Billionaire Romance: MAXIMILIAN (An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Mystery Romance) (Mysterious Billionaires Book 3, Anthologies & Collections) (30 page)

By the time Caroline and Damien had pulled themselves together enough to hike back home, the afternoon sun was beginning its descent on the horizon. The warmth in the air was beginning to fade and the hunger in their bellies was ravenous.

“Oh thank goodness you kids are back, I was starting to get worried, wasn’t I, Mike? I was just saying to your father, Damien, that I was worried that you two were still out. There’s all kind of critters out there at this time of day.” Damien smiled broadly at Helen’s mothering.

“We went a bit further than we intended to go.” Caroline could barely hide her smirk at the double entendre.

“Aww, well I’m glad you two are home safe and sound. I left some dinner in the oven for you if you’re hungry. It’s just roast chicken and mashed potatoes, nothing fancy. I expect you’re hungry though after all that hiking and what not.” Caroline nodded wide eyed and made a beeline for the kitchen.

“Thanks mom, I’m famished!” Damien followed her in a hurry.

Caroline sat across from Damien at the dining table as they both scooped forkfuls of mashed potatoes and roasted chicken in to their mouths. They ate as if they had never had a warm meal in their lives.

“God I’m so hungry!” Caroline reached for her glass of water.

“I know right, hiking makes you really hungry!” Damien added. Caroline snickered.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Caroline said between mouthfuls of food.

“Hmm?” Damien swallowed. “What’s that?”

“About you needing to give me a really good apology for the way you treated me in high school.” Damien looked up, his eyes connecting with hers.

“Yeah?” Damien asked. Caroline nodded.

“Yeah. I think maybe we’re even now.” Caroline took another large mouthful and chewed slowly and thoughtfully.

“That’s good then.” Damien looked down at his plate, hoping he could hide his disappointment. He didn’t like Caroline seeing him as the bully he had been back then, but if he was honest, he did like having an excuse to make her happy. The kind of happy that this afternoon’s hike had brought her, the kind of happy that made them both ache with longing.

“It’s not healthy to hold on to stuff for that long anyway.” Caroline said as she took another mouthful. Damien nodded in agreement.

“Besides, I was a big dick back then, I’d like to think I’ve changed.” Caroline slid her sock covered foot between his legs and caressed his bulge with her toes. Damien jerked reflexively.

“Some things haven’t changed.” She smirked as she rubbed the bottom of her foot against his full length. Damien’s eyes grew wide as he watched the kitchen entry in case anyone should come in. Caroline watched him with a smile as she felt him growing harder with every movement of her foot. Gently she caressed him seeing just how far she could tease him before he had to cry uncle.

“Stop…” He let his fork clatter on to his plate as he leaned back in his chair. “We said no more.” He whispered. Caroline slowly withdrew her foot, a look of disappointment on her face.

“Right…” she looked down at her plate, “no more.” Damien slid his hands under the table to readjust himself and then brought them back up to the table.

“You know, I’m feeling pretty tired. I think I’m going to wash up and head to bed.” Caroline watched as he stood up from the table and put his dishes in the sink. “Hey dad, Helen, I’m gonna hit the hay. I’m pretty beat from being out in the heat all day.” Caroline watched him walk towards the stairs.

“Goodnight!” Helen and Mike shouted from the living room in unison. Damien lingered for a moment in the kitchen doorway looking expectantly at Caroline before he headed for the stairs.

“You know, I think I should probably get some rest as well, I’m pretty beat.” Caroline rinsed off her dishes in the sink, the butterflies of expectation already taking flight in her stomach. “See you guys in the morning!” She shouted in to the living room.

“Goodnight!” They shouted back again.

Caroline followed Damien up the stairs, each stair another step towards sin. When they got to the top of the staircase Damien gazed at her longingly before he slipped in to his room and shut the door quietly behind him. Caroline waited for a moment before shutting off the hallway light and going in to her own room. She wondered if she had misunderstood as she stripped off her hiking clothes and slipped under the covers.

Caroline lay naked in the darkness, waiting. Had she misunderstood Damien? Or perhaps this was another of his tricks, a way to exert his power over her once again? Could she be so foolish as to let him control her the way he had just a few years ago? Was she the only one to think that their afternoon in the woods was much more than it was? She lay under the covers debating her own sanity.

It must have meant something, she reasoned. He had, after all, had sex with her. It wasn’t as though there was any misconstruing what had happened. He had to understand that sex meant some kind of commitment. She stared up at the ceiling. Not even the Damien she knew from high school could do something that twisted as a joke. She pulled the covers up around her neck.

A full hour must have passed before Caroline heard the television downstairs turn off. There were footsteps and voices as Mike and her mother went to their bedroom. Their door shut and moments later the house was silent. Caroline found herself holding her breath, listening for every creek that could be a footstep. As she lay in the silence however, she found herself beginning to drift off to sleep. No longer having the energy to hold out hope that she wasn’t the only one in this twisted mess of a relationship.

Caroline was awakened by a whispering voice.

“Shh, it’s just me.” Damien was standing beside her bed in the darkness, completely naked. Caroline rubbed her eyes sleepily as she tried to make out his silhouette.

“Hmm?” She groaned.

“Let me in, it’s cold out here!” She pulled back the covers and Damien slid in to bed beside her. Lying next to her, he slid his arm over her warm belly and rested his head in the crook of her neck.

“I thought you weren’t going to come.” Caroline whispered. Damien pulled her closer to him and she could feel the hardness of his body.

“Why would you think that?” He asked in a hushed voice. Caroline shrugged in the darkness, too embarrassed to tell him what she had really thought. “I just had to wait for them to go to sleep, the last thing we want is them coming up to investigate a noise they hear and finding us here, like this.” His hand slid up her belly and caressed her breast. Caroline felt her body begin to relax under his touch.

“That could be hard to explain…” She murmured as she leaned in to him completely. Damien laughed quietly.

“Just a little bit.” The two lay in silence, their warm naked bodies comforting each other in the silent darkness.

“I thought we said no more?” Caroline whispered hesitantly. She heard Damien sigh heavily.

“I know.” He squeezed her breast gently in his hand. “It’s just so hard.” Caroline giggled childishly and Damien nudged her gently. “You know what I mean. It’s hard knowing that you’re over here and I’m over there and we’re both thinking about it.” Caroline could feel his length growing against her leg. The thought of him being inside her once more made her ache like she had never ached before.

“And we’ve already done it once…” She added. Damien nodded in the darkness as his length grew more solid.

“So what’s once more?” Damien said as he teased her nipple between his finger and thumb.

“Do you think they’ll hear us?” Caroline whispered as she reached down and brushed her fingers against his throbbing shaft.

“No, their bedroom is on the other side of the house, it was just the living room I was worried about.” Damien reached up and pulled her face towards him. “Why, are you worried that you’ll be too loud?” He leaned in and took her mouth with his. His thick lips sucking gently on her bottom lip.

“I…” Caroline was breathless.

“Oh?” Damien teased. He slid his hand down over her flat naked belly, slipping his fingers through her soft pubic hair until he found her opening. “Do you think you can be quiet?” He whispered as he dipped his finger tip inside her softly. Caroline nodded in the darkness, her lips pressed together in silence.

“Mmm hmm. I can do anything you ask me to do.” She whispered. Damien leaned in and pressed his mouth against her ear.

“We will just have to see about that, won’t we?”

THE END

Ashton Parker Jr. had spent his entire life trying to impress his father with his work ethic. Ashton Parker Sr. however, had been much more interested in his new wife’s daughter. Elise seemed to be the key to his new wife’s affections and in an attempt to keep his new wife happy, Ashton Sr. dedicated what free time he had to the twenty year old beauty rather than his own son. His affections for Elise did not go unrewarded. The more Ashton Sr. took care of her, the better her mother treated him.

Ashton Parker Jr. was not as amenable to the new additions to his family as his father clearly was. He saw Sarah Anne, his father’s new wife, as little more than just another gold-digger after his father’s money.  As for Elise, she simply presented another obstacle to his father’s attention and affections.  Ashton Jr. felt he already had enough problems gaining those without having to deal with these recent additions on top of them.

Sarah Anne Forde, hadn’t particularly been looking for a sixty year old husband. After all she was only forty two herself, but Ashton Parker Sr. had lured her in with promises of a better life. For Sarah Anne Forde anything was a better life than what she had now.  She wasn’t about to pass up the chance to marry a man with an eight-figure bank account.

So it was there that their relationship began - sixty year old with too much money who was desperate to make a beautiful woman happy and a forty two year old who was desperate to leave her dead end job at a greasy spoon diner. The two fought regularly, yet their desire for each other was obvious. Ashton Sr. had saved Sarah Anne from a life of servitude and she, in return, had saved him from a lifetime of being chased by gold-diggers.  Unlike Ashton Jr.’s view of her, she considered herself different from those other gold-diggers in that she genuinely did care for her husband.  Her affection toward him had certainly grown when she realized he had accepted her daughter as his own.  Unfortunately for Ashton Jr., Elise was given far more attention than he.

Even as an only child to Ashton Sr. and his now deceased mother, Penelope, Ashton Jr. was never the apple of his father’s eye. It never mattered what the curly haired, blue-eyed boy did.  His father never batted an eye. This nonchalant attitude towards him from his father was what spurred Ashton Jr. on, eventually thrusting him to success with his self-founded company, AJ Brokerage International. Ashton Jr. had been positive that with the massive success of his own company his father would finally recognize his potential. Sadly, he had been wrong. Ashton Sr. had given his son just enough praise to avoid chastisement from his new wife.

After his father’s failure to recognize his success, Ashton Jr. avoided contact with his ‘family’ as much as possible. Instead, he buried himself in his work and gained a reputation for being the man who got things done.

A voice crackled over the intercom. “Mr. Parker?” She said.

“Yes?” He replied.

“I have a phone call for you on line two.”

Lizzy, Ashton Jr.’s secretary, had been working for him for three years and had learned the importance of being brief and to the point. Today, however, she neglected to do so.

“Well? Who is it?” Ashton snapped.

“She says that she’s your sister, sir.” Lizzy said.

Ashton sighed heavily. “Patch her through,” he said as he picked up the phone. He had no idea what his stepsister could possibly want from him but he was fairly sure it would involve him having to do something for her.

“Hello?” came Elise’s voice from the other end of the phone.

“Elise, what do you want?” he said brusquely.

“Daddy told me to call you. I’ve been having a little bit of trouble, you see…” Her voice trailed off.

Ashton’s jaw clenched.  It irked him to hear her call Ashton Sr. ‘daddy’ with such endearment.  She always said it so sugary sweet.  He had the inkling Elise did genuinely care for his father but the way she demonstrated it was over the top. “What kind of trouble?” he asked. He couldn’t help wondering why his father had sent her to him rather than helping her himself.

“Well, I lost my job,” she responded pointedly.

“Why?” Ashton asked. He didn’t have time for her to beat around the bush.  He was already beginning to get markedly frustrated.

“Umm…it’s complicated,” Elise replied. She didn’t offer any explanation of what she meant by ‘complicated’.

“What does my father expect me to do about it?” he asked, patience wearing thin.

“Well, I was…we were hoping that you might be able to give me a job?” she posed the statement as a question.  Ashton rolled his eyes in annoyance. Just because he owned a company did not mean that he could, or would, hire someone simply because they were family.

“Elise, do you have any experience in investments?” he asked. He knew full well that she didn’t given her previous employment history consisted only of waitressing and boutique retail work.

“Umm…no?” she said, her voice quivering slightly.

“Then I’m not sure what I can do to help,” h told her.  He could hear Elise’s breathing begin to pick up and soon he was regaled with her sobbing hiccups.

“I…I…I just hoped that…you know…because we’re family…” Ashton was sick of her sobbing in to his ear so he gave in.

“Come down to my office tomorrow lunch time.” He said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

As abruptly as her tears had started, they stopped. “Thank you, Ashton,” she said. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”

As he hung up the phone, Ashton’s nostrils flared with each exhale. He hated being used for favors. Even more than that, Ashton Parker Jr. hated being used by his own father.  Though Ashton Sr. was close to Elise, Ashton Jr. knew his main objective was to gain approval from Sarah Anne. He had no idea what he was going to do with Elise. Hell, he didn’t even know that she had any usable skill other than the usual minimum wage work that she was used to. He sure as hell wasn’t looking for a waitress. He hated his father for making him feel so obligated.  If his father adored Elise as much as he pretended to, why didn’t he help her?  She was only working out of habit and commitment.  There was more than enough money from his father to support her financially. 

He scoffed.  He hated himself for giving in to this ridiculous favor. Every time there was the faintest hope he could please his father, he convinced himself to do it.  There was always a little voice in his head saying this was the chance that he had been waiting for.