Cinderella & the CEO

by Maureen Child

  He loved the feel of her hot, slick flesh surrounding his. He groaned at the perfection of the moment and gave himself over to the demands of his body. She moved with him, into him, her soft gasps and heavy sighs creating a sort of music that sent his own blood into a dizzying dance.

  With every stroke, he claimed her. With every touch, he adored her. With every breath, he hungered for her. He felt her climax shudder through her and before the last of it had died away, he joined her and the two of them fell into a scatter of stars.

  Three hours later, Ivy turned her head on the pillow and looked at the man lying next to her. They’d come together again and again as if neither of them could bear the idea of being apart even momentarily. She’d never experienced anything like what Tanner made her feel. Just looking at him turned her heart over in her chest and she realized with a jolt that she was falling in love with him. Ivy bit back a groan and closed her eyes briefly. How had this happened? She hadn’t wanted this. Hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t been looking for it.

  And now that she’d found it she wasn’t entirely sure how to handle it. The problem here was, when Tanner had been just a neighbor—a potential friend—a small white lie hadn’t seemed like such a big deal. Now though, she knew that everything had changed. What she felt for Tanner was so much bigger than what she and David had shared, she almost felt guilty admitting it to herself. But it was true and the other undeniable truth was, when Tanner found out she’d been lying to him, this relationship would be over.

  She didn’t want it to be over.

  Idly, she wondered what might have happened if Tanner hadn’t had the foresight to have a condom handy. Lost in the throes of a passion she’d never known before, Ivy had completely disregarded the need for protection. If Tanner had forgotten too, might they have made a baby tonight? And what then? If they had, would she allow a lie to remain between them?

  “What’re you thinking?” he asked quietly.

  She came up out of her thoughts and pushed them all to the back of her mind. Worries for another day. Another time. Right now, she didn’t want to risk spoiling what they had.

  “Nothing, really.”

  “You looked pretty somber for nothing.” He went up on his elbow and reached out with his free hand to rub her shoulder.

  Just that simple touch was enough to stir her up again and she wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Would it always be that explosive between them? Would she forever erupt into passion so easily around him?

  Would she get the chance to find out?

  She took a breath and gave him a small piece of the larger truth.

  “I was just thinking I was grateful that you’d had the presence of mind to remember a condom,” she said, then admitted, “I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time.”

  His features tightened. “You should. No kid deserves to be an accident.”

  The words came so fast and harsh, it stole her breath from her. There was pain glittering in his eyes and the rigidity of his jaw told her that she’d inadvertently struck a nerve. Carefully, she tried to smooth things over. “If I were to get pregnant, I’d never consider my child a mistake, Tanner.”

  “Maybe not,” he allowed, his gaze locked with hers. “But others would. Have.”

  There was a chill in his voice now, to match the darkness in his eyes.

  He pushed one hand through his hair and shook his head as if disgusted with himself for opening this conversation. “All I meant was, I don’t make bastards,” he said simply. “That’s my father’s thing.”

  The casual use of the ugly word jabbed at her. His beautiful eyes were shuttered as if sealing her out. There was old pain there, she caught just a glimpse of it before he disguised it behind a layer of nonchalance. “Tanner…”

  “Please,” he said on a sharp laugh. “I don’t need sympathy. I grew up fine. I’ve got more half brothers and cousins than anyone should have. I’m only saying that I’m careful.”

  He brushed aside her concern and she understood the need to cling to your own pride so she wouldn’t offer him compassion when he clearly didn’t want it. But she also wouldn’t let him back away from a subject that obviously needed to be spoken about. “I get that. But there’s more, isn’t there?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  It meant that she was beginning to see why Tanner was so closed off from people. He’d had a lonely childhood despite what he was saying and the memories, if not the hurts of it, were still vividly with him.

  “Well,” she said softly, “How you feel about Christmas for instance.”

  “I don’t need therapy.”

  “Good. Not a therapist.”

  He glared at her. “Then drop it.”

  “What is it about Christmas that you hate, Tanner?”

  His jaw worked as if he were biting back a flood of words trying to escape. Lamplight shone on his tanned skin and made him seem golden. And though she could stretch out one hand to touch him, Ivy knew he was farther from her than he’d ever been.

  A tense moment or two passed before finally, he shrugged and said, “I never really did Christmas as a kid.” He shifted position and sat up, resting against pillows he bunched against the headboard, sheet pooled across his abdomen.

  “That’s not the only reason,” she said.

  He gave her a quick look. “Why do you care, Ivy?”

  “Call it curiosity,” she told him, though it was more. So much more. She wanted to understand him. Wanted to know him.

  Shaking his head, he said, “Okay, doesn’t matter anyway. My holidays were usually spent in an empty hotel room wondering when my mom was going to come back. She was usually off lining up her next lover and didn’t have time to do the tree and present thing.” He shrugged as if what he was saying meant nothing, though she could see it did. “My nanny usually got me something so it wasn’t a complete wash. And whatever my dad sent me always arrived around the twenty-fifth, so it didn’t matter really.”

  A twinge of pity zipped through her. Not for the man he was now, but for the boy he’d once been. On the outside, looking in and not knowing why. The boy had been alone and miserable. The man was still alone, yet had convinced himself that it was the way he wanted it.

  “I can see in your eyes that you’re getting all weepy on my account,” he said and shook his head with a smile. “You don’t have to. I did fine. I do fine.”

  She took a breath and blew it out. “Of course you do. But I don’t mind telling you I’d like to step back in time and shake your mother until her teeth rattled.”

  He laughed a little and she was grateful to see some of the tension leave his features.

  “You know,” Ivy told him quietly, “you don’t have to avoid Christmas forever. Just because you had crappy holidays as a kid doesn’t mean you have to continue the tradition. You can make your own choices instead of living with old hurts.”

  “Here comes the therapy,” he muttered, sliding a look at her. “Everybody’s got answers. Everybody knows what somebody else should do. What makes you think I’m in pain over something that happened decades ago? What makes you so sure that I’m suffering? I do what I want when I want. I don’t need your concern because it’s pointless. There is no angry little boy inside me waiting to be soothed, so spare me.”

  “Wow.” She sat up, drawing the sheet with her and clutching it to her chest. All of her earlier warm, fuzzy thoughts were quickly dissipating. Okay yes, she loved him. That didn’t mean she was going to sit there and be a target for him. “For a guy who’s put it all behind him, you sound a little sensitive on the subject.”

  “Why shouldn’t I be?” he demanded. “Where do you get off giving me advice, anyway? What do you know about pain, Ivy? Easy enough to sit on the sidelines and tell everybody else how they should get over it and move on. Well you don’t know jack about what my life is like.”

  “No, I don’t,” she said, fisting her hand in the fabric of the sheet and squeezing. She wasn’t sure ho
w they’d gone from spectacular sex and cozy afterglow to this raging argument, but she wasn’t about to let him talk to her like that. “But I know enough to stop licking old wounds. I know that shutting myself away in a house where I never have to speak to anyone isn’t the answer.”

  “Is that right?” His dark eyes went wide as he feigned astonishment. “And you’ve come by this magical knowledge how? Watching TV? What great pains do you have to deal with? Hell, you live in a town that might as well be Christmas central!”

  A sharp jab of hurt bit into her and Ivy lifted her chin to glare at him. She knew what this was, damn it—why they were having this ridiculous fight. They were both feeling emotionally shaken by what they’d shared and they were both going into defense mode. Oh, wasn’t that wonderful, she thought. And just when had she gotten so insightful, anyway?

  “Fine,” she said, scooting off the bed because she needed to be standing on her own two feet, not sharing the mattress with a man she wanted to kick, “you don’t want advice, your choice. But don’t bother to assume that you’re the only person on the planet who’s had trouble.”

  “Ivy—”

  “No,” she stopped him, thoroughly disgusted with him now. “You said you had a mother and father. Are they still alive?”

  “Yeah…”

  “My dad died when I was a little girl,” she told him. “I miss him still.”

  A flicker of what might have been regret crossed his face briefly. “Look, maybe I was out of line…”

  She tipped her head to one side and stared at him. “Have you ever loved anyone, Tanner? I mean love?”

  His gaze darkened. “No.”

  “Well, I have.”

  He blinked but that was the only sign of surprise he showed her. She didn’t care. All she wanted to do now was get out of this house and away from him. But she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d clued him in on a little something.

  “Four years ago, my fiancé David was in a car accident and died.”

  “Damn it, Ivy…” He came up off the bed and made to go to her, but she scrambled back and away, holding up one hand to keep him at bay.

  “Three weeks before our wedding,” she said, “I went to David’s funeral.” Tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them back. Somehow they’d both torn open old wounds and were now taking turns dribbling salt on them. All to avoid talking about the emotional connection they’d made. She didn’t know who she was more furious with. Tanner? Or herself?

  The only way out now was to keep on going. “I could have curled up in a ball and reveled in the pain,” she whispered. “I could have shut myself up in the house and never talked to anyone again. But you know what, Tanner? That’s not life. That’s just taking up space. So you keep going forward. You don’t stay trapped in the past, you move on. You keep breathing because that’s what life is.”

  Her breath was hitching in her chest and she felt the tears clogging her throat now, too. Damn it, she didn’t want to cry in front of him. That would just put a capper on this scene, wouldn’t it?

  “Ivy, I didn’t know.”

  “No, you didn’t,” she muttered, heading for the open bedroom door. “And I wasn’t looking for sympathy either, Tanner, so spare me that.”

  He grabbed his jeans, tugged them on and followed her when she swept from the room like a queen dragging her sheet cape behind her.

  “Damn it, Ivy, don’t go.”

  “There’s no reason to stay,” she told him, gathering up her clothes and dressing as hurriedly as she possibly could.

  He grabbed her arm, but she pulled free. “I don’t much like you right now, Tanner, so I’m going home.”

  “This is my fault?”

  She tossed her hair out of her eyes and stepped into her sandals. “It’s not about fault, Tanner. It’s about this going really wrong really fast and now I need to leave.”

  “Who’s hiding now?” he asked.

  She stilled, lifted her gaze to his and gave him a sad smile. “Touché, Tanner. Nice shot. Now just…shut up.”

  Before he could stop her, she threw the front door open and was stalking down the steps. He watched her go and wished he could rewrite time. If he could, he’d have avoided the argument entirely. They’d still be upstairs, in his bed. Instead, he was standing alone in the dark.

  When she arrived the next afternoon for work, Tanner was waiting for her in the hallway. He’d done a lot of thinking the night before and it had occurred to him that he knew how to fix what had gone wrong between them. So he’d gotten up early, driven to Lake Tahoe to do some shopping and now he was back, prepared to accept her thanks. Then he’d take her upstairs again and remind her why they were so good together.

  “Tanner.” Ivy stopped just inside the doorway and looked up at him.

  He saw the shadows beneath her eyes and knew she’d spent the night as sleepless as he’d been. Somehow that made him feel better. And he was more sure than ever that he was about to end the stalemate between them.

  “Ivy, I did some thinking,” he said.

  “Yeah, me too,” she said and scrubbed both hands across her face. “I really think we should talk, Tanner. I need to—”

  “Do me a favor?” he asked, bringing the package he’d been holding behind his back forward. The white box was long and narrow and wrapped with a string of red ribbon. “Open this first.”

  “What? Why?”

  He lifted one shoulder. “Does it matter? Just open it.”

  She took the box from him, shot him another curious glance and then pulled the ribbon free. When she opened the box, she blew out a breath and whispered, “It’s lovely.”

  “I wanted you to have it,” he said, glad that she liked the diamond-encrusted white gold watch.

  “Why did you buy it for me?” she asked and her voice was soft, curious.

  “I wanted you to have it.”

  “Because of last night.”

  “Well,” he said, “yeah.”

  She snapped the box closed and handed it back to him. “No, thank you.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t want the watch, Tanner,” she said and now she sounded tired. “I’m not interested in your money or your presents. If you’re sorry for last night, just say so.”

  He opened his mouth then closed it again. Tanner didn’t do apologies. When he had a regret, he gifted his way out of it. He’d learned early and well from his mother that the way to win a woman’s forgiveness was with shiny presents. And, he told himself in disgust, it had always worked for him before. Trust Ivy to be different.

  “You can’t do it, can you?” she whispered, shaking her head. “You can’t bring yourself to say you’re sorry.”

  His hand fisted around the jewelry box as irritation swept him. This wasn’t going at all as he’d planned. Damn it, why did she have to be so difficult? Why couldn’t she just accept his gift and let it go?

  “It’s just a gift, Ivy,” he said tightly.

  “No, it’s not,” she argued. “It’s a bribe.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It’s saying accept this and stop being mad. Well, forget it, Tanner. I’m still angry and a pretty watch isn’t going to change that.”

  “What the hell do you want from me?” he demanded.

  “Too much,” she said, then brushed past him on her way to the kitchen. “Now, I’ve got a lot to do, so I’m going to work.”

  He stared down at his rejected offering and wondered where he’d gone so wrong. Since the moment he met her, Ivy had been like no other woman he’d ever known. What had made him think she’d allow herself to be bought off by trinkets? He looked off down the hall toward the kitchen, and told himself that for the first time in his life, he was completely out of his depths with a woman.

  He didn’t have a clue what to do next.

  Nine

  For the next couple of days, Ivy tried to stay as far from Tanner as possible. Not an easy task, considering she spent a few hours each day at his house.
Even worse, all she could do was think about their night together. What she’d found in his arms, what he’d made her feel.

  She was on a tightrope—trying to keep her balance in a situation that was designed to splinter her equilibrium. She wanted him and couldn’t have him. Wanted to tell him the truth and had to keep lying. Wanted to quit but couldn’t bear the thought of leaving.

  How in the world had her life gotten so complicated?

  Oh, she never should have slept with him. She’d known at the time that it was a mistake of giant proportions. But instead of thinking with her head, she’d let her too-hungry body lead her down a road that was going to go nowhere but misery.

  What she should have done was quit her job. She knew that.

  Or, tell him the truth and let him fire her.

  In fact, she had made up her mind to be honest with him and tell him everything, that morning she’d arrived to find he’d bought her a diamond watch of all things. Imagine him thinking that she’d want the stupid watch in the first place—sure, he didn’t know she was a farmer, but how many housekeepers did he know who wore diamonds?

  “Idiot,” she muttered, taking a pot roast out of the oven and setting it on a cooling rack on the counter. Was I’m sorry so far out of his lexicon that he couldn’t even imagine saying it? Instead he’d had to drive at least two hours to go shopping only to turn around and come back? Was buying something that much easier than apologizing?

  Oh, she supposed he’d meant well enough, remembering now the expectant expression on his face as he had watched her open his gift. He’d no doubt assumed that once she caught sight of the shiny bauble, all would be forgiven and she’d fling herself into his arms.

  She didn’t know whether to be amused or sorry for him.

  Did he really believe all he had to do was toss diamonds at her and she’d be happy as a clam again? How could he think it would be that easy? That she could be bought? Had every woman in his life been so cheaply acquired? Well, if they had, then he was in for a rude awakening when it came to Ivy Angel Holloway.