn’t know you were—”
I raise my finger and place it on those lips of hers that I’ve been admiring. “Once I show you around the island you’ll never want to leave…and I know I won’t be able to let you.”
She laughs. “You’re going to hold me hostage?” she jokes.
“Yes and no,” I say with a completely serious face, because I am. “No, because I won’t have to. You’ll love it here so much you’ll wonder how you ever survived without me…I mean it.”
Her eyes narrow and then her pupils dilate at my words. She caught what I said and she doesn’t agree or disagree with it.
“But yes, because if I have to I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you here. I’ve wanted you since the first time I ever saw you and now that you’re here I’m going to make you mine forever.”
CHAPTER 6
Charlotte
“What did you say?”
“You’re mine now. Forever,” he says in that sexy Australian accent of his.
I stare into his eyes but what I should do is jump up out of this bed and take off running right back to the airport.
But there’s something about the way he looks at me…a certain kind of rawness, and a very certain truth to his words.
I’m definitely not used to this type of attention. I mean I’ve been trying to schedule a performance review for a month and my own boss, who leaves early seemingly every day to go golfing, blows me off.
I haven’t seen this guy in years and he’s all over me like a wet dish rag…at least with his words.
And his words are so blunt. As a twenty-three year old young woman I’ve found most of the guys my age beat around the bush.
“I don’t know. Where do you feel like having lunch?” is their usual reply at noon when I ask them where our team feels like going to eat today. It’s a game I play every single day and I’m so tired of it. I just want a guy, for once, to stand up and say something like, “I’m going to grab a burger. Anybody who wants to join me is welcome. And I’m leaving in three minutes.”
Just someone to take charge. Someone who knows what he wants, not just for one of his three meals of the day, but out of life.
And Oliver is that and so much more.
After the last time I saw him I tried to slyly ask my dad some questions about him. My dad just smiled and said something like, “You don’t get to be a billionaire without ruffling a few feathers.”
And I can see how his directness could do just that. And I also see how it could attract like bees to honey and to me his words are sweet nectar and I can’t help but fly right into them and get very happily stuck.
But something primal in me needs to know this is real, not just some older guy who’s after a fling with his best buddy’s much younger daughter.
“Forever?” I ask.
“I only think in terms of the duration of my life. No short-term thinking. It’s why I’ve been able to build and achieve what I have in this life. And I’ve always wondered if I’d ever have someone to share it with and now that answer is crystal clear. It’s you and you’re not escaping my grasp.”
“Are you sure you’re not the one who bumped your head?” I ask.
I’m expecting a laugh but none comes.
“I get your joke, but this is no laughing matter. I know dating etiquette requires you to play coy and me to pursue and after three dates maybe something happens, and then a few years later maybe I propose, we get married, have two and a half kids, a white picket fence, and a golden retriever but that’s not how I operate. I’ve heard this story play out so many times before and I’ve often seen it end miserably for everyone. Divorce or worse. Again, that’s not how I do things. Life is short. When I see something I want I go for it right then and there. And I want you,” he says.
He leans in towards me and the thought of pulling my head away from him doesn’t even register. I just freeze up but as he gets closer and closer I feel my eyes close and my lips part and then the saltwater taste of his lips as they come crashing down against mine.
CHAPTER 7
Oliver
I take her hand as we approach the sand. Then I walk around her on the oceans side.
She laughs. “Why do you want that side so badly?”
“It’s just like walking on the street. If a car jumps the curb or splashes something it hits me and not you. So if a sudden wave appears I take the blow and can provide a bit of a shield for you, just enough time to dive out of the way or escape ensuring you survive.”
“Survive? We’re just going for a walk.”
“And this morning you were just going for a quick surf,” I say.
I can see her spinning the words over in her head. I don’t mean to call her out on what happened or remind her of something bad especially considering she’s on a vacation…which will become permanent when I win her over.
But I have to make a strong point about how quickly things can change in an instant. Just look at me for instance. I had a business meeting last night but decided at the last second it wasn’t worth my time and cancelled, opting to come to this house for a day or two.
And then I saw her and now everything has changed…just like that. A seemingly random change of plans that will now take my life in an opposite direction.
I knew how beautiful she was at that business dinner I had with her father, but she excused herself to study well before dessert was served and I was never able to see her again.
But I never stopped thinking about her…wondering how old she was, what she was doing, when I would see her again.
And I knew I would see her again.
And now I know. She was twenty years old at that time. Now she’s twenty-three, out of the house, and making her own decisions.
Although she has little choice in this matter. I’m making the decision here and she will absolutely be mine. End of discussion. Even that’s not accurate as there won’t be a discussion.
I would go absolutely mad if she went away or something happened to her, and I’m not going to let either happen again.
And that includes being harmed from the ocean.
“So you remembered me from that dinner, after all these years?” she asks.
“Remembered isn’t the right word. I was infatuated with you,” I say.
“Infatuated?”
That’s a pretty strong word, but I guess what else did I expect?
“I never approach anything at less than one hundred percent. You can count on that.”
“I noticed in the way you kiss.”
“And I noticed you enjoyed it as much as I d
id.”
She raises her eyebrows as if she’s going to say something, but then realizes my words are true. There’s no sense in arguing with the truth.
“And you. You remember that dinner as well,” I say.
“You know,” she beings before pausing. “I don’t mean any disrespect towards my father at all but there was something so different about you. Whenever my father enters a room he always owns the room. He has that certain charisma that people just defer to him. It’s powerful and I’m sure it was a big turn-on for my mom. But that moment that you walked in something very different happened. Something I’d never seen before in my entire life. People actually deferred to you. The way they looked at you in awe, admiration, respect, and even fear. I was only used to seeing that reaction when my dad got it. But then I looked at my dad and noticed that he was looking at you the same way. That’s when my entire world got flipped upside down. My perception of reality was twisted and I had to know what it was about you that made even the most powerful man I know look at you in awe.”
“Your dad is a great man, but yes…I think we have a very strong mutual respect.”
“Mutual respect. Yes. But from him to you it was much more than that. I looked online, even watching some of the rare interviews you gave. It was captivating. I wrote a paper on your natural resources dealings for one of my leadership assignments in college. The way you were able to negotiate with current landholders while still getting a great deal for yourself and a fair deal for the landholders and the country. And of course the country has gotten richer in the form of taxes and you’ve gotten richer in the form of selling those resources throughout Asia and now the world. A true win-win in the business world.”
“What grade did you get on that paper?”
She smiles. “An A.”
I squeeze her hand a bit tighter and then release it bringing my hand up to the back of her neck, taking her neck in my grip feeling its swanlike features as I guide her slightly up the shore towards an ice cream stand. She deserves a reward for that paper of hers.
“I need to use the ladies room,” she says a few minutes later as we arrive.
“It’s just in that building over there,” I say pointing to the restaurant next door. “They share a restroom so it’s totally okay to use theirs even though we’re over here.”
“I’ll be right back,” she says.
She moves away and I have to consciously loosen my grip on her so she can go to the bathroom. My hands immediately feel empty, like something has been taken from me. Even though I know she’ll be right back in a few minutes I can still feel that void of her absence.
I walk a few steps over to the ice cream stand and order two of their most famous choices.
“That’s one hot lady you got there,” the guy says.
“What did you say?” I say feeling rage fill me as my eyes narrow and I feel my hands ball up into fists at my sides.
“Your woman,” he says as he prepares the ice creams. “She’s really h—” He stops in mid-sentence as he turns from the ice cream machine and sees that I’m looking at him so deeply I’m looking through him. I could rip this little son of a bitch to shreds for talking about her like that.
“My woman,” I say. “You had it right and you should have stopped there.”
“Sorry buddy. I didn’t mean any—”
“That’s right. You didn’t mean to say something stupid and damn near get your ass kicked.” I look at him from head to toe and back up letting him know I’ve sized him up and he’s nothing to me, especially because of what he said about her. “Your generation needs to learn some manners, son. You don’t look at another man’s woman and you sure don’t talk about one either.”
He sets the ice creams on the counter and quickly backs away placing his palms in the air in a gesture that says he doesn’t want any part of what I’ve got to offer.
“They’re on the house.”
“I don’t need any favors from anyone, especially someone who talks about my woman. And I don’t steal.” I slap the money down on the counter and take the ice creams.
“Oh, raspberry. My favorite,” Charlotte says as she approaches. I feel her hand grab my arm and she must immediately feel my muscles are flexed and ready for action.
“What’s wrong?” she says.
“Nothing,” I say. “Let’s continue our walk,” I finish as I keep my eyes on the ice cream shop employee.
I’m definitely not one to lash out at a kid, or someone smaller than me…especially for no reason. But that guy must have been Charlotte’s age and damn near my height and weight within twenty pounds. And there was no doubt that he was taking steroids recently. I could see it in the form of his manmade muscles. I know those types. All show and no substance. Regardless, he was welcome to challenge me anytime he wanted, but wisely chose not too.
I’ll fight anyone who talks about my woman whether they do it behind my back or to my face. She’s mine and mine alone.
And by that I mean I will possess her just like she’s possessed every ounce of me. How she’s all I can think about and how she’s the only woman I’ve ever wanted this badly and the only one who can ever complete me.
Me…and no one else.
CHAPTER 8
Charlotte
I open my eyes and the first thing I see is him.
“What happened?” I ask.
“You laid down while I was making dinner and then you fell asleep.”
I feel more refreshed than I have in years. After a year of working my butt off, including a lot of Saturdays, I guess my body had finally had enough. And my mind knew I don’t have to be at work for six more days so it was able to relax versus to anticipating an alarm clock.
“I’m sorry. We can eat now.”
He smiles. “Breakfast you mean.”
“What time is it?”
“Morning.”
“Morning? How long did I sleep?”
“Eighteen hours.”
“Oh my gosh,” I say embarrassed. Then the thought hits me. “Wait a second. How long were you sitting here?”
“More than seventeen of those hours,” he says.
Wait a second. He sat in a chair next to the bed I was in for three quarters of a complete day?
“You’re beautiful when you sleep. The way your chest moves up and down slowly. The way you look so peaceful and content when you’re passed out.”
I’m not so sure if I feel peaceful and content now though. But the proof is in the pudding. I slept better than ever and I didn’t seem to notice him sitting there.
“You even opened your eyes once and reached your hand out to mine.”
“Very funny!” I say quickly rolling over to slap his leg, but he catches me by the wrist in mid-air during my attempt to playfully hit him.
“I’m not joking. You don’t remember?” He seems shocked that I could forget.
“No,” I say.
“I have it on video if you want to see it.”
“What?”
“Just kidding,” he says. He rolls my wrist over in his hand and kisses the inside. I look up at him and see the smirk on his face.
“So you do have a sense of humor,” I say.
“I got you there for a second though.”
“You did. I mean come on…you are kind of over the top.”
“Committed. I’m focused on what I want and committed to getting it.”
“I guess that’s another way to look at it,” I say.
“The only way as far as I’m concerned.”
I run through a mental checklist in my head. Possessive? Absolutely. Quick to anger? Check. Just ask the ice cream guy. Borderline stalker? Seventeen plus hours watching me sleep. Confirmation there.
I feel like I’m in a bad B movie and I’m the girl who’s too stupid to live, but for some reason I feel more alive than I ever have.
I have someone who’s completely obsessed with me, just the way I am. I can’t even get a guy to compliment my shoes or
my dresses at work and I have this guy practically worshipping the ground I walk on.
And he’s not just some guy. He’s the guy I’ve had a crush on for a few years. The guy who’s so powerful he even overshadows my own father. The guy I thought I always wanted and now that I’ve got him, or he’s got me more accurately, I have to question this.
Possessive Australian_An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 2
