‘You do.’
Phoebe flopped back onto the pillows as relief flooded through her. Then a thought struck her and she froze. ‘Not because of last night?’
‘Of course because of last night, but not the part you’re thinking of. I think the strategy you came up with to raise the money was inspired and executed brilliantly.’
Phoebe beamed. Thank heavens for that. ‘So just to make sure I’ve got this right, I continue working with Jo and you go back to being a silent partner?’
Alex grimaced as if the thought of taking a step back was hard to swallow. ‘Something like that.’
‘Can I have it in writing?’
‘Don’t push your luck.’
Phoebe grinned and levered herself upright to plant a kiss on his mouth. ‘The thought of relinquishing control drives you nuts, doesn’t it?’
He shot her a thoughtful glance. ‘Not as much as I anticipated. And I dare say I’ll get used to it.’
Then he looked over her hair and a faint smile hovered at his mouth. ‘I like this.’
Phoebe’s heart skipped a beat. She dreaded to think what sort of state her hair was in. In the middle of the night Alex had carried her into the shower and had made love to her so thoroughly she hadn’t given it a moment’s thought. Now, though, she wished she’d at least run a brush through it while it had still been wet. ‘Don’t mock. It’s a sore point.’
‘I’m not mocking,’ he said mildly, shooting her a quick smouldering smile. ‘It suits you.’
‘Huh?’
‘It goes with the rest of you.’
Phoebe frowned. ‘Springy?’
‘Curvy.’
Curvy? What woman wanted to be described as curvy? ‘I’m not sure I like curvy.’
‘I do,’ said Alex, running a hand up her body and cupping her breast.
Phoebe bit on her lip to stop herself from moaning and tried to concentrate. ‘I always wanted to be a sleek blonde.’
To her great disappointment Alex removed his hand and tilted his head. She should have kept quiet and moaned after all. ‘Why?’
‘My sister is a sleek blonde. I peroxided my hair once but it went green, so I decided to stick to being a sleek brunette instead.’
‘I prefer brunettes. And I prefer ruffled.’
Ruffled was good. Ruffled sounded seductive in a sort of louche sex-kitten kind of way. ‘You do?’
Alex’s eyes gleamed. ‘Uh-huh. And right now, I don’t think you’re ruffled enough.’
‘So what are you going to do about it?’
‘Hmm, let me see… Where shall I start?’ He ran his eyes over her as if assessing every inch of skin. ‘How about here?’ He bent his head and dropped a kiss at the base of her neck. Phoebe shivered. ‘No?’ He hooked a finger over the top of the sheet and pulled it down. ‘All right, how about here?’ He ran a trail of kisses down the slope of her breast and flicked his tongue over her nipple. Phoebe’s back arched and she gasped.
‘Feeling ruffled yet?’ He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. It felt as if he could see right into her soul and Phoebe had the sudden premonition that Alex could turn out to be very bad for her indeed.
‘Getting there,’ she said huskily.
The sound of a phone ringing somewhere downstairs jolted her out of the haze of desire. ‘I thought you didn’t have a phone.’
‘There’s a satellite phone,’ he murmured against her skin.