Response

by Penny Jordan

  ‘We haven’t been married very long yet, Maria,’ she said awkwardly, feeling as though she had somehow been found wanting.

  A little to her surprise Maria chuckled, the black eyes snapping with mirth. ‘With a man like the kyrios it does not take long, kyria,’ she told Sienna. ‘He is very much a man, that one. He will give you many fine sons. A woman needs sons to take care of her when she grows old. Georges and I have three. All of them work for the kyrios in Athens,’ she added proudly, ‘the kyrios pays for all the children on the island to go to school and learn so that they need not become fishermen like their fathers unless they want to.’

  It was a side to her husband Sienna hadn’t seen, and yet why should she be so surprised to discover this philanthropic side of him? Hadn’t he treated her with kindness and consideration ever since she opened her eyes and saw him?

  Long after Maria had gone she lay in bed, knowing that her body ached with tiredness but unable to relax enough to sleep, wondering why she should have this continual feeling of apprehension. She was married to a man who could have married anyone, she was pampered, cared for, desired, and yet she wasn’t happy!

  Eventually she did sleep, waking to find the room in shadow and much cooler now that the sun had gone down. A brief sound from the bathroom caught her attention, a light shining under the door. It opened and Alexis strode into the room, fastening a clean shirt, his torso gleaming darkly in the half light. He came to an abrupt halt when he realised she was awake.

  ‘Did I disturb you? I didn’t mean to, but I needed a shave and a change of clothes. Are you feeling up to dinner, or would you prefer to eat in here? Maria will prepare a tray for you if you wish.’

  Sienna had a cowardly impulse to say that she was too tired to eat with him, but it wasn’t true, and besides, what was the point of putting off what she knew must eventually come? Surely it was better to get it over with as soon as possible. Alexis had made it clear that he intended to share her bed, there was no denying that the thought appalled her, but who knew? Once she was in his arms perhaps she would feel differently, perhaps she would even remember how it must have once been between them.

  Much to her relief he left her to dress alone, and after one or two false moves she found her way to the small dining room overlooking the sea which like the rest of the house was pleasingly and plainly decorated. Maria served their meal, a fish dish which Sienna found tangy and appetising, accepting the glass of wine Alexis proffered, eagerly, then flushing as she saw the sardonic comprehension in his eyes and the amused lift of his eyebrow. ‘Dutch courage?’ he enquired amiably, but it was enough to make her pulses flutter and her appetite dwindle until she was pushing the moussaka Maria had served after the first course round her plate with a singular lack of enthusiasm, although she managed to drink another glass of wine.

  She refused a sweet and watched Alexis eat a generous portion of honey and almond cake, wondering how on earth he managed to keep so lithe and firm. When he suggested they have their coffee in the main salon she agreed, unable to prevent her body from trembling when he got up and helped her from her chair. In the salon she took a chair placed strategically on its own, and saw his mouth twitch, a muscle beating in his jaw as he sat down opposite her on the oatmeal tweed settee. Maria brought the coffee, and Alexis asked Sienna to pour it.

  ‘Would you like some music?’ She nodded an assent, adding, ‘but I’ll have to leave the choice to you. I can’t remember what my likes and dislikes were.’

  He made no response, simply selecting a record. Beethoven, Sienna recognised, surprised that she should be able to do so, and she leaned back in her chair, letting the music bathe her in peace. She was half asleep when Alexis touched her, his voice curt as he said, ‘Why don’t you go to bed. I still have some work to finish and it’s been a long day for you.’

  She didn’t demur, but her legs felt boneless as she tried to stand up and she wondered if he sensed how apprehensive and tense she felt.

  Alone in the vastness of the bedroom, she stripped quickly and had a shower, unwilling to linger long over her preparations, unwilling for Alexis to walk in and discover her at her most vulnerable.

  Maria had unpacked for her, and after examining several drawers she found one containing her nightwear, fine silk nightdresses in soft pastel colours, things she knew instinctively she could never have afforded, all patently new. Alexis had obviously bought them for her, and as she slid into what was little more than a wisp of peach silk she flushed slightly, wondering if he had pictured her body when he bought them. There was a full-length mirror fronting one of the wardrobes and she glanced at herself in it, shocked to see how the fragile silk emphasised the satin gleam of her skin. She was too thin, she thought appraisingly, but her breasts were surprisingly full, and a quiver ran through her body as she remembered how she had felt when Alexis had touched them.

  An hour later still lying wide awake between the fresh cotton sheets she could feel the tension building up inside her. How long was Alexis going to be? And when he did arrive how was she going to react? How could she permit a man who was still virtually a stranger to her, to make love to her and yet how could she plead for more time? Alexis had made his intentions quite clear and in his shoes would she feel any differently.

  Her head ached by the time he eventually arrived, so quietly that she only realised he had done by the opening of the door. He didn’t speak to her, simply disappearing into the bathroom. She could hear the sound of running water, and after what seemed to be an aeon of time he reappeared, his hair damp, a brief towelling robe covering his body. When he snapped off the bathroom light the room was plunged into darkness, and Sienna held her breath as she heard him moving about. The bed depressed under his weight, she felt his hand on her shoulder and tensed, dreading what must come next, as she heard him say her name, and turned tensely towards him.

  ‘Ah, so you are awake, I’m sorry if I disturbed you.’ She brushed against him in the darkness and recoiled when she discovered that he was naked. His lips brushed her forehead, then she was free and he was turning on to his side, his back towards her. ‘Sleep well Sienna,’ she heard him say, and she realised with an outraged sense of anti-climax that he was not going to make love to her, and worse, that he was already falling asleep, while she was having to cope with feelings ranging from relief to, surprisingly, mortification.

  She turned over herself, burying her hot face in the welcome coolness of her pillow, then tensed as she heard him say, ‘It’s a woman I want, Sienna, not a human sacrifice. Now go to sleep, there’s a good girl.’

  And childishly, she would much rather he had insisted on making love to her and that the ordeal of it was over and behind her instead of still in front of her.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SHE woke up late, to discover that she was alone, and that on the table by the patio door there was a thermos of coffee and a basket which she discovered held croissants and apricot preserve. She glanced at her watch, horrified to discover it was gone ten. Alexis, she presumed, was working. He had shown her last night the room he used as his study. Large and masculine, it was fully computerised so that he could be in contact with any one of his offices without having to stir from inside it.

  The coffee was hot and delicious, and Sienna drank three cups, eating two of the croissants, and being surprised by her hearty appetite. The patio doors stood open to the morning, the balmy air and heat a languorous pleasure against her skin, tempting her outside. When she was dressed she would walk down to the cove, she promised herself, but when she discovered a bikini in the drawers she changed her mind and decided that she would not only walk down to it, but swim from it as well. Alexis had said it was perfectly safe, and suddenly after so much time spent in hospital she wanted to stretch her body, to feel the muscles and bones work.

  She showered quickly, picking up a towel and donning tee-shirt and shorts over the brevity of the bright cerise bikini. It fastened with bows and was far briefer than anything she would
ever have chosen herself, and she wondered what had happened to her own clothes that Alexis should have decided to provide her with an entire new wardrobe.

  A path led from the patio down towards the cove, and the scent of thyme rose up from the bushes to meet her as she wended her way through the scrubby vegetation.

  The beach, when she reached it, was a perfect half-moon of silver sand, edged by turquoise water, so clean and tantalising that she held her breath, half unable to believe that it was real. When she waded into it the water was pleasurably cool, silky against her skin, and so clear that she could easily see down to the bottom. Several yards out the bottom shelved steeply and Sienna turned to float lazily on her back, lulled by the perfect silence of the morning, all the tension draining out of her.

  She swam and floated for half an hour, enjoying the soothing stroke of the water against her sunwarmed skin, and then decided reluctantly that she probably ought to go back. No one knew where she was and the sun was much stronger than she was used to. Even so, when she reached the beach and dried herself off quickly with the towel she had brought, she couldn’t resist lying down on the sand for a while, drowsily enjoying the warmth of the sun soaking into her skin. Her eyes closed and she settled more comfortably on to her towel, her good intentions forgotten.

  ‘Sienna!’ She woke up with a start, disorientated at first, wondering where she was. Alexis was leaning over her, his torso damp, the dark hair plastered to his head and chest. His body was tanned and supple, and Sienna found herself mutely watching the progress of the droplets of moisture running down his chest. He was wearing a very brief pair of swimming trunks and he grimaced faintly as he saw her glancing at them. ‘I don’t normally bother, but something told me you might not approve.’

  Was he saying that she was a prude? It was true she did feel uncomfortable at having him so close to her, but that was nothing to do with any embarrassment at the sight of his near naked body.

  ‘Alexis….’ She wanted to ask him more about her past, but he was quite openly studying the soft swell of her breasts above the taut fabric of her bikini, and she shivered as he leaned forward stroking one finger along her skin.

  ‘For such a slender female you’re surprisingly voluptuous,’ he murmured lazily. He was so close that she could smell the clean, tangy fragrance of his soap. His jaw was beginning to darken already with the shadow of his beard, and close to his eyes, which she had always thought of as simply grey, revealed a darker band of colour close to the iris.

  ‘Sienna….’ He murmured her name again, this time not as a question but as something else, and deep down inside her Sienna felt her body’s tremulous response.

  When he lowered his head she made no move to evade him, closing her eyes when she felt the warm brush of his lips against hers, coaxingly lazy, a tight feeling as though she were holding her breath invading her chest. Her mind spun dizzily away as Alexis deepened the caress, his mouth moving with determination on hers, his hands stroking along her arms without urgency or heat but somehow arousing inside her a response that demanded that she part her mouth under his, her eyes opening in involuntary reaction as she felt his instant response. Above her he looked dark and faintly menacing, his eyes narrowed, the shadows emphasising the taut thrust of his high cheekbones.

  ‘I think we can dispense with this, don’t you?’ He whispered the words against her mouth, his hands leaving her arms and finding the ties that secured her bikini top. A small moan that could have been either protest or assent left her lips, stifled under the swift upsurge of pleasure the touch of his hands on her naked skin brought to her.

  His fingers, so dark against her paler skin, warmed and aroused, and she gave in to the sensation his touch aroused inside her, lifting her hands from the sand, sliding them round his neck and into the darkness of his hair, arching her body beneath him.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ Alexis murmured, his eyes slitted with masculine pleasure in her mute surrender, ‘this your body remembers, Sienna, even if you don’t. And this….’ His mouth touched hers lightly and he drew his thumbs against her nipples, causing her to writhe and murmur a fevered protest, her hands against his skull trying to communicate the need she felt to have his mouth on hers. His hands left her breasts and stroked along her body, igniting flames that seemed to burn through her veins, his mouth still teasing her with light, tormenting kisses.

  ‘Alexis….’

  ‘Touch me, Sienna,’ he muttered, watching her. She hesitated, then remembered that this man was her husband and that her body would surely remember to please him even if her mind did not, and her hands moved gently along the slope of his shoulders, her eyes fixed hesitantly on him. ‘Not like that, as though you’re half afraid of me,’ he derided, watching her. ‘I won’t bite, at least not unless I think it’s what you want.’ His taunting infuriated her, pink colour flushing her cheeks. It was all right for him. He could remember, while she….

  ‘Perhaps you need a little encouragement.’ His voice was husky and came from deep within his throat, roughening slightly as his hands moved over her body again, more urgently this time, his mouth tasting the flavour of her skin, his tongue brushing the delicate hollow beneath her ear, his eyes registering her response to his tormenting caress. She wanted to touch him, she wanted to move beneath him and cry out his name, to wind her arms round his neck and arch her body into him. Shadows of her thoughts chased one another across her face, and he saw them all, smiling mockingly at her as his lips continued to explore her soft skin.

  ‘Alexis….’ She wanted to protest that things were moving too fast, that she couldn’t cope with the sudden explosion of need he generated inside her, but his questing mouth had already found the vulnerable valley between her breasts, and his murmured ‘Mmm?’ as he nuzzled the perfumed flesh he found there only brought an involuntary gasp of pleasure to her lips. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and she opened them and stared down at him. The weight of his body pinned her to the sand, his hair midnight black against her pale skin, his fingers cupping and caressing her breast, her nipples hard and erect beneath his lazy caress.

  ‘Alexis.’ He raised his head, his mouth curled into a half smile, his eyes dark and slitted as his glance shifted from her face, to her breasts and the movement of his thumb against its peak. ‘Alexis….!’ She gasped and trembled as he turned his head and touched the taut nipple gently between his teeth.

  A thousand sensations became just one, her eyes closing on a silent moan of pleasure, her body arching yearningly beneath him, her fingers tightening in his hair, prolonging the aching contact of his mouth against her skin. When he released her a dark flush lay along his cheekbones, his eyes a deep smoky grey as he pulled her down against him, holding her the full length of his body, his hands gripping her hips to let her feel his arousal.

  She shivered and tensed, then was suddenly filled with an aching flood of desire, his name an incoherent murmur on her lips as she pressed them feverishly against his throat, feeling him swallow tautly and then groan in hungry pleasure.

  ‘See,’ she heard him mutter thickly as his hands slid into her hair, her scalp tingling with pleasure at his touch. ‘See how much your body wants to feel mine against it, how hungry mine is for the caress of your lips, how everything that you thought impossible and unwanted suddenly becomes all that you could ever desire. You want me.’ He said it flatly, almost as though it were a challenge, and Sienna remembered how very virile and male he was and how it must have hurt his pride to know that she couldn’t remember him, or the pleasure they had shared.

  ‘Already you ache for this.’ His mouth brushed her breast, his hand flat against the slight swell of her stomach and she ached inside. He drew in his breath tautly and she felt his chest expand against her palms, her delicate skin rasped by the roughness of his body hair. ‘You want this.’ His hands moved to her hips, pulling her against him, ‘and this….’ he moved slightly away and bent, brushing the softness of her stomach with his mouth.

  Reeling,
and dismayed with reaction, Sienna could only make inarticulate murmurs of pleasure. Her skin seemed to be composed of a million nerve endings, each one acutely attuned to his touch. When his mouth ceased moving against her skin she felt sharp pangs of deprivation, and when he held her against his body the barriers of their swimming clothes was a physical pain she couldn’t endure.

  ‘And now that you know what you want, perhaps you can understand what I want too.’ His fingers were on the bows of her bikini bottom and Sienna didn’t try to stop him. The soft brush of his fingers against her naked skin was a pleasure and a pain, and she ran her own hands down the length of his body, feeling the hard contraction of muscles against her palms, the smooth sleekness of his skin against her fingertips, warm and vitally alive, responsive to her touch, his mouth hot as he buried it in the scented skin of her throat. He moved, holding her away slightly, and she drew air into her lungs on a ragged gasp, opening her eyes to find his on her, dark, hot with a passion she needed no memory to understand. She lifted towards him automatically, but he pushed her back, and muttered something under his breath, saying softly, ‘That’s better, now I can feel all of you against me,’ as he grasped her hipbones and lowered himself over her. She gasped beneath the intimate contact with his body, then arched wildly beneath him, driven beyond the limits of her self-control as his hands moved over her, stroking and caressing, his lips teasing her with light kisses, denying her the deeper contact she wanted. Her body was all movement, all restless seeking for something she couldn’t comprehend, its movements instinctive and unlearned.

  ‘Touch me, Sienna, kiss me….’ This time she needed no further urging, her fingers traced the shape of his bones, her mouth hot against the sunbrowned skin, intent on bringing from him the same fevered response he invoked in her. She touched the flat hardness of his nipples with a hesitant tongue and felt the sudden expansion of his chest as he breathed in harshly.