Taming Eric (45 page)

“Why would you think I don’t want you Natasha? Haven’t I proven to you that you mean more to me than any other woman has? You’re in my home, you’ve stayed with me in my Tasmanian home. No other woman has before you.” He found himself getting more and more frustrated. Why couldn’t she see how important she was to him? He’d shown her in every way he could that he cared but he just couldn’t bring himself to express his feelings to her. A part of him was still terrified at the idea of laying himself out vulnerable to her, to be in such a position where she could just trample his feelings under her feet. “You’re a chicken shit Rothman.” That little voice told him inside his head and he knew he was but he couldn’t break through the insecurity and fear that held him
back.

Natasha gave a loud sigh down the line. “Eric, I’m going. I’m heading home now anyway so you can call off the police search or whatever you were going to do alr
ight?”

“You still haven’t told me where you
are.”

She snapped at him again. “Where I am is none of your business Eric. All you need to know is that I’m not meeting up with a man. I’m not running naked down the street or sitting in a bar drinking myself under the table or whatever the hell else you think I might be doing. I just needed to get out on my own for a little while. Alice is nice and she’s very good to me but I feel like she’s got her eye on me all the time. I’m not used to that Eric. I’m not used to having to explain my every move to someone first and you need to bloody well loosen up and let me get out on my own too. I’m not going to do anything stupid or put our babies at risk.” She yelled before hanging up o
n him.

Eric stared at his phone for a moment, shock, frustration and finally anger surging through him. Ok, he could concede that suddenly having to explain her every move was probably hard for someone who was independent but he only insisted on it being like that for her own health and safety. She’d hung up on him though, still having not answered him and now he was pissed, seriously p
issed.

“Alex, I have to leave the office for the rest of the day. Reschedule anything that needs to be, ok? Will you be alright without me here? I know you haven’t been my PA all that long and I’m throwing you in the deep end but I have an urgent matter to atten
d to.”

Alex smiled at him. “Please Mr Rothman, I mean Eric.” When Eric frowned at him for calling him Mr Rothman. “You go and do whatever you need t
o do.”

Eric gathered up his laptop and wallet and shot out the door, heading for the elevator. He called Henry, his limo driver to come and get him which wouldn’t take long since Henry’s job was as his driver and a lot of his time was spent sitting around doing nothing until he instructed him to take him somewhere. It was probably boring as hell trying to kill hours at a time until Eric needed him again, but he paid Henry well to do just
that.

*     *
     *

When he got home Alice rushed to greet him, her expression showing how worried she was about Natasha. “Is she home yet?” He asked and she shook her
head.

Damn, where the fuck was she? She’d told him she was heading straight back. He was going to throttle her at this rate if she didn’t at least try and comply with the few simple requests he made o
f her.

He tried calling her mobile phone but it only went to voice mail and he stopped leaving messages in case she refused to come home if she heard the anger and frustration in his voice. Where the fuck was she? He was going to strangle her when she finally got back. His stomach turned over with nervous tension as worry that something might have happened to her started to consume him. What if she’d had an acc
ident?

It was about an hour later that he finally heard her car pull up in the carport. He shot out the front door and waited while she got out of the car. When she looked at him he saw her swallow nervously before she pulled herself upright and a stubborn look settled on her face. “What are you doing home?” She aske
d him.

He snorted at her. He would have thought it was obvious why he was home? “I’m home because you not only went out without letting Alice know, you told me you were on your way home and then you didn’t turn up. I tried to ring you but you weren’t answering your phone and Alice was concerned enough to ring me to let me know you weren’t back. So that’s why I’m home. I had to leave the office for you Natasha and you’d better have a damned good excuse for causing me to have to walk out in the middle of a meeting.” His voice was soft but there was an undercurrent of the anger that simmered in him noticeable in his tone. He didn’t really leave during a meeting but he wanted to try and make her feel some guilt for having Alice and himself worried abou
t her.

She was looking at him with nervous tension showing in her stunning eyes. “I went shopping, see?” She held up the bags in her hand to show him but he didn’t shift his eyes from
hers.

“You went shopping. So why did you have to sneak off without telling Alice? She would have driven you anywhere you wanted to go or if you really have to shop alone, Henry would drive
you.”

She gaped at him before giving him one of her not so lady like snorts. “Oh for crying out loud Eric, I don’t need Alice babysitting me and I don’t need your limo driver either, I can drive myself. Let me enjoy that much at least before I end up too big to fit behind the damned steering wheel.” She snapped at him. She tightened her grip on her bags and brushed past him. “I’m not standing out here all day arguing with you. You can go back to work
now.”

He reached out grabbing her arm and she spun around until she was facing him, looking like she was ready to hit him but he simply took her bags from her and followed her into the
house.

Alice rushed forward, relief on her face. “Oh thank god Natasha, you’re back. Why did you run off like that? I could have taken you out if you needed a change of scenery dear. There was no need for you to drive your
self.”

He saw Natasha attempt to smile politely at Alice. “I’m sorry Alice for worrying you and I hope I don’t get you in trouble with Mr Grumpy here.” She gestured at him and he sucked in a deep breath. This woman was going to drive him insane with her smart mouth and constant need to battle him and defy him. When he looked over at Alice he had to fight not to smile himself when he saw her desperately trying not to laugh at Natasha’s new name for him. He wasn’t normally grumpy but she had a way of stirring him up all the time. She drove him crazy but fuck he loved her. It was never dull with her a
round.

“It’s alright Alice at least Natasha is back now.” He smiled reassuringly at the older woman. “Natasha come with me.” He walked to the lift still carrying her bags and she followed him which surprised him since he’d half expected her to figh
t him.

They were both silent on the way up in the lift and he walked into the bedroom shutting the door behind them once Natasha was in the room. He dropped her bags on the bed and turned to face her. “I’m still waiting for an explanation Natasha as to why you couldn’t let someone know where you were going t
oday.”

“Seriously Eric, if you think I’m going to make excuses for what I did to you, you’re going to be waiting a long time. I’m not a child. I don’t need to get permission to go out and I don’t need to explain my actions to you or A
lice.”

Her failure to answer him started to annoy him again. “So what was so bloody important that you had to go out a
lone?”

“I just needed some time out on my own Eric. I wanted to see something besides the inside of this house. You’re at work a lot, we don’t go anywhere anymore because you’re too focused on treating me like I’m going to break in half if I do the slightest thing and if you want to know what I did while I was out, look in the damned bags yourself.” She shouted before storming off and locking herself in the en
suite.

He waited for a couple of minutes, but she didn’t come back out so he decided to get changed since he was still in his suit. He stripped naked, hanging up his pants and jacket before throwing the shirt in the laundry chute and pulled a pair of jeans off the hanger. He was just stepping into them when he sensed Natasha was near and when he lifted his head she was watching him, her eyes moving up and down the length of him. Hastily he turned his back on her and pulled up his jeans before she could see his body’s immediate response to her presence. Fuck but he so badly needed to get laid, but she never made any effort to come on to him. She didn’t want him like that anymore, he had to accept
that.

Once he’d done up his jeans he turned to face her again and she was still staring at him with what looked almost like hunger in her eyes but it was wishful thinking on his part thinking she might have been hungry for him. He groaned and pulled down a t-shirt, hastily dragging
it on.

“Why aren’t you going back to work?” She asked him and he explained he’d rescheduled his meeting for tomorrow. He wasn’t lying at least about that part, he did have a meeting for tom
orrow.

“I’m still waiting to hear where you went today Nat
asha.”

“I told you to look in the bags Eric if you want to know where I went.” She brushed past him and started emptying the bags out over the bed. He walked over to see what she had. There were several tiny garments. She’d bought baby clothes? She had to be all stealthy and secretive about baby clothes? What the fuck? Maybe they were just a cover for whatever she’d really been
doing?

“You went baby shopping? I thought we could go soon, together and start shopping for what we need for the nur
sery.”

“That’s the problem though, where is the nursery going to be? This is not my home Eric and once the babies are born, there will be no need for me to stay here any
more.”

“Aren’t you happy living here?” He asked although terrified of the a
nswer.

“It’s not a question of whether I’m happy or not. I’m here because you and my Mother decided I would be better off here while I’m pregnant but once the babies are born, there’s no reason why I can’t go
home.”

They weren’t the words he wanted to hear but they’d never discussed what would happen after she had the babies. He didn’t want her going back to her home though, he wanted her to stay with him. He wanted her to live with him permanently and they could both raise the twins, together, like a real f
amily.

“I don’t want you to leave here Natasha. I like having you in my home and if you and our babies are here, then I can help take care of you all. I can’t do that so easily if you go back to your p
lace.”

“So what are you saying Eric? Are you asking me to move in with
you?”

He started to pace the room as he realised that yes, that’s what he was asking. He stopped and met her eyes. “I don’t expect an answer right away, but think about it at least. It’s the most sensible thing to do, for us to live toge
ther.”

Something flashed in her eyes but he couldn’t read her expression. He grabbed her shoulders. “I mean it Natasha, think about what I’m sa
ying.”

She nodded. “I don’t think you’re thinking this through properly Eric. What about if one of us gets tired of the living arrangements and wants to move on, start da
ting?”

Eric’s heart skipped a beat at her words. He didn’t want to think of another man being with her, touching her, making love to her and possibly helping to raise his children. No fuckin
g way!

“Dammit Natasha, haven’t I already proved to you that I don’t want anyone else? I would do anything to protect you and our babies and yet you constantly question me? Maybe it’s you who doesn’t want me anymore?” He groun
d out.

She snorted at him. “I’m not the problem Eric. You don’t want me. Maybe the sight of my baby bump puts you off, but you don’t want me sexually anymore. You aren’t attracted to me and dammit I’m pregnant, not dead.” She suddenly rounded on him, her eyes flashing her anger at him. “This pregnancy is making me fucking horny you stupid bastard and yet no matter what I try you won’t fucking well make love to me, so screw you. Either let me go home and you find someone else or I’m going to take care of the problem my
self.”

While Eric listened to her tirade, his heart started to thump in his chest, a burst of happiness surging through him. She wanted him, fuck, she wanted him. As he watched her a slow grin lit up his face and he saw dark colour flood her cheeks and horror in her eyes when she must have suddenly realised what she’d just
said.

“Are you laughing at me, well fuck you Eric.” She stormed over to the bed and reached into another one of her bags and pulled out… FUCK! It was a large colourful vibrator. A vibrator? She bought a fucking vibrator when he’d happily fuck her as often as she want
ed it?

She was still going off at him though but he was having trouble focusing on her when he couldn’t take his eyes off that damned vib
rator.

“Since you don’t want me anymore. I’ve bought something that will. It’s the Jack Rabbit. Apparently once I’ve had that, I’ll never want anything else, not even you.” She snapped slapping it into his hands and finally her words dragged his attention back to her and away from that fucking vib
rator.

What the hell made her think he didn’t want her? She hadn’t wanted him. She’d told him there wasn’t going to be any sex and fuck it, he’d done as she’d asked and not touched her and now here she was acting like the whole damned thing was his
fault?

“Why would you feel you need to buy this?” He asked, his eyes returning to the purple vibrator in his
hand.