Secret Affair With A Billionaire

by Longton, Heather

  She just missed him. She missed him more than she could bear.

  This was her last party and she will get through it no matter what. Then she would return to her own place and work out how she would get on with her life.

  "Daniel Kendrick..."

  She spun around in confusion as she thought she had heard his name echoing through the crowd. She shook her head as she thought once more she was hearing his name through the noise because he was on her mind constantly. She had heard his name in the wind and the rustling of the trees and was now hearing it through the sound of chatter.

  "Security have said... Should ask Emma..."

  Was she losing her mind? She looked around the crowd and noticed a number of famous faces, the Cheshire set paying their respects to her father, and she tried to locate where the conversation was coming from.

  "… Construction company... Northwest's biggest, with signs all over Manchester..."

  There was no mistaking what she had heard there but who could it be taking on his name and pretending to be... Or...

  Turning slowly and deliberately she scanned the room and stared in amazement as she fixed her eyes to his. Her world appeared to move in slow motion as the crowds parted revealing Daniel striding with sheer determination towards her, his eyes fixed on her and nothing else.

  Emma stopped breathing, her whole body frozen and focused on him.

  She absorbed the work clothes he was wearing. Worn jeans with holes in them, a T-shirt with dust and smears which had probably been white that morning. She saw how his uncombed hair flopped around sometimes bobbing into his eyes, and how his hands clenched into fists down the side of his body causing the muscles in his forearms to flex tight. So lost was she in the sight of him the people in the room in their tuxedos and ball-gowns became no more than a blur on the periphery of her vision.

  And she didn't care about anybody else, she didn't care who was watching. Daniel was there.

  Daniel took a momentary glance to her left in a way that signalled danger. Emma turned to see her father stood with his arms folded, watching. But she ignored him, instead letting her feet carry her forward to the oncoming Daniel.

  As they got close she leaned her body towards him and lifted her brows in question as she spoke with a low voice.

  "What are you doing here?"

  Daniel's broad shoulders answered with a shrug. "I did ask you not to take too long."

  "But I thought you meant-"

  She had no time to finish her sentence before he bent down sweeping her off her feet and into his arms. Turning on his heel with her cradled in his arms and headed back in the direction from which he came.

  "I take it we are not a secret any more, are we?"

  "That's right, the secrets over."

  He had a very stern tone in his voice and she felt a need to tell him that she didn't like to be told what to do. But she was bubbling inside with great joy and ridiculous happiness but at that moment she really didn't care what he did or said. She wrapped her arms around his neck and linked her hands whilst allowing her fingers to gently tug on the back of the hair that she loved so much as her eyes scanned the details of what were now familiar features. My God, she had missed him so much.

  "What made you do this?"

  "I was going to come tomorrow but when I saw your face in the paper I felt the need to come a day earlier."

  Emma's heart was beating so fast she thought everyone in the room must be able to hear it. "There's no party for you to come and carry me out of tomorrow."

  "Then it's just as well I've come to make you mine today, isn't it?"

  He'd come to...

  Her eyes widened as she stared up at him, wondering if she might wake up at any moment. "Make me yours?"

  "Yup."

  "So you mean, I am yours now, am I?"

  They reached the outside door and Daniel just carried on walking. He looked her straight in the eye. "You've always been mine, it's just taken a while for us both to realise it."

  His mouth turned upwards at the edges when he saw she had nothing to say and he continued walking, his eyes pointed to wherever it was he planned taking her. She felt like giving in to the sound of the birds and pictured herself being carried into the sunset but she couldn't remain silent, not whilst there were still questions in her mind.

  "It was only last Friday that you didn't want it made public that we were sleeping together, you thought that we wouldn't last."

  "No. You told me that was what I thought."

  "But you didn't disagree with me."

  He frowned. "Verbally no. But I showed you that you were wrong."

  How? By turning her on and making love to her in the way he did? How was she supposed to work that out?

  His feet began crunching in the gravel of the driveway. "But you still didn't want anybody else to know about us."

  "It was important to have time on our own. The only way we would ever survive was if we managed to get a strong foundation before the pressures of the outside world got in the way. And you dumped me once in the full glare of the public and I wasn't going to allow that to happen again."

  She'd never considered the latter aspect before. Why would he want to go through that again? And the first part of what he said meant that he actually wanted...

  Daniel stopped and turned his head from side to side as if planning his next move. He stepped off the gravel and onto the lawn which rolled down away from the house and headed towards the wooded area at the end of the garden.

  His words seemed to echo around inside her head as she began searching for a clue as to where they might be going. She then felt a twang of pain and her heart dropped when suddenly she knew; he was taking her back to where it had all begun.

  She remained quiet as he sat down on the old swing and settled her over his hardened lap. The ropes or the branch, she wasn't sure which, seemed to groan in protest at their weight. He wrapped his elbows around the ropes one at a time to secure them both on the swing. He pulled her close and spoke with low and even voice.

  "I felt like killing him."

  "Killing who?"

  "That guy you were with."

  Who? She really didn't have a clue what he was talking about and felt the last ten minutes had all been too surreal. Daniel began to make things clearer as his low voice rumbled across her cheeks and his fingers spread around her waist.

  "When I found you and him embraced that night I just saw red. He nearly had his head ripped off. And it didn't help when you told me that you loved him; I would probably have kissed you even if you hadn't taunted me into it."

  The swing was moving to and fro slightly, her eyes studied his face as she developed a new understanding about their past. She was afraid to think about it let alone speak of it, in case she was wrong.

  "You must have really hated me for my father forcing you..."

  "I wouldn't hate you for that. Why should I? It was nothing to do with you. Even without the arrangement I would have done all I could to keep you out of trouble. You just made it very hard for me. And I was forever getting lectured by your old man because he felt I wasn't keeping my part of the deal.”

  She was cringing inside and out. "You had to care about me anyway otherwise he would never have been able to force the deal upon you."

  "He's resourceful. He would have found something else."

  "But if you hadn't-"

  "Loved you?"

  He had a small smile on his face as he asked the question his eyes causing hers to water slightly, as she felt her vision blurring. His hand tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "You keep saying I cared for you – let's be more honest and tell it how it is. Love is the word."

  "I always knew you loved me." Her voice began trembling as she used the words. "I never had a better friend, Daniel. You are the only one who ever criticised me when I behaved like a spoilt brat to get attention. And I loved you for that."

  "And then I crossed the line, and kissed you."

  "Th
at made me feel so many things and I was really confused. I hated you for that, because I lost my best friend and had feelings I couldn't understand."

  "So you said things that humiliated me so you could hurt me as I had hurt you." He released the lock of hair he was playing with and it cascaded down her shoulder landing on her breast. "But I can understand it all now. Back then all I knew was that I loved you, and I don't mean as best friends. I had known for a while before that night."

  Is he saying he'd been 'in love' with her?

  She felt the tightness and the pain welling up in her stomach once more as the full implications of what he was saying settled in her mind. With each piece of new information she received, it all pointed back to the same thing: Daniel had been deeply hurt. And that thought made her bleed again. A moan escaped her lips as she slid her arms around his neck and lightly touched her forehead against his jaw.

  "I didn't know."

  "How could you have known?"

  "You could have told me."

  "You wouldn't have listened."

  She knew he was right. But that didn't stop the aching now that she knew how he had felt and that she had rejected him in a vicious way that she did. "I'm so sorry Daniel. I really am sorry."

  She felt his lips plant a kiss on the top of her head. "That's okay we can fix it now. It wasn't to be then but we now have a second chance."

  Emma felt her breathing deepen as she noticed his scent which made the moment all the more real giving her reassurance that he was there. It was all going to be all right after all, after she had spent most of the past week preparing herself mentally for letting him go. Her emotions built up inside her as she began to realise what she could have lost had he not come back to make her his. She pressed her face into the crook of his neck and spoke the words against his skin.

  "I love you more than I could ever tell you." Her words felt so inadequate.

  He moved his head back to try and catch her eyes. "Sorry? I can't quite hear you, you will need to speak a little louder."

  She lifted her head and turned it slightly to look back at him noticing the cheeky sparkle in his eyes. There was no doubt that he had heard her, but if she was going to have to keep repeating herself a thousand times then she had no problem with that.

  "I love you. I knew I had fallen in love with you the night you made me sleep in the spare room. Being unable to scream it to the world for the past two months has almost driven me insane. Why do you think I was so keen to go public?"

  His eyes were still sparkling as he raised his eyebrows and tightened his arms around her. "You could have told me first."

  She nodded and smiled that sexy smile he loved to see. "I could have, but I wasn't sure that was what you wanted to hear."

  "It was all I wanted to hear."

  He stopped the swaying of the swing by planting his feet firmly on the ground. His arms squeezed so tight she was barely able to breathe. His mouth lowered to hers stealing away what little air she had left kissing with a fierceness and hunger which fed her passion.

  They kissed for what seemed like for ever, giving and taking right up to the point that their hunger could only be satisfied one other way. Daniel gave a low growl of frustration as he pulled his lips away and rested his forehead against hers, his eyes seeking to look deep into hers. "At times I was determined to despise you, but even then I wanted you so much Emma. It was the reason I hated you. Since you've been back from Italy I've tried not to love you and I did a good job of blocking it out for a while, but I never really stopped. Whilst you were out of sight I could keep you out of my mind but once you came home I was helpless. Now you are going to be mine." He squeezed her again. "You just need to agree so I know you understand it this time."

  Emma could feel a tear roll down her cheek which caused her to laugh and gently swear. "You're making me cry and I hate you for that. I hate crying."

  She sniffed loudly causing him to smile. He wiped away the tear with his finger. "If it's any consolation I don't like to see you crying either. Now say it."

  "I'm yours, you idiot. Yes I am yours." She pulled her fingers apart from behind his neck and framed his face in her hands so she could show the sincerity in her eyes. "I had a big argument with my father today and I told him I would rather have your name than be a Hartington like him. And I really meant it Daniel, and at that point I thought I had lost you forever."

  "You won't be losing me." He pressed another kiss against her lips as his large hands smoothed up and down her back. "And even though I love you as much as I do, I now love you even more for standing up to your father and saying that to his face. I bet he was delighted at the thought of you marrying the housekeeper's son."

  "If we get married it won't be to spite my father, it will be because I love you."

  Daniel's mouth opened in mock surprise before developing into a dimpled smile. "If? What do you mean if? You make it sound as if you might have a choice in the matter."

  "Are you bossing me around again?" She rolled her eyes. "You know how important my independence is to me."

  "Hard luck." He gave a strong kiss to let her know there was little point in arguing. He took a firm stance on the floor before releasing his arms from the swing whilst tossing her up into a more secure position and marched back towards the house. "Right now we're going to go back home and spend the next few days persuading you that there is nothing incompatible with being married to me and having your independence. The whole world needs to understand that you are mine."

  "I think the world got the message when you just carried me out of the party." She stroked his cheek with her thumb. "I am completely in favour of whatever method of persuasion you are going to use, but just so you know, even the thought of you trying to persuade me is enough for me to know my answer is yes. And I know I've given in far too easily but we've already wasted too much time. So the answer to whatever, or wherever is yes."

  Daniel turned his head and kissed his lips to the back of her hand then gave her the kind of purely sexual smile that sent waves of anticipation through her entire body. "I'm still going to put you through the persuasion process though."

  He bent his neck so his mouth was almost touching her ear. "There's more. I've decided to make love to you until you are so tired you can't move. Then you will more easily agree to getting married as soon as we can. Maybe in just a couple of weeks, or less if we can get it arranged."

  Emma gave him her wide eyed look in conjunction with her smile. "Daniel, are you pregnant? And we were so careful, so many times we were really careful."

  The laugh she loved so much came bellowing from his lungs as he squeezed her to his chest again. "I don't think I'm pregnant, at least I wasn't the last time I took notice."

  "So why the hurry? You have me, I promise. I couldn't possibly love you any more so I am yours."

  "Just remember I loved you first." Daniel stopped as he reached his car he kissed her long and slow before giving her that cheeky grin. "We're not doing any of this to get revenge on your father, Emma – but let's face it, falling in love, getting married and living happily ever after is probably the best way there is of getting even."

  "I just love your thinking." She wondered if he had given any thought to the fact he was about to get Cedric Hartington as his father-in-law. "I'm not sure about that. You are going to have to take me home and see if you can persuade me, then we will see."

  Daniel took a deep breath which expanded his chest as he set her back on her feet giving her no time to balance as he claimed her lips in a kiss which made her tremble all over. "Do you think your father will happily give his daughter away to me?"

  She put her hands on his hips and her thumbs found their way inside the waistband of his jeans. She leaned forwards and pushed herself onto her toes, lifting her chin. "That's entirely up to him. If he wants me to be happy he needs to understand that you are what makes me happy. And anyway, he will be in a minority of one because I think our mothers will be delighted."


  "He will be the only one." He ran his finger down her neck and onto her chest before using his other hand to pull her against him, his mouth close to hers. "Because as your brother helped me pass security he patted me on the back and said “about time too”, or something similar."

  Emma smiled as she pressed her lips against his. "Toby is so annoying when he's right."

  "Not this time, he wasn't." He shook his head and their mouths and noses brushed together as their eyes were focused on each other's. "Now say it again."

  There was no need to explain what he meant. "I belong to you, Daniel. I will always be yours. I love you."

  "And I love you too."

  Emma softly spoke the words into his mouth with a smile on her lips and sparkling in her eyes. "My Daniel."

  His brown eyes sparkled proudly down at her. "Welcome home."

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