Chapter 12
Emma sat on her bed with her backpack beside her. She was waiting for Nikos to tell her that the deal was off and that he would take her to town. The muffled voices had risen and fallen as the argument had raged. Abigail had poked her head in the door and looked at Emma with open interest. When Emma had invited her in, she had run off at top speed. Exactly what I should have done this morning, Emma thought as her spirits sunk another notch lower.
She was brooding gloomily when Nikos had appeared in the doorway with a smile. Emma raised her eyebrows in question. “Come and meet Gretchen.” He held out his hand to her waiting.
Emma just stared at him. World War III had been raging for the better part of an hour, and now everything was just well? Nikos saw the doubt on her face. “I’m sorry,” he said coming in and kneeling in front of her. “That didn’t go as I had planned. I guess I didn’t think it all the way through. But Gretchen is ok with it now. She sees that you can be a help.”
“Maybe it would be best if I just go, Nikos. I don’t want to stay where I am not wanted.”
“I want you here. Gretchen forgets this is my house.” His response was immediate, and it surprised Emma with its intensity. More gently he added, “It is a good thing for everyone involved, even you.” With that, he kissed her on the nose and stood, pulling her up with him. “Now, come and meet my daughter and the formidable Gretchen.”
It was an awkward introduction, but in the end, Gretchen had said in halting English that she would be glad for the help. Emma had answered with a smile and said she would do her best. The tension broke with Abigail crashing through at top speed demanding to be picked up by her father.
The evening was no less uncomfortable. Emma had tried to help Gretchen with dinner, but after the older woman had almost tripped over her for the fourth time, she had ordered Emma out of the kitchen. After the meal, Emma had insisted that she clean up, and Gretchen had insisted that she supervise. Every time Emma put up a dish or moved anything, Gretchen would go behind her and adjust it the slightest bit. Emma’s temper was close to boiling when she was rescued by Abigail spilling her juice down her front and requiring a bath. As Gretchen whisked the child off to be cleaned up, Emma finished the kitchen at warp speed and went to find Nikos.
“This isn’t going to work,” Emma announced as she walked into the library. “Nothing I do is right. I can’t even put the glasses in the cupboard the right way without her coming behind me and moving them a millimeter to the left.” She dropped into a big leather chair with a grumpy sigh.
Nikos frowned up from the computer screen. He had squirreled himself away in the library to give the women room to work out their differences. “I’ll talk to her. She just needs time to adjust. This is all a bit of a shock. Gretchen sees this as her kingdom.”
“Well, I don’t like being Cinderella- an incompetent Cinderella at that.” Emma snapped, though her anger was quickly fading.
“Cinderella got the prince, in the end, didn’t she?”
“Stupid princes are more work than they are worth,” Emma groused. “I’ll give a few days and see how it goes.”
“That’s better. I have some emails to answer and some accounts to look over. I’ll likely be stuck in here until quite late.”
“No worries. I think I am going to take a bath and go to bed. Didn’t get much sleep last night,” Emma replied with a grin. She took a book at Nikos’ urging and then slipped out the door.
Nikos watched her go and had to fight an almost irresistible urge to go after her and slide into that bath with her. The computer dinged notifying him of an email and pulled him back to his task at hand. Many hours later, Nikos shut down the laptop. He had kissed Abigail good night several hours before and exchanged a strained conversation with Gretchen about giving Emma a chance. He still felt that he had made the right decision in asking her to stay. He stopped in front of her closed door. He wanted her- again. He wanted her underneath him and on top of him. He wanted her on her knees in front of him with her mouth on him. He was getting hard as he stood looking at the closed door with erotic visions of Emma playing through his mind.
A door opened down the hall, and he knew it was Gretchen on her nightly prowl to make sure everything was locked up. Quickly, he spun on his heel and walked 3 doors down to his own room.
A shower didn’t help. Nikos lay on his bed, naked, feeling like a teenager with an aching, half hard cock. His father had been old-fashioned, and when Nikos had brought a girlfriend home from college, his father had insisted on separate bedrooms. He had snuck into her room from the patio and fucked her all night right next door to his sleeping parents.
Without bothering to dress and feeling only slightly foolish, Nikos stepped out on his patio and hopped over the stone rail. He could just go through her bedroom door. It was his house, after all, but he didn’t want to see the knowing look on Gretchen’s face. She had accused him of bringing Emma in to be his mistress and had not been convinced when Nikos had denied it. He decided to fight that battle another day and padded over the manicured lawn with its intricately carved hedges and roses until he could see the other patio. Only two rooms had private patios- his and the guest room that he had given to Emma.
Nikos slipped over the stone rail that was more for decoration than for any real function. The doors were standing open to the warm night air. The room was dark as he silently crossed to the bed. He could make out Emma’s body as she lay on her stomach with the covers half kicked off. A slender leg lay bare, and as his eyes adjusted further, he could see that she was naked under the covers.
Nikos slid his hand up the bare flesh of her leg. He was unprepared for the kick that caught him on the shoulder as Emma jerked awake and flung herself off the bed. She was halfway to the door before he caught her. He held her by her arms and gave her a little shake. “Emma! It’s just me. Take it easy,” he hissed, trying to get her to focus. At the sound of his voice, her eyes snapped to his, and she stopped fighting.
“God, Nikos! Don’t ever do that again.” Emma twisted out of his grasp and took several steps back. She was shaking uncontrollably and pulled her arms around herself.
Nikos didn’t know what had just happened, but Emma looked like she was going to shake apart. He grabbed the throw off a plump armchair and held it out to her. She took it with a shaking hand and slung it over her shoulders. After a moment he asked, “Are you better?”
Silently, she nodded. He approached her as if she were a wild thing, and gently pulled her to his chest. Emma thought her heart would burst as she felt the tender way he held her and stroked her back. He should be running for the hills after that. “Sorry about that,” she whispered against his chest.
“No big thing. You don’t like to have your beauty sleep interrupted. Duly noted.” He tipped her face up and brushed a kiss on her lips. “I never thought it would scare you like that.”
“Yeah. I guess I am a bit jumpy when I sleep,” Emma said in an effort to shrug it off. “Why were you sneaking around, naked, in the middle of the night?”
“I wanted you.”