Response

‘I felt it too,’ he confirmed, still keeping that small, tantalising distance between them. ‘Together we will make the world rock and feel its hushed tremble, my little virgin. When I make love to you and my body finally possesses yours it will be as though we are immortals, gods, and not mere human beings, but as yet you know nothing of the pleasure that will be ours. No other man has shown you what I shall show you. I shall be the first.’

He said it with such assurance that she held her breath, staring wonderingly into his face. It was as though he had always known her; as though he knew everything there was to know about her, and so all she did was murmur slowly, ‘and the last….’ And then watched his eyes darken, with the same kind of wonder and awe with which she had listened to carols being sung on Christmas Eve as a child, the lump in her throat threatening to render her completely speechless. Alexis saw her reaction and laughed deep in his throat, a husky, satisfied sound, and she knew that the fact that she was still a virgin was pleasing him.

‘Ah, yes, we shall be lovers, you and I,’ he promised her, ‘but not today… not yet. First we shall enjoy the anticipation a little, and I shall try to school myself to playing the suitor rather than the lover. Also there is work to do, because I wasn’t lying about my need for a secretary.’

Work? After this? Sienna stared mutely at him, but as she discovered as the day progressed he hadn’t been joking. Marvelling at his ability to change from lover to employer, she tried to follow his lead and concentrate on the detailed dictation he was giving her, all the time acutely conscious of the maleness of him; the way his trousers moulded the strong muscles of his thighs; the breadth of his shoulders and the depth of his chest in the clinging silk shirt that seemed to mould itself to his body.

In that afternon Sienna gained a brief understanding of how diverse his business interests were: he wasn’t just the Chairman of Hellas Holidays, he also had an interest in an international airline, in villas on the islands, which he owned and let out, in olive groves, and even a vineyard in the Napa Valley in California. That had come to him through his mother, who Sienna deduced from the brief comments that he made had been half Italian and half American, which no doubt accounted for his height, and less swarthy complexion than she might have expected. It also explained the grey eyes which were so totally unexpected and devasting in the pure symmetry of a face which had its beginnings in the very best of the ancient sculptures.

They worked without pause until six o’clock. Sienna felt limp and drained when they had finished. Alexis had dictated consistently in English, but she had translations to make into French and German, and she was relieved when he told her that she would have the best part of the following morning to work on what he had just given her.

‘I shall be in meetings for most of the morning.’ He saw her face and smiled, and the dying rays of the sun streaming through the windows lingered against his skin casting shadows that gave him a faintly cynical, predatory air, and one which was totally at odds with the man Sienna thought him to be. She shivered in spite of herself, faintly repelled by the transformation, the cold, almost detached air with which he seemed to be studying her, but then he moved and it was gone, and she laughed inwardly at her own folly. It had been a trick of the sunlight, nothing more, and she forgot that he was a man who came from a land that was more used to harsh sunlight then gentle shadows, she forgot everything as he came towards her, pulling her out of her chair, gently removing her pad and pencil from nerveless fingers, framing her face with his hands as he studied her wildly flushed features.

‘Tomorrow I must work, but we still have tonight. Will you let me take you out to dinner?’

Would she? Sienna moistened her lips and trembled as she saw the flaring reaction of his eyes to the gesture and felt its echo in his body.

‘No, I am not going to take you to my bed tonight,’ he muttered accurately reading her mind… ‘but one night, not so very far from now when you are ready for me, I shall.’

I’m ready now, Sienna wanted to tell him, half appalled by her own immodesty and hunger, but he was already releasing her, putting her away from him, smiling at her as he asked politely, ‘Will you be able to be ready by half past eight? I’ll book a table for nine. Aristotle, my chauffeur, is waiting downstairs to take you home. Unfortunately I am expecting an important call from New York, otherwise I would go with you. Do you live alone?’

With a shock Sienna realised it was the first personal question he had asked her. Somehow exchanging past histories had seemed irrelevant, but now she managed to murmur, ‘No… with my brother, but he’s away at the moment. He’s a reporter. Our parents are dead, and Rob very kindly took me in when our father died. I used to work for him, you see, and when he died I just didn’t know what to do with myself.’

‘You love your brother very deeply?’

Sienna frowned, wondering at the darkness in his eyes and the curt iciness in his voice. Surely he wasn’t jealous of Rob? ‘Yes,’ she replied simply. ‘Everyone likes him. He’s a marvellous person, so kind and thoughtful….’

‘And he has a woman, this kind and thoughtful brother?’

Sienna hesitated, disturbed by the thread of sarcasm she could sense woven into the words. ‘I… I don’t know,’ she finished lamely, feeling it would be wrong to discuss her suspicions about Rob’s feelings for Gillian with anyone else, even Alexis.

‘So…. Then he has never discussed with you a special woman, this wonderful brother of yours whom you so admire?’

He must be jealous, Sienna thought blankly, there could be no other reason for the dislike and, yes, almost hatred embittering his voice. ‘Never,’ she responded resolutely.

‘You had better leave now, Aristotle will be waiting.’ The abrupt change of subject startled her a little at first, but Sienna accepted it, thinking there would be time that evening to question Alexis about his family and background.

She went over to the door and shrugged into her coat, picking up her bag. ‘And, Sienna…’ She paused, wondering if he was going to change his mind and command her to remain with him after all. He smiled, warmth infusing the darkness of his features and making her weak with the need to go to him and touch him. ‘Yes?’

‘Tonight wear something that permits me to see a little more of your body than the clothes you are wearing now. That way I shall have something to warm my lonely bed tonight.’

He saw her face and shook his head. ‘No, this is no brief casual thing between us, and I will not hurry it. When a man finds the food which is to last him for the rest of his life he does not consume it with greed as though it were his final feast. Now go,’ he said softly, ‘before I forget all my lofty ideals and remember only how badly I want to make you mine.’

All the way down in the lift her heart sang. Alexis had put the final seal on her happiness. He wanted her, not just for now, but for always, it had been implicit in his final words to her. She thought of having Alexis as her husband, of bearing his children, and her body shook with the pleasure the thought gave her.

CHAPTER TWO

AS she dressed for her dinner date with Alexis, Sienna found herself going over and over in her mind the circumstances of their meeting; re-living the touch of his hands against her face and the warm, intoxicating pressure of his mouth on hers. It took her half an hour to decide what to wear, delicious tremors shivering across her skin as she remembered his parting words. In the end she opted for a dress she had bought when she had to accompany her father to a dance at the university.

Far more sophisticated than the clothes she usually chose, it was in matt black jersey, cut to reveal the svelte contours of her body, outwardly demure with its high rounded neckline and long close-fitting sleeves, but the way it moulded her body was far from demure. Would Alexis find her attractive in it? It was startling to discover how much she wanted to be alluring for him; in the past she had always been careful to dress in clothes that masked her sexuality rather than revealed it and had even been faintly scornful of those women she knew who dressed mainly to please their men. It was a strange and almost frightening sensation to have fallen so deeply in love so quickly, and Sienna knew that if Alexis hadn’t made it so clear to her that her feelings were reciprocated she would be maintaining as great a distance as she possibly could from him. For the first time in her life she could imagine the desolation of unrequited love; it shivered across her skin chilly as a November wind, until she pulled the reassuring, warming blanket of Alexis’ love back round her.

He arrived to pick her up himself, and her breath caught in her throat as she studied him beneath the hall light. ‘Your heart quivers like a frightened dove’s. What is it that frightens you so? Surely not me?’ His fingers curled round her wrist, his thumb probing for and then stroking the swiftly beating pulse.

How could she explain that the reality of him far exceeded the mental picture she had carried away with her, that falling in love with him was something so totally outside any experience she had ever expected to have that it left her weak and, yes, slightly frightened by the knowledge of her new vulnerability. Yesterday she hadn’t known he existed; today her life would be insupportable without him. He seemed to know what she was thinking, because he lifted her wrist to his lips, their heat sending waves of pleasure beating through her veins, his eyes hot and slumbrous with desire as they slid slowly over her face and body.

‘It is frightening. I have felt it too,’ he assured her. ‘To be so dependent on another person for happiness—for life itself.’

‘And you’ve never felt like this before?’ He was thirty-three, Gill had told her that, and his name had been linked with those of many, many beautiful women. It seemed to Sienna incredible that he could feel this way about her.

‘I have never felt towards any woman what I feel towards you.’ The words had the unmistakable ring of sincerity. She trembled beneath them, the hallway suddenly cramped and infused with the same subtle tension she had sensed the first time she saw him. ‘Ah, Sienna, you must not look at me like that. How can you look at me the way you do and still have remained a virgin? Your eyes tell me that you want me to make love to you.’

‘I do.’ She whispered the words shyly, still amazed that she could feel this way, that there could be this depth and intensity of feeling, something she had never suspected existed. ‘And I am still a virgin because I have never looked at any other man the way I look at you. I have never loved any man before you….’

‘And will not love any man after me. I shall imprint myself on your heart and body so that you will never forget me. We have not yet made love, but already I know how you will feel in my arms, how you will taste against my lips, how sweetly you will cry my name and abandon yourself to me.’

He bent his head, sliding his fingers into the thickness of her hair, holding her still beneath his mouth, letting her feel the depth and heat of his passion, leaving her shaking and achingly bereft when he eventually lifted his head, his lips curling into a smile as he caught her half-smothered protest.

‘So reserved and English,’ he murmured, probing the parted warmth of her mouth with his thumb, ‘but I promise you I will make you forget your reserve and the politeness of your good manners, and in my arms will remember only that you are a woman.’ He smiled down at her, a dark seriousness in his eyes that stilled the frantic racing of her pulses. ‘I cannot promise you that I will be a tender, gentle lover, Sienna, my need for you does not permit that. If you wish to change your mind, to retreat, then now is the time to do so, while I am still able to let you go.’

He knew! He knew how fear mingled with her love for him, how tremulous she felt about committing herself completely to him, about walking blindfold into waters which she sensed were deep and dangerous and he was offering her the chance to turn back. She returned his smile with one of her own faintly wavering and hesitant, unaware of the shy vulnerability glowing in her eyes as they met his.

‘I don’t want to turn back, Alexis,’ she told him huskily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment you walked into Gill’s office. I….’ She tried to find the words to describe the awe and wonder of that moment, then gave up, knowing that it was a feat beyond her.

‘And if I had not fallen in love with you in return?’

She shivered, despite the warmth of Rob’s centrally heated flat. ‘I don’t know….’ How could she explain to him that she wasn’t the type of girl who had the confidence to go out and get the man she wanted, that if she hadn’t seen the desire, the hunger in his eyes she would have had to dam up her feelings for him?

‘Your silence is its own answer,’ Alexis told her. ‘Without the security of my admission of love you would never have been able to bring yourself to tell me of your feelings. You would have worked for me as my temporary secretary, harbouring impossible dreams, is this is not so?’

It startled her a little that he should so accurately be able to judge her reactions, for that was exactly how she would have behaved, envying the women who shared his life, but totally unable to emulate them.

‘Do not look so chastened.’ His hand caressed her jaw, tilting her face so that he could look into her eyes. ‘I knew the moment I opened the office door how it would be between us, and because you are what you are, the only place I shall hold you in my arms tonight is on the dance floor. I want you to come to me willingly, Sienna—more than willingly,’ he added huskily, ‘knowingly, wantingly, as hungry for me as I am for you.’

She wanted to tell him then that that was already how she felt about him, but because he was right when he said that she was still a little shy and uncertain of herself, she allowed him to escort her to the waiting car, and half an hour later when they were seated at their table in a fashionable nightclub she had only read about in the Society columns, she no longer regretted her silence.

Her arrival with Alexis had caused something of a stir. Heads had turned, and Sienna knew quite well that they had not turned on her behalf. Several eager pairs of female eyes followed their progress to their table. How many of the women dining here with other men were known to Alexis? she wondered as she sat down, and not just here in London, but in all those other cities where he had business interests and offices. It shook her to feel so vulnerable and, yes, jealous. Alexis was nine years older than her and what was past was past.

‘Is something troubling you?’ He leaned across the table, attentive and concerned, and she pushed away her dark thoughts, a little saddened by the knowledge that love brought pain as well as pleasure.

She asked him to order for her. Although she was perfectly used to dining out both with her father and Rob, neither of them had ever taken her to such an openly luxurious place. Most of the other women were wearing rich jewels and couture gowns, and even though she knew it was foolish, Sienna was aware of feeing slightly ill at ease.

The food Alexis chose was delicious, but she discovered that she had little appetite for it. She was too aware of the man seated opposite her, of the movement of his body beneath the covering of expensive clothes, of the lean darkness of his hands, her mind unable to stop picturing them on her body, causing a heated flush to rise up over her skin, and Alexis to break off from what he had been saying, to ask with a frown, ‘Sienna, are you all right?’

‘Yes….’ She sounded flustered. ‘It’s… it’s very warm in here, isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’ His eyes narrowed in perceptive amusement. ‘I confess I hadn’t noticed it. Would you like to dance?’

She glanced at the small dimly lit dance floor and then back again to Alexis’ darkly masculine face. There was nowhere she wanted to be more than in his arms, and her eyes must have given her away, because he muttered something thickly under his breath and put down the glass he had been holding, with fingers that were distinctly unsteady, his hoarse, ‘Yes… yes, I know, but I will not take you in hungry greed, however much both of us want to at this moment, and since I cannot make love to you on the dance floor, we are safer there than sitting here, where your eyes tell me with every breath you draw what you are thinking and my body responds to that knowledge.’

Alexis had lied when he said he couldn’t make love to her on the dance floor, Sienna thought minutes later; the firm movement of his thighs against hers turning her bones to water, making her grateful for the dimness of the lights and the seductive tempo of the music which enabled them to move so slowly together, her body registering every movement of Alexis’. She could feel his heart thudding beneath the hand she had slipped inside his jacket. Both his arms were round her, pressing her against him, caressing the vulnerable arc of her spine, his lips feathering, brief, tormenting kisses against her temple.

‘You tremble so in my arms,’ Alexis murmured against her ear. ‘It makes me ache to possess you, do you know that?’ He felt her body’s response and his own hardened against her, his chest expanding as he dragged air into his lungs. ‘No, you don’t know yet what you do to me, how you make me burn and shake with need, but I will teach you, Sienna.’

Teach me now, she wanted to cry out, but the tempo of the music changed and with it the mood he had created around them. In a daze she allowed him to lead her back to their table. They must have talked, but later she could remember nothing of what they had said. All she could think of when she lay alone in her bed in Rob’s flat was that Alexis had wanted her and that for her sake he had denied himself because he didn’t want to rush her. Had denied them both, she acknowledged feverishly, understanding now the deep-seated ache that lay curled in the pit of her stomach, sending stabbing waves of need coursing through the rest of her body. Her total turn-around from a cool, remote young woman to this hungry aching feline creature who now seemed to live inside her skin took some getting used to, and as she lay wanting Alexis she wondered on a sudden dark presentiment if this new part of herself might not have been better left undiscovered.

By morning she had forgotten her night fears, her fingers clumsy in her feverish haste to dress and reach Alexis. She glanced at herself in the mirror, noting the changes that were there already; the flush high along her cheekbones, the brightness of her eyes, one minute sparkling, the next disconcertingly slumbrous. Excitement made it impossible for her to eat, to do anything more than snatch a cup of coffee as she hurried to get ready.

Alexis was waiting for her in his suite, studying a pile of letters. He looked up when she walked in but made no move to touch her. ‘I’m just about to leave.’ He smiled wryly when he saw her face and added softly, ‘Ah, no, I must not kiss you, otherwise I shall never make it to my meetings—never make it any further than the bedroom that lies beyond that door, but tomorrow is Saturday. Would you like to go for a drive? To have lunch somewhere perhaps, and then in the evening we could see a show?’

All I want to do is to be with you, she ached to tell him, but instead she followed the lead he had given her, assuring him that she ought to have finished the dictation he had given her the previous day by the time he got back and that she could find no fault in his plans for the following day.

And so it continued. During the day they worked together in comparative harmony. Sienna grew gradually to learn more about his business empire and to admire his shrewd grasp of all that went on within it, even though at times his hard determination had the power to disturb her. That he could be cruel as Gill had said he was she could now perceive was true, and she shivered sometimes, wondering what she would do if that cruelty was ever directed towards her. At those times he would look up from what he was doing and smile at her as though he guessed her thoughts and wanted to assure her that her fears were groundless.

He often asked her about Rob, and when he did Sienna sensed as she had done on that first day that he resented—and if that could be possible without their having met—even disliked her brother, but when she tried to question him about his own family he always changed the subject.

A week and then ten days went by. She arrived one morning to discover him on the telephone. New York,’ he said crisply when he replaced the receiver. ‘I have to go over there—there’s a problem with the merger.’

Sienna knew that one of his companies was taking over an American rival, but her face fell when Alexis was speaking.

‘How long… how long will you be gone?’ How long will you be away from me, was what she really wanted to know, and yet how long would he be staying in London for anyway? His home was in Greece, on a small island called Micros, he had told her. He had talked about it to her, with love and pride and an assurance that she would share it with him.

‘I don’t know. Three weeks, maybe a month. It will take that long to sort out all the legal tangles.’ He saw her expression and muttered huskily, ‘Sienna, don’t. You know I don’t want to leave you, and we still have this weekend. Would you like to go away somewhere…. Just the two of us?’

‘Oh, Alexis!’ Her eyes and voice betrayed her, and he did something he never did when they were working, he got up from his chair and crossed the room, taking her in his arms and kissing her with the same deep hunger she could feel heating her own blood.

‘Does that mean “yes”? You know if it does that I shall not be able to kiss you chastely goodnight and leave you, Sienna. You know, don’t you,’ he asked roughly, ‘that when you say “yes”, you are saying yes to snaring my bed? Do you still say “yes”?’

She shook her head and he tensed, holding her away from him and staring down at her with dark, almost angry eyes, and Sienna knew that despite all his protestations he wanted her enough to persuade her if she did not agree voluntarily. Not that there was any need. She wanted this weekend with him, needed it with an urgency that still had the power to leave her slightly shocked. ‘Then what do you say?’ he demanded curtly.

She smiled up at him, feeling the tension in the arms that held her, a brief smile curling her mouth as she said softly, ‘I say “yes, please”, Alexis.’

She felt the surge of tension leaving him, and just had time to be surprised by the look of sheer triumph glittering in his eyes as he bent towards her, kissing her more gently this time, merging her body with his, his fingers tangling in her hair as he released her lips to caress the soft skin of her throat, his fingers deftly moving to the buttons of her blouse, releasing them and exposing the pulse thudding at the base of her neck and the beginnings of the soft swell of her breasts, her nipples tautly outlined beneath the fine cotton of her blouse.

Strange, he had not yet touched her intimately, but when he did so, pushing aside the protection of her blouse, stroking over the curves her delicate lace bra did nothing to conceal, her body leapt in immediate response, her low groan of pleasure stifled somewhere at the back of her throat as his head moved downwards and she gasped as she felt the heat and dampness of his mouth through the fine fabric, coupled with an anguished ache to lie naked in his arms and enjoy that same caress with the barrier of clothes removed. The phone rang, disorientating her, her body still awash with hunger. Her mind was too bemused to respond to the abrupt summons of the telephone. Alexis answered it, frowning into the receiver, reminding Sienna where they were. She dressed quickly, with shaking fingers, wondering heatedly what her reaction was likely to be to his full possession if she could be affected so much by a mere caress. She was still lost in a maze of thoughts when he replaced the receiver and came to stand behind her.