She wasn’t too pleased that she had to put her plan on hold, in her mind if she didn’t move now it might be too late. A man like him wouldn’t stay single for long even though he’d loved his wife, not with three children to raise. And she had no doubt that there were any number of women waiting in the wings.
The phone had already been ringing off the hook and she was sure that well meaning friends would soon be throwing women at him to take his wife’s place and it was a sure bet that none of them would think of her for the job.
She went back to her room and sat on the bed biting her nails and listening with ears pricked for every sound that came from downstairs. It was hours later that she finally heard him coming up the stairs and from the way he stumbled into the wall outside her door she knew he’d had a little too much to drink.
She walked around her room debating whether or not she should go into his room, just to see if he was okay, if he needed anything, but from the sounds she heard just a few minutes later she knew he had fallen asleep. Her disappointment was palpable; a whole evening wasted.
She spent the next few minutes staring at herself in the mirror, comparing her attributes to the late Mrs. Davis. What did the other woman have that she didn’t?
She couldn’t readily see anything; in fact, except for a college education which she could not afford through no fault of her own she’d venture to say she had the other woman beat.
She was younger, and in her eyes way more beautiful. Her body was naturally curvy instead of the boyish thinness of the now dead woman. She hefted her breasts which were her best feature and the thing she knew most men saw first when they looked at her.
She was hoping those two globes and the ass she kept in shape with use of the Davis’ home gym would get her at least through the door. As she stood there her mind began to work overtime. She’d made backup plans for her backup plans when she first came here.
She knew that one way or the other she was going to get her hooks into one of these rich men around here. She’d researched the area before taking the job and though the town was a little on the small side, their wealthy men per capita was more than enough for her to do her fishing in.
It beat living in a large city. There was less competition, and less work to be done searching out her prey. Since her employer was one of the wealthiest men in the area she’d been exposed to the cream of the crop in her new home.
She’d made up her mind long ago that she was going to reel one of these men in no matter what it takes; she’d just been biding her time until now. Most of them were already married or too old for her liking; not that she wouldn’t have settled if it came to that.
Originally she’d had all hopes of it being her employer who’d fall for her, since he would be the closest male to her day in and day out. But once she’d laid eyes on Riley O’Rourke she must admit to feeling something more than predatory. The man fit all her aspects of a perfect mate, rich, handsome, kind. It hadn’t been long after their first meeting that she’d started sending out feelers.
He never seemed interested in anything or anyone though, other than Mrs. Davis that is. She’d noticed an unusual closeness between the two of them but was never quite able to catch them at anything more than friendly bypass. That too could’ve been her road to success, having something as juicy as an affair to hold over their heads, but either they’d been too careful, or she’d been sorely mistaken. Now from the way the cops were talking it seems she’d been right all along.
She wasn’t too interested in that right now though, that ship had sailed and sunk long ago. Riley O’Rourke had never even so much as held her hand, or exchanged an encouraging smile. She had enough sense to know where not to tread.
Now with the death of his wife it seemed she had Mr. Davis just about where she wanted him, all she had to do was make her move before somebody else got there first.
An idea formed in her head. It wasn’t anything new, just one of her backup plans, something she’d learned years ago from reading the tabloids. While her counterparts in school had been reading textbooks in order to get into the better colleges, she’d been learning how to marry a man of means, or at least entrenching herself in his life in such a way that he had no choice but to pay her, take care of her.
“If I can just get myself pregnant, that would be just as good.” She knew that a man like Mr. Niall would care for his child. Her eyes went to the calendar she kept on the wall that among other things kept track of her cycle. She was a few days off but nothing ventured, nothing gained.