An Heir At Any Price: The Billionaire's Obsession - Contemporary Romance (5 page)

Chapter Five

~

Aiden had left a text for me to dress
comfortably in jeans. This man was controlling right down to his
dates. I was okay with wearing jeans; I just wasn’t sure about the
being bossed around part. I wore the jeans though and a
long-sleeved t-shirt. The late afternoons and evenings were just
starting to cool in the first signs of autumn.

I had no idea where I was going and I
was quite nervous until I looked out the window of the limousine
and saw the outline of a stable coming into view. Aiden had horses!
Or he was taking me somewhere where they did. I didn’t know, but I
was ecstatic either way.

The limousine parked alongside the
stables and the driver opened my door for me. Aiden was waiting
with what looked like a picnic basket and a blanket draped over one
arm. I felt like a kid on Christmas. It had been years since I’d
ridden, and almost as long since anyone had done something so
thoughtful for me.

“We’re going riding?” I
asked.

“Yes, if you have no objections,” he
said with a grin.

“Are you kidding? I’m so excited, this
is great!”

Aiden laughed and said, “Your horse is
the tan one with the brown mane. Her name is Snowflake and she’s
very tame and easy to ride.”

I hadn’t seen the stable boy walk the
horses out behind me. I went over to pet her on the nose, “Hi
Snowflake. I’m Holly. Thank you for this Aiden, this is
amazing.”

He was still smiling as he said, “When
you try the skydiving, you’re on your own.”

Once we were saddled up and ready to
go and our picnic basket was secured to Aiden’s saddle we took
off.

“Are these your stables?” I asked
him.

“Yes, this is all my property that
we’ll be riding on,” he told her. “I got very lucky to get
it.”

Aiden’s property was far enough out of
the city that is seemed like we were in the mountains, but a half
hour drive and you’d be in the city. It was beautiful and I found
myself wondering if his home was also on this property. I followed
him for a while along the thin trail that began with a gentle climb
with zig zags for about the first two miles. The pasture around us
was lush and green and I could spot a few happy looking cows in the
distance. I decided that Aiden very likely didn’t live out here. I
couldn’t possibly imagine him living amongst cows. He just seemed
way too cultured.

Once we’d gotten past the narrow part
of the trail, Aiden slowed his pace and dropped back next to me.
“Is Snowflake doing okay?” he asked.

“She’s perfect,” I said. He
laughed.

“I think she would be happy to hear
it. Are you having fun, Holly?”

“This is, amazing. Thank
you,”

“Good,” he said. “It’s a great day for
a ride, the weather is just right. We’re going to cross a creek in
just a few feet. I know you haven’t ridden in a long time, and I
don’t know if you did much water crossing in the past. So, try to
relax and just let Snowflake take you. The reigns only confuse her
when she’s crossing a water bed of any kind.”

“Okay,” I told him. When we got to the
little narrow creek I did what Aiden said and the horse crossed
smoothly. The water was beautiful, clear all the way to the rocky
bottom. The rocks had been smoothed into rounded pebbles from years
of the water brushing over them.

Once on the other side, the trail in
front of us was wide and looked to be smooth.

“You want to trot them for a bit?” he
asked me.

“Yeah,” I said with a huge
smile.

“Good, the rest of the trail up to the
meadow is gentle enough to trot most of the way.” He clicked his
tongue at his horse and took off at a slow trot and I did the same.
This part of the trail was surrounded by gorgeous Higan cherry
trees. They bloom in the fall so they were covered with fragrant
deep pink flowers and on some of them I could also see clumps of
black cherries. I don’t even know why I knew so much about them, I
had just always found them beautiful. Being on the trail at this
point was like being enclosed in an aromatic greenhouse.

I followed Aiden, continuing to marvel
at the beauty around me for a few miles before we came to a
junction in the trail. To the left was another creek and to the
right was a stunning lush, green meadow. Aiden reigned in his horse
and I did the same.

“It’s all so beautiful,” I told him.
“Beautiful doesn’t even really describe it, it’s more like
breathtaking.”

“It is yes, I ride up here as often as
I can. It’s good for the soul, I think. It makes me feel close to
the earth, and when I get up here I feel at peace. It’s not a
feeling that comes easily in the city. I’d take you out across the
meadow but this time of year it gets a little boggy from all the
rain. I wouldn’t want our horses getting stuck.”

“Oh well, it’s still lovely to look
at,” I told him. We started back up the trail once more, we were
climbing, but at such a gentle angle it was barely noticeable. When
we reached a peak, Aiden stopped once more.

“Come closer and take a look.” I did,
and what I saw literally took my breath away. Below us was another
meadow, but this one was covered in a lush carpet of colorful wild
flowers. I could see the faint outline of the city in the distance
and if it would have been green I would have thought I was on the
path to the Emerald City. The creek that we’d crossed earlier
looked like a big snake as it wound along below us. After I got an
eyeful of all of that, he led me around a ridge and from there we
had a view of what looked like a deep valley. It was fenced off
with bright white fences and everywhere you looked, horses and
cattle could be seen grazing. They looked peaceful. In the center
of all of that sat a huge white three story home. The side of the
house that faced our direction at the moment had windows that rose
from ground to ceiling and it was easy to see that it would afford
anyone sitting inside a front row seat to every morning’s sunrise.
I couldn’t even imagine having a life like that.

“Is that where you live?” I
asked him.
In that gorgeous, fairy tale
house, Prince Charming.

“That’s my main residence, yes,” he
said. “It’s my favorite.”

“Your favorite? You have
more than one home?”
Another thing that I
cannot imagine.

He smiled and said, “Yes, I have
three. I have a penthouse apartment in the city, this one and a
summer house at the lake.”

“Wow,” I said, thinking of what he’d
asked me to do and also about how happy this would all make a
child. I would have died for a place like this to grow up in. Aiden
let me sit and just drink in the view for a while. I had a hard
time taking my eyes off the house and imagining what it would be
like to live in a place like that. I wondered what it looked like
inside, and if he lived in that gigantic house alone. Then I caught
myself imagining what it would be like to live there myself. I
pictured the two of us having coffee in that sunny nook after a
long night of…..Never mind, I shook that thought off quickly. He
asked once again if I was ready.

“Yes, this is all so beautiful, Aiden.
You must be very happy here.”

“It’s lonely,” he said. “I stay at the
penthouse most of the time. It’s less square footage to roam on my
own.”
It was hard for me to fathom that I’d known this man for over two
months and hardly knew anything about him. Now I was suddenly
getting to know more about him than I’d ever imagined I would. I
was also starting to figure out that he wasn’t happy, no matter how
much money he had.

We turned and headed back down the
same trail until we came to the fork we’d gone up to the right the
last time. This time we went left and as we rode along, I kept
seeing chunks of something white glinting off the sun. Pulling
Snowflake to a stop I asked, “What are those white, shiny
things?”

“They’re pieces of quartz…white
quartz,” he said.

“They’re so pretty. Are they here
naturally, or did you have them placed here?”

“No they’re a natural part of the
landscape. I haven’t moved or changed anything out here. Mother
nature did a fine job arranging it all already.”

“She sure did,” I agreed.

“The Washoe Indians consider this area
of land sacred. The tribe was angry about me buying the land in the
first place. I’ve shown them since that I have no interest in
ruining this place, it’s perfect like it is. I’m actually an
honorary member of the tribal council now,” he told me with a
smile. “Are you getting hungry?”

“Yes,” I told him, “Starving
actually.”

“Okay, follow me, our table is
ready.”

I wondered what he meant by that, but
I followed him a short way down the side of the ridge. At the
bottom of the gentle slope was a flat area of green grass and Aiden
stopped and got off his horse. He came over and helped me down off
mine. His hands on me once again sent a jolt of electricity through
my body.

His touch on my waist lingered just a
bit longer than necessary and for a few seconds his face was so
close to mine that I could feel his breath across my lips. I
shuddered and took a step back, hoping to eliminate the sudden raw
desire I felt to put my lips against his. He grinned, like he not
only knew the effect he had on me, but he was satisfied by it as
well. I wish I had that kind of confidence in myself.

“Do you want some help setting it up?”
I asked him as he laid the blanket he’d brought across the soft
grass and began setting up our lunch.

“No, today is your day to be waited
on. You wait on me every day.” I walked over to the edge, and as I
looked out over the property from one of the highest points of it
while he set up our lunch I thought about how nice this was. No one
ever waited on me. Even when I lived at home with my mother, I was
still fending for myself. I’d been on dates of course and had what
I call mini relationships, but none of them had stuck long enough
to find out what it was like to have someone wait on you or fawn
over you. I’d have to be careful, I might get used to this and say
yes to the proposition of his for the wrong reasons. Each time I
had that thought, I had to remind myself about the walking away
part. He’d not given me any reason to believe that he would want to
keep me too.

Chapter Six

~

The next day was my day off and I was
so relaxed from the day of fresh air and sunshine that I actually
slept in. It was something that I hadn’t done in years and it felt
wonderful. I woke up about half past nine and panicked a little at
first, thinking of all the things I had to do. It was something I
had done every morning since I was about thirteen. I’d open my eyes
and think of all that I needed to do and then I’d obsess over
getting them done. It was part of trying to make the things I could
control in my life outweigh the things that I couldn’t.

Then I changed tracks mentally and
thought about Aiden and that made me feel all warm and comfortable
inside. I let myself linger in bed a little longer and then I
dawdled over my coffee and then instead of my usual quickie shower,
I let myself take a long, luxurious bath. It all felt wonderful and
although it was almost noon before I was ready to do anything, I
was more content than I had been in a very long time.

At last I got together my laundry
things and began to head over to my mother’s house. Once a week I
did her laundry for fear that if I didn’t, she would wear clothes
stained with vomit from some of her long, hard nights. On my way
out the door I nearly ran into Aiden’s driver head
first.

“I’m sorry, Miss,” he told me. “I was
about to knock on your door.” He held an envelope in his hands and
I had the silliest little moment of panic that it was a letter from
Aiden telling me he wanted to call the whole thing off because he’d
decided that I wasn’t good enough after all to be the mother of his
child. I really needed to work on that confidence, or lack
thereof.

“That’s okay, I didn’t see you
there.”

“That’s because you have your arms
awfully full. Mr. Scott asked me to deliver this envelope to you.
Can I help you with those bags?” I had two large bags of dirty
clothes and laundry supplies in my hands.
Sitting them down near the door I said, “Oh no, thank you. I’m
headed to do laundry. I’m used to it.” He handed me the envelope,
and then offered to drop me wherever I needed to go. When I
politely declined, because there was no way I was letting Aiden
find out about my mother, he left. As soon as he was gone I lugged
my bags back inside and opened the envelope. There was a one page
letter and I carried it through the house and outside. I was
craving the fresh air. I opened up the letter.