by Roxy Wilson
Secret Baby Seduction
by
Roxy Wilson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses, and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is coincidental.
Editor: Leanore Elliott
Cover Art: John Kennedy of Coverotic
©January, 2015. Roxy Wilson
CHAPTER ONE
“Excuse me, miss, which way is the exit?” an elderly Asian gentleman asked as he pushed his luggage trolley towards her. He seemed a little lost and befuddled by the busy airport.
Dayna looked around. She pointed the exit sign to their left. “That way.”
“Thanks.”
Dayna Sheppard pushed her sunglasses high up on her forehead as she collected her suitcase from the luggage belt and hauled it onto the trolley. Gosh! If she could count the number of days she’d been in an airport, it would probably amount to one third of the time she’d spent away from home.
Ten years! It was a long time, but now she was back in her hometown, San Diego, California. Gazing around at the airport which had undergone a lot of changes in the past decade, Dayna wondered for the umpteenth time if she’d made the right decision in coming here.
The Asian gentleman fell into step beside her as she rolled her luggage towards the exit. “Do you live here?”
Dayna glanced at him. He was probably close to sixty years of age with a mass of white hair. If he’d been younger, she would’ve brushed him off, thinking he was coming on to her, but she could see the genuine interest in his eyes. “I grew up here but moved away ten years ago.”
“You’re visiting someone?”
“Actually, I came to attend my high school reunion and also—um…” She hesitated. Well, he’s a stranger. Who would he tell? “I’m also on a year-long sabbatical from my work, so this seemed like a good place to hang out while I figure out my next move.”
“What do you do?” he asked as they neared the main airport door.
Outside, Dayna could see bright sunlight and tall, oak trees that had always lined this street for as far back as she could remember. “I’m a photojournalist.”
He looked impressed. “So, you must have traveled a lot. Have you been to China?”
Since he was of Chinese descent, she could understand his curiosity. “It’s a beautiful country. I spent several weeks there about three years ago. Loved the people. Loved the food. And the Great Wall of China, of course.” She smiled at the memory. “Took many pictures and even won an award for one of them.”
“Wow! You’re a famous lady.”
Dayna laughed at the awed tone. As they neared the door, a light breeze filtered in to ruffle her mop of midnight-black hair that was cut short to make styling easier. The sunlight made her blink and she pushed her sunglasses back down to cover her eyes. “Not really.” She chuckled. “Most people don’t recognize photojournalists on the streets. I’m not a celebrity. But yes, I did enjoy the traveling. India. Myanmar. Australia. Russia. Spain. Italy. Syria. Iraq. Dubai. Haiti. You name the place and I bet I’ve been there.”
He nodded. “But there’s nothing quite like home, is there?”
She nodded even as she pondered over his question. “Nope. Nothing like it.”
Was coming back to San Diego really so important to her? Why did she return to her home city when things had gotten tough? Is it really because she felt comfortable with the city, or did her reasons go deeper than that? She’d pounced on the opportunity to attend the high school reunion when her personal life took an unexpected turn and she found herself looking for an avenue of escape. She’d also had been contemplating a change in her career for some time and quickly shifted into high gear, then made all arrangements to move to San Diego when she broke up with her boyfriend, Adam.
Maybe she just wanted a place where she could lick her wounds in private. After all, the end of a three-year-relationship she’d expected to end up in a church, hurt like hell. Hating the direction in which her thoughts had turned, she glanced at the elderly gentleman. “Is this your first time in San Diego?”
He shook his head. “I came here forty-five years ago, and it was here that I met my wife. She was quite a catch, my Cynthia.” His smile looked wistful. “I wasn’t the only one who wanted to court her, but what I lacked in brawn, I made up with my wit.” He shook his head. “And now, it seems I’m chasing her once again, after all these years.”
“Chasing her?” Dayna felt intrigued by his choice of words.
“She’s an American. We met in the university and got married, then she moved with me to China. We had a fight and she came here. I’ve come to make her fall in love with me all over again.”
If another man said this, Dayna would’ve laughed but he sounded so sincere and determined that she could only admire his firm resolve. She didn’t know what to say. It sounded like a story she would’ve loved to hear, but they were already past the exit and out into the fresh, balmy air. Dayna thrust her hand at him. “Good luck, Sir. I hope you can convince her.”
He grinned. “Thank you. I’m sure I will. After all, everyone deserves a second chance in love, don’t they?”
“Yeah, they do,” Dayna answered softly, as he wandered away to find a cab. She stood still as people marched past her. The man’s words triggered an avalanche of emotions inside her. Here was a man who’d come across an ocean to take his wife back, and she’d left her boyfriend because he’d done something she thought was unforgivable. Most people when hearing the old man’s story would assume he had cheated on his wife, but Dayna knew there was more than one way to break a person’s heart. Case in point…Adam, her newly ex-boyfriend had done that by accepting a bribe in exchange for suppressing a story….A journalist like him? An award-winning one too.
She believed they were perfect for each other, completely in tune with their ideals, their vision for the world and for their careers. Everything appeared to be perfect and she’d been blissfully happy until the day she saw him taking a wrapped box from a blond-haired, shifty-gazed man in a café outside their third floor apartment. Dayna wouldn’t have thought twice about the incident because as a journalist, Adam was always meeting his sources, taking notes and other stuff from them.
Unbeknownst to her, when he came home, he must have placed the packet in the far recesses of their closet. So later, when she pulled out a got-to-fit-in dress, she’d tucked away with the hope that she’d be able to fit back into it, she heard a thump on the carpeted floor. On her knees, she swept her hand to and fro to find the object. Within a few seconds, her hands grazed it. When she picked it up, she recognized the package she’d seen Adam take from the stranger.
Her curiosity got the better of her.
She peeled it open. It didn’t take long for her to confront Adam. “What did you do to get all this cash from that man?”
“What?” He stiffened, even as he stood behind the kitchen counter where he was making her favorite Mexican chili. “What man? What money?”
She dumped the box on the counter. “This money.” Dayna sent silent prayers to heaven, hoping beyond hope Adam would have a reasonable explanation.
Adam’s eyes moved from the box to her face. His wide forehead wrinkled
and he curled his upper lip. “This is a private matter, Dayna. Leave it alone.”
“When you bring something like this to our home, then it doesn’t remain private anymore.”
“Give it a rest, all right? It’s not important.”
She jammed her hands on her hips. The more he tried to evade, the more determined she became to get to the bottom of this issue. “I’m not going to let this go, Adam. Not by a long shot.” Glancing into his dark eyes, Dayna’s heart pounded in her chest. No. It simply couldn’t be. He wouldn’t do something as horrible as this. “Don’t tell me you agreed to squash the story on that pharmaceutical giant?” She couldn’t suppress the disgust she felt. The pharmaceutical’s practices literally made her stomach churn.
Adam banged the spoon on the table. “What else was I supposed to do? I’m getting threats, pressure from all sides, calls in the middle of the night, and you know what? My story isn’t going to make a damned difference to them.” His eyes were cold, colder than she’d ever seen them. “They would have bribed a few police officers, lawyers and government officials and gotten away scot free. And what would I have gotten?” He laughed, but it held no humor. “If I was lucky enough to avoid getting a bullet in my head, all I would have received was a pat on the head. I’m sick of that.” He shook his head. “There are things that I want in this life and if I have to get them this way, then I don’t mind bending my ideals once in a while.”
To say she felt shocked would have been an understatement. The friendly, easy-going man just shattered all her illusions about the belief that when you live with someone you love, you get to know about everything there is to know about them. It hadn’t taken long before Dayna packed her bags and left their apartment to head back home. Perhaps she’d made a hasty decision, but nothing else appeared to make sense at that time. How could she live with a man who’d sunk so low?
You aren’t exactly pure. A voice echoed in her head. Dayna shook her head to brush the wayward thought away—a thought for another day. Right now, she’d better get on with what she’d come here for.
CHAPTER TWO
“If it isn’t Aron Mateo Rodriquez, I don’t know who it is!” a short, bald man called out. His eyes widened. He wore an aluminum-grey suit and held a glass of champagne in one hand. “My God! It’s really you. How long has it been?”
“Graham!” Aron grinned at his former classmate. Although, he’d kept in touch with his friend on occasion, Aron hadn’t set eyes on the man for a long time. “What happened to your hair?”
“A lawyer’s life is full of stress,” Graham replied with a rueful grimace as he slapped a hand on Aron’s back. “The money comes in, but the good looks go out the window.”
Aron laughed as he hugged his old friend. “You haven’t changed.”
“And neither have you.” Graham laughed. “You’re the same good-looking devil I remembered.”
Aron surveyed the hall festooned with a banner that welcomed their high school class with bright balloons and curlers hanging from the ceiling. It felt good to be back in this town after such a long absence. He strolled into the hall and allowed Graham to introduce him to other people. Some he remembered because he’d been friends with them, others he could barely recall. Aron went to this high school for two years. Before that, his dad had been stationed in Europe. After his graduation, he moved again and Aron had gone on with them. He’d been accepted to the University of Edinburgh. The two years in San Diego had left a lasting impression on his life and that’s why he’d felt the pull to come to this reunion, although he felt sure he wouldn’t remember half the people who’d been in his graduating class.
After talking to Graham, Aron turned to collect a drink from the bar set up in corner.
“Aron!” A tall, slender woman blocked his path. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
It took him a few moments to recall her name. “Erin.” Her hair seemed to be just as blonde as it had been back in high school, and the years had been kind to her. They hadn’t been friends, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort on Erin’s part. She’d been desperate to land him, but unfortunately for her, he’d never been interested.
“How are you?”
“Single,” she announced with a toss of her hair. “And you?”
“Divorced.”
“Good. We’re a perfect match.” She clutched his arm and sashayed forward. “You’re even better looking than you were before. Her tongue darted to lick her lips.
Adam won’t be surprised if it were really a deliberate, practiced move on her part, to entice the man she’d set her eyes set on. At the moment, that man was him.
“Where have you been all these years?”
“Here and there.” he said. “Europe, mostly. But I spent a couple of years in Asia while I was setting up my business.”
“What business is that?”
“Import and Export,” he replied, knowing that she wasn’t the least bit interested in knowing the details. “And what about you? What work are you doing?”
“I’m the senior manager at a department store. It’s good work,” she said as she turned to gaze at him. “You must remember the store. Grocers.” She nudged her breasts against his chest. “They used to offer great student discounts when we were in high school. Now, they have branches all over the state.”
“That’s good.”
“I suppose you must have forgotten the city.” She pouted.
Another practiced move on her part, it seemed to Aron.
“How about I give you a tour tomorrow? We could revisit all the old places and I could show you some new ones? What do you say?” she purred the words near his ear.
Aron had a good idea as to what exactly she wanted to show him. Appealing though her offer was, he wasn’t in the mood to be that preoccupied so soon after his arrival. Erin had always been a little too aggressive for his taste. Not that he had a problem with women who took matters into their own hand, but he preferred to make his own choices. As he thought of a polite way to extricate himself out of the delicate situation, his gaze shifted to the door.
…And his heart stopped.
He might not have recalled a lot of people, but Dayna Sheppard’s image would be etched in his mind forever, it seemed. She looked as great as he remembered. The years had been more than kind to her. While she’d been pretty in high school, now she was breathtakingly gorgeous, as she entered the hall with confidence. Maravilloso! She could pull any man’s gaze towards her without the boldness Erin showed. He remembered now, how his body and his being, had always been acutely attuned to her easygoing demeanor and her soulful, big, dark eyes. Her hair, which she always kept braided in school, was now cut short and framed her heart-shaped face, pulling attention to her high cheekbones and perfectly arched eyebrows.
Distracted, Aron pulled free from Erin’s embrace and left her to march towards Dayna. Gravitated and drawn like a moth to a flame.
She must have come in earlier and probably stepped out for a breather, because she already held a glass of champagne in her hand.
“Hey, Dayna!” Aron called out, catching her before she joined someone. “It’s been a long time.” He hated the clichéd line, but it was all he could think to say. Every thought seemed to desert him the moment he laid eyes on her. Dayna always had that effect on him and he’d never been able to resist her pull. Aron recalled their dramatic goodbye. His parents were moving back to Spain, the country of his birth, and he had to go with them. He couldn’t stay a continent away from his mother and father; they would’ve never allowed it, given that he was barely an adult at eighteen. While Dayna and he were both devastated by this turn of events, they were both in perfect agreement to not try to manage a long-distance relationship that was bound to get stressful.
For a moment, her mouth popped open, and then she flashed that gorgeous smile at him. “Wow! What a lovely surprise. I never expected to see you here.”
At the sound of her soft voice, Aron felt a tug in his stomach. Desir
e lanced its way through his entire body. Nothing, it seemed, had changed. “It was a last minute decision. I was in the country and thought…why not?”
“Yeah, why not?” Dayna echoed Aron’s words. Her gaze locked with his. “So, how have you been?”
This conversation, which would’ve sounded banal and boring with others, took on a whole new meaning. “Good.” He gave her a run-down of his life. After he covered the basics, he told her, “I saw your photo, the one you won the award for. I even thought about calling you, but I was in the middle of a divorce and then—and well…” He shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to be more nonchalant that he actually felt. “I guess it doesn’t matter. We’re here now.”
“Yes, we are.”
The band chose that moment to play a salsa number. Aron’s attention wavered. Memories came flooding back in. He lifted his hand, palm up. “How about a dance, Dayna?”
She appeared reluctant.
He didn’t blame her. Dancing with your old high school sweetheart at a reunion was bound to make people talk. The gossip would start.
“I—”
He gestured towards the couples who were already dancing on the floor. “We used to be good at this.”
Dayna gave him her hand and allowed him to pull her onto the floor.
“Let’s show them how it is done.” Putting his right hand on her left shoulder, Aron gripped her other hand. As the music rolled out, they took a few quick steps and swayed their hips in unison. It’d been a long time since he did the salsa with anyone. Back in high school, he’d taken classes with Dayna. They’d been good back then, and he was happy to note that they easily fell into step with each other. The years faded away and it became just the two of them with their mutual love for dancing and anything music. As they whirled across the dance floor, their arms around each other, their timing and speed were perfect.
“You haven’t forgotten anything,” Dayna breathed the words out.
Aron guided her body along while she dipped for him and rose with an easy upward sway.
