Reluctant Mistress, Blackmailed Wife

by Lynne Graham

  By the time he went for the parted invitation of her soft pink lips she was shivering and clinging to his broad shoulders for support…

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘THEOS MOU…this feels good.’ Alexandros savoured, then dipped his tongue into Katie’s mouth, with a provocative slide-and-thrust motion that sent shivers through her slight frame and reduced her to mental rubble.

  Breathless and weak from the devastating expertise of his kisses, Katie made a feverish stab at recovery. ‘We should be talking…’

  Convinced that that kind of conversation would come between him and the sating of a lust which felt ungovernably strong, Alexandros tumbled her back amongst the cushions and pinned her beneath his long, powerful length. His entire concentration was welded to the concept of giving her so much pleasure that serious discussion would be the last thing on her mind, and he subjected her pouting pink mouth to the sensual exploration of his lips, teeth and tongue.

  A seductive tide of pure eroticism engulfed Katie, like a flame-thrower aimed at a sheet of paper. She crackled, burned, blazed white-hot. Her hands moved in restive circles over his broad shoulders and back as the twist of restive heat in her pelvis flamed higher. Frustrated by the barrier of his shirt, she began to tug at the fabric. Levering himself back from her, Alexandros flipped loose the buttons, exposing a muscular segment of bronzed, hair-roughened chest.

  Katie sucked in an unsteady breath. He was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, and even more perfect than she remembered. Without thought, driven by a desire she had believed she would never feel again, she came up on her knees and let her hands skim with splayed fingers over the strong wall of his rippling pectoral muscles, down to the lean hard slab of his belly. As his big powerful frame was racked by a shudder of very physical response, she was shaken by her own boldness. He peeled off the shirt and tossed it aside.

  ‘Why would we want to talk when we can do this?’ Alexandros growled, his Greek accent so thick that she could hardly distinguish the individual words. He brought both her hands back to his sleek bronzed body with the uninhibited sexuality that was the flipside of his cool, controlled nature.

  ‘Alexandros…’ Touching his warm tawny skin, she felt weak and hot with longing. He shifted against her so that her fingers trailed through the fine silky furrow of hair that arrowed down beneath his belt.

  ‘Touch me,’ he urged, closing his hands to the soft swell of her hips to crush her against him, letting her feel the blatant hardness of his arousal beneath the confining cloth at his groin.

  ‘We shouldn’t…we mustn’t,’ she framed dizzily, fighting the reckless swirl of reckless desire he had ignited.

  But even as she spoke her slender body was already acting in direct betrayal of that bemused protest. She was locked to him, revelling in his virile heat, rejoicing in his strength and masculinity. When he crushed her reddened mouth hungrily beneath his, she moaned helplessly and let her head fall back, achingly conscious of the wanton throb at the hidden centre of her body.

  Her dress dropped into a silky heap round her knees, and she surfaced from the fevered oblivion that had engulfed her with a gasp of surprise.

  ‘We must…’ His lean strong face taut, Alexandros was wholly absorbed in the fetching picture she made with her delicate curves enhanced by lace-trimmed lingerie.

  Katie was entrapped by the unhidden appreciation in his glittering golden gaze. Although shy colour blossomed in her cheeks, she could not help but be thrilled that he should think her worthy of such admiration.

  With a single finger he unclipped the front fastener on her bra, and the cups parted to reveal the delicate pink pouting peaks of her breasts.

  ‘I don’t know what it is about your body,’ Alexandros confided thickly, as he hauled her to him with more haste than ceremony, ‘but it blows me away, glikia mou.’

  The erotic caress of his mouth on her sensitive breasts brought down any remaining barriers. As he vaulted up and lifted her into his arms she was quivering with the intensity of her response. He strode through the arched doorway behind the rose-entwined loggia and took her up the short twisting stairs beyond it. She blinked at the unexpected sight of a beautiful turreted room. Filmy draperies festooned a four-poster bed that had a fairytale presence which was enhanced by the gothic windows.

  ‘Wow…’ Katie felt rather as though she was in a dream from which she did not want to wake up.

  ‘I know what you like,’ Alexandros declared with roughened assurance, laying her down on the bed with an exquisite care that made her shiver with anticipation. ‘I know exactly what you like.’

  ‘Yes…’In the course of a split second her memory, unleashed from all self-discipline, doubled back eighteen months, to recall some of the wildly romantic things Alexandros had once done for her. Candles all round the bath and real rose petals floating on the surface of the water. Little unexpected gifts of perfume and cards and flowers. There had been a copy of a favourite book bound in leather, and a recording of a film she had not seen since childhood, which she had marvelled that he had found for her. He had seemed to have an astonishing understanding of what would make her happy. Her recollection began to move towards the tough conclusion of their affair, which had come as such a shock she had never really got over it, but she shut down and suppressed that dangerous slide back into the past.

  ‘Katie…’ Alexandros lowered his proud dark head to extract an exceedingly passionate kiss, and her hold on the past evaporated like a scary shadow she was afraid to acknowledge. ‘I want you…’

  When she looked up at his lean dark face, fierce longing flooded her, leaving no room for rational thought. Every inch of her felt tight, tense, restive. He ran his hands up over her breasts, grazing the prominent rosy tips in a skilful caress, and her back arched as the pleasure thrummed through her in an unstoppable tide. He bent his head there, and used his mouth to toy with the tender crests while he disposed of her last remaining garment.

  As he parted her thighs she could feel herself melt deep down inside, and the level of her longing surged afresh. He traced the warm damp flesh at her feminine core, and the first quivering shock of delight claimed her passion-starved body. Abandoning herself to sensation, she was all slick wet heat and desire. He worked his skilful passage down over her writhing body, and before she could even guess what he intended, he subjected her to an intimacy that shocked her. His attentions were an exquisite torture. She went out of control as never before, with breathy little cries and shaken whimpers dragged from her parted lips. The feverish knot of hunger inside her tightened and tightened, until she reached an impossible height of craving and then went spinning wildly off into wave on wave of ecstatic release.

  ‘Good…?’

  Struggling for breath, Katie floated back to Planet Earth again, shattered at the intensity of what she had just experienced. She surveyed him with stunned eyes. ‘More than…’

  An unholy grin of satisfaction slashed his strong, sensual mouth. ‘Good. I didn’t give you the chance to surrender to your inhibitions…’

  In a lithe movement, he settled between her slender thighs, his hands firm on her hips as he pushed her back and moved over her. She was full of languor, her body boneless and wondrously sensitised. He drove into her with a slow deep force that made her gasp and awakened her hunger again. Her lethargy vanished as he filled her to the hilt with the hot hard glide of his flesh, and the first jolt of renewed excitement rocked her.

  ‘Please…’ she whispered tightly, the inner rise of need gathering into pleasure-pain.

  Alexandros gripped her hands in his and spread them wide, dominating her with his raw energy and passion. ‘You feel so good,’ he confided with ragged satisfaction, and a shade of disconcertion in his gaze. ‘And I feel amazing…’

  Her body had a life of its own, arching up in answer to his, while the wild excitement rose and rose until she reached yet another peak and lost herself in the drowningly sweet spasms of pleasure.

  In the afterm

ath she was relaxed, so out of touch with reality that she felt as though she was floating in another world. The dizzy joy of release had spilled over into a fierce surge of emotion. She wrapped her arms round him and strung a drowsy line of kisses across his shoulder.

  A husky laugh of appreciation vibrated through his lean hard frame, and he responded by tightening his hold on her slim body. ‘I’ve missed you…you’re so affectionate, pedhi mou.’

  ‘I’m so sleepy,’ she mumbled.

  Alexandros eased her back against him and smoothed her tumbled hair back from her brow in a soothing motion. ‘Then sleep.’

  ‘Hmmm…’ she muttered some timeless period later, when her body, languorous from slumber, was gently wakened to the erotic warmth and insistence of his. Every sense humming with response, she whispered his name in instant acceptance.

  It was the most piercingly sweet experience of her life. A slow, deeply sensual joining of extreme pleasure that went on and on, until once again the ripples of release took hold of her. A powerful surge of profound joy and fulfilment washed over her. In that moment, with every defence lowered, words of love formed on her lips—and might have been spoken had not some sixth sense pulled her back from that dangerous brink and silenced her. It was the cruellest recall to the real world that she could have suffered.

  ‘That was sublime, pedhi mou…’ Alexandros told her lazily.

  Her eyes opened, blank with shock and fear, a dark sense of déjà-vu tormenting her. She had slept with him again, fallen asleep in his arms like a trusting fool, and very nearly told him she loved him a second time. There, deep down inside her, below all the anger and the defensiveness, was the love she had thought she had overcome. Panic and confusion at the feelings she had concealed even from herself were swiftly followed by a flood of angry shame. This was the guy who had dumped her without regret. Had he really missed her? Yeah—so much so that he had never got in touch again! What had happened to that new beginning and the friendship he had suggested? Had he deliberately lulled her into a false sense of security? Those stray thoughts sparked more, one after the other.

  Through wide, questioning eyes Katie stole a glance at the room. The décor was very feminine, a perfect match to her personal preferences, she conceded, with a frown starting to build between her feathery brows. Not only were pastels her favourite colours, but she also adored fresh flowers. Had she ever seen more roses and lilies gathered more prettily and less naturally in one place? What did it take to rouse her suspicions and put her on her guard? A fire alarm? A full-frontal attack with a military tank?

  The picnic scenario had been equally calculated to provide special appeal, she reflected tautly. Cue for the exclusive magazine-spread approach to outdoor dining? A faint chill formed in her tummy and began to grow. She studied the beribboned silk knots embellishing the bedpost nearest her and almost choked on the conviction that it was all brand-new, that in fact she had been hooked like a fish by an expert angler. And, worse still, how many hours was it since she had seen or thought about her children? The lash of guilt that reflection induced was horrendous.

  ‘You’re very quiet.’ Alexandros sighed. ‘I hate to surrender our idyll, but I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and it’s now time for dinner.’

  Thrusting herself away from him in an abrupt movement, Katie sat up. ‘You’ve made a real fool of me…’

  Lazily engaged in admiring the elfin quality her fragile features possessed, even with her hair all tousled and her make-up kissed off, Alexandros tensed and came up on one elbow to say, ‘I don’t think I quite follow.’

  Katie leapt out of the bed as though she had had a sharp pin stuck into her shrinking flesh. The sun was sinking, but there was still more daylight than her modesty could stand coming through the tower windows. Nudity had never felt more damning or humiliating to her. Espying her panties on the rug, she swooped on them with shaking hands and clumsily climbed back into them.

  Alexandros thrust back the tumbled sheet and sprang upright, a vision of lithe, bronzed masculinity. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I can’t believe you can ask that question!’ Katie raged. ‘I made it so easy too, didn’t I? Just give me a bit of sunlight, a cartload of roses and beautiful surroundings, and I fall for the whole seduction routine—’

  ‘What seduction routine?’ Alexandros hauled on his boxers and reached for his well-cut trousers. ‘I have never had to seduce a woman in my life.’

  ‘Don’t you think for one moment that I will ever forget you doing this to me!’ Katie launched at him, wrenching the sheet violently off the mattress and wrapping it round her in a series of jerky defensive movements. What remained of her underwear and her dress were still lying outdoors. Her cringing embarrassment felt like a fitting punishment for such wanton behaviour.

  With tears of pain and anger burning the back of her green eyes, Katie raced down the spiral staircase. The incredible charm of the creased quilts, tumbled cushions and abandoned wine glasses in the beautiful leafy glade struck her afresh. She went rooting around for her bra and failed to find it.

  ‘Have you gone crazy?’ Alexandros enquired from the terrace, where he stood pulling on his shirt. ‘One minute we’re making love, the next you’re screaming at me?’

  ‘What happened to friendship?’ she bawled at him.

  Alexandros stilled, his shirt hanging loose and unbuttoned. Evening stubble made a sexy blue shadow round his wide, beautifully moulded mouth. Slumberous golden eyes full of immense power rested on her levelly. ‘The option was there…you didn’t go for it.’

  Trembling with disbelief at that calm response, Katie stared back at him.

  Alexandros extended a lean brown hand. ‘Come back to bed, thespinis mou. I’ll order food.’

  She snatched up her dress, carefully unwound the sheet, and fought her way back into the garment in furious haste. ‘You’ve just got to be joking! I came to Italy because I trusted you. Because I wanted to be fair to you and the children.’

  Alexandros lifted expansive arms in a very Greek gesture and dropped them again. ‘And you have been—for which I honour you. Today we moved on from the past…an important step—’

  ‘The only place I moved on to was your bed, and I regard that as very much a retrograde step!’

  ‘But you had a good time there,’ Alexandros countered without hesitation. ‘I heard no complaints.’

  ‘That’s not the point—’

  Alexandros slung her a hard, shimmering smile that tensed her tummy muscles with a mixture of resentment and nerves. ‘Perhaps your point is too illogical for me to follow. You wanted me.’

  Furious tears in her eyes, Katie bent to lift and shake a quilt to locate her missing shoes. ‘So it was okay to set me up, then, was it? Because I still find you attractive, you thought it would be fun to lure me out here with false talk of friendship?’

  Watching her dig her dainty feet into her tiny shoes, Alexandros realised how much he liked that physical delicacy of hers. He groaned with impatience. ‘I assure you that I am not finding this ridiculous scene fun. I still don’t understand what the problem is.’

  ‘Is that a fact?’ Katie shot him a gleaming green glance full of bitterness. ‘You don’t see anything wrong with what you did?’

  Lean, powerful face unyielding, Alexandros shrugged, a battle-hardened veteran when it came to avoiding direct and damning questions. ‘What did I do?’

  ‘Something that should’ve been beneath your precious honour after what you’ve already done to me. I should’ve smelt a rat the minute I saw this gorgeous picnic scene. It was too good to be true.’

  Increasing frustration was starting to rise inside Alexandros. He was a very practical man. She liked fairy stories, floaty things, four-posters and flowers. He had ensured she got the lot and she had been enchanted. As far as he was concerned, everything had gone fantastically well: she’d been happy; he’d been happy. What was her problem? She was the only woman in his life who had ever shouted at him.