Lifelong Affair

She knew she must have flushed, despite the veneer of sophistication she had acquired as an actress. She just didn't expect Alex Hammond to talk to her in this intimate way. Tm sure I wouldn't,' she acknowledged quickly, knowing this man would be successful at anything he did—including making lovet 'But I can't marrv you.'

Why not?' That probing grey gaze swept over the confusion of her face. 'You told me you have no intention of marrying this man Sam you've been eemg. Just think of me as a lifetime affair rather than a fleeting one. I can assure you I wouldn't force myself on you more than necessary,' he added at her gasp of jdignation. 'I enjoy women, when in the mood, but if mecessary I can control my sexual urges to a minimum.'

She couldn't take this in, couldn't accept what was • calmly being said to her. 'Let me get this straight,' be said tautly. 'I marry you, we live-^wherever, provide Courtney with parents, and occasionally you mta/kf the trip from your bedroom to mine?'

The latter would be a two-way thing,' he told her arrogantly. 'Women have desires and needs too, I'm ware of that.'

'So if I want a man I just come over to your bedroom?' Her eyes sparkled deeply green in her anger.

Alex shrugged. 'What's wrong with that?'

'Nothing—if you happen to be a damned machine!' she snapped furiously. 'What you're proposing is inhuman!'

His frown of puzzlement seemed genuine. 'I don't see it that way.'

'That's obvious!'

He sighed. 'Look, if you're worried I won't be able to give you a fulfilling physical relationship I can always show you now that you're wrong.'

Morgan backed away from him, from the cold determination in his face. 'This is no way to make love .. .' she told him weakly as he pushed her gently back against the cushions.

'Perhaps we won't make love now,' he agreed. 'Although I think I should show you that we could physically give each other pleasure.'

'You're so clinical!' She pushed ineffectually against his chest as he bent over her.

'I can be less so,' he promised throatily. 'You're very beautiful, Morgan. Let me show you how good it could be between us.'

It wasn't a case of 'letting' him do anything—she couldn't stop him! Maybe if her emotions hadn't already been heightened by the trauma of the day she might have been able to stop him—and maybe she wouldn't! At the first touch of his lips that now familiar languor swept over her body, and she was powerless to resist anything he did.

He kissed her with long drugging movements of his mouth, devouring her, drawing her into him so that she had no thoughts but those of pleasing him and being pleasured by him in return.

And he did pleasure her, slowly moving the zip of her gown down her spine, pushing the soft black material off her shoulder, exposing pert pink-tipped breasts to his avid mouth. He didn't take the hardened nipple completely into his mouth, teasing it with the warm moistness of his tongue until she groaned with needing more than that, then he left that breast to the pleasure-giving ministrations of his fingertips, his mouth moving in slow hot kisses between the valley of her breasts to the other waiting nipple.

She gasped at the sudden sucking on the taut bud, the teasing bites of his teeth as she arched against him, her fingers intwined in the darkness of his hair as she held him to her. She was completely under his sexual domination, and knew by the tautness of his thighs that her body aroused bim in return. But it wasn't enough for her, she wanted him to be more than aroused by her body, wanted him to shakeunder her caresses too, to know that as a woman she pleased him.

With a slight shift in their positions on the sofa she was able to be slightly above him, and so in the dominant position herself, her breasts still knowing the fevered caresses of his lips and tongue. She felt him stiffen as she began to slip the jacket from his shoulders, and then he relaxed, sitting up slightly to help her take it off completely, his mouth nuzzling her throat now, biting erotically into her earlobe.

She quivered in reaction, squirming against him, her hands shaking as she slowly unbuttoned his shirt, loving the muscled hardness revealed to her caressing fingers. Her mouth kissed and tasted every area of his chest, teasing the male nipples in the same way he had caressed her, feeling him shudder in response.

He gasped. 'No woman has ever—How did you know -'

She smiled down at him in satisfaction. 'Intuition,' she murmured throatily.

'Do you know any other—intuitive caresses like that?' he groaned, a high flush of sexual pleasure to his lean cheeks.

'I'll make them up as I go along,' she promised against the tautness of his hard stomach.

And she did. Her caresses were all instinctive; she had never known the full intimacy of a man's body before, but found she loved the barely leashed control of Alex's, making no protest as he again took over, kneeling beside the sofa as he slipped her dress off completely, only her black lacy panties covering her nakedness now.

'You're perfect!' Alex groaned as he covered her body with his, one hand caressing the firm curve of her hips, slipping knowledgeably beneath the lace to find the centre of her passion-

His caresses knew no bounds now, and Morgangroaned into the warmth of his mouth as her desire threatened to spiral out of control, flicking her tongue enticingly along the edge of his lips as she pleaded for an end to his tortuous caresses. Alex's mouth opened against hers, and he groaned, his thighs surging wildly ist hers. Moments later he was pulling roughly away from her, breathing deeply. 'We have to stop now,' he said raggedly.

'No .. .!' She gave a moan of sexual frustration. 'Alex, please!' She clung to him in appeal.

'Do you think I don't want you too?' He held her arms at her sides. 'You know I do!' he groaned. 'But not here, and not like this.' His eyes were a smoky grey colour as he slowly regained control of himself 'And I don't think we should cloud the situation with a physical relationship.' 'But you just said——'

'I know what I said.' He swung away from her, standing up, pulling on his shirt but making no move to fasten it. 'I've changed my mind. We've just proved that, physically, we're compatible. We don't need to go any further to know that. Agreed?'

Her own control was slower in coming, the rapid rise and fall of her breasts evidence of that. But the way Alex couldn't even bring himself to look at her, staring down at the dying embers of the fire, was like a cold shower on her emotions, and she pulled her dress back into place, feeling a return of some of her dignity along with it. 'Agreed,' she said curtly. 'I wouldn't want to cloud the situation,' she added tautly.

Alex did turn now. 'Morgan '

'I can't marry you, Alex- '

'You haven't even thought about it!' 'I don't need to,' she spoke calmly. 'It wouldn't work, Alex. All the problems that made Glenna so unhappy would apply to me too if I were your wife.'

'What problems?' he bit out savagely.

Just to look at him unnerved her, his dark hair still ruffled from her caressing fingers, his tanned hair-roughened chest still aching to be touched. She wasn't aware of her own tousled hair, her lips bare of lip-gloss, still swollen with the passion that had raged through her minutes earlier. 'Your mother, living here, the fact that England is not my native country. We don't even have love between us to help make it work.'

'Granted,' he acknowledged curtly. 'But that's precisely the reason I think it would work. My mother is my problem, not yours. And you haven't seemed as if you dislike England while you've been here. Besides, you'll still have your career.'

She frowned her puzzlement. 'I can still work?'

'Of course,' he replied, as if he had never considered she would do anything else. 'If the character of Mary-Beth is completely acting, as you say it is, then you're too good to stop.'

Morgan flushed at the taunt. 'You might be surprised,' she snapped. 'But have you considered the fact that if I continued with the series I'd be in the States for six months of the—Ah,' she gave him an accusing glare. 'I understand now. If I marry you Courtney stays here all the time, but / leave for six months every year. No way, Alex!'

He looked down his nose at her with haughty arrogance. 'I believe I told you I would make the move to the States if that's what you want. I want to provide a stable background for Courtney, at any price.'

Her anger turned to confusion. He meant it about moving to the States, she could see that in the determination of his expression. She only had to say the word and he would leave this house and move his business to the States. She couldn't ask that of him, and no matter how much she disliked Rita Hammond she couldn't do it to the other woman either. The other woman had already lost one son; to lose her other one, and her only grandson, was likely to break even the hardened Rita Hammond.

'Don't think about it now/ Alex encouraged softly as he sensed her uncertainty. 'Go back to the States tomorrow, think about it while you're away. There's no rush, a few weeks isn't going to make any difference. And I believe it's something you do need to think about.' 'You didn't,' she pointed out softly. 'Not for long, no,' he admitted. 'But then it's different for me, I have nothing to lose by marrying you.' 'Your freedom?'

His mouth twisted derisively. 'That isn't so much. And I would be gaining so much more, a beautiful wife, a healthy son.'

Morgan blushed at the compliment. 'It really does need thinking about, Alex.'

'Take all the time you need. I won't rush you.' The thinking began that night, to such an extreme that she hardly slept. She looked at Alex's idea from every angle, and every time she came up with the same answer. But it was an answer she didn't want. America was her home, with Sam as her boy-friend, and her parents not too far away; she didn't need a complicated man like Alex Hammond in her life. He had the depths of no man she had ever met before!