He paused for a split-second and then he succumbed, suddenly, roughly, like a dam breaking its walls. He grabbed her up to him with two bruising hands and took her mouth with electrifying hunger, his tongue plunging between her eagerly parted lips, demanding and taking fire from her readily offered response. Burning alive, Sarah gave up her last rational thought. Now he could take over.
And take over he did with satisfying alacrity. By the time she had sucked in much needed oxygen, she was flat on her back on a sofa and Alex was standing over her, ripping off his clothes with nothing like his usual cool and finesse. Golden eyes were nailed to her with such fierce hunger, she stretched shamelessly beneath the heat and the vibrations he was putting out.
‘I was going to apologise for what I said last night,’ Alex admitted in a rush. ‘I was very rude and far too impatient and you had every reason to be shocked by what I said.’
‘I took the hint, Alex...didn’t I?’ Sarah was starting to enjoy herself.
‘I’ll be dropping hints all the time after this... Cristos, I am still in shock,’ Alex muttered, coming down on her, shuddering with excitement as he came into contact with her soft, welcoming female body, every inch of which was programmed to seduce with willingness and enthusiasm.
It was an hour before either of them spoke another word. A knock had sounded on the door once or twice but neither of them had heard it. Sarah was absolutely wiped out by the explosive passion that had erupted between them. It had scorched right out of control and now her face warmed a little as she remembered what she had done and what he had done and the shocking level of pleasure attained by those uninhibited diversions.
The experience had also been rather informative. Alex went crazy when she touched him even though there was nothing practised about her technique. Surely no man could manufacture that much responsive excitement? Surely it couldn’t be the same for him with any other woman?
‘You’ve always wanted me...just the way you said, haven’t you?’ she whispered, knowing the answer that would kill all her insecurities even before it came.
‘Madly, compulsively...even more now,’ Alex confessed, both arms wound possessively round her. ‘Let’s go home.’
‘Home?’
Alex lifted his dark head and smiled down at her with rueful amusement. ‘I really don’t think I’d be worth very much if I stayed. I don’t have any important appointments...’
The exact instant when he recalled that Elise had been left at his apartment was obvious to Sarah. He tensed, suddenly falling silent. Tactfully she removed her attention from him. She had won. She might not be about to boast about her methods but the bottom line was winning.
‘We’ll use the car, not the helicopter,’ Alex said abruptly. ‘I have a call to make on the way home.’
Generous in victory, Sarah asked no questions. Her marriage was intact. She had Alex and Alex was unlikely to have the energy even to consider straying in the future. They walked out of his office together. His secretary looked a little embarrassed for them both. Sarah blushed furiously. Alex couldn’t stop smiling. That he was in an extremely good mood was blatantly obvious to even the most disinterested observer.
‘We say hello to Nicky and then we go back to bed,’ Alex muttered thickly in her ear before they left the building. ‘Then we plan a honeymoon somewhere sunny and secluded where nobody will interrupt us.’
The limo stopped in a street several blocks from the Terzakis building. Alex alighted onto the pavement. ‘I hope I won’t be too long.’
I hope so too, Sarah thought, suddenly tense. She supposed it would have been too much to expect him just to ring Elise. She noted that he had no doubt that Elise would have waited for him even though he was over an hour late.
He was ten minutes and he was smiling as he rejoined her. It occurred to Sarah as Alex spontaneously reached for her and demanded and took a long, deep drugging kiss that Elise du Pré had to be an extraordinarily good loser. Alex had evidently not been subjected to a storm of reproach. His emotional high was unabated. He flirted, he teased, he couldn’t keep his hands off her all the way back to the château. In fact he was a male transformed by...by happiness? Could her sexual response possibly be that important to him? Sarah wondered dazedly. But the more she looked at him, the more convinced she became that this was Alex as she had never before seen him. So happy that he couldn’t hide it. Seemingly she could look forward to dropping into his office and playing the sex bomb at least once a month. If that was what it took, and it seemed that it was, never let it be said that she shrank from her marital duty.
Henri tried to say something as they came into the hall, wrapped round e
ach other. Alex said something in an aside, not paying any heed, and then the effort of having not connected with Sarah for an entire two minutes became too much and he swept her into his arms again, taking her mouth under his with a groan of earthy and unalloyed satisfaction.
Somebody cleared his throat loudly. Neither one of them heard. Somebody coughed. Sarah and Alex continued to kiss as though they had been apart for at least six months.
‘Alex!’
In Sarah’s arms, Alex froze. As he removed his mouth from hers, he muttered something abrasive in Greek and gritted in an undertone, ‘Why now?’
Only when he drew back from her did Sarah see the young man and woman standing across the hall, both wearing similar expressions of disbelief.
‘Alex?’ The young woman moved forward with a tremulous smile. It was the woman in the photograph...Androula.
‘I did ask you to go to a hotel, Damon,’ Alex breathed abrasively.
Sarah looked at him in shock. He sounded incredibly rude.
‘That isn’t Sarah, Andy!’ Damon hissed in visible embarrassment.
Damon didn’t recognise her.
‘Of course it’s Sarah!’ Alex retorted with raw impatience.