I had made my decision now, I wasn’t going to fall for another of his cheap tricks. That text message meant nothing to me. He could send as many of them as he wanted, but there was no honor left in upholding that contract.
I boiled a kettle of water and poured it into a mug with a tea bag. I needed to cut back on costs, it would have to be tea and crackers for dinner for me. If I could just save enough money to pay this month’s hospital bills for mama, then it would see us through for a few more weeks.
I thought about Oscar in his penthouse, enjoying caviar and champagne for dinner and I couldn’t imagine hating anybody more. He was a spoilt rich boy, that’s all he was. Just like my father had been. How dare he assume that he could entice me into visiting him again, after all that happened today, by reminding me that this was a contract?
I sipped my tea gingerly and felt another tear roll down my cheeks. Mama was right, I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried so much. Yes, I was in love with Oscar Connell, but that didn’t mean he deserved my love. I was angry with myself for falling in love with a man I didn’t even like. Someone who tried to bait me into sleeping with him again, only hours after his brother made a joke out of me.
Chapter Twelve
Oscar
Just like the first time she came over, this time too I didn’t expect her to turn up. But she did. It was eight in the evening by the time I heard the door bell ring. I opened the door, swung it wide but she remained standing before me. I could see that she had been crying. I wanted to hold her, to stroke her hair, to make her feel safe and to trust me. But she was holding her head high and glaring into my eyes.
This wasn’t the Kayla Edwards whose body I wanted to ravish when I first met her. This Kayla was different. She was in a pair of jeans and an old oversized t-shirt that nearly reached her knees. Her hair was left loose, but un-styled. She had no makeup on.
This was the Kayla I wanted to hold in my arms. This was the woman who I wanted to go to sleep with.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” I said, breaking the silence.
“I shouldn’t have,” she said, pushing her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
“I’m glad you did. You should come in,” I said and I saw her eyes fall on my bruised knuckles. A look of concern washed over her face but she was quick to hide it.
“What happened to your hand?” she asked, making her voice sound as casual as possible. I could see she didn’t want to cross the line. How could I tell her that I wanted to cross it? How could I tell her how happy I was to see her?
“Jonathan’s nose,” I said, holding it up for her to see. She didn’t come closer to me or look particularly interested.
“You punched your brother?” she asked and I nodded.
“It felt good. He deserved it, after what he said to you,” I said and she looked at me in silence. Then she brushed past me and walked into the house. I closed the door and followed her to the living room.
“Drink?” I asked as she walked over to the window. It made me happy to realize that she really did like the view.
“I’m not here for refreshments, Oscar. I’m here to put a stop to this,” she said, turning to me, and looking at me from under her heavy long lashes. I licked my lips and nodded. I’d prepared a speech for her, I had it in my head, what I wanted to say, but it was all lost on me. I couldn’t remember what those words were, I was drawing a blank.
“I understand and I agree,” I said quietly and noticed the look of slight surprise on her face. She wasn’t expecting me to agree to this so easily. Did she think she would have to put up a fight?
“Good,” she said and leaned with her back against the wall.
“I’m sorry for all the embarrassment that you’ve had to go through. I wish you didn’t. I wish it was as smooth sailing as I imagined it would be,” I said, maintaining a few feet of distance between us. I didn’t want her to get the wrong impression of my intentions.
“It’s not your fault. It was a contract, after all, it was good while it lasted,” she said, tucking in loose strands of her hair behind her ears. She had never looked more beautiful, of that I was sure.
“It was good while it lasted indeed,” I said and she looked away from me and there was silence in the room again.
“I’m quitting my job,” I said and she jerked her head to look at me.
“You don’t have to do that. It’s your family business. I’ve decided to quit anyway,” she said. I smiled and shook my head.
“Remember the rule you came up with? That you’d maintain your position after this ends,” I said and a soft smile graced Kayla’s lips at the memory. So much had changed since then.
“I was being stupidly naive,” she said and I shook my head again.
“You can stay, Kayla. I’m holding on to my end of the contract, you get to keep your position,” I said and she stared at me in silence.
“I can’t work there anymore,” she replied.
“I can talk to father and make sure you’re transferred to our California offices if you don’t mind moving. You don’t have to work with these people anymore.” I could see that she was thinking as she stared at me with her large chocolate colored eyes.
“I know you’ve worked hard at your job Kayla, and you’re a prized possession at the company. You don’t deserve to leave all this behind. Especially since it’ll suit me better to quit anyway,” I said and she licked her lips and sighed.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, holding her head high. That was the Kayla who was so good at her job: confident, professional and never backing away from a good deal. I smiled at her, but she only tried. I could see she was still hurting, but she was too proud to say it. As was I. I didn’t know if I was prepared to lay my heart out in the open like that, for another woman to come and trample all over.
We were quiet for a few minutes.
“So aren’t you going to ask me for a last time?” she asked, her voice dropping and growing softer.
“Ask you for what?” I asked, and I saw her jaws clenching.
“Sex,” she replied.
“No. I won’t,” I said and her eyes widened. “It’s over. That is over. I would rather have you first, as someone real, to talk to, and then your body.” For the first time she really looked at me, straight into my eyes and my arms shook in fear of what she was going to say.
Chapter Thirteen
Kayla
I couldn’t decide if this was a part of some kind of trick that he was playing on me. I wasn’t even sure if I had heard him correctly. He wanted me as a person? He said that when I had practically just offered him my body?
I stared at him, while he looked back at me, his eyes boring into me intensely. He wasn’t smiling, he was serious.
“I don’t know if I understand what you mean,” I managed to say after several seconds of silence.
“I mean Kayla, that I want you. Of course I want you. But not just as a part of a contract,” he said. I could see his lips moving, his blue eyes sparkling in the dim light of his living room. His strong shoulders squared and tight. He was as defensive as I was. I didn’t know what to say to him, this wasn’t what I expected. I prided myself in being able to judge people accurately. In Oscar’s case, I had missed the mark by miles.
“Kayla, I know you don’t trust me…I know you’re scared,” he began and something in me made me interrupt him.
“It’s not you, Oscar. It’s my own family, or rather the lack thereof,” I blurted out and I saw his face change. His defenses came down a little.
“You don’t trust me because of your family?” he asked, confused.
“Because of my father.”
“What did he do to you?” There was a glint of rage in his eyes as he said it. I could see now how the punch on Jonathan’s face came about.
“Nothing. He was my mother’s boss. He left her when she got pregnant with me. I’ve never met him, I don’t even know who he is,” I blurted it all out, and only at the end of it
did I realize that I was crying.
Oscar lunged towards me, enveloping me in his arms as he held me to his chest.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Kayla,” he said as he stroked my hair. I held on to his chest for dear life. I felt safe in his arms. Besides mama, nobody had ever made me feel like they genuinely cared. This man, who I thought I had all figured out, did.
“Is that why you pushed me away? Because you thought I would do the same to you?” he asked and I nodded.
“I kept pushing you away because of an ex-girlfriend who cheated on me,” he said and I pulled away from him to look into his eyes.
“That bad huh?” I asked and he raised his eyebrows.
“She slept with Jonathan,” he said and I nearly broke into a laugh. Who would ever choose Jonathan over Oscar?
“So that punch was a long time coming then,” I said and he squeezed his arms around me a little more.
“Kayla, can we start over?” he asked and I nodded. There was nothing more that I wanted. I hadn’t even realized that this was what I wanted. I had been so angry with myself for falling in love that I had refused to acknowledge that falling in love could also be beautiful and mean happiness.
And the last person I had expected to feel happy about was Oscar Connell.
“I have never been this excited to have a contract of sexual favors ending,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“How many have you had?” I asked him, lightly punching his arm. He laughed and then held me even tighter in his grip.
“I’m not going to lie, a few of them,” he said. It didn’t surprise me. His proposal had been too casual, too easy. He had done it a few times before.
“But never before did I end the contract so I could date the girl, Kayla. This is a first,” he said, softly kissing my forehead. I licked my lips and accepted the kiss. I could live with that. As long as what he was offering now was real, it was a good deal.
“Is this the part where you rip my clothes apart and take me here on the carpet?” I asked him, but he pulled away from me and shook his head.
“I could if you really want to. But I was thinking that the best way to start over would be to get Maria to set us a candlelit dinner, where I ask you about where you grew up and what kind of ice cream you like. You can maybe ask me what colors don’t suit me and who my best friends are. You know, like normal people,” he said, drawing away from me as I laughed.
“You may be right, but normal is boring,” I said and he was laughing too. Then I felt his hands on the buttons of my jeans. The next thing I knew was that his hands were on my bra under my t-shirt. He was making me moan already, his hands finding their way into my pants. I was on the carpet, tugging at his clothes and he was smiling, watching me as he kept me pinned to the floor.
I was not tired of him yet, he had got it wrong. I would never be tired of him. Oscar Connell was one of a kind, and I was wrong to assume that all men were like my father.
No, Oscar Connell was the love of my life and I could see it in his eyes as he entered me, that he loved me back.
*****
THE END
Bonus Book 2: Football Daddy
Description
He’s always been my dream... Now he’s my secret.
Melissa has always had a crush on Nick. Always, for as long as she can remember.
It’s too bad that he is not only her big brother’s best friend but also her best friend’s older brother. Talk about complicated. He is also a womanizer, with a reputation to prove that. What could she even have to offer?
When the guys have a party to celebrate them going to the Super Bowl with their local Seattle team, Melissa is surprised when Nick approaches her with an idea. She’s helped him in the past, and now that she’s twenty-two, he wants her to help him some more... in his bed. Nick proposes a friends with benefits situation to her, and she knows that she’s crazy to think about it at all, much less say yes.
Melissa is a virgin going into a sexual relationship with one of the biggest players in the NFL. She’s read the stories and heard the rumors, but none of that matters when she’s in his bed and finally getting her dream.
Not at first, at least.
Can they make it through rumors as they keep their relationship secret from the ones that they love the most? Will circumstances make it too hard for Melissa to stick it through, even though she is in love with Nick?
One night could change everything about them and their lives. One night could change their futures.
One night could make them see their feelings for each other, if Melissa doesn’t keep running away.
Just one night is all it takes.
Chapter One
“This party is insane!” Bonnie told me, as we walked into the mansion that was packed with people. I smiled at my best friend as I tried not to think about the project that was waiting for me back at our apartment and focus on the celebration that was only just beginning. Our brothers were going to the Super Bowl with their Seattle team after only playing in the NFL for four years after college, and the entire house was vibrating with the excitement. They’d worked so hard all through high school and college but still managed to stay best friends, just as Bonnie and I were. “I wonder if we’ll even be able to find Nick. I know all too well how he likes to celebrate.”
Bonnie’s brother Nick Harmon was a player. He’d always been a player, and it was just how things were. Bonnie accepted it, but I had a long-running, invisible crush on him. My brother Brandon James had his fair share of female fans, but I thought that he respected them. At least I hoped so.
We managed to make our way through the crowd to the living room, where each of us stared at some of the celebrities that were there in awe. Bonnie focused quickly on a hockey player who played for the Colorado team and I figured that she’d make every effort to make the best of the next several hours. I saw Brandon in the kitchen. I also saw Nick, who was sitting on the counter with a redhead between his legs and her arms around his waist.
I ran my hand through my red curls, which I’d recently colored, and frowned as she leaned up and smiled at him. He was gorgeous, with dark, messy hair and sea blue eyes and that damn crooked smile of his. Who wouldn’t want him? I saw him glance in my direction as I heard my name called out, and his eyes darkened before I looked at my brother. “Mel, I am so glad that you could come!” Brandon pushed forward and hugged me tightly as he spun me around. “Nice hair. I see that art school is getting in your blood.” We once had the same shade of chestnut hair, though we still had the same light green eyes. “You look beautiful, though. I mean that.”
“Of course I’m here. You’re going to the Super Bowl! I am so proud of you, Bran,” I gushed, as I pulled away from him and looked around. “This crowd. It’s mad and wonderful, and you’ve hit your dream.”
“Winning is the real dream,” Brandon assured, me as he heard his name called from across the room. “It’s so crazy tonight. We’ll talk later?”
I nodded and watched as he ran into the living room and took a deep breath. I had worn a denim skirt and a green shirt with some boots after agonizing over my choices. It didn’t hold a candle to most of the women here, with most of them dressed in next to nothing and looking like super models. The ones that weren’t dressed that way were beautiful regardless, and I looked over my shoulder to see Bonnie coming my way with a smile on her face. “Drinks! Then dancing.”
We found the bar in the formal dining room and loaded up on some sweet cocktails as we discussed the party. “Did you see Nick?” I asked Bonnie, and she rolled her pretty topaz eyes.
“Yeah, he was a little busy. I’ll talk to him later. Fucking quarterbacks,” Bonnie said, before she tossed her third drink down and grinned at me. “Let’s dance!”
Bonnie was a light in my life. I’d always grown up in Brandon’s shadow, and though I loved him, nothing I did would ever be as good as his accomplishments. Look at tonight. I was looking at a couple more years in a
rt school to have maybe a gallery showing in a matter of years if I was lucky. Painting and drawing happened to be my passion and I wanted to surround my life with it in every way possible. Brandon just happened to be extremely athletic, and his calling was playing center in football, so well that he was snatched up right after graduation from the local college. Nick as well. They were happy to be playing for the same team, and they even shared this house together.
I knew that I’d be happy, even if my name wasn’t in lights like Brandon’s was.
Bonnie and Nick had lost their mother in a car accident when she was twelve, and she still moved through life with so much positivity. I watched as she walked towards the makeshift dance floor in the living room and took a place on the edge as a great new song came on. I didn’t think that Nick was as positive, but he managed in his own way, and he was a great player.
We danced to every song that played and I felt the alcohol coursing through my body as I lost myself in the beat. I loved to dance as much as Bonnie did, and the hours passed quickly in between dancing and drinks. Some of the players would speak from time to time as the crowd screamed their names and cheered. It was getting wild in here and I laughed as I looked around.
There was no sign of Nick at all and I assumed that he was off with the redhead or some other woman. I tried not to think about it as I danced and bumped against the people that were joining us on the dance floor. After a while, I got too hot, and told Bonnie that I needed some fresh air.
I wandered to the back of the room and slipped through the sliding glass door that led to the backyard. They had a big deck for barbecues out there and a pool, and I wandered over to one of the chairs by the water and sat down with a fresh drink. I’d managed to grab it from the main fridge and I sipped from the bottle as I took in a slow breath. There was the sound of a door closing and I turned my head to see the redhead from before stumbling towards the house as she fixed her red dress around her very generous breasts.
ROMANCE: Older Man Younger Woman Romance: Daddy’s Business Friend (First Time Virgin Pregnancy Taboo Romance) (Alpha Male Contemporary Romance Short Stories) Page 10
