“Surely Helena doesn’t need you to fight her battles for her.” The last few words of her statement were lost in the crush of his mouth to hers. He pushed her back against the front door and held her there with his lips alone. His tongue was demanding and Sophie felt her knees going weak with a deluging surge of need. Her insides were slick with heat. She moaned deeply in her throat and lifted her hands to his chest.
He was just as firm to touch as she had known he would be. Firm, strong and warm. Up close he smelled of spice and summer. He was electrifying.
“Alex,” it was a passionate cry into his mouth but he didn’t release her. Instead, he brought his hands to her back and curled them possessively inside the waistband of her jeans, to cup her naked rear. Sophie hadn’t been touched so intimately in a long time, if ever. Her one and only boyfriend had been a spectacularly unimpressive Rohin Smith, from the same little Margaret River school she’d gone to. They’d fumbled around a few times and that had culminated in a very brief coming together, followed by another attempt a week later.
Beyond that, Sophie was an absolute novice.
“Alex!” She pulled her mouth away with effort, and dipped her head forward. She was panting, not from exertion but from the sheer strength of her desire.
The slight darkening along his chiselled cheekbones showed that he was not immune from the power of their kiss.
Sophie tried again. “Alex, I can’t get involved with you.”
“Can’t you?” He murmured, lifting her shirt up to her neck. With a look of frustration, Sophie reached her fingertips to the sky, so that he could remove it completely. Her bra was a sensible, plain cotton piece; certainly not the lace and silk lingerie he was used to on his women, and yet he found it totally alluring.
“What were you saying?” He murmured deeply, as he bent one scrap of fabric aside to reveal a perfect, pert breast.
Sophie gasped as his fingers ran over her nipple possessively. “That you’re related to my employers. And that I hardly know you. I can’t do this with you.”
Alex took her nipple in his mouth and rolled it with his tongue, before pressing his teeth against it lightly. Just enough to sear a sharp wave of painful longing through her. “Do you want me to stop?”
Sophie was hot and cold; pins and needles were in her body and soul.
And Alex understood. He knew the effect he was having on her. He knelt before her and undid her jeans, but he only slid them down to her knees, so that she was virtually imprisoned against the door. He quickly brought his mouth back to her breast, and his fingers he drifted lower, to her most intimate core.
“Do you want me to stop?”
Sophie felt a shudder of delirium as he moved one long finger inside her silky, wet centre.
“Alex?”
“So-phie,” he teased, his accent thicker than normal as he transferred his mouth to her other breast. He tasted her through the fabric of her bra, and Sophie cried out impatiently.
“Please,” she whimpered, her fingers digging sharply into his shoulders.
“Please?” He repeated, slipping another finger inside her. She bucked against him, hard, but her jeans were limiting her movement. He grinned and lifted her over his shoulder thinking that she was like his very own mermaid.
Only far, far more beautiful, and infinitely more dangerous.
His room was upstairs, but he was
too impatient for that. He took her to his study instead, and lay her down on the rarely-used desk.
“This is cold,” she surprised him by laughing.
Her laugh was a beautiful, sweet sound. Her face was beautiful and sweet too.
But she was not. At least, he was pretty sure she wasn’t. The flash of doubt wasn’t welcome. He disregarded it.
“You’ll survive.”
His tone was cold and it surprised her. She blinked up at him, but before she could question his meaning, he reached behind her and unclipped her bra, freeing her breasts into his broad hands. He held them and moved his body over hers, so that his arousal was intimately connected with her, despite the pants he wore.
Sophie lifted her hips, but her jeans were still wrapped around her ankles and she couldn’t get as close to him as she wanted. She went to pull a leg free but he shook his head.
“No.”
“No?” Her voice was puffed. She was breathless from desire.