Dylan turned and showed his dad how he could trot and canter across the pasture with his horse Buddy which was really just a pony because Dylan’s legs weren’t long enough for a full sized horse. But he rode through the pastures with excitement, then they all went to dinner and Dylan introduced his “new dad” to everyone that was dining there as well.
When Jemma tucked Dylan in for the night, Damien was right behind her. “I have to go back to Italy tonight, but may I come back and visit next weekend?” he asked.
Dylan’s sleepy smile was answer enough and Damien ruffled Dylan’s hair before turning to walk out of his room.
At the door that night, Jemma tried to stay out of his arms, tried to keep enough distance between their bodies so that he understood that she didn’t want to be touched or kissed. But he ignored all of her signals, pulling her into his arms and kissing her until she melted against his body, clinging to him desperately.
“Until next weekend,” he told her and ran a finger down her cheek. “Tell George you can’t see him anymore.” And with that, Damien was out the door.
When the alarm went off, Jemma was already awake. She’d been awake for hours just watching the clock tick away the minutes. And now the time had arrived.
She pushed the sheets and blanket away, pushed her hair out of the way and forced her feet to lift her out of the bed. Jemma was exhausted, worried, excited, confused and….well, there were about a hundred emotions clanging through her mind right now. She couldn’t really figure out which one was stronger, but right at this moment, it didn’t matter. He would be here in less than an hour.
A shower helped. But not much. At least it helped her to look more human and less zombie-like. Dylan wasn’t a huge help though. There was no doubt what emotion was ruling him.
“Is he here yet?” he asked, poking his nose through the bathroom doorway, startling Jemma’s eyes back open.
She peered around the shower curtain, her eyes softening when she noticed how excited her son was. “No. He’s not here yet. But soon,” she promised him. “Go get dressed. He’s just as excited to see you!”
That had the boy hopping up and down, an enormous grin on his face. He raced out of her bedroom and came back in what seemed like only moments later with his shirt on and pulling a pair of jeans onto his legs. Of course, he was too excited to sit down while he put them on so he had one leg on and the other foot struggling to get through the other hole. In the end, he just fell onto the floor and pulled them on that way. Unfortunately, he decided to do that right in front of Jemma’s bathroom doorway so she pulled her towel off of the rack and dried herself inside the shower. It was warmer in there anyway.
“Did you hear that?” Dylan demanded and sprung up off of the floor. “I think that was him arriving!” he said and sprinted out of her bathroom.
Jemma sighed, wondering how she was going to get through the next half hour until he really did arrive. Dylan was about to pop out of his skin from excitement; she was ready to curl up into a ball, completely terrified of her reaction to Damien’s return.
Jemma heard the front door open. “Dylan?” she asked, rushing out of her bedroom, the towel still wrapped around her. “Dylan?” she called again when there was only silence.
She hurried through the house, worried now. But as soon as she stepped into the kitchen, she skidded to a halt. Dylan was grinning from ear to ear because he was in his father’s arms. Damien was standing in her kitchen looking perfectly tailored, cool and composed while she was trying very hard not to let the towel fall to the floor. “You’re here early,” she whispered, unable to get much more sound out of her throat.
“Only a few minutes,” he countered.
Jemma looked at the clock and groaned. He wasn’t early, she was running very late! “Goodness,” she mumbled and turned back around. She rushed into her bedroom and dried off, pulling on the new pair of khakis she’d bought this week, just for this meeting. The slacks weren’t nearly as comfortable as her jeans, but she felt good in them. More pulled together. She topped it off with a new sweater, added a pair of small gold earrings her mother had given her in high school and then dabbed on makeup. She even took several moments to blow-dry her hair, her heart racing the whole time.
When she was finally finished, she stood in front of her mirror, giving herself a pep talk and trying to calm down. She was acting just like Dylan, but that was crazy! She was an adult. She wasn’t excited about seeing Damien again. He was here to visit with Dylan, to get to know his son.
And make love to her again?
Darn it! She’d been keeping that thought out of her head, if not out of her dreams. He slipped into those easily enough. She shouldn’t want this! She needed to wait, to get to know the man and find out about his personality. Not just how good he was in bed.
She groaned, her head falling forward as she tried to figure out how to calm herself down. This was ridiculous!
A knock sounded at her doorway and Jemma jerked towards the sound.
“Jemma, come on out, love,” Damien’s deep voice said through the wood. But he didn’t stop and wait for her response. Jemma watched in fascinated horror as the knob turned. She saw it all in slow motion. The knob turned, the door moved, the light from the rest of the house spilled in through the opening and then her eyes traveled upwards. First his hand, then his arm….his broad shoulders in a neat, white polo shirt and then his smile. Oh, goodness, that wicked, knowing smile made her stomach tighten with anticipation.
Then her eyes traveled even higher and she caught his eyes. She’d thought his smile was dangerous but the heat in his eyes was breathtaking.
How had she convinced herself that he was coming back this weekend just to get to know Dylan? What crazy brainwaves had let her get away with that?
He was here for her as well. Oh, sure, Dylan was a strong draw. But he wanted her. And no matter how terrified he made her feel, she still wanted him. She could have accepted that if she’d been listening to her dreams over the past five days. But she’d pretended. She’d played mind games to protect herself from this possibility.
She was an idiot.
And he was here. In her bedroom! Walking towards her!
A flash and a gasp, and she was in his arms. His hand dove into her hair, holding her head in place while his lips captured hers, his mouth possessed and his lips teased, his hands both comforted and controlled. This kiss was a dangerous combination of torture and promise and she grabbed onto his shoulders, holding him close even while he pulled her closer. The hand on her head tilted so the kiss could go deeper while his other arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close, pulling her higher and she could feel his reaction against her stomach, reveled in the power she had over this man even while he continued to control her with his kiss.
“Mom! You’ve got to meet Adriana! She’s really….” Jemma broke away from Damien when she heard Dylan’s excited voice. Her hand nervously came up to touch her lips as if she could somehow wipe off the evidence of what they’d just been doing. “Cool…” he finally finished off, his eyes wide, a wiggling puppy in his arms and a shy, blond girl directly behind him with a puppy of her own.
“Uncle Damien?” the blond girl whispered, her brown eyes confused.
Dylan buried his face in the puppy’s body. “They were kissing!” he whispered, as if his stage whisper could keep a secret.
Jemma shook herself mentally and put another step between herself and Damien, even though there wasn’t much room in the bedroom now that there were four people, one of them being a tall, enormously muscled man.
Jemma bent down lower. “You must be Adriana,” she said, extending her hand. “I’m Jemma.”
The little girl tried to shift her wiggly burden in order to shake Jemma’s hand but it was too hard. In the end, she huffed and set the puppy down, straightened up and took Jemma’s hand in a very appropriate, very un-child-like greeting. “Very pleased to meet you,” she replied. Then messed up her greeting by leaning towards Jemma. “Why were you kissing my uncle?” she asked, laughter in her eyes. “He’s
old
,” she explained.
Jemma heard Damien’s chuckle but tried to focus only on the little girl. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure why I was kissing him. I’d much rather be out with you and Dylan playing with the puppies.”
Adriana looked down at the puppy that was plopped on her bottom, her pink tummy sticking out between her legs because that was the biggest part of the cute animal at this point, and lifted her treasure back up into her arms. “I like them a lot!”
Jemma smiled, entranced by the sweet little girl. “I think dogs and puppies are pretty special!”
“Uncle Damien brought me this puppy last week. I brought her back this week. He said Maisey would want to see her momma again.” There was a flash of sadness but the girl perked up when the puppy licked her face. It was almost as if the puppy knew that Adriana was wishing she could see her own mother again and tried to make her feel better.
“I’m sure you’re playing with Maisey enough so that she’s not lonely for her momma, but why don’t we all go outside and check? I can show you the horses too.”
Adriana loved that idea. “How many horses do you have?” she asked, awed by all the nature around her.
“I have twelve horses right now, but I think two of them are going to be bought very soon.”
Jemma made her way around Damien, trying not to touch him for fear of what she might reveal. As she led the group out the door, she wondered why she was even trying to hide her feelings for the man. He probably knew exactly how she felt since he’d just kissed her silly a few minutes ago. So much for playing it cool, she thought.
Pushing open the barn door, she laughed when the horses – eager for their morning oats – nuzzled her with their warm breath. “Yes, I know,” she told each of them.
“Have you already signed contracts for the two horses?” Damien asked behind her.
Jemma shook her head. “I just got e-mails from a couple of people who were asking about the horses. I haven’t replied to them yet, but generally, when I get a request for information, the buyers come the following weekend and the sale is pretty easy to make.”
“You need to triple your prices,” he told her.
Jemma had just opened the stall for the puppies so Dylan and Adriana could go in, which would effectively keep them out of the way of the horses being fed. But his words caused her to freeze and look back up at him. “Excuse me?” she asked, stunned.
“I looked into your business model. You sell extremely high quality horses that are well trained and fast. They aren’t fast enough to win any derby race, but they’re excellent horses. And you’re selling them too cheaply. You need to triple your prices.”
She couldn’t believe he was saying that. “Triple them? That’s crazy. No one will buy my horses for that price.”
He shook his head. “Yes they will. In fact, I’m willing to bet you that tripling your prices will even increase your sales. You have a good reputation, but the sales price is too low.”
She stared at him, not sure if she should believe him or not. “Why would tripling my price point increase my sales? That’s counter-intuitive.”
He laughed softly. “Are you doubting my business knowledge?” he asked.
Jemma blushed and looked down. She’d done a lot of reading over the weekend. Now that she knew his last name, she’d gorged on internet information about Damien. He was embarrassingly wealthy and he’d done it all himself. He’d become a billionaire in the last fifteen years through extremely smart, some even said risky, business ventures. If there was anyone she should listen to about business, it was Damien.
“I suppose you know what you’re doing,” she finally said and was rewarded by hearing his laugh again.
“I’ll make a deal with you,” he said, moving closer so he was standing over her. “Triple your prices and, if you don’t make the sales next weekend, I’ll buy the horses for that price. Both of them.”
She laughed, thinking he was just teasing her. “Why would you want to buy horses?” she asked.
He shrugged and shifted so that he was less than an inch away from her. “I don’t. But I told Adriana all about you and Dylan and she wants to learn to ride horses. So I’ll buy her a horse.”
Jemma wanted to laugh again, but he was too close, her breasts almost touching his chest. “You only need one horse for that. And none of my horses are small enough for her. You can’t teach her to ride on a full sized horse.”
He bowed his head slightly. “You listen to me about business issues, and I’ll listen to you on anything concerning horses.” But he didn’t give her an opportunity to reply. His mouth came down, kissing her ever so gently. Jemma trembled as his lips delicately caressed hers, making her want more, making her need that possession.
A horse neighed in the background and Jemma jumped back. Startled, she looked up at the man who could so quickly turn her mind to mush. “You’re going to have to stop doing that,” she said and walked over to the feed bins.
“Not going to happen, Jemma,” he said softly. “Tell me how I can help.”
Jemma took another deep breath, trying to get her mind back in control. “Um…you can’t really do anything. Just stand back.”
“Why not?” he asked, standing in the middle of the barn, ready to work. “Looks like you’re just dumping food into various black buckets.”
Jemma rolled her eyes. “You have to stand back, out of the center aisle so the horses can come through. These guys weigh anywhere between twelve hundred to two thousand pounds,” she told him. “And they are hungry now. They are used to being fed around this time, so as soon as I get their oats ready, I open the doors and they come running in. I need you to stay back so they don’t run you over. They are going to be focused on getting to their food, and they won’t care if you or anyone else is standing in their way.”
His only response was to raise an eyebrow at her explanation as if to say he didn’t believe her. She looked back at him and smiled. Jemma looked around to make sure Dylan was safely inside the puppy stall with Adriana. After she’d finished dumping the appropriate amount of oats into each bucket, she went over to the metal gate and unlatched the chain. A moment later, all twelve horses came racing into the barn, each of them going to their own stall. Jemma caught Damien’s surprised expression, then laughed because he was realizing she was right. Don’t get in between a horse and his food.
After feeding the horses, Jemma saddled up Flower, her own horse, and Buddy, Dylan’s horse. She tried to convince Damien to come riding with them, but he simply shook his head. “You’re going to have to teach me one day, but I’ll just watch for now.” With that, Jemma took Adriana on her first horse ride and smiled when the girl’s excitement came through with her exclaims of delight.
Later that day, Damien surprised them with a helicopter flight from one of her pastures into the heart of Washington, D.C. It was quite an experience. The kids loved the ride, but Jemma was nervous about being in a glass bubble. It was still thrilling, but every time the machine dipped suddenly or raised up, moved by invisible wind currents, Jemma jerked. Finally, Damien took her hand in his strong one, reassuring her that all would be well. That was all she needed to relax and endure the flight.