Maid in the USA(20)

Pierce nodded. Now that was low. For a man to deny his child he’d have to be lower than a snake crawling on its belly.

“Anyway,” Celine said with a sigh, “I finally realized how lucky I was for not having slime like that in my life. I wouldn’t want him to rub off on me.” She shuddered as if the thought repulsed her. “And when you saw me with those tears in my eyes they weren’t for me they were for that child who has such a heartless bastard for a father.”

Pierce got up then. He could see the emotions as they played across her face. Yes, she was angry but she was also in pain. She might not know it but he was reading every emotion that flashed across her face.

Before he realized what he was doing he reached for her and wrapped her in his arms and this time she did not step back or pull out of his embrace. Instead, she rested her cheek on his chest, right against his beating heart, and she cried.

She cried, he knew, for many things. She didn’t have to tell him. She’d bottled up her emotions for so many years and now it was time to let them flow free. She cried for what could have been, for what never was, for the guilt she’d borne and now for the relief of knowing she’d made the right decision. She cried because now she was free.

Pierce let her cry and when, after long moments her hiccups softened into sighs, he put his finger beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. She was vulnerable but he wanted to kiss her so bad he stifled his better self, lowered his head and pressed his lips to her soft, willing mouth. She responded to him eagerly, almost desperately, and when her arms slipped round his waist he felt a thrill run through him. He pressed her closer and his kiss grew urgent, the hunger he’d felt for her intensifying with the taste of her lips. God, how he wanted this woman.

Too soon he had to release her lips. He heard Kylie in the distance and knew that in minutes they’d be set upon by a yelling four-year-old girl, two gangly boys and a barking dog.

For a long while he looked deep into those liquid brown eyes, trying to read their depths. This woman, so seductive and sultry yet so vulnerable and innocent, what was she thinking right now? Was she wanting him as much as he wanted her?

He didn’t have the chance to find out. As the shouts of the children came closer and closer he slid his hands down her arms to her hand then slowly let go and stepped back.

Celine stared, wide eyed, back at him.

He could see that he’d shocked her with that kiss but that was the least of his problems. They were heading back to the United States in a few days and when she was again his roof he’d have a hell of a time keeping his hands off her. God help him.





CHAPTER SEVEN



Celine arrived in the United States feeling like a new woman. The unexpected all expense paid trip to see her family had been like a miracle, and having both Pierce and Kylie with her made the visit even more special. And to top it off she’d found resolution to that part of her life that had haunted her for so long. Giles St. Juste was not and had never been the man for her. Now she had closure.

She soon settled into her old routine with Kylie, reviewing letters and numbers and reading stories in the morning then spending the afternoons at play on the lawn, swimming in the pool or working in the garden. She’d been nanny to the little one two months now and she almost saw her as her own daughter. At times her mind would fast forward to the day when she would have to go, return to her life as a student, leaving behind a child who had become so special to her. And Pierce. To think that there would come a day when she would never see him again. It did not bear thinking about.

She still remembered his kiss that day by the stream in Thomery-By. She’d relived it so many times in her mind. She hadn’t wanted that moment to end.

But it did. And it was a good thing, too, because she was losing her heart and soul to Pierce D’Amato.

What was she going to do? She’d just overcome one hurdle by expunging Giles from her heart and now she’d gone and created another problem? The man was her employer which was bad enough but on top of that he was involved.

Or was he? Sophia had been over several times since their return but most times it was when Pierce wasn’t around. Each time she’d come she’d made it clear that she was dying for both her and Kylie to disappear. She continued to hint at a long-standing relationship with Pierce but then Celine hardly saw them together. Was their relationship a secret? Was Pierce engaging in love trysts at her house rather than his, seeing that she and Kylie were there? It made her heart ache just thinking about it.

There was something Celine had to do, something that was against her nature but totally necessary under the circumstances. She was going to have to meddle in somebody else’s business.