Brides, Babies And Billionaires. Rebecca Winters
any space between them. His arms slipped around her and his body heated at finally being able to feel hers again, and then he leaned down to her until his mouth was next to her ear.
‘I’m going to kiss you now,’ he whispered, and felt her shudder. He moved his head back so he could see her face, flushed and beautiful, and asked, ‘Is that okay?’
* * *
‘Yes.’
She had barely said the word before his lips were on hers. She had expected hunger, passion—everything that had burned with their first kiss. But there was none of that. Instead it felt as though he was trying to make up for that, to show her there was more to whatever was going on between them than just pure lust.
She thought vaguely that this might be the way their kiss on the rooftop would have felt if they’d let it continue for a while longer. And as the sweetness of their kiss swept through her she felt her heart open and be filled with it. He pulled her closer, and her heart beat at double its speed as she let her hands explore his body.
As soon as she did, the sweetness turned into need and she deepened their kiss, wanting more.
‘Callie.’
Blake had ended the kiss, but he didn’t let her go. She opened her eyes to see his own were closed, and he leaned his forehead against her.
‘Do you want to give me a heart attack?’
She laughed breathlessly. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise I had that in me.’
He lifted his head and smiled, and for the first time she noticed the crinkles around his eyes. She’d never really seen them before, she thought, and brushed a thumb across one of them.
‘I think you have a lot in you that you don’t realise,’ he responded, and then took a deliberate step away from her.
As he did so she suddenly realised where she was, who she was with. Where had all this come from? Why was he was saying all the right things? About how she wasn’t alone, how she shouldn’t worry about the hotel, how they would deal with whatever was happening between them together. She had let her guard down enough to invite him in, and now he’d kissed her—in her own kitchen.
She turned her back to him and braced her hands on the sink as the uncertainty of the situation overwhelmed her.
‘Hey,’ Blake said, and moved to next to her. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ She turned to him and forced a smile to her face. ‘Can I get you something to drink?’
‘Callie, come on. I thought we agreed we were going to be open with one another.’
‘Yeah, we did. So tell me where all this is coming from. How are you so calm and determined to be open with me when the last time you did this you pushed me away?’
The words had rushed from her mouth and she sighed, wishing she had some semblance of control over it. Especially when she saw the pain on his face.
‘I’m sorry, Blake. I told you I was feeling a bit raw. And kissing doesn’t help.’ She resisted the urge to touch her lips.
He nodded. ‘You’re right. We should probably straighten things out before we do that again.’
Her heart accelerated even at the thought of it.
‘Is that drink still up for offer?’
‘Sure. Would you like some wine? I have a really good red.’
‘Yeah, that’s great.’
She poured the wine and joined him on the couch. It overlooked the garden when the curtains were open, and the amount of light it offered the house meant she kept them that way most of the time.
She handed him his glass and took a sip of her own wine as she snuggled into the corner of the couch. There was enough space between them that she felt safe from doing something she would likely regret if she were any closer.
‘The last time I messed things up between us it was because of my ex-wife.’
He spoke suddenly, and Callie didn’t know what to make of the way her stomach clenched at his mention of the woman. So she just nodded, and waited for him to continue.
‘She was one of my employees at the Port Elizabeth Elegance Hotel. I met her a few years after my father retired, when I realised that the hotel in PE was losing staff at an incredibly high rate. I arranged a meeting with HR and they sent Julia.’
Callie watched as the tension on Blake’s face tightened. She wanted to reach out to him, but she resisted. He needed to tell her about this without any help. But he had stopped talking.
She waited, then finally she asked, ‘What was it that made you fall for her?’
He looked at her, and she saw a mixture of emotions in his eyes. Emotions that almost mirrored her own. She didn’t really want to hear about what it was that had attracted Blake to this woman. But she needed to if they were going to make any progress together.
Then he exhaled sharply. ‘I don’t exactly know, to be honest with you. I guess it was because she had all the ingredients of the perfect woman. She was smart and beautiful, and I was attracted to her. But I didn’t want to date her because—well...’ he smiled wryly ‘...I was her boss.’
He continued now without any help, and she thought it was almost a compulsion for him to tell her.
‘But professionalism didn’t really mean as much to me back then, so after about six months of resisting I asked her out. And it felt good. But what drew me in was Brent—her son.’
Blake didn’t look at Callie but he paused, as though letting her process what he was telling her. She already had so many questions, but she refused to speak. Especially when she didn’t think she would have the voice to do so.
After a few more moments he continued. ‘She had always been honest with me about him. She’d told me that his father hadn’t been in the picture from the beginning and that she’d been raising him by herself. And the way she told me that...’
He leaned forward now, bracing his elbows on his knees, and Callie realised he had long ago placed his wine, untouched, on the coffee table in front of them,
‘That was, I think, what made me fall in love with her. She had this softness about her when she spoke about Brent that seemed so out of place in this woman who was all sass all the time.’
Callie didn’t realise she was holding her breath until he looked at her, and the torment she saw in his eyes made her untangle her legs from under her and move closer to him. They sat there for a while in silence, and Callie thought about what he’d said. She remembered the way his eyes had dimmed when she’d spoken to him of his mother on the boat, what felt like a lifetime ago. It was quite simple for her to come to a conclusion then.
‘She was a good mother. So different to what you’d had.’ She hadn’t realised she’d spoken out loud until he took a shaky breath.
‘Yeah, I think that was it. And when I met Brent I fell in love with him, too. He reminded me a lot of myself.’ He frowned, as though unsure of where that had come from. ‘In hindsight, I suppose I fell for Brent more than I did for Julia, but they were intertwined. And then one day I found her crying in my office. She told me that she didn’t think she was a good enough mother to Brent, that she wasn’t giving him stability because he didn’t have a father. And just like that she had me.’
He pushed off from the couch so fast that Callie felt her heart stop.
‘I thought she was being honest with me. That she was being unselfish, thinking of her son first. Maybe she was. But the way she did it...’ He shook his head.
She’d shown her son all the things Blake hadn’t had growing up, Callie thought, and wished she could have been there for him then.
‘I fell for it. I comforted her, told her