The girls ran after him, leaving Christian and Raina to follow alone after them. He looked at her delicious brown eyes and her half-clad body and wanted to grab her right there and then.
“You look very serious. Are you all right?” she said softly, looking up at him, her brow furrowed.
“No. No, I’m not all right. I want to hold you in my arms and do unspeakable things to you that will make you scream.” His voice was low as he bent to murmur in her ear. “It’s a good thing I’m not wearing swim trunks. I’d be very embarrassed right now. Oh, Raina, if only you knew what you do to me and seeing you in that suit doesn’t help matters.”
She felt the heat flowing through her body, and she knew it wasn’t the force of the blazing sun that was shining on them.
“You do the same to me too,” she murmured. “I’ll take a short swim to satisfy the kids.”
“Don’t rush on my account, I’m content to sit here and admire you.”
He let her go join the kids in line and Christian stood up and went to the end of the slides to cheer on Jeremiah and the girls.
The day passed quickly, with lots of sun, laughter, and splashing in the water. Christian was content to watch at the periphery, taking joy from their happiness.
Later they ate a simple, but delicious, lunch of hotdogs and burgers, and finished it off with ice cream.
“What a lovely family!” An older woman passing by exclaimed at them. She smiled and nodded at Christian and Raina. “Enjoy it now while you can, dears! They don’t stay this young forever!”
Sitting under the trees in the picnic area, Raina and Chris turned and looked at each other. The woman had already gone, but her words hung in the air over them like a bubble that neither wanted to pop.
“Is Chris a part of our family?” Jeremiah interrupted the silence, putting words to the unasked question that had been lingering.
Chantal looked back and forth between the adults, and sensing their discomfort she interject
ed on their behalf, “Family is anyone that you love.” Chantal said, her mouth full of hot dog.
That answer seemed to satisfy her brother, and they went back to loudly talking about who had been the bravest and who had gone down the most number of slides.
Listening to them talk, Christian realized that in the last week, the loneliness that he always carried with him had disappeared. He listened with a soft smile on his face. The heaviness he always carried with him had dissolved like sugar in warm coffee under the gentle kindness of Raina’s care. Discovering that Raina had feelings for him had been more than he could have hoped for.
He felt like part of a family and he loved it.
Raina and the children liked him for who he was—not what he could do for them—and it was a wonderful feeling. What he wished for now was that he could show them his world and spoil them rotten, the way they deserved. Take them on rides in his private helicopter; fly them off to private islands for a weekend away. Hell, he would build these kids their own private water park on the private island he owned in the Bahamas.
He had worked hard for his money, and the truth was that he enjoyed the kind of life that his wealth afforded him. But of course, there was the downfall of not really knowing who were your true friends and if women were only attracted to your money rather than your person.
With Raina, Christian knew that he would never have to worry that she only cared about his money—she had fallen for him when she thought he had nothing. That night, Raina invited him upstairs to say goodnight to the kids and it moved him, as he knew what a huge step that was for her. It meant that she was opening up her life to him, and inviting him into the kids’ lives.
He only wished that he could do the same.
10
Roger’s skin tightened against his bones and his blood raced through his body like greyhounds on a track. His eyes were focused on the security monitor and what he saw made him want to strangle someone.
Raina and the tall maintenance man were in the hallway, holding hands and whispering into each other’s ears, their bodies pressed against each other.
What was wrong with her? She had refused his advances only to turn around and fall into the arms of a low-class handyman? Despite his anger, Roger could not help but admire Raina’s curves. But the last straw was seeing the handyman run his hands over those very curves that Roger was admiring. The maintenance man’s hands grabbed her hips as he pulled her against his pelvis, and Raina kissed the man, twining her arms around his neck.
Roger’s loins ached with longing and his brain roiled with a mixture of anger and jealousy. When the two parted and Raina went into her office, Roger felt like he had run a marathon of emotions. A cold hard anger jolted him back to the present and he knew the time had come to finally get rid of the bitch.
He had an idea, but he needed Raina out of her office.
The idea had been growing in his mind for a while, but a part of him had realized how drastic it was. Now, seeing Raina and that handyman (in public, in the hallway of all places!) convinced him that his plan was perfect for her.
That bitch would learn that there were some people you just never crossed.
Roger watched Raina leave her office with some files, heading towards the conference room, minutes later other staff members followed her, including Kelly.