by Lynne Graham
‘I think it’s time that I took you home,’ Sander suggested, throwing back the sheet to stride into the bathroom and switching on the shower.
On the drive back through the quiet streets, he said softly, ‘Can I give you a piece of advice without you taking offence?’
‘Depends on what the advice is,’ Tally told him sleepily.
‘Don’t get serious about me. We had great sex and I like your company but I’m not looking for a live-in partner, a wife or even a serious girlfriend.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Tally exclaimed, losing colour in receipt of such candour.
‘Now that that is said, we won’t misunderstand each other,’ Sander returned unapologetically. ‘It might also be a good idea for you to consider some form of reliable contraception.’
Tally rolled her eyes and sighed. ‘That’s my business—’
‘No, it’s our mutual business while we’re sharing a bed,’ Sander riposted.
‘I’m not going to fall pregnant on you,’ Tally declared very drily, guessing the source of his concern. Although he had taken precautions when they had made love she had already decided to visit her doctor and take measures on her own behalf.
‘I’ve seen friends dragged through that experience and no matter how they deal with the problem, it always seems to turn nasty,’ Sander remarked grimly. ‘Don’t ever put me through that, Tally.’
Tally startled him by laughing spontaneously. ‘Do you always focus on the worst-case scenario?’
Sander rested magnetic dark eyes on her, his expression grave and unamused. ‘In that field, yes …’
CHAPTER SIX
‘HURRY up,’ Sander urged impatiently into his phone. ‘I’m double-parked!’
‘I’m almost there,’ Tally gasped, running out of breath as she charged past the shops and up to the sleek silver Ferrari awaiting her arrival.
Slinging her bag of files in ahead of her, she almost fell into the passenger seat in her haste. All her attention was reserved for the breathtakingly handsome male at the steering wheel. The lean dark beauty of Sander’s features always enthralled her. Sander had spent the previous week in Athens and she had missed him intolerably while he’d been away. That was why she was cutting classes to meet up with him in the afternoon, breaking one of her most unbreakable rules on his behalf. Now, as she looked at him with shining green eyes, common sense and cool were the furthest things from her mind.
In his driving mirror, Sander had been watching a traffic warden with a hand-held device in readiness to book him with a parking offence, but when Tally tumbled into the car, dressed in her student apparel of jeans and a brightly coloured tunic, his stunning dark golden eyes welded to her instead. In a movement that lacked his usual measured grace, he lifted a lean hand to close his fingers into her tousled tangle of curls and tip up her face. As usual she was bubbling with chatter, which emerged in confused half-sentences, her overwhelming excitement and delight at seeing him again as unfeigned as a child’s. Her warmth and naturalness had as much appeal for Sander, the child of rigidly cool and undemonstrative parents, as the clarity of her eyes, flawless skin and those pink pillowy and oh-so-kissable lips of hers. Without hesitation he bent his head and claimed her tempting mouth in a long drugging kiss that sent naked excitement snaking through her in an insane rush.
Before the traffic warden had finished tapping in his vehicle registration details, Sander was already driving off. Tally was in a daze, battening down the fierce hunger he had roused so easily even while she longed to drag him back into her arms. A glance down at the trouser fabric moulded to the hard swollen ridge of his manhood informed her that the desire was mutual. She had worried that he might seek sexual solace elsewhere while he was away but the revealing heat of his powerful libido reassured her even while she knew that there were no guarantees.
After all, Tally had set out on their association with the very rational resolve that she would be sensible and not allow herself to get too attached to Sander Volakis. His reputation, his age and the very differences between them in the status and wealth stakes had all warned her not to take too optimistic or long-term a view of their relationship. But regardless of those facts, they had now stayed together for seven weeks and the heat of the attraction between them had yet to show any sign of abating.
Binkie had met Sander very briefly when he’d picked Tally up one evening and had pronounced him ‘charming’ while Crystal, who was currently staying in Spain with a recently widowed friend, had only had dire warnings to make on the score of her daughter’s liaison with a Greek entrepreneur.
‘The most you’ll ever have with Sander Volakis will be a steamy affair before he gets bored and moves on to some other woman,’ Crystal contended with a cynical twist of her lips. ‘I’m telling you that for your own good. If you’re prepared it will hurt less.’
‘I know Sander’s not in love with me,’ Tally admitted rather tightly, although she continued to keep a valiant smile pinned to her face. ‘That doesn’t mean I can’t be happy while it lasts.’
‘As long as you accept that you don’t have a future with him.’
‘I accepted that at the start,’ Tally fielded a tinge drily. ‘We’re both young and single, so of course it’s not going to last for ever.’
Having said all the right, level-headed things, Tally had become conscious that day that she wasn’t really fooling anyone, least of all herself. She adored Sander, absolutely adored him. Just the sound of his voice on the phone made her day and a glance from his dark deep-set eyes could tie her in knots and make her burn with longing. Even though she had not intended to fall madly in love with him, it had happened all the same.
She was relieved that Sander had not yet met her mother, for Crystal had never overcome her bitterness at the way her child’s father had treated her and Tally did not trust the older woman not to make some scornful and embarrassing comment about her daughter’s Greek parentage. Sander still didn’t know that Anatole Karydas was Tally’s father but she saw no reason why she should tell him, because what difference would it make to him? It was not as though her father took any interest in her life or even bothered to stay in regular contact with her.
Rushing into the lift to keep up with Sander’s long impatient stride, Tally was feeling quite dizzy when the lift whirred up to his apartment. As goose bumps rose on her skin and perspiration dampened her short upper lip she also felt slightly sick. It was far from being the first time she had felt under par in recent weeks and once again she resolved to visit her doctor when she could find the time. Having started taking the contraceptive pill to protect herself from pregnancy, she was beginning to suspect that the particular brand she was using might not suit her because she was suffering from increasingly frequent attacks of nausea.
Sander scooped her up in the hall and kissed her hard, the cool he practised in public places banished as his hands roved over her, smoothing up below the tunic to find the ripe curves of her breasts. An earthy groan of appreciation escaped him as he pushed her bra out of his path and kneaded the firm mounds that tumbled into his palms. ‘I’m so hot and ready I could take you here …’
‘I missed you too,’ Tally confided, engaged in wresting him out of his jacket, which fell on the tiled floor.
‘Skase! Shut up,’ he told her, urgently covering her mouth again. ‘You’re talking too much …’
While he kissed her breathless, stoking the flames of arousal already quivering through her, Sander pulled her through to the bedroom. His eagerness to make love to her thrilled Tally and made up for other omissions. He had yet to introduce her to any friends, other than those they had accidentally run into when out. He had never asked her to stay the whole night with him. He also never invited her out more than forty-eight hours in advance or said anything that might allow her to assume that they would still be together in a few weeks’ time.
Having whipped away her tunic and bra and trailed off her jeans in speedy succession, Sander stood
by the bed stripping from his suit. He was so aroused he was in pain and had barely slept the night before. He had never had such great sexual rapport with a woman and he loved the fact that Tally had not known any of his friends or indeed his rivals before him. She was exclusively his in a way no other woman had ever contrived to be and very much his creation between the sheets. He was convinced that that was why he enjoyed being with her so much and why he had yet to become bored with her.
Watching her lover undress, Tally came up on her knees. She took the level of his arousal as a compliment. There was a hum of answering desire low in her pelvis, a tingling, dampening swelling between her thighs. She bent her head to caress his hard shaft with her tongue and her lips and a raw sound of pleasure escaped him before he sank his fingers into her hair and pulled back from her. ‘I want to come inside you,’ he breathed thickly. ‘And I’m way too revved up already, latria mou.’
Sander having reassured her with a recent health check, and taking account of the fact that she had started taking the contraceptive pill, Tally had agreed to his making love to her without using a condom. She knew that her trust in him was mirrored by his in her, because he had admitted that he had never trusted a woman sufficiently before to dispense with that added safety barrier.
He eased her down on the bed beside him and closed his mouth to a swollen pink nipple to draw it deeply between his lips while his fingers stroked the tender tissue between her thighs to establish her readiness. A whimper of appreciative sound was dragged from her as he rubbed her tiny bud of pleasure. Her hips rose and then squirmed and her back arched while he probed her with an exploring finger. With a hungry groan he sheathed himself in her honeyed heat, stretching the delicate walls of her body with his thick hardness. She cried out, eager for every sensation, clutching at him with frantic hands as a starburst of powerful excitement engulfed her and he began to pound into her tight channel with strong sensual need.
So intense was Tally’s excitement that she writhed under him as the paroxysms of pleasure washed through her in pulsing waves that were hitting closer and closer together. Their passion drove them both to an explosive conclusion. The tension provoked by that almost agonising excitement peaked at an incredible climax that saw Tally buck and cry out as his magnificent body shuddered over hers. In the same glorious instant of release he spilled his life force into her with an uninhibited shout of satisfaction.
After a moment of recovery, Sander settled smouldering dark eyes welded with concern to her hectically flushed face. ‘I got carried away—did I hurt you?’
‘No, of course not,’ Tally declared breathlessly, her eyes shining and her body heavy with an overload of voluptuous pleasure as she wrapped both arms round him in an unashamedly enthusiastic hug.
‘I never quite forget the first time, latria mou.’ Raking long brown fingers through his tousled black hair, Sander tolerated being hugged and even enjoyed her affection in a way he chose not to focus on or examine in any greater depth. She was a touchy-feely girl, designed to melt when it came to animals, kids and sob stories, and that was part and parcel of what he viewed as her soft, naturally feminine nature.
‘What did you do in Athens?’ Tally questioned, lacing her fingers through his in an insistent gesture.
‘I don’t want to talk … I want to go to sleep,’ Sander teased.
‘You can’t—you’ve been away a week!’ Tally complained feelingly. ‘So, Athens?’
‘My father wants me to move home and get involved in his company and my mother wants me to marry a nice Greek girl, four of whom she lined up for a big dinner party they staged while I was there …’
None of that information was welcome to Tally but she kept on lightly smiling for she was conscious that she had asked and should be grateful that he had answered honestly. ‘Fancy any of them?’
‘No, don’t fancy getting married either,’ Sander confided, cupping a hand to a plump breast and massaging the pink pouting peak to stiffened sensitivity, smiling as her spine began to arch in response and a little breathy sound escaped her parted lips. ‘Why would I want anyone else when I have you in my bed? Do you know, I think your beautiful breasts are getting bigger?’
Tally went pink. ‘I think it’s the pills I’m taking.’
Sander gave her an all-male grin that had a wicked edge of pure sensuality. ‘I’m not complaining. I love your body. By the way, we’re going out tonight.’
‘Where?’
‘A friend is having a private party at a club,’ Sander proffered, springing upright and bending down to scoop her off the mattress. ‘Time for a shower, lazybones.’
Tally was thrilled that she was finally about to meet some of his friends. ‘I’ll need to go home to get changed—’
‘No, you won’t,’ Sander asserted. ‘I’ve taken care of that.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You’ll see …’ Tugging her under the water with him, Sander slicked her with shower gel and concentrated heavily on her breasts. Her nipples had become impossibly sensitive and, in tune with her gasps, it wasn’t long before it became obvious that washing was the last thing on Sander’s mind as well.
‘Want me?’ he breathed, grazing the swollen buds of her breasts with knowing fingers.
‘So much,’ she ground out between clenched teeth of restraint, shaking with the desire he had reawakened.
Angling his hips out from the wall, he lifted her and brought her down on his throbbing erection before flipping round to brace her against the tiles. What followed was energetic, earthy and incredibly exciting and, in the aftermath, she was so exhausted she lay up against him in a tangle of splayed limbs, struggling to catch her breath.
Wrapped in a towel in the bedroom, she finally discovered why he had said that there would be no need for her to go home and change. He strode out to the hall and reappeared with a pile of boxes, which he dumped in a casual heap on the bed.
‘New clothes,’ he told her cheerfully.
Tally froze, disconcerted. ‘You’ve bought me clothes?’
‘If I have to take you out one more time in that black dress, or that one with the flashy jewelled neckline, I’ll rip them in two!’ Sander complained. ‘You need a new outfit and here it is.’
He tugged open the first box and tipped the contents out, so that a spill of expensive emerald-green fabric slithered out onto the bed. It only took a glimpse of the famous designer label for her to recoil. ‘That dress must have cost hundreds … I can’t accept it from you!’
It was the first time that Tally had ever really irritated Sander and he had to bite back a derisive response. He knew how much appearances counted with his friends and while he appreciated the fact that, unlike most of her predecessors, she didn’t expect him to continually lavish expensive gifts on her, he thought she took independence too far for comfort.
In silent determination he broke open the other boxes and tumbled their contents out onto the bed. Tally flushed as she noticed the cobweb-fine underwear, and stockings and shoes that accompanied the dress. Her chin came up at a defiant angle. ‘Has my lack of a designer wardrobe caused you embarrassment?’
‘No, but I know enough about women to know that you will be embarrassed if you don’t wear this tonight,’ he completed smoothly.
Mortified by his candour, Tally looked away from him and wished that money weren’t such an embarrassing subject. This was the first time it had caused trouble between them. His annoyance did not pass her by, for although he had said nothing she knew him well enough to read the tension etched in his lean dark features and the coolness in his gaze. Her pride warred with her reluctance to stage a major argument over a gift that many women would have gratefully, even joyously accepted from him. For the first time she wondered if her lack of a presentable wardrobe had dissuaded him from taking her out to mix in his usual circles.
‘I’m even more embarrassed by you doing this,’ Tally confided in a rush. ‘But I can see that you intended to be kin
d and generous and even thoughtful, and I don’t want to be ungrateful. But please don’t ever buy me clothes again.’
‘I don’t want you to look out of place or feel uncomfortable with my friends,’ Sander admitted.
She almost told him that if that was the case he had the wrong friends but bit back the comment as the atmosphere was still tense and he was volatile.
She let her fingers glide over the costly material of the dress. ‘It’s a gorgeous colour,’ she conceded stiffly, offering an olive branch.
‘The instant I saw it, I knew you would look amazing in it,’ Sander confided, hauling her into his arms and staring down at her with flattering intensity.
And there and then she forgave him absolutely, even though her brain was still telling her that it was wrong to let him buy her expensive clothes. ‘Will you be annoyed if it doesn’t fit?’
‘This isn’t the first time I’ve bought a dress for a woman,’ Sander imparted drily.
‘Too much information,’ Tally muttered, vanishing back into the bathroom to tame and dry her wet hair.
‘I bought you emerald and diamond earrings as well.’ As Tally froze at the vanity mirror and spun round Sander dealt her a might-as-well-be-hung-for-a-sheep-as-a-lamb look of challenge.
Tally parted bloodless lips. ‘I don’t want them.’
In the doorway, Sander flung his arms wide in a gesture that expressed his frustration. ‘What is your problem? You give me a great deal of pleasure. Why is it wrong for me to show you my appreciation in the only way open to me?’
Put like that, it made her sound small-minded and ungrateful and she went pink. ‘Accepting costly gifts from you just doesn’t feel right,’ she framed.
‘Don’t be difficult,’ Sander censured. ‘You should never question generosity.’
She thought about the Greek girls his mother had lined up in Athens and chewed at her lower lip rather than toss a provocative retort. But if she wasn’t careful, she thought ruefully, loving Sander would make a coward of her and she would become so focused on keeping him happy that she would lose herself. It was a scary consideration and while she dried her hair and renewed her make-up she swore to herself that even love wouldn’t make a doormat of her, wouldn’t make her do and say and accept things she didn’t believe in.