Veronica let out a huff of air as she ran, and tried to push these pesky thoughts from her mind. She would have to deal with all this at another time. She wanted to prove that she could be a valuable member of the staff before she got too comfortable with any situation. The rest of her problems could wait.
She also had to deal with the issue of being in such close quarters with Frank all the time. There was a part of her that wanted to let him know that what happened between them the previous night could not happen again. She wanted to get back to and maintain a professional relationship from there on out.
Another part of her though, was eager to feel him between her thighs again. She had never had such good sex before in her life. Sure, she could remember early in her relationship with Calvin when everything sexual had seemed fresh and exciting and new. Looking back, though, she realized that her opinions then were largely based on lack of experience.
Veronica had seen hot, passionate love scenes on television and read about them in romance novels, but she had chalked those up as works of fiction, and thought that nobody truly had those experiences in real life. Now, though, that notion had been completely erased from her mind. She knew that passion and hot lust were very real things, and that they were going to plague her for as long as she was in such close proximity to Frank.
Even now, as she jogged, Veronica felt a hot surge of heat in her core. There was no denying the attraction she felt for Frank, but that wasn’t hard to believe. He certainly wouldn’t have gotten this far in his career without charisma, good looks and intelligence. He was a man that would make any woman swoon.
Veronica knew that he had likely played this game before with other women. He constantly had a household full of staff, and she found it quite hard to believe that she was the only woman he had ever slept with since his wife’s passing.
Still, he had done a good job of making her believe that he was truly attracted to her and interested in her. He had been gentle and forceful at exactly the right times, and looked at her in just the right way to make her feel wanted, and more than that, it made her feel unique. Though Veronica had been tricked at the time and believed him to be genuine, she knew very well that he could have developed such a gaze from years of practice.
As Veronica approached the house again, she steeled her mind. She knew she would have to encounter Frank again at some point, and she had to be prepared to resist him. As hard as she knew it was going to be, she also knew it was necessary.
Veronica slowed to a trot and was at a walk as she made it to the porch. She quietly opened the door and slipped into the kitchen, not bothering to turn on the light. She worked hard to make no noise as she reached into the cupboard to withdraw a glass. She shut the cabinet slowly, and then began to make her way to the sink.
As she moved, though, the light to the kitchen flipped on, and she stopped dead in her tracks. She looked over to where she knew the light switch was, and her stomach clenched as she saw Frank standing there, his eyebrow raised, and a smirk of humor on his lips.
“Good morning,” he greeted her, his voice a little lower and gruffer than she was used to.
“Good morning,” Veronica replied as best she could, considering her throat had tightened up upon seeing him.
Veronica couldn’t help but look him over. She guessed he had just worked out, as he wore a compression tank that was almost completely saturated with his sweat. His skin glistened, and she could smell his scent wafting through the air.
Frank chuckled a little, and began to move through the kitchen toward the sink.
“I see we both like to get our workouts out of the way early,” he remarked, and Veronica could hardly think to form a response. The best she could manage was a light laugh.
Veronica hung back as he withdrew two glasses from the cabinet. He handed one to her, which she sheepishly took, and the other he held under the faucet to begin filling it with water.
“You don’t have to drink from the tap,” Frank said over his shoulder. “It’s just how I was brought up.”
Veronica could only blink at him as her heart clenched and she was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. In this moment, he wasn’t her employer. He was a man, and a man that she knew she had a great many things in common with.
As Frank sipped at his glass, Veronica slipped past him to stand in front of the sink and fill up her own glass. She heard Frank let out a chuckle from behind her, and she jumped and gasped as she felt his hand move to trace over her arm. In her surprise, she dropped the glass, the loud crash sounding throughout the room.
No sooner had she dropped the glass, Veronica felt Frank seize her by the shoulders and tear her away from the sink. Veronica’s head spun from how fast he moved her, and when she was able to focus her vision, she could see Frank’s eyes searching frantically over her face and her body.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her urgently, his grip on her shoulders bordering on painful. His eyes looked crazed, and she could clearly see a desperate fear lingering there. She had never seen a look like that before, and it sent chills through her body.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Veronica assured him softly, nodding her head.
She saw Frank relax little by little, and his eyes seemed to refocus, and finally see her clearly. He let out a soft rush of air, and suddenly brought Veronica close, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight to his chest.
“Sorry,” he said, his voice a little shaky. “I’m not always good with loud noises. Grew up in some bad homes, bad neighborhoods… lost a few people close to me.”
Veronica felt dazed and at a loss for how to handle this situation, so she could only hold him tighter. She could feel the muscles in his back relax as she held him and she felt her heart soften just a little more. She heard Frank take in a breath, and she felt him begin to pull back from her.
He looked down at her and gave her a gentle smile, cupping her face in the palm of his hand. Veronica gave him a small smile of her own. She felt like they were kindred spirits, having finally found each other after spending thousands of years separated from one another.
Frank broke their gaze to glance into the sink, and Veronica blinked as the spell was broken.
“Oh, I’ll take care of that,” Veronica immediately spoke up, moving to gather up the broken glass. She kept her eyes locked on the shards, and carefully wrapped them in a hand towel before depositing them in the garbage.
All the while, she felt Frank’s eyes on her, and she felt her skin begin to crawl deliciously. She looked up from the trash, and her eyes immediately linked with his. They stood in silence, and Veronica wondered just how much longer she could take the tension brewing between them.
“I need to shower before I make breakfast,” Veronica said softly, looking for just about any excuse to extricate herself from her current situation.