Secret Affair With A Billionaire Page 3

Their hands met as they both put papers on the same pile on the table. His large hand rested on top of hers; his long fingers lingering as they touched; his warm skin sending a chill along her arm. He began to speak and the vibration of his deep voice caused a lock of hair to work loose from her headband and lightly tickle her neck.

  "But there was plenty of magic on the last occasion, wasn't there?"

  She felt her heart thunder as he moved closer. His voice was lower, his smell was a hint of musk which drove her insane and made her want to close her eyes and just breathe deeply.

  "It was magic until you remembered who you were kissing."

  Emma took a big gulp, pulled her hand away from beneath his fingers.

  "There were things I said that night which I should not have said. I was wrong. We can all make mistakes and with maturity we can admit to our mistakes."

  She felt that was a good explanation. Now all she needed was to convince her body about what kind of male it should be attracted to. But first she wanted to get rid of him. If he left first then she wouldn't be running away and then she could have a serious talk with herself about who she should find attractive. It's all mind over body she said silently. Mind over body she repeated to herself. Mind over body.

  Daniel's eyes had narrowed as she moved away from him. This felt like a new approach from her, it actually sounded as if she was apologising, that she had regretted her actions. Could this be the new Emma? No that couldn't be right. And just as he thought he was seeing a new woman, she again reverted to the old Emma. She put a couple of feet between them, and he watched her lick her lips, inhale and flash that fiery stare as she fluttered her lashes.

  "If that's your reason for hating me all the time, then I think it's lame. We were kids then, but we are adults now."

  So the world was back to normal and Daniel smiled to himself at his own stupidity.

  "I briefly entered a parallel universe. It was a universe in which you were apologising, you know as well as I do the word sorry is not a part of your vocabulary."

  "But it's in yours?"

  Daniel turned back to look at her as he rested his hands, one over the other, in front of his stomach. He made a conscious effort to focus on her face but his urges, his desire was for his eyes to take a good long look over her body again.

  "I doubt I have needed to apologise to as many people as you."

  And as he said it he saw a look in her face which agreed with him. It was brief, but it was clear to him that there were things she regretted even if she couldn't admit it. What game was she going to be playing with him, he thought. He waited for her response, normally she would come back at him swiftly and cuttingly but he could have counted slowly to ten and all that time she was quiet. She pointed her lips towards him as she thought, and she pulled her arms together folding them just below her breasts. This pulled his eyes down towards her cleavage which grew and heaved as the pressure of her arms pushed her breasts upwards. The light coloured cotton shirt was still wet and his eyes lingered again as he hoped to catch another glimpse of her darkened nipples.

  He cast his mind back to the night before and the sophisticated, polished beauty which he had admired but known to be a partial front. He contrasted that with this new image, the sexy girl next door, relaxed and free, with her long legs and definite take me to bed eyes. There was no veneer on today's Emma, she had no or very little make-up, there was some hair not in its precise place and all things considered she was even prettier than the night before.

  But then in her own home, with some degree of privacy she could be who she was. What she was wearing, or not wearing just helped him to see that beauty which a man likes to see. Those cut-off jeans were so short that her legs were displayed as if she were naked. He couldn't help imagining what it would be like with those legs wrapped around him squeezing, and pulling him towards her. With her shirt tied as it was revealing her tight torso and slim waist there was very little imagining for him to do other than what he would like to do.

  His mind raced and he suppressed his X-rated thoughts as his body hardened just simply through looking at her. But he knew Emma Hartington only too well and that helped him to ignore the flow of his rampant hormones. And just as he tried to resist her feminine temptation he was helped as her mouth opened to remind him once more.

  "It's just as well I don't value your opinion Daniel, or that may have hurt me. You have such a tough life being the only saint around such a sinner."

  The thought of him being considered a saint almost made him laugh, but he didn't want to let her think that laughing was something she could make him do. She was stood there looking so hot and that was more than he wanted to have to handle. "I don't think of myself as a saint, and if I did, I know you would remind me that I'm not."

  "And I have you to constantly remind me of what I was like when I was young."

  "And you are any different now?"

  He noticed her chin rise in a way that he knew meant defiance. "If I answered yes, I am different, you wouldn't believe me anyway. So there's no point giving you an answer."

  "They do say that actions speak louder than words."

  She began feeling irritated once more as she felt he was getting the better of the exchanges. She unfolded her arms, stepped closer and with the tone of anger said, "are you going to be my judge and jury?"

  "Do you know anybody who is better qualified than me? Does anybody else know you as well as I do?"

  "You patronising son of a-"

  "Calm down, Emma." He leaned into her and raised his eyebrows. "You can leave my mother out of this. She is actually one of the few people who believes you may be a new woman."

  She stood in front of him with her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She wasn't sure what to do or what to say so she put her hands on his chest and shoved him as hard as she felt was fair. He barely moved, his strong frame inert to her force. Daniel felt a sense of victory and smiled inwardly at just how easy it was to get her to lose her temper. The look in his eyes betrayed his inner feeling, which caused her to give him another shove only harder. His automatic reaction was to lift his hands up and grab her by the wrist pinning her hands to his chest. Locked in his vice like grip, he leaned towards her and with low voice looked down at her separated lips taking in a glance of her bosom. He quickly looked deep into her eyes which radiated helplessness, saying: "Didn't you say that I am the housekeeper's son and should know my place." He gave her one of those smiles which happens only in the bottom half of the face. "You were the one that defined the relationship. You made sure I was aware that as the housekeeper's son I was a servant to your spoilt princess. Do you know I have to wonder why you left Italy? Are all your Italian bridges burnt?"

  She tried to pull away but his strength meant it was up to him when she was released. She looked back in his eyes and frowned, and drew breath. "You really do hate me don't you? I knew you despised me I just didn't realise quite how much."

  Daniels grip on her wrists loosened slightly but not enough to set her free as he looked down to where her hands pressed against his chest. He looked in her face and saw the realisation of what she had just said written plainly. He could smell her scent mixed in with the mild odour of wet dog that clung to her shirt. He was close enough to see the tiny movements in her breasts as she breathed in and out. He noticed that her eyes had saddened and the mask of anger had disappeared to be replaced by sorrow. And once again he wasn't sure if he was seeing a new woman before him or whether this was just a new aspect to her game.

  "I am really beyond hating where you are concerned."

  "Would you rather believe I am not worthy of any emotion, not worth caring about in any way."

  He moved his head around, his eyes looking round the room whilst his thumbs casually stroked the bones of her wrists. "I think the days of thinking about you are over."

  Emma once more pulled her hands away without them moving off his chest. "You left my mind before I left home, so at least we know where we stand no
w."

  "But now you are back and as you said last night we cannot help seeing each other. Everything starts over."

  "Then let's just avoid each other, that is the best plan."

  Once more Daniel leaned forward. "That will never happen."

  She gave a nervous laugh. "Yes it will."

  The sexual energy vibrating between the two of them would have lit a room. They were the only two people who couldn't notice what was happening. Every cell of his body was vibrating with male desire. She continued to look up at him with defiance and challenging stare which made him want to embrace her and force her, with kisses, into submission. He wanted to use his hands, his mouth and his body and show her exactly who should be in charge. If he ever let it happen it would be angry sex. It could be nothing other than hot, steamy, passionate sex and just thinking about it made him hard. And it was tempting to just grab her now and kiss her into submission on the spot, and then leave her, hanging.

  He dropped his gaze again as his head fell sideways just as her lips parted to draw in a short breath. She caught his eye and closed the lips together as if daring him to do just as he was thinking.

  The patter of feet gave rise to a hairy ball of energy jumping between them, breaking the tension. Daniel was jolted back into the real world away from his fantasy. He released Emma's wrists and stepped back as if in retreat.

  He stooped down to Leila giving her woolly ears a thorough ruffling, and then looking upwards and speaking calmly informed Emma: "Avoiding each other is going to be very difficult seeing as your brother has given me the task of renovating your gallery. For the foreseeable future at least we are going to be doing this every day."

  "You are joking. He has hired you to do the gallery? He'd better not have."

  Chapter 3

  "Get rid of him. Find someone else! Surely there are other builders in Cheshire that can do the job." Emma stood there taut, leaning backwards slightly to compensate for the force that Leila was exerting at the end of the lead.

  Toby responded calmly. "If we get somebody else in at this short notice it will be much more expensive than the price Daniel is charging."

  "So what? Who cares?" She grimaced, because inside she knew what she had just said was false. She didn't have the money to pay more, never mind paying more than the going rate. "Just how much more would another builder be?"

  Toby didn't respond immediately, but after a brief pause said: "He's my friend. You are getting mates' rates from a very successful building company. He is a busy man and this is a favour from a friend."

  That answer stopped Emma in her tracks. She thought about the other poor people whose lives he no doubt made miserable. And she thought of herself and all the planning over all the months that she had put into making the gallery a success. Every penny she had and some she had borrowed from her father had been invested in her dream project. And now, she couldn't believe it, she would have Daniel overseeing her every move and her most intimate dream.

  And even worse, she would be seeing him every day, watching him, desiring him, and wondering just what it was about him that made her feel so turned on in his presence. She knew things could hardly get worse and she knew her feelings about Daniel were causing big conflict inside her. Only last night she'd had the most erotic dream and she knew it had been triggered by the table incident the day before. The way he had held her, the way he had leaned his face towards her for those fateful seconds but which seemed to last a lifetime. His deep brown eyes darkening as it focused on her mouth in the way he had devoured her body visually. And then the way she had responded and lifted her face towards him as if to challenge him to kiss her.

  Toby interrupted her erotic thoughts. "He's actually a really good guy you know. I think whatever the problem is between you two you should make an effort to put it behind you."

  She grunted in an act of despair. "He may be fine around you, but you're the one Hartington he likes. I doubt I will ever be seen in the same way."

  "As I recall you used to argue about everything. I wouldn't have trusted you to discuss the weather, and I think you have given him no reason to like you in the past."

  Emma gave out a heavy sigh, slowly spinning on the spot as Leila ran around her so as to avoid the lead wrapping around her legs. As her eyes passed the window she looked into the distant manicured gardens while searching in her mind for words.

  "You're right."

  She had no other option but to agree. She knew her brother was right and there was nothing else she could say. But he had been such a sanctimonious so-and-so in the past.

  Toby raised the tempo of his voice introducing a happy positive sound. "You need to be patient, sis. Soon enough he will notice that you have changed. You went away to find the real you, and you were on your own when you did that. Daniel hasn't seen any of this and all he knows is the you before you went away. Just spend a little time getting to know each other again and I'm pretty sure you will end up friends, just as you used to be."

  She pulled a few chocolate dog treats from the cellophane bag in her pocket and held it high out of reach of Leila to attract her attention. The dog sat obediently giving Emma a moment's peace.

  "I'm not so sure we can reconcile the past. I can try to be more patient but he's so damn infuriating and I doubt we can ever be close again."

  "You can always count to ten each time he speaks to you. That should help you avoid creating conflict."

  "That will be a lot of counting, Toby."

  They both laughed. "Give it a go, it might help."

  She began to think about what her brother had just said. In her mind she was shaking her head with a sense of disbelief, he really didn't understand just how much counting she would be doing. She knew it was a simple truth, that no matter how often she told herself she could deal with Daniel, she was actually struggling. Whenever she was in his company it was only a matter of a few minutes before she was fighting her own body and its reactions to him, or she was having to goad and provoke him as a way of covering up her own bodies responses to him. And worse, when she caused a reaction in him that would just cause her body to respond all the more or it would remind her of just how awful she had treated him all those years ago. And those memories were probably the most painful of all, even if she denied it to herself.

  But that is the problem. When you are close to a person you are very aware of just how to hurt them most. He had managed to send her into total confusion when he had kissed her the way he did. That night she had felt a loss of her greatest childhood friend, and it was because of that kiss.

  "You still here?"

  Emma felt a little tightness in her throat and swallowed a little to clear her thoughts. She stepped from one foot to the other and looked down at her feet.

  "I am."

  "So, shall I get rid of him and find someone else to do the work?"

  She knew what answer she wanted to give, but how could she? She couldn't afford to pay more and as he had arranged to do the work and set up his building team it would hardly be fair to sack him at such short notice. She also figured that he had probably turned down some work in order to complete the job on her gallery, how could she just get rid of him now. No matter how much she really wanted to, by being stubborn over this one issue, she could be causing much greater damage elsewhere.

  "I don't really have a choice, I will just have to live with it."

  "Good girl. We Hartingtons have a reputation to keep, dropping him now would harm our image as well as my friendly relationship with him."

  "I thought you were reading my mind when you mentioned our image, but when you went on to mention a friendly relationship I realised it was a coincidence." Emma turned away with a half circle and emitted a clicking sound towards her patient dog. Leila burst into a bundle of energy quickly passing her mistress and leading the way out of the door.

  "I wasn't expecting you, what are you doing here?"

  Daniel turned to look at her in the face maintaining a blank expre
ssion. "I'm practising for the Rain Dance Championships. What do you think I'm doing?"

  He picked up another bag of cement and effortless carried it ten feet before casually dropping it onto the forming pile of bags. The physical reaction she felt whilst watching this simple movement was all the more galling because she knew the basic theory of human physiology but she could not rationalise what she was feeling. Women are supposed to want to mate with the strongest man in theory, but shouldn't a woman also be looking at other factors? How can standing in a barn with a man who she despises make her feel so ready for sex. Surely a physical need is not something that should override common sense. And because he grows these feelings in her it just made her hate him all the more.

  She felt an inward anger bubbling towards her exterior. She had to look away from him and ended up gazing into a dark corner. She then remembered her new plan: Count to ten. One, two, three,... She thought to herself as slowly as she could. It seemed to be working. "I wasn't aware that you would be here. I've arranged to meet Toby to finalise the plans."

  "It's much easier for me as the builder if I know what the plans are. It really helps me to give you what you want. But maybe some builders are better when they're guessing." Emma didn't rise to the dig. She just went back to counting, quietly to herself. "One, two,..."

  Having re-established her inner calmness she ventured a few steps into the barn and began to feel a sense of excitement as she thought about the realisation of a dream. She wasn't going to allow Daniels immediate presence to upset that.

  She looked around the large barn taking in its darkness, its dullness and its dirtiness but as she gazed and swept around with her eyes her imagination took over. In her mind she overlaid the finished gallery, how it would look and how magic all of it would be to her. If only it was real now and sufficiently small she would grasp it in her arms and give it a big squeeze. Her mind quickly emptied as she fell back into reality and turned towards him. "Is everything okay?"