'You agreed,' she said aggressively. 'I said nothing.'
'Morgan--- •'
'Yes?' She met his gaze defiantly,
A pulse beat erratically in his dark cheek. 'I'm trying hard to understand that your behaviour is because of the pain and loss you must be feeling today, but don't push me too far,' he warned softly.
'Don't pushjyow too far?' she repeated incredulously, angrily. 'I'm supposed to take any sort of insult this family dishes out, and you say I'm pushing you too far! Well, I have news for you—Oh!' she gasped as she was pulled roughly against the hardness of his body. 'Alex?' Her eyes were wide with apprehension at the fierceness of his expression.
'Yes—Alex,' he ground out, his eyes darkening almost to black as he looked down at her with savage intensity. 'God, Morgan, you're so beautiful!' he frowned, his head lowering as his lips claimed hers.
It was the last thing she had expected from this man, and her mouth parted in a gasp of surprise as his lips met hers, allowing him to deepen the kiss, to go further, deeper, into the moist recesses.
She had melted at his first touch, felt pleasure at the intimacy of his kiss as he continued the slow druging movement, curving her body into the hardness of his, his hands moving restlessly from her thigh to her breasts.
The kiss might have gone on for ever, might have become more than a kiss, both of them caught up in the breathless moment of passion. But the sound of a gasp from the open doorway had them pulling apart, to see Rita Hammond looking at them in horror.
CHAPTER FOUR
MORGAN was the first to move, pulling out of Alex's arms. For a moment they tightened about her, then he released her, turning to look at the woman in the doorway with steely eyes. 'Did you want something, Mother?' he asked coldly. Morgan had to admire his cool. Frankly, she was a little disconcerted herself. The kiss from Alex Hammond had been totally unexpected, her reaction volcanic. In fact, she couldn't ever remember responding to anyone as she had responded to Alex. Rita Hammond's interruption had been achingly unwelcome. Her mouth still throbbed from Alex's possession, her senses still aroused.
His mother drew herself up to her full impressive height. 'I came to tell you Uncle Simon is leaving. I had no idea I would be interrupting—something,' she looked at Morgan with haughty disdain, as if it were all her fault that she had walked in and found her son kissing her.
Alex strode over to the door. 'Shall we go downstairs, Mother?' he prompted hardly, giving no answer to her pointed reference to him kissing Morgan.
'I'd like to talk to Morgan—— 'It can wait,' he bit out abruptly.
'But--- '
Til talk to you later, Morgan.' Alex turned to her, cutting off his mother's protest. 'All right?' His voice had gentled. Er—yes,' she swallowed hard. 'Okay.' Alex took his mother with him, his hand firm on her elbow. Morgan was relieved at his thoughtfulncss; the last thing she needed was a run-in with Rita Hammond. Besides, she needed to assimilate her own feelings.
Alex Hammond had always seemed so distant, so remote, she couldn't believe he had kissed her with tuch passion. And she had kissed him back. It hadn't been an ordinary kiss cither; his mouth on hers had affected her like no other. She was adult enough to realise that something momentous had happened to her when Alex kissed her. She was also adult enough to realise she didn't welcome the complication of being sexually attracted to him. How could she even attempt to fight him over Courtney when he affected her this way, when he would only have to touch her for her to melt in his arms and give him anything he asked for— including herself! It was unbelievable, incredible, and yet she knew it was true.
The guests were starting to leave when she at last went downstairs, and she saw with some relief that Janet and her husband had already left. Although Rita Hammond eyed her with dislike, and Morgan couldn't quite meet that accusing gaze, feeling almost guilty. Which was ridiculous. Alex had initiated that kiss— she bad merely responded! And she would again if he should ever want to kiss her again; she knew that even though they argued constantly that Alex was the first man ever to elicit that unreserved response from her. Rita Hammond watched the two of them closely during dinner, almost as if she expected them to be unable to keep their hands off each other. Morgan held back her amusement with effort, although Alex looked angry by his mother's behaviour.
'Will you come to my study for a while?' he requested huskily of Morgan after the meal. 'I'd like to talk to you before you leave tomorrow.' Her pulse began beating faster at the thought ofbeing alone with him again, and she wondered if he would kiss her.
'Surely whatever you have to say to Morgan can be said in front of me, Alex?' his mother put in curtly.
'No,' he pulled back Morgan's chair for her as she stood up, 'I don't think it can.'
The older woman flushed. 'Why not?'
He viewed her arrogantly. 'If I were to tell you that I wouldn't need to talk to Morgan alone.'
'Then---- '
'If you'll excuse us?' Alex said tautly.
'But, Alex--- '
'Later, Mother,' he dismissed hardly, manoeuvring Morgan out of the room with his hand firm on her elbow.
Morgan studied him beneath lowered lashes. He certainly was forceful! When he said no one argued with him, he really meant no one. Rita Hammond had looked furious!
And Alex looked magnificent, his black dinner suit fitting him superbly, emphasising the lean strength of his body, the white silk shin making his skin appear darker. Morgan wondered why she hadn't been aware of his attractiveness earlier.
A small fire had been lit in the study, the evenings beginning to cool to autumn now. Morgan moved to the chair opposite his across the desk, unconsciously graceful in the clinging black dress, her arms and throat bare, the dress caught over one shoulder in a Grecian style.
'Come and sit over here,' Alex invited huskily, standing next to the leather sofa in front of the fire. 'It's more comfortable.'
She frowned, but stood up to move to the sofa anyway, feeling a sense of surprise as he sat next to her, his thighs almost touching hers. Almost .. . That made her more aware of him than ever! 'Do I need to be more comfortable?' she asked lightly.
He grimaced. 'For what I have to say, yes, I think to.'
Morgan instantly tensed. 'It sounds ominous.'
'I'm hoping not,' he said dryly. 'My talk concerns Courtney.'
'Of course. Now why should she feel disappointment in that? Courtney was the only reason she was in England. Wasn't he ...?
'Although my problem of solving the problem is unorthodox,' he added reluctantly.
'Courtney is a little young for boarding-school,' she derided.
There was no answering smile from Alex, just a renewed tightening of his mouth. 'I don't plan to send him to boarding-school—ever,' he bit out.
Morgan's eyes widened. 'I thought all you Hammonds went to boarding-school?' she frowned.
'Wc did,' he growled. 'Which is precisely the reason I would never send a child of mine to one.'
She stiffened. 'Courtney isn't your child.'
"Not yet,' he acknowledged softly. 'But I plan for him to be. And I think you should be his mother.'
She swallowed hard. 'What do you mean?'
Alex shrugged, staring into the fire. 'You obviously love the baby very much. And I think those reporters may have come up with the solution to our problem.' He turned intense grey eyes on her. 'I think we should get married.'
Morgan stared at him with widely shocked eyes, the pupils dilating in her surprise. Marry Alex Hammond? That wasn't unorthodox, that was ridiculous!
'I can see the idea surprises you,' he drawled derisively. 'But I can see no other solution. I refuse to give Courtney up, and so do you, and unless we want him to become a child who's tugged from one side of the Atlantic to the other on a six-monthly basis I don't see what else we can do.'
'But my work is in the States.' It was the first objection that came to mind—but not the only one!
Alex looked grim. 'You enj
oy your career?'
'I—Yes.'
'Then we'll have to find a way round that.' He frowned thoughtfully. 'I could always move the Hammond head office to the States so that Courtney and I could be with you.'
'No! I mean—You would really do that?' she asked incredulously, knowing by the seriousness of the suggestion that he was in deadly earnest about marrying her.
I ie nodded. 'If I have no other choice. Courtney has to come first.'
'And what about you?' she queried breathlessly. 'Don't you want to marry a woman you love?' She looked at him with tense curiosity; his answer to this was suddenly important to her.
His mouth twisted, the grey eyes cold. 'Love is a destructive emotion. It tends to leave the people who really love with no will of their own, completely vulnerable to the other person's whims. No,' he met her gaze steadily, 'I have no wish to be destroyed in that way. Ours would be a marriage of convenience '
'That went out with the Victorians!' Morgan snapped, deeply confused by his views on love. He must have loved—and lost—someone once, someone who took advantage of his love instead of treasuring it.
'I didn't say it would be platonic,' Alex drawled. 'I have no intention of living the rest of my life celibate. I have had—relationships, in the past. You didn't find my kisses unpleasant this afternoon, I'm sure you wouldn't find me unsatisfactory in bed.'
She knew she must have flushed, despite the veneer of sophistication she had acquired as an actress. She just didn't expect Alex Hammond to talk to her in this intimate way. Tm sure I wouldn't,' she acknowledged quickly, knowing this man would be successful at anything he did—including making lovet 'But I can't marrv you.'
Why not?' That probing grey gaze swept over the confusion of her face. 'You told me you have no intention of marrying this man Sam you've been eemg. Just think of me as a lifetime affair rather than a fleeting one. I can assure you I wouldn't force myself on you more than necessary,' he added at her gasp of jdignation. 'I enjoy women, when in the mood, but if mecessary I can control my sexual urges to a minimum.'
She couldn't take this in, couldn't accept what was • calmly being said to her. 'Let me get this straight,' be said tautly. 'I marry you, we live-^wherever, provide Courtney with parents, and occasionally you mta/kf the trip from your bedroom to mine?'
The latter would be a two-way thing,' he told her arrogantly. 'Women have desires and needs too, I'm ware of that.'
'So if I want a man I just come over to your bedroom?' Her eyes sparkled deeply green in her anger.
Alex shrugged. 'What's wrong with that?'
'Nothing—if you happen to be a damned machine!' she snapped furiously. 'What you're proposing is inhuman!'
His frown of puzzlement seemed genuine. 'I don't see it that way.'
'That's obvious!'
He sighed. 'Look, if you're worried I won't be able to give you a fulfilling physical relationship I can always show you now that you're wrong.'
Morgan backed away from him, from the cold determination in his face. 'This is no way to make love .. .' she told him weakly as he pushed her gently back against the cushions.
'Perhaps we won't make love now,' he agreed. 'Although I think I should show you that we could physically give each other pleasure.'
'You're so clinical!' She pushed ineffectually against his chest as he bent over her.
'I can be less so,' he promised throatily. 'You're very beautiful, Morgan. Let me show you how good it could be between us.'
It wasn't a case of 'letting' him do anything—she couldn't stop him! Maybe if her emotions hadn't already been heightened by the trauma of the day she might have been able to stop him—and maybe she wouldn't! At the first touch of his lips that now familiar languor swept over her body, and she was powerless to resist anything he did.
He kissed her with long drugging movements of his mouth, devouring her, drawing her into him so that she had no thoughts but those of pleasing him and being pleasured by him in return.
And he did pleasure her, slowly moving the zip of her gown down her spine, pushing the soft black material off her shoulder, exposing pert pink-tipped breasts to his avid mouth. He didn't take the hardened nipple completely into his mouth, teasing it with the warm moistness of his tongue until she groaned with needing more than that, then he left that breast to the pleasure-giving ministrations of his fingertips, his mouth moving in slow hot kisses between the valley of her breasts to the other waiting nipple.
She gasped at the sudden sucking on the taut bud, the teasing bites of his teeth as she arched against him, her fingers intwined in the darkness of his hair as she held him to her. She was completely under his sexual domination, and knew by the tautness of his thighs that her body aroused bim in return. But it wasn't enough for her, she wanted him to be more than aroused by her body, wanted him to shakeunder her caresses too, to know that as a woman she pleased him.
With a slight shift in their positions on the sofa she was able to be slightly above him, and so in the dominant position herself, her breasts still knowing the fevered caresses of his lips and tongue. She felt him stiffen as she began to slip the jacket from his shoulders, and then he relaxed, sitting up slightly to help her take it off completely, his mouth nuzzling her throat now, biting erotically into her earlobe.
She quivered in reaction, squirming against him, her hands shaking as she slowly unbuttoned his shirt, loving the muscled hardness revealed to her caressing fingers. Her mouth kissed and tasted every area of his chest, teasing the male nipples in the same way he had caressed her, feeling him shudder in response.
He gasped. 'No woman has ever—How did you know -'
She smiled down at him in satisfaction. 'Intuition,' she murmured throatily.
'Do you know any other—intuitive caresses like that?' he groaned, a high flush of sexual pleasure to his lean cheeks.
'I'll make them up as I go along,' she promised against the tautness of his hard stomach.
And she did. Her caresses were all instinctive; she had never known the full intimacy of a man's body before, but found she loved the barely leashed control of Alex's, making no protest as he again took over, kneeling beside the sofa as he slipped her dress off completely, only her black lacy panties covering her nakedness now.
'You're perfect!' Alex groaned as he covered her body with his, one hand caressing the firm curve of her hips, slipping knowledgeably beneath the lace to find the centre of her passion-
His caresses knew no bounds now, and Morgangroaned into the warmth of his mouth as her desire threatened to spiral out of control, flicking her tongue enticingly along the edge of his lips as she pleaded for an end to his tortuous caresses. Alex's mouth opened against hers, and he groaned, his thighs surging wildly ist hers. Moments later he was pulling roughly away from her, breathing deeply. 'We have to stop now,' he said raggedly.
'No .. .!' She gave a moan of sexual frustration. 'Alex, please!' She clung to him in appeal.
'Do you think I don't want you too?' He held her arms at her sides. 'You know I do!' he groaned. 'But not here, and not like this.' His eyes were a smoky grey colour as he slowly regained control of himself 'And I don't think we should cloud the situation with a physical relationship.' 'But you just said——'
'I know what I said.' He swung away from her, standing up, pulling on his shirt but making no move to fasten it. 'I've changed my mind. We've just proved that, physically, we're compatible. We don't need to go any further to know that. Agreed?'
Her own control was slower in coming, the rapid rise and fall of her breasts evidence of that. But the way Alex couldn't even bring himself to look at her, staring down at the dying embers of the fire, was like a cold shower on her emotions, and she pulled her dress back into place, feeling a return of some of her dignity along with it. 'Agreed,' she said curtly. 'I wouldn't want to cloud the situation,' she added tautly.
Alex did turn now. 'Morgan '
'I can't marry you, Alex- '
'You haven't even thought
about it!' 'I don't need to,' she spoke calmly. 'It wouldn't work, Alex. All the problems that made Glenna so unhappy would apply to me too if I were your wife.'
'What problems?' he bit out savagely.
Just to look at him unnerved her, his dark hair still ruffled from her caressing fingers, his tanned hair-roughened chest still aching to be touched. She wasn't aware of her own tousled hair, her lips bare of lip-gloss, still swollen with the passion that had raged through her minutes earlier. 'Your mother, living here, the fact that England is not my native country. We don't even have love between us to help make it work.'
'Granted,' he acknowledged curtly. 'But that's precisely the reason I think it would work. My mother is my problem, not yours. And you haven't seemed as if you dislike England while you've been here. Besides, you'll still have your career.'
She frowned her puzzlement. 'I can still work?'
'Of course,' he replied, as if he had never considered she would do anything else. 'If the character of Mary-Beth is completely acting, as you say it is, then you're too good to stop.'
Morgan flushed at the taunt. 'You might be surprised,' she snapped. 'But have you considered the fact that if I continued with the series I'd be in the States for six months of the—Ah,' she gave him an accusing glare. 'I understand now. If I marry you Courtney stays here all the time, but / leave for six months every year. No way, Alex!'
He looked down his nose at her with haughty arrogance. 'I believe I told you I would make the move to the States if that's what you want. I want to provide a stable background for Courtney, at any price.'
Her anger turned to confusion. He meant it about moving to the States, she could see that in the determination of his expression. She only had to say the word and he would leave this house and move his business to the States. She couldn't ask that of him, and no matter how much she disliked Rita Hammond she couldn't do it to the other woman either. The other woman had already lost one son; to lose her other one, and her only grandson, was likely to break even the hardened Rita Hammond.
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