Taming Eric (16 page)

“Because they aren’t you.” He dropped a kiss on her parted lips before releasing her again. His cock was stirring in his jeans and the beach wasn’t exactly the place for him to be battling a ha
rd on.

He watched her face, realising he’d probably revealed more about his feelings for her with that comment but apart from staring at him for a while, a look in her eyes he couldn’t fathom, she bent down, pulling sunscreen out of her bag. The view he got of her rear, barely covered by her bikini was enough to wake his cock fully and it stood to attention. Fuck, fuck and triple
fuck!

Just to add to his discomfort she shoved the sunscreen bottle at him. “Can you put some on me please?” One little innocent question and his thoughts were far from it. She was trying to kill him he was
sure.

Reluctantly he took the bottle from her. “Dammit Natasha, you’re going to kill me aren’t you?” His voice was harsh before he squeezed some lotion onto his palm and began to spread it over her shoulders and back. He took his time, making sure he’d covered her smooth skin well but it had been an exercise in torture for him, touching her, but not being able to do more. Once he was done, he handed the sunscreen back to her and fought to get his arousal under co
ntrol.

“I want to go for a swim. Are you co
ming?”

Eric groaned to himself. He wanted to go with her, but thanks to that sexy body of hers, he fucking well couldn’t. No way in hell was he embarrassing himself walking down to the water with his cock hard as an iron bar in his swimmers. He dropped down on her towel to try and conceal his aroused state from other people that were n
earby.

“Not yet, I can’t.” His tone was r
ueful.

“Why not?” She looked surp
rised.

“Lets just say, seeing you dressed like that isn’t helping much and I can do without the embarrassment of being seen with a raging hard on.” He tried to make a joke of his situation, but the pain in his groin wasn’t
funny.

Her eyes dropped to his crutch, a hint of laughter showing in her eyes. “Oh.” Was all she
said.

“Yes, oh.” He repeated. Damn her, but she was enjoying his discomfort. She was going to pay later, that’s for
sure.

“Well, I’m going to get my feet wet at least.” Natasha said and Eric couldn’t do anything more than watch her walk off down to the water’s edge, his eyes following every sweet curve as her body swayed with that beautiful sexy walk of
hers.

“Fuck you, go down.” He hissed impatiently at his cock. He wanted to get down to the water with her before any of the numerous men on the beach thought she was alone and made a move on her. Sometimes he believed Natasha had no idea just how stunning she really was but he knew other men would have no such problem recognising her beauty. If his damned cock wasn’t so hard, he wouldn’t be sitting on her towel, helplessly watching her and being unable to go t
o her.

As Eric watched from his position on the towel, he saw her step into the water and she squealed when the waves crashed around her legs. She stepped in deeper and suddenly appeared to lose her balance. Fuck, but he had to get to her, hard on or no damned hard on but a young man, surfer type obviously, going by the look of him, jumped forward and grabbed Natasha around the waist, pulling her agains
t him.

Immediately a tide of rage swept over Eric. What the fuck? While he watched them together, it became apparent that this was no chance meeting, Natasha appeared to know the bronzed idiot who had his hands on her. She was smiling up at him like she was delighted to see him and Eric felt a sharp pain through his heart and the sick feeling in his stomach was a feeling he wasn’t familiar with, but he wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t figure out that the strong emotion flooding his system was jea
lousy.

After a few more minutes of watching Natasha and the man who was talking to her, watching them laugh, his hand touch her sometimes, Eric had reached the end of his control. Thankfully he didn’t have an erection to worry about anymore. Seeing his gorgeous PA with a strange man had killed his desire as effectively as dousing him in ice
water.

He leapt to his feet, tearing his jeans off as quickly as possible and tugged his t-shirt off before heading down to the water to find out what the hell the bronzed idiot thought he was doing moving in on his woman. As he walked towards them he was aware that he was behaving in a way that was totally uncharacteristic for him. If he could beat his chest and grab Natasha by the hair and haul her off to his cave, he damned well
would.

As he stepped up behind her, he caught the last comments from the young man who was standing far too close to her for Eric’s liking. He was asking her what she was doing at Bondi again and was it his charm that had brought her back. So she had met him yesterday then and if he was after Natasha, he could fuck off because she was his and no young surfer type was going to take her fro
m him.

“I’m actually…” He heard her start to say when he interrupted, trying to keep the anger out of his voice as he glared over her head at the younge
r man.

“Natasha, what are you doing? Who the hell are you?” He turned the full force of his fury on the young man who still had a hand on her waist. It took all of Eric’s self control not to plant his fist in the bronzed idiot’s
face.

He stepped up to her, not breaking eye contact with the man. He was aware of her eyes moving from him to the other man but he didn’t look at her. He was too busy making it perfectly clear through his stance and his eyes that the younger man needed to bac
k off.

Eric slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her back against his body, wanting to make it clear that she was his. He had to give the younger man some credit. He hadn’t broken eye contact with him although it had to be quite obvious to him that he was being given a clear signal to stay
away.

He felt Natasha tense. She must have been aware of the anger radiating off him despite his efforts to keep it from showing. “Eric, this is Brodie, I met him here yesterday. He kindly woke me after I’d fallen asleep before I could get sunburned. He was my knight.” She smiled over at Brodie and Eric ground his teeth together at the way her face lit up at him. Jealousy speared through him, twisting his stomach into a huge knot. He suddenly realised she was introducing him to Brodie and he made a conscious effort to mask his inner tu
rmoil.

“Well, I’m a bit more than Natasha’s friend aren’t I baby?” He turned his attention back on the younger man as he tightened his grip on her waist. He wanted to make it perfectly clear she was off limits to everyone but him. He also wanted Brodie to know that they were far more than friends too. “Weren’t we going for a swim?” He asked, brushing his lips against Natasha’s neck and he smiled when he felt the shiver of awareness go through her
body.

“Well I was.” She turned back to Brodie but Eric sensed she was angry. “Well I guess that means we’re going for a swim. Again, thank you for coming to my rescue not once but twice.” She smiled at the younger man. Suddenly she pulled free of Eric’s arms and reached up to kiss Brodie on the cheek. He pulled back with a surprised look before looking across at Eric and his expression was wary. So it fucking well should be he thought, his teeth snapping together with frustr
ation.

Eric was furious that Natasha had kissed that bronzed idiot. What the hell did she do that for? His jealousy was eating him up and he needed to get her away from Brodie before he did something stupid and hit the younger man. He wasn’t used to feeling like this. Hell, he’d never felt like this over a woman before and he didn’t like it a
t all.

He grabbed her arm and hauled her away, not even noticing that he was being rough with her. He just wanted as much space as possible between his PA and the other man. He’d just dragged her to the water’s edge further up the beach when Natasha pulled away from him and when he turned to face her, she was bristling with anger. “For fuck sakes Eric, what the hell was that stupid display of your macho crap all a
bout?”

He pulled her close to him again. “I don’t like him. I don’t like that he had his hands on you, you two barely know each other. He had no right to touch you. You… are… mine and don’t you forget it.” He ground out. He knew he was acting like a possessive fool, but he couldn’t stop himself. Natasha just brought out his inner caveman. He wanted to lock her up in a tower and not let any other man go nea
r her.

“Are you jealous?” Her voice snapped him out of the images flashing through his
mind.

Dammit, yes he was, but no way in hell was he going to admit it to her. That would be making himself too vulnerable to her. “No I’m not.” He lied through his teeth. “I don’t do the whole pointless jealousy thing. I just don’t like him putting his hands on you, while we are here, on this time away, together, you are mine.” He repeated and she was. He hoped for longer than the week, but if she wanted to leave him when their time at the hotel was over, he would reluctantly let her go, but for now at least, she was his and he was going to make sure no other man had the opportunity to get near her
again.

He turned away from her and waded out into the water until it was deep enough for him to dive in and start swimming. He swam with strong strokes until he was in deep water, diving through the waves, burning off his frustration and anger with every s
troke.

Eric didn’t realise how far out he’d swum until he stopped, treading water and turned back to see whether Natasha had been able to keep up with him. She wasn’t around. In fact she wasn’t anywhere nearby. Feeling his anxiety start to rise, he looked towards the shore and his heart thumped painfully in his chest. Not only was she not following him, she was making her way back up the beach towards the stairs that led back to the car park and if that wasn’t bad enough, Brodie was running afte
r her.

Fuck! She was leaving him. No, she couldn’t leave, she couldn’t be like everyone else. Suddenly his head was filled with flashbacks to his childhood. His father leaning over him, the strong smell of alcohol on his breath. “Things were so much better before you came along you little
shit!”

His Mother’s voice as she stared into his eyes. “If you were a good boy they’d want you too.” Another moment when she stood over him, anger in her eyes. “Why Eric, why? If it wasn’t for you he’d have stayed. He wanted me, but not
you.”

As Eric began to swim back to shore, the voices kept playing in his head. “It’s all your fault boy. You’re bad, just bad. You ruin everything boy. You’ve fucked up my life boy…” On and on the voices played through his mind and he hated that even all these years later, tears pricked at his eyes from the pain their words inflicted on him. He struggled to shut them out as he swam, desperate to get back to Natasha, to try and stop her leaving him and yet dreading seeing that same look in her eyes, to hear her telling him she didn’t wan
t him.

Finally he hit the shallows and he stood up, breaking into a run. He stopped to quickly pick up the towel and his clothes before sprinting back across the sand until he got to the stairs. Barely slowing down, he took the stairs two at a time and made it to the car park just in time to watch Natasha’s BMW drivin
g off.

Eric’s shoulders slumped and his heart hit his stomach as overwhelming despair flooded his body. She was gone. As he stood there, pain searing its way through every part of him, he suddenly noticed that Brodie was standing in the car park watchin
g him.

Rage swept through him as he stared at the younger man. He stormed over to him, his eyes flashing as his anger threatened to consume him. “What the fuck did you say to her?” He sn
apped.

Brodie didn’t back down despite the fury coming off Eric in waves. “I didn’t say anything to her other than to ask what she was doing and to make sure she was ok. The question should be, what the fuck did you do to
her?”

Eric advanced on Brodie until he was right in his face. “She’s with me, she is mine and you had no fucking right to go anywhere near her. If you think you can muscle your way in on her, then think again arsehole, because you don’t stand a fucking ch
ance.”

Brodie held his own, not stepping away. “Seems she doesn’t want you either or else why did she leave? You upset her, I didn’t. It’s you she was running away from so don’t you get in my fucking face and try to make this all my fault. I wasn’t trying to muscle in on her, I was being friendly. She’s a beautiful woman. If you can’t look after her, don’t be surprised if another man takes her from you because from what I’ve seen so far, you don’t damned well deserve
her.”

Eric raised his hand, his fist clenched. He just wanted to beat the crap out of the young man in front of him. Brodie looked at the fist in his face and took a step back. “Don’t you dare tell me how I should be treating her you bastard.” Eric fumed. “You have no idea how I treat her, how I feel about her. I should fucking well beat your head in, but you’re just not fucking well worth it.” He ground out before spinning away from the younge
r man.

Hastily he pulled on his jeans and t-shirt before turning back, but Brodie had gone. Probably just as well because an assault charge wasn’t going to help his cause if he’d given in to his desire to plant his fist dead centre in the bronzed idiot’s
face.

Once he was dressed he called Henry to bring the limo to the beach so he could get back to the hotel. He needed to be sure Natasha had left him and go after her. He wasn’t ready to let her go even if she told him to fuck off, he had to try at least. Just thinking about her made his heart contract and it scared the hell out of him that in such a short time, she’d come to mean so much to him. It couldn’t just be since their time away, she must have been slowly, day by day, hour by hour worming her way into his heart at work and that’s why he’d been compelled to proposition her about coming away wit
h him.