His to Claim (2 page)

CHAPTER 2

T
revor McBain stared broodingly into the night settled over the Scottish Highlands.

The dove grey suit he wore was by no means an adequate armour against the cold breeze buffeting in from the wide window of his capacious bedroom.

“Will tha’ be awll, master Trevor?”

Trevor had had completely forgotten Dugald.

The mansion’s old caretaker in his early sixties had worked for the McBains for as long as Trevor could remember. At the moment, he had finished unpacking Trevor’s luggage and arranging everything into the armoire.

“Yes, Dugald. Thank you.”

As the caretaker turned to leave, Trevor couldn’t hold back the thought gambolling about his head ever since he had seen Elaine here. “Dugald?”

“Aye, master Trevor?”

Without taking his eyes off the growing darkness outside, Trevor asked, “Did..did Ms. Elaine say why she’s here, or how long she may stay?”

“She dinna.” Dugald paused for a contemplative second, then added, “But Bertha kens, tha’ be the new upstairs maid, Ms. Elaine could likely stay fo’ at least a week.” That imparted, he quietly ushered himself out of the room.

Trevor continued grimly studying the shadowed mountains in the distance. They nearly blended with the night. A facsimile of what he was going through inside with the jumble of tempestuous emotions churning. None distinguishable on its own, yet melded, they brewed into an unmistakable hue of a burning anger.

Anger over the world, over himself. He couldn’t believe he had lost control earlier worse than a rabid teenager with his first wet fuck.

Pathetic!

In his twenty-nine years this was the second time he had ever been this out of order. And either time the falter was brought upon him by a lass; one lass.

He had let his dick–no, it was more than that. Where Elaine was concerned, it had always been his heart. The fucking thing wouldn’t listen to him.

Trevor raked his hands through his hairs. He thought he had had that one inconvenience taken care of.

Tearing out of his business jacket he flung it across the room. The lithe muscles built more on the rough terrains of a playing field than within the confining walls of an equipped gym stretched and strained under the white shirt worn with the seductive surreality of a woman’s fantasy.

The tension in Trevor’s body was clamouring for an outlet.

Apparently, banging everything in skirts wasn’t an answer to what plagued him. It took one touch of her lips to shake him from every pretention that Elaine meant nothing more to him than a moment of insanity buried in his youth.

Nothing could be farther from it. The heat of her body from
‘that one night’
still haunted him when he took other women in his arms.

Unconsciously, he had always searched for her scent in theirs.

The taste of her sweet mouth from this very evening still lingered in his. He remembered the sight of her blazing eyes bound in passion, lips red and swollen from his kisses, magnificent breasts heaving from the force of her ragged breaths, all driving him to a brink.

He didn’t trust himself that if Elaine were here before him in this room, he could let her go as easy, not that it was effortless even then. But her lightning switch from a hot-blooded woman to a frigid, two-edged blade had flummoxed him. And before things could get into some imaginable perspective, she had bolted.

It had taken all of him not to pursue her, choosing to be reasonable. Give them both time to let the events of today sink in.

Sink in her,
you damned fuck!

Right at this moment though, his rampant need for her had come back with a vengeance. And every scorn, every insult she had ever pitched in his face spurred him to prove Elaine, once and for all, to whom she belonged. Take what he felt in his blood, in his bones was his.

Everything about her tied him in knots. Her killer eyes, those eyes could slash pricks in half with only a nasty look. And he was a glutton for punishment, for despite that fact, he kept riling her calm waters just so she would keep giving him those looks. It was far better than her indifference.

The frown between his dark brows deepened into a scowl as he peeled off his shirt. It dropped a long way down, forgotten at his bare feet.

In that instant, the laden clouds suffusing the sky cleared and the sculpted planes of his naked torso was washed in the silver beams of the highland moon. The strength and power flowing in the corded muscles appeared unearthly in its glow, even godly.

But the one who occupied the thoughts of this god, was a mortal woman of flesh and blood.

Had Trevor really seen what he suspected in Elaine’s eyes? Desire and passion hadn’t been the only emotions glazing her twin ambers, but tears as well.

Yes, he admitted to himself, there were times when her sharp tongue drove him to an edge where he wanted to shake her so hard that her teeth rattled till some sense clattered back into her brains.

But even in his worst moments, he had never, ever, wanted to see Elaine truly hurt. And seeing today what seemed suspiciously like tears gathering in her eyes had dug a sliver in his heart. Heart that he had so arrogantly believed no longer susceptible to her.

But why should her pain still affect him so profoundly? Did he not swear to himself that no longer would he live half a life moaning like a starved pug for a crumb of a lass’s one sweet word, one soft look?

When she fled from the twilight room it felt as if he were thrown back in time to endure once again the agony of her defection and, most of all, the cruel flint of jealousy that was scorching him alive till this day.

Furious and embittered, every little thud of his heart on the confines of his ribcage was like a punch thrown against a damned rock.

However, it’s what happened
before
her flight this evening that still had him stunned. Hard to trust if his twisted mind hadn’t just played a sick joke on him.

Elaine kissed him. Him!

A kiss she initiated. Elaine, who had had puked her guts out when she realised to whom exactly she had handed her virginity.

Yes,
she
had kissed him. A surge of fierce victory coursed through Trevor.

Part of him wanted to go break open the doors to her room and force out from her the same passionate abandon she showed him earlier. And only when they had both satisfied their fiery need for each other would he demand the meaning of this confounding one-eighty she pulled on him. He could have bet his life she hated his guts.

But no woman fuming with hate for a man could respond to him like she did, could she?

There was that other part of him which reasoned Elaine and he, both were at the end of their tether. One wrong move could obliterate things as before, something which he found himself strongly unwilling to see.

Trevor had never known this gripping fixation with any other woman.

Even as a young lad of twenty-one with too many women in his bed to count, his world completely tilted on its axis for a lass only fifteen. He had tried to stay away.
Jesus, how he fought his growing fascination with her.
Carried the rotting carcass of a losing battle over his shoulders for all of two years, twenty-seven days and three hours.

And then, the lass went ahead and enslaved his heart in a span of one earth shattering grand fuck of his life. Though later, she couldn’t have run faster into the en suite bathroom if her tail was caught on fire.

No doubt dying to wash away every last trace of him!

Only Elaine had ever managed to screw with his mind like this. All this time she had treated him like a terminal disease. Never deigned to look in the same direction he did. Words for him only came in the form of criticism and insults to her.

But today, that very mouth sluiced his with its sweetest honey. Her body, his forbidden fruit, laved his lust with the heat of its own fire. It reignited every hungry thought, every ardent need that took over him seven years past. And whose effect he still felt in his viscera.

Bare feet he retracted his steps to the large bed by the head wall in his room. Lying down spread eagle, his skin felt stretched on every tendon, every sinew. The ache in his groin, unbearable.

A memory from long ago sprang before his eyes. Elaine had been so young, so fragile in his hands, he was afraid if he touched her with any force she might break. But she hadn’t. Peal of her moans from that indescribable moment still had the strength to harden his cock mutinously.

His body’s craving commanded his mind to relive in that memory, just as he had done countless of times when need for her rose too strong.

Elaine’s creamy thighs opened to him in invitation. Their slide up his legs, the skim of her soft flesh against his tough, solid muscles, and he was lost. Took the plunge for the heavens.

Aye, Jesus, he was in heaven. All senses centred on her. Deeper, so god damned deeper he wanted to bury inside Elaine, liquid walls enveloping him snugly.

Harsh sounds of his laboured breathing rang in the room. Trevor’s fist pumped on his shaft vigorously as the fly of his slacks lay roguishly open. His bare chest rose and fell in tune with the rapid beats of his heart.

Elaine’s sultry image beneath him was driving Trevor mad. He wanted to reach within her where no other man had ever touched her before. But gazing up at him her coy smile altered into a taunting grin on her face, that said, he could try, but he would never be that man for her.

No!
No, she won’t!

She won’t keep from him what was his. He would just have to take what wasn’t given. Stake his claim.

And he did. Harder. Faster.

When he came, the explosion left him.. unsatisfied, disgruntled.. indignant, and his hand filled with his semen.

This was what he’s reduced to. Trevor McBain, the wealthy Director of McBain Industries, who had women crawling on their knees for him to take them to his bed, jerking himself in the dark to the image of a lass who wanted nothing to do with him.

But then.. how to explain the fire of response in her this evening?

Christ, he was going insane!

That’s it, no more grappling with aggravating uncertainties. Between the two of them, there was clearly enough tension for even a blind man to see.

One night. That’s all he was willing to give Elaine. She could take her mask of cool disdain to her bed this night, though come tomorrow there would be no skirting the inevitable.

But if he got one whiff of lies, deception from her, then nothing could stop him from taking his own course.

And what he came up with then, Trevor thought with relish, Elaine wouldn’t care for. Though by that time, the choice would have slipped from her pretty little fingers.

*****

CHAPTER 3

A
shining bald patch staring Elaine right in the eye was straining her already disturbed nerves.

Thankfully though, its owner raised his head, still sparsely adorned with ginger hair, from admiring the sumptuous dishes prettily arranged on their table.

“And that’s how I earned the badge for the best student of the year that day.” Henry said, bringing to his mouth the slice of succulent duck he had precisely cut into a bite size piece.

Elaine discerned he squinted his eyes twice for the…

How many times has it been?

She had lost count somewhere in the saga of his accomplishments between the first grade and his sophomore year.

It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying when he kept squinting at her every ten seconds. And it was even harder to decide which was worse, his relentless squinting, or his incessant talking.

They were dining at Golden Palm, an upscale restaurant in Manhattan, New York. The lavish fare spread before them was a delight to sight and palate, yet Elaine couldn’t muster enjoyment in any of it. Why she had taken such effort to dress up for this occasion was now beyond her.

The elegant silver-grey backless dress felt too intimate for a first date.

Though it was loose-fitting at the top, it cinched at her tiny waist and hugged from there down her flaring hips to end at the middle of her shapely thighs. Her hair was coiled in a coiffure that was in itself an art, while strings of moonbeams dangling, danced from her earlobes.

“Have I mentioned the time when at my junior year-” Swathed in his dinner jacket, Henry didn’t wait for her approval or denial but embarked on yet another of his stories to self-glory.

Elaine wouldn’t be surprised if Henry believed he did a great service having accorded his parents the honour of being his parents.

His lips kept moving in a litany.

How long was long enough for one to end a date without seeming uncourteous? Oh, God, why was he watching her funny?

He had stopped talking–a mercy, but disconcertingly specious no less. Did she have a stray crumb sticking to her mouth? Self-consciously, Elaine brushed the serviette over her lips.

When Henry gave her a cryptic smile, she politely, heavily, tugged at the corners of her own mouth.

As she rested her bare arms back on the table, an anomaly in his behaviour drew her eye. Ever so often his gaze kept returning to her hands. Specially the left one lying idly by the gravy-boat.

Before she could have predicted his intension, with the speed of a striking snake his hand shot out for hers.

However, triggered by something instinctive Elaine moved to a quick defence. She swiftly snatched her hand from its prosaic position, her brain innately rejecting even that small a contact from him.

But undeterred, Henry gave chase. Elaine feinted reaching for the salad bowl, then dove for her wine.

Unfortunately, he was just as quick. Their match of tag ended up knocking the Claret glass, and the red wine spilled on the table streaming down to ruin Henry’s fine pants.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Elaine rushed out her apology. There was no excuse for insulting Henry so publicly with her silly skittish act.

They had both flown off their seats by now.

As other guests about the restaurant observed them with utmost curiosity, two of the stewards sped up to their table offering assistance.

“No. No, Elaine. It’s my fault. I startled you.” Henry graciously accepted the blame for her childish behaviour entirely upon himself. Nothing could have burned her more with shame. All he had wanted was to hold her hand. What was the matter with her? They were on a date!

Nearly an hour later, both sat in stilted silence inside the car Henry pulled in front of her affordable apartment in Sunnyside, Queens.

Elaine’s eyes wandered down his stained pants, still feeling guilty.

“Yeah, I’ve gone and wet myself again.” He spoke with great show at a defeated sigh. “I admit, when sitting next to a beautiful woman, I get bladder issues. Would it be too much if I asked you to keep it as our little secret?”

Elaine examined his face. The expression there was of all sincerity, then he twitched his nose just before his round eyes started squinting in rapid succession, and she couldn’t help but picture him as some over-adventurous bunny looking for its way back to its burrow. Laughter erupted from her unchecked, and his hearty gales soon joined hers.

That ice breaker worked like a real charm between the two. “I am very sorry, Henry. My behaviour earlier-”

“I wanted so much to impress you tonight, Elaine.” He confessed truthfully, with eyes almost begging her to believe in him.

Henry seemed so dejected now, that Elaine wanted to lie and say, he did impress her, just to bring him out of that grey gloom. But he deserved truth in return for his.

“You just tried too hard, Henry. So we have crossed paths in numerous society affairs, that only gives us superficial knowledge of each other. I already know, and respect you for your dedication to your work. But tonight I wanted to see the real you.”

She smiled and teased him next to bring back the ease between them. “And your little trailer that made me laugh just now, I believe I would have liked that man behind the suit very much.”

“Does that mean were I to propose another date with me, you would accept?”

Well, she had no one else to blame but herself. Like a true man of Business that he was, Henry leaped to turn this slightest of chance into a most favourable of possibilities for him.

Elaine was aware Damian McBain, Trevor’s older brother, was considering investing resources from McBain Industries into helping Henry expand his business. And since the day he learnt of Henry’s interest in her as a wife to him, Damian wanted Elaine to consider this ‘opportunity’ with a pragmatic approach.

If things worked out, Damian wished to sweeten the deal with Elaine and Henry’s wedding. He had said it would forge a stronger connection with the other company and provide Elaine a safe, secure and brighter future. The latter consideration coming from Damian, left her somewhat speechless.

That it was the only time he had ever shown her that he saw her differently than a wall in a room, or an empty vase on a desk, didn’t stop her from baulking from what he suggested. Her life was hers to make, she decided. But that didn’t mean she had written-off everything the McBains had done for her.

When he insisted on setting up at least one meeting, she couldn’t outright refuse him. No one dared refuse Damian McBain anything.

But a second date with Henry?
Ordeals of this dismal evening revolved before her eyes.

Her pensive pause was making Henry anxious, his expectant face quickly falling at her long silence. She didn’t think he loved her, but he seemed to care.

“All right, I’ll come.” Her yielding immediately alleviated his morose colour. She contented with the thought that, at least, her decision was making two people happy. Henry and Damian.

“You won’t regret it.” He offered enthusiastically. “I’ve been told my charm dazzle girls the second time around. So I warn you, come prepared.”

They shared a companionable laughter. He really was charming when he wasn’t trying too hard.

Of a sudden, Henry was leaning over the console, reaching for a kiss. And when Elaine realised she was unconsciously retreating from it, resolutely, she made herself stop.

It was just a harmless kiss from her date tonight.

She couldn’t still be hung up on what passed between her and Trevor only two days ago, could she?

No, she wasn’t. And to prove this to herself, Elaine remained unmoving, forcing a receptive smile.

Emboldened by that unspoken invitation, Henry gladly took over. He touched his eager lips to her cold, rigid ones. As he moved and coaxed, she started to relax. But just when she determined his kiss wasn’t that bad, he began seeking entrance into the soft, sweet recess of her mouth.

Elaine couldn’t do it. She froze. Her mind recoiling from ceding him such clear sign of a woman’s first surrender to a man she loved. And that was the problem, she didn’t love Henry.

He must have sensed her strong reluctance, since she felt him breaking the kiss.

He smiled down at her as if in complete understanding. “I think we will save the rest of the kissing, too, for our second date.” Then added, “It has to improve with my charm, honey,” more to valiantly console himself.

Elaine cringed inwardly at the endearment. She wasn’t ready for it. Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed on another date. But guilt from earlier still tugging at her conscience wouldn’t let her cancel. And she had promised Damian, she would give Henry a fair chance.

Perhaps that was it, she merely needed to allow herself to get used to all this.

Noting the lines of deep contemplation etched on her forehead, Henry enquired, “Is it Damian? Trust me, he has no issues with our dating each other. I have already spoken with him.”

Elaine wanted to give a very unladylike snort at that. If only he knew how much in favour of their being together Damian actually was. He had called her back from Scotland so this
meeting
between Henry and herself could take off without delay.

But did Damian tell Henry the truth about her orphaned past? It wasn’t a well-kept secret, but she wanted nothing hidden.

“Henry,” Elaine moved her eyes down to her worrying hands. “Has Damian said anything of my-”

She didn’t even need to finish her question before Henry gaged what she wanted to ask.

“Yes, as much as
he
knew. But I was wondering how you felt coming to a big house? A wealthy and distinguished family? Must have been scary for a young girl, intimidating?”

Most in Henry’s place would have considered an orphaned girl only to be too happy and fortunate to have found herself in the lap of luxury, not intimidated. But Elaine had had seen far too many of these girls return from these adoptive homes more broken than ever.

“Yes, it was frightening, and overwhelming.” She looked out the windshield as if the dim moonlight there gave her a glimpse into the past. But she kept a tight rein on her emotions from reflecting on her face.

“Trevor took instant dislike to me. Though Damian, at twenty-six, shouldering the weight of McBain Industries for eight long years as their father’s legacy, was too sophisticated and proud to be spiteful of a teenage girl only fifteen. Good thing was, nearly twenty-one and in college, Trevor was rarely home. But on the occasion when he was..”

Talking about Trevor was enough to unsettle her composure. And if she continued, there was no guarantee how much of their stormy history her traitorous tongue might spew, and Henry was too astute to miss anything. She decided it was better to steer clear of mentioning him again.

“I think Damian decided I didn’t exist for him.” Elaine turned her guarded eyes to meet Henry’s, pleased to find amusement there rather than pity for her. “However, when their mother passed away two years later, he, albeit grudgingly, acknowledged me as yet another addition to his ever burgeoning load of responsibilities. Still considers me as one.” She ended with a shrug.

“But can’t he see you need no looking after? You’re no longer a hapless orphan child.” Henry said emphatically. “You’re smart, independent, beautiful young woman.”

“I’m grateful for everything that family did for me. And I appreciate Damian took me as an Intern at McBain Industries. We both know how many will kill to be in my place. To be able to associate your name with any of their prestigious companies would change your life.”

“But you’re so good at what you do. I’ve seen your work. The use of colours-”

“I’ve learnt a very important lesson, Henry.” Elaine reclined on her seat. “Art may suit one as a recreation, but it doesn’t cut enough to pay an artist’s rents and bills.”

“It’ll happen. Give it time. A talented, beautiful girl-”

“Careful Henry, or I may actually take it in my head that I’m beautiful. If I did, I can’t be blamed for the vain shrew I may morph into.” Elaine teased wearing a mask of bright smile, needing to divert the topic. She didn’t have the energy left to rehash her life at this moment with practically a stranger.

“You still doubt my feelings for you?” His voice softened, finding the new turn in their exchange far more exciting.

***

E
laine used her set of keys to open her apartment. Kerry, her roommate, was on a weekend trip with her boyfriend so the house was washed in darkness.

Through this darkness she sailed across the living room straight for the refrigerator. Habitually aware of every obstacle, every hurdle in her path.

As she opened the fridge, its glow bouncing off her silver-grey dress scattered an array of tiny stars sparkling all over the living-room and her open kitchen.

Interested in neither the cosmic display, nor her quiet surroundings, Elaine busily poured herself a glass of crystalline water. Later, replacing the bottle back in its place she closed the door and the veil of black shrouded everything once again.

Thirst, then light, was the order of her priorities when she had stepped into the apartment.