“Looking for me?” He tossed an orange toher. “I think you will find it the right sweetness.”
She inhaled the strong citrus scent. “Thisis where you learned to identify tropical plants,” she accusedlaughingly. How she missed the island…long sultry nights…what hedid to her…felt her muscles tighten as desire warmed her to thecore.
He took her hand. “Come.”
“Where are we going now?”
“We have unfinished business.”
An indulgent smile was his only answer.
She stopped, pulling her hand away. “How canyou think of something like that at a time like this?”
“I’m to be a duke soon. My father wants toturn over the responsibility during the next year. I must show youto your chambers.” He cuffed her chin with one finger.
“Why, we need to…” She couldn’t think ofwhat they needed to do. Those damned eyebrows were tilted her way.Like the faint exquisite music of a dream, he murmured into her earand her pulse flickered and leapt.
* * *
Nicholas dismissed her lady’s maid andAlexandra turned to him.
“What will the servants think?”
“Considering that my entire adult life, I’venever paid much heed to the way things are “supposed to be,” Ican’t imagine why now I would be doing so. I pay them to bediscreet and after two days of celibacy, I want to be alone withyou.”
He watched her walk around, looking at thepink peacock silk wallpaper, fingering the silver brushes on thevanity and admiring the rose brocade bedcoverings of the mahoganyfour poster bed. In the glow of the afternoon light, he saw theprovocative goddess she had been that first day on the beach. Heheard again, the sweet dulcet tones of her voice on the other sideof the planks in the hold of theSantanas. He saw the womanwho dug in the dirt to provide them with sustenance. He saw thewoman who mocked him out of his doldrums. His heart hammered in hischest.
He stared at her intently. “If I were apainter, I’d start with making a line of dark sienna against thelight behind you.”
And still he stared at her. Her hair gleamedlike beams of sunlight, cascading down her back and around hershoulders. Something sprang free in his chest. Its newness was atfirst, painful, but the feeling resolutely exploded forth with alife and vigor of its own. Something marvelous, implausible, andall-consuming. This woman was to be his wife and carried his child.She was made to be worshipped.
“Ten of my bedrooms in Deconshire could fitin this room. I don’t know how I’m going to get accustomed to allof this space…” she turned to him, “…unless I have you to share itwith.”
He pointed to her dressing room and a longdark corridor. “The connecting door to my chambers.”
She licked her lips. “Oh, I suppose that ispractical.”
He closed the space between them, bent hishead, kissing her long andlingeringly.
She raised her head and put a finger to herlips and smiled. She undid his cravat, unbuttoned his shirt andeased him out of it. She ran her hands over his chest and hismuscles flexed. She pointed to the chair for him to sit, and thenpulled off his boots. This new venue where she undressed him left ahard hum of lust flowing through his veins. She ran a finger overhim, outlining his rigid manhood.
“Um, I approve,” she said and left himthere, heat curling inside him.
He leapt up, crossing the distance in twoeasy strides, spun her around, undid her buttons and untied hercorset. Two could play the same game.
Her gown pooled at her feet. He swung her upinto his arms and carried her to the big four-poster. He shruggedout of his breeches and lay beside her, her soft breasts teasinghis chest.
Alexandra sighed. “The minute I heard yourvoice on theSantanas, I felt safe. You had come like aGuardian angel to protect me.”
Nicholas ran a forefinger over her lovelycheek. “You’re safe from everything here at Belvoirexcept me.”
Her soft lips parted with only the slightesturging from his probing tongue. Her arms automatically went aroundhis neck as she drew his tongue into her mouth, then gave him hers.He teased her, tormented her, offered himself to her by thrustingdeep with his tongue, then leisurely withdrawing and thrustingagain and again, until Alexandra clung to him, her mouth movingback and forth over his in passionate surrender.
He stroked her hair and slid his hand downover her throat to her breasts, circling the dusky crests with histhumb until they stood up proudly. He caressed the line of her backand over her rounded hips. In response, she weaved her soft armsabout his neck, splaying her fingers behind his shoulders andback.
He had not imagined that any woman couldcreate such desire in him, could arouse such passions, such a deeptempest. Her scent and heat surrounded him like a sensual miasma.He rolled atop her into the white slant of afternoon sun.
When he entered her, her eyes closed and hesaw the soft sweep of her lashes and heard the soft pleading moansas she cried out for him in a sweet pinnacle of release.
