Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife

Chapter Six

PINK colour swam up below Alissa’s fair skin in a revealing tide.

In the limo, Sergei slid a long brown forefinger below her chin to tip up her face. ‘You’re still angry with me,’ he noted in apparent surprise.

‘No, I’m not. I’m not a child either. I do appreciate that I was equally responsible for what occurred,’ she said woodenly, long feathery lashes veiling her aquamarine eyes from his scrutiny.

Unholy amusement lit up Sergei’s smile; he was in an unusually good mood. She was still furious with him and couldn’t hide it and he loved that transparency of hers for its rarity. Her refusal to meet his eyes and her rigidity spoke for her. Women didn’t treat him that way and her nerve in doing so intrigued him. She was a novelty and so far the exact opposite of the woman described in that psychological profile. She was warm when she was supposed to be cool, passionate when she was supposed to be indifferent and deeply attached to her family when she was supposed to be selfish and detached. Even so, whatever conundrum Alissa presented, she had put on a marvellous show for his grandmother’s benefit.

‘I have a gift for you.’ Sergei presented her with a jewel case.

‘Another one?’ Alissa asked in disbelief and she was annoyed when that tart response only made her feel rude and ungracious.

‘I always reward excellence and you surpassed my highest expectations today,’ Sergei drawled as smooth as glass.

‘At the wedding…or on the bed?’ Alissa queried in a frozen little voice of supreme scorn.

Her tone was wasted on Sergei, who merely vented an appreciative laugh that emphasised how far apart they were in terms of humour. ‘You were a triumph everywhere, angil moy.’

With pronounced reluctance Alissa flipped up the lid of the case to reveal a diamond necklace that would surely have been worthy of the Crown jewels exhibited in the Tower of London. In spite of the fact that she was determined not to be impressed, her lips fell wide as she gazed at the river of perfectly matched glittering stones embellished by a magnificent pendant with a huge opulent emerald at its heart.

‘Well, thank you very much,’ she muttered finally, reminding herself that Alexa would have snatched it up, put it on and wrapped her arms gratefully round his neck in reward for such generosity.

‘Don’t you like jewellery?’

‘Oh, very much,’ she hastened to declare, steeling herself to remove the necklace from the case and behave as he almost certainly expected her to and wrap it straight round her neck. ‘But you really don’t need to give me stuff like this.’

Sergei did up the clasp. The stunning pendant was heavy and cold on her skin. Her reward for excellence. Alissa remembered that wild raunchy coupling on the bed, which had evidently pleased him very much. Her tummy clenched with a disturbing combination of intense shame and equally intense excitement. Her virginity hadn’t repulsed him in the slightest and, although what she had allowed to happen between them felt indisputably wrong and her pride lay in ashes round her feet, Sergei still didn’t repulse her. What was the matter with her? Where had her values gone?

The limousine wafted them back to his imposing city residence. He took her hand in the hall and directed her up the sweeping staircase.

‘Where are we going?’ she queried when he walked her past the room she had slept in the night before.

‘Your new room.’

‘Is it your room as well?’ Alissa enquired tightly.

‘No, I’m not into that joined-at-the-hip cosy couple stuff,’ Sergei imparted with perceptible recoil at the idea. ‘Not my style. I have my own suite next door.’

Alissa’s tension eased at the news that she was not expected to share a room with him. Surely with that sensible demarcation line in place there was less chance that she would be tempted by him again?

Sergei opened the door. He escorted her across the depth of a superb large bedroom and paused on the threshold of the en suite where odd flickering shadows were lighting up the walls. Alissa moved past him to gape in astonishment at the sunken bath already filled with steaming water and encircled with candles.

Sergei rested both hands on her narrow shoulders. ‘This has been a stressful day for you but you rose wonderfully to the challenge. I want you to relax now.’ He flipped her gently round, detached the wreath and veil, cast them carelessly aside and began without hesitation to unfasten her dress.

‘I can manage fine without help!’ Alissa exclaimed.

‘I don’t think so.’ Sergei breathed in the warm and already familiar scent of her. She smelled of the perfume he had bought her in London, a light but lingering floral fragrance that suited her so much better than the more exotic cloying concoction she had sported at their first meeting. He pressed his sensual masculine mouth against the soft skin of the fine-boned shoulder he had bared, his lips moving in a caressing trail to her sensitive nape while he slowly eased the fitted sleeves down her arms. Alissa quivered in response as though he were touching much more intimate places. Never ever had she dreamt that it was possible to be so insanely aware of a man. As her knees threatened to buckle and her stress level rose like steam in a tightly lidded pot she fought her treacherous weakness with all her might. And then suddenly without warning it was all too much for her and she sagged back into the shelter of his strong arms, tears burning the backs of her troubled eyes.

‘Don’t do that,’ she told him shakily.

‘But you like what I do to you,’ Sergei asserted with husky assurance, sliding his hands below the loosened bodice to nudge her lace bra out of his path and cup the soft silken mounds of her breasts in his palms. Her nipples tightened into tingling erection below the skilled stroke of his thumbs.

‘Whether I like it or not is irrelevant!’ Alissa argued wildly.

‘How can it be?’ Sergei urged, turning her round to face him. ‘It’s the icing on the cake for both of us. But you should have warned me that I would be your first lover. If I’d known I would have been more patient and I might have hurt you less.’

Alissa wanted the tiled floor to open up and swallow her. She snatched at her bodice before it could tumble lower and expose her bare breasts. Her hands were trembling, for she was remembering that wild passion when his impatience had only been matched by her eagerness and the pain had drowned in the hot sweet tide of pleasure. Her face burning, she stepped back from him. ‘I’m fine,’ she said flatly.