First Love, Last Love

Their next meeting wasn’t long in coming. Alex caught her up just outside the building, taking her elbow in a firm grip as he led her over to the car park.

‘Let go of me, Alex,’ she tried to shake off his hand. ‘Daryl will be expecting me,’ she protested as he bundled her inside the newly mended Rolls-Royce.

‘Then he can damn well wait,’ he snapped, coming round the car to get in beside her. He pulled her roughly into his arms. ‘This is your punishment for trying to avoid me.’ His head bent and his mouth claimed hers in a savage kiss.

It might have started out as a punishment, but it soon changed to the exchange of mutual passion. Lauri’s arms crept about his neck as she clung to him with her body and her lips.

Her face was flushed by the time Alex released her mouth, and she turned away in embarrassment. ‘Aren’t you ever going to kiss me for any other reason but as a punishment?’ she challenged to hide her confusion.

‘Yes.’ He pulled her towards him again, kissing her slowly, lingering over the possession of her mouth as if he wanted the caress to go on forever. Afterwards he cradled her against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. ‘Better?’ he asked huskily.

She nodded wordlessly, not even caring what she was doing any more. This man made her mindless, completely devoid of any desire but to be with him, to be in his arms and be kissed by him.

‘I meant to leave you alone until Saturday,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘But I found I had to see you again. I wanted to be with you last night too, but I thought you would be with your boy-friend.’

‘I was,’ she confirmed.

His arm tightened painfully about her shoulders. ‘Did you sleep with him?’ he demanded in a ragged voice.

‘No!’ Lauri struggled to pull out of his arms, but he refused to let her go.

‘Have you ever slept with him?’ he asked, his face grim, his expression the one of the cold haughty stranger of their first meeting.

Lauri could never understand how he could always look so calm, so unmoved, after one of their passionate embraces, whereas she felt sure she must look a wreck, her hair in disorder from the wild caress of his hands, her eyes over-bright, and her mouth red and throbbing from the hard pressure of his. ‘Always looked calm’—it seemed to imply that these onslaughts happened all the time, whereas she had in fact only known Alex three days. That he had kissed her every day of their acquaintance was beside the point, he had no right to do so and look so damned normal afterwards, not when she felt as if she had been drawn down into a whirlpool.

‘What my sleeping with Daryl has to do with you,’ she told him haughtily, ‘I have no idea.’

His mouth tightened ominously. ‘It has a lot to do with me,’ he said tautly. ‘I want to know.’

‘What’s the matter?’ she taunted, stung by his arrogance. ‘Don’t you like knowing who your predecessor was?’

‘So you have slept with him.’ He removed his arm from about her shoulders and leaned forward to start the car engine. ‘I’m sure that’s something else your Aunt Jane doesn’t know about.’

‘Things as personal as that are no one’s business but my own.’ She felt suddenly chilled without his closeness. ‘And I can never understand why they call it “sleeping” together. I’m sure what you do when you’re awake has more importance than whether or not you sleep in the same bed.’

Alex turned to quirk an eyebrow. ‘Don’t you know?’ he asked softly.

Lauri met that look almost shyly. ‘No,’ she shook her head.

His hand momentarily left the wheel to squeeze her fingers. ‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’ She felt relieved as they left the Blair office building far behind them.

‘For not lying to me,’ he told her huskily.

‘I’ve told enough lies to other people since meeting you, I have no intention of lying to you too. Anyway, why should I lie about something like that?’

‘You must know how I would have felt if you’d said yes.’

Her eyes widened questioningly. ‘I have no idea.’

Alex turned to give her a considering look. ‘No, I don’t suppose you do. I’m not sure I know myself, I just know that if you’d slept with anyone I would want to kill him—slowly,’ he finished grimly.

‘Alex!’ she gasped.

>

He gave a rueful smile. ‘Primitive, isn’t it? It’s a new experience for me, so you’ll have to bear with me. But I’m glad you’re innocent, Lauren.’