An Innocent Affair (16 page)

Alex almost carelessly trailed his finger in a bowl of avocado dip. He raised his finger to his mouth and sucked slowly and voluptuously at the creamy mixture.

It was unbearably erotic watching him. She could feel the heat creeping over her body, clouding her brain with a sensual fog. He dipped his finger in once more and offered it to her.

‘Try some.' There was no mistake about it; he knew exactly what he was doing to her. Hope shook her head mutely. ‘I insist. Open up, good girl,' he coaxed. His insidious voice should have carried a government health warning.

His slate-grey eyes were smoky with desire as he leaned forward in an intimate manner towards her, ignoring her small squeak of agitated protest.

‘Isn't that good?' he asked throatily as he withdrew his finger. ‘Did you like it?'

Like it! She took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I'll ask Mum for the recipe for you. I've got a sweet tooth myself,' she babbled.

‘Then we could try—'

‘Stop it Alex!' She caught hold of her hat and flung it aside. Stretching the tense muscles of her neck, she ran both hands through her hair and shook the golden
cloud fiercely. ‘Despite what you think, I'm not mistress material. I don't go out with married men.'

‘I'm not married.'

She stopped and stared, not believing her ears.
‘What?'

‘I'm not married.'

‘Rebecca…'

‘Rebecca married someone else, not me. In fact she married her ex-husband. She was
never
marrying me.'

‘You let me think—' The anger exploded in her head. All those miserable lonely nights with only her wretched imagination as company. ‘You rat!' she spat in a low, intense voice. ‘You low, despicable excuse for a man!' she continued, warming to her theme. ‘Have you got
any
idea what I've been going through? Of course you have,' she said, answering her own question. ‘You probably enjoyed it!'

Silently he pointed to his jaw. Alex was taking her flamboyant loss of control in his stride. In fact, if she hadn't known better she would have said he looked
relieved.

‘I wouldn't lower myself,' she yelled, suspecting he was almost amused by her outburst. It was tempting, though—so tempting.

Her hands balled into fists at her sides. Inspiration came in a flash. She reached forward and grabbed a fistful of the pale green dip and flung it at him. All her pent-up emotions went into the gesture. With an open mouth she watched it drip down the front of his charcoal-grey jacket onto his polished leather shoes.

He looked down expressionlessly. ‘Feel better?' He flicked the buttons of his jacket open with an expression of distaste.

‘I was aiming for your face.'

‘What you need is a steady hand.'

Hope let out a shriek of protest as the cream hit her nose dead centre. ‘Why, you…!'

‘Oh, no, you don't.' The hand she'd refilled with viscous mess was captured in an iron grip. She found herself firmly propelled backwards until she was pinned against the wall. She aimed a few wild kicks, several of which collided with his shins, before she finally subsided, her chest heaving with emotion.

‘If this is going to be a contact sport,' she complained, panting hard, ‘I think you've got an unfair weight advantage. Let me go, Alex,' she said, eyeing the closed door nervously. If anyone walked in now… ‘I'm a mess. I've got to get cleaned up.' Now that her temper had begun to subside she could appreciate how embarrassing her present position was.

‘Let me.' He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and began to wipe the sticky mess from her face. Even though her hands were free, Hope didn't move as he tenderly dabbed her face clean. ‘It's in your hair. Such lovely hair.' His light touch and soft words spun a gossamer web of sensual lethargy.

‘It's not natural, you know. I have highlights in the winter.' His expression scared her. Or was it her own eager response to the primal hunger in his eyes that scared her more? ‘And I dye my eyelashes.'

‘Now she tells me.'

‘This isn't a joke, Alex.'

‘It's disillusioning,' he admitted, ‘but…'

‘This isn't funny,' she protested weakly as his fingers moved down the graceful curve of her throat. ‘I hate you.'

Alex's questing fingers discovered a sticky area on her throat. ‘I missed a bit.' Then he applied his tongue to the area in question. It was only his hands under her armpits that stopped her sliding to the floor. The sensations that ripped through her body were scalding.

‘The best syllabub I've ever tasted.' Hope willed her knees to take her weight as Alex placed his hands flat against the wall on either side of her head. ‘Do you want to try some?'

His throaty offer planted a clear image in Hope's mind of her lapping up the sticky confection before it melted on the warm surface of his skin. ‘No!' she gasped, as though he'd just made an indecent suggestion.

‘I thought you were more adventurous than that.' The mocking note in his low, frankly wicked chuckle would have made her protest strongly had he not fused their lower bodies together without warning.

‘You're a very bad man,' she said huskily. The pressure against the sensitive area of her groin was indescribable. It offered her a small degree of comfort to know that his desire was no less urgently agonising.

‘I will be bad if that's what you like,' he promised throatily.

‘It's you I like,' she cried suddenly. ‘Oh, Alex.' With a sob she linked her fingers behind his head and kissed him. A growl reverberated low in his throat as his lips parted to admit the determined trespass of her tongue.

Hope twisted sinuously to press her body closer to his. ‘You can keep the syllabub—I'll eat you.' The arms around her ribcage tightened painfully as she whispered brokenly in his ear.

‘Uncle Adam said we couldn't start eating until everyone was ready. Why are they allowed to?'

‘Just look, Uncle Sam. They've made a mess too,' an identical voice added.

Hope stared helplessly back at the accusing stares of Adam's identical twin nephews, one of whom sat on the shoulders of Sam Rourke.

‘We… We…' She cast a wild look of appeal towards Alex.

‘We were hungry.' Alex met her reproachful glare with a very definite sink-or-swim expression.

‘So much for chivalry! Thanks a lot. And if you laugh again, Sam Rourke, I'll…' She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him resentfully.

‘Sam, you'll have to keep these two away from the food or there won't be—' Anna stopped, her eyes widening as she took in the implications of the scene before her. ‘Oh, this is where you got to, Hope. I was about to send Adam out to find you.'

‘Alex found her. And the poor girl was starving, so he—'

‘Sam!' Anna said, trying unsuccessfully to restrain her laughter.

‘I'm so glad I was able to provide you all with entertainment,' Hope choked. ‘Don't let it worry you that it's at my expense. I thought
you
at least had more tact,' she said to Sam.

This was too much for Anna, who folded up as laughter shook her.

‘I'm going to clean up,' Hope said with icy dignity.

‘I'd take the back stairs if I were you,' her sister called after her.

Hope followed this advice.

 

She stared at her reflection in the mirror and tried to sort out her jumbled thoughts. He wasn't married. That wasn't the only change in circumstances. He wasn't under any illusions about how she felt either. It was a bit late to cultivate an air of mystery after she'd virtually ravished the man.

‘What happens next?' she asked out loud. She spun around as she saw the flicker of movement on the periphery of her vision. ‘You! How did you get in?' She'd definitely locked the door.

Alex waved a key at her. ‘Anna gave it to me. This bathroom is shared by two rooms, remember.

‘My sister's nothing but a rotten traitor.'

‘If she hadn't provided the key I'd have battered down the door.' This wasn't macho posturing; he was simply stating a fact. ‘If I'd followed you the last time you ran off we'd both have been saved two weeks of hell.'

Hell? He'd been in hell? This news made her feel suddenly optimistic. ‘Colorado at this time of the year is delightful. I even got a chance to ski.'

‘I know. I saw the pictures in the gossip columns. Is it the financier or the European prince you're going to marry? There was some dispute over that.'

‘Neither!'

‘I think you're probably wise,' he agreed smoothly. ‘He was a very minor prince, and the rich guy's dollars couldn't buy him a chin.'

If she hadn't felt so tongue-tied she'd have done something to deflate his intolerable confidence. ‘What do you think you're doing?'

‘Locking the door. So we won't be disturbed.' He proceeded to block the door which still
did
have a key with his broad-shouldered bulk.

‘Give me that key—immediately!'

‘If you want it—get it.' She stared incredulously as he dropped it deliberately down the front of his conservative grey trousers.

‘Alex!'
she said in strangled voice. ‘I can't believe you just did that.'

‘I know it's not original. Women in those old forties movies dropped vital items down their cleavages all the time. Call this my bid for equality between the sexes. Blushes like that can't do your sophisticated image any good.'

‘You're the only one who makes me blush.'

‘That's nice,' he said with a smug smile.

‘It's not at all nice,' she contradicted hotly. ‘It's awful. You specialise in putting me at a disadvantage.'

‘It feels like that because you love me.'

‘I
what?
' she squeaked in a strangled voice. She worked really hard to achieve a scornful expression, but her facial muscles wouldn't co-operate. He knows! God, of course he knows, she told herself angrily. I haven't been exactly subtle.

‘You heard me. And I'm not opening this door until you admit it.'

‘You're the most arrogant man I've ever met.'

‘You'll get used to it. I'm too old to change.'

He wasn't going to start on that tired old age-gap theme, was he? ‘You're not too old for anything—' She stopped, an arrested expression stealing over her face. ‘What do you mean, I'll get used to it?' she asked cautiously.

‘We don't have to get married straight away. Or not at all, if you prefer it that way.' Why hadn't she seen it before? Under the casual nonchalance he was as uncertain as she was, and feeling his way just as tentatively. This revelation put quite a different slant on his behaviour.

‘Is this a proposal?'

‘I can't ask you to marry me, Hope.'

After all this? Don't let him be married after all, she prayed. ‘Why not?'

‘I can't take the risk of you saying no. I'm not sure how I'd live my life if you weren't part of it—the most important part.'

Nobody had
ever
looked at her that way. She felt as if she'd explode with sheer happiness and relief.

‘Say
something,
' he growled.

She couldn't respond. Her throat was closed over with emotion and her mind was still stunned with the power of his blunt declaration.

‘You think this is
funny?
' You laid your heart and soul on the line for a woman and she laughed. ‘I'll—'

‘Strangling me would defeat the objective, wouldn't it? Oh, Alex, I'm not laughing—I'm crying,' she sniffed, blotting her shining eyes with the back of her hand. ‘With happiness, you idiot,' she cried lovingly.

‘Thank God for that,' he breathed. His shoulders slumped with relief and he held out his arms.

With a sob, Hope walked straight into them. They closed around her as though he'd never let her go. A scenario Hope could find no immediate fault with.

‘Oh, Alex, I love you.' Her heart-felt declaration chased away the last shadow of vulnerability from his face.

‘I told you so.' There was a fierce, predatory gleam of satisfaction in his eyes as he kissed her hungrily.

‘Hold on, hold on,' he said, drawing away slightly. ‘Let's get something straight. You're not just after me for my body?' His laughing eyes were narrowed suspiciously

‘Are you playing hard to get?' It was strange to get used to a man who could lift her off the ground and swing her around as though she was a featherweight.

‘A man's got his pride.'

‘I haven't,' she said huskily, the smile fading from her lips. ‘Not where you're concerned. I've spent the last week thinking you were married to Rebecca. How could you let me think…?'

‘Honestly, love, when I bribed Jonathan to bring you to the restaurant that night, I didn't think for a second you'd jump to that conclusion.'

‘You
bribed
Jon?'

Alex winced. ‘That sort of slipped out. If you must know, I had to see you—and that was the best way I could think of doing it.'

‘What did you bribe Jon with?'

‘There's a waiting list of nearly five years for the Matheson model he wants and Harkness was on the bottom of it. He's driving round in a shiny new sports car today.'

‘That's corrupt!'

‘Let's not be hasty. That's expedient. To get you I was prepared to bend the rules a lot further than that.'

She wouldn't have been human if she hadn't been flattered by the elaborate lengths he'd been prepared to go to see her. She accepted the ruthless streak in his personality, knowing it was always tempered by a sensitive, generous aspect.

‘You let me carry on thinking…' His taut, mobile mouth fascinated her.