Sophie ate well. She had a whole week to make up for, and Alena seemed intent on spoiling her. The olives, cheese, tomato, baguette, cured meats and roast lamb seemed to stretch forever, but Sophie wasn’t complaining.
It was a relief, though, when dusk fell over the island, casting a pale golden glow over the villa, which gradually gave way to darkness.
Sophie settled with her iPad and was about to email her sisters when the phone began to ring. It was late, and she didn’t want Alena to be disturbed, and so she scrambled for the handset.
It was at that exact moment that Alex arrived back at the Villa. His day had been long, though fruitful. He had selected an excellent candidate for Helena. A woman with miles of experience, and a distinctly unglamorous bearing. She would be of little interest to Eric; the children and Helena would be safe.
He reached for the phone instinctively, grabbing it just as the ringing stopped.
“It’s me.”
He froze in the hallway as he recognised Eric’s voice instantly.
“Eric, is everything okay?”
“I suppose so.” Alex grimaced. His old friend was grumbling like a child.
“What’s the matter?”
“We miss you.”
“I miss you, too. I was almost in tears today, thinking of those boys.” Of course, missing the twins had only been a part of her sulking. Mainly, it had been her husband she’d been thinking of.
There was a long silence, heavy with Eric’s worry.
“Eric, how’s Helena?”
“That’s what I’m calling you about.”
“What is it?”
Something in Sophie’s voice caught Alex’s attention. She was worried. He gripped the handset tightly.
“Did you tell Alex anything?”
“No!” She sighed softly, and Alex could just picture her, the way her beautiful mouth would have swelled around the soft exhalation of breath.
“You mustn’t. I’ve been thinking about it. He would never forgive me.”
A dark emotion coursed through Alex.
“Eric …”
“I mean it, Sophie. It has to stay between you and me. At least until I’ve talked to Helena. Promise me.”
“Eric …”
“Promise me!” Eric’s tone was desperate.
“Eric, this is no one’s fault.”
Alex clenched a fist by his side. Is that seriously how his wife was justifying an affair with a married man.
“Alex would be furious. With both of us.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” She sighed again, but this time, it was loaded with angst. “I almost told him this morning, Eric.”
“You did what? Sophie, don’t be crazy! He’ll shoot the messenger. If anyone’s going to have this conversation with him, it’s me.”
“But I hate lying to him. I hate keeping it from him. Don’t you think he deserves to know?”
“I think it will make an enormous, dramatic mess if you get him involved.”
“He is involved! He’s my husband. And Helena’s brother.”
“Yes, and he is my friend.”
Sophie sobbed. “This is such a mess. We have to do what’s right, Eric.”
“Then just … don’t do or say anything yet. Not until I work out what to do about Helena.” Eric made a frustrated sound. “This would be so much easier if we could meet in the kitchen for one of our late night sessions, wouldn’t it?”
She smiled as she remembered their shared love of coffee and the midnight hours. “I’ll try to get over to see you all soon.” She thought of how lonely she’d been that day. “Perhaps next time Alex is travelling.” She would do anything to avoid being alone in the house without him, rattling around like a lovesick teenager.
Alex disconnected the call silently and stood, staring at the white wall opposite.
Everything he had thought to be true had just been confirmed, and in the most treacherous manner! To hear his wife and Eric casually discussing the hushing up of their affair – or worse, the continuation of it – was sickening.
He spun on his heel and walked back out the front door of his home. He needed to cool off before he saw her, or he wasn’t sure what he’d say. In that moment, he felt the angriest he’d ever been in his life.
“I’m sorry to bother you with this when you’re a loved up newlywed.”
She grimaced. “It’s fine. I know how worried you are. I just wish there was more I could do to help. The thing is, I know Alex would want to know. I know he would be able to help …”
“God, Soph. You’re his wife, but I’ve known him for years. When it comes to Helena, he is just totally controlling. If he thought her to be unhappy, he’d make it worse.”
“I just think you’re being unfair. He’s a great man. And he loves you both, not just Helena …”
Eric sighed. “I know. Just … let me try to get Helena on-board. Sometimes I think she realises how dire things are. Other times, she’s in complete denial.”
Sophie nodded. “Okay. I hear what you’re saying. But there has to be a time limit on it. I can’t keep this secret from the man I love for much longer.”
“It’s such a bloody mess. Helena just clams up whenever I mention it.”
“I know.” She nodded into her lonely bedroom. “We’ll work it out.”
She disconnected the call to Eric with no idea that her own life was the one in tatters; that Alex had overheard only part of the conversation and leaped to all the wrong conclusions.
Chapter 5
Three full days had passed with no word from Alex. Only a brief text message on his first night away to let her know he’d been held up. When she’d asked him when he expected to return to their home, he hadn’t responded. Nor had he responded to her call the next day. Nor her call the day after that.
Sophie’s loneliness and ache for him was now eating her alive. She sat at the kitchen table, staring unseeing at the ocean. How had she come to depend on him so completely in such a short period of time? Where was the strong, independent, world-travelling woman she’d prided herself on being? She was well aware that her moping was setting any kind of feminist movement back fifty years, and yet she was incapable of breaking the fog.
“I miss you.” The simple three words sat blinking on her phone. She hovered her finger over the send button. It was far too insipid for how she felt. Her body, having never known the kind of pleasure Alessandros was capable of invoking, was now in agony for the deprivation of it.
She tapped back over the keys and tried again. “I am in agony without you.”
Ugh! Far too needy. She dropped the phone to the table and focussed back on the ocean. It rolled in and out with a reassuring regularity. Sophie wondered distractedly what it felt like at that time of year? The days were still warm, though Autumn had officially begun and before long, a Christmas chill would settle over the continent. Even here in Greece, the seasons would shift.
Her phone buzzed and she scrambled for it with such haste that she sent her tea flying to the ground. She ignored the mess; it would wait. Her phone began to bleep, and she prayed, as she swished it open, that she would hear from her husband.
I will be home late tonight.
Sophie read the words with a strange feeling of confusion.
Where was the emotion? Where were the ‘x’s he had signed off with previously? At least, she thought with a small flicker of pleasure, he would be back. Then everything would feel normal. Then, it would be fine.
Feeling like even more of a traitor to womanhood in general, she quickly mopped up her tea and then set about preparing for him. Thoughts of dinner fled from her mind completely; instead, she thought only of Alex. She wandered the garden and collected wildflowers. Frangipani, hibiscus, and the spiky bougainvillea that grew rampant over one side of his villa, all pulled together to make a bright and fragranced arrangement. She set it on his side of the bed, and then bathed in the beautiful milk and honey lotion he’d given her as part of her
wedding present. She shaved her legs and moisturised them until they were soft and silky, and styled her hair into a loose bun at her nape.
She wore only a simple black dress, low cut at the front and scooped at the back, it fell to her knees with a little kick, drawing attention to her slender form.
And then, she waited. Nine o’clock came and went. Ten o’clock followed. And then eleven. It was almost midnight when Alex finally returned. Perhaps he hadn’t expected her to wait up for him, because he walked into the house silently. Sophie, from the armchair in the lounge, watched as he placed his keys on the sideboard and then ran a hand over his neck.
He looked … wonderful. And yet tired, too. He’d undone his tie and it was loose around his neck. His shirt was unbuttoned to reveal a strong column of neck and some coarse hair, which she knew ran down the middle of his taut waist, into his pants. Sophie felt her body stir instantly at the thought of his nakedness.
He stood in the hallway for a very long time. Not moving, not doing anything, except thinking.
Had something happened? Was something the matter? She ached for him in a way that she hadn’t known possible, and yet she stayed where she was. Though he was her husband, his absence had done something to her confidence. She no longer felt, as she had done only days earlier, as though she had a right to touch him.
As though he could feel her intent gaze, his eyes lifted quickly and landed on her with a sharp, searing inspection. And Sophie gasped. Her stomach was in knots; her heart was pounding into her ribs.
“Hi.” It was a strangled whisper; a plea into the night air.
He walked towards her slowly. Sophie might have even said reluctantly. And when he was close enough, she breathed in deeply and let his intoxicating fragrance soothe her nerves. Only it didn’t. Her body lurched with remembered sensations and she found herself standing on autopilot.
“Where have you been?” Her anguish was obvious in her voice. He ignored it.
“I told you. I was held up.”
His words were spoken with unmistakable coldness. She tried to ignore it, but a sense of uncertainty was haunting her.
“Did you … did you find a nanny?”
“A nanny?” He dragged his dark gaze over his wife. She looked better than he remembered and he loathed the way his body responded to her, with a shocking degree of awareness and need.
“For Eric and Helena?”
At the mention of her lover, something inside of Alex snapped. Sanity? Temper? He lifted his hands to the flimsy straps of her dress and slid them down her arms, without taking his eyes from her face.
“Yes.”
“Oh, good. I’m glad. The boys are such a handful. They’ll need help now that I’m here. With you.” She was babbling. Her dress had fallen to the floor. She was completely naked before him and he was looking at her as though for the first time.
“I’ve missed you.” She was begging him to say it back. To say something that would quell the pooling uncertainty that was filling her heart and mind.
“Let us see how much.”
“What do you mean?”
His eyes stayed on hers, and there was a faintly mocking quality to them.
“I mean, my dear, beautiful wife, that I want to fuck you until you scream this house down. And then I want to fuck you again.” His anger was a force riding high with his desire, and he enjoyed using the harsh language with her. “If you would be so kind as to undress me.”
“I …” Her eyes flashed briefly with the hurt that was in her heart but she told herself to ignore it. Hadn’t she been craving him with a desperate hunger? Now he was home, and the first thing he wanted was to make love to her. Sure, she wanted more than sex, but for the moment, sex would at least answer one of her needs.
Her fingers trembled as she unbuttoned his shirt. He watched with growing impatience as she fumbled with the buttons and then slid it from his body. When she knelt to attend to his pants, he groaned in anticipation. She was slow, but it only added fuel to the fire of his need. He undressed with an economy of movement, then put his hands down to pull her to standing.
Only she stayed at knee level, her big eyes looking up at him. Her cheeks were flushed; she was eye-height with his arousal and it was confronting.
“I … Alex …”
“Yes, Sophie?”
Sophie told herself she must be wrong. He wasn’t being condescending. He was … being Alex. Bossy, controlling, domineering, impatient, wonderful Alex. “I’ve never, um, done this, but …” Her blush deepened as her fingers wrapped hesitantly around his length. She moved her mouth forwards and tentatively she took his tip into her silky moistness. His body flinched in automatic response to the sweet contact. Instinctively, she ran her tongue around his tip and then took more of him in her mouth.
Alex groaned softly and his hands tangled in her hair, against her scalp, as she showed him that, whatever she claimed, she was either startlingly experienced or gifted with all forms of intercourse. He stepped backwards before he lost control altogether and masked his features with effort. “This is not the time to learn to ride a bike.”
Sophie was confused. And hurt. That much was obvious in the way her features crumpled. He hated how much pleasure he took from that fact. It was beneath him. Or it should have been.
“Was it not … I mean … I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
She stood and turned away from him, her breathing ragged. The embarrassment was licking through her and Alex almost weakened. Only the memory of her treachery and dishonesty made it impossible for him to view her with anything other than contempt.
“I am not in the mood to be patient for release, Sophie. It has been three long days.”
“Tell me about it,” she snapped, spinning back to face him, her cheeks pink and her eyes shimmering with the threat of tears.
“I would rather show you,” he said darkly, stalking towards her and linking his fingers through hers. He pulled her hand and then he kissed her with a dark intensity, his tongue almost punishing in her mouth. But she groaned and her leg lifted to curve around his back. He took advantage of her posture to slide a finger inside her warmth. She was so wet and ready for him that he moaned against her.
He didn’t want to wait until they reached his bedroom. He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her body to his, and pressed her back onto the lounge suite. When she was flat on her back, he stood and looked at her. She was so beautiful it hurt.
“Do you trust me?”
The question burned into her brain. Did she? In that moment, she was feeling a conflicting range of emotions. But she nodded, and licked her lower lip.
“Good.” He cast about until his eyes landed on his belt. He bent to retrieve it and then wrapped it around her wrists, looping it through the leg of the marble occasional table that sat behind her.
“Alex?”
His smile was brief. “You will enjoy it.”
“I just want to feel you.”
“And you will. Eventually.”
He stood back again to admire the view of his wife, tied and panting beneath him. Yes. He was going to pleasure her, and pleasure her again. He hovered his body over hers and ran his tongue from her lips, down her chin, to the cleft between her breasts. Her breathing was already rushed. When he began to lace his tongue lower, tracing invisible lines down past her belly button, to the hair-softened apex at the top of her thighs, she cried out and writhed.
She had almost driven him insane with the intimate kiss she’d given him. Now, it was his turn. His tongue ran between her folds, seeking her most intimate core. She bucked hard against him, her shock fierce.
He laughed against her and continued his invasion, using his fingers to give him access. Sophie was almost wild with pleasure. Arrows of heat and desire and need were barbing against her skin. She dug her heels into the sofa and cried out loudly, begging Alex. Begging him to take her. She ripped at her wrists but the leather of the belt against the weight of the marb
le held her perfectly imprisoned. He moved one hand up to her breasts and he squeezed a nipple until she felt stars in her eyes. The pleasure was the most magnificent thing she’d ever experienced. She needed more. She needed everything.
“Please, Alex, please. I’m begging you.”
“Have you ever felt like this, my wife?”
“No,” she shouted, not wondering why he’d ask such a question.
“Has anyone ever made you scream like this?”
“No.”
“Do you want me?”
“Yes! Shit! Please!”
He laughed and then lifted his mouth higher, to her other breast. He took it in his mouth and brought his arousal tantalisingly close to her entrance. Sophie lifted her hips, trying desperately to take him in deep, to feel him inside her, but he kept moving out of her reach.
“Please,” she whispered over and over, as her orgasm began to make her brain fog.
“Use my name,”
“Alex,” she substituted, and now she said his name, over and over again.
“Say, Alex, fuck me.”
She blinked her eyes open, confusion breaking the spell for the briefest of moments. He moved just inside her, and then pulled back out again. His desertion made her moan.
“Say it.”
“Please fuck me.”
“Alex, fuck me,” he corrected.
“Alex, fuck me,” she repeated through gritted teeth. She pulled at her wrists, a dark emotion combining with her total, rampant need for him.
“Yes,” he muttered. “Good girl.”
He drove his length into her hard, so that her breasts wobbled and her body shuddered. She cried out in relief as finally she felt his whole length in her body.
“More, please.”
“Alex, fuck me,” he reminded her.
“I don’t understand.”
“This is what I want you to say to me, from now on.”
“But …”
He pulled out of her, his dark eyes glinting as he stared stubbornly at his wife. His own desire was obvious. His cheeks were dark beneath his tan and his arousal was rock hard. And yet he stayed away from her as though it were as easy for him as anything in the world.
Billionaire Brides: Four sexy cinderella romances Page 26