Stiletto Secrets (5 page)

One of the two women was walking barefoot while her shoes dangled from her fingers. The other one at least had the decency to put on her shoes.

Well, Emma sure as hell recognized the aftermath of a threesome whenever she saw it. She immediately didn’t like this guy much, whoever he was.

“I’ll call you lovely ladies later,” he murmured.

Emma snorted. There was no way he would be calling them.

“Nicholas,” a loud, hard voice boomed through the foyer. Emma gave a step back, not wanting anyone to know she was there. That voice scared the crap out of her.

“Hello, Father,” the young man sneered. “It’s so good to know that you actually remember my name.”

“Oh, stop with the sarcasm, Nicholas. Who were those two?”

Emma peeked around the corner, her curiosity getting the better of her. The young man was still standing with his back to her, but she saw glimpses of the older man.

“That was Tweedledee and Tweedledum.”

“You don’t even know their names, do you?”

The young man shrugged. “Those beautiful young ladies were my entertainment last night. First names weren’t required.”

Even from where Emma stood she could hear the animosity between the two men.

“When will you stop behaving like a horny teenager, Nicholas?”

“When you actually start behaving like a father, I guess. So that would probably be
never.
”

“Grow up, would you. You cannot continue living this reckless lifestyle of yours.”

“Give it a rest, Dad.” The guy pulled his hand through his disheveled hair. “I give you exactly what you need when it comes to the company, you don’t get to expect anything more of me.”

“I expect you to act like an adult.”

Emma leaned a little further, her curiosity piqued to see a glimpse of this
Nicholas
guy.

“Whatever. I’m going to get ready for work.”

Emma wasn’t ready for him to leave, she needed to see him. Deciding that now was the time for her to cross the foyer to the dining room, she stepped around the corner…and then her heart stopped. It was like the world around her ceased to exist and she had lost all her senses except sight as she stared at the face she had seen in her mind since Saturday night.

It was Mr. Blake,
her
Mr. Blake,
the
Mr. Blake that almost seduced her during her own show. Emma lost her grip on the tray and everything crashed to the ground, the sound of shattering glass echoing through the foyer. The sound also managed to pull her out of her shocked stupor, and she immediately went down on her knees desperately trying to clean up the mess as soon as possible.

“For God’s sake. What the hell is wrong with you?” the senior Mr. Blake bit out.

Emma cringed and then felt a sharp pain shooting through her palm straight up her arm. She looked down at her hand which was now bleeding profusely from a big open wound where she had managed to cut herself with a piece of broken glass.

“Are you okay?” Nicholas crouched down beside her, looking at her palm.

“Of course she’s fine, Nicholas,” Mr. Blake said behind him, “If she wasn’t such a klutz, she wouldn’t have a sliced palm leaving blood stains all over my very expensive floor.”

“Dad,” Nicholas snapped, “could you stop being an asshole for one goddamn minute?” Nicholas turned his attention back to Emma, and softly took her injured hand in his. Emma sucked in a breath, his warm touch causing tingles to spread throughout her entire body. “That’s quite a cut you have there.” And then he looked up at her.

They were blue. His eyes were a brilliant, dark, intense blue…and they were beautiful.

“Are you okay?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Yes,” she blurted out, trying to shake the fog in her brain. “Yes, I’m fine. It’s just the sight of blood.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not too deep. We can fix it.” And then he winked one of those blue sapphires at her, and her heart skipped a beat.

Emma was too stunned to say or do anything. All she was able to do was let Nicholas lead her to the nearest bathroom.

“You’re new here?” he asked when he opened the bathroom cabinet and took out a small first-aid kit. Emma couldn’t take her eyes off him as he moved.

Only after a few seconds and a worried glance from Nicholas did Emma manage to find her voice. “Yes. I started today.”

Emma didn’t even notice what Nicholas was doing. All she saw was how his incredibly toned back muscles flexed, and how his broad shoulders moved as he did whatever the hell he was doing.

“What’s your name?” Nicholas turned around and her gaze immediately shot to his rock-hard, washboard abs which seemed like they were made for the sole purpose of being touched, caressed, kissed,
licked.
Oh good grief.

“Um…Emma,” she answered. And then she locked eyes with his brilliant blues. To say that his eyes were blue would have been like saying the moon was white—sufficient, but not enough to describe its true splendor.

Nicholas gave a small step toward her, and she swallowed hard. “Well it’s nice to meet you, Emma. I’m Nicholas, the son of the asshole you just met.”

Emma snorted, but immediately placed her unwounded palm over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“No, it’s okay. It’s the truth. No one knows what a jerk my father can be better than me. Give me your hand.” He held out his palm and Emma hesitated, thinking of how she cuffed that same hand only two nights ago.

“I won’t bite, Emma,” he assured her after he noticed her hesitation.

“I know that,” she said, feeling a little embarrassed. She placed her hand in his. Why did that simple touch cause her heart to beat faster?

Nicholas turned his attention to her wound and dabbed some cotton on the bleeding cut. Emma flinched.

“Sorry.” He pulled his alluring lips into a straight line. “Clean alcohol kind of has a nasty sting, doesn’t it?”

“It’s okay. I can handle it.”

No longer was she looking at what Nicholas was doing, but she was staring at his face. With chiseled features, a strong well-defined jawline and blue eyes framed with thick dark eyelashes, she couldn’t stop looking at him. He was perfect.

“Your voice sounds really familiar. Have we met before?” Nicholas quickly glanced up and met her eyes, before turning his attention back to nursing her wound.

“No, we haven’t met.” Now she tried to sound, well, different, but to no avail.

“Your voice really has a familiar ring to it.”

“Er.” Oh crap, what was she supposed to say now? “I get that a lot.”
Well done Emma Tremaine, you are such a loser.

After a few more minutes, and Emma feeling like she had just stepped onto the sun since it became hotter and hotter with every passing second she was in his presence, he finally let go of her hand. “All done. Should be good as new in a few days.”

Emma jerked back her hand and clutched it to her chest. “Thank you,” she muttered.

“Don’t mention it.” He turned around and started to pack up the first-aid kit. Emma took the opportunity to gawk at his naked back once more. Her gaze travelled all the way from his strapping shoulders, down the curve of his spine, and then she noticed the two back dimples he had just above the curve of his butt.

“Oh, and a word of advice…” Nicholas turned around to face her while leaning back against the bathroom sink. “Don’t take everything the old man says too personally. He is the way he is. As an employee, you can’t expect much kindness from a man who can’t even remember his own son’s birthday.”

The small degree of sadness in his voice didn’t go unnoticed by Emma, yet he hid it well with a little measure of sarcasm.

"When is your birthday?” she asked softly.

“It was Saturday.”

Saturday?
“This past Saturday?”

Nicholas nodded. “Yup.”

He was at the strip club on Saturday. He was in Cinderella’s Booth on Saturday. Emma was giving him a lap dance that she was almost sure she enjoyed more than him—
on Saturday.

Then he cleared his throat and pushed away from the sink. “But it doesn’t matter. I have awesome friends who made sure I had a very memorable birthday.”

Her gaze shot up to him. “How memorable?” she blurted out.
Dammit, where was a filter when you needed one?

A very sexy, coy grin spread across his face. “Very, very memorable.” And then he winked at her playfully before heading to the bathroom door. “Welcome to the Blake mansion, Emma.”

Before she could mutter the words “thank you,” Nicholas had already disappeared down the hall leaving a flustered and confused as hell Emma behind, with a heart that felt like it was trying to break the land speed record. Why did she suddenly have this flutter in the pit of her stomach?

Emma absentmindedly touched the wound on her palm which Nicholas had bandaged for her. “Very, very memorable,” she repeated to herself. Now she found herself wondering exactly how memorable Saturday night had been for Nicholas.

And then it hit her like a ton of bricks straight in the gut. Nicholas could never know that she was Cinderella. If he should find out that she worked as a stripper on weekends, it would jeopardize her new job at the mansion, which she desperately needed. And from what she had heard and seen of Mr. Blake senior, she was sure he would not be impressed knowing that one of his staff was giving lap dances over weekends.

Emma swallowed hard. This had the potential to turn into one huge giant ball of disaster.

“GOOD
morning, sunshine.”

Nicholas looked up from his desk and saw Adam strolling into his office with two Starbucks coffees in hand.

“One would think that a multi-million dollar company could afford some good goddamn coffee.” Adam placed the cups on the desk and took a seat. “I guess there’s no need to ask how your night was last night?” Adam winked.

Nicholas closed his laptop and picked up the coffee. “It was very entertaining, and doubly fun.” Nicholas smirked.

Adam did a little air punch. “I knew you had those two in the bag the minute they let you buy them tequila.”

“Tequila is a man’s best friend.” Nicholas made a little cheers gesture with the coffee before taking a sip.

Adam sat back in the chair. “Did Pops see the twins?”

“He did.” Nicholas placed the coffee down and leaned back. “You should have seen his face. He was ready to pop an artery.”

“You think he knows you’re doing it just to piss him off?”

Nicholas shrugged. “I have no idea how that old bastard’s head works. All I know is that I will never give him what he wants. I will never marry her—hell, I don’t think I’ll ever marry any woman period.”

Adam rubbed his chin with his fingers. “Why Claire? And why now?”

“Fuck knows. Maybe because her family owns half the fucking country.” Nicholas got up and walked to stand in front of the window. “But I think it’s mainly just to prove that he controls everything, including me. And he knows I can’t stand the woman.”

“Unbelievable,” Adam muttered. “I really thought you two would have sorted your shit out by now.”

Yeah, so did Nicholas. There was a time when he and his dad used to be as close as can be. They did everything together. Hiking, fishing, camping out in the backyard—they were inseparable. Until that dreaded disease took his mother from them, subsequently taking his father from him as well. His mother’s death destroyed his father, hardened him into the asshole he was today.

Nicholas turned to Adam. “This morning one of the new maids accidentally cut her hand, and he had a hissy fit over the fact that she was bleeding all over his expensive carpets.” Nicholas conveniently left out the part that the said maid had the most beautiful big blue-green eyes he had ever seen. When she looked up at him, crouching on her knees, holding her bleeding palm, it felt like her stare was boring into him, seeing things inside of him that even he didn’t know existed. She was beautiful.

Nicholas shook his head. “I had to help the poor woman. He would have just left her there, or billed her for the dry cleaning of the goddamn carpet.”

Adam’s eyes grew wide. “It’s that bad?”

“I don’t know who that man is, but he sure as hell isn’t my father.” Nicholas felt anger rise inside of him. He had never been so close to punching his father in the face as he was that morning. As if that woman slashed her palm intentionally just to ruin his fucking rug. God, his dad was an asshole.

“Maybe you should really consider moving out, man. Find your own place.” Adam got up from the chair and placed his hands in his pants pockets.

“You know I would if I could, Adam.”

“Nicholas, do you really think she would hold you to a promise you made thirteen years ago if she knew how miserable he was making your life?”

Nicholas sighed. “Probably not. But she’s not here anymore, and that promise I made was the last thing I said to her.” Nicholas desperately fought against the pain as one of the last memories he had of his mother played off inside of his head. Nicholas had never known such loss and he could only imagine the pain his father had endured. But after some time had passed, Nicholas had managed to move on. He didn’t forget—he would never forget. It only became bearable, even though the pain would always resurface with a memory. Unfortunately, his father had never seemed to have moved on. Robert Blake only hardened, steeled himself against any and every emotion…including those toward his only son.

“I really think you should consider it,” Adam continued, but Nicholas just shook his head.

“It’s not an option, Adam. Not for me.”

Adam took a deep breath. “Okay.” He grabbed his half empty cup of coffee. “I have a ten-fifteen meeting.” Adam walked to the door and turned back just as he was about to leave. “Oh, by the way, the new maid, on a rate from one to ten?” Adam raised two cheeky eyebrows.

According to Nicholas, she was definitely a ten, but there was no way he would be sharing that with his man slut friend. “I’d say Emma is about an eight.”

Adam nodded his head in approval. “Emma. I like it.”

“Don’t even think about it, man.” Nicholas knew exactly in which direction the wheels in Adam’s head were turning.