The Constantin Marriage

by Lindsay Armstrong

  ‘Well, now, the last time I saw you wearing only a towel I was thwarted by a crisis in the kitchen,’ he said with a lazy smile, and drew the towel away.

  ‘Don’t remind me!’ She wrinkled her nose and realised he was dressed already, in a white business shirt, dark green tie and charcoal trousers. ‘Uh…I’ll have the towel back, thanks, Alex.’

  ‘Why?’

  She looked down at herself. ‘You might not have noticed this but I feel a little undressed in comparison to you.’

  ‘Oh, I noticed it,’ he said softly. ‘I also heard you singing.’

  She grimaced. ‘I often sing in the shower.’

  ‘Really?’ He lifted an eyebrow. ‘So it had nothing to do with what transpired last night?’

  ‘Um…’ She chewed her lip. ‘Perhaps a bit.’ She reached for the towel but he withheld it from her. ‘Alex!’

  ‘Only a bit?’

  She paused and looked at him with a glint in her eyes.

  ‘What do I have to say to get myself out of the bathroom so that I can cook your breakfast—we did agree we were both starving, having missed dinner last night—and so that you can go to work, which you also told me you truly regretted but it was a necessity?’

  ‘Instead of saying anything, why don’t we have some really red-hot sex?’

  Tattie frowned. ‘I thought you disapproved of that?’

  ‘Not any more. The thought of it with you,’ he said softly, ‘is more than I can bear.’

  ‘Why did you get dressed, then?’

  ‘I have not the faintest idea.’ He pulled off his tie and started to unbutton his shirt.

  ‘I’ve just had a shower,’ Tattie said.

  ‘So have I. But I have the solution to that.’ He pulled his shirt off and unbuckled his belt. ‘The perfect solution.’ And he pulled her into his arms.

  Tattie took a shaken little breath. There was so much wicked vitality in his eyes. There was so much about him that was just glorious. The tanned width of his shoulders, his height, the springy dark hair of his chest, the washboard stomach and compact hips, the length and strength of his legs. And memories of the night before began to wash through her…

  Memories that caused her to tremble finely all over with the knowledge that no part of her slender body was safe from him and the most intense pleasure of his imprint upon it. It was dangerous, it was exciting, and it was heady to think that she could do the same for him. By the time he’d got rid of his trousers it was not only a heady thought but a reality.

  ‘Oh.’ She breathed it into words. ‘This is living dangerously, I think.’

  He looked into her eyes and slid his fingers between her thighs.

  She rocked against him, holding his upper arms, and tilted her head back. ‘If you kissed me at the same time,’ she murmured, ‘I’d really like that.’

  ‘My pleasure.’ His mouth closed on hers as his fingers continued to ready her for him with the lightest touch, until she gasped that she was dying of joy. Then he crushed her to him and took her in the moments left to them before they climaxed.

  He looked into her stunned eyes and brought her back to earth with gentle humour. ‘Vertical sex—we are living dangerously, Tattie. Either that or you’ve turned me a little crazy. But you must admit I couldn’t have chosen a better spot to be a bit crazy.’ And he lifted her off her feet, carried her to the shower and turned on the water.

  For the first few moments Tattie spluttered and wriggled, then she started to laugh and he was laughing with her as water streamed off them.

  They finally had breakfast on the veranda.

  A slap-up meal of bacon and eggs, grilled tomato, toast—and champagne and orange juice.

  ‘Here’s to you.’ Alex raised his glass to her. ‘My lovely lover.’

  Tattie picked up her glass and touched his with it. ‘I am without words.’

  He grinned. ‘That’s most unusual.’

  ‘I’ll probably recover.’

  ‘Don’t doubt it.’ He pushed his plate away. ‘What are your plans for the day?’

  ‘I have no idea! Why?’

  ‘I’d just like to be able to picture what you’re doing while I’m slaving over a hot desk.’

  ‘Oh! Well, I’ll probably go out and do some shopping.’ Tattie put her knife and fork together. ‘Unless—’ her eyes widened ‘—does it show?’

  He sat back with his glass and took his time. She wore slim white trousers and a blue and white striped T-shirt. Her hair was tied back in a scrunchie, her feet were bare and she wore no make-up, but her skin glowed.

  ‘Yes.’

  She blushed. ‘How?’

  ‘There’s a new radiance and lustre about you.’

  She grew even hotter, and to counteract it said a shade tartly, ‘Do you always think in terms of pearls?’

  He raised his eyebrows consideringly. ‘Can I help it if you remind me of a pearl of the first water?’

  ‘Look…’ She laughed a little. ‘I’m flattered, but I think you may be flirting with the truth, Alex.’

  He moved his shoulders. ‘Flirting with something. You. But if you’d rather I got serious?’

  ‘I would.’

  ‘It may be obvious to me, Tattie, but you don’t need to worry that it’s printed all over you. On the other hand, does it matter?’

  Tattie sobered. ‘I suppose not. I’d just like this to be between you and me for a while, Alex. I guess I don’t have to tell you it’s been rather special for me…but it’s a very private kind of “special”.’

  His dark gaze had narrowed, but now it softened. ‘All right.’ He pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘I’m sorry about this, Tattie, but I haven’t been into the office for five days now. I’ll get home as soon as I can, though.’

  He came round to her and drew her to her feet. ‘Take care of yourself,’ he said softly, and kissed her brow. ‘Nor do you have any idea how hard this is to do, I suspect.’

  She nestled against him for a moment then looked up into his eyes. For once they were completely serious and she felt shaken to the core. ‘I will,’ she murmured huskily.

  They had a week.

  And Alex spent most of it with her.

  They made love when the mood took them. He flew her to Cooinda in Kakadu for the day and they hired a dinghy to explore the wonders of the Yellow Water wetlands on a tributary of the South Alligator River. Even used to Beaufort and Carnarvon as she was, Yellow Water was entrancing for Tattie. This oasis of birdlife, paperbark gums, the lush colours of the billabongs and swamps of the World Heritage listed area in the midst of the sometimes harsh landscape of the Northern Territory, all were astonishingly beautiful.

  And instead of flying home that night he flew her to one of the many World War Two airstrips around Darwin. This one was on Mount Bundy Station at Adelaide River, and also offered tourist accommodation.

  ‘Thought you might like to see how others do it,’ he told her with a lurking smile.

  Of course she was vitally interested to see how others did it, but it caused her a little pang to think how far into the recesses of her mind Beaufort had sunk. She’d spoken to Polly several times, and been assured all was going well, and she would never have dreamt of abandoning Irina through this crisis. But she hadn’t spoken of Beaufort since she and Alex had become lovers…

  All the same, she fell in love with Mount Bundy and they had a wonderful evening. Their gracious hostess, Fran, suggested they make a party of all the guests and have dinner in the garden of the Adelaide River Tavern, which turned out to be a unique experience, since the buffalo Paul Hogan had “tamed” in Crocodile Dundee had lived out its days as a pet at Adelaide River, and was now stuffed in all his glory and took pride of place on top of the bar.

  ‘I don’t know why,’ Tattie confided to Alex when they were back in their luxurious room at the Mount Bundy homestead, ‘but I feel Beaufort lacks something—it could be a stuffed buffalo or, better still, a tame one!’

  Alex, at the
time, was engaged in undressing her. He paused from this self-appointed task with her blouse in his hands, and withdrew his gaze from her breasts cupped in white lace to look thoughtful.

  ‘I’ve got buffalo, but I would hesitate to try and do a Crocodile Dundee on any of them. Unless,’ he continued, ‘you see it as some sort of medieval test you require me to perform for your…favours?’

  The last bit was said as he slipped her bra straps down and traced his fingers across the tops of her breasts.

  She took a breath. He was sitting on the bed and she was standing between his legs, now only wearing her shorts and underwear.

  ‘That’s an idea,’ she said gravely. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a clean blue hanky. ‘I could even give you this to take into battle with you, tucked into your…helmet or whatever.’

  ‘I suspect I might look a bit silly with it tucked into my helmet.’ He took the hanky. ‘I could wear it next to my heart, though.’

  ‘It needs to show,’ Tattie objected. ‘Everyone needs to know that you’re performing this dangerous deed for me!’

  He tucked the hanky between two buttons of his shirt. ‘There. How many people are you planning to invite to my possible demolition by a two-tonne buffalo?’

  She gestured widely. ‘Heaps. But I have great faith in you, Alex!’

  ‘You do realise Charlie was tame before Paul Hogan got to him?’

  She looked down at him, her cornflower-blue eyes alight with laughter. ‘I realise a lot of things. A couple of them are that you don’t have to go about taming buffalo for my favours, all you have to do is touch me.’

  ‘Like this?’ He unclipped her bra, slid it off, abandoned it and spread his hands around her waist. ‘I can nearly span this.’

  ‘Mmm,’ she agreed. ‘Or like this.’ And she cupped the back of his head and drew him towards her.

  The result was predictable. Before long they were both naked, and he was sculpting her body with his hands and she was shivering in joyful anticipation of his possession of her.

  But he paused suddenly, and looked into her eyes. ‘What’s the other one?’

  She blinked. ‘Other what?’

  ‘You said there were a couple of things you realised.’

  ‘Oh, that. It doesn’t matter.’

  ‘It matters to me, Tattie.’

  She looked mischievously stubborn. ‘You can’t force me to tell you.’

  ‘Yes, I can.’ Her arms were around his shoulders and he released them, took her wrists in one hand and positioned them above her head. And he commenced the most devastating assault on her most sensitive spots until she was arching her body in mindless, exquisite desire.

  ‘All right,’ she gasped, ‘but only after this is over. Alex, I need you!’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘Good, because I’m dying here.’ He released her wrists and claimed her powerfully.

  ‘This is a little embarrassing,’ she said when they’d come down from the heights. ‘It’s only my opinion, you see.’

  He kissed the corner of her mouth. ‘Go on. You did promise.’

  She moved her cheek on the pillow, her hair spread out in marvellous disarray, and he pulled the sheet over them. ‘I was in no position to do anything else,’ she told him severely, then laughed softly. ‘OK, here goes; I was thinking that I’d taken to this like a duck to water, but again that’s only my—’

  ‘You have.’

  ‘My reading of things— I have?’

  ‘Well…’ he temporised until she cast him a fierce blue look. ‘I can think of a much better analogy, that’s all,’ he finished with his lips quirking.

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Uh-huh. A beautiful girl passing into womanhood like a perfect rosebud opening.’

  ‘Alex.’ She went to sit up but he pulled her into his arms. ‘That’s—’

  ‘A bit flowery?’ he asked wryly.

  They were only inches apart. ‘Awesome,’ she whispered with her heart in her eyes for a moment. Then she closed them. ‘Even if it’s not entirely true, I’ll cherish those words—’

  ‘Would you like me to show you how true they are?’

  Her lashes flew up and her eyes were suddenly wary. ‘N-now?’ she stammered. ‘I don’t think I could survive that again. I mean, so soon. I mean—’

  He stopped her by kissing her, although he was laughing at the same time. ‘If it’s any consolation, neither could I. I think we might have done our dash tonight.’

  She relaxed and snuggled up against him. She was almost asleep as he stroked her hair, then he said quietly, ‘Why did you want me to think there was another man in your life, Tattie? I know now there hasn’t been. Not like this anyway.’

  She came awake with a slightly chill feeling. ‘That…got out of hand,’ she said slowly. ‘You were the one who suggested it.’

  ‘And you were the one who ran with it.’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘You didn’t exactly deny it.’ His hand was still moving rhythmically on her hair, his arm was still around her, but she couldn’t help feeling the peace between them was ever so slightly cracked.

  ‘You have to remember your ex-mistress was around the ridges at the time,’ she said. ‘I was probably suffering from an inferiority complex.’

  He was silent for so long she held her breath. Then, ‘So there was no man behind your “very good reason” not to want to stay married to me?’

  ‘No, Alex,’ she said straightly. ‘It just…got out of hand.’

  ‘Good. Sleep well, Tattie.’ He hugged her.

  But he fell asleep before she did, as her very good reason for not wanting to stay married to him came back to her.

  Because, although she had no doubt that Alex Constantin wanted her now, she still didn’t know if he was madly in love with her. He couldn’t, for example, have been madly in love with Leonie Falconer. He surely would have married her otherwise.

  All the same, she had done this, she reflected as she moved ever so slightly in his arms, then froze in case he woke. But he only pulled her closer and slept on. And it was an entirely different matter extricating herself from a marriage that had not been consummated.

  She closed her eyes and prayed that the situation would never arise, but in her heart of hearts knew that he was still an enigma to her.

  Breakfast at Mount Bundy was bountiful, and Tattie did her best to do it justice as well as conceal from all and sundry that her night’s sleep had been patchy.

  But something happened as they were setting off to fly back to Darwin that brought her hope.

  She was bending over to shake a stone out of her shoe, and when she straightened and turned it was to find Alex standing stock-still behind her with a newly familiar glint in his eye.

  She looked him a slightly cautious question, and his teeth flashed in a wry grin.

  ‘You bend over delightfully, Tattie.’

  Some colour came to her cheeks, and all she could say was, ‘Oh.’

  He flicked a careless finger against her hot cheek. ‘Don’t look so surprised. Did you really think this only went on behind closed doors?’

  ‘Well.’ She hesitated. He was reaching up to put a bag into the wing locker of the light plane, there was a slight breeze blowing and it was flattening the thin cotton of his shirt against the long muscles of his back. For a moment she was transfixed at the grace and power of his tall body. Then her sense of fun came to her rescue.

  ‘Well,’ she said again, ‘despite earlier claims I might have made, Alex, I’m a bit of a newcomer to all this.’

  He laughed. ‘Then you’d better get used to the idea of me visualising you without your clothes—in all sorts of circumstances.’

  She swallowed, and this time her whole body felt hot. ‘Uh—does that mean I’m not altogether safe, even on this plane?’

  ‘You may not be safe,’ he agreed gravely, then relented as her eyes nearly popped. ‘Safe from my thoughts. In all other respects I’
m a very conscientious pilot.’

  ‘Thank heavens!’ She started to laugh. ‘You had me worried for a moment.’

  ‘Since you’ve converted me to red-hot sex, I wouldn’t count on always being safe, Tattie,’ he murmured as he closed the locker and took her in his arms.

  ‘I converted you! That is a supreme misrepresentation of the facts,’ she protested.

  ‘Whatever,’ he said softly, with his eyes dancing wickedly, and he subjected her to a long, leisurely but supremely effective kiss.

  ‘I just hope there was no one watching,’ she said in a husky undertone when he’d done his worst and was tidying her up—smoothing her hair and straightening the collar of her blouse.

  He smiled like the devil and kissed the tip of her nose. ‘I don’t give a damn how many people were watching. Shall we go home?’

  As they flew the short distance to Darwin Airport Tattie examined her feelings.

  She discovered she felt more reassured, as if the ripple in their relationship last night, like a cat’s paw on the surface of a fish pond, had smoothed over again. Then she found that she felt more than reassured; she felt positively jaunty. Was that the result, she pondered, of having a man fantasise about you without your clothes in all sorts of circumstances, particularly a man like Alex? As a confidence-booster it was rather unique, she acknowledged.

  Naturally, it still did not answer the question of whether he was madly in love with her, she cautioned herself, but it made her feel incredibly good…

  ‘Penny for them?’ Alex broke into her thoughts.

  ‘No way, not this time!’

  He raised an eyebrow at her. Then, as if he understood what had been going through her mind, he put his hand over hers and said no more. And that, Tattie discovered, was the most reassuring thing of all.

  Two days later she spoke to Natalie at Beaufort and was able to pass on the news that Irina was doing well and would be out of hospital shortly.

  ‘That’s such good news, Tatiana,’ Natalie said down the line.

  ‘Yes, it’s wonderful. How are things there?’