‘I’m owed a day’s holiday,’ Alix pointed out, but determined to have the day off no matter what.
‘That’s OK, Alix. Your work is always up to date. Is it——?’ He broke off as there was a brief rap on the door and Todd Weston walked in.
‘Hi there. Sorry to interrupt.’ He glanced towards Alix and smiled in recognition. ‘Ah, the girl with a boy’s name. Alex, isn’t it?’
‘You’re close. It’s Alix,’ she corrected him.
‘Nice to see you again. How are you?’
‘Fine, thank you.’
His eyes settled on her face and he grinned. ‘Yes, I can see you are.’ He looked towards the head of department. ‘Is there some problem?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘Alix just came to ask for tomorrow off. I was just going to ask her if it was something special?’
He was rewarded with the most dazzling smile. ‘Oh, yes, it most certainly is.’
Both men laughed at her enthusiasm, and Todd said, ‘I wonder if I can guess what it is.’
Alix flushed a little but shook her head and wouldn’t explain.
The department head said, ‘OK, Alix, off you go. See you Monday.’
‘Yes. Thank you. Goodbye, Mr Weston.’
‘So long, Alix.’
As soon as she was out of the office, Alix rushed to catch the tube and then the train, willing them to go faster and yet faster, her thoughts flying ahead of her.
It was still only half-past four when Alix ran into the house, hugged her mother in excitement, then ran upstairs to spend the next two and a half hours getting ready. Weeks ago she had found the perfect outfit to wear tonight: black silk evening trousers, a beaded black strapless top, and a loose shirt with silver flecks to go over the top. Alix put them on and felt really glamorous. Her hair she wore long and as straight as it would go with so much natural curl in it, and she wore more makeup than she usually did at home. She added some new expensive French perfume, examined herself anxiously in the mirror, then glowed with satisfaction, knowing she looked good.
Both the families had always been so close that it didn’t occur to anyone that Alix might feel a little shy at meeting Rhys again in these new circumstances. It didn’t even occur to Alix until they were walking along the road to Rhys’s house. But when they had parted they had been merely long-term friends; now they were engaged to be married. She suddenly longed to be alone when she met him, to have time to be at ease with him again. But with parents as close as hers, Alix didn’t stand a chance. They were walking along, chatting happily together, wondering how long Rhys would be at home this time, how long in England.
When they reached the door Alix hung back, terribly unsure of herself. Was she supposed to rush into Rhys’s arms, to kiss him and call him darling in front of them all? She couldn’t do it, not when everything was so new, not when she hadn’t yet been alone with him as his fiancée. She didn’t know how to act towards him, how she was supposed to behave. Alix wanted to turn and run but Uncle David had opened the door and was ushering them in.
‘Rhys is in the sitting-room.’
They all looked at her expectantly, but Alix knew an uncharacteristic moment of panic and couldn’t move.
‘Alix?’ her father said questioningly.
But then suddenly it was all right because Rhys came out into the hall. He glanced at her, but turned first to her mother and father to greet them and receive their congratulations. Then he quite firmly showed the others into the sitting-room and shut the door so that they were alone. The shyness lasted for a moment longer until Rhys raised his eyebrow and said, ‘Had second thoughts?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then come here, idiot.’ And he spread his arms.
She ran into them and he held her close, then looked down at her teasingly. ‘Hello, urchin.’
He kissed her, then, a most satisfactory kiss that left her head in a whirl and made her give a long sigh of discovery when he lifted his head. ‘I have been waiting for that for so long.’
He grinned. ‘Well, I’m home now.’
But she hadn’t meant that; Alix meant that she had been waiting for her body to feel this aching need when she was close to him, for awakening womanhood. But she put the thought aside for later, and smiled back at him, her eyes alight with happiness.
‘Come on, we have to face them some time.’
Taking her hand, Rhys led her into the sitting-room, to be confronted by their parents with raised glasses of champagne. ‘To Rhys and Alix! Congratulations, darlings.’
Then there were kisses all around, they were given champagne and Rhys raised his glass in a silent toast to her. Alix knew she was grinning like an idiot but couldn’t help it. It was a moment of the most supreme happiness, to be surrounded by those she loved and who loved her, and to know that her dream had come true and she was to spend the rest of her life with the man she had always wanted. Once, during the course of the evening, when they were all seated round the table, laughing and talking, for a strange moment she felt detached from it, as if she was an onlooker, and the silly thought came into her mind that it was all too good to be true. Someone spoke to her, she blinked and shook off the unwelcome thought, promptly forgot it as she leant forward to reply.
A lot of the talk of course was about the wedding and where they would live. ‘You must buy a house near here,’ both mothers insisted.
‘There’s plenty of time,’ Rhys said in casual protest. ‘We’re not even officially engaged yet.’
‘So when is the announcement to be made?’ her father asked.
Rhys looked amused. ‘Loading up your shotgun, John?’
He had never called her parents aunt and uncle, he had always seemed too old for that; to him they were John and Valerie, and he spoke to them as equals. Alix thought about calling his parents by their Christian names only but knew that she never would; they were a different generation and that relationship was firmly fixed with the titles she had used for as long as she could remember.
‘I’ll phone the announcement through to the newspapers tomorrow,’ Rhys was saying. ‘Have it come out on Monday. Then you’ll be able to tell everyone,’ he said to the two mothers in amusement.
‘My God, just think of the telephone bills,’ his father sighed.
It was like that all through dinner and the evening that followed—light, happy. Alix helped to clear the table and when they went back into the sitting-room found that the others had tactfully left her a space beside Rhys on one of the settees. She would probably have sat next to him if their relationship was as it used to be, would probably have frowned mightily if anyone else had taken the place. But, now that she had the right to be beside him, Alix again felt shy and blushed rosily when Rhys put a casual but possessive arm across her shoulders. Tentatively she reached her hand up to hold his, found it held in a strong grip. Alix glanced at her mother and Aunt Jo and found that both women were looking at them with moist, sentimental smiles on their faces, making Alix quickly look away in case she got maudlin, too.
When they left to go home, Rhys again took control, saying as he helped her on with her coat,’ ‘Alix and I are going to take a walk.’
The street was dark and empty. Rhys put his arm round her and walked her down through the village to an open meadow that they had often gone to when they were young: to lie in the long grass and read, to practice tennis shots, for Rhys to teach her about natural history. A place that had long and good memories for them both. He lifted her over the fence, then leaned against it and pulled her to him. This time his kiss wasn’t just adult, it was sensuously intimate. He arched her body against his, letting her feel its hardness against her length and his shoulders hunched as his kiss deepened with passion.
Alix returned his kiss ardently, then gave a gasping moan against his mouth as a fierce fire of need grew deep inside her. ‘Rhys.’ She said his name on a shuddering sigh as he took her mouth by storm, sending her senses whirling. She clung to him, lost, drowning,
crying out in delight and yearning as he put a hand low on her hips and held her tight against him. She moved in sensual arousal, her head tilting backwards as he kissed the long length of her throat. She wanted him. Oh, God, she wanted him so much!
But Rhys loosened his hold, raised his head.
Slowly Alix opened her eyes and stared at him. Her breath was panting, unsteady, and her whole body, every nerve, every pore, seemed to be an aching need for love. ‘Oh, Rhys, I love you so much,’ she said fervently.
He kissed her lightly, then said, ‘I have a present for you.’
‘A—a present?’ she said dazedly.
‘Yes. Look.’
He took a small box from his pocket and clicked it open. Inside was a ring. A large stone surrounded by diamonds that seemed to be on fire in the moonlight. A ring of fire, Alix thought fancifully, her mind still stunned and whirling.
‘Here let me put it on for you. I hope it fits. I had your mother find out the size.’ He took her shaking left hand in his and slipped the ring on to her engagement finger. ‘It’s an opal,’ he told her. ‘There was a mine near where I was working and they let me go down and hack this out for you.’
‘You found it yourself?’ She turned eyes that were as bright as the ring up to him. ‘Oh, Rhys!’
‘You keep saying that,’ he admonished.
She laughed. ‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s just—just all so overwhelming.’
‘I know, kitten.’ He gave her a hug. ‘So now it’s official. You can go ahead and tell your friends. And at work.’
‘Oh, wow, I can’t wait! Kathy will just die with jealousy. She thinks you’re gorgeous, you know.’ Rhys laughed but she turned and put her arms round his neck. ‘And so do I. Rhys, I’m so happy. Thank you for my lovely ring and for wanting to marry me. Why did you?’ she asked in a sudden burst of vulnerability. ‘You could have had any girl you wanted.’
‘But you’re the one I want.’ He raised a finger to trace the outline of her lips. ‘My sweet, innocent urchin. Always here. So pretty, so untouched.’
She raised a questioning face at that, but he kissed her again and she forgot everything else for several long, wonderful minutes.
When he let her go, Alix gave a shaky laugh. Her hands were gripping the lapels of his jacket to steady herself, although his arm was strong around her.
‘What is it?’
She shook her head a little. ‘I—I didn’t know it would be as—as devastating as this.’
‘Good. I’m glad.’
‘Glad that it’s devastating?’
‘Yes, but mostly glad that you didn’t know before.’
‘There never was and never will be anyone but you,’ she said simply.
Putting his hands on her shoulders, Rhys looked deep into her eyes, then said the words her heart had always longed for. ‘That’s what I love about you, urchin. My sweet little Alix.’
They kissed again, but then it began to rain and they had to turn and hurry back.
‘I’ll call for you around eleven tomorrow,’ Rhys told her. ‘We’ll go out somewhere, get away from the parents. Goodnight, little one.’
‘Goodnight, my love,’ she answered, then quickly slipped indoors so that he could go home and not get wet.
Next day they drove down to the coast, found a deserted stretch of beach and walked along at the edge of the sea, both of them with their shoes off and trousers rolled up to their knees.
‘I wouldn’t mind living by the sea,’ Alix remarked as the wind lifted her hair. She laughed. ‘My mother keeps on about buying a house in the village.’
‘So does mine,’ Rhys said with a mock groan.
She put her arm through his. ‘Where will we live?’
‘Oh, I expect we’ll look for a house round here some time. In the meantime you can continue to stay in the flat whenever I’m away and go back to your parents’ when I’m in England.’
She lifted a puzzled face to look at him. ‘You want me to move out while you’re home?’ He nodded. ‘But——’ she flushed a little ‘—but I thought we could live at the flat together.’
‘When we’re married we can, sure.’
Alix stood still and put her hands on his arms, looking up at him earnestly but shyly. ‘Rhys, I don’t mind—that is, I’d like to live with you there now. Not—not wait.’
He kissed her lightly, but to her disappointment shook his head. ‘The parents would never wear it. And, besides, I want to do it right. Don’t you?’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed.
Hearing the reluctance in her voice, Rhys pulled her to him. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Will we be married soon, then?’
‘We have plenty of time, Alix. You’re only twenty. We don’t necessarily have to rush things because that’s what the parents want. Let’s enjoy being engaged.’ He kissed her lingeringly, and putting his arm round her, walked along at the edge of the sea.
Completely happy again, Alix immediately put all thoughts of living together out of her mind. If Rhys said they were to wait, then that must be the right thing to do. But although her mind accepted it, her body, newly woken to the magic of his caresses, yearned for fulfilment. But not living together didn’t necessarily mean that they wouldn’t make love. Alix was young and naïve enough to think that because she couldn’t wait then Rhys couldn’t either.
She would have liked to ask him, but she was still slightly in awe of Rhys, and shy as yet where sex was concerned. The age difference was still there, the ten years that made him a mature man and her an inexperienced girl. It created a barrier of intense inner admiration of him that she had yet to overcome to be completely at ease in their new relationship, to tease and argue with him as she would have done with someone nearer her own age. She was working on it, but at the moment accepted everything he said as right.
They walked for about a mile, until they reached some rocks that barred the way, then returned to the car and sat down on the sand to eat the picnic Rhys’s mother had insisted on preparing. Out to sea, the billowing white sails of several yachts appeared, scudding across the waves.
‘Do you remember the sailing dinghy I had before I went to college?’ Rhys remarked. ‘I wouldn’t mind getting another boat when I’m finally home long enough to have the time to sail it.’
‘When do you think that will be?’
He shrugged. ‘Who knows? Todd Weston intends to commute between here and Canada for a couple of years until his father finally retires and he names the person who’s going to take over from him in England.’ Rhys turned to look at her and said, his voice suddenly intense, ‘I want that job, Alix. But at the moment I’m very much the new boy on the board; I’ve got to work damn hard, concentrate all my time on the company, if I’m to get it.’
‘Does that mean going away a lot?’ Alix asked, trying not to let her deep disappointment show.
‘Probably.’
‘But when we’re married—won’t they let you stay at home more?’
‘If I get the job I’ll be able to stay in England most of the time; send other people abroad.’
‘Then you must get it,’ she said fervently. ‘What can I do to help?’
Rhys gave a crack of laughter. ‘That’s my girl!’ He lay back against a sand dune and pulled her down beside him. ‘Having you working for the company is already a great help. You’re bright and intelligent, Alix, you should do well there. And now that we’re engaged you’ll be invited to a lot of company functions; it will be useful that you already know all the staff.’
‘Really? That will be great. I’ll get to know every single person there,’ she promised expansively.
Rhys smiled at her, but then his eyes darkened and he sought her lips. His tasted cool from the breeze and salt from the sea, but lit an immediate flame deep within her. Alix returned his kiss hungrily, opening her mouth for him, putting her arms round his neck, her fingers running through his hair. Rhys made a growling sound in his throat and pulled her dow
n on top of him. She could feel the hardness of his body and it excited her unbearably. Alix groaned and kissed him fiercely, so fiercely that Rhys gasped and half turned so that she was beside him again.
Alix had on a denim shirt, knotted loosely at her waist. Rhys pulled the knot undone and with expert fingers unbuttoned the shirt. His hand felt hot on her skin, setting it on fire, burning its way up to the straps of her bra, pulling them down. He kissed her shoulders, the hollows below her throat, let his lips trail across her skin. His hand was still on her waist, but she didn’t want it there, her body ached to be touched, caressed. She had never known such longing, such desperate need. ‘Rhys.’ She said his name on a note of entreaty.
Raising his head he looked down at her flushed face, saw the hunger in her eyes and parted lips, and understood. His hand went round her back, unclipped her bra and took it off. His eyes went over her, taking in the beauty of her softly rounded breasts, firm with the elasticity of youth, the small nipples already aroused.
‘You’re beautiful, Alix,’ he told her, his voice thickening. ‘Exquisite.’
‘Touch me,’ she said urgently. ‘I want you to touch me.’
He smiled a little and sat up so that he was leaning over her. Stretching out his hands, Rhys gently cupped her breasts and began to caress them. Alix shuddered and closed her eyes, unable to bear the exquisite agony of it. She thought that she would never know such ecstasy as when he toyed with her nipples, hard and thrusting under his fingertips, but then he bent his head to kiss them and she knew that she had been wrong. Her cry of pleasure rose across the beach and echoed across the sea. She put her hands on his head, holding him there, never wanting this consuming joy to stop. Rhys’s breathing grew harsh, uneven, and he held her so tightly that he left marks on her skin. Raising his head he stared at her, panting, the deep darkness of desire in his eyes.
He began to push himself off her but she caught hold of him, the basic craving for fulfilment drowning out every other thought. ‘Rhys! Please.’
To Have And To Hold (Mills & Boon Vintage 90s Modern) Page 4