In Bed with the Enemy (12 page)

‘Sorry.’ He’d peeled her arms from around his neck. ‘My wife’s waiting for me.’

Her mouth had fallen open, then she’d sneered. ‘You fool, Leon, you didn’t marry that little tramp you shacked up with just to spite me, did you?’

He hadn’t bothered to answer, just stared at her with all the disdain he could muster.

‘You did, didn’t you?’ She’d begun to laugh. ‘Just wait until I tell everyone that you married some little opportunist on the rebound. You’ll be laughed out of town, and nobody that’s anybody will accept her socially.’

Her words had compelled him to turn and walk away from her - because for the first time in his life he’d felt like hitting a woman. He’d been so angry he’d pulled a ticket for speeding on the way home, and had been required to take a breathalyser test.

‘Some wedding night,’ he muttered as he let himself into the house and found it in darkness. ‘Even my bride has gone to bed without me.’

She’d probably taken advantage of his absence to hide in the guest bedroom. He choked out a laugh as he strode towards the lounge in the darkness. She’d probably locked the door as well.

He wasn’t going to try and find out. He wasn’t into the mood for a knock back. One stiff drink and ... ‘
What the heck!’

He’d walked thigh high into something solid. The momentum of his upper body tipped him forward, his head and shoulders landed on something soft and his whole body was somersaulted over on to the floor. He lay there for a moment on his back, spread-eagled like a stranded starfish.

Darcie had obviously moved the furniture, he realized as he staggered to his feet and groped his way past unfamiliarly placed obstacles towards the hall.
‘Women,’ he fumed quietly. ‘Put a ring on their fingers and they take you over lock, stock and barrel.’

He took a quick shower, toweled himself dry, then padded naked through to the bedroom, using caution in case she’d set more traps for him.  “I’ll be damned,’ he said softly. Darcie was in his bed, sound asleep, her face bathed in moonlight.

A tender smile dispelled his bad mood as he gazed down at her. One hand rested against her cheek, the fingers curled against the palm. Sliding into bed he unfurled them and gently kissed her palm.

‘Go and sleep in your basket, Georgie,’ she muttered, then turned on her side away from him and curled into a ball.

Though sorely tempted, he’d promised her he wouldn’t push this. When love happened between them he wanted it to be perfect, not one-sided. He had no intention of giving her grounds to walk out of the marriage - even if he had to wait forever.

Not that he’d have to wait for long. He smiled. No healthy man and woman could sleep in the same bed and remain immune to each other. It just wasn’t natural. So he left her to her dreams, and managed snatches of sleep between his.

When he woke in the early hours she was in the same position she’d been on that first morning. One slim leg was curled over his hip, her arm had wound between his arm and waist and dangled provocatively against his stomach. She shifted against his body, the silky material covering her an erotic whisper against his skin.

Now I do have a problem, Mrs Price.
He suddenly grinned.
Or you have!

Keeping her thigh in place with a hand around her buttock, he turned carefully towards her. One moonbeam stroked light across their faces, joining them together.

He almost groaned when she snuggled herself against him, instantly available to her needs, and more than willing to provide for his own.

Unable to resist the urgency of the situation he whispered her name and gently kissed her. Her mouth parted, responding with a trembling eagerness, as it had the first time. Totally relaxed, she smelt and tasted wonderful as she wound her arms around his neck and sighed.

He held his breath when her eyes fluttered open. She smiled as she whispered, sleepily. ‘Who the hell are you?’

‘Would you believe, the three bears?’

‘All three, huh!’

She stretched against him in a sensuous, satiny slither that nearly finished him there and then, and gave a gurgle of laughter before she said hungrily, ‘Make love to me very slowly, Leon bear. I want to enjoy every delicious second.’ She was going to torture him by degrees - she was going to exact her revenge by keeping him waiting all night. I know her type. She’s into self-gratification!

‘But then again,’ she whispered, blowing his theory out the window as her fingers traced a shivering path down his spine. ‘Perhaps we should get to know each other over an entree, and proceed to the main course from there.’

What could a mere man do, but agree?

* * * *

Who ever said you could have too much of a good thing had been lying!

Leon’s skin was like fine burnished leather stretched over taut muscles. She was straddling his stomach, her knees firm against his hips. Sometime during the past half-hour he’d turned on the bedside light and dimmed it to a faint glow.

She could just make out his features in the eerie light, the intimacy of his eyes watching her, his faint smile when she teased herself against him.

Slowly his palms slid up over her thighs, over her black satin covering to caress the hard pointed tips of her breasts. She arched against the instruments of her pleasure, almost purring like a cat.

He came upright in one fluid movement and kissed her. ‘Let’s get this scrap of material out of the way. It’s teased me long enough.’

Obediently she held up her arms, but instead of pulling it completely off he trapped her inside it, rolled her on her back and kissed her through the filmy material. Excitement raced through her as his mouth slid lower, then his thumbs were circling her breasts and his mouth was tracing an erotic downward path of nerve endings.

She managed to escape from the garment, but was too late to stop him reaching his goal. This was something he’d hinted at earlier - something she’d indicated she was shy of, and had never experienced.

Yet when her fingers closed on his hair it was to keep him there, not to pull him away. She was, she realized, slightly tense and inhibited about this. The exquisite pleasure he was giving her now was insidiously erotic, yet cruelly soft. She allowed her body to relax, lulled into an almost hypnotic sense of well-being by the gentleness of it.

Her brain seemed to shut down, leaving only one specific portion of her body still living. How alive she was to this secretly intimate caress, she thought as she drifted off to a world of pleasure and warm moist caresses. No, not warm ... sort of sensual ... and mind blowing ... and

‘ .... That’s exquisite, Leo ... that’s absolutely ...
Oh, my God!’
She groaned, giving a long ecstatic shudder. Totally annihilated, she could only lie there in helpless abandonment when he came up for breath.

His eyes were dark and enigmatic as he pinned her hands to the pillow with his. She rose up to meet him, wrapped her legs around his hips and gazed into his eyes.

They made love like that, long and hard, her eyes gazing into his until the very last few ecstatic moments, when he slid his hands under her buttocks and supported her against his thrusting energy until they both climbed into a soaring climatic explosion.

A little later, when his breathing had slowed and she snuggled against his side, he whispered in her ear. ‘That was some entree, Mrs. Price. It calls for a celebration. I’ll fetch some champagne whilst you imagine what the main course will be like.’

She began to imagine whilst he threw on his robe and headed for the kitchen. She heard a cork pop, and then a few minutes later Leon handed her a glass of champagne. ‘Here’s to you, Darcie, you’re everything I ever dreamed of.’

She wished he’d said that he’d loved her, instead.

She gazed into his eyes as she sipped the bubbling liquid, enjoying its tart taste on her tongue and the cold trickling river that traced through her insides. She felt like laughing with sheer exhilaration

When the champagne was gone, Leon leaned forward and circled her mouth with the tip of his tongue.

Desire leapt like a tiger into her breast when he whispered, ‘I’ve got something really exotic on my mind ...

Far from being tired, Darcie was charged with energy when she woke.

It was early, the mist still rose from the surface of the river in eerie pale blue swirls as she eased the curtains across the windows so the morning light wouldn’t wake Leon.

Her eyes followed his outline under the covers. Some man she’d married - some lover! She caught herself grinning as she tiptoed from the room. Her imagination had never carried her half as far as he’d taken her.

After a quick shower she went through to the kitchen, stopping only to haul the lounge suit and side tables back to their original positions. 

Georgie rose from his basket to greet her, stretching back and front legs before taking up position at the door - an old sneaker dangling from his jaws. Anna must have given him them to play with, as the other, its sole hanging off, was in his basket.

‘I’ll see you at breakfast, huh!’ she called out as he bounded across the lawn, tossing the sneaker up in the air, and snatching it up again as soon as it reached the ground.

Making a pot of tea she carried it through to the bedroom, and placed it on the small table in front of the French windows.

‘Milk, no sugar,’ Leon said without opening his eyes.

‘I thought you were still asleep.’

His eyes opened just a chink. ‘It could be a fantastic dream, I suppose. Tell me, Darcie ... did I imagine us indulging in the most exquisite lovemaking I’ve ever experienced for most of the night?’

Married women shouldn’t blush, she told herself as she took his tea over to him. Yet she couldn’t believe she was married, couldn’t believe she’d spent most of the night making wild, glorious love with this tousled haired, sleepy-eyed stranger. What had she been thinking of?

 Who was she trying to kid? It hadn’t been making love; it had been having sex - and a feast of sex, at that! He’d gratified some of her secret fantasies - and she had plenty more he could indulge her in.

As she felt herself grow moist, the tips of her ears turned pink. She should have denied him - she shouldn’t have unlocked the door to the sensual side of her nature after keeping it under control for so long. Had he thought her too easy?

Don’t go prim and proper on me, Darcie. All the things nature designed you to enjoy, like lust and passion, are normal and healthy. Besides, you’re married. The ring he put on your finger makes it respectable.

She bristled for a moment. Who asked you for a lecture? I didn’t marry Leon to have respectable sex. Let me tell you ... he wouldn’t have had to try very hard to get me into bed, with or without the legalities.

That’s because he knows women and senses the heat in you. He wants children, and has more of less said that he regards you as a brood mare.

 Some stallion!
As she gazed at Leon’s taut reclining body a wave of carnal hunger shook her. She wanted to fall upon his body, sink her teeth into his flesh and eat him for breakfast - buttered on both sides like a toasted crumpet.

She gave a tiny shamed grin as her fingers reached out all by themselves, to touch his hair, to caress the sensuous curve of his mouth. The fine tremor he gave transmitted from her fingertips through her body.  His heat reached up and surrounded her - overpowered her. She’d read somewhere that men had the same component in their scent to attract the female, as roses had to attract bees. Pheromones it was called.

Leon’s pheromones had honed in on the receptors in her brain, making her nerves thrust lascivious little darts into her female bits.

Settle down ladies, you’re being too obvious!

It didn’t get any better when he lightly caressed the inside of her wrist after she set the cup shakily on the bedside table, and catching her gaze - kept it locked to his.

Everything in her became weak and there was no need for words - which was just as well because she was struck dumb by the thought that her sexual desire didn’t need anything but one look from him and a shove from those powerful pheromones.

Tea forgotten, they gazed at each other while he loosened her robe and slid his palms gently up over her hardening nipples. She stood quietly, letting him touch her until the ache of her wanting was a silent scream inside her and couldn’t be contained.

Gradually, she eased the sheet from his beautiful, aroused body, straddled herself across him and abandoned herself to the eroticism of his caresses.

But she wanted more than his hands, and leaned forward to place her aching breasts against his receptive mouth. His palms cupped each of her buttocks, easing her over him. Slowly teasing, he lowered her again, allowing her to accept him gradually until they were joined.

His fingers were busy at her breasts again, bringing her nipples to tingling erectness before teasing a trail gradually downward over each erotic point. 

He watched her reaction, his eyes deep and serious, a grin touching his mouth with each successive shudder she gave.

She felt helpless under that gaze, unsure and exposed. She closed her eyes for a second, giving an involuntary ecstatic little sigh as his fingers caressed their ultimate target.

She didn’t know how long she could stay like this, with his eyes watching her reaction, making aware of her feelings - of her helplessness in the face of nature. It was something she couldn’t control, as if Leon was intent on stripping every last inhibition from her, and was exposing it for what it was - a sham.

He succeeded wonderfully, revealing to her how sexual a being she was by demonstrating that thoughts didn’t matter, only feelings.

And she felt ... possessed by him, by her own cravings. Though she tried to bite it back, she couldn’t stop the wild ecstatic cry that left her lips, or the way her body began to move against his - as if it was trying to devour him.  Five incredible minutes later she was cuddled in his arms absolutely spent - and they were smiling into each other’s eyes.