“It’s lovely.”
Bill slipped his arm around her waist and Amanda leaned into the embrace, resting her head on his shoulder. “This is a wonderful place.”
He turned out the garden lights and said, “Let’s go upstairs.”
Their first stop was the master bedroom where the tour ended at least for that night. A warm embrace became more heated as touches became more insistent, kisses deeper. They were only half undressed the first time they made love.
When the storm ebbed, the rest of their clothes were shed and they crawled between the sheets to hold each other, to explore each other’s bodies with touches now more familiar, less tentative. They spent hours pleasuring one another with fingers, lips, tongues, so that when Bill entered her again, it was also familiar, and right, a kind of closure.
She clung to him, staring into his eyes, he into hers. What she saw there echoed everything she was feeling, the warmth and affection, the surprise and delight at finding such a kindred soul. She felt part of him and clung to him as the waves of joy washed through her.
And then, as they grew sleepy, he cradled her in his arms. She could feel his warm, steady breath against her cheek, listened to the sound of it, and felt safe. For the first time in her adult life, she felt truly safe.
Amanda wakened to a tentative touch, and Bill’s voice. “Amanda? Mandy?”
“Hmm?”
“Good morning.”
She looked around. The bedroom was still dark. “What time is it?”
“Almost ten.”
“In the morning?” she asked, confused.
Bill laughed. “Yes. It’s dark in here because those are heavy drapes, but also because it’s still snowing. It’s been snowing all night.”
“Oh no. I should get home.”
“Sweetheart, I don’t think you can. My car is buried. There are plows out but bus service is pretty thin, and I don’t think you could hope to catch a cab.”
She rubbed her eyes. “What am I going to do?”
He smiled. “You’re going to go soak in the tub while I make some coffee. Or would you prefer tea? Cocoa?”
Impulsively, Amanda reached up and kissed him. “Whatever you’re having is fine. I like them all. Is the bathroom through there?” she asked, pointing.
He nodded. “Here, I brought you a robe.”
He handed her a huge, fluffy, white terrycloth robe and a pair of terrycloth slippers still in their wrapper. “I get samples from all the resorts, and toss them in the closet in case I have house guests who forget things.”
“Where’s this one from?”
He checked the robe’s lapel. “Waikiki.”
“Perfect. Thank you.” She kissed him again and slipped out of bed.
The master bath took her breath away. What she hadn’t seen the night before was that the fireplace in the bedroom opened onto the big bathtub on the other side. There was framed art on the walls and a chandelier over the bath.
Just beyond the big, jetted tub was the shower enclosure. It was the size of her apartment’s bathroom, and clad in marble. There was a long bench along one wall, and a dozen shower heads. She dropped the robe into a chair and stepped into the shower, adjusting the thermostat to a bit above body temperature. Water hit her from all sides and she laughed from the sheer pleasure of it. She’d never experienced anything like this, not even on vacation. She washed her hair with expensive shampoo, and scrubbed herself with soap that smelled warm and woodsy. It smelled like Bill.
As she was rinsing herself, she turned and saw Bill standing outside, watching her. He was smiling broadly, so she took her time and made a show of finishing, letting the water sluice down her body, running her hands down her wet skin, bending to show off her backside, stretching to show the pert lift of her breasts. She loved it that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She opened the door and said, “I thought I’d clean off before our soak. You should too,” she told him, inviting him into the luxury of the warm spray where she scrubbed him down and followed the roughness of the sisal brush with the softness of her lips.
The tub was nearly full when they stepped out of the shower and sank into the hot water with contented sighs. “This is the sort of morning I dreamed of when I designed this bathroom. Cold and snowy outside, inside, soaking in hot water and sipping tea with someone I—” He hesitated, then said, “like very much.”
“Who likes you very much,” Amanda said, smoothing over that moment of hesitation. Whatever he’d meant to say, he wasn’t ready to say. If it was what she thought it was, she wasn’t ready to hear it either. This was so good in the here and now that she didn’t want to think about the future, about the possibility of this ending badly because he was her employer. Or the possibility of continuing and word getting around so that her co-workers would look at her in that knowing way and tell people that Amanda got her job because she was screwing the big boss.
“You look pensive,” Bill said.
“The future always intrudes.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean.”
“Let’s not let it, not today. Not until we can leave here again.”
“We’ll be the only two people in a world covered in snow.”
“Yes.” She touched her mug to his with a dull clank, and sipped the spicy, fruity tea he’d made for her. The fire blazed in front of them, the hot water swirled, and outside, everything but the snow ceased to matter.
Finally they stepped out of the bath. Bill wrapped her in a warm towel. “Oh that’s nice,” she whispered.
“I have a towel warming drawer in the vanity.”
“You thought of everything, didn’t you?”
“Almost. Let’s go have something to eat.”
He cooked pancakes and bacon, and they listened to the local classical radio station as he cooked.
“What are you thinking?” he asked as he set her plate in front of her.
“That I love it that we both like classical music. That we listen to the same station. That you could afford a fancy sound system, but we’re just listening to the radio in the kitchen and watching it snow.”
“That really makes you happy?” He sat down across from her.
“It really makes me happy.”
“Me too.” He passed the syrup to her.
It was a ridiculously wonderful day. The world was so silent under its blanket of snow. They went outside to shovel the walks, then came back in, drank cocoa, played cards, made love, danced, and talked for hours. Bill made some soup for dinner and they ate it while they watched Fred Astaire movies.
It was the most wonderful day Amanda had ever spent.
By early Sunday afternoon, even the side streets had been plowed, and Amanda knew she’d have to go home. She didn’t want to; she’d hoped it would never stop snowing, that they’d be alone together forever. But it had to end eventually, all things did.
On the way home, she said, “Bill, I have to say this, okay? I don’t know how this has to play out. It’s an awkward situation. I’d like us to be together, but if we can’t be then let’s just say good-bye right away and remember this as a wonderful moment.”
He looked troubled, but he was also nodding. “You’re right. It is awkward. I’ve never…”
“Let’s take some time to think about it.”
“Okay, yes. You’re right. I know you’re right.”
Before she got out of the car, she kissed his cheek. “I had a wonderful weekend. Thank you.”
“I did too.”
No promises to see each other at work, to call, to text or email. No promises. That’s the way it had to be until they worked out what all this meant.
Monday was a slow day. There’d been snow over half the country, and people were having a hard time getting to work. Unfortunately it gave Amanda too much time to think so she spent some of her down time studying the information on the Waikiki resort, imagining what it would be like to go there with Bill.
It was silly, she tho
ught, even to imagine. Their situation was impossible. If she wasn’t his employee, she’d stand a better chance, but she wasn’t giving up a good job for the sake of what might have turned out to be a fling.
Except it wouldn’t have been a fling for her. She’d tried not to admit it, but she knew that she was in love with Bill. She probably had been since before they met. Their chats before and after conference calls had won her heart. If he’d been anyone but the CEO of Forlanie she’d have told him flat out that she loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
She thought about almost nothing else for three days. Concentrating on work was nightmarish, and she was distracted enough that Sandy noticed and asked if there was something wrong.
“I’m just… I’m gnawing on a problem, Sandy.”
“Well, you’re going to have to gnaw on your own time,” she said. Amanda apologized. This was bad, it was affecting her work. She decided that she had to call it off.
After work, she went up to thirty-seven where the executive offices were, and asked to see Bill, but was told that he’d just left. She took the elevator back down to her floor, trying hard to breathe deeply and shake off the anxiety and sadness she was feeling. She didn’t want to end this, but she had to, and now she had to do it fast before she changed her mind.
She stepped off the elevator and ran smack into Bill.
“What? What are you doing down here?” she said. To her shock, he went down on one knee and caught hold of her hand.
“I’m losing my mind, Amanda. I’ve never felt more alone than when I went back home after I dropped you off. Everything in my home reminds me of you and my heart feels so empty without you there by my side.” He produced a ring box. “I love you. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you and I need you to love me.”
He snapped open the box and people in the hallway gasped. She gasped. It was a huge diamond ring. “Bill… How can we?”
He stood and put the ring on her finger. “Mandy, this is my company. I can’t force you to love me but I can make the rules that will allow us to love each other.”
There were tears running down her face. “I guess I’ll have to trust that this can work because I love you too. I have been so miserable without you,” she told him as he pulled her into the fiercest hug she had ever been given. It felt as if he was trying to make them one person, and she found herself wanting that more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.
She didn’t even hear the applause that erupted around them.
The wedding was quiet, just for family and a few friends. The honeymoon was at one of the Forlanie resorts in Switzerland, because Bill said that snow would always remind him of how much he loved her.
She looked out of the window and down into the town where the lights from every home and shop spread a warm glow in the snowy darkness. Snow would always make her happy, would always be a reminder for her as well.
Bill came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”
“Why?”
“Because I have you,” he told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And whatever you want in this life, if I can give it, it’s yours. If you want to go on working, I’m good, if you don’t, I’m happy too.”
She turned in the circle of his arms. “I want to help you. I want to be part of every aspect of your life if I can. Tell me how and I will do it.”
“We’ll find a way,” he promised, and then he picked her up and carried her to the bed. “But first we have a time-honored honeymoon tradition to uphold.”
“Champagne?” she asked. “A toast? A snack?” She loved teasing him.
“Wife, I am going to undress.”
“Good. I love to watch.” And she did. She loved seeing him strip off his clothing, shedding the facade of the businessman. She loved the play of his muscles and his smooth chest, flat belly, and the dark golden curls where his sex rose at the sight of her. At that, the teasing stopped, and she grew hungry to feel him beside her, inside her, flesh-to-flesh, moving in concert, becoming one with the deep, hungry thrusts, the shivering pleasure, and at last the feel of him filling her with his seed.
There was so much to share, she realized. There was the quicksilver passion that kept them locked in a heated embrace for much of the night, but there was also the animal warmth of sleep in the arms of your love. There was sharing thoughts and ideas, new discoveries and old dreams, there was work and play, and there would be a family soon enough. Perhaps a large one, perhaps a small one. That didn’t matter so much as that they would be together, they could create a life in which everything they needed would fit like pieces of a puzzle.
Amanda cradled Bill’s head on her shoulder as he slept, one hand cupping her breast, one leg thrown across hers. He was sated for a time, but he’d wake and take her again, and she would revel in it, in the way they belonged each to the other, in the drive to express love and passion, and the ancient need to make new life.
Whatever happened, they would see it through together, this most unlikely couple for whom the snow would always be a blessing and a reminder to follow their hearts.
THE END
Bachelor For Hire
“You have to ask him. Go right up to him and say, you’re absolutely gorgeous and I want to take your picture. Shirtless. It’s perfect!”
Ava laughed at her friend’s exuberance. “Sophie you’re crazy. If I say that I’ll sound more like a horny stalker than a photographer.”
Sophie shook her short brown curls. “That’s where you’re wrong. It’s because you’re a photographer that you can say things like that. Call it a…professional observation,” her hands flourished to make her point.
Ava shook her head at Sophie. She could really use the help of someone like Kade Steele to get her revamped photo studio, Bow & Arrow, off the ground. She’d been open for three months and all she’d done were portrait studios for anniversaries, first birthdays, headshots and the like. Ava loved being a photographer but an actual photographer not a human tripod. Her grandmother loved studio portraits because she loved the controlled environment and documenting special occasions. She spent two years traveling the globe capturing the most spectacular images of poverty in Africa, war in the Middle East, natural disasters everywhere and all the beauty the world had to offer. Those two years revitalized her and fostered her love of photography and she was on her way to becoming a great photojournalist. Then grandma got sick and she had to return to Rainbow Springs. “I don’t think that will work Soph.”
She shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear. “It’s worth a shot. What else are you going to do?”
Wasn’t that the million dollar question? She had a few ideas swirling around in her head but she had to pick one and figure out how to make it work. “As soon as I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know. I promise.”
“You better figure it out soon girlie, you can’t afford another three months without making a profit.”
Ava groaned. That was the problem. She knew she could come up with a good idea and make it work. Eventually. She needed a great idea that would work almost immediately and only one man in Rainbow Springs could do that. Kade Steele. “I guess I better go see Mr. Steele.”
Three days later Ava was dressed in her best outfit to meet the billionaire who could save her business. She’d worn all white because it complemented her cocoa brown skin, a fitted white tank dress with a trendy white half jacket. Her stilettos were a vibrant sexy red, the only nod to color. I look good, she thought as she twirled in the mirror to make sure she looked like a respectable businesswoman. Her brown waves were still sun kissed a dark gold color from the years spent in warm climates and she let them hang free. “Okay we’re ready to go.”
She was nervous about her meeting with Kade. Not only was he more handsome than any man ought to be, he was as rich as an oil sheik and as ruthless as any psychopath. She’d never met anyone like him, ever. In her travels sh
e’d come across dignitaries and celebrities but out in the field the job was to focus on those who needed you, needed resources, so they were all equal. Actresses wore ponytails and khaki pants, and slathered their skin in sunscreen, they didn’t worry about makeup and designer clothes.
Ava needed this to work. She needed to keep some form of her grandma’s studio thriving to maintain a connection to her and to this town that had taken in a young distraught and instantly orphaned Ava and welcomed her. She couldn’t fail.
She wouldn’t.
“Dammit! Violet get in here, now.” When he didn’t hear the familiar shuffle of her nude colored pumps, Kade added an annoyed, “please.”
Two seconds later the grey haired dynamo who was the keeper of his secrets, his life, his business and his schedule scurried in with an amused glint in her eye. “Yes, Mr. Steele?”
He tried to fight it but the smile at her impertinence broke free but his smile quickly faded. “Bruce Henderson is considering selling Cakes A-shakin’ to Jax Barrington, can you believe that? All because Jax has a pretty little fiancé and they’re planning a big society wedding.” He scoffed, “There’s no society in Rainbow Springs.” He wanted to buy the chain of bakeries because they’d shown tremendous promise in the last few years, and with a growing customer base the opportunity to franchise was right there waiting.
SHEIKH'S SURPRISE BABY: A Sheikh Romance Page 14
