Response

‘So reserved and English,’ he murmured, probing the parted warmth of her mouth with his thumb, ‘but I promise you I will make you forget your reserve and the politeness of your good manners, and in my arms will remember only that you are a woman.’ He smiled down at her, a dark seriousness in his eyes that stilled the frantic racing of her pulses. ‘I cannot promise you that I will be a tender, gentle lover, Sienna, my need for you does not permit that. If you wish to change your mind, to retreat, then now is the time to do so, while I am still able to let you go.’

He knew! He knew how fear mingled with her love for him, how tremulous she felt about committing herself completely to him, about walking blindfold into waters which she sensed were deep and dangerous and he was offering her the chance to turn back. She returned his smile with one of her own faintly wavering and hesitant, unaware of the shy vulnerability glowing in her eyes as they met his.

‘I don’t want to turn back, Alexis,’ she told him huskily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment you walked into Gill’s office. I….’ She tried to find the words to describe the awe and wonder of that moment, then gave up, knowing that it was a feat beyond her.

‘And if I had not fallen in love with you in return?’

She shivered, despite the warmth of Rob’s centrally heated flat. ‘I don’t know….’ How could she explain to him that she wasn’t the type of girl who had the confidence to go out and get the man she wanted, that if she hadn’t seen the desire, the hunger in his eyes she would have had to dam up her feelings for him?

‘Your silence is its own answer,’ Alexis told her. ‘Without the security of my admission of love you would never have been able to bring yourself to tell me of your feelings. You would have worked for me as my temporary secretary, harbouring impossible dreams, is this is not so?’

It startled her a little that he should so accurately be able to judge her reactions, for that was exactly how she would have behaved, envying the women who shared his life, but totally unable to emulate them.

‘Do not look so chastened.’ His hand caressed her jaw, tilting her face so that he could look into her eyes. ‘I knew the moment I opened the office door how it would be between us, and because you are what you are, the only place I shall hold you in my arms tonight is on the dance floor. I want you to come to me willingly, Sienna—more than willingly,’ he added huskily, ‘knowingly, wantingly, as hungry for me as I am for you.’

She wanted to tell him then that that was already how she felt about him, but because he was right when he said that she was still a little shy and uncertain of herself, she allowed him to escort her to the waiting car, and half an hour later when they were seated at their table in a fashionable nightclub she had only read about in the Society columns, she no longer regretted her silence.

Her arrival with Alexis had caused something of a stir. Heads had turned, and Sienna knew quite well that they had not turned on her behalf. Several eager pairs of female eyes followed their progress to their table. How many of the women dining here with other men were known to Alexis? she wondered as she sat down, and not just here in London, but in all those other cities where he had business interests and offices. It shook her to feel so vulnerable and, yes, jealous. Alexis was nine years older than her and what was past was past.

‘Is something troubling you?’ He leaned across the table, attentive and concerned, and she pushed away her dark thoughts, a little saddened by the knowledge that love brought pain as well as pleasure.

She asked him to order for her. Although she was perfectly used to dining out both with her father and Rob, neither of them had ever taken her to such an openly luxurious place. Most of the other women were wearing rich jewels and couture gowns, and even though she knew it was foolish, Sienna was aware of feeing slightly ill at ease.

The food Alexis chose was delicious, but she discovered that she had little appetite for it. She was too aware of the man seated opposite her, of the movement of his body beneath the covering of expensive clothes, of the lean darkness of his hands, her mind unable to stop picturing them on her body, causing a heated flush to rise up over her skin, and Alexis to break off from what he had been saying, to ask with a frown, ‘Sienna, are you all right?’

‘Yes….’ She sounded flustered. ‘It’s… it’s very warm in here, isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’ His eyes narrowed in perceptive amusement. ‘I confess I hadn’t noticed it. Would you like to dance?’

She glanced at the small dimly lit dance floor and then back again to Alexis’ darkly masculine face. There was nowhere she wanted to be more than in his arms, and her eyes must have given her away, because he muttered something thickly under his breath and put down the glass he had been holding, with fingers that were distinctly unsteady, his hoarse, ‘Yes… yes, I know, but I will not take you in hungry greed, however much both of us want to at this moment, and since I cannot make love to you on the dance floor, we are safer there than sitting here, where your eyes tell me with every breath you draw what you are thinking and my body responds to that knowledge.’

Alexis had lied when he said he couldn’t make love to her on the dance floor, Sienna thought minutes later; the firm movement of his thighs against hers turning her bones to water, making her grateful for the dimness of the lights and the seductive tempo of the music which enabled them to move so slowly together, her body registering every movement of Alexis’. She could feel his heart thudding beneath the hand she had slipped inside his jacket. Both his arms were round her, pressing her against him, caressing the vulnerable arc of her spine, his lips feathering, brief, tormenting kisses against her temple.

‘You tremble so in my arms,’ Alexis murmured against her ear. ‘It makes me ache to possess you, do you know that?’ He felt her body’s response and his own hardened against her, his chest expanding as he dragged air into his lungs. ‘No, you don’t know yet what you do to me, how you make me burn and shake with need, but I will teach you, Sienna.’

Teach me now, she wanted to cry out, but the tempo of the music changed and with it the mood he had created around them. In a daze she allowed him to lead her back to their table. They must have talked, but later she could remember nothing of what they had said. All she could think of when she lay alone in her bed in Rob’s flat was that Alexis had wanted her and that for her sake he had denied himself because he didn’t want to rush her. Had denied them both, she acknowledged feverishly, understanding now the deep-seated ache that lay curled in the pit of her stomach, sending stabbing waves of need coursing through the rest of her body. Her total turn-around from a cool, remote young woman to this hungry aching feline creature who now seemed to live inside her skin took some getting used to, and as she lay wanting Alexis she wondered on a sudden dark presentiment if this new part of herself might not have been better left undiscovered.

By morning she had forgotten her night fears, her fingers clumsy in her feverish haste to dress and reach Alexis. She glanced at herself in the mirror, noting the changes that were there already; the flush high along her cheekbones, the brightness of her eyes, one minute sparkling, the next disconcertingly slumbrous. Excitement made it impossible for her to eat, to do anything more than snatch a cup of coffee as she hurried to get ready.

Alexis was waiting for her in his suite, studying a pile of letters. He looked up when she walked in but made no move to touch her. ‘I’m just about to leave.’ He smiled wryly when he saw her face and added softly, ‘Ah, no, I must not kiss you, otherwise I shall never make it to my meetings—never make it any further than the bedroom that lies beyond that door, but tomorrow is Saturday. Would you like to go for a drive? To have lunch somewhere perhaps, and then in the evening we could see a show?’

All I want to do is to be with you, she ached to tell him, but instead she followed the lead he had given her, assuring him that she ought to have finished the dictation he had given her the previous day by the time he got back and that she could find no fault in his plans for the following day.

And so it continued. During the day they worked together in comparative harmony. Sienna grew gradually to learn more about his business empire and to admire his shrewd grasp of all that went on within it, even though at times his hard determination had the power to disturb her. That he could be cruel as Gill had said he was she could now perceive was true, and she shivered sometimes, wondering what she would do if that cruelty was ever directed towards her. At those times he would look up from what he was doing and smile at her as though he guessed her thoughts and wanted to assure her that her fears were groundless.

He often asked her about Rob, and when he did Sienna sensed as she had done on that first day that he resented—and if that could be possible without their having met—even disliked her brother, but when she tried to question him about his own family he always changed the subject.

A week and then ten days went by. She arrived one morning to discover him on the telephone. New York,’ he said crisply when he replaced the receiver. ‘I have to go over there—there’s a problem with the merger.’

Sienna knew that one of his companies was taking over an American rival, but her face fell when Alexis was speaking.

‘How long… how long will you be gone?’ How long will you be away from me, was what she really wanted to know, and yet how long would he be staying in London for anyway? His home was in Greece, on a small island called Micros, he had told her. He had talked about it to her, with love and pride and an assurance that she would share it with him.

‘I don’t know. Three weeks, maybe a month. It will take that long to sort out all the legal tangles.’ He saw her expression and muttered huskily, ‘Sienna, don’t. You know I don’t want to leave you, and we still have this weekend. Would you like to go away somewhere…. Just the two of us?’

‘Oh, Alexis!’ Her eyes and voice betrayed her, and he did something he never did when they were working, he got up from his chair and crossed the room, taking her in his arms and kissing her with the same deep hunger she could feel heating her own blood.

‘Does that mean “yes”? You know if it does that I shall not be able to kiss you chastely goodnight and leave you, Sienna. You know, don’t you,’ he asked roughly, ‘that when you say “yes”, you are saying yes to snaring my bed? Do you still say “yes”?’

She shook her head and he tensed, holding her away from him and staring down at her with dark, almost angry eyes, and Sienna knew that despite all his protestations he wanted her enough to persuade her if she did not agree voluntarily. Not that there was any need. She wanted this weekend with him, needed it with an urgency that still had the power to leave her slightly shocked. ‘Then what do you say?’ he demanded curtly.

She smiled up at him, feeling the tension in the arms that held her, a brief smile curling her mouth as she said softly, ‘I say “yes, please”, Alexis.’

She felt the surge of tension leaving him, and just had time to be surprised by the look of sheer triumph glittering in his eyes as he bent towards her, kissing her more gently this time, merging her body with his, his fingers tangling in her hair as he released her lips to caress the soft skin of her throat, his fingers deftly moving to the buttons of her blouse, releasing them and exposing the pulse thudding at the base of her neck and the beginnings of the soft swell of her breasts, her nipples tautly outlined beneath the fine cotton of her blouse.

Strange, he had not yet touched her intimately, but when he did so, pushing aside the protection of her blouse, stroking over the curves her delicate lace bra did nothing to conceal, her body leapt in immediate response, her low groan of pleasure stifled somewhere at the back of her throat as his head moved downwards and she gasped as she felt the heat and dampness of his mouth through the fine fabric, coupled with an anguished ache to lie naked in his arms and enjoy that same caress with the barrier of clothes removed. The phone rang, disorientating her, her body still awash with hunger. Her mind was too bemused to respond to the abrupt summons of the telephone. Alexis answered it, frowning into the receiver, reminding Sienna where they were. She dressed quickly, with shaking fingers, wondering heatedly what her reaction was likely to be to his full possession if she could be affected so much by a mere caress. She was still lost in a maze of thoughts when he replaced the receiver and came to stand behind her.

‘You look like a child who has suddenly discovered Christmas,’ he told her with amusement, obviously relishing her embarrassment. ‘What a contradiction you are! Outwardly so cool and calm, and inwardly so responsively sensual, and I only have to look at you and I see mirrored in your eyes what will be there when I make love to you. I cannot believe no man has make you feel like this before. Has there, Sienna? Has there been a man who has made the earth shake for you, a man with whom you have shared desire?’

She shook her head and watched his eyes lighten with relief, and wondered if he knew what joy it gave her that he should be the first, that she had waited for the magic of giving herself to him and sharing with him her body’s arousal from innocence to desire.

‘I am going to take you away somewhere where no one will disturb us, where we will be completely alone, where when I want to kiss and touch you I can do so and know that we won’t be interrupted.’ He kissed her briefly then, his mouth hard and warm and the same delirious drunken feeling of disbelief she had experienced on first seeing him surged giddily through her again. ‘You love me?’

‘So much,’ she told him huskily, ‘So very, very much!’

When she got home there was a letter from Rob telling her that his return was likely to be delayed and that it could be several more weeks before he returned. She was disappointed. She would have liked Alexis to meet him before he went to New York. She wanted Alexis to understand why she loved him and why that love was no threat to the way he felt about her, but she didn’t want to spoil their weekend together, so she firmly banished her disappointment and concentrated on what she ought to pack.

Alexis hadn’t told her where they were going apart from the fact that it was in the country and they would be completely alone, and she packed accordingly, jeans and sweaters, one simple dress that would cover eating out, a soft tweed suit to travel in and… she tried not to feel guilty as she added up the cost of the expensive, delicate underwear she had bought on impulse on her way home the previous evening. She had paused outside the shop, admiring as she always did its elegant window, staring at the costly wisps of silk and lace, knowing how far they were outside her reach and yet wanting Alexis to see her dressed in something so essentially feminine, knowing instinctively that such a very male man would find pleasure in the knowledge that it was worn only for him.

And so she had gone in, and come out again half an hour later, carrying the boxes whose contents she was now carefully packing into her case. The silk chiffon nightdress was soft pale peach trimmed with écru lace, handmade and delicate as cobwebs. The underwear she was wearing to travel in was cream silk-satin, and her fingers smoothed it absently as she tried to still the quiver of excitement starting deep inside her.

She was ready and too excited to finish her breakfast, half an hour before Alexis was due to arrive. Incredible to think that this was actually her and that tonight she would sleep in Alexis’ arms, his body next to hers. As always when she thought about touching him, about him making love to her, she was overwhelmed by her reaction to her thoughts. And she wasn’t going to allow herself to think beyond the weekend to the empty weeks when he would be in New York, and she would be here, or about how she was going to endure their separation.

‘We’ll soon be stopping for lunch. Are you hungry?’ Only for him, Sienna thought nervously, turning in her seat to give him a brief smile and shaking her head. Why this sense of nervousness and anxiety now when this was what she had wanted from the very moment she first saw him, for them to be together?

They were almost in the New Forest; their destination, so Alexis had informed her when he picked her up. He had rented a small cottage for them for the weekend, but first they were to have lunch at a hotel which had been recommended to him.

‘It used to be a private house,’ he told her as he turned into the driveway. They specialise in Nouvelle Cuisine.’

She might as well have been served with the unappetising stodge she remembered from school lunches, Sienna thought guiltily an hour and half later, watching Alexis cut himself a wedge of Stilton. She could watch his hands for ever, they were so very beautiful in a totally male way, lean and brown, his fingers long and filbert-nailed, every movement they made deft and precise and yet somehow sensual, as though they knew secrets which were as yet unknown to her. She had refused a sweet, too full of the tension which had been with her ever since they set out. She was being ridiculous, she chided herself mentally, acting like a teenager who didn’t know the first thing about sex, her movements jerky, her whole body betraying her apprehension, and yet this was what she wanted. If Alexis were to announce that he had changed his mind and they were going back to London she would be bitterly, achingly disappointed.

She glanced quickly up at him. His features were impassive, relaxed, and yet she was aware of something elemental that sent shivers of alarm tingling along her spine. Was it because of her innocence that she felt like this, her ignorance and naïveté, or was it because of his male aura, because of the hunter she sensed lurking beneath the svelte layers of civilisation? This was a man whose heritage was Greek; a man born of a country that put a high price on its women’s virtue, a country where a man could and still did expect to marry a virgin bride. Would she be devaluing herself in his eyes by giving herself to him like this, would he in spite of his claims to love her despise her afterwards?

Where had such dark thoughts sprung from? Hadn’t she always despised women who bartered their bodies for the security of a wedding ring? She loved Alexis, and he loved her, he had told her so. So where had this feeling of insecurity come from? Perhaps the fact that he must leave her? But he would return, he had told her so, he had talked about their future together….

‘Having second thoughts?’ How easily he read her mind, startling her by voicing thoughts she had believed to be secret.

‘Sort of.’ Her eyes pleaded with him for reassurance.