by Trish Morey
She covered the movement by folding her arms over her chest, hugging her wallet as she concentrated on keep her breathing calm. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Whatever had happened between them was in the past. Now he was getting married. He shouldn’t affect her. She wouldn’t let him affect her. Not if she was going to be able to tell him the truth. And she would.
They ordered their coffee and chose a table under the shade of a vine-covered pergola, a discreet distance from the other customers. Nick held out a chair and dutifully waited while she sat down. His hands seem to linger for ever on the back of the chair and his breath stirred the loose ends of the twist of hair she had pinned up that morning, sending warm tingles through her skin.
The next moment he had touched the clip holding the coil in place. ‘What would happen if this came out?’ His warm breath touched her neck, curling into her senses.
Alex’s breath stuck as he toyed gently with the edge of the clip. ‘My hair would fall down.’ She ducked her head a fraction and one hand went up to reassure herself that the style was holding—only to have her hand snared by his.
He moved around the table and sat alongside without letting go. ‘I should very much enjoy watching that,’ he said, with a look that made her breath catch in her throat.
Alex looked into his dark eyes and not for the first time wished he didn’t look quite so damned sexy. Wished he didn’t make her feel so uncomfortable—so hot. Wished he wasn’t marrying Sofia.
Crazy. She had to stop thinking like that. Who Nick married was not up to her. It shouldn’t matter. She should be happy for both of them. And she would be—starting right now. She licked her lips, slipping her hand out of his and tucking it safely away with her other, deep in her lap.
‘Sofia is very excited today.’ She paused, still struggling to come out with ‘that’ word. ‘I…I guess I should congratulate you. It’s lovely to see her so happy after all she’s been through.’
His eyes stayed on her, narrowing slightly, while his head tilted a fraction. ‘She’s a beautiful girl who deserves the best. I want her to be happy…’
Their coffee arrived. Alex, grateful for the interruption, stirred a spoonful of sugar she didn’t need into her cappuccino, her spoon making lazy circles in the froth as her mind formed crazy, jagged spikes.
Of course Sofia was beautiful. And she deserved to be happy. But hearing him say those things about someone else, his fiancée, rubbed her nerve endings raw.
‘So,’ he said, after taking a sip of his long black coffee, ‘here we are, sharing coffee. What is this private matter that you couldn’t tell me in the office?’
Her heartbeat racing, she toyed with the froth on her coffee with her spoon, trying to form the words. ‘Nick, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I have to tell you something…’
He smiled again, and pushed back against his chair. The fine cotton of his shirt did nothing to hide the play of muscle just below the surface and Alex drank in the view. Everything about Nick shouted man, from his rugged olive-skinned jawline to the way his trousers fitted across his muscle-tight thighs. She looked up to realise he was watching her, obviously amused by her interest, and even more than that. He seemed to be enjoying her interest.
Cheeks flushed with heat, she pressed on.
‘I have certain responsibilities that I need to discuss with you—that you should be aware of.’
He smiled again, wider, with one side tilted up, and he was nodding. It threw her. He didn’t look curious or concerned. He looked somehow satisfied.
‘I knew you would have a change of heart,’ he cut in. ‘But don’t worry. I have taken that into account. You were right to want this meeting outside the office. It’s much more discreet.’
Confusion clouded her mind. ‘Sorry? I’m not with you.’
‘We can’t meet at your house, I realise, with your “responsibilities”.’ He moved closer to her, bending his head towards hers. ‘I would suggest my apartment, but Sofia has a tendency to drop in whenever she feels like it and I don’t want to upset her. I will arrange another apartment for us.’
Alex’s eyes rounded as he continued with his plans. He had to be kidding! ‘No,’ she said, interrupting his flow. ‘No apartment.’
He brushed aside her protest with a wave of his hand. ‘It’s more discreet. We can both have a key—’
‘No apartment! I told you I won’t sleep with you. What makes you think I’d change my mind?’
Especially now. Now that she’d been asked to arrange Sofia’s wedding. Sofia and Nick’s wedding. What kind of man was he, that he could coolly take a mistress while plans for his wedding to another woman were made? Poor Sofia. Did she have any idea what she was letting herself in for? Thinking of the girl just hardened her resolve.
‘I won’t change my mind.’
‘Oh, you’ll change your mind,’ he said, in a whisper that sounded disturbingly like a threat. ‘I’ll make it worth your while. You won’t have to scratch along on the pitiful wage Aristos paid you.’
She pushed back her chair and stood. ‘Nothing you can offer would make it worthwhile. What’s happened to you, Nick, that you can be so callous and hard? When did you stop feeling?’
She picked up her things from the table and moved away, but already he was standing in front of her and blocking her exit.
‘Before you go…’ he said, leaning closer. He took her shoulder with one hand, and even though she held herself rigid she felt herself being drawn closer to him. His face dipped closer to hers, and for one insane moment she thought he was going to kiss her. She looked up as his face grew nearer, his eyes swirling with the unknown, and her lips parted of their own accord.
Then he gently brushed her upper lip with one finger, leaving her completely and utterly breathless.
‘You had chocolate on your lip,’ he said, before lifting the finger to his mouth and licking it clean.
For a moment she was too shocked to respond. For one thing the gesture had been completely unnecessary. For another it had been way too intimate. But the worst of it was that she felt cheated.
Because for some insane reason she had found herself wanting that kiss. And it hadn’t happened.
‘Thank you,’ she forced herself to say through gritted teeth, her voice scratchy. Breaking eye contact, and trying to pretend that having cappuccino foam practically licked off her lip was an everyday occurrence, she headed resolutely for the office.
‘The pleasure was all mine,’ she heard Nick mutter a few paces behind her.
The phone was ringing when she got back to her office.
‘So how did it go?’ asked Tilly.
‘It didn’t.’
‘You mean you didn’t tell him?’
‘I couldn’t.’
‘You chickened out?’ Tilly’s tone was damning.
‘I tried to tell him but he wasn’t listening. And things have changed.’
‘What’s changed?’
‘He’s marrying Sofia.’
A pause. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Tilly, he’s bought her a diamond the size of Uluru and they’ve both asked me to help with the wedding. How much more evidence do I need?’
‘Oh.’ Alex could hear the sound of Tilly sitting down. ‘Are you okay about it?’
Alex scoffed. ‘Why should it matter? Nick means nothing to me now.’
Liar! Even as she said the words it felt as if someone was twisting a knife inside her. And yet it shouldn’t matter, so why the hell did she feel so bad?
‘I guess that does complicate things. But he still—’
Alex cut her off, knowing full well what was coming. ‘Yeah, I know. I just couldn’t do it on top of everything else. Not today.’ Not after he’d offered to set me up in an apartment for sex whenever he felt like it. She glanced at her watch. ‘Listen, sis, I need your help. I can’t do this wedding planning thing. I don’t have the first idea of how to go about planning a wedding, let alone the extravaganza Sofia will e
xpect—besides which, I have far too much work on my plate already. So I recommended you. Can you do it?’
‘So…you’re not actually okay about it?’
Alex sighed. ‘Look, it’s complicated. Let’s leave it at that. Now, do you want this job or not?’
Tilly rang off once they’d worked out a time for Sofia to drop by, and Alex worked out that she had better deal with the bank and transfer some money pronto. Sofia’s credit card had maxed out—no mean feat, given the gold-plated limit. The new blue wardrobe had obviously taken its toll. She authorised a transfer to ensure there was sufficient credit to cover the inevitable imminent shopping spree and went in search of the blushing bride-to-be.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TIME, like Alex’s peace of mind, was wearing thin. It had been a quiet couple of weeks. Tilly had kept Sofia so busy, organising the wedding of her dreams, that she’d hardly been in the office. Nick had extended his trip away, as expected. He was due back tomorrow, in time to collect Dimitri—who was arriving from Athens—from the airport.
Everything was ready. The invoices were up to date. The bank statements reconciled. The management reports were prepared—a neat stack of facts and figures to greet the new administrator, who would need all of this to evaluate the Xenophon Group’s operations.
She’d achieved a lot in just a few days—achieved all that she’d set out to do and more. But there was no rush of satisfaction at having met her self-imposed targets. No spring in her step at having smoothed the chaos that had been the office, since Aristos’s death, into order and control.
Nick was coming back tomorrow. Somehow the anticipation of that—the dread of that—overpowered everything else.
But that was tomorrow.
She glanced at her watch. It was late, and it was time she left if she wasn’t going to be late picking up Jason from after-school care.
Then she remembered. Sofia had left the copy for her engagement notice for the weekend papers on her desk, wanting it to be faxed to the newspaper today. She made a quick call to the newspaper, checked it wasn’t too late, and started keying in the number in the backroom fax. The front office door swung open and clicked shut.
‘I’ll be right with you,’ she called down the hallway, wondering why a courier would be delivering this late in the day.
The fax machine beeped its way through the number and started churning through the page. Satisfied that the copy would make it to the newspaper desk, as promised, Alex turned—only to collide with solid man, solid heat.
‘Nick!’ she said, bouncing breathlessly off his chest as his hands shot out to steady her. ‘I didn’t hear you.’
Nick held onto her shoulders, even though she was in no danger of falling now.
‘We didn’t expect you until tomorrow. Sofia will be pleased.’
He hesitated a second. ‘And are you pleased, Alexandra?’
His face was close, the late afternoon stubble on his skin lending a dark, threatening shadow to his jaw. He smelt of coffee, of airline whisky, and man. Pure, unadulterated testosterone. It assailed her senses. It permeated her skin through his touch on her shoulders. It tickled her nose and warmed her lungs, her chest, her body.
She swallowed. ‘How did the trip go?’
‘You haven’t answered my question. Are you pleased I’m back?’
His eyes glinted, challenging her as his words had done a moment before. It made her kick up her chin.
‘No. I mean, yes. I mean—’
His eyes lit up and his lips curled. ‘Yes and no? Some good, some not so good. Tell me how this can be.’
Alex paused. She hadn’t meant to be so honest. But how to respond? She gulped. ‘Yes, because it’s good you’re back safely.’ Chicken. ‘And no, because you seem to enjoy making my life difficult.’ At least that bit was true.
‘I don’t mean to make your life difficult. I think you do that yourself.’
‘What?’ she said, trying unsuccessfully to shrug out of his hands. ‘How do you figure that?’
‘Because I know what your answer really means.’ Alex stilled her struggles. All of a sudden his grip noticeably gentled; now he was stroking languid lines along to her neck. After the strain of a long day assembling reports, the massaging effect was heaven. Her head dipped involuntarily towards his stroking touch.
‘You are scared of me. Your head tells you I shouldn’t be here, while at the same time your body reaches out for me.’
Her head snapped up.
‘Rubbish. I—’
His massage grew more firm, retaining her within his grasp. ‘And that’s how you make your life more difficult. By denying yourself the pleasure you know you will find with me.’
His arms tightened around her as he moved closer, cupping her head with his hands.
‘And there is no doubt you will find pleasure with me.’
She gazed up at him and knew he was right. She was battling the demon of desire and it was sapping her of all her strength. Yes, she would find pleasure with him. Of that there was no doubt. But it was a battle she had to fight. A battle she had to win.
Only now, with his face descending towards hers, passion flaring in those deep, dark eyes as his hands continued to mould her to him, it was hard to remember why.
Her breasts felt him first, her nipples crushing to his chest with a burning need to get closer, ever closer. She let herself be gathered tight in his embrace, pressing herself against the long, strong length of his body, watching him dip his head, slant his lips across hers. They shared a breath between them, shared the air that gave them both life but still wasn’t enough to sustain their need.
His lips grazed hers, the barest touch, the hint of recollection strong and hypnotic, and then something like a groan, his need given voice, emanated from deep in his throat and his mouth meshed with hers at last. She responded in kind, parting her lips willingly as his urged her to, his taste in her mouth and his breath taking hers away. His hands splayed at her neck, down her back, sculpting her body as they travelled her length.
For a moment his lips left hers to trail kisses down her neck, and she looked heavenwards, gratefully gasping in much needed oxygen, before they sought her mouth once more and she welcomed him back, her hand raking through his hair. He was so much the same, this man she’d known before. So much the same and yet so different. So much more a man. So much more…
The years melted away under the onslaught of his kisses, banished by a desire that had never changed, never diminished. His touch on her body was electric. Nerve cells kicked into life at his touch, skin goosebumped and tingled.
All over her feelings were awakening at his touch—exquisite torture as still it was not enough. His lips and tongue duelled with hers while his hands were everywhere—her hair, her neck, her back, her thigh.
Alex gasped as his hand slipped under her raised skirt and slid around to capture her behind. He responded by kissing her deeper, urging her closer against his obvious hardness.
‘Alexandra,’ he murmured, nuzzling her ear, ‘I want you.’
His words fed her own need, even as something inside told this was wrong. A kiss was going too far. And this was way beyond a kiss.
He steered her back towards the desk, jamming her hard against it as his hand lifted the skirt on the other side.
‘No,’ she whispered, her voice husky and raw. She pulled back, leaning over the desk, away from him, but he only took it as an opportunity for his hand to snare her breast. A sharp intake of air filled her lungs.
‘No! Don’t, Nick. This shouldn’t be happening.’
He pulled back, but only for a moment. ‘We’ve been through all that. This is exactly what should be happening.’ He leaned closer, aiming for her lips once more. ‘It’s time to stop fighting it.’
Breath hissed through Alex’s clenched teeth.
‘This is wrong!’
He moved to kiss her and she swung her head away so his lips collided with her cheek.
‘Stop pl
aying games.’ His tone was brusque, annoyed, and his hands moved from her thighs to restrain her arms. ‘You want this as much as I do.’
She turned her face back to his, painfully aware that her breath was coming in choppy bursts and trying to keep her voice level in spite of it. ‘And what does Sofia want? Doesn’t that matter too?’
‘This doesn’t concern her. This is between you and me.’
The anger his words created welled up inside her, giving her a strength she hadn’t realised she owned. She managed to free one hand, pulled it back and cracked it solidly against his cheek.
He recoiled, looking almost amused—except for his eyes. They glinted at her, dark and menacing. She’d taken him by surprise, that much was sure, and he didn’t like it.
‘How can you say that,’ she demanded, ‘when your engagement is to be announced in two days?’
Beside her the fax machine beeped into life, snagging Alex’s attention. The brief notice spat out. A confirmation.
The Sydney Daily had received the announcement she had sent through just minutes before. The day after tomorrow Sofia and Nick’s engagement would be official.
For the first time Nick relaxed his hold and leaned back.
‘What did you say?’ He spun away suddenly, both hands raking through his hair. Alex felt his departure as a sudden absence of heat but couldn’t afford to mourn the loss. She took a deep, shuddering breath.
‘And this is how you behave.’
She fled to her office to snatch up her things. She was leaving—now! She threw her parting words over her shoulder as she walked out.
‘I’m sorry, Nick. Contract or not, I’m not staying in this place another second.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
HE SLOWED the Mercedes Sports to a crawl and came to a halt alongside number nineteen. This was definitely the place. That was her small car there, parked in the narrow driveway.