His lips brushed over hers, lightly, teasing, until a soft sound of desire, of passion, erupted from her throat. She slid her fingers into his thick hair and pulled his head down.
His response was electric. His arms tightened and his mouth opened and settled over hers. He thrust his tongue inside with hungry insistence, and she answered his unspoken, intimate challenge willingly. The kiss could have lasted for a moment or much longer, but soon it was not enough for either of them.
His breathing was harsh and irregular when he moved back. His eyes never leaving hers, he sat on the edge of the bed.
She needed no urging to move forward to stand between his thighs. Her khaki skirt buttoned and zipped in the back. He loosened the fastenings, but instead of letting it fall to the floor, he found his way to the hem.
She inhaled sharply when his long fingers leisurely climbed the backs of her thighs, spreading slow heat. When he cupped her bottom in his big hands and squeezed lightly, she thought her poor heart was going to surge right out of her chest. Her knees felt shaky and insecure.
Her head fell back and she closed her eyes, allowing the room to spin crazily. “I think I would like to sit down,” she murmured, a touch of anxiety in her voice.
Luke smiled and sat her on his knee. His arm, around her back, his palm flat on her belly, offered support and strength. “Is that better?” he asked tenderly, nibbling at her earlobe, his breath warm.
“Yes.” She put her hand on top of his, linking her fingers between his, warmly, affectionately.
One-handed, he turned his attention to the buttons of her blouse, making short work of them. When he parted the sides, though, he made a sound of distress.
She looked at him. “Luke?” His head was down and he was staring at her. She unlinked their fingers and put her hand on his cheek to turn his face toward her. “Is something wrong?” she asked, concerned.
“No, nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect, including you, my beautiful Alexandra.” He fisted his fingers in her hair and kissed her, his mouth rough and greedy. Then he stood her on her feet, hastily stripped off her shirt and skirt. She stood before him, clad only in a fragile undergarment.
His hands shook slightly as he touched the delicate straps of her teddy. His smile held a bit of mystery. For a moment, she wondered what had prompted it, then she forgot everything as he peeled the straps off her shoulders, baring her breasts to his avid gaze. The delicate silk and lace followed the rest of her clothes to the floor.
Very gently, very tenderly, as though she were an infinitely precious piece of porcelain, he lifted her. His knee depressed the edge of the mattress as he laid her on the bed. A thin film of perspiration appeared on his forehead.
Alexandra resisted the very real urge to cover herself while his gaze burned a path from her eyes to her toes. “I’m not a girl.”
Luke’s gaze met hers with understanding. “No, thank heavens, you are not,” he said firmly, leaving her with no more doubts, no more concerns, about how she looked to him. “You are a woman, a sexy, provocative, glorious woman.” Hands on each side of her head, he leaned down to cover her lips with his.
There was no slow, easy dawdling with his own clothes. Like hers, they were still damp, and his impatience grew, until he finally tore them off and left them in a heap beside the bed.
He was magnificent. His broad chest was hair-roughed and muscular. His hips were slim and his sex was strong and ready for her.
As she was ready for him. She opened her arms and felt the weight of his unclothed body with a swell of desire and recognition that filled her to overflowing. He took the weight of her breast, tasted her. His long fingers tested the dampness between her thighs.
Her own hands were impatient, too. Her nails made trails across the skin of his solid chest until she came to his flat nipples. He groaned as she teased them to hard budding life.
Suddenly, his mouth, his hands were everywhere, tasting, touching, stroking her to a fever pitch. His strong white teeth nipped delicately; his tongue painted her sensitive places with warm moisture. He stoked the fires within her until she thought she would be consumed.
“Luke! Please...” She arched her back with the whispered demand. Her thighs were lax and ready to part; he found the back of her knee and, with one hand, lifted it, at the same moment, sliding his body into the cradle of her femininity.
“Ah, Alexandra, you’re so sweet,” he breathed. “So...” he caught his breath when she moved “...tight.”
His thrusts were slow at first, but her excitement, and the fires within them both, built quickly and would not be denied. She soared wildly, pressing his spine with both hands to bring him even deeper.
“Allie, oh, Allie—”
Luke’s hoarse cry signaled the climax that came quickly, simultaneously for them both. They rocketed to another universe, where stars exploded and bodies were reduced to convulsive energy.
When they finally returned to something resembling reality, when their breathing was fairly regular, he asked, “Are you all right?”
Alexandra lay sprawled on her back. Luke had moved just enough so he wouldn’t crush her, but not enough that she felt abandoned.
She felt spent and dewy and altogether wonderful. “I’m fine. I’m fabulous, as a matter of fact.”
* * *
“Where are you going?” he asked, folding his hands under his head and enjoying the view.
Alexandra had on a short, white silk kimono. She’d lost the belt. It was interesting to watch her try to hold it together while she gathered up their clothes. “I’m going to put our clothes in the dryer before they grow mildew,” she told him.
“Problem is, I don’t have any other clothes here.”
“And you wouldn’t want to have to go all the way home on a rainy day like this.”
“I wouldn’t have anything to wear home. Don’t forget this.” He leaned off the side of the bed and picked up her purple teddy from the floor. Holding it by one strap, he twirled it over his head, grinning the whole time.
She snatched it off his finger. “Thanks.” She eyed him measuringly. “I could probably improvise something with a few beach towels.”
He gave her a hurt look.
“Or you could just stay in bed until your clothes are dry.”
“Now, that sounds like a winner.” He settled back against the pillows again, linking his fingers under his head. “Will you bring me breakfast in bed?”
“Don’t push it, buster.”
* * *
“What is it? Are you having regrets?”
She turned her head on the pillow and smiled softly. Their breakfast tray lay on the floor. Luke had convinced her to come back to bed.
For Alexandra, who had been without sex for four years, it had not taken a lot to convince her. The experience last night had been overwhelming. The experience this morning was spectacular. Daniel had been a pleasurable lover, but Luke...she shook her head. She hadn’t known some of those things were possible.
“I didn’t know you were aware. No, no regrets.”
He turned on his back and pulled her beneath his arm. She wiggled a bit, settling herself with her hand on his broad chest.
“What, then?” he persisted. “You were wearing a pensive expression.”
“I was just thinking that last night—no, all of yesterday—was a wonderful intermission. But today I have to get back to worrying.”
“About David?”
“About him, about the threats, the danger. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost control of my life.” Her hand made a restless movement across his chest.
He covered it with his own. “Ah-h, your love of independence. You like to do all your worrying by yourself, with no need for someone else.”
She was still for a heartbeat. “Maggie’s been talking,” she said flatly. She would have pulled away, but he held her to his side.
“Maggie and I have been friends for a long time. She saw that I was becoming involved. She didn’t wan
t to see me hurt. That was all.”
Involved? she thought. How involved was he? This time she succeeded in freeing herself. She pulled the sheet over her breasts and sat up with her arms wrapped around her knees. “Involvement means dependency,” she said testily.
“Not necessarily.”
“Yes, it does,” she insisted, staring at the opposite wall, the blank television screen. “And I will not allow myself to be vulnerable like I was four years ago.
“Look at me now. I’ve lost control of my life. My son has had to go somewhere else to be safe. I can’t get into a car without another car following me. Everything is off track. It’s...unsettling.”
“Are you saying I took advantage of that?” he asked mildly.
She looked over her shoulder at him and almost melted at the sight. His hair was in disarray and he sported the beginnings of a beard. His tanned skin was dark against her white sheets. He lay with one muscular arm bent, his hand under his head.
He gave her a thin smile.
“That wasn’t what I mean, Luke.” But was it really? She faced the fact that she was growing dependent on this man, and not only for her physical safety. After last night, she knew was also growing to depend—she wouldn’t let herself use the word need—on him for emotional support. And she’d taken him to task because she’d been worried about David growing dependent, when the risk was really to her.
Last night was fantastic, glorious, extraordinary. It had awakened feelings in her that she’d thought were long-defunct.
Last night was something she hadn’t planned on.
She rested her forehead on her bent knees. “I want to be able to make you understand. Four years ago, I suddenly became chief foreman, overseer, supervisor of a family. Me alone. It scared the hell out of me.”
Suddenly, his understanding seemed the most important thing in the world to her. She straightened her spine, turned and faced him, sitting cross-legged. The sheet started to slip and she reanchored it firmly across her breasts. “Would it bother you to talk about Daniel?”
He seemed genuinely surprised. “No. Why should it? He was a big part of your life.”
“Then let me tell you about him. Maybe it will help you understand why I am so stubborn about this.
“Daniel was a leader. People respected him because he was also honorable and conscientious. But living with him was difficult in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him. I loved him very much. He was a wonderful husband.” She took a deep breath and went on, “He was older than I by several years. And he was always sure that he knew what was best for me.”
Luke was beginning to see the emerging picture here. He’d known men like that, strong men who—he broke off the thought as he recalled the day David left to go to West’s parents’ house.
He had been the one to take charge when the boy argued with his mother, he remembered with a real pang of regret. He’d been the one who knew what was best. He’d decided how the argument would end. He remembered, too, the expression, blank of emotion, on her face that day. Damn! He hadn’t understood.
“Follow my orders. Do as I say and don’t ask questions?” he offered.
She smiled a half smile. “Not quite that bad, but almost. At first, I didn’t mind. As a young wife, I got used to it.
“But when he died so unexpectedly, I discovered the many complicated things that make up a life-style, things I should have known and been prepared for, questions I should have asked.” Like the fact that the mortgage payment on their beautiful new house was too high for her to manage alone.
She sighed and plucked at a loose thread on the comforter. “Daniel left some insurance, enough to live on while I established my business. I’ve just gotten myself on solid footing, Luke. I have David’s college tuition to look forward to and plan for. Although, if he continues to do as well as he has, I hope he’ll get a scholarship. I wasn’t planning on getting involved with anyone.”
Suddenly, he sat up, too, and wrapped his arms around his knees. “I hadn’t planned on it, either, Alexandra. But it happened and I won’t run from the idea of...” He broke off. The idea of what? Commitment. Marriage. In his exasperation, Luke was about to reveal more of his emotions than he aimed to.
He had known a lot of women, but not many he would be willing to trust wholeheartedly enough to share his life. Only four, in fact. He’d learned his lesson with his mother by the time he was five. His sister was dead. Maggie was the third.
He still wanted the fourth, of course. He wanted her quite desperately. But he was no longer sure he could afford the emotional price.
He looked over his shoulder. She still sat cross-legged, with the sheet across her breasts. Her gorgeous hair spilled across the smooth, flawless skin of her shoulders; her lips were slightly swollen from his kisses, and red—beautifully, deliciously red.
Maggie was right. Their aims were very different. She could cause him a great deal of heartache. He should move back into David’s room until the FBI caught the men they were looking for.
He leaned back on one elbow, ignoring his own warning, and let a smile form on his mouth. He slid a hand under the sheet until he came in contact with a foot, a calf, a soft thigh.
“Luke? What are you doing?” She shimmied. “Oh!”
“What does it feel like I’m doing?” he inquired smoothly, his eyes falling to the sheet over her breasts. He tugged and it came away.
“Our clothes...I don’t...ah...”
Chapter 10
“Mom? This is David.”
Alexandra smiled to hear her son’s voice, glad that they could, at least, talk several times a day. “Hey, honey. How was school today? Did you get all your homework finished?”
“Yes, ma’am. Guess what, Mom? The Chadwicks have a swimming pool indoors. I just noticed it today. This place is big.”
“How wonderful,” she said weakly. He just noticed something as big as a swimming pool? “But you didn’t take your bathing suit, did you?”
“They have extras.”
“David, you are behaving yourself, aren’t you? Being helpful and not causing the Chadwicks any trouble? Remember, they are older.”
“Mo-om. She plays tennis every day on their courts behind the house, and he ran in last year’s Peachtree Road Race.”
“Oh.” She tried—and failed—to picture West’s parents. “Well, don’t forget to make your bed and hang up your clothes.”
“The Chadwicks have servants to do all that,” he said carelessly.
Alexandra was struck dumb for a minute. When she spoke again, there was more than a hint of asperity in her voice. “Do it, anyway. I wouldn’t want you to get out of the habit.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said David wearily. “How much longer do I get to stay here?”
She could have wished for a better-worded question. “I’m not sure, honey. It shouldn’t be much longer.”
“No problem, Mom,” David said. “As long as you’re okay,” he added hastily, almost as an afterthought. “Is Luke there with you?”
She looked at the man lounging comfortably on her sofa. The sunlight was streaming in over his shoulder.
He had gone home to shave and shower and change clothes. He was dressed in khaki pants and another blue dress shirt. He was reading the evening paper, his feet, in leather-tasseled loafers, crossed on an ottoman.
To an outsider, the scene would have appeared quite warm and domestic. She shook off the feeling of awareness that accompanied the thought. “I’m fine, honey, and Luke is here. Would you like to speak to him?”
Luke rose and encircled her waist with his arm as he took the telephone from her. “How are you doing, sport?” Alexandra heard the conversation, but only as background. Servants? Plural? She sighed.
“She really is fine, David. I hope this mess will be straightened out soon so you can come home.” He paused. “Here she is.” He handed the phone back to her. “He’s in a hurry.”
“Everything’s okay, then, Mom? I’ll call yo
u tomorrow. Miss you. Bye.”
“Miss you, too. Bye, honey.”
She let her hand rest on the receiver for a minute.
“He seems to be all right,” Luke commented.
“He’s having a ball,” she answered wryly. “The Chadwicks have an indoor pool and servants to pick up after him. I hope he’ll be able to readjust to real life when this is all over.”
Luke chuckled under his breath as he folded the paper and laid it aside. “I can understand how he would enjoy being in a house again.”
Alexandra paused on her way to a chair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Luke shrugged in an attempt to dismiss the subject. “Nothing important.”
But Alexandra wasn’t about to let him get away without explaining. She waited, watching him patiently. Finally, he said, “David doesn’t like condo living.”
“How do you know?”
“I can tell. That’s why he’s so interested in the house I’m building.”
Her knees suddenly felt weak. She sank into the chair. “He’s never complained to me.” She wished she hadn’t sounded so defensive, but she was surprised at the depth of her feelings. David had, in some small way, betrayed her and it hurt.
Why would he talk to Luke and not to her? She had watched as man and boy grew close. Though it was temporary, she had even been grateful for the masculine influence in David’s life. But now she was angry with herself for not having recognized her son’s feelings.
Abruptly she rose from her chair and headed in the direction of the hallway, not knowing why, or where, she was going, only knowing that she suddenly needed to be alone.
“Alexandra, I’m not going to let you run away.” He suited his actions to his words, catching her waist as she walked past him.
“I’m not running.”
He pulled her off balance, and she lost her footing, landing on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held on firmly.
“Let me go, Luke.”
“Not until we finish this discussion.”
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