“It is not a bad way to spend an evening.”
“Did you ever think, when you were living on the streets, that this would be your future?”
“What do you think?” He said quietly.
“It upsets you. When I ask you about that time in your life?”
“No.” His smile was unconvincing. “It upsets me when anyone presumes I am not still that same person. That I’m not still capable of doing whatever it takes to get my way.” He was joking, but his words sent a little frisson of emotion through her.
“I don’t think that.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and ignored that instinctive trickle of warning. “I think you’re exactly the same person. I think that boy always had the potential to be what you are. That’s what Pierre saw in you. The real you.”
Damn her! The cert
ainty that she was a siren filled him once more; she was able to use her beautiful voice and words to fill in the gaps in his soul and leave total contentment in their place.
“I see the real you,” she kissed his shoulder; it was wet and his skin was warm. Her lashes fanned against her cheeks as she thought again what she’d said only moments earlier. She was in heaven. Having never felt lonely nor unhappy, she understood now that until meeting Alex, she’d been living a half-life. She hadn’t realised it, but the ecstasy of their marriage was undeniable.
“Do you?” He asked with a hint of disbelief. For how could she? He had married her to get her out of his sister’s life. He had seduced her to make her more his than she was Eric’s. Did she truly believe she understood him? Even he couldn’t quite believe how low he’d stooped.
Only by holding onto the belief that she deserved this was he able to quell his guilt. He was almost positive she’d been in an inappropriate relationship with Eric. There’d been no definitive smoking gun, but within the space of a week, he’d seen too many hushed conversations to be ignored. Not to mention that infuriating tete a tete he’d witnessed as Eric had emerged from her bedroom!
Those events, coupled with the fact she’d been involved with her previous employer amounted to one undeniable fact, in Alessandros’s mind. His wife had made a habit of mixing business with pleasure, and this last time, she’d picked the wrong wife to wound.
“Of course.” She lifted a hand to his cheek. Though he’d shaved that morning, before the wedding, it had grown back quickly, covering his square jaw with a prickly beard.
“And what do you see?”
“I see someone determined. Someone good. And someone kind.” She blinked up at him and he could have groaned for how stunning she was in the soft moonlight.
She was a woman designed to tempt men.
Well, he had put a stop to that, at least so far as other, married men went. Men like his brother-in-law.
But at what cost?
Would he be able to resist her power? Or would he fall just as in love with her as the poor mugs before him?
“And I see the real you,” he said, reminding himself as much as her that he knew what motivated her.
“I should hope so.” She pushed away from him so that she could swim to the edge of the pool. She braced her arms across its coping and stared down at the ocean below.
Yes, he saw the real her. She was scheming, manipulative, sexy and irresistible.
He moved behind her, and braced himself on either side of the pool, an arm on either side of her head.
“Excuse me, sir.” At the sound of Alena, Sophie startled.
“Relax. It is only my housekeeper,” he whispered into her ear, keeping his body where it was to shield Sophie’s nakedness from view.
“There is a phone call for Mrs Petrides.”
“Who is it?” His voice was a bark.
“Mr Sandhurst, sir.”
“Eric?” She said, and Alex imagined he felt the quiver of anticipation in her voice. His temper spiked.
“Tell him Mrs Petrides is otherwise occupied,” he growled, more harshly than he’d intended.