Winter's Heat (13 page)

****

The unmistakable flavorful smells of a well seasoned steak and sautéed vegetables greeted him as soon as he opened the front door. He smiled because he knew that the delicious smells would lead him right to his heart’s desire.

He had insisted that they get another housekeeper after they were married and she’d agreed on one condition: that the new housekeeper stays out of her kitchen.

Eric loved her cooking so much that he hadn’t put up much of a fight when she’d been adamant about it. Besides, he had to admit that her solution let them both have their way. He got to hire someone else so she wouldn’t overdo it and she got to still do something she enjoyed doing. Everybody was happy.

Walking through the house, he continued on until he got to the kitchen. For awhile he just stood there watching her. He never got tired of looking at the picture she made with her dark hair moving gently around her shoulders as she swayed back and forth to the music playing quietly in the background.

Today she was casually dressed in a red form fitting sundress that lovingly hugged every dip and curve he’d spent most of the day dreaming about. But that wasn’t what held him spellbound.

Seeing the sparkle of her wedding band bathed in the waning sunlight did. It made his heart swell with a familiar mixture of love and possession like it always did whenever he saw it on her slim finger.

Yep, he was domesticated and lovin’ it
.

“
Are you just gonna stand looking all good enough to eat or are you gonna come over here and let me have a taste?” Winter sassed off at him without even breaking her concentration on what she was doing.

Coming fully into the room he went to her and pulled her into his arms to give her what she was asking for as he kissed her until she was breathless.

“How’s that Mrs. Jameson?” He asked finally letting them both come up for air.

Looking down into her upturned face, he saw her pretending to think about it.

“Hmmm, I think I need a second helping Mr. Jameson…” She teased giving him a sultry look from beneath her eyelashes. She knew he wouldn’t be able to let the challenge go.

“Oh really…” Wordlessly, Eric reached pass her to turn the burners off and swiftly moved to pick her up and place her on the cool countertop.

Moving between her parted thighs, he placed nibbling kisses along the slim column of her arched neck as he ran his hands underneath the hem of her dress to cup her shockingly bare bottom.

“Cooking with no panties?” He asked in a husky voice. To know that there was nothing standing between him and her wet heat turned him on big time.

“I know how much of a sweet tooth you have so I thought I’d be desser—“ She gasped as he shed his pants in record time and pushed up into her dripping wet core before she could finish her sassy comment.

They moaned in unison as the faint sound of their flesh meeting could be heard as her inner muscles gripped him unmercifully.

Now that he was fully seating within her honeyed depths, he pushed the straps of her dress to the side. His eyes were quickly drawn to her braless full breasts and he found himself leaning forward to hungrily suckle on her large distended nipples. His loving attention caused her to scream in need as a wave of white hot pleasure burst through her core making her wet folds contract repeatedly around him.

Wasting no time, he braced his arms around her back and began deep, piercing strokes that had them both quickly coming in a spectacular finish. They held each other while whispering words of love as their heartbeats came slowly to normal.

When outside world came back into focus, they both became aware of the ringing of the phone. They looked at each other and wondered if they should just let it go to voicemail.

“It might be important…” Even though she didn’t want him to answer the call, she understood.

Eric kissed her one more time before reluctantly pulling away from her. Winter adjusted her dress back over her well-satisfied body and slid off the counter to check on their dinner. Satisfied that everything was ready, she turned just in time to see Eric adjusting his own clothes as he walked out of the kitchen into the hallway.

She couldn’t help but admire his calm demeanor as he answered the phone call in a smooth professional tone. Her legs were still a little unsteady from their encounter. It must be a man thing to have the ability to shift gears so quickly she surmised as she moved to follow him.

In the hallway, Eric stood with his back turned to her. When she heard a familiar name, her head snapped up in recognition. Instead of half listening as she was prone to do when he took a business call in her presence, she stood listening intently now to his conversation to whoever was on the other line.

Just as she was starting to feel awkward for eavesdropping, the words she heard next completely evaporated every ounce of awkwardness she might have felt.

“I see. You are more than welcome to use any resources I have available Det. Jefferies. I just want Randy Ellis finally tracked down. I appreciate your understanding in going only through me and keeping Winter out of the loop on this detective.” Right as the words left his lips, Eric turned around to see Winter quietly standing there with a upset look on her beautiful face.

With a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, he knew that she’d heard every word he’s just said.

Never breaking eye contact with her, he discreetly ended the call with the detective. He already knew that the conversation she’d just overheard was pretty damning. When he’d first started keeping information from Winter about her case, he had thought it was for the best. He still did.

Especially now because of her pregnancy.

He would do anything to keep her from the stress of that ugliness. He just hoped he could make her understand where he was coming from.

“Baby…” Before he could finish, she turned away from him.

“Eric, what’s going on? What do you mean ‘last time’? Why haven’t you told me you’ve been in touch with detective Jefferies?” Since he couldn’t see her expressive face, the quiet precision of her words was a sure indicator that she was upset.

“Sweetheart, I didn’t want to worry you with all the details. I thought it made sense for me to step in and handle it. Besides it’s no less than what I would do for any of my clients.” At his explanation, Winter turned around to face him once again.

“Eric, I’m not one of your clients, I’m your wife.” She informed him after drawing in a shaky breath.

“At least hearing something about the case would have given me some sort of peace and not left me in the dark feeling so helpless.” She moved back as he tried to come closer to her. She knew she wouldn’t be able to finish if he touched her.

“You can’t treat me like I’ll break apart by keeping me in the dark about things…I thought we were a team.” She felt the dam holding her emotions at bay finally break as tears stung her eyes.

“Baby….” Eric was mentally kicking himself for the tears his saw swimming in her eyes. He had never meant to hurt her, but it seemed like his form of protection had did just that.

“Why don’t we talk about this over dinner?” He suggested in an attempt to smooth things over. Right away, he could see her instant rejection of that idea.

“
I’m too upset to eat right now. I think I’ll just turn in early to get some rest.” Turning away, she slowly made her way upstairs.

As he watched her climb the stairs, Eric ran his hands tiredly over his face in frustration. Remembering the look of hurt and disappointment in her eyes, caused a heavy feeling in his chest that he didn’t think he would forget anytime soon.

Thanks to him following his baser Neanderthal instincts when it came to protecting her, he’d ignored one major thing…trust. Trusting her to still be the strong woman he fell in love with in spite of her fears.

The only thing he could hope for now was that she would see that he’d done what he done for all the right reasons.

Going back into the kitchen, he put away the food Winter had prepared for dinner and made his way to his office. Right now he needed something to take his mind off of things and he always had paperwork needing his attention.

After an hour of getting absolutely nothing done, he knew he was kidding himself. Tossing down the client profiles that he had read three times on the desk, he got up to pace the floor as agitation moved through him.

Coming to a stop in the center of the room, he stood there looking up at the ceiling as if he had the power to see through to the room above and look upon the woman who held his heart.

He knew he needed to give her time, but had to admit to himself that that wasn’t gonna happen. Whether it was the right or wrong thing to do, he knew he had to do something. Because it was not in him to let things stay the way they were between them.

Shutting off the light in his office, he determinedly made his way upstairs. He didn’t have a clue what he was going to say, but he made a silent vow to say or do whatever he had to do to fix this.

****

Quietly opening the door, he strode into their dimly lit bedroom. As his vision adjusted to the lack of light, he was able to pick out the outline of Winter’s curvy form in their bed. He admitted to himself that he would never get tired of the sight, because of what it meant.

She was his wife: his very life.

The soft sound of her breathing let him know what he would find as he made his way to her side of the bed. Her beautiful face was free of the emotions from earlier and was now relaxed in sleep. One hand cushioned her left cheek while the other rested over the nightgown covered swell of their unborn child.

This is where he belonged.

He never took his eyes off of her as he removed his clothing. He needed to hold her so badly that he didn’t give a damn if he had to do some serious begging to do it. And to prove it, he left on his silk boxer as a barrier to her tempting body.

Winter’s eyes drifted open as she felt the mattress dip with the weight of Eric’s muscular bulk beside her. She was amazed that she had gone to sleep at all with the tangle of emotions tearing at her mind and the heaviness in her heart, but apparently she had. She instantly regretted the way she had handled things downstairs with Eric because she knew he had only done it to protect her.

Winter just wished she could press the rewind button in a major way and not let her raging hormones get the best of her. And as she lay there, she vowed that she would swallow her pride and end the conflict going on between them before it got anymore out of hand.

Before she could do or say anything, she felt Eric’s arms wrap around her as he spooned himself around her body.

“
I’m so sorry sweetheart.” The rumble from his low raspy voice caressed the shell of her ear as he pulled her further into his embrace.

“
I didn’t do what I did to hurt you. I kept information about your case from you to protect you. I know that was the wrong thing to do and I swear that I’ll never do—“ Winter turned within the circle of his embrace and placed her fingertips against his lips. She couldn’t bear to hear him take the full blame.

“
Don’t ever apologize for loving me.” Her quiet voice cut through the dimly lit bedroom as she met his concerned gaze. Her fingers softly caressed his lips of their own free will as she continued speaking.

“
I’m
sorry for overacting and not giving you a chance to explain.” She replaced her fingertips with the soft curve of her lips against his as she sealed her apology with a kiss.

“I know that you were only trying to protect me, but I think all the worry over the last months came gushing out and I just felt overwhelmed.” She was woman enough to admit when she was wrong, especially when being wrong hurt the man she loved.

“I think we can safely say that we both learned an important lesson in talking to each other no matter what.” He said with feeling.

Snuggling into his embrace, she murmured her agreement because she felt the same exact way.

“I also learned something else though.” He said smiling.

Leaning back alittle, she looked at him and noticed the mischievous smile curving his lips. “What’s that?”

“I learned that I have a shocking amount of ‘caveman’ in me when it comes to you and that I’m gonna have to fight against that from time to time.” He ruefully admitted.

“Well, don’t fight it too hard, especially when it comes to loving me.” She ran her hands lingeringly over the rugged contours of his muscled chest as she leaned forward to back up her words with a kiss.

All the love she had for him fueled the richness of her touch as she stroked the inner recess of his mouth with the wickedly talented tip of her tongue. From lips to hip, her hands boldly caressed as she paid homage to Eric as the man who had captured her heart and didn’t mind slaying a few dirtbags to keep it.

Pulling back, she sat up and straddled his powerful bulk while slowly peeling her nightgown from her tempting curves. When her smooth supple brown skin was fully exposed to his hungry gaze, she couldn’t resist the need to lean down and rub the sensitive, hard pebbled tips of her breasts against the smooth muscled skin of his chest causing them both to moan at the sensations firing through every nerve ending of their bodies.