She hesitated again. ‘You’re my employer, Rufus. And I happen to like my job, and—’
‘Forget I’m your employer,’ he cut in irritably, ‘and just answer the question, damn it!’
She had managed to forget he was her employer on several occasions—that wasn’t really the issue. ‘But can you forget I’m your employee?’ she persisted. ‘Perhaps it isn’t really fair to ask me this question.’ She paused. Honesty had its place, but she wasn’t sure whether that was between this employer and this employee!
‘Forget fair!’ he dismissed arrogantly. ‘Just tell me why you would refuse to see me.’
She drew in a ragged breath. ‘Basically for the very reason you have just demonstrated,’ she said carefully.
‘I just—?’ His brow cleared. ‘I forced you to answer me,’ he realised slowly.
‘Exactly,’ she confirmed with relief; she hadn’t had to call him a bully, after all! ‘If you tried that approach over the telephone, then I could just put the receiver down on you.’ Face to face, this man was much more formidable. ‘And so, presumably, could this other woman,’ she added gently. He still hadn’t mentioned it was Margaret from this morning’s call that they were talking about, but she knew that it had to be. And it hurt even to have this conversation, his deep need to talk to Jessica’s former nanny was so patently obvious.
‘She already did,’ he growled.
One of the telephone calls he had made when he’d got back this morning…
‘She refused to see me when I went to her home,’ he admitted. ‘And then, when I telephoned her later, she put the receiver down on me.’
‘As you’ve already said yourself, Rufus—’ she moved her piece on the board ‘—your mood has been a little—aggressive today. Check,’ she told him with satisfaction. ‘And mate.’
‘I’ve felt aggressive because—Did you say checkmate?’ He looked astounded, staring down at the chessboard in disbelief at her claim.
It was the expression on his face that made Annie laugh; he had probably never been beaten at chess in his life before—and he had just been thrashed at the game! ‘Don’t look so surprised, Rufus; a chess set was something the children’s home could afford—and there are a lot of rainy days and evenings in sixteen years.’ She said the last without rancour. Her childhood in care hadn’t been an unhappy one—a little lacking in love, perhaps, but certainly not an unhappy time.
He looked across at her admiringly before looking down at the board once again. ‘Well played, Annie,’ he told her with genuine warmth. ‘You’re a worthy opponent.’ He nodded appreciatively.
She didn’t want to be his opponent, longed for the light-hearted companion from the drive down here, the man who had kissed her…
‘Enough of this.’ He stood up, moving the chess table back to the comer of the room. ‘You’re right, I’ve been a grouch most of the day. I know that isn’t what you said,’ he acknowledged dryly as she almost protested. ‘But I know it’s what I’ve been. Some break away in London you and Jess have had!’ he added with selfrebuke. ‘Well, that’s about to change. If you could pour us both a brandy, I’ll light the fire.’
Brandy and a fire… The brandy she didn’t particularly like, and a fire…! It was a little too cosy considering she worked for this man.
‘It’s a little late in the evening for either,’ she said, looking pointedly at her wristwatch. ‘Especially as I overslept this morning.’
‘As far as I’m aware, you haven’t had any time off in the last few days. You’re here to enjoy yourself, not just to look after Jess.’ He sat back on his heels. ‘Perhaps you would rather go out and visit friends for the rest of the evening?’ he queried with a penetrating look as the thought seemed to occur to him.
It would probably be safer than being cosily ensconced in this room with Rufus!
But a part of her didn’t really want to be safe. She had stayed safe all of her life, never causing waves at the home, being easygoing with her three flatmates, undemanding of the few friends she had had over the years. She didn’t want to be safe any more—and she knew that with Rufus she most certainly wasn’t!
‘I’m really not a night person.’ She refused the offer to let her go out. ‘I’ll pour the brandy.’ To make sure that hers was considerably smaller than his. She needed to stay completely sober around this man.
He picked up his brandy glass, dimming the lights before moving to sit next to Annie on the sofa. ‘There’s nothing like a fire,’ he told her contentedly. The fireplace was the reason I decided to lease this particular apartment.’
She had to admit the fire was lovely—it was also quite seductive sitting here next to the man she loved, watching the flames dance. The few sips of brandy she had taken had warmed her totally.
Rufus relaxed his own head back on the sofa. ‘This is nice,’ he murmured softly.
‘Nice’ wasn’t quite the way Annie would have described it. She should have gone to bed. Or gone out. Anything else but be sitting here in this dimly lit room with this man. Because at this moment she wanted very much to kiss him!
As if sensing that need, Rufus turned to look at her, his eyes very dark, the firelight dancing in their depths. ‘The company is pretty good too,’ he said huskily.
She felt the warmth in her cheeks—and it had nothing to do with the heat from the fire!
‘I mean that, Annie.’ He reached out and clasped the hand that didn’t hold her brandy glass. ‘You aren’t a woman who chatters on about nothing. When you do speak, it’s because you have something relevant to say. Otherwise you just stay silent.’
He hadn’t released her hand!
She knew she should move her hand away, that this was indeed the danger she had been aware of. But she didn’t want to be released. She loved this man. And she might never have the chance to be this close to him again.
She arched dark auburn brows. ‘You like that in a woman?’ she asked playfully.
He smiled. ‘I wasn’t having another go at women, Annie. I actually like women. What I was trying to say just now—and not making a very good job of it!—was that I particularly like you.’
Annie drew back slightly, but somehow he didn’t seem any further away. In fact, he seemed closer than before!
Because he had moved too! He was no longer sitting on the other side of the sofa. He had gently taken the brandy glass from her unresisting fingers to place it on the coffee table beside his own, his face only inches away from hers now.
‘Those eyes,’ he murmured wonderingly. ‘I could drown in them!’
She couldn’t breathe! And as his mouth claimed hers she found she didn’t want to. All she could do was feel, drowning herself in the passion that surged through her as his mouth hardened on hers, his arms moulding her to the muscular strength of his body, her arms encircling his neck as she drew him closer to her.
His mouth left hers, but only to travel over her cheeks, kissing each of her closed lids in turn, her temple, the lobes of her ears, gently nibbling there as she quivered in reaction, tasting the perfume of her throat before once again claiming her mouth with his own.
She was on fire as she felt his hand caressing her breast, her nipple instantly responding to his touch, hardening, sensitive to his every caress.
Annie groaned low in her throat, melting against him, her body like liquid fire, her hands clinging feverishly to his shoulders.
She offered no resistance as he lowered her back onto the sofa, her legs becoming entangled with his as he lay down beside her, her blouse open now, smoothed back to her shoulders, Rufus’s eyes dark with desire as he looked down at the peach colour of her satin bra, her skin as smooth and silky as that material.
She watched him through half-closed lids as his hands moved slowly over the pertness of her breasts, enjoyed the pleasure she saw in his face, knowing she was the one giving him that pleasure.
As Rufus was giving her pleasure too, his mouth closing over one hardened nipple against the silky mat
erial, his tongue caressing in slow, heat-giving strokes, his other hand seeking and finding its twin, touching, feeling her response.
Annie arched up into his pleasure-giving mouth, her hands entangled in his hair as she held him to her, filled with the strangest mixture of emotions, wanting to cradle him to her protectively while at the same time wanting more than the pleasure he was already giving her.
Then the barriers of her blouse and bra were no longer there, and it was flesh against flesh, Rufus’s chest naked too, the dark hair there at once silky to the touch, his skin firm and unyielding to her caressing fingertips.
She ran her hands down his muscled back, her nails lightly scratching the dampness of his skin.
‘Oh, yes…!’ Now it was Rufus’s turn to groan, even as the moistness of his mouth claimed one hardened nipple.
Heat. Fire. A longing that made her thighs ache as she moved restlessly against him, his mouth against her breasts no longer enough for either of them—the pulsing of Rufus’s thighs against hers told her that.
‘I want you, Rufus,’ she told him longingly, eyes so dark brown as she looked up at him that it was impossible to distinguish the pupils from the irises. ‘I want you!’ she repeated achingly.
He stood up to swing her easily up into his arms, his smile tender as he looked down at her. ‘My bed is bigger than yours,’ he told her. Picking her up, he strode from the room to his bedroom with her still in his arms.
He carried her as if she weighed very little, gently kicking the bedroom door closed behind them before laying her down on the bed, kneeling on the carpeted floor beside her as he slowly removed the rest of her clothes, folding each item carefully before laying it down on the floor beside him.
Annie felt slightly self-conscious as she lay naked before him, but as he began to slowly kiss and caress each slender curve she could see the beauty of her body in his eyes.
‘You too, Rufus,’ she encouraged tenderly, longing to touch him in the same way.
And when he finally stood naked before her she wasn’t disappointed, as she had known she wouldn’t be. Rufus was beautiful, his skin tanned, his body all smoothly muscled planes, his waist slender, thighs firmly muscled, long legs covered with the same dark hair as his chest. Naked, with his dark hair long onto his shoulders, he looked like a warrior of old.
And she wanted to be his captive, completely, wanted to know his full possession, and as Rufus lay down on the bed beside her she could feel the promise of that possession leaping against her thighs.
He began to kiss her again, her lips, her breasts, her thighs, making her cry out in wonder and need.
Then her groans of pleasure became whimpers, crying out as pleasure like she had never known before engulfed her, leaving her mindless, lost in a vortex of such scorching pleasure it reached to her fingertips and toes.
She looked up at Rufus in wonder as he moved to lie beside her once again, gently kissing her flushed face. ‘I’ve never—I—Oh, Rufus…!’ Her arms moved about his shoulders as she hugged him to her.
He raised his head slowly, his gaze gentle now. ‘Have you never made love, Annie?’ he asked gruffly. ‘Or just never known the pleasure it could give you?’
‘Neither!’ she choked a little self-consciously. She was such an innocent, had never guessed, never known…!
Rufus’s smile deepened. ‘Then I’m glad, and honoured, that I’m the first.’ He smoothed back the dampness of her hair from her brow, gently brushing her lips with his own. ‘Now I think we should get under the covers, cuddle up, and go to sleep.’ He stood up, folding back the duvet invitingly.
Annie blinked up at him. ‘But you—We haven’t—You haven‘t—’
He knelt on the bed beside her again, lightly touching her heated cheeks. ‘I don’t have anything with me, Annie. And I doubt very much, in the circumstances, that you do…?’ He raised questioning brows, shrugging helplessly as she shook her head. ‘I don’t want the consequences of our first time together to be something that you spend the next few weeks worrying about.’ He settled her under the duvet before climbing into the bed next to her, his arm about her shoulders as he moulded her into him.
Annie didn’t doubt for a moment that he had wanted her as much as she had wanted him—had felt his need. And he was denying himself all that because of her innocence…
Her arms moved about him as she held on tightly to him. She loved this man; she knew that without a doubt as his steady breathing lulled them both into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
ANNIE was totally disorientated when she woke up the next morning and found herself not in Rufus’s bed or his arms but back in her own room, in her own bed, and by herself.
Rufus must have carried her here some time during the night or early morning. As she sat up in bed she saw her neatly folded clothes—even her blouse and bra—laid on the bedroom chair.
Jessica…
Rufus had been aware, even if Annie hadn’t, that Jessica shouldn’t find them snuggled up in bed together this morning. Or some of Annie’s clothing scattered about the sitting-room!
She stretched in the bed, her body feeling different somehow, still very much aware of the aching pleasure given by Rufus’s hands and lips. Her only regret was that she hadn’t known his full possession. But that might still happen.
What would his behaviour towards her be like this morning? Would he be her employer once again? Or would there be the memory of last night in his eyes too? God, she hoped so. Because she would never forget it! She didn’t think she could bear it if Rufus chose to ignore the passion they had shared so completely—
‘Tea,’ Jessica announced brightly as she entered the bedroom after the briefest of knocks. She put the cup down on the bedside table before sitting on the side of Annie’s bed. ‘Don’t worry, Daddy didn’t make it!’ She grinned teasingly. ‘He’s gone out,’ she added a little wistfully.
Annie frowned at the bedside clock. She had overslept again, but it was still only eight-thirty. Who on earth had Rufus gone to see so early on a Sunday morning? He certainly didn’t strike her as someone who went to church every Sunday morning, regardless.
She sat up to drink her tea, realising as she did so that she was completely naked beneath the covers, pulling the sheet up with her to hide her nudity from Jessica.
‘Where did he go?’ She kept her voice casually unconcerned between sipping at her tea.
Jessica didn’t know. ‘He made a phone call, then said he had to go out. He didn’t say where. Or when he would be back.’
Margaret…
Somehow Annie knew the other woman was the person Rufus had telephoned and then gone out to see.
She closed her eyes, hiding the pain she knew must be evident in their depths. Maybe she had been mistaken last night; maybe Rufus hadn’t drawn back from making love to her because of her innocence; maybe it was the complete opposite: he had been thinking of someone else entirely!
He had gone to Margaret this morning. She knew it as surely as if he had told her so. Oh…!
‘Are you all right, Annie?’ Jessica sounded worried. ‘I didn’t wake you up too suddenly, did I?’
It was as well someone had! She had been lying here daydreaming about Rufus, about last night, about the two of them having a possible future together… How stupid. How totally juvenile. Just because a man made love to you, that didn’t mean he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. She should know; it was usually the opposite! Didn’t she have her own mother as an example of that? And hadn’t Rufus gone to see Margaret this morning…?
She drew in a deep, controlling breath, opening her eyes to smile brightly at Jessica. The last thing she wanted was to alert the child to her inner distress, because if she did Jessica would only tell Rufus—and he would know exactly why she was so upset.
She had to be adult about this. After all, what had really happened between herself and Rufus? For her, everything. But for Rufus, a man of obvious experience, probably very little.
She was a conquest, that was all, a willing woman to share his bed. Because the one that he really wanted no longer would!
But all that might have changed by the time he returned, and Annie certainly didn’t want him to think last night had been more important to her than it obviously had to him!
‘No, you didn’t wake me too suddenly,’ she assured Jessica warmly, and the little girl’s worried face instantly cleared. ‘Would you like some pancakes for breakfast?’ She knew they were Jessica’s favourite, the answer a foregone conclusion. ‘Give me ten minutes,’ she requested at Jessica’s eager nod, ‘and I’ll come through to the kitchen and make them.’ It would also give her the privacy to get out of bed without Jessica seeing her nudity.
‘I’ll go and get everything out ready for you,’ Jessica told her with enthusiasm, getting up from the bed to skip out of the room.
Annie fell back against the pillows as soon as she was alone, wishing she had the energy—the happiness!—to skip like that. But with morning had come reality in all its harshness, and last night was starting to seem like a dream.
Maybe it had been? Maybe she hadn’t woken in Rufus’s bed because she had never been there?
But as she got up out of her own bed she knew none of it had been a dream, her nipples slightly tender from Rufus’s ministrations, muscles in her thighs that she had never been aware of before aching slightly, her whole body filled with an unaccustomed lethargy. She might wish it had never happened, but it certainly had.
And when Rufus returned she would have to face him with that knowledge firmly imprinted on her body and mind…!
Jessica had eaten her pancakes, while Annie drank two cups of coffee, by the time they heard the apartment door slam, heralding Rufus’s return. Annie stiffened when she heard the sound, her back turned towards the kitchen door as she started on her third coffee; she was hoping it might wake her up and give her some courage too. She knew that it hadn’t as she heard the kitchen door swing open. Her stomach seemed to drop to the floor, her hand shaking slightly as she carefully put her cup back in its saucer.
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