Alix looked up at him in dismay, only now realising that his grandparents must have taken over Rhys’s room. ‘I’m sorry,’ she hissed, not wanting to wake his wife, but the old man put his finger to his lips to stop her and motioned that he would come down.
‘I’m terribly sorry,’ Alix said as soon as he came to the back door. ‘I—I wanted to talk to Rhys.’
‘Yes, of course.’ He drew her into the kitchen. ‘We’ve got his room and his mother made up a bed for him in her sewing-room.’
‘He’s back, then,’ she said happily. ‘What time did he get here?’
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ old Mr Stirling asked, picking up the kettle.
‘No, thank you.’ She studied his face. ‘He is back, isn’t he?’
Slowly he shook his head. ‘I’ve just looked; the bed hasn’t been slept in.’
‘Oh, no!’
‘Now don’t start panicking. David has gone to the airport to pick him up, so that Rhys won’t have to bother with getting his own car from the car park. We can always collect that later.’
‘Have you heard from him, then?’
‘Yes, he rang. Said they’d fixed the plane and he should be leaving any time.’
‘When was this?’
‘I’m not sure exactly, but he’s definitely on his way.’
Alix looked at him. The old man had spoken firmly, but she wasn’t sure if he was telling her the truth or just trying not to worry her. He was a very tall man, as all the Stirlings were, still upright and good-looking, his hair thick and silver. Would Rhys look like him when he was that age? Alix wondered, and realised with a slight shock that old Mr Stirling must still be an attractive man to women even though he’d been married for nearly sixty years. A long time to fight off the competition, she thought. But then her mind went back to the present problem and she said, ‘I think I’ll go back home. I’m very sorry I woke you.’
‘I think that would be best. Go and get a couple more hours’ sleep.’
‘Will you leave a message asking Rhys to phone me the moment he gets here?’
‘Yes, of course. Now, off you go.’
Alix went slowly back and got into bed, but didn’t attempt to go to sleep, ready to pick up the phone at the first ring. She was still waiting when her mother tapped on the door at eight-thirty and brought in a breakfast tray. ‘I thought you’d like breakfast in bed today, darling. There’s quite a scramble going on in the kitchen.’
‘Rhys isn’t home,’ Alix said dully.
‘No, dear, I know; Joanne slipped over to tell me. But they’re expecting him at any moment,’ she added cheerfully. ‘So please stop worrying; there’s hours yet. Now eat your breakfast—and I mean all of it, Alix—and then we’ll all go to the hairdresser’s, as we arranged.’ She pressed Alix’s hand. ‘It will be all right, darling; Rhys would never let you down, you know. Now, I really must go and see how they’re getting on downstairs. Promise me you’ll eat your breakfast.’
Alix managed a smile for her harassed mother. ‘Of course.’
She ate, bathed, dressed, and joined the others, and the phone still hadn’t rung. It didn’t ring, either, when she was having her hair done and her face made-up. When they got back to the house there was no message waiting for them, and the anxious look in her mother’s face was now plain to see. Tense now, instead of excited, Alix went up to her room. There was still time; the wedding wasn’t until one and it was only eleven. She began, slowly, to get ready. The bridesmaids were in and out of the room. Her mother came in a few times, in various stages of getting ready herself. The flowers arrived. The postman with a whole pile of cards and telegrams which were to be given to the best man. Wherever he was.
Her mother came in to put on her veil. ‘You really need something to put round your neck, darling. I know Rhys was going to…’ She broke off, biting her lip.
‘I can wear the pearl necklace you and Dad gave me for my eighteenth birthday,’ Alix said tonelessly, and fished it out of the drawer. ‘Can you do it up for me?’
‘Yes, of course.’ Her mother did so and fixed the veil. ‘Oh, darling, you look lovely. I’m so proud of you.’
Her father said the same when she went downstairs to have photographs taken with her parents and the bridesmaids. But her mother kept glancing at her watch with a worried frown. ‘The cars are here. What shall we do?’
‘Keep to the plan, of course,’ her father answered tersely. He went to say something else, but the phone rang. Snatching up the receiver, he listened, then a great look of relief came over his face. ‘It’s Rhys!’ he said exultantly. ‘He’s in England.’ He held the phone out towards her. ‘He wants to speak to you, Alix.’
She hesitated, then her face hardened a little. ‘Tell him I’m busy,’ she said shortly.
Her father looked startled. ‘Er—I’m afraid she can’t come to the phone at the moment, Rhys. She said she’ll see you in church.’ He replaced the receiver and said to the room in general, ‘He’s at the airport, and has ar- ranged for a helicopter to take him to Canterbury. He’s going straight to the cathedral. He’ll change there.’
The hired white Rolls drove at a sedate pace through the countryside to Canterbury. Alix’s father took her hand, tried to talk to her, but it was a while before she responded with anything but small, brittle smiles. By the time they got to the cathedral, though, Alix had thought up a great many excuses for Rhys, and when she walked down the aisle towards him and he turned to watch her, a boyishly rueful grin on his lips, she forgave him completely. He was there, and that was all that mattered.
From that moment on the wedding was as wonderful as she’d expected it to be. In the vestry after the ceremony, Rhys kissed her, grinned and said, ‘Did you think I wasn’t going to make it? You should have known I’d move heaven and earth to be here. But I’m sorry I wasn’t able to give you this earlier. I wanted you to wear it today.’ He took a beautiful gold locket from a box and insisted on her taking off her own necklace so that he could put the locket round her neck himself. ‘There. You look indescribably beautiful, urchin.’
‘So do you,’ she told him, seeing him so tall and debonair in his morning suit.
That made him laugh, and he kissed her again before tucking her arm in his and leading her back down the aisle as his wife.
The reception was great; Alix enjoyed every minute and hardly wanted to leave, she was having such a good time. At last she was able to show Rhys off to her college friends as she’d always wanted; and to stand beside him as they talked to friends, to dance with him as everyone looked on and clapped, was absolute heaven.
At last they left to go back to their respective houses to change and collect the luggage they would need. They said their goodbyes, with both mothers in tears and Alix close to it, and got in the car, alone at last, to drive to the country hotel that Rhys had chosen.
After dinner there, they went up to their room. Alix had wondered countless times what it would be like the first time they made love. She was a little tense and nervous, but Rhys had a bottle of champagne waiting, which helped. He undressed her himself, slowly, his eyes and hands going over her, kissing her a lot along the way. It was wonderful, exquisite, but Alix wished now that she’d never tried to seduce him, so that this would have been the first time he’d ever seen her like this.
When she was naked, he said softly, ‘Aren’t you going to undress me?’
She did so, but nowhere near as skilfully as he; her hands were shaking with anticipation, and he kept kissing her which made her stop what she was doing. In the end Rhys laughed and finished the task for her. She was trembling now, her eyes huge, very apprehensive but determined to be all that he wanted.
Rhys’s eyes went over her, making her blush. With a small laugh, he picked her up and carried her to the bed. ‘My sweet little Alix,’ he murmured as he kissed her neck, her shoulder, and on down. ‘So untouched. So innocent. I’ve dreamed of awakening you.’
His hands caressed her, setti
ng her senses aflame, driving out all fear, until she moaned in yearning for him, arching her hot, aching body towards him. Rhys’s own eyes darkened with desire and he took her then. At first it hurt so much that she cried out and tried, briefly, to fight him off, but he persisted and soon the pain was gone and it was all that she’d ever imagined, and so much, so much more. Her cry now was one of wonder, of rising excitement, peaking in a long moan of ecstasy as Rhys, too, let out a long sigh of fulfilment.
Afterwards she went to the bathroom to wash, then came back and cuddled up to him. ‘Happy, urchin?’ Rhys asked, kissing her.
‘Oh, yes. Oh, Rhys, I never dreamed it would be so wonderful. Are you very experienced?’
He laughed at that. ‘Have some more champagne. Where’s your glass?’
She obediently sipped hers, but Rhys drank his down and refilled his glass. He was looking tired; but then he’d hardly slept in the last twenty-four hours in his efforts to get home. But, tired or not, he made love to her again before he fell asleep. And again, it was good, perhaps even better, for her.
Alix fell asleep in Rhys’s arms, as she’d so often wished, and thought her life complete, that the human experience of love and contentment could be no greater than this. When she woke in the night, she lay still in the dark, supremely happy just to be with him and listen to him breathe, until she fell asleep again. But when she woke the second time light was creeping through the curtains and she could see that Rhys wasn’t there. He had booked a suite and the door between the two rooms was closed. Getting out of bed, Alix pulled on a robe and went to look for him.
He was sitting in an armchair, talking on the phone. ‘Yes, but you must pursue that,’ he was saying tersely. ‘Don’t let up on him. We need to get the option on that——’ He broke off abruptly as he saw Alix in the doorway. Then said, ‘Look, I’ve got to go. Take this number in case of emergency.’ He gave it, then put down the phone. ‘Hello, urchin. I hope I didn’t wake you.’
‘No. I missed you. Who were you calling?’
‘The team in Lithuania.’
‘Do you have to let work intrude on tonight of all nights?’ she demanded, feeling hurt.
‘Just to let them know I’ve arrived safely,’ he soothed. ‘They were worried I wouldn’t make it.’ He held out his hand to her. ‘Come here.’
She didn’t believe him, but went to him and he pulled her down on his lap. ‘My sweet little Alix,’ he said softly.
‘I can hardly believe we’re really married.’
‘Nor I.’ He laughed. ‘But as a married man I have some duties to carry out.’
‘Oh, really? What duties?’
‘Well, this for a start.’ And he loosened the knot of her robe and put his hand inside, caressing her breasts, watching her lips part in desire. ‘And this,’ he said, as he bent to kiss them.
They made love again, and when they finally woke it was almost ten o’clock, but Rhys insisted on having breakfast brought to them in bed. The weather was beautiful again. They went for a walk to a pub, had a leisurely lunch, then went back to the room. ‘I seem to remember,’ Rhys said, his voice teasing, ‘that you once joined me in the shower,’ and he chased her into the bathroom, out of her clothes, and into the shower again. And this time it ended as it should have, with him making love to her with soap still running down their bodies.
Afterwards Rhys towelled her dry and they lay together on the bed. To lie like this with him, in broad daylight, still made Alix feel a little shy. Turning on to her stomach, she propped herself up on her elbows. Rhys had his eyes closed so she was able to look at him, marvelling at his leanness, at the strength in his shoulders and arms. But soon she wanted to touch, to explore. Leaning over him, she let her fingers run lightly over him, following the veins in his arms, the white mark low on his waist where his suntan ended and the marks on his legs where it began again. That had an effect on him which made her catch her breath.
‘Sex-cat,’ Rhys half-growled, his eyes still closed.
‘Really?’ she said, inordinately pleased, and touched him again.
Rhys grinned. ‘I’m beginning to think you could soon become a tease. Come here.’
She moved closer and lay half over him, but then Rhys pulled her fully on top of him, which he hadn’t done before. He wanted her and held her so that she knew it. During the last eighteen hours Rhys had made love to her only four times, but already her body was sensuously awakened to the delights of love and fulfilment. She had found what her body had instinctively craved and now would always go on needing. Putting his hands low on her hips he moved her against him, instantly lighting the fires he had brought to life and left softly burning, ready to react instantly at such a moment as this.
His face tensed, his jaw hardened, as his own libido heightened. He let go with one hand, lifted the other to cup her breast. ‘My sweet Alix,’ he murmured thickly. ‘You have so much to learn. There’s so much that I must teach you.’
‘T-teach me, then,’ she said on a gasping moan. ‘I just want to make you happy. To make you feel the—the way you make me.’
He wound his legs round hers, holding her firmly against him, then put his hands in her hair as he brought her head down so that he could kiss her, a fierce kiss of need and passion. She returned the kiss exultantly, instinctively feeling that their lovemaking was reaching new heights, that for the first time he had to have her, that he wasn’t just being the dutiful bridegroom. This time she had awakened his own animal need, and he wasn’t to be denied.
Alix had thought it wonderful before, but it had been nothing like this. She was almost afraid of the great surges of pleasure that engulfed her and seemed to go on forever. Rhys’s body thrust beneath her and his fingers tightened on her skin as his own excitement grew. Dimly she heard a ringing sound but thought it was a crazy peal of bells in her own head. Then Rhys swore and grew still and she knew it was the phone.
‘Leave it! Leave it!’ She managed to get the words out although it was hard to breathe. Alix moved on him again, willing him to go on and carry them both to the peak of fulfilment, but with a groan he pulled her off him and turned on his side to answer the phone.
She lay still, hardly able to believe it. Then a great rage filled her and Alix reached over him and tried to pull the phone out of Rhys’s hand. He looked startled, but quickly dropped the receiver into his other hand and caught her wrist, holding her off. He was talking to someone, trying to answer a question. Furious beyond words, Alix bit his arm, digging her teeth in, making him let her go. Rhys swore again, and covered up the receiver.
‘Alix, please. Can’t you understand that this is an emergency? I have to——’
But she swung off the bed and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and bolting it. Still furious, she ran a bath and got into the water, then began to cry. So now she knew; his damn job was so important to him that Rhys would even stop making love to deal with it. And on the first day of their honeymoon, too. Fresh tears ran down her cheeks as she remembered that it had started to be so wonderful, and for Rhys, too. She saw now that, though he had of course climaxed before when he’d made love to her, there hadn’t been the urgency that he had felt just now. Because of her inexperience she had thought it had been as fantastic those first few times for him as it had been for her. Now she knew that she had touched only the edge of the volcano; that the red-hot core had yet to be experienced. For Rhys, too, perhaps. But he had let a damn job intervene, so perhaps it hadn’t been so wonderful for him after all.
Again the seeds of doubt that Lynette had sown in her mind, forgotten since that moment she had seen Rhys in the cathedral, all came surging back, fuelled a hundredfold. She had said nothing to him of Lynette’s accusations, not wanting to spoil things, but now Rhys had spoilt it all himself.
It was almost ten minutes before he tried the bathroom door, found it locked, and banged on it. ‘Alix? Alix, open the door.’ She didn’t answer, her mouth set into a tight line of stubbornness. ‘Don�
�t be like this, urchin,’ Rhys said coaxingly. ‘Come on, don’t be silly.’
‘I’m having a bath,’ she called out coldly.
‘Then let me in and I’ll wash your back.’
Alix thought what would happen if she did. Washing her back was bound to lead to lovemaking, as it had done in the shower. But it wouldn’t be the same; there wouldn’t be the spontaneity that had started to grow into something really good between them before the damn phone rang. Remembering it, Alix said shortly, ‘I can wash my own back.’
‘Alix, stop being childish. Open the door,’ Rhys ordered.
That angered her even more; did he think of her as a child, then? ‘Go to hell!’ she called out fiercely.
There was silence. Alix didn’t know whether to be pleased or sorry. She lay in the bath for a long time but had to get out eventually because the skin on her fingers and toes had started to wrinkle. She dried herself, did her hair with the blow-dryer and put some make-up on. There was nothing more she could do; she would have to go out and face him.
When she did it was a complete anticlimax. Rhys had dressed and was sitting at the writing-table in the sitting-room, absorbed in reading some papers from his briefcase. Alix didn’t even know he’d brought it with him! She saw him through the open door leading from the bedroom, but she went to the wardrobe to take out some clothes.
Rhys heard her and came to lean against the door jamb. ‘Recovered?’ he queried. Alix didn’t answer. She put on her panties and was about to pull on her bra, but he came up behind her, and said, ‘Let me do that for you.’
‘I can manage, thanks,’ she said shortly, and reached behind her to do up the clasp.
Rhys’s hands were there first, and did the job neatly, as adept as when he had taken it off. A surge of resentment ran through her; at his skill that could only have come with much knowledge of women, at his highhanded assertion of his right to watch her dressing, and the way he was now putting his hands on her waist and lightly kissing her neck. Expecting that just kissing her would make her become putty in his hands again, she supposed.
To Have And To Hold (Mills & Boon Vintage 90s Modern) Page 10