“I’m not married. I’ve been a widow for nearly ten years. My daughter and her young son accompanied me.”
“I, too, am widowed, also for a decade. Alone becomes a habit, does it not?”
Alex wondered at the emotion that danced through her eyes before she answered him.
“Yes, it does.”
He watched as she glanced back toward the sea. Then, after a moment, she turned to face him again, and he had the sense that she’d made a decision.
“Hannah Jones,” she said as she held out her hand.
“Forgive me, I should have introduced myself straight off. Alex Cross, at your service.” The false name rolled easily off his tongue. Though the staff knew his identity, they had been sworn to secrecy. To the guests, he was simply Alex Cross.
Taking her hand, he brought it to his lips. Her small gasp told him she hadn’t expected the simple courtesy. That seemed a crime. Her eyes filled with wonder and a smile kissed the corner of her mouth. Something about her touched him. He wanted to spend time with her, get to know her better.
In all the years he’d been widowed, and all the subsequent summers he’d been coming to this resort for vacation, he’d never been drawn to a woman.
“How does this resort compare to others you’ve visited?” he asked.
“Well, now, I’m the wrong person to ask. This is the first resort I’ve ever stayed at.”
“We are especially fortunate that you chose Boisdemer for your vacation, then. I never vacation anywhere else. There is much to see and do in my country.”
“Oh, how I wish I could take credit for choosing to come here!” When Alex cocked his head to the side, she explained what had brought her to Boisdemer and ultimately this evening encounter on a deserted, moonlit beach.
“What is it you do, Mrs. Jones, when you’re not winning contests?”
Hannah laughed. “Hannah, please. And that would be all the time. I’m an accounting manager for a manufacturing company in my home town.”
“Do you enjoy the work?”
“I do, yes. I seem to have an affinity for numbers, and there is enough variety in my daily tasks that I don’t get too bored. And you, Monsieur Cross? Do you work for the department of tourism?”
“You must call me Alex. And I have been accused of working for the tourism ministry before. But no, I do work for the government, but in a more administrative capacity. Would you like to walk?” He held out his arm, waiting to see if she would take it.
She smiled. “Yes, thank you.”
Alex deftly bent down and scooped up Hannah’s shoes.
“Oh my. I completely forgot about them.”
“I believe that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
The sound of her laughter washed over him, leaving him not only uplifted, but also aroused. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt that zing in the blood, that sense of something special and exciting just around the corner.
“I think you need to get a new set of friends, in that case.”
“I was quite serious when I said that ‘alone’ is a habit. A new friend is precisely what I need.”
They walked slowly down the beach, and Alex used the skills he’d honed over a lifetime of service to his country to draw this intriguing, and somewhat shy woman out. He asked her about her children and grandchildren.
“You said you had three children, but you’ve only told me of two.” And he’d caught the sadness in her tone.
“I haven’t seen, or heard from my middle child since just after my husband died. I think… I know he blamed himself for his father’s heart attack. They fought constantly. Of course, I tried to tell him his father’s death wasn’t his fault. He’d just turned twenty at the time, though. I couldn’t get through to him.”
“Ah, the age when the line between adolescence and adulthood blurs.”
“Yes. I know he’s alive, somewhere. I really believe I’d feel it, deep inside, if he weren’t. Just as I believe that when the time is right—when he’s ready—he’ll come home.”
They had reached the end of the bathing beach, nearly beyond the reach of the lights. Alex wanted to extend this interlude. It wasn’t late, not even eleven. He wondered how to convince Hannah to join him for a nightcap in the lounge. A fresh breeze came ashore, and she shivered.
“Allow me.” Alex slipped off his suit jacket, and draped it across her shoulders. Touching her so innocently, even insulated as that touch was by his jacket, filled him with a sudden urge.
She must have sensed his intention, he thought, for she looked up, her eyes widening.
“Yes, I’m going to kiss you, Hannah.”
“I’ve never kissed on a first date.”
“This isn’t a date.”
“Good point.”
He was smiling when he took her mouth. Warm, sweet, the taste of her sailed right to his groin. Hard for the first time in a long time, it took every bit of will at his command not to raise her skirt. What he'd intended as a gentle, friendly kiss turned into something more. Something deeper, more instinctual. His tongue invaded, plundered and possessed. He felt the strength go out of her legs, and gathered her closer. Her own tongue, shy for the first moment, became as sweetly bold as he could have wished. When he gathered her closer, she wrapped herself around him. The pebbles of her hardened nipples teased him through several layers of clothing. He knew then she had become as hotly and instantly aroused as he. Emboldened, one hand left her back to touch and caress her breasts. When her nipples peaked even more, when she gasped and pushed herself into his hand, he dared more. Reaching for the buttons of her blouse, he opened three. His hand teased newly exposed flesh, his fingers danced across the mound of her breast, and he yearned for much, much more.
He shook with desire when he broke the kiss, every logical, controlled thought gone from his head, and he pinched her nipple lightly when he said, “I want to be inside you.”
“Alex.”
He heard the longing, and the tiniest bit of fear in that one syllable of his name. Unable to deny himself this one pleasure, he bent his head and gently pulling down the top of her bra, drew her right nipple into his mouth. Her heard her soft cry, and reveled in the way she pushed herself into his mouth even deeper. Knowing if he didn’t stop he’d take her right then and there, he let her go. Holding her close, he spoke soft and low.
“It may sound like a line Hannah, but I swear, I’ve not been with a woman since my wife died. I haven’t wanted to. But I need to be with you.” He couldn’t help the pure male reaction of pressing his erection against the apex of her thighs. He swore he could feel the lips of her pussy opening, even through the layers of clothing, his and hers, that separated their flesh.
“I believe you. Because I feel the same way. But we have to stop, Alex. It’s too soon.”
He didn't agree or deny her words, not wanting to acknowledge the truth of them when his body told him differently. He couldn't. Instead, he said, “Come, we’ll go where there are others, where we must behave ourselves, and we’ll have a drink. I’m not ready for my time with you to end.” He stepped back and re-buttoned her blouse. Then, quickly, he cupped her face and kissed her gently.
“And while we sip our drinks, we’ll talk about the where and the when. But not the ‘if’. Because I’m going to have you, Hannah. We’re going to have each other.”
Chapter 2
When she opened her eyes, she thought it might have been a dream. But as the haze of sleep faded, the heat of arousal returned, and she knew it had really happened.
Hannah sat up in bed and hugged her knees to her chest. Good thing the resort had put them in a suite, and not a double room. She had her own bedroom, her own en suite, and privacy. The last she cherished at the moment, as it allowed her time alone with her thoughts.
Last night had been more than electrifying, it had been illuminating. She’d always wondered how people could get “carried away” and end up having sex without even thinking. She’d
been married twenty years, had birthed three children, so she’d had sex. But it had always been a deliberate, planned act.
Now, however, she understood. Another moment, another kiss in those shadows last night and she’d have been rolling naked on the sand with Alex.
He seemed intent that they would be lovers soon. She thought he could be right.
Who would have ever guessed that I could be horny? A giggle escaped her lips, and although no one could hear through her closed bedroom door, she covered her mouth. Horny? She’d been so hot, for the first time in her life she’d soaked her panties.
She hadn’t traveled half a world away to indulge in a vacation fling. The idea had never crossed her mind. But now it hadn’t just crossed her mind, it had settled in to roost.
Alex had invited her to go sailing today, and she’d accepted. They’d sat and shared drinks last night in the lounge, and she had enjoyed every moment spent with him. He’d listen to her and responded in a way that made her feel her thoughts and opinions were important. Though they came from different backgrounds, different parts of the world, they’d connected. She wasn’t fooling herself into thinking this the beginning of any grand romance. But an affair—and how odd for her to even think in those terms—was definitely a possibility. Why not?
She’d spent her life always meeting her responsibilities, denying herself. Whenever there had been a moment to choose between what she wanted to do and what she ought to do, her wants had always taken a backseat. And now, far from home, in the most exotic of locales, a handsome, intriguing, sexy man wanted to…well, he wanted to fuck her.
She giggled some more, her other hand joining the first over her mouth. She had never had thoughts like these in her entire life! And really, wasn’t that a damn shame? Seriously, Hannah thought wildly, she wanted to fuck him, too.
Turning her head she checked the bedside clock. She had plenty of time to shower, and have breakfast with Catharine and Jamie before it would be time to meet Alex. She would stop at that small boutique off the main lobby on the way to the dining room and see if she could buy a box of condoms, first.
* * * *
“Mom, do you have a headache?”
“No, sweetheart. Why would you ask?”
Catharine tilted her head slightly and looked hard at her mother. Now that she thought about it, her mother had been acting a bit, well, peculiar since she’d emerged from her bedroom, showered and ready to get started on the day.
“You made a detour to the drug store. I thought you had a headache and needed aspirin.”
“No.”
Something’s going on here, Catharine thought, for her mother seemed nervous, and the same light pink color that had graced her cheeks the evening before bloomed there now.
The waiter delivered their glasses of juice, and in the next instant a tall man appeared at her mother’s elbow. Catharine recognized him as the same “sinfully sexy man” her mother had pointed out the evening before.
“I hope you will forgive the intrusion, my dear Hannah. I didn’t want to wait until later to begin our time together.”
The soft inflection in the man’s voice made Catharine’s eyes go wide.
“Oh. Well. Of course. Ah, Catharine, Jamie, this is Mr. Cross. Alex, my daughter Catharine Jones, and my grandson Jamie.”
Catharine nearly gasped when Alex picked up her hand, kissed it, and murmured something that sounded like Enchante. She didn’t take it personally, though, for she could see Alex’s attention was completely on her mother.
“Won’t you join us for breakfast, Mr. Cross?”
“Oh, well, now Catharine, maybe Alex has…” her mother sputtered.
“Alex, please,” he replied to Catharine. “And I would be delighted to join you.”
Catharine felt herself grinning like a fool, but the very fact that her mom knew Alex by name this morning told her volumes of what had gone on the night before, and even some of what her mom had been pre-occupied with earlier.
Catharine thought it indicative of excellent training that the staff of the dining room quickly made accommodation for another person at their table. “Where are you from, Alex?”
“I am a native of Boisdemer, Mademoiselle Jones. My family has been here many generations.”
“And what do you do for a living?”
“Catharine!”
Catharine appreciated this grand moment of role reversal, with her mother looking mortified as they waited for Mr. Cross’ answer. Then Alex smiled at her mother, and touched her hand gently. “It is all right, Hannah. Since you will be spending the day with me, entrusting your safety to my abilities as a sailor upon the water, your daughter has a right to assure herself that you will be in good hands.”
To her, he said, “I have an administrative position with the government. My sailboat has sufficient room if you and your son would like to join us?”
Catharine knew at that moment if she accepted Alex’s invitation, he would be nothing but gracious to them all—despite the fact that his plans for the day would certainly have been ruined. A tiny part of her worried about her mother being alone with a strange man in a strange country. But the fact that the waiter had just delivered Alex a cup of espresso without being asked told her he was known here. And she thought it would be wonderful for her mother, who hadn’t dated at all in more years than Catharine could remember, to have the chance to go sailing with a handsome, sinfully sexy man.
“Thanks, but Jamie and I are going to join the Children’s Club today.”
The waiter chose that moment to deliver their breakfasts. Catharine grabbed the syrup before her son could, pouring a judicious amount on his waffles.
“We’re going on a bus ride to a place where they have horses!” Jamie announced. Catharine smiled because her son’s excitement about the pending excursion overruled his usual fuss about the syrup restriction.
“Do you like horses, Jamie?” Alex asked.
“I sure do. Grandma took me horseback riding in June and we had so much fun! My horse wasn’t as big as Grandma’s, but if I take lessons then when I’m ten I can ride a bigger horse, too.”
“So you ride as well,” Alex said to Hannah. “Dressage?”
“No, I use a real saddle—a western one.”
Alex’s warm chuckle had a definite affect upon her mother, and Catharine thought she had never seen anything nicer than her mom’s schoolgirl blush. The sparkle in her mother’s brown eyes when she looked at Alex decided Catharine on her course.
“It seems like a grand day for sailing. I’m sure you’ll both have a wonderful time. I thought that after Jamie and I finish with the Children’s Club, I’d rent a car, and the two of us would see what we can of this beautiful country.”
“There is a medieval fair set up just north of Cardinia. No more than a half-hour’s drive from here. I think you would enjoy it immensely.”
Catharine smiled at Alex. “I read about it in the brochure in our suite, and thought we’d check it out.” Actually, she’d thought it would be something her mother might enjoy, too.
Checking her watch she saw it was time to go. Jamie fairly bounced out of his seat, but she knew that had more to do with the impending visit with his favorite animals in the world than it did the sugar he’d just consumed.
Hugging her mother, she whispered, “I like him,” and was delighted to hear her mother’s equally soft, “So do I.”
* * * *
Philip de la Croix felt his tension easing, and knew coming here to the ranch today had been the right choice. As a pediatrician in the only hospital of his country’s capital city, he dealt with more than just healthy children coming in for vaccinations and check-ups. He’d dealt with all manner of trauma in the four years he’d been a doctor. And sometimes—blessedly rare times—he lost patients.
Yesterday had been such a day, and the sorrow of the child’s death cut deep.
So today he’d traded hats, as he liked to call it. Today he was not on call, nor acting in th
e capacity of doctor—although that is how most of the children, especially from the orphanage, thought of him. Today he wore the hat of his father’s son, using the family farm as a means of outreach to children from all walks of life. Some would be from the schools, some from the orphanage, and even some from the resort.
Despite the fact that he preferred his role as doctor, sometimes being the Prince helped to recharge his batteries.
Philip didn’t know what made him look up right then. He’d been focusing on helping Anna, one of the little girls visiting from the orphanage, find a comfortable seat on the horse’s back. But he did look up, and felt his pulse begin to race. The minibus from the resort had arrived, and the children and counselors from the day camp began getting off. He noticed a blond-haired little boy, whose eagerness communicated itself in the way he hopped from foot to foot. Then a pretty auburn-haired woman got off the bus, ruffled the boy’s hair and took his hand. Her hair wasn’t professionally cut or styled. She wore very little makeup, and he didn’t think her clothes were designer quality. She was, in fact, so completely not the sort of woman he would normally notice. But he not only noticed, he was instantly attracted in a way that went beyond the physical. Something about her, about the way she smiled at her son as if he were the center of the universe, touched Philip in a unique way. Madonna and child, he immediately thought. Shaking his head at the fanciful notion, he smiled and returned his attention to Anna.
“How does it feel now, petite?”
“All right, Doctor. But…what if he decides to run off with me?”
Philip chuckled, then held up the reins. “I won’t let him, Anna. Do you want me to lead you around the paddock?”
“Well, I guess just one time will be all right.”
Philip gave her his best smile, and slowly began to lead the animal in a wide circle. Anna had been coming on outings to the farm ever since she had been orphaned five months before, but this was the first time she’d been lured into participating in anything. Although physically healed, he knew it would take a long time for her to recover emotionally from the car crash that had killed the rest of her family, leaving her alone in the world. But the staff at the orphanage, from his sister Sophie, the home’s administrator, down, loved and cared about the children who lived there. Anna would be well again, in time.
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