Response. PENNY JORDAN

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СКАЧАТЬ glanced at the small dimly lit dance floor and then back again to Alexis’ darkly masculine face. There was nowhere she wanted to be more than in his arms, and her eyes must have given her away, because he muttered something thickly under his breath and put down the glass he had been holding, with fingers that were distinctly unsteady, his hoarse, ‘Yes… yes, I know, but I will not take you in hungry greed, however much both of us want to at this moment, and since I cannot make love to you on the dance floor, we are safer there than sitting here, where your eyes tell me with every breath you draw what you are thinking and my body responds to that knowledge.’

      Alexis had lied when he said he couldn’t make love to her on the dance floor, Sienna thought minutes later; the firm movement of his thighs against hers turning her bones to water, making her grateful for the dimness of the lights and the seductive tempo of the music which enabled them to move so slowly together, her body registering every movement of Alexis’. She could feel his heart thudding beneath the hand she had slipped inside his jacket. Both his arms were round her, pressing her against him, caressing the vulnerable arc of her spine, his lips feathering, brief, tormenting kisses against her temple.

      ‘You tremble so in my arms,’ Alexis murmured against her ear. ‘It makes me ache to possess you, do you know that?’ He felt her body’s response and his own hardened against her, his chest expanding as he dragged air into his lungs. ‘No, you don’t know yet what you do to me, how you make me burn and shake with need, but I will teach you, Sienna.’

      Teach me now, she wanted to cry out, but the tempo of the music changed and with it the mood he had created around them. In a daze she allowed him to lead her back to their table. They must have talked, but later she could remember nothing of what they had said. All she could think of when she lay alone in her bed in Rob’s flat was that Alexis had wanted her and that for her sake he had denied himself because he didn’t want to rush her. Had denied them both, she acknowledged feverishly, understanding now the deep-seated ache that lay curled in the pit of her stomach, sending stabbing waves of need coursing through the rest of her body. Her total turn-around from a cool, remote young woman to this hungry aching feline creature who now seemed to live inside her skin took some getting used to, and as she lay wanting Alexis she wondered on a sudden dark presentiment if this new part of herself might not have been better left undiscovered.

      By morning she had forgotten her night fears, her fingers clumsy in her feverish haste to dress and reach Alexis. She glanced at herself in the mirror, noting the changes that were there already; the flush high along her cheekbones, the brightness of her eyes, one minute sparkling, the next disconcertingly slumbrous. Excitement made it impossible for her to eat, to do anything more than snatch a cup of coffee as she hurried to get ready.

      Alexis was waiting for her in his suite, studying a pile of letters. He looked up when she walked in but made no move to touch her. ‘I’m just about to leave.’ He smiled wryly when he saw her face and added softly, ‘Ah, no, I must not kiss you, otherwise I shall never make it to my meetings—never make it any further than the bedroom that lies beyond that door, but tomorrow is Saturday. Would you like to go for a drive? To have lunch somewhere perhaps, and then in the evening we could see a show?’

      All I want to do is to be with you, she ached to tell him, but instead she followed the lead he had given her, assuring him that she ought to have finished the dictation he had given her the previous day by the time he got back and that she could find no fault in his plans for the following day.

      And so it continued. During the day they worked together in comparative harmony. Sienna grew gradually to learn more about his business empire and to admire his shrewd grasp of all that went on within it, even though at times his hard determination had the power to disturb her. That he could be cruel as Gill had said he was she could now perceive was true, and she shivered sometimes, wondering what she would do if that cruelty was ever directed towards her. At those times he would look up from what he was doing and smile at her as though he guessed her thoughts and wanted to assure her that her fears were groundless.

      He often asked her about Rob, and when he did Sienna sensed as she had done on that first day that he resented—and if that could be possible without their having met—even disliked her brother, but when she tried to question him about his own family he always changed the subject.

      A week and then ten days went by. She arrived one morning to discover him on the telephone. New York,’ he said crisply when he replaced the receiver. ‘I have to go over there—there’s a problem with the merger.’

      Sienna knew that one of his companies was taking over an American rival, but her face fell when Alexis was speaking.

      ‘How long… how long will you be gone?’ How long will you be away from me, was what she really wanted to know, and yet how long would he be staying in London for anyway? His home was in Greece, on a small island called Micros, he had told her. He had talked about it to her, with love and pride and an assurance that she would share it with him.

      ‘I don’t know. Three weeks, maybe a month. It will take that long to sort out all the legal tangles.’ He saw her expression and muttered huskily, ‘Sienna, don’t. You know I don’t want to leave you, and we still have this weekend. Would you like to go away somewhere…. Just the two of us?’

      ‘Oh, Alexis!’ Her eyes and voice betrayed her, and he did something he never did when they were working, he got up from his chair and crossed the room, taking her in his arms and kissing her with the same deep hunger she could feel heating her own blood.

      ‘Does that mean “yes”? You know if it does that I shall not be able to kiss you chastely goodnight and leave you, Sienna. You know, don’t you,’ he asked roughly, ‘that when you say “yes”, you are saying yes to snaring my bed? Do you still say “yes”?’

      She shook her head and he tensed, holding her away from him and staring down at her with dark, almost angry eyes, and Sienna knew that despite all his protestations he wanted her enough to persuade her if she did not agree voluntarily. Not that there was any need. She wanted this weekend with him, needed it with an urgency that still had the power to leave her slightly shocked. ‘Then what do you say?’ he demanded curtly.

      She smiled up at him, feeling the tension in the arms that held her, a brief smile curling her mouth as she said softly, ‘I say “yes, please”, Alexis.’

      She felt the surge of tension leaving him, and just had time to be surprised by the look of sheer triumph glittering in his eyes as he bent towards her, kissing her more gently this time, merging her body with his, his fingers tangling in her hair as he released her lips to caress the soft skin of her throat, his fingers deftly moving to the buttons of her blouse, releasing them and exposing the pulse thudding at the base of her neck and the beginnings of the soft swell of her breasts, her nipples tautly outlined beneath the fine cotton of her blouse.

      Strange, he had not yet touched her intimately, but when he did so, pushing aside the protection of her blouse, stroking over the curves her delicate lace bra did nothing to conceal, her body leapt in immediate response, her low groan of pleasure stifled somewhere at the back of her throat as his head moved downwards and she gasped as she felt the heat and dampness of his mouth through the fine fabric, coupled with an anguished ache to lie naked in his arms and enjoy that same caress with the barrier of clothes removed. The phone rang, disorientating her, her body still awash with hunger. Her mind was too bemused to respond to the abrupt summons of the telephone. Alexis answered it, frowning into the receiver, reminding Sienna where they were. She dressed quickly, with shaking fingers, wondering heatedly what her reaction was likely to be to his full possession if she could be affected so much by a mere caress. She was still lost in a maze of thoughts when he replaced the receiver and came to stand behind her.

      ‘You look like a child СКАЧАТЬ