‘No, actually it’s for me...from your aunt,’ Beth told him in a disjointed, almost staccato little burst of speech. ‘She said you would have one too and that we had to open them together. Alex, why did you do...why did you send me the glass? You must know that I can’t accept it...’
To her own consternation her eyes filled with tears. Whilst she was talking Alex had been urging her along his hallway and was now ushering her into a beautifully proportioned room which, in some obscure way, reminded her of the drawing room in the castle. Her face started to burn, her heart thumping at the memories she was evoking.
‘Come and sit down and we’ll talk about it,’ Alex suggested, relieving her of her coat and guiding her towards a softly upholstered and very deep sofa.
A little unsteadily Beth sank into it. In addition to relieving her of her coat Alex had also relieved her of the cumbersome parcel.
When he returned he was carrying two glasses.
‘It’s brandy,’ he told her. ‘Drink it; it will help you
to relax a bit...’
Dutifully Beth took a sip and then pulled a face.
‘I’ve already had champagne with your aunt,’ she told him as she put her glass down. ‘Perhaps the two don’t mix. Alex...I can’t accept your gift. It’s wonderful...the glass is beautiful, even more beautiful than I could have imagined, but why...why did you do it?’ she asked him, abandoning the reasoned, rational argument she had prepared and doing instead what Anna had urged her to do and responding only to her emotions.
‘Didn’t my aunt tell you?’ Alex asked her ruefully. He hadn’t thought that his aunt would hand Beth’s glass over to her in person, but then realistically he should perhaps have guessed that it was the kind of thing she would do. She was extremely picky about whom she allowed to have her precious glass, and, of course, Alex’s own admissions to her had aroused her curiosity about Beth to an even greater intensity.
Beth hesitated, unable to look at him.
‘She said...she said it was because you loved me,’ she told him huskily. She could feel Alex looking at her, and her own gaze was drawn to his, her face flushing as she saw the look in his eyes.
‘And did you believe her?’ he asked her quietly.
Beth bit her lip.
‘I...’ She felt as though she was drowning, losing control, fighting to prevent herself from being swept under by the force of her own emotions, afraid of their power—and yet at the same time a part of her was longing to give in, to give up, to let someone else carry the burden of her loving for her.
‘I...I wanted to,’ she admitted truthfully.
‘Why...because you wanted to have more sex with me?’ Alex couldn’t resist probing, a little unkindly.
Beth reacted as though he had actually physically hurt her, her breath leaking from her lungs, her face draining of colour, even her hand going out as though to ward off an actual blow.
‘Oh, Beth...my love, my precious, precious love, I’m sorry,’ Alex apologised remorsefully. ‘I didn’t mean—’
‘No. No...it’s all right. I know I deserved it,’ Beth interrupted him jerkily. ‘I shouldn’t have come here.’ She tried to get up, desperate to escape before she completed her own humiliation by bursting into tears. She had got it all wrong. Alex didn’t love her at all. His aunt had got it all wrong.
‘What you deserve is to be cherished and loved, adored, worshipped,’ Alex was telling her extravagantly.
‘Alex,’ she protested.
‘How could you possibly think I didn’t mean it?’ Alex overrode her protest tenderly. ‘Have you any idea how much I’ve missed you, how many times I’ve been tempted to come and find you, capture you, kidnap you, bear you off with me to my lair as one of my ancestors might have done?’
‘I can’t imagine you ever displaying such caveman-like tactics,’ Beth told him ruefully. ‘You...’
‘No? Watch me,’ Alex mock-threatened her, and then, before she could speak, he was reaching for her, wrapping her in his arms, kissing her with a passion that broke through all her resistance.
She tried to speak, to protest...plead for time and explanations, but her words were lost, silenced beneath the hungry pressure of his mouth that only relaxed when she made a tiny sound. Whilst he was kissing her he dropped his arms to his sides, sliding his fingers between hers so that they were standing body to body, arm to arm, only their heads, their lips moving. Her own body was trembling with increasing intensity as she reacted to his closeness. Her body was betraying her far more than any words, Beth knew.
‘“Just sex” could never feel like this,’ Alex whispered thickly against her mouth. ‘“Just sex” could never make me want you the way I do, and it could never make you respond to me the way you are.’
‘Alex, I got it all wrong,’ Beth told him guiltily. ‘I totally misjudged you and I misjudged my own feelings as well, totally and wilfully. I thought—’
‘I know what you thought,’ Alex interrupted her. ‘But what is more interesting right now is what you felt...what you are feeling... Or shall I discover for myself?’
She was wearing a soft buttoned cardigan, and as Alex started to trace the vee of flesh it exposed Beth’s whole body began to quiver. Her desire for him drenched her, flooded her, melted her; she was reaching eagerly for him long before he had finished unbuttoning her cardigan, and touching him long, long before his hands had started to cup her naked breasts, stroking them, his fingers plucking delicately at her tight nipples.