‘Surprisingly not. That particular night I wouldn’t have been looking for sex with anyone,’ Tor asserted coolly. ‘It was out of character.’
‘Blame the alcohol.’
‘And as you were a virgin, presumably it was out of character for you as well.’
Pixie went red as fire and hated him for throwing that in her teeth. ‘Obviously, I was overwhelmingly attracted to you.’
An entirely spontaneous grin slashed Tor’s wide sensual mouth, chasing the gravity from his startlingly handsome features. ‘OK.’
‘Was that personal enough for you?’ Pixie slammed back at him sharply as she rose from the table, furious that he had embarrassed her and that she had been that honest with him in her response.
As Tor also sprang up, smouldering dark golden eyes collided with hers and she stopped breathing and froze in her retreat to the door. She couldn’t drag her attention from him as he stalked towards her, all lean predatory grace and masculine power.
‘No, in the interests of research I’d like to get a lot more personal,’ Tor confided. ‘I want to kiss you.’
Pixie was knocked off balance entirely by that familiar phrase. ‘You said that that night.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘Do it,’ she recalled weakly as he reached for her.
The tip of his tongue licked along the closed seam of her mouth and she shivered violently, wanting more, craving more, outraged by the flood of instant awareness cascading through her treacherous body. She didn’t know what he did to her self-discipline, but it was lethal because with one touch her whole body switched on as though he had pressed a magic button. Her skin felt too tight round her bones, her breath shortened in her throat and her heart began to pound. The light play of his splayed fingers across her spine somehow made her breasts swell and stir inside her bra, letting her feel the straining tautness of her nipples. Her lips parted and he took advantage, delving between to explore the moist interior of her mouth.
The immediate rush of heat and dampness between her thighs took her by storm, prickling, tingling awareness shooting through every nerve ending she possessed. She jerked in helpless response. It was one kiss and her body leapt on it as though it were her first meal after a famine.
He pressed her back against the table and her hands lifted up, her fingers spearing into his springy black hair to hold him fast while his firm lips moved with compelling hunger on hers. The bottom could’ve fallen out of the world at that moment and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her surroundings had fallen away. All she was aware of was him, the hard, demanding bar of his erection against her stomach, the passion of his mouth on hers, the glorious heat and strength of him that close.
Breathing raggedly, Tor dragged his mouth from her and pulled back from her, dark eyes flaring with bright golden intensity and full of new knowledge. ‘Well, I don’t need to ask how it happened, do I? We have explosive chemistry...and I’m remembering things now. The taste of you...and green hair? Diavole...where does green hair come into it? And I said that you reminded me of a forest fairy? Thee mou...spouting nonsense of that calibre, I must’ve been incredibly drunk!’
Pixie reeled back from him, deeply shaken by the passion that had betrayed her in his arms, exposing a vulnerability that mortified her. She didn’t even feel relieved that he was starting to remember stuff, only more mortified and exposed than ever.
‘I had dyed my hair before we met...it stayed sort of pale green until it finally washed out,’ she muttered tightly. ‘And you did compare me to a forest fairy, but only because someone else said I reminded them of a leprechaun with my green hair and I told you that.’
Tor shot her a glance of concealed wonderment because she was on another plane entirely, too naïve to even register how unusual it was to find a sexual connection that strong. He had gone up in flames with her. She was a dynamite charge in a tiny package and all he had wanted to do was spread her out on the table and thrust inside her hard and fast.
The ache of having to deny and control his libido was new to him. Sex had become something Tor snapped his fingers and received with minimal effort. Persuading or coaxing had never been required from him. But no woman had ever aroused him to the extent that Pixie did. Her effect on him, however, certainly explained what must have happened that night and his own unusual recklessness...
But he had recalled enough of his own reactions to be thoroughly disconcerted by what he was both learning and remembering. Best sex I ever had... That was what he had fallen asleep thinking that night, satiated by the glory of her silken, tight depths. He breathed in deep and slow, tamping down those thoughts and forcing himself back to the present.
‘A limo will take you home and bring you back here again. Do you want me to accompany you? At some stage, I will need to speak to your brother,’ Tor imparted, while thinking that within a couple of days he would know everything he needed to know about the siblings because he had told his head of security to have them checked out.
‘Why would you need to speak to Jordan?’
Tor compressed his lips. ‘Because you don’t appear to have sufficient control over him.’
Her face flamed with annoyance because she was in no position to argue after what Jordan had done with Alfie.
‘Look, with Emma here I’ll let Alfie stay here tonight and I’ll come back in the morning as you asked but, to be frank, once the emergency is over, I hope we can all settle back down and get on with our lives,’ Pixie admitted, hoping that if she gave a little, he would too. ‘But I don’t want you to speak to Jordan. I’ll take care of that.’
‘How?’ Tor challenged.
‘I can’t defend what Jordan did this morning when he left Alfie here,’ Pixie conceded. ‘But he’s my half-brother, my only surviving family and he’s been good to both of us when there was nobody else willing to help, so please cut him some slack...’
‘If that baby is my son, it’s going to change your lives,’ Tor retorted in a growling undertone, ignoring her plea on her brother’s behalf. ‘I’d be a liar if I said anything else.’
Pixie set her teeth firmly together on a hasty and ill-judged response to that statement. She saw no reason why he should interfere with her life. She was willing to accept him as a masculine role model in Alfie’s world and hopefully a better one than Jordan had so far proved to be. Presumably, Tor would expect to spend time with Alfie. He would also expect to contribute towards his support, she assumed, but she hoped that that would be as far as his interference went because there was nothing more personal between them than that single night and Alfie’s unintentional conception.
Really? a little voice sniped, unimpressed, deep inside her. What about that kiss? What about that response you gave him? That had gone way beyond masculine role models and child support, that had been personal and intimate to a level that filled Pixie with guilt and discomfiture. That kiss had smashed through the defensive barriers she had forged and blown her away.
‘Why did you call him Alfie?’
‘I named him after my grandfather. He was a wonderful character. He died when I was six, but I never forgot him.’
Tor accompanied her to the front door, waiting there in silence until a sleek black shiny limousine pulled up outside. ‘I have an appointment now, so I won’t see you before you leave for work. Hopefully, I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast,’ he murmured silkily.
Pixie nodded and went down the steps, wide-eyed as the driver climbed out to open the passenger door of the limousine for her. She got in, sinking into the pearl-grey leather upholstery and scanning the embellishments in front of her, wondering what the various buttons and switches she could see did, but restraining herself from experimenting lest she embarrass herself.
The house was empty when she got back. Jordan had gone out, probably to avoid dealing with her recriminations, she reflected wi
th a wry shake of her head. She rushed around, gathering up her son’s belongings, and changed for work, conscious that she didn’t have much time to waste.
If that baby is my son, it’s going to change your lives.
That declaration had aggravated her. Tor Sarantos could only change what she allowed him to change, she reminded herself bracingly. He didn’t own her; he didn’t own either of them. He couldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do...
CHAPTER FIVE
ELOISE SAT ACROSS the table in the hospital canteen from Pixie during their break and said, ‘About the only thing your brother got right was when he advised you to take what you can get to make raising Alfie easier. His father should be sharing the responsibility.’
Pixie stiffened and blinked, taken aback by the pretty brunette’s frankly offered opinion. Since the other nurse and her brother had broken up, by mutual agreement both women had avoided discussing Jordan. ‘I never thought you’d say that.’
‘It’s gloves-off time. The best thing for both you and Alfie would be to get as far away from Jordan as you can because if you don’t, he’ll rob you blind like he did me.’ Eloise sighed. ‘I’m sorry to be that blunt, Pixie, but Jordan left me broke. Although I could never get the truth out of him, money was always disappearing, and I didn’t believe the stories he told me. I suspected he was gambling but he laughed in my face when I accused him, and I couldn’t prove anything. If Alfie’s father gives you financial help, grab it with both hands and step away from your brother.’
‘Gambling?’ Pixie whispered, aghast.
‘What else could he be at? Where do you think the debts he’s always complaining about are coming from?’ Eloise prompted in an undertone, mindful of the diners at tables nearby. ‘He doesn’t live the high life or smoke or use drugs. The money has to be going somewhere and, if you’re not careful, you and Alfie will end up on the street because when I moved out that mortgage was already in serious arrears.’