HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

He was so fucking late. He hadn’t meant to be but those documents needed his immediate attention. He hoped she would still be at the party when he got there.

His driver parked the car and he stepped out. The fact that he’d had to go home to change even took more time. Attending the party didn’t matter to him. It was just an opportunity to spend time with Emma. He saw a chance and he took the opportunity.

He walked into the hall and looked around, his eyes searching for her. She was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she had gone home. He thought. He would be disappointed if she had.

He saw Karen and Frank at a corner and walked up to them.

“Hey man,” Frank said. “Where the hell have you been?”

“I got held up at work, ” Daniel replied. “Had some paperwork to take care of. Where’s Emma?” he asked Karen.

“Oh she’s somewhere around” Karen replied. Last time I saw her she was talking to that guy over there. She said as pointed in the man’s direction.

Emma wasn’t there.

He talked to a few business associates while he scanned the room with his eyes.

Minutes later, one of the many doors in the hall opened and she stepped out. Beautiful as fuck. Sexy as hell. Poised like a princess, her hair piled high on her head in a style no doubt selected in order to display her slender neck to the greatest advantage, the dress a sheath of glittering gold and hugging a body that was nothing short of female perfection.

The dress was far too revealing. He watched her move, with the effortless grace of a dancer. He hated the looks she received as she walked, hated the collective murmur of appreciation from the men as they stared at her. In contrast, Daniel sat still, the flicker of a muscle in his cheek the only indication of his soaring stress levels.

He remained still, poised for her to notice him. The tension inside him rose and anticipation thrummed in his veins.

She exchanged a few words with a passing male, who laughed and kissed her hand. Then she dropped her tiny bag on the table and turned, the smile still on her lips.

And saw him.

The color drained from her beautiful face and the bright smile died instantly like a vibrant flame doused by cold water. She dragged her gaze away from his.

He watched as she straightened her narrow shoulders. She looked at him, inclined her head gracefully in his direction and then turned back to her friends, nothing in her demeanor suggesting that he was anything other than the most casual of acquaintances.

He watched her. Not only was the side of her dress slit almost to her hips, the cut exposed almost all of her back.

He was pissed.

He saw her talk some more to a few people, and then she picked up her bag and left the large hall.

He waited a few minutes… And then followed her.

———————————

Emma stood in a dark corner of the terrace. The rain had long since stopped and the night was warm and muggy, but she was shivering like a a whippet. She ran her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to warm herself but it made no difference.

It was her fault. She practically had no clothes on. She had wanted to make a point. It worked though. She knew that when she looked at him. Saw the way he looked at her. Mission accomplished.

She heard laughter from the hall and then footsteps, a purposeful masculine tread, and she stiffened her shoulders, trying to make it clear from her body language that she sought neither company nor conversation.

“Emma”..

His voice came from behind her, deep, silky and unmistakably male, and everything in her tensed in response. The sound of his voice transported her to the very edge of a panic attack.

“Why are you out here?” he asked

“I find it warm in the ballroom” she replied

“And yet you are shivering”

With an economy of movement that was so much a part of the man, he stepped closer and panic shot through her.

Her throat dried and her fingers tightened around her jeweled evening bag, although why, she had no idea. The CEO of Kay Corp was hardly likely to be planning to steal her possessions.

She didn’t even know why he had followed her, he wasn’t supposed to be here. Determined to send him on his way, she glanced up and immediately regretted the impulse. He looked spectacular in a formal dinner jacket, she thought.

She had to find a way to get home.

“Why did you follow me?” she asked. “You should go back to the party. I can hardly believe you find yourself short of female company”

“I’m not short of female company” he said

His cool statement shouldn’t have caused pain but it did and she dragged her eyes away from the involuntary study of his dark jaw.

He looked at her thoughtfully. “You should not walk around in the night air, half undressed. You will catch a chill”

Before she could anticipate his intention, he shrugged his shoulders out of his jacket and draped it around her bare shoulders ”

She was enveloped by his masculine scent.

He leaned closer.”You shouldn’t be wearing stuff like that” he said

“Why?” she retorted. “Because you ordered it?”

“Because I forbid it”

“You forbid–?”. She had to hand it to him. The man had a lot of nerve. “You have no right to tell me what and what not to put on Daniel.. You can’t tell me what to do.. I need to go”. She said smoothly, shrugged out of his jacket and handed it back to him, and stepped aside so she could walk past him.

“You are not going anywhere”. Without hesitation, he caught her round the waist and jerked her towards him. She lifted a hand in an instinctive gesture of defense, but it was too late. Her body had felt the hard brush of his thighs and responded instantly.

She shook her head to clear the cloud of dizziness and sucked in a lungful of air but even that was a mistake because the air contained the delicious, erotic scent of him and the clouds around her brain grew denser.

Struggling to find the control that she was so proud of, she held herself rigid in his arms. “I want you to let me go. I’m not interested in whatever this is.. I don’t want anything to do with you, Daniel”

The tension between them was overwhelming. “if you are not interested,” He said silkily, “Why is your heart pounding against mine?”

Emma decided that if there was anything worse than feeling this way, it was knowing that he was aware of her reaction. “I don’t like being held against my will”. She said frostily, a flash of anger in her eyes as she looked at him. “And I don’t like the way you use power and control to get your way. I don’t respond to bullying”

“You think I’m bullying you?” his tone was lethally soft, his mouth only a breath away from hers. “That’s strange, because I let go of you the moment you requested that I do so, but you haven’t moved an inch, Emma. Your body is still against mine. Why is that?. I wonder.”

She gave a soft gasp and stepped back, realizing that he was telling the truth. He was no longer holding her.

” You know what I think? “he said.”You were inviting male attention. You did it to taunt me. You knew I wouldn’t like you putting this on” He said. His eyes looked her up and down.

“I don’t care what you like or do not like,” Emma replied to him sweetly. “I will do what I want and put on what I want and you won’t have a say in any of it because what you want or don’t want doesn’t matter to me”

Her eyes locked with him in a ballant challenge.

Try and stop me. Her gaze said.

And Daniel decided to do exactly that.

He swung her into his arms and strode towards his car without glancing left or right. He was boiling and angry and he realized that he hadn’t known the true meaning of possessive until that moment.

“Daniel –” her voice was a shocked breathless pant as she pushed at his shoulders. “What are you doing?”

Her words irritated him because they drew attention to the fact that he was acting without thought. He didn’t know what he was doing. His actions had nothing to do with reason and everything to do with some dark, primitive need to remove her from the line of sight of every man.

The thought made him tighten his grip in raw, naked jealousy and she wriggled.

Every part that mattered was in contact with smooth, warm female flesh… Female flesh that squirmed in protest against certain vital parts of his body.

Something dark and primitive broke loose and anger flared inside him.

Anger at her for deliberately provoking him

Anger at himself for responding in such a predictable fashion.

Always, in her company, he found himself facing parts of himself that he didn’t want to acknowledge.