Temptation (The Temptation Series) (10 page)

“What can you see?”

“It’s the moon, a big ginormous
Moon. I feel like I can just reach out and touch it.”
Stupid me does in fact
reach out, derrr Alexis.

“This is great, I can see why
you like this hobby, I twisted around to see his expression. Our faces were
again only inches away from each other.
Oh shit not again.
I was about
to object,

“Don’t worry Alexis; I’m not
going to kiss you again.”
Phew that’s a relief, or was it?

“Every single entire ounce of
me wants to grab you and kiss you until our mouths are dry, then I want to rip
your dress from you, take your underwear off with my teeth and kiss every inch
of your fabulous body, paying a lot of attention to your sexy arse, gorgeous
tits and moist….” I swear my heart stopped beating, I was panting and well and
truly lubricated in the very underwear he wanted to tear off me.

“But, I’m not going to
Alexis, not until you tell me you want me too. I will never cross the line and
kiss you again without your permission. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to though.
That will not change.”

CHAPTER
NINE

I was speechless and utterly
craving what he had just declared, he was ‘smirking’ at me, which I would
normally find completely irritating but also endearing. This time though it
made me mad, extremely pissed off more to the point, I placed both my hands on
his chest and shoved him. He stumbled back and nearly fell on his arse.

“You can’t just say that and
smirk at me, what am I supposed to do with that confession? What do you want me
to do?” I stepped off the ladder and stomped like a child to the elevator. He
followed and stood with his back against the wall facing me, he had his hands
in his trouser pockets and was completely relaxed and casual.

“I know you feel it Alexis,
you want me between your legs just as badly as I want to be there.”

“Bryce stop it, you are so
far out of line it’s not funny.” He started to laugh, I turned to face him.
Is
he for real? He is so infuriating yet adorable, yet maddening, yet delectable.
Oh my God he is turning me into a freakin Yo-Yo.
I slapped him across the
face, he rubbed his cheek and smiled at me impressively. I tried to keep my
furious expression but I was very slowly losing the battle with the muscles in
my face. He laughed again and I followed suit.

“I hate you right now.” I was
beyond being polite and stepping on eggshells where our employer/employee
relationship was concerned, he had overstepped that mark well and truly.

“No you don’t.”

“Yes I do.” It dawned on me
we weren’t going anywhere.

“Bryce, I need to go home
before I punch you, press the bloody button.” He laughed but this time he was
mocking me.

“Oh, you don’t think I can?” I
shot him a challenging look, he shook his head.

“Kiss me again, I dare you.” He
was on me like a flash. He ravaged my mouth and I his hair, he lifted me up and
I wrapped my legs around his waist.
No, No, No, stop it Alexis, what did you
say that for and where was this punch you so boldly threatened?
I released
my legs and punched him in the arm, he broke away. I tried to get a in second
blow but he caught my fist, then brought my arm down, he spun me around and had
me cross armed across my chest and perfectly secured to his abdomen, he
whispered softly into my ear, his breath was hot and paralysing.

“You gave me permission,
Alexis. You can’t then attack me, not that I’d call that an attack, in fact you
need a lot of instruction on attack and Self-Defence. So on Monday morning you
are coming to my Self-Defence class, wear your gym clothes.”

“Let me go, I need to go home
to my husband.” He released me and hit the button to his apartment, the doors
opened and I stepped out. I grabbed my bag and turned to meet his face, he was
leaning up against the entryway wall where we had first kissed earlier . It
felt like days ago but I guess that was because so much had happened today and
I hadn’t really let it settle in yet. Thank god it was Saturday tomorrow, I
would have the entire weekend to recover from the head fuck that this day had
been, I began to talk and he cut me off.

“I can’t help myself Alexis,
you, you are like no one I have ever met and I want you.”

“You can’t have me Bryce, I’m
taken.”

“I don’t believe anything is
absolute. Things change, people change, circumstances change.” I can’t believe
him, Lucy was right when she said ‘he sees something he wants, goes for it and
gets it’. Well this was something he was not going to ‘get’. I put my hand up
to indicate he shut up.

“You’ve had an emotional day
and you are probably still high on adrenalin.”
You don’t really believe
that.

“I’ll see you Monday.” I let
myself out and headed home.

“Mum, wake up…….Mum, its
Saturday Mum. You need to make pancakes!”
What? Pancakes?
Coming back to
reality I opened my eyes to see Charlotte virtually nose to nose waiting very
patiently, but not patiently enough to let me wake up myself.

“Charli it’s too early, let
Mummy sleep longer.” Rick moaned as he turned over.

“But Mum, I’m hungry and you
always make pancakes on Saturday.” She was right, I did, every Saturday I would
cook up a batch of pancakes before Nate and Rick left for football and Charli
and I left for dancing, I grumbled and basically rolled out of bed and into a
vertical position.

“Slippers, where are my
slippers?” Charli was already on bended knee placing my slippers down so I
could step into them. I slowly came back to earth as I sipped on my cup of tea
and poured batter into the pan, Charlotte was sitting at our breakfast bar
waiting eagerly. Nate had not yet surfaced and Rick, well he did make that
animal sound when Charli came in, but not a peep since.

“So Charli Bear, how was
school yesterday?” I’d gotten home after she had gone to bed last night which
was a bit shattering.

“Good, we are going on an
Excursion to the Zoo in a few weeks.” Charli loved animals, she had already
decided she wanted to be a Vet, but that was after she had decided she wanted
to be a Princess, Teacher and the next Rachel in Glee.

“That will be nice, you’ll
get to see the baby elephant Ongard.” She did a little happy dance in her seat,
I laughed, she was such a delightful child.

“Here you go, maple or
lemon?” I don’t know why I asked, she always chose maple.

“So would you like to see
where Mummy works and visit Lucy and her baby?”

“Can we? That would be
Awesome, what’s his name? Can I hold him? Can I feed him a bottle?”

“Whoa, settle petal, yes we
can and no you can’t hold him or feed him, he’s only one day old.” I was going
to give Lucy a call after Breakfast to check if it was ok to visit her and to
find out if baby Clark had a name yet? I finished cooking the batter and got
Charlotte ready for dancing.

“Rick, Nate, get up or you’ll
be late for football.” I heard stirring in Nate’s room but knew Rick needed
further persuading. He was dead to the world, I could set a firecracker off in
the lounge and he would sleep through it. I crept up to him and spoke softly.

“Rick, Rick, get your arse
out of bed.” He opened his eyes.

“You get your arse into bed.”
He grabbed me and pulled me on top of him.

“Stop it you horny shit, we
are going to be late.” I tried to break free.

“We’ve got time, come on Babe,
you were barely awake when you finally got home last night.” I leant down and
kissed his forehead.

“I know I had a big day.”
That
was an understatement!

“Come on, we don’t have time.”
He surrendered and got out of bed.

“So I was thinking, after
footy and dancing I’m going to head into the city to see how Lucy and the baby
are, then I might show Charli City Towers.”

“Sounds good, wouldn’t mind
checking out your half a million dollar office myself!”
Oh shit, I hadn’t
bargained on Rick actually wanting to come along too, I hope Bryce was out
doing whatever billionaires do.

“Knock, Knock.” I peeped into
Lucy’s room and to my delight she was cradling the most beautiful little blue
bundle of joy, I had told Rick and the kids to wait outside for a minute, so
that I could check if she was feeding or not.

“Aaaaw look at him, he’s
adorable.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“This is little Alexander.” She
popped her finger on his tiny chin and gave it a very gentle wiggle.

“Hi Alexander.” He was peacefully
wrapped up like a cocoon.

“It suits him!”

“It was going to be Jack up
until yesterday, I wasn’t a fan of Jack, but Nic loved it. Not only did you
help bring him into this world…..”

“Pfft, I didn’t help bring
him into this world; you did that all by yourself.” She continued her sentence.

“Not only did you help bring
him into this world; you gave me the perfect idea for an alternative name for
him.”
Alexander, oh shit she has named him after me. No, don’t do that, I
didn’t do anything.
I was so overwhelmed by her sentiment; I was about to
boil over with emotion from the past day’s events.

“That’s lovely Lucy, it
really is.” I didn’t have anything else to say.

“No, thank you Alexis. I mean
it; you really were a god send yesterday, not only me but Bryce, it’s the least
I can do.” I was feeling really uncomfortable, I didn’t want any recognition.

“I bought Rick and the kids
in with me, they are just outside, do you mind if I introduce you and Alexander?
Charli is very excited.”

“Sure, of course bring them
in.” I introduced my family to Lucy, she was great, she had a knack of speaking
to you as though she had known you for years. Charlotte was in love with baby
Alexander and Lucy let her sit up on the bed for a cuddle. We didn’t stay long
as Alexander was not far away from his next feed, we said our goodbyes and
Charlotte gave baby Al, as she so aptly named him, the blue teddy she picked in
the gift shop.

We walked into the lobby,
Charlie was on the phone and gave us an excited wave.

“He sure is excited to see
you.” Rick gave me a nudge.

“Shut up, he bats for the
other team stupid.” I gave him a little hip and bump.

“So who wants to see the
Aquarium?”

“The Aquarium, sick!” ‘Sick’
was Nate’s word of the month, last month it was ‘Totes’. I showed Rick and the
kids the Aquarium and sundeck, Charlotte was disappointed she didn’t have her
bathing suit.

“There are plenty of chances
to come for a swim Charli, just not today, anyway didn’t you want to see what a
Penthouse was like?” Her little eyes lit up.

“Come on then.”

The elevator doors opened, there
was no evidence of anyone around, I could normally hear a low murmur whenever
Bryce was in his office.

“So this is Mummy’s desk.”

“It’s so high up Mum, don’t
you feel height sick?”
Lol, height sick, I love how her little mind works.

“Only when you look down.”

“Mum, I need to go to the
toilet.”

“Of course you do, Nate do
you need the toilet too?” He shook his head.

“Good stay here with Dad and
we’ll be back in a minute.” I took Charlotte through to the toilet.

“Mum this place is so Cool! I
want to work here when I grow up.” She was sniffing her clean hands, I must
admit even I was a fan of the hand wash here.

“I thought you wanted to be a
Vet?”

“I changed my mind, this is
so cool.” We made our way back through the conference room and I could hear
Rick talking.
Oh shit, it’s Bryce.
I took a deep breath and opened the
door into the reception.

“Alexis, can’t get enough of
the place?” You guessed it, he was ‘smirking’. I managed a fake laugh, maybe
too fake.

“Yeah, you just can’t keep me
away. No, Charlotte was very keen to see where Mummy worked. Charlotte this is
Mr Clark, Mummy’s boss, and this is my son Nate and my husband…….”

“Rick, yes we have already
introduced ourselves, so Charlotte have you ever seen a Helipad?”

“No, what’s a Helipad?” She
looked at me all wide eyed.

“It’s where Helicopters land,
silly.” Nate was acting cool in front of Bryce.

“Come and meet the Crow.” Bryce
gestured towards his office, I gave him a snide glare but quickly corrected it
to a smile when Rick looked my way. He led us out to the Helipad and introduced
the kids to the ‘Crow’ which I’d now cottoned on was in fact the Helicopter.

“Do you fly it? Asked Nate,
he was dropping his tough boy façade now.

“Yeah, all the time, would
you like a ride?” I jumped in very quickly.

“No, no, not today, maybe
some other time.”

“Aaaaw Mum, can we?”

“No not today, Mr Clark is a
very busy man, maybe next time.” I shot Bryce a ‘don’t even think about it’
look, he registered my expression and offered a compromise.