Releasing the Billionaire's Passion (3 page)

Fiona continued to hold his hand, dragging him over to stand in front of yet another fireplace. “And here again is another mantle, all solid wood. This fireplace would keep the whole family warm while they ate Christmas dinners, Thanksgiving dinners, birthdays, and just normal family meals.” She looked up into his blue eyes hopefully and Charles was not immune to her plea.

He breathed in deeply, trying to get his thoughts together. “Fiona, the house is...”

“Wait!” She covered his mouth with her hand and Charles was hard-pressed not to nibble against her soft skin. Oh, the things he could do to her hand that would make her toes curl. His mind pictured her writhing on his bed just from the things he would do to….

Damn, he had to get control of this lust he was feeling for Fiona. It was hitting him harder than normal today. Well, was there a “normal” when it came to Fiona? Definitely not!

Her soft, brown eyes implored him to not judge just yet. “You haven’t even seen the best part.” She grabbed his hand once more and pulled him up the old wooden stairs that creaked with their weight. “Wait until you see…” Fiona stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down at him.

“The best part?” He prompted when she didn’t go any further. As he looked up into her soft, brown eyes, he wondered what was going on inside that pretty head of hers. Of course, he also wondered what she would do if he pulled her closer, buried his face against those breasts and explored her…

Damn!

“Um…” She hesitated, not sure exactly what to do. Fiona had been about to take him into what would be her bedroom, but the idea of Charles, tall, handsome, amazing Charles being in her bedroom was too much for her.

“Well, you probably don’t want to see anything up here. You’re right, the bathrooms need to be renovated and…”

Charles sensed something was truly wrong and he didn’t like it. “Fiona, what do you not want me to see?” Charles asked, taking the last step on the stairs and towering over her petite figure. She was still holding onto his hand, but his other hand came up, his thumb gently caressing her cheek.

Fiona gasped as the fire from his touch burned all the way down to her stomach. “It’s just bedrooms up here,” she whispered, wishing she had the courage to put her hands on his chest and stop his forward momentum.

Charles told himself to move back, to give her space again. But he didn’t. He seemed to be having this argument too often lately, but there was something in her eyes that drew him even closer. “Show me the bedrooms, Fiona,” he commanded softly but with that deep voice that his employees knew not to argue with.

He felt the shiver as it raced throughout her body.

Fiona stepped back, taking a deep breath that wasn’t filled with the incredible Charles-scent that she love so much. “Yes. Right.” She turned around and looked at the two doors, one leading to the right and one leading to the left. She decided to show him the smaller of the bedrooms, the one she wouldn’t be sleeping in. “See? Isn’t this a beautiful room?” She walked over to the large windows that looked out onto the front yard and one that looked out onto the side yard. “There’s more wood work up here and even crown molding. The closets are big and spacious, and all of the doors up here are solid wood as well.”

Charles stood in the doorway, irritated that she’d dropped his hand. He wanted those soft breasts against his arm again and he was having a hard time getting over his resentment towards the house.

“The house seems solid enough, but what are you going to do about the yard?”

Fiona’s smile was brighter than the sunshine when she looked up at him. “I’ll learn to garden. How hard can it be? I mean, don’t you just put plants into the ground and they grow?”

Charles crossed his arms over his chest and leaned one shoulder against the door frame. “I think it’s a little more complicated than that.” He thought she was cute, being so optimistic about planting things. He could tell her about watering methods, shade loving plants, sun loving bushes, the roots in the front yard from the enormous tree that were going to make digging a hole almost impossible, not to mention how the tree would most likely steal all the water from whatever she planted.

Fiona simply shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I guess I have a new learning experience on the horizon then, right?”

Charles was not immune to her enthusiastic attitude and couldn’t stop the chuckle that escaped him. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.” He turned around and looked behind him. “What’s in the other bedroom?” He walked towards the other door, peering inside. Because he had his back turned to Fiona, he wasn’t expecting what came next.

Fiona saw what he was about to do, and jumped into action. “You can’t go in there!” She nimbly stepped around his large body, blocking the entrance to the doorway.

Charles looked down at the little woman who was trying to block his way, amused and still so turned on. “You know that I’m going in there, don’t you?”

Fiona shook her head, her curls dancing around her lovely features. “You can’t. I won’t let you.”

Charles smiled slightly, intrigued by this mystery. “What is in that room that you don’t want me to see?”

Fiona once again started to shake her head, but this time she put her hands against his chest to stop him. “Charles, you are not going in this room.”

One black eyebrow went up in challenge. “I’m going in there, Fiona.” With that, he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her up against him. It was a simple task to simply change places with her.

Fiona gasped at the contact with his hard body. Her fingers were reluctant to move away from his chest, which was surprisingly more muscular than even what she’d pictured in her mind. She wouldn’t have thought of him as a man who worked out that often, but those muscles were a testament to a consistent and intense workout regime. The man was a workaholic, so when did he have time to work out? But the muscles in his chest were not something that he could come by casually. Oh goodness, her fascination with Charles ratcheted up several more notches.

Charles looked around at the empty room. It looked almost exactly like the other room, but larger. There were double windows on both sides of the outside walls, but other than a closet, there was nothing special about this room. “What were you trying to hide?”

Fiona wrapped her arms around her waist, her mind instantly picturing a big bed and Charles in the middle of it, his conservative suit laying on the ground and his eyes telling her to come closer. She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks and quickly turned away so he wouldn’t see her blush and question her about it. The man really wouldn’t let any detail get by him.

“It’s just another room, Charles. Nothing special about it, and there’s nothing wrong with it.” But Fiona wouldn’t step into the room, not with Charles in it as well. The images swirling through her vulnerable, Charles-hungry mind were too vivid, too erotic.

Charles looked at her suspiciously. Something was going on. Something that he didn’t understand. “Fiona…”

“Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you the backyard.” With that, she turned around and walked down the stairs, feeling a little bit clumsy since she was still trembling after feeling his arms around her waist and her breasts pressed against his chest. “You’ll approve of that area, at least. It is filled with lots of trees and shade.”

Charles stepped out of the bedroom and watched her walk down the staircase. His eyes sharpened on her sexy butt in those jeans, but he forced himself to look away. She wasn’t his. She was a client.

So why was his mind thinking of this particular client in completely inappropriate ways?

Fiona stood in the middle of the backyard, her face turned up towards the dappled sunshine that streamed through the trees. She took several deep breaths, trying to get her body back under control. Charles had muscles. That realization was so tantalizing. She should never have touched him, she should never have let him look in that bedroom. Fiona almost cried as she thought of all the things that she wanted to do to that man, with that man, on top of that man and underneath him…in that bedroom. She could picture him in rumpled sheets and looking up at her with desire in his eyes. She had a little trouble trying to think of him with morning stubble. She’d never seen him except when he was perfectly shaved. She suspected that he might even wake up at midnight to shave just so that he would wake up looking just as marvelous and pulled together.

When she heard the door opening, she turned and forced a smile to her face. “Isn’t it lovely?” She took a few steps towards one of the old oak trees. “I could plant daffodils and tulips over here so that there is color in the springtime.” She walked over to another corner of the yard. “And over here, there’s just enough sunlight for hydrangeas.” Her smile brightened even more. “Yes, I looked up how to grow one particular plant. I really love hydrangeas. Did you know that they can be pink or blue, depending on the amount of iron in the soil?”

Charles walked over and stood in the middle of the yard. He didn’t see the future daffodils or tulips, nor did he see the giant mops of hydrangea flowers. What he saw was a yard filled with tall trees and the roots that were coming up through the grass. Fiona would have to add several inches of topsoil or build raised flower beds in order to plant anything in this yard. But her soft, brown eyes looked so hopeful that even he, bastard that he was with most of his clients, couldn’t discourage her from planting, or from trying to plant, her flowers.

“Do you really want this house?” he asked her softly, already knowing the answer since it was written all over her beautiful features.

Fiona nodded her head, a bit more sedately this time because she wasn’t sure what he was going to say next. The man could be harsh, but he was usually right as well. No one argued when Charles Henson discussed money. He was simply brilliant when it came to financing or investments.

But in this instance, she spoke from her heart. “Yes, I really want this house.”

“Have you looked at any other houses?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t even planning to buy a house until I saw this one while I was driving by yesterday. I immediately called the realtor asking to look inside. When I saw it yesterday afternoon, I fell in love with it.”

Charles suppressed his groan. Financial decisions should never be made using emotion. He’d told her several times never to make a financial decision based on emotions, but here she was, looking adorable and hopeful. There was no way he could give her yet another lecture, or advise her not to buy this house. He sighed as he rubbed his forehead. Somehow he would make this right for her. Looking back at the house, he knew that it was a money pit, but he couldn’t deny her the excitement.

“Let me talk to the realtor.” He looked at her sternly. “Don’t say a word!” He waited for her nod of agreement.

She looked so excited that when she smiled up at him, it took a great deal of effort for him not to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Talk about an inappropriate action, he thought. She’s just a client, he reminded himself for the millionth time. “And you have to wipe that smile off of your pretty face, Fiona.” A split second later, she frowned. Even Charles could see that it was a fake frown and he rolled his eyes.

Charles put a hand to the small of her back and led her back through the house. He found the realtor standing on the front porch, a victorious smile on his face.

The realtor saw them coming towards him and straightened up, his smug expression changing to a polite smile now. “So do you have any questions?”

Charles crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring the beautiful woman next to him. He knew that she was holding back on her desire to dance around the front porch as her excitement threatened to spill out of her slender, delicate body. “As I said before, the driveway needs to be paved, the sidewalk needs to be redone,” he wrapped an arm around Fiona’s waist before he said the next words, squeezing her to give her warning, “the floorboards in every single room are warped and need to be sanded down, re-polished. The bathroom is outdated, all of the appliances in the kitchen need to be replaced and the backyard is a mess of roots. Every single tree in the backyard would need to be taken down and shredded before anything else could be planted in the backyard.” He felt Fiona’s body stiffen but squeezed her again, silently telling her not to speak or react. “There are three other houses in this neighborhood that were sold in the past six months, every single one of them $20,000 less than this one. The asking price on this house is about $60,000 too high before we even get an inspector in here to check out the electrical wiring and plumbing. So we’re going to pass on this house.”

Charles could feel the horror emanating from Fiona’s petite frame. But he couldn’t back down. He took her hand and led her over to his car. Waiting. Five, four, three, two…

“Wait!” The realtor called out. “Let’s just talk. This house has been on the market for about 120 days. I’m sure that the owners would be willing to negotiate.”

Charles continued to nudge Fiona into his car. “Call me at this number if there is any wiggle room in that price. But we’re not doing anything until the inspector comes through and gives me a report.”

The realtor looked down at the card, his eyes widening as he saw who he was dealing with. “Yes, yes!” The realtor looked down again, just making sure he had the name right. “I’ll get back to you this afternoon Mr. Henson.”

Charles closed the passenger side door and walked around the front of his car. He waited until his car door was open before he replied to the realtor, wanting Fiona to hear his answer. “We will be out looking at other houses this afternoon. I don’t think the woman should settle on this house since it’s the only one she’s looked at so far.”