More than a Mistress

Travis pulled some bills from his wallet, stuck them under the pepper mill and went after her. She was halfway down the deserted beach, walking with her arms wrapped around herself, her face turned to the sea, when he caught up to her.

"All right," she said, before he could speak. "Okay, Travis. You want to know what happened that night?" She swung towards him, her face pale. "I'll tell you."

"Alex." He wanted to take her in his arms but the look in her eyes warned him not to. "Princess, all you have to tell me was that I wasn't a guy standing in for somebody else."

Alex gave a bitter laugh. "I found my husband in bed with the woman I'd thought was my best friend. That was more than two years ago, and I remember thinking, almost calmly, that now, at least, I had a legitimate reason for ending a marriage I hated. No, Travis. you weren't standing in for a man I'd loved and lost. I—I bid on you that night to—to prove something to myself."

That look of ferocity was still in her eyes but there was a vulnerability to her mouth that made him ignore all the little warning lights going off in his head. He reached out and gently pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, and then he let his hands drift to her shoulders. He held her gently, afraid that if he held her the way he wanted to, she'd run off again.

"What?" he said softly. "That you were beautiful? Desirable? That any man who'd choose another woman over you ought to have his head examined?"

She rewarded him with a faint smile but when he tried to draw her closer, she pulled away.

"My husband said I was frigid. His exact words for me were that I was a frigid little rich bitch."

Travis's eyes narrowed. "And you believed him?"

"I didn't really care. It meant—it meant he left me alone. Sex had been—it had been unsatisfying."

"Unsatisfying," Travis repeated softly, in a way that made her shudder.

"Travis." She put her hand on his arm. The muscles were like stone under her fingers. "Travis, I'm only telling you this because—-because I've finally admitted the truth to myself, that you deserve an explanation."

He caught her hand in his, held it so tightly that she caught her breath.

"Go on," he said harshly. "Tell me more about this husband of yours."

"There isn't much more to tell. As I said, I found him with another woman. And I divorced him."

"And?"

"And," Alex said quietly, "that Friday afternoon, before the auction, I was in the ladies' room at a restaurant and I overheard two women talking about me. They said—they said they could tell just from looking at me that everything Carl's wife—"

"Your ex's wife?"

She nodded. "They said everything she'd been telling them was true, that I was a spoiled little rich girl with too much money and not enough libido. And I could tell, from how they said it, that all the people who were supposed to be my friends were probably scurrying around behind my back, discussing my sex life, too."

Travis's hand fell from hers. "Go on."

"I went shopping. I bought that dress. The underwear. The shoes." She closed her eyes against the memory. "Then I burst into that stupid auction and I saw you."

"And you bought me."

Alex winced. "I—I made that bid, yes," she said, her voice as brittle as paper.

"I see."

The coldness of the words sliced through her self-pity. Alex looked up and saw the darkness in Travis's eyes.

"I was right, then," he said. "Your husband was in that bed with us."

"No! Oh, no."

"Maybe not because you were mourning his loss, but he was there, just the same." His mouth twisted. "So he could see you perform, and know what he was missing."

Alex hissed through her teeth and took a step back.

"It's amazing," she said, her voice trembling, "how I seem to specialize in making myself look stupid in front of you. Is that all you can think of? Your own pathetic ego? Yes, I bid on you out of anger. And yes, maybe it was anger that drove me to—to respond to you, in that doorway." She lifted her chin in defiance. "But what happened when you came to my home had nothing to do with anger, or with Carl, or with those witches in the ladies' room at L'Orangerie." Angry tears glittered in her eyes. "And I don't know why I thought I owed this explanation to you, Mr. Baron, because, frankly, I hate-"

Travis's mouth came down on hers.

CHAPTER NINE

THE thunder of the surf against the shore seemed no louder than the thundering beat of Alex's heart.

Travis's kiss was everything she had remembered, and more. She felt as if he were demanding the surrender of her soul as well as her body, but that wasn't true. How could it be, when the only thing between them was desire?