He felt it too. She could tell. It was there in the cut glass angle of his cheekbone where the skin pulled too tight. In the jut of his jaw and the flare of his nostrils.
The heat eddying in Alice’s belly flared into a conflagration that roared and swirled, blotting out the music, singeing her nerve endings.
‘Excuse me,’ she murmured to the woman beside her and swung away.
* * *
Adoni farewelled the last of his neighbours. One final pat on the back, a promise to catch up over a game oftavliand a glass of ouzo, and he stood in the moonlight, watching the stragglers head down the road.
He was glad of the dim light, for their welcome had moved him. He hadn’t lived here for years, though he’d been back often lately, keeping an eye on building progress. Yet the whole community had come out to welcome him.
It was more than he’d got from the people he’d been brought up to think of as family.
He glanced at the large home on the opposite headland. At this late hour there were no lights on. The owner was probably asleep. He hadn’t come to the party like everyone else within a thirty-minute radius.
But then Vassili Petrakis hadn’t spoken to him since the day he’d kicked Adoni out of his house. The day he’d told him he had no right to the Petrakis name or fortune.
The name Adoni had kept, for he had no other. The lack of fortune had been a blessing in disguise, spurring him to succeed on his own. His only real regret was never seeing the boys he’d grown up thinking of as brothers. They were old enough now to decide if they wanted to see him, but Adoni wouldn’t go behind the old man’s back to initiate the connection.
Mouth firming, Adoni swung round, surveying his new house. It was innovative, modern, yet with a nod to local traditions.
Vassili probably hated it. Just as he hated Adoni, the living proof his first wife had played him for a fool.
Good.Adoni hoped the old man got gut-ache every time he looked across the bay.
He breathed deep, inhaling the scents of sea salt, wild herbs and something that surely was the very bones of the earth, unique to this place. Instantly he felt calmer. Though he’d lived most of his early years in the city, this stretch of coast was the home of his heart.
What did Alice think of it? She’d seemed fascinated by the scenery and openly admiring of the house.
Adoni’s brow scrunched. Did it matter what she thought? She was only here while they sorted out their child’s future. And till he was sure she was strong enough to look after herself.
Though now he thought about it, he didn’t like the idea of her returning to that cramped bedsit and long hours at the café. Not while she carried his child.
He’d wanted to go after her this evening when she’d left the party. But his housekeeper had reported Alice had decided to turn in.
Their conversation could wait till tomorrow. But something, whether being back in Greece, in the place that felt like home, or bringing Alice into his private space, left him unsettled.
He stalked through to the master suite that had been finished in his absence. Not bothering to turn on the light, he crossed the vast space, passing the comfortable bed, the newly acquired artwork on the opposite wall and the couple of lounge chairs grouped by the window. The enormous glass door slid silently open and he stepped out onto the cantilevered deck suspended above the bluff.
Another deep breath, another draught of clear air that tasted of the earth and the sea. He didn’t know why he felt so restless.
A sound made him whirl.
At the far end of the balcony was a pale glimmer. A glimmer that resolved itself into long, slender legs and some short, pale garment as Alice unfolded herself from a chair.
It seemed his housekeeper had put her in the one guest room near his own, assuming Alice was his lover.
It was an understandable assumption. Yet Adoni cursed under his breath as he took in Alice’s bare arms and legs, the cloud of dark hair around her shoulders. Her nightdress, held up by narrow ribbon straps, ended high on her thighs.
As if reading his thoughts, she tugged at the hem, curving her shoulders down as if trying to find another few centimetres of cloth to cover her legs.
Her shapely, inviting legs. Silky too—he remembered the feel of them under his palm, their softness as he’d lifted her thighs around his hips as he thrust into her.
Adoni swallowed, surprised how difficult that simple act was. His throat was tight and his tongue thick. In his belly energy whooshed like a match igniting a gas oven. Sure enough, his temperature rocketed as he took in the graceful lines of her limbs and her breasts pushing against her short nightgown.
She crossed her arms as if cold and the movement hoisted the hemline even higher. Did she wear panties or was she naked beneath the flimsy fabric?
His pulse chugged hard around his body, thrumming at his temple as all the urges he’d suppressed around Alice roared back into life. The need to touch, taste, inhale the sweet fragrance of her skin. To test again the lush softness of her feminine core with the hardness rearing even now between his thighs.