Feeling suddenly awkward, Alesia lay still, suddenly impossibly shy, not wanting to be the first to speak. For a short time they’d been as close as two people could be. They’d shared something special and the whole world had shifted. Everything seemed different. He had to feel it too.
They had to speak about it. She had to tell him the truth.
Surely he’d say something in a moment.
‘It looks as though I’m going to get my money’s worth.’ His tone was cool and matter-of-fact.
Without so much as a glance in her direction, he sprang out of bed with the lithe grace of a jungle cat and strolled into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him, leaving her rigid with shock.
Sebastien stood under the shower trying to recover from what had proved to be the most explosive sexual encounter of his entire life. His usually sharp mind was foggy and his body throbbed in a state of almost agonized arousal. Breathing heavily, he eyed the door of the bathroom, torn between a primitive need to satisfy his libido and a desire to regain some sort of control over his unusually scattered emotions.
He wasn’t used to feeling like this.
With an exclamation of disbelief he thumped the button on the wall and turned the water into an icy blast. He gritted his teeth and let the water sluice over his thoroughly overheated body, seeking relief from his state of almost intolerable discomfort.
It was either that or return to the bed and make love to her again and again and again and that wasn’t what this marriage was about.
He hadn’t expected to derive much pleasure from the experience.
Irritated beyond belief by her total obsession with money, he’d taken her to bed to make her feel cheap, to see if he could trigger any signs of conscience.
He hadn’t expected her reaction to him to be so totally uninhibited. Hadn’t expected the chemistry between them to be so powerful.
And he hadn’t expected her to be a virgin.
Cursing fluently he turned off the water, swept a bronzed hand over his face to clear his vision and reached for a towel. He was a man who was used to always being in control and while he’d been in bed with Alesia he definitely hadn’t been. The knowledge that his loss of control had been with a woman whose values he despised made his response even more reprehensible in his opinion.
Or did it? Was it really so surprising that he’d found the encounter almost unbelievably erotic? he wondered. The women he usually spent time with moved in the same circles as him, were sophisticated and sexually experienced. Sebastien gave a wry smile of self-mockery as he wrapped the towel around his lean hips. At what point had he lost sight of the truth? That, when all was said and done, he was, in fact, a very traditional Greek male and like all traditional men he preferred exclusivity when it came to women.
It hadn’t occurred to him that his new wife might be a virgin and the truth was that her innocence in the bedroom had somehow served to heighten the emotional and physical experience. Given that it wasn’t an encounter he intended to repeat in the near future, he didn’t need to worry.
Having rationalized his response to his satisfaction, Sebastien glanced warily at the door that led to the bedroom.
He’d get on with his own life, leaving her to spend his money. And if she wasn’t already pregnant then he’d sleep with her again at some point.
It was a good job that he was likely to be kept extremely busy for the foreseeable future.
Alesia lay still, eyes tightly closed, physically drained and enveloped by a humiliation so acute that she could barely bring herself to address what had happened.
How could he be so hurtful?
And to think she’d almost told him the truth.
She groaned as she remembered her own reaction to him. She’d had no idea it would be like that. That she was capable of such intensity of feeling. None of the limited experience she’d had before had prepared her for such a scenario.
How could she have responded so wildly to a man that she didn’t even like?
She covered her face with her arms.
And how was she ever going to look him in the face again?
For him it had clearly just been sex, whereas for her—Remembering how she’d sobbed his name and virtually begged, she gave another whimper of disbelief. There was no escaping the fact that she’d inadvertently given him yet more ammunition to feed his already monumental ego.
She lay in the bed, listening to the sound of the shower, dreading the moment when the water stopped. She didn’t want to be here when he came back. Didn’t want to give him the chance to humiliate her still further.
But before she could move the bathroom door opened and he strolled out, wearing nothing but a narrow towel tucked loosely around his lean hips.