by Lynne Graham
‘Don’t stop,’ she breathed, helpless in the grip of the erotic heat and intensity still roaring through her.
Expelling his breath in a hiss of relief, Sergei began to move again while exerting every atom of control that he could muster. He responded well to challenge and he was determined to exceed whatever expectations she had of the event. His fluid increase in tempo sent excitement flashing through Alissa faster than an express train and fuelled her need. She bucked under him and sobbed with startled pleasure when he employed slow subtle movements that tormented her with sensation. She couldn’t control anything that she was feeling and what she was feeling was incredibly powerful. The hunger stoked by his passion reached a frantic height when every part of her was pitched to an unbearable degree of longing and then in a breathless heartbeat she reached an ecstatic climax. As she writhed under him in frenzied abandonment, wave after wave of pleasure convulsing her slender body, Sergei enjoyed the longest and most stupendous release of his life. His superb body shuddering over her, he tasted the ecstasy.
A split second later, he was wondering with an amount of alarm that shook him whether that single act of stunning sex might get her pregnant. And he didn’t want her carrying a child too soon, did he? Momentarily, Sergei, who never, ever deviated from a goal once he was set on it, was plunged into genuine bewilderment by his own change of heart on the baby issue. But when she conceived, it would surely be a case of game over as far as the bedroom was concerned and he really did not want to put her out of commission in the first month. That said, however, his priorities were unchanged, he reassured himself confidently: he was simply taking a rain check on that objective. Why shouldn’t he want to enjoy his bride for a while? There wasn’t a man alive who would not want to make the most of a woman who gave him that much pleasure between the sheets, he reasoned, his tension ebbing again. Releasing her from his weight, he anchored her to him with an appreciative arm.
‘Bihla chudyesna…that was amazing,’ he told her with husky satisfaction, landing a haphazard kiss on her cheekbone and then backing off so fast in discomfiture at having given her that salutation that she almost fell off the bed. ‘But we have a reception to get back to.’
Shot back to reality with a vengeance by that reminder, Alissa slid off the bed as if she had been jabbed by a hot poker. Realising in mortification that, aside of a wispy bra and a pair of torn knickers, she had no clothes to put back on, she snatched at the bedspread and yanked violently at it to haul it from under the big bronzed length of him where he lay in an infuriatingly relaxed post-coital sprawl. Concealing herself within its folds, Alissa was furiously aware of Sergei’s unashamedly amused scrutiny.
‘What is hidden is always more intriguing, angil moy,’ he murmured with silken approbation. ‘And much more appealing to a man like me than a short skirt and a low neckline—’
‘Intriguing you is the very last thing on my mind!’ Alissa almost spat at him, a tempestuous fury building behind her embarrassment.
With his brilliant dark eyes gleaming, his black hair ruffled and blue-black stubble beginning to shadow his strong jaw line and highlight his shapely mouth, he was a pagan vision of male beauty and magnetism. And she hated him, absolutely hated him for taking advantage of her the very first chance he got! Or the very first chance she had given him, she rephrased bitterly, loathing herself even more than she loathed him. But then what else had she expected from Sergei Antonovich? He was programmed to take advantage. He was a billionaire buccaneer in business, famous for his unpredictability and ability to move fast on a choice deal.
‘How much did I hurt you?’ he enquired with lazy assurance.
Her face burned. ‘I’m not going to discuss that—I’m not going to discuss anything that happened in that bed because there’s no need. It’s never going to happen again!’
Sergei was happily engaged in admiring the way the silk spread poured over her ripe little curves to cradle a pouting breast and define a deliciously voluptuous buttock. That green shade threw her aquamarine eyes into prominence as well. He was hugely relieved to hear that she didn’t want to discuss anything. Particularly anything that related to how their business contract had suddenly expanded to include sex for pleasure.
Unusually for him, he wasn’t quite sure why the business angle was taking more and more of a back seat, but he suspected it had a lot to do with the reality that he had wanted to bed her from the first instant he laid eyes on her tiny curvy frame. Why should that be a problem? She was proving to be a very worthwhile investment and there was no reason why he shouldn’t keep her as an indulgence for as long as he wanted. By the time she had given him a baby, she would no longer be a novelty, he reckoned with cynical conviction. An awareness of his own notorious track record warned him that familiarity would soon breed, not only contempt, but also boredom, and he would be glad to see her go.
‘You took advantage of the fact that I had had too much to drink!’ Alissa launched her attack without warning.
‘Had you?’ His black brows drew together. ‘When you were ripping off my shirt you struck me as an equal partner in every respect,’ he mused with the aura of a male recalling that act with satisfaction. ‘Don’t spoil it by being childish.’
‘Childish?’ Alissa parroted in a rage.
‘Why does the timing matter?’ he demanded in sincere incomprehension, for he had baulked at the prospect of a child conceived by artificial means in a Petri dish and sex had always been part of the package deal. ‘We wanted each other and we went to bed—’
‘We didn’t even make it into the bed!’ Alissa snapped accusingly, wondering why he was talking about timing, since she could not see what that had to do with anything.
An almost imperceptible darkening of colour highlighted Sergei’s high cheekbones. He was willing to admit that as encounters went it might not have been the idealistic stuff of a virginal fantasy. But then, he was well aware that she was not a romantic woman. No romantic woman would accept a huge amount of money to marry a stranger, give him a child and then walk away from that child.
‘It’s too late for regrets,’ Sergei pointed out with innate practicality.
Outraged by his attitude, Alissa stalked into the ensuite bathroom to stare shell-shocked at herself in the mirror above the vanity unit. Her wreath of flowers was crushed, her veil creased and her make-up smeared all over her face. She looked like a car-crash bride and the illusion of perfection was long gone. Tear tracks streaked her face while she stood there recognising that she had just totally changed her relationship with Sergei. Sex had smashed the boundaries she had known she had to retain if she was ever to win his respect. Her body ached with her every movement. She showered as best she could without getting her hair wet.
A knock made the door bounce in its frame and she spun round and opened it a mere crack, because she knew exactly who had to be behind that too-powerful knock.
‘I’m going for a shower in the other bedroom.’
Consternation made Alissa open the door wider and note the fact that he was only wearing his trousers with his shirt hanging open. ‘For goodness’ sake, put on all your clothes before you step out of this room!’
‘Why?’
Her mouth snapped into a compressed line at what she saw as a very stupid question. ‘Because if you don’t the women out there fixing my dress will realise exactly what we’ve been doing!’
‘So?’ Sergei prompted very drily, thinking not for the first time that Alissa’s attitudes and declarations frequently defied all logic and reality. ‘We got married, we shagged, so far, so normal…’
Alissa breathed in so deep she was afraid that she would burn up with the internal heat of her vexation. ‘If you don’t put your clothes on, I’ll never forgive you!’ she snapped in dire warning.
‘They’ll know anyway,’ Sergei told her with impatience. ‘You’ve wrecked your hair and the flowers in the wreath, so I asked the beautician and the florist to come up and sort you out.’
&
nbsp; Scarlet to her hairline, Alissa gave him what could only be described as a very aggressive and freezing nod, before shutting the door in his lean, darkly handsome face. Later she could never work out quite how she managed to handle the reappearance of the support team, entrusted with licking her back into bridal shape, because inside herself she was cringing. The knowing looks when she reappeared at the reception by Sergei’s side ate her alive with mortification. His reputation went before him, she reflected ruefully. When Sergei disappeared with a woman, no one, it seemed, had any doubt of his intent.
Intercepting a warm smile from Yelena, Alissa went over to talk as best she could to Sergei’s grandmother. The grizzled bearded man by her side revealed that he was a retired professor living in Yelena’s village and he translated to enable the two women to communicate. Alissa was surprised to find that she was confiding in Yelena about her parents’ separation.
Sergei joined them and spoke at length to his grandmother before closing a hand over Alissa’s and guiding her onto the dance floor. She glanced up at his lean, breathtakingly handsome face and her heart thumped heavily in her eardrums. She felt so vulnerable, so unsure of what to do next, for the passion they had shared had wrecked the framework of their relationship and she had no idea what would replace it.
‘We’re leaving,’ Sergei explained only when she questioned why they were leaving the function room and by a side door. ‘Yelena’s right. You look exhausted…like a little white ghost, angil moy…’
Chapter Six
PINK colour swam up below Alissa’s fair skin in a revealing tide.
In the limo, Sergei slid a long brown forefinger below her chin to tip up her face. ‘You’re still angry with me,’ he noted in apparent surprise.
‘No, I’m not. I’m not a child either. I do appreciate that I was equally responsible for what occurred,’ she said woodenly, long feathery lashes veiling her aquamarine eyes from his scrutiny.
Unholy amusement lit up Sergei’s smile; he was in an unusually good mood. She was still furious with him and couldn’t hide it and he loved that transparency of hers for its rarity. Her refusal to meet his eyes and her rigidity spoke for her. Women didn’t treat him that way and her nerve in doing so intrigued him. She was a novelty and so far the exact opposite of the woman described in that psychological profile. She was warm when she was supposed to be cool, passionate when she was supposed to be indifferent and deeply attached to her family when she was supposed to be selfish and detached. Even so, whatever conundrum Alissa presented, she had put on a marvellous show for his grandmother’s benefit.
‘I have a gift for you.’ Sergei presented her with a jewel case.
‘Another one?’ Alissa asked in disbelief and she was annoyed when that tart response only made her feel rude and ungracious.
‘I always reward excellence and you surpassed my highest expectations today,’ Sergei drawled as smooth as glass.
‘At the wedding…or on the bed?’ Alissa queried in a frozen little voice of supreme scorn.
Her tone was wasted on Sergei, who merely vented an appreciative laugh that emphasised how far apart they were in terms of humour. ‘You were a triumph everywhere, angil moy.’
With pronounced reluctance Alissa flipped up the lid of the case to reveal a diamond necklace that would surely have been worthy of the Crown jewels exhibited in the Tower of London. In spite of the fact that she was determined not to be impressed, her lips fell wide as she gazed at the river of perfectly matched glittering stones embellished by a magnificent pendant with a huge opulent emerald at its heart.
‘Well, thank you very much,’ she muttered finally, reminding herself that Alexa would have snatched it up, put it on and wrapped her arms gratefully round his neck in reward for such generosity.
‘Don’t you like jewellery?’
‘Oh, very much,’ she hastened to declare, steeling herself to remove the necklace from the case and behave as he almost certainly expected her to and wrap it straight round her neck. ‘But you really don’t need to give me stuff like this.’
Sergei did up the clasp. The stunning pendant was heavy and cold on her skin. Her reward for excellence. Alissa remembered that wild raunchy coupling on the bed, which had evidently pleased him very much. Her tummy clenched with a disturbing combination of intense shame and equally intense excitement. Her virginity hadn’t repulsed him in the slightest and, although what she had allowed to happen between them felt indisputably wrong and her pride lay in ashes round her feet, Sergei still didn’t repulse her. What was the matter with her? Where had her values gone?
The limousine wafted them back to his imposing city residence. He took her hand in the hall and directed her up the sweeping staircase.
‘Where are we going?’ she queried when he walked her past the room she had slept in the night before.
‘Your new room.’
‘Is it your room as well?’ Alissa enquired tightly.
‘No, I’m not into that joined-at-the-hip cosy couple stuff,’ Sergei imparted with perceptible recoil at the idea. ‘Not my style. I have my own suite next door.’
Alissa’s tension eased at the news that she was not expected to share a room with him. Surely with that sensible demarcation line in place there was less chance that she would be tempted by him again?
Sergei opened the door. He escorted her across the depth of a superb large bedroom and paused on the threshold of the en suite where odd flickering shadows were lighting up the walls. Alissa moved past him to gape in astonishment at the sunken bath already filled with steaming water and encircled with candles.
Sergei rested both hands on her narrow shoulders. ‘This has been a stressful day for you but you rose wonderfully to the challenge. I want you to relax now.’ He flipped her gently round, detached the wreath and veil, cast them carelessly aside and began without hesitation to unfasten her dress.
‘I can manage fine without help!’ Alissa exclaimed.
‘I don’t think so.’ Sergei breathed in the warm and already familiar scent of her. She smelled of the perfume he had bought her in London, a light but lingering floral fragrance that suited her so much better than the more exotic cloying concoction she had sported at their first meeting. He pressed his sensual masculine mouth against the soft skin of the fine-boned shoulder he had bared, his lips moving in a caressing trail to her sensitive nape while he slowly eased the fitted sleeves down her arms. Alissa quivered in response as though he were touching much more intimate places. Never ever had she dreamt that it was possible to be so insanely aware of a man. As her knees threatened to buckle and her stress level rose like steam in a tightly lidded pot she fought her treacherous weakness with all her might. And then suddenly without warning it was all too much for her and she sagged back into the shelter of his strong arms, tears burning the backs of her troubled eyes.
‘Don’t do that,’ she told him shakily.
‘But you like what I do to you,’ Sergei asserted with husky assurance, sliding his hands below the loosened bodice to nudge her lace bra out of his path and cup the soft silken mounds of her breasts in his palms. Her nipples tightened into tingling erection below the skilled stroke of his thumbs.
‘Whether I like it or not is irrelevant!’ Alissa argued wildly.
‘How can it be?’ Sergei urged, turning her round to face him. ‘It’s the icing on the cake for both of us. But you should have warned me that I would be your first lover. If I’d known I would have been more patient and I might have hurt you less.’
Alissa wanted the tiled floor to open up and swallow her. She snatched at her bodice before it could tumble lower and expose her bare breasts. Her hands were trembling, for she was remembering that wild passion when his impatience had only been matched by her eagerness and the pain had drowned in the hot sweet tide of pleasure. Her face burning, she stepped back from him. ‘I’m fine,’ she said flatly.
Sergei dealt her a flashing smile of such intrinsic charisma that her gaze stayed glued to him. ‘We
’ll eat together in an hour.’
Relieved by his departure and wrung out by the day’s events, Alissa shed her dress in the bedroom and finally sank into the bath with a heartfelt sigh of pleasure. Rose petals floated on the surface of the fragrant water. Sergei, she acknowledged in wonderment, had actually pre-arranged the candlelit bath for her and she was impressed, much more impressed than she had been by the gift of the extravagant diamond and emerald necklace. She shifted position and the dulled throb of her still tender flesh mocked her. So she was fine, was she?
She had had a lust-fuelled sexual encounter for the very first time and, while she was still ashamed of herself, she was even more worried that it would take very little effort on his part to persuade her into a repetition. The whole situation ran against her every principle and just then she could not work out how she had got caught up in it. She was his wife, his bought and paid for wife, who had already agreed to let him go without a fuss when he wanted his freedom back. He saw no reason why they shouldn’t make the most of the attraction between them in the meantime. Alexa would probably have laughed and settled for a short-lived casual affair, Alissa reflected uncomfortably. Why did she want more from Sergei than that fleeting sexual interest?
What did she like about Sergei Antonovich? It amazed her that she had disliked him so thoroughly at their first meeting. But then she had learned more about him since then, she reasoned.
He was very fond of his grandmother and so determined to make the older woman happy that he was willing to fake a marriage for her benefit. Alissa believed that he had made the wrong decision on that score, but she couldn’t fault his good intentions. She also liked the fact that for all his wealth and power he didn’t take himself too seriously. And his manners were faultless. He opened doors, held out coats for her, asked if she was cold and generally practised the kind of courtesy that had fallen out of fashion with so many men. He made her feel incredibly feminine as well. And although he was extremely blunt she preferred honesty to hypocrisy and evasion. Besides, while he was indisputably arrogant and bossy, he could also be surprisingly thoughtful and considerate, she conceded, resting back in the sunken tub with a dreamy smile blossoming on her face. When a maid rapped on the door to deliver a box of handmade chocolates to the very side of the bath, Alissa’s smile shone even brighter. She let a chocolate melt against her taste buds and sighed in bliss while she allowed her thoughts to drift for long timeless moments.