A Devious Desire

His piercing eyes raked her from head to toe, taking in the wild, freshly washed hair, the low V of the man's robe skimming her breasts, the cinched waist and the bare feet. His gaze returned to her face, and the implacable rage, the contempt glittering in his eyes would have intimidated her at any other time, but not tonight. Tonight her heart had died; she was numb, her emotions buried, as frozen as an Arctic ice-cap.

Silently Alex rose to his feet, his large hands curled into fists at his side. Idly Saffron noted that his knuckles gleamed white, and watched as his proud head turned to pin James with a lethal look.

'So this was why you told me you hadn't time to discuss the new business, James. You were entertaining my wife.'

'Entertaining, no. Saffron came for my help, nothing more.'

'And I can see what kind of help you gave her. The bitch is standing there naked beneath your robe.' Alex's hand gestured wildly to where Saffron was standing immobile as he lunged forward, towering over James. 'Stand up, you bastard, so I can knock you flat,' he roared like an enraged lion.

Saffron cried out, 'No—no, you're wrong,' shocked by the murderous look on Alex's face.

Ignoring her, Alex grabbed James by his shirt-front and hauled him to his feet; his fist shot out and knocked

James straight back into the chair with a crunching blow to his face.

'Stop it! Stop it!' Saffron dashed across the room and grabbed Alex's raised fist as he prepared to repeat his action.

'Listen to your wife,' James drawled with remarkable English restraint considering his nose was pouring blood. 'One punch I'll take—the situation could be misconstrued, I'll grant you. But two and I'll retaliate,' he offered phlegmatically.

'Please, Alex,' Saffron pleaded, hanging on to his arm. 'Leave James alone.' He shook her off as he would dispense with a fly and she fell heavily to the floor, a cry of shocked pain escaping her.

Alex turned his furious gaze on her dishevelled form; her robe had fallen open to reveal a long, shapely leg. 'You conniving, enticing bitch, I should kill you,' he snarled.

For a second the breath was knocked out of her, and she gazed helplessly up at him, convinced that he would carry out his threat. It was in his voice and the wild, primitive savagery in his black eyes.

He looked at her for a long, tense moment, then, like a mask falling, his expression changed; his dark eyes went blank and only a small muscle jerking beneath the skin of his cheek revealed his inner turmoil as he added scathingly, 'But you're not worth swinging for.' With a last contemptuous glance at her sprawled body, he spun back to James. 'As for you, clear your desk tomorrow; I never want to see you again.' Then, turning to where Saffron had straggled to her feet, he snarled, 'Get dressed; we're leaving.'

She did not argue, simply stalked past him to the bathroom and hauled her damp clothes back on. Head high, she marched back into the room, and before she had a chance to open her mouth she was swung over Alex's shoulder in a fireman's lift. But by the time she realised what liad happened he was out of the door and marching towards the car.

'Put me down!' she screamed, her temper flaring white-hot; she thumped his broad back with her curled fists, but it was like trying to dent steel.

'Shut up, just shut up,' Ales growled, flinging her Into the front seat of the car and slamming the door, She made to get oat again, but he was too fast; In seconds he was In the driving seat and hurtling the car through the city traffic like a man possessed.

She fastened her seatbelt then glanced at him with cold, furious eyes. How dared he suggest for one minate that she and James. . .? Deceitful, debauched son of Satan! she cursed silently. 'Bloody Neanderthal brute,' she swore out loud. She shot forward as the car screeched to a halt, only fast seatbelt saving her from hitting the windscreen.

Alex's hard hand caught her chin and tamed her face towards his. 'Don'! you ever swear at me again. I won't tolerate any more from you,' he grated, his hand on her fece shaking with the force of his rage.

'That's rich coming from you,' she shot back. 'At least my meeting with James was perfectly innocent.' Not like his permanent arrangement with Sylvia, and as she remembered her reason for going to James in the first place the anger that bad consumed her for the past half-hoar vanished. What was the point?

'Innocent!' he sneered with cynical disbelief. 'Wearing only the man's robe? What do you take me for—an idiot. . .?'

She opened her mouth to respond, but Alex locked the words in her throat as he covered her mouth with his own; his fingers dug Into the flesh of her jaw while his mouth ground against hers in a raging travesty of a kiss, forcing her lips against her teeth, stealing the breath from leer body until she thought she would choke.

For once her body did not respond in its usual wanton way. She felt nothing but horror and disgust as his other hand dosed over the damp material of her blouse and roughly kneaded her breast until finally, as he sensed her lack of response, with a muffled curse, his hands dropped from her face and breast and she fell back against the seat, gasping for breath, her green eyes stormy with suppressed fury.

'Sated by James. . . But not for long. I know your wanton ways too well,' he opined with sneering sarcasm, and, swinging back to the steering-wheel, he started the car again.

Saffron curbed the angry impulse that made her want to scream her hurt, and rage at his hateful face; instead she closed her eyes, blocking him from her view as she blocked him from her heart. Where he was taking her she didn't kn

ow and didn't much care. The marriage was over; he could keep his Sylvia and good luck to them. The side of himself Alex had displayed tonight had horrified her and only confirmed what she had already decided, what she had always known. . . She was better off on her own. . .

CHAPTER TEN

Ten minutes later Saffron was strapped into the helicopter and Alex was at the controls. The rain lashed the reinforced glass and she wind buffeted the fragile fuselage. 'Isn't it rather stormy for flying?' she asked icily, puffing her soaking clothes around her shivering flesh.

'If we go, we go together. Till death us do part and all that—something you have obviously forgotten,' Alex responded with mocking cynicism.

Saffron shot him a furious glance and pressed her lips together. Let him play his two-faced game, she thought. She knew he had kept Sylvia as his mistress, and to try to tar her—Saffron—with the same brush was simply despicable and not worth denying.