‘Of course. Why else would I be here?’ Watching the arrogant set of his broad shoulders as he walked across to the bathroom, she wished she had the courage to tell him to go to hell. Far from seducing him, she felt like strangling him. She was wild with anger, but deep down she knew his lightest touch could send her senses reeling, and his kiss made her ache for more.
As soon as she heard the shower running, Lisa leapt off the bed. No way was she going to be lying there waiting for him like some harem slave! Restlessly she crossed to the patio window and gazed blindly out. How had she got herself in such a mess? She had been fooled by Alex’s sophistication, his stunning good looks and the kind of blatant sexuality that had set up an answering need in her own untried body. It hurt so much to discover Alex had not been honest with her. She had given him her trust, completely and unconditionally, and all the time he’d been in league with Nigel.
In one way she thought it might have hurt less if there had been another woman. At least Alex could have claimed to be overtaken by passion. But to have married her in cold blood to pursue a business deal showed a degree of ruthlessness, a contempt for her as a person that she could not come to terms with.
‘I’m all yours, darling.’ Alex’s deep voice broke into her musings and turning around, she gave a strangled gasp. He was totally naked and completely unconcerned as he strode across the room and lay down on the bed, and patted the space beside him. ‘Don’t keep me waiting, or I might just fall asleep. I’ve had a hell of a day. But the night is certainly looking better.’ He grinned. ‘Be gentle with me, won’t you?’
It was the grin that did it… Her blue eyes flashed to his, and she saw the gleam of amusement in the deep, dark depths of his brown eyes, along with a glitter of sexual anticipation. The bastard! she thought. I’ll show him. Crossing to the bed, she stripped her nightgown over her head and standing proud and naked, she asked, ‘Where would you like me to start first darling, top or bottom?’
Without waiting for his answer she draped herself over him, catching his head between her hands. Her mouth fastened on his and she kissed him with all the rage and passion of a woman cheated by love. Heav’n has no rage, like love to hate turn’d, Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d. The quotation leapt into Lisa’s mind, and in that moment she knew it was true.
She did not want his tenderness; it was false anyway. Deliberately she nipped his full lower lip between her white teeth, and then dropped lower to bite at his strong neck. She was like a woman possessed in her rage, and Alex’s deep, throaty chuckle only incensed her further. She felt his arm close around her waist. His other hand slid between their two bodies to capture one full breast, and rolled her aching nipple between his finger and thumb. She groaned out loud and retaliated by tonguing on his male nipple in a passion of her own, straddling him with her long legs trapping his. She felt his burgeoning arousal and delighted in it.
‘So you want to play rough, my lovely Lisa?’ Alex husked.
She lifted her head and her blue eyes blazed down into his eyes, which were dark with sexual need. ‘You have no idea how rough,’ she whispered, the breath exiting her body in a rush as he raised his head and sucked one of her taut nipples into his mouth. Lisa raked his chest with her nails and strained back. Alex laughed, and twisted his hand in her long hair, his lips meeting hers, his tongue delving deep into the hot, moist depths of her mouth while he moved his body against hers. His other arm wrapped around her like a steel band.
Lisa wriggled
against him. She was so hot, so furious, and perspiration beaded her skin, but even in her anger, when Alex swung her beneath him, she opened her mouth to give a helpless moan. In a tangle of arms and legs they rolled around the bed, Lisa determined to be the dominant one, but Alex not about to let her.
They battled for supremacy as they kissed, bit and caressed in a storm of unbridled passion, each seeing who could give the other the most pleasure, and finally they came together in a wild, hungry mating that took them both to the heights of ecstasy. Lisa cried out at the intensity of it, and her cries mingled with Alex’s as his body shuddered in spasm after spasm of prolonged pleasure.
Afterwards, when Alex lay by her side in total exhaustion, Lisa knew this had been the best ever, and also the worst. The worst because it had revealed her deepest fear: she could not resist Alex; even in her rage and anger she felt love.
Alex stirred, and, putting a possessive arm around her shoulder, he said, ‘If I didn’t know I am your only lover, I might be suspicious of your new-found aggressive sexuality.’ And with the pounding of his heart almost back to normal, he added, ‘But I knew the moment I saw you that you had a deeply sensuous nature and it only needed the right man to reveal it.’
Lisa glanced sideways at him. ‘And you’re the right man?’ She’d meant to sound sarcastic but instead the breathless tone of her voice sounded as if she agreed with him. Filled with shame at her own behaviour, she quickly looked away.
Alex chuckled. ‘Of course.’ Tucking her firmly under his arm, he yawned widely. ‘Remind me to leave you alone more often, if tonight’s episode is to be the result, hmm?’ He yawned again.
She stared at him. He looked like some great slumbering lion lying on the bed, his eyes half closed, his broad chest rising and falling in rhythm to the deep beat of his heart, his mouth curved in a satisfied smile, content and assured of his masculine virility.
In that moment Lisa did not know whether she wanted to hit him, or hug him. Instead, to her horror, she heard herself ask the one question that had tormented her for the past few hours. ‘Do you really love me, Alex?’
‘After what we have just done, need you ask?’ he murmured, already half asleep.
But sleep did not come so easily for Lisa. She was tormented by the thought that Alex and Nigel were plotting together. But, seduced by the warmth of his body and the protective arm around her shoulder, slowly Lisa felt her anger began to drain away. Maybe she had been too hasty in her conclusion. It was perfectly possible her first meeting with Alex had been a set-up, but that did not necessarily mean that what had happened next had been a lie.
Lisa turned on her side and examined her sleeping husband. In repose he looked younger than his thirty-five years, his black hair tumbling in disarray across his broad forehead. She reached out and brushed the offending lock of hair back, but Alex did not stir. Sleeping the sleep of the innocent. But was he?
Sighing, Lisa turned on to her back and gazed at the ceiling. Perhaps she had overreacted. She loved Alex, and up until tonight she had been sure he loved her. He hadn’t been able to wait to marry her. Thinking about it now, Lisa decided his haste to marry her could not have been solely for business reasons. He could easily have waited a few more weeks, so it had to have been because he had wanted her. In fact, she probably had nothing to worry about. The solution was in her own hands. If, or when, she was approached to sell her company and asked to agree to flatten it—which was worse—she would simply refuse. If Alex made any comment then, and only then, would she discover the absolute truth.
Her decision made, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was taking a coward’s way out by deciding to wait, rather than confront Alex with what she had overheard straight away. But she was giving herself time. Time to share his life and his love. If tonight had taught her anything at all, it was that she was hopelessly in love with him and could not resist him even when she thought she hated him.
Oh, my God! Suddenly Lisa was wide awake, because she had overlooked one very important fact. From the conversation she had overheard, Alex did not know yet that she had donated five per cent of her shares in Lawson Designer Glass to the hospice! It had never entered Lisa’s head that the charity, at some future date, might sell the shares. But with a ruthless operator like Alex on the prowl she had to see it as a possibility.
If the hospice and the Lee estate sold to Alex, that would leave Harold with the deciding vote in the company. Much as she loved her stepfather, she hadn’t a lot of faith in his ability to resist the demands of his son. Nigel was his one blind spot. As she actually owned only forty seven percent of the company, she would lose overall control! How could she have been so stupid?
Finally, with a brief glance at her sleeping husband, she slipped out of bed. A hot drink might cure her insomnia. Pulling on Alex’s discarded shirt, she buttoned it up and padded barefoot from the bedroom, along the hall and into the living area. It was a huge room, with a raised dining area, and seating at its opposite end arranged to take full advantage of the view through a wall of glass, with doors that opened out on to a roof garden. Architecturally, it was a magnificent room, but the plain black leather seating, the clean lines of the elm wood furniture and the polished hardwood floor had an oddly sterile look in the bright silver light of the moon. There was nothing personal or homely about it; in fact it looked exactly what it was: a company penthouse.
Lisa walked the length of the room to where double doors opened into a wide hall. At one side of it was the door leading to the kitchen and on the other side another two doors, one of the cloakroom and the other of Alex’s study. At the end of the hallway stood a half screen in marble and glass and, beyond that the actual entrance door to the apartment.
Lisa entered the kitchen and switched on the light, pushing the door almost shut behind her. In a matter of minutes she’d made a cup of hot chocolate and, sitting down at the breakfast table, she cupped the mug in her hands and sipped it slowly, her brain spinning with confusion. Alex and Nigel! If she hadn’t heard them with her own ears, she would never have believed it, and yet it seemed they were planning on being business partners, at the expense of her business! The mind boggled…
If she felt more secure in her marriage, the sensible thing to do would be to confront Alex and demand an explanation. But it was too late now; she could hardly admit it tomorrow without looking a fool. No, her earlier decision was the best. Wait and see, and hopefully Alex would prove her wrong.
Suddenly an odd noise made Lisa straighten up in her chair. It sounded like a key turning in a lock.