Taming Eric (35 page)

“If you’ve come here looking to start in on Maggie son, you can hop right back in that car and head back home.” Tom stood in front of his wife like her line of de
fence.

“Don’t start with me Tom, I just want to talk to Maggie. Don’t fuck with me.” He tried to shoulder his way past Tom but the older man stood his g
round.

“What you need to say you can say from where you are son. You might not want to hear this but your lady put Maggie in an awkward position. She needed help and you know what my wife is like, how was she supposed to deny her. Natasha had no way of getting to the airport alone. Calm down and don’t go blaming Maggie because your woman didn’t want to be with you anymore. Perhaps you should be asking yourself why she didn’t want to be with you. I heard about the carry on from you when you drove off like a bat out of hell leaving Natasha alone, then acting all aggressively when you got back. I’m disappointed in you son after all Maggie’s done for you. She loves you, this wasn’t a case of her choosing Natasha over you but the poor girl was completely distraught, what was Maggie supposed t
o do?”

“She was supposed to not fucking well take her away from me.” Eric yelled, suddenly overwhelmingly angry and frustrated. He didn’t want to think about what Tom was saying that perhaps that was true, Natasha had put Maggie in awkward position but dammit, she still took the only woman he’d ever loved away fro
m him.

“Lad, I’m sorry you feel like I’ve betrayed you but your lass was in a terrible state. She called me in tears, she’d already booked her flight. What was I supposed to do? You were nowhere around.” Maggie tried to point out but Eric wasn’t ready to hear her
words.

“I don’t give a shit what you say Maggie. You betrayed me. You know how I feel about that sort of thing and I never expected you to do it t
o me.”

“Don’t you think rather than standing here arguing you should be going after that girl of yours son?” Tom said quietly and Eric sn
apped.

He lunged at Tom, fist raised as he went to hit him. “Stay the fuck out of it Tom, this is between Maggie an
d me.”

Maggie jumped between them, her hands raised to his chest and despite his anger, Eric managed to rein in the overwhelming rage running through him before he accidently hurt her. Despite her betrayal, he could never hur
t her.

When he looked down at her she was bristling with anger. “Get off our property lad. You need to calm down and stop blaming us for what has happened. If you want the lass, get up there and damned well fight for her. Now go!” She shoved Eric and suddenly his anger evaporated. What the fuck was he doing trying to hurt the two people who had been so good t
o him?

“I’m going.” He mumbled and turned walking back to his car and drove off. It was only as he pulled up in the driveway of his own home again that he realised Maggie hadn’t told him anything and he never even got a chance to ask if she had known about Natasha’s pregnancy. “FUCK!” He slammed his hands down on the car’s steering wheel. Everything was so fucked up righ
t now.

He drove around and parked the Ferrari before going back inside to power up his laptop and left notification that he was returning to Sydney today. He spent the rest of the time on his laptop struggling to keep his mind focused until it was time for the limo to a
rrive.

When it finally came for him, he locked up the house and as the car pulled away, his eyes turned back to look at his home that had been the scene of some of the best times of his life and some of the worst. The pain in him was still so intense, so powerful that it was tearing him apart emotionally and he struggled to get a grip again before he completely spiralled out of co
ntrol.

*     *
     *

At Launceston Airport the company jet was waiting ready to take him back to Sydney and then he’d have his chance to confront Natasha. He tried calling her numerous times but her phone kept going to voice mail and despite leaving her messages to call him back, he instinctively knew she wou
ldn’t.

When he boarded the jet, he silently groaned when Claudette greeted him with a warm smile. She looked past him as if looking for someone and when she saw he was alone, her smile widened, a look of desire heating in her gaze. He really didn’t need any shit from her right now. He had no interest in Claudette, despite her blatant flirting with him on past occasions but if she thought she stood a chance because he was alone now, she was making a big mi
stake.

“Your lady friend isn’t with you?” She
asked.

“No Claudette, she’s already headed back.” He sighed we
arily.

He watched her eyes light up and she stepped closer. “Is there anything, I mean anything I can do for
you?”

“Yes there is Claudette.” He said softly. “You can leave me the fuck alone and only bother me when we’re taking off and landing
, ok?”

Instantly her eyes iced over and she turned from him, anger burning in her eyes which she struggled to hide from him. If she wanted to make an issue out of it, he’d fire her, he really didn’t give a fuck an
ymore.

He went and sat down, buckled up his seat belt and after a while he heard the hum of the engines and the plane taxied out to the runway. Once they were air born, fatigue, stress and the trauma of his earlier emotional breakdown back at the house caught up with him and he nodded off, not waking until the plane touched down in S
ydney.

Once he landed at Mascot Airport Eric got through the terminal as quickly as possible and into the waiting limo, greeting Henry his driver. He instructed him to take him to his home first as he needed to drop off his bags, shower, get his head on straight before he went after Natasha. He had already pulled up her address from the company files so he knew where on the Central Coast he was he
ading.

He didn’t call her to warn her he was coming, he wanted to surprise her and see her expression when he dropped it on her that he knew she was in fact pregnant. The shock of learning she’d lied and was actually carrying his baby had given him a small reason to hope that maybe he could resurrect a relationship with her. No way in hell was he going to let her raise his child alone, if she wasn’t already planning to abort it. A part of him knew it was wrong to use a baby as leverage to get him what he wanted and pride wouldn’t allow him to grovel to try and keep Natasha but he hoped this might be his chance to win her back, once he’d strangled her first for lying to him that was. That was one of his first questions to her, why had she lied? She obviously wasn’t after any kind of financial support from him and he already knew she didn’t really need it but unless her intention was to keep having a child a secret from him, the only other reason he could think of for her lying was because she had no intention of keeping the baby and suddenly, despite his protests to her several days ago, it scared the hell out of him to think of his child being cut from her body and discarded like trash. He knew the pain of feeling unwanted and unloved and although his child was nothing more than a cluster of cells cradled in her body right now, the thought of it being rejected cut at him in a way he would never have expected. The idea of being a father still scared the hell out of him though because he couldn’t see any way he would be good as one. Maybe Natasha knew that and that’s why she had lied? All he knew was he had a lot of unanswered questions so he sighed with relief when the limo pulled up by the front entrance to his Harbour side home in S
ydney.

His bags were unloaded from the limo and Alice, his house keeper rushed out to greet him. She was a friend of Maggie’s and also knew about his past. She was a bit of a mother figure to him too but more reserved and she tended to act more professional around him as his house keeper, except for when she was excited, like now and gave him a hug and kiss to welcome him
home.

“Eric, it’s so good to have you home. Did you have a wonderful time away?” She asked but when she looked up into his eyes, her smile dropped away. “Oh what’s wrong? I see such pain in those eyes. What happ
ened?”

“I can’t talk about it Alice, sorry. I have to get changed and get out of here again. I need to go and see someone who had better have a damned good explanation for what they’ve done.” He hugged Alice briefly before pushing past her and entering the
house.

“You be careful what you say and do Eric. Anger loosens our tongues, it makes us say and do things we might not normally do.” Alice called out to him as he headed upstairs and he faltered slightly on the wide sweeping staircase that led to the bed
rooms.

“That’s going to be easier said than done.” He murmured under his breath. When he got upstairs, he started stripping off his clothes and headed straight into the shower, standing under the hot water as it pounded down over him, his mind racing with what he was going to say and do once he saw Na
tasha.

Once he was out and had dried off, he quickly shaved and found himself spending a bit of time trying to make himself look good. He splashed on aftershave, the one he knew Natasha liked before padding naked into his massive walk in closet to find something to
wear.

He pulled on black jeans and a black t-shirt which suit his mood. He was feeling all dark and dangerous so he might as well try and look the part at least. Plus Natasha had told him black made his blue eyes seem even more intense. Since he was heading to her place to fight and he had no intention of playing nicely, dark and dangerous was the look he wanted for his encounter with her. If he had to fight dirty, he had no concerns about heading down that road if that’s what it was going to take. The heart ache he’d been feeling was still there deep inside, but he was using his anger and sheer determination to do whatever he had to do to get her back as the main focus for him now and he was facing it with the same steely determination he faced acquiring new companies for Rothman Enterprises. He didn’t take any pris
oners.

On his way out, he called out to Alice that he was going and asked her to unpack his bags before he grabbed the keys to his Porsche and headed out the door. When he climbed into the bright red Porsche 911 he could almost see in his mind Natasha’s face mocking his other choice of car. It still confused him and amazed him that she had absolutely no interest in his money or what his money had provided him with. His ex girlfriends had loved being driven around in his Porsche. It was like a status symbol to them but with Natasha, all he got was teasing and mocking comments fro
m her.

Eric made his way through the congested inner city of Sydney and finally got to the turn off to the freeway to head up to the Central Coast. He pushed the car as hard as he legally could since being pulled over for a speeding ticket was not part of his plans and it was just on dark when he pulled up at the row of attractive townhouses across the road from the water where Natasha
lived.

There were a few cars parked in the guest parking but he had no idea if any of them were people possibly visiting her and he hoped to hell she was alone because being forced to make polite conversation with strangers when it was going to take all his self control not to strangle his probably ex PA was going to test him on so many l
evels.

When he approached the door to Natasha’s townhouse, he could hear voices close as if they were at the door. He was sure one of them was Natasha’s and he raised his hand to knock just as the door suddenly swung
open.

Two pairs of surprised eyes met his, one being the woman who was testing his sanity and the other woman he didn’t know, but she looked like an older version of Natasha so her mother pro
bably?

At the sight of the last traces of laughter on their faces, his rage resurfaced and he balled his hands into fists by his side. She looked happy? How the fuck could she look so damned happy when she’d torn his heart out and trampled it into the ground and lied to him just to add to his m
isery?

Natasha recovered from the shock of seeing him first and went to push the door shut on him but Eric stuck a foot out, blocking the door before she could close it. She backed away fear in her eyes and Eric fought to rein in his anger. His heart hit his stomach when he saw her fear. He didn’t want her scared of him. Fuck it, didn’t she know he would never hurt her? Despite the anger firing him up right now, he’d never hit her, no matter how crazy she made him. Strangle her though? Well, that was another m
atter.

She backed right up until her legs hit the lounge and she tumbled onto it. Eric shut the door and advanced on her until he stood before her as she stared up nervously a
t him.

“Eric I presume?” The voice of the other woman took him by surprise. Fuck he’d forgotten all about her, his eyes only on Natasha. God she looked so beautiful he thought as his eyes moved over her, resting briefly on her still very flat stomach. There was no way he could have known what secret she held protected in her womb just looking at her if he didn’t have the evidence almost burning a hole in his p
ocket.

Struggling to drag his eyes from her, he turned to the other woman. “Yes, and you would be? You must be Natasha’s Mother. She’s the spitting image of
you.”

“Yes I am and as for you, I’ve heard a lot about you and nothing good so far.” Natasha’s mother said and Eric had to begrudgingly admire her for being so outspoken. This one was no shrinking violet that’s for
sure.

“What do you want Eric?” Natasha’s tone was
weary.

“I would prefer to have this discussion in private.” He said but Natasha’s mother stepped between
them.

I’m not leaving you alone with my daughter. I think you’ve done enough damage for one day.” She bristled a
t him.