‘If the occasion arises, then I suppose I must,’ she replied quietly.
It had not escaped Alex’s notice that they were attracting curious glances from passers-by. He suddenly felt exposed standing there with her on the street. ‘Let us go inside.’
Lydia knew that if they went inside there would be no talking. His mere presence in a confined space would seduce her into his arms and they would end in a frenzy of desire and that would lead to catastrophe.
‘But...don’t you have to be elsewhere?’ she tried.
‘I’m on my way to meet an acquaintance at my club in St James’s Street. It’s nothing that can’t wait.’
To Alex’s relief she did not argue. He followed on the soft swish of her skirts and the scent of her perfume that drifted in her wake. Everything was in order in readiness for the opening. The sweet fragrance of fresh flowers artfully arranged in vases was inviting. Sauntering past rails of ready-made outfits on padded hangers, he looked about him and smiled and nodded his approval.
‘Very nice,’ he murmured. ‘Were I a lady I would certainly be tempted to come here to be dressed by you.’
They stood facing one another, intensely aware of each other—how could they not be? The air was sultry and warm, the atmosphere charged with tension and something else each of them clearly recognised.
Lydia was wide-eyed and uncertain. Her gaze took in the sheer male beauty of him, of his darkly handsome face and the saturnine twist to his firm lips, his wide, masculine shoulders and narrow waist. In all her life she had never known a man like him and was at a loss to understand him. ‘You don’t know me or what I am capable of achieving, Alex—not really.’
Holding her gaze, he moved slowly to where she stood, scrutinising her intently, his eyes drawn to her mouth. His hand touched her chin, tipping her face up to his, and he smiled into her eyes, wondering not for the first time what went on behind her tranquil exterior and those liquid bright green eyes. She was truly lovely, like a delicate flower. He felt a rare peace when he looked into her eyes.
‘You are a strange young woman, Lydia Brook, I grant you,’ he murmured, focusing his eyes on a wisp of hair against her cheek. Without conscious thought he tucked it behind her ear, feeling the velvet texture of her skin against his fingers. She stood perfectly still as he ran the tip of his finger along the line of her chin and down the column of her throat, to her collar. ‘Suddenly I find myself wanting to know everything there is to know about you—what you are thinking, what you are feeling. You are still a mystery to me.’
Hypnotised by that seductive voice and those mesmerising light blue eyes, Lydia gazed at him with a combination of fear and excitement. Brushing his hand away, she tried to relax, but in the charged atmosphere between them it was impossible. ‘In the short time we have known each other, haven’t you learned anything about me?’
‘I have learned some things. I have learned that you are no prim and proper miss and that you like making love to strange men in hotel bedrooms—’
‘Alex, please!’ Lydia said, aghast, her face heating. ‘Please stop now. It wasn’t like that and you know it.’
‘No? Are you saying that you didn’t enjoy making love to me?’
‘No—yes... Oh, behave yourself. Now will you please stop tormenting me about my...slip of propriety.’
His eyes darkened. ‘I like reminding you. I like seeing you get all flushed and flustered and hot under the collar.’
She glowered at him. ‘Now you’re making fun of me.’
‘I know.’
Unable to stay cross with him, knowing he was teasing anyway, Lydia smiled. ‘Then stop it. What do you want from me, Alex?’
He studied her, bemused by the sheer perfection of her. She was graceful and as slender as a wand, and he wanted her. More importantly, he knew, as an experienced man of the world, that she wanted him, too.
‘I want to talk about us.’ He was slow to answer her question, but it did not take her by surprise.
‘There is no us.’ She swallowed hard, the blood pounding in her temples. ‘I—I really do think you should go,’ she whispered.
‘Is that what you want?’ His eyes were beginning to glint with a wicked light. ‘And if I wish to remain? If I want to find out if what we experienced together once can be repeated between us again, as good as it was before, would you mind if I stayed?’ he asked with a questioning lift to his brow.
‘I—I don’t know,’ she said, her heart beginning to pound in helpless anticipation. She no longer had any idea what she wanted. Her thoughts were irrational and the feelings slipping through her body made her melt inside.
Searching the depths of her glowing green eyes for a moment, seeing the pupils large and as black as jet in their centres, Alex smiled. ‘Shall we find out?’
Lydia took a step back and turned away from him. She could still feel his fingers on her flesh, touching her with such tenderness. That simple act stirred her desire and began to spark the passion that had lain dormant between them for far too long. How was it possible for him to make her body come to life like that? It was nothing to do with experience or practised technique, it was instant. Emotionally it would seem they were perfectly matched, as if something deep within each of them reached out to the other—like a strong magnetic pull drawing them together.
‘You are a beautiful and very desirable, intelligent young woman, Lydia, but right now it is not your intelligence I am thinking of. I think you know how I feel about you.’ He would have had to be made of stone had he not felt aroused. Her very flesh demanded that he touch her. He put his hand on the back of her neck, his fingers using gentle pressure. She shivered and turned to face him.
Drawing her into his arms, he kissed her then. She didn’t resist. Everything else about her life receded, leaving her open only to the present moment. Once again she felt that melting sensation low down inside her as his mouth made sensuous movements on her. The fact that she was in danger of falling under his spell once more did occur to her, but she wasn’t thinking rationally and she wanted more of what he had made her feel when they had shared a bed.
Slowly, he released her and, taking her hand, seeing the open door to a room which Lydia used as her office and sitting room, he drew her inside and away from the windows. She didn’t object. She knew she should do so, but she wanted his kisses as much as he wanted hers and all the cautions that were prodding uselessly inside her head were ignored. Her traitorous body was remembering how long it had been since he had held her, how good it had felt, and how insignificant it was to resist when they could share their desires—with no strings attached.
Closing the door and turning the key in the lock, Alex drew her into his arms. He became lost in the exciting beauty of her, knowing his masculine desire had already changed from desire to something else, although what it was he could not put a name to just then. A sharp, wonderful ache tore through him as he kissed her lips, parting them, his tongue caressing hers before lifting his head and then sliding his mouth down the long, graceful line of her neck, gentle, harmless, with the merest whisper of a caress.
Raw emotion had robbed Lydia of any kind of reason. She was aflame, her body responding to his lips and the caress of his hands like an explosion of raging thirst. She returned his kisses as if nothing in the world existed for her but him. Briefly releasing her lips, he drew her down onto a chaise longue, holding her in a state of bemused suspension, before fastening his mouth on hers once more, kissing her with a demanding fierceness he was unable to control, her lips tormenting him in their intimate sweetness.
Sliding the palms of her hands up his chest, feeling the hard muscles through the fabric of his coat, the rise and fall of his breathing, Lydia wrapped her arms about his neck, clinging to him as an ache and a rush of warmth and joy spread through every part of her body. The sensations were familiar and welcome, but not extraordinary, since she had expe
rienced the same feelings in Scotland.
Alex slid his fingers into her hair, uncaring that it had become loose from its pins. He deepened his kiss before tearing his lips away from her soft mouth and trailing kisses along her jaw and throat before recapturing her lips and pressing her back against the cushions. Her fingers curled round the lapels of his coat, her mouth opening wider beneath his. Taking her hands and lacing his fingers with hers, he placed their hands above her head as she relaxed and yielded her body to his as he continued to kiss her. Releasing her hands, he slid one of his own along her ribs, moving higher to cup and caress her breast. Pleasure surged through his body and he wanted to tear away the clothes that were a barrier to her hidden delights.
Raising his head, he saw the pleasure in her eyes, and somewhere deep inside him he felt the stirrings of a desire that made him draw in his breath. He wanted her so much he couldn’t bear to think she would deny him now. The hot, sweet scent of her whipped the blood in his veins.
Lydia saw that the heavy-lidded light blue eyes looking down at her were beginning to smoulder.
With his lips against hers, he murmured, ‘I wish I could take you to bed.’ His long fingers began to unfasten the buttons down the front of her bodice. When she raised her hand to halt him, he laughed raggedly.
‘Do you forget, Lydia, that I have seen you naked before? You have a beautiful body—so why the reticence now?’
‘I can’t—not here. Someone...’ Before she could continue, Alex had seized her lips once more.
When she wound her arms about his neck Alex’s heart constricted with an emotion so intense, so profound, that it made him ache. He felt his wits slipping as she arched her body into his. Each move she made brought him exquisite pleasure. Her breath was sweet against his throat. Dear God, she was so warm, so womanly, long and slender, but curving against his body, doing whatever she could to get even closer. His male body rejoiced in it, for it told him he held a warm and willing woman in his arms.
In a tangle of clothes, buttons and hooks, of seeking hands and eager mouths, their restraint finally broke. Lydia moaned with joy as his mouth touched her breasts and so lost was she in the desire he was so skilfully building inside her that she scarcely noticed when he eased her body beneath his own. As he entered her she expelled a breath at the exquisite sensation of her body opening to him like a flower. Not holding back, she strained towards him with trembling need, each instinctive, demanding thrust pushing her closer to the edge.
Alex, unlike Lydia, did hold back, for he wanted her to experience as much as his body would allow before he lost control and his need for her became raw hunger, his body craving hers with a violence he could scarcely believe. Filling her again and again with masterly precision, straining to come closer still, he forced the beautiful, writhing creature beneath him to the brink of total surrender.
Lydia forgot everything and allowed herself to be carried away ecstatically by this vastly superior power, expressing her feelings with every fibre of her being as he led her along paths of sheer, exciting incredible torment and she became lost in incoherent yearnings as their passion became all consuming.
When their passion finally exploded in a burst of extravagant pleasure, in languid exhaustion and bone-deep satisfaction, they lay close together, breathless from exertion, clinging to the fading euphoria. Closing her eyes, Lydia nestled against his broad chest, wanting to enjoy their closeness while it lasted. Her happiness at that moment was greater by far than anything she had experienced before.
Contentment stole over them both, lapping gently. They trembled with the rapture of their union, the passion which Alex had known with no other woman. He watched her open her eyes and smiled down at her.
‘You are exquisite. How do you feel?’
She gave him a slumberous smile, the smile of a woman totally fulfilled by her man. ‘Wonderful,’ she breathed. ‘It was very special. Thank you.’
He stroked the hair from her smooth brow, his eyes warm and serious and very tender. ‘My pleasure, Miss Brook.’
She sighed against him. This man who had just made love to her was exactly the same man who had made love to her before, but this time there had been something different about him. He had taken her not just sexually, but with a deeper, infinitely more alluring need—something profound.
Suddenly there was a noise from up above in the workroom, as if an object had been dropped. Sanity returned. Lydia gasped with alarm.
‘That will be Emily.’ In a flash, she had thrust Alex away from her and scrambled to her feet, hurriedly replacing the clothes that had become discarded, her trembling fingers fastening buttons before turning to an amused Alex and assisting him into his coat. ‘Quickly. You should go before she comes down. I really wouldn’t know how to explain your presence—and what we were doing in here,’ she said, hurriedly tidying her hair and smoothing her skirt with her hands.
Alex grinned down at her, cupping her face between his hands and gently brushing her lips with his own. ‘I don’t think she would need any explanations. One look at your face and she will know. As much as I would like nothing more than to go on kissing you and making love to you all day, I think that I should release you while I still can. But worry not. I’m going. It is not my wish to cause you embarrassment in front of your employees. But I shall be back very soon—when you have opened your shop and had time to take stock of things. I think we have much to offer each other, Lydia. We will come to some kind of arrangement.’
A coldness came over Lydia. She knew what he was suggesting and it did not include marriage. His mistress, yes, which, after what had just happened between them, she found exciting and she was ashamed that it presented some temptation. But she would not be tempted. She knew that what Alex felt for her was basic, the kind of trick the human species played upon people to propagate itself. But this knowledge didn’t lessen the intensity of what she felt for him, what her body was experiencing. Desire had planted its insidious seeds inside her in Scotland, when seduction had been brought to a satisfying conclusion—and it had happened again today.
But she was no fool. She did not want this. She did not want him to be romantic. She could not believe that he cared for her in that way when it was only a facade to get her back into his bed to sate his desire. He was an important man in a world she could not even begin to imagine. He did not love her. He never would, but from the pain in her heart she knew that she was in definite danger of falling in love with him.
He had been married once and despite the death of his wife he had told her it had not been a happy marriage. He would not be in a hurry to marry again. He wanted freedom, no encumbrances. But she would not enter into a torrid love affair with him. She would have to consider very dispassionately before she entered into that kind of relationship with Alex or any man.
But nothing in her experience had prepared her for what he had done to her, or the emotions he had aroused in her, triggering off an explosion of sensuality, the like of which she could never have imagined, prompting her to respond in a way that astounded her. She asked herself why she had allowed her emotions to become involved—why had she succumbed to his persuasion yet again and allowed it to go so far. And he looked so pleased with himself, like a proud and beautiful peacock who already believed the less colourful peahen bowed to his wishes.
This gave her added determination and strength and she gathered her emotions to her in a tight knot of pride.
‘I think it is time you left, Alex. My head is in a turmoil and I cannot think straight.’
‘You don’t have to. I’ll take care of that.’
‘I—I can’t discuss it with you now. I have much to think about before tomorrow.’
He kissed her lips before he turned from her. She stared at his back as he left the shop, still feeling the tingle of his touch on her cheek, her throat, and the gentle throb of her lips. She would have had to be insensate not to
feel the pleasure he could give her and the stirrings for him that she experienced when they were together.
Only it could not continue. She must find the strength and the will to resist him, but where he was concerned her body refused to listen to reason. Perhaps she should ask him not to come to the shop again, not to take her in his arms and do to her what he had done today.
But what was she to do with the loan he had been so ready and so generous to give her hanging over her like a heavy cloud?
* * *
On the crossing to France, Alex had plenty of time to muse on his relationship with Lydia. When they had parted in Scotland he had made up his mind that she could never belong to him and had accepted that fact as a permanent condition, but meeting her again—finding her even more ravishing than before—and making love to her again, had cast a spell over his life that could never be broken. He could not wrest himself free of her. She was under his skin and in his blood and there was an end to the matter.
In the past, sexual encounters he had looked for had to be hot and brief, with no regrets and no expectations. With Lydia it was entirely different. Having been as close as it was possible for a man and woman to be, he only wanted more, which amazed him because she possessed—would possess for ever—the ability to enable him to put behind him the ugly memories of his marriage.
Already he missed her. How well he had come to know her. He was a man burning with a single need to possess one woman. He was unable to banish her from his mind, from his dreams, knowing she was the catalyst that set his blood aflame until his desire for her seethed. How could he let a woman affect him so? He could still feel the warm weight of her body in his arms, tantalising his senses. He could recall the delicate fragrance of her flesh, the taste of her on his lips, and see the luminous green eyes that had gazed into his with such engaging, trusting candour.
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