by Lynne Graham
‘Althea losing the plot at our wedding. She had taken something…she was as high as a kite and furious with me. That’s when she told me she’d deliberately cancelled the wedding, expecting me to offer her a more permanent deal, and I was disgusted with her because she should have moved on from me long before now… Wouldn’t any normal woman have moved on?’ he prompted in a raw undertone of appeal.
Tansy nodded weakly, marvelling that Althea had betrayed him in the first place, while thinking that most women would be challenged to fully get over a guy as rich, beautiful and sexy as Jude Alexandris. It had been a fatal mistake for Jude to offer that convenient marriage, so near and yet so far from what Althea still so desperately wanted to reclaim.
‘She’s just had bad luck with other men, that’s why she keeps on coming back to the idea that—’
‘You’re the one and only who got away,’ Tansy slotted in wryly. ‘So, what about that kiss?’
‘She kissed me! By then, I’d regained my temper and I was trying to get her to pull herself together and calm down. Her brother took her home. He was very apologetic. I think her family are considering putting her in rehab.’ Jude grimaced and raked long brown fingers through his glossy curls in a gesture of frustration. ‘I feel guilty about her. I even feel guilty for being grateful that she did cancel the wedding because if I had married her, it would have turned into a nightmare.’
Tansy wanted to hug him for being so honest with her and she could only be impressed by the sheer depth of feeling he had hidden so well from her. He wasn’t a bad guy. He wasn’t a cheat and he still had sufficient generosity and compassion to be concerned for the woman who had once cruelly betrayed his trust. ‘I misunderstood. I thought I was seeing a lover’s quarrel… That argument and her behaviour seemed so intimate,’ she confided uncomfortably. ‘And there’s no way I would be sleeping with you if you were carrying on with other women at the same time! I couldn’t live like that, so if you’re planning on playing away, please leave me out of it.’
Jude lifted and dropped a broad shoulder. ‘It’s really not a big deal for me to promise you that I will not be with anybody else while we’re together. Cheating is against my principles,’ he confided in a driven undertone, his strong facial bones standing out stark beneath his bronzed skin. ‘I grew up with a father who screwed around on my mother and I watched his affairs drive her into a nervous breakdown because she couldn’t cope with his behaviour.’
‘Oh…’ Tansy was shocked because, while she had read about his father’s womanising reputation online, she had not factored in the damage that his parents’ broken relationship must also have inflicted on Jude. His compassion for his mother’s suffering during her time with his father impressed her. He might not be close to the woman, might not see much of her, but he clearly still cared deeply about her.
‘I’m probably the last man alive who would cheat on you,’ Jude quipped with grim amusement, setting down his glass and opening his arms. ‘Now come here… I want to…finally…kiss my bride.’
Tansy stood up, uncertainty stamped in every line of her bearing. Jude dropped his legs down and eased her closer to stand between his spread thighs.
He plucked at the waistband of her cropped trousers. ‘Is it possible to lose the trousers? I prefer skirts.’
‘Trousers are more practical for travelling.’
‘You’ve got me now, and first-class travel. You don’t ever need to be practical again,’ Jude intoned, flipping loose the button at her waist slowly enough to allow her time to back away if she wanted to.
Only, Tansy discovered, she didn’t want to because she was much more invested in wondering what Jude would do next. His action released a heady mix of terror and longing inside her. The relief of his explanation about Althea, the sudden loss of her every excuse to stay distant from him, had left her dizzy, unsure and confused. And then there was the warmth he had evoked while he spoke, the emotion he so rarely showed but so definitely felt, the pain he had exposed. All of a sudden, gorgeous, sexy, intimidating Jude was a human being, who had been wounded just as she had been by betrayal, and he no longer felt like a potentially threatening stranger she had to be on her guard with.
He ran down the zip and the trousers fell round her ankles. He lifted her out of them and held her stationary, smoothing appreciative hands down over slender hips covered by the thin band of the lace thong she wore, trailing long, lazy fingers over the long length of her shapely legs, sweeping them up again to briefly encircle her tiny waist before stroking up over her narrow ribcage. ‘Like,’ he stressed without embarrassment. ‘Beautiful, utterly perfect…’
Tansy could barely believe what he was saying. Colour lanced her cheeks as he lifted her and tipped her forward so that she straddled his lap, the denim of his jeans rubbing against her knees as she splayed her legs, so self-conscious now that she felt as though a burning torch were flaring up inside her. He framed her face with his big hands and captured her parted lips with his and it was as if an adrenalin rush engulfed her, his tongue darting into her mouth as subtle as a sword and then plunging deep, and her head spun while the edge of his teeth plucked at her full lower lip. And that fast she was on fire, rocking back from him, feeling her shirt drift down her arms as his palms grazed over her bra-clad breasts until the bra too was gone and he was toying with her achingly sensitive nipples, making her gasp into his mouth and struggle for breath. Liquid flame ran to the heart of her and pooled there even as his hands slid down to her hips and ground her down on the hard thrust of his erection below the denim.
And the most ridiculous thrill ran through Tansy that it was she who had aroused him, not beautiful Althea in her daring golden dress in all her extrovert attention-seeking glory. She blushed for her own petty and pathetic sense of achievement but there it was, an inescapable fact that she was as competitive when it came to Jude as any other woman. It was her he wanted, not his childhood sweetheart, his once-adored first love.
Bending her back over his arm to support her, he closed his lips round a swollen rosy nipple and suckled strongly. Her breathing grew choppy in her throat as he attended to the other straining peak, that heat at the heart of her spreading into a torturous ache as he ground her down on him. Long fingers laced into the fall of her hair.
‘I love the different colours in your hair and I love it when you wear it loose,’ Jude confided, watching the dying sun glimmer across the lighter strands where the tips touched the floor as he bent her back. ‘You’re also remarkably flexible—’
‘Gymnastics.’ Tansy laughed. ‘It was much more fun than ballet classes.’
And she thought abstractedly that that had to be the true definition of a womaniser, a man capable of making her laugh in a sexual situation where she was less than confident of her body or of what happened next. His mouth brushed against hers again while his fingertips glanced expertly over the absurdly responsive tips of her breasts, tugging, gently twisting and rolling, making her squirm and moan while arrows of craving stabbed deep in her pelvis, starting up a tingling, throbbing burn between her thighs.
Without warning, Jude stood up, carrying her with him, her legs anchored round his waist. ‘Let’s get more comfortable,’ he urged, tumbling her down on the bed, her hair fanning out wildly around her head, her green eyes huge at that sudden change of pace. ‘Relax,’ he urged. ‘We take this as far as you want and no further.’
Tansy went pink and winced. ‘Am I that easily read?’
‘Pretty much, koukla mou.’ His slanting grin of affirmation was pure charismatic gold as he stood beside the bed, hauling his shirt off over his head to reveal the defined sheet of lean muscle that corrugated his broad chest. He cast it off to embark more languidly on his jeans.
As the jeans began to fall and she realised that he was wearing nothing beneath, she stilled. A dark happy trail arrowed down to a very substantial erection. He was long and wide and she wished
she had the nerve to tell him that, with every skin cell in her body jangling with a terrifying overload of sexual response, he could go as far as he liked because she was done with waiting to find out what all the fuss was about.
He came down on the bed beside her, gloriously, unashamedly masculine, and she shimmied over to him and kissed him with lingering pleasure. He smelled so good she wanted to bury her nose in him, and he tasted even better. Her hand speared into his black curls to hold him fast. A long finger scored across the taut triangle of cloth stretched between her legs and she almost spontaneously combusted from the jolt of excitement that shot through her.
Jude rolled her over and flat against the pillows, dark golden, glittering eyes hot as a predator’s as he lay over her, supporting his weight on his arms. ‘If we continue, do you mind if I don’t use protection? Or is it too soon for you to want to try conceiving?’
Her brain was in flux and she had to struggle to grasp what he was asking, blinking up at him without immediate comprehension.
‘You look like a baby bird when you look up at me like that,’ Jude husked.
The concept of immediately trying for the pregnancy she had agreed to stunned her, but that there might be a fast result struck her as so off-the-charts unlikely, she couldn’t even picture it. From what she had read and heard, however, it could take months to conceive, which meant that waiting too long to try could be unwise. ‘It’s all right with me,’ she muttered.
He tugged off the thong, cast it aside, smoothed a carnal fingertip gently over the tiny bundle of nerves below her mound. The hunger awakened with extreme force and flooded her like an addictive drug, tiny nerve endings firing up for the first time, her whole body tensing and trembling as he explored her maddeningly sensitive flesh. She pressed her hot face into a satin-smooth brown shoulder, startled by the sheer pleasure thrumming through her. And then the tightening at the heart of her gave way and the world went white as she climaxed in his arms, gasping and shuddering in the aftermath.
‘No matter what I do, this is probably going to hurt,’ Jude murmured intently.
‘I know that… I’m not that naive!’ Tansy protested breathlessly.
‘And you’re very, very sexy,’ Jude growled. ‘Because I did intend to keep my hands off you for at least a few weeks!’
‘Well, the best-laid plans…’ Tansy chided with a face-splitting grin of pride, relieved that she wasn’t the only one tempted in their relationship, the only one surrendering to that hunger she had never really felt until that moment.
Jude laughed, brilliant, dark, golden, heavily lashed eyes spectacular in his lean, sun-darkened face. He wondered how long it had been since he had last relaxed to that extent with a woman in bed. He couldn’t remember because all his more recent dealings with women had been of the most basic variety, consisting of nothing more than casual encounters.
He kissed her again with more passion and less restraint as he shifted against her, allowing her to feel the hard thrust of him against her tender core. Her heart hammered as he crushed her lips under his and she strained against him, seeking that pressure, that friction, every fibre of her demanding more sensation.
Jude pushed into her narrow channel very slowly, lifting her slight body up to him. His stunning eyes stayed welded to hers even as a low groan of sensual pleasure escaped him. ‘Thee mou…you’re so tight, moraki mou.’
Melting within at the erotic enjoyment he couldn’t hide, Tansy tipped up more to him and he slid in deeper and faster than he might have intended and she jerked as a sharp sting of pain shot through her lower body. Betrayed into a muffled moan, Tansy briefly froze. ‘It’s all right. Don’t stop now,’ she mumbled, red-faced.
Jude shifted his lithe hips and sent sweet, seductive sensations shimmying through her pelvis to replace the discomfort. Her heart thumped faster, her body quivering from that shock invasion that came with a stark jolt of pleasure and left her wanting more.
‘Still hurting?’ Jude pressed.
‘Not any more,’ she proclaimed breathlessly, rocking up into him in helpless invitation.
His fluid movements controlled her with mounting pleasure, tiny little tremors coursing through her as her tension and the ache of need built ever higher. The pace increased and her heart raced, her nails digging into the smooth skin of his back as the excitement took over, urging her hips up to his, her body jolting in satisfaction from his every powerful thrust. And then the tension splintered, and fireworks burst inside her and she was overwhelmed by the blissful convulsions of pleasure that flooded her.
Jude released her from his weight and lay back.
Tansy breathed in deep and slow, all the tension that had wound her up tight for days drained away. For the first time she felt truly close to Jude and even more regretful of the fact that she had concealed her sister’s existence, starting off their marriage on a wrong note. In an effort to diminish that sin, she murmured, ‘You know…er… I would have told you about Posy upfront if Calvin hadn’t warned me not to.’
‘At what stage did he decide to dump his daughter as well as his stepdaughter on me?’ Jude enquired smooth as glass.
Tansy stiffened and compressed her lips, taken aback by his tone. She turned her head to study his taut, perfect profile. ‘Nobody has been dumped on you! You needed a wife. Posy needed me. It’s kind of ironic too that you’re lukewarm about her, because she’s truly the only reason I’m here with you now.’
Ebony brows drawing together, Jude locked narrowed dark golden eyes to her. ‘How so?’
Tansy sighed, deciding to tell him the truth because she saw no point in concealing it any longer, and if she could improve his view of her, it could surely only make their relationship run a little more smoothly. ‘It was never your money I was after. I’m not a gold-digger,’ she murmured tightly. ‘It was Calvin’s idea. I had to agree to marry you and give my stepfather that initial financial settlement for marrying you before he would agree to sign over my sister into my care…’
Jude absorbed that bombshell in total silence because it plunged him deep into shock and into thoughts he did not want to have. ‘Are you seriously telling me that you’re planning to give him that money?’ he demanded rawly, his lean, dark features taut with anger and incredulity. ‘And that that little baby was the price of your compliance?’
Unable to grasp why that seemed to annoy him when she had naively believed that information would improve his opinion of her, Tansy sat up, hugging the sheet to her. ‘Yes, and it’s already done. I wouldn’t have married you for any other reason… I mean, why else would I agree to marry a stranger? Particularly one who wanted sex included in the deal?’ she countered ruefully. ‘Calvin had no idea at all about that aspect. He believed you only wanted a paper marriage. But let’s face it, he didn’t care about the details. All he saw was an opportunity to profit.’
Jude sprang off the bed, dark colour overlaying his sharp cheekbones, rage and consternation leaping through him. ‘You had sex with me because of that baby?’ He stared down at her in irate disbelief.
Tansy went even more red in the face, annoyed that he didn’t appear to be listening to anything she said or reacting as she had expected. ‘No, I wouldn’t put it that way. I wouldn’t say that,’ she mumbled uneasily, shying away from that too personal and private subject. ‘I mean, how is that worse anyway than me being a gold-digger willing to do anything for money?’
Contrary to that protest, outrage was filling Jude to overflowing. He could see, however, that her green eyes were clear and steady on his. She didn’t get it, she really didn’t get how offensive what she had just told him was. ‘You let that creepy bastard pimp you out to me like a hooker!’ he accused rawly.
‘How dare you?’ Tansy snapped back at him in disbelief. ‘How dare you say that to me?’
‘You think I feel any warmer towards you knowing that you only let me bed you because a ch
ild’s welfare was at stake?’ Jude roared. ‘It didn’t occur to you that that is more than a little sleazy?’
Tansy stared back at him in a fury, green eyes bright as gemstones while she struggled to conceal her hurt from him. ‘Well, maybe it didn’t occur to me that someone like you would be that sensitive, since you believe that you can buy anything you want…and you proved it with me,’ she completed less boldly, still shamed by that awareness. ‘But I’m not one bit sorry either!’
‘I can see that,’ Jude seethed, thrown off balance by her unapologetic defiance.
‘Good. Then we understand each other perfectly,’ Tansy told him, ripping at the sheet to wind it clumsily round herself and slide off the bed to head for the door she reckoned led to a bathroom. ‘I didn’t care what it cost me to get Posy out of that house and away from Calvin and his girlfriend. And unless you plan on going back on your word like he did, we’ll adopt her now and she’ll be safe, and he’ll never be able to use her the way he’s used me!’
And with that ringing assurance and tears blinding her, Tansy plunged through the door only to find herself in a large dark cupboard, fitted out as a closet.
‘Bathroom’s next door,’ Jude informed her gently as he lounged back against the tumbled bed, clad only in his unbuttoned, ripped jeans, the dark dangerous rage still smouldering in him but restrained by the innate caution of a man who had seen, growing up, what a man’s unfettered ire could do to a woman. ‘Couldn’t get permission to knock a door through in a protected building.’
Feeling even more foolish, Tansy stalked down the corridor, trailing the sheet and stifling a sob. Her first sexual experience had come complete with a distressing aftermath. There had been no reassuring physical closeness, no show of affection. That was stuff a woman could only hope to receive from a guy who cared about her. Jude had treated her like a one-night stand because he didn’t see her as being any different, indeed might even see her as being less after what she had revealed about Calvin and Posy. Her heart squeezed inside her as she worried about what the future might hold with Jude when he was that furious with her…