For a long while afterwards they just lay closely entwined—exhausted. Alexi’s body was hot against hers, his arms like tight bands of possession around her. She cuddled closer, loving the feeling of warmth and closeness. She’d missed him so much. She wanted to cry at the sheer pleasure of being held in his arms again. And the fact that he’d told her he’d missed her swirled pleasurably with the sated, exhausted threads of her emotions.
Maybe this marriage would work. Maybe there was a chance for them. Maybe he would start to fall in love with her …
After all, in the right situations, love could be nurtured and cultivated until it blossomed like a flower.
He pressed a kiss against her forehead and she smiled, drowsily contented.
Alexi pulled away from her slightly, and his eyes drifted down over the warm curves of her body. He’d known he wanted her, but the extreme force of that need had taken him totally by surprise. He’d lost control—and that never happened to him.
He wanted her again, wanted her right now. The sudden need hit him again and it angered him. He didn’t want to feel like this. He wanted to feel sated now, wanted the bewitching spell she had cast over him to abate so that he could take her again at his leisure when it suited him. He wanted absolute control over his emotions.
She rolled over and looked up at him with clear blue eyes. ‘Tell me again that you missed me,’ she whispered.
The question splintered through him.
‘You know I’ve missed you. You’re great in bed, Katie.’
He said the words with a frown, and they hit her like a physical whack of a stick.
The world had been held at bay whilst she was in his arms, and she’d believed him when he’d said he’d missed her. But what he’d really meant was that he had missed her body, nothing more. Would she never learn? How could she be so stupid? A hot wave of shame rushed through her as she remembered how hungrily and greedily she had needed him.
‘Do you want a drink of something?’ Alexi forced himself to move away from her.
‘Some water would be good.’ She reached hastily for her clothes on the floor and found her underwear. Her hands were shaking as she tried to fasten her bra.
Alexi watched her, momentarily distracted. He loved the way she looked after sex, her hair all messed up and her skin flushed.
God, he wanted her.
‘We’ll make love again later,’ he told her abruptly. He noticed how her hands weren’t completely steady now as they flew to pick up her jacket, shutting out his view of her curves.
‘I think I’ll have a shower and get changed.’
Something about the way she looked over at him made him reach out and catch her arm before she could move away. ‘Katie, are you OK?’
‘Of course.’ Her blue eyes shimmered for a moment, too wide, too impossibly blue for the pallor of her skin.
‘I didn’t hurt you, did I?’
For a moment the gentleness of that question threw her—and she thought he realised how she was feeling.
‘I wasn’t too rough?’ he asked softly, and his eyes moved down over her to rest on her stomach, and she realised he was just worried about the baby.
‘No—it was fine.’ She moved away and came round to pick up her dress.
‘Fine?’ For a moment he frowned. ‘I think it was more than fine.’
Her hair flowed like liquid silk around her shoulders as she glanced over at him. ‘Not worried about your sexual prowess, are you, Alexi?’ She couldn’t resist the jibe—she was hurting inside, and she wanted to hurt him, too. Wanted to act and talk as if she didn’t care. ‘You were good,’ she said airily. ‘Don’t concern yourself. It was more than … adequate.’
She knew she had gone too far when she saw his eyes darken. Alexi was used to being complimented in the bedroom, used to women idolising him. ‘Adequate?’ he asked.
She shrugged and tried to walk away, but he caught hold of her wrist again and pulled her back.
‘Now run that by me again.’ He pulled her down onto his knee. She looked very sexy in just her jacket and underwear, her long, bare legs shapely and inviting.
‘Alexi, I’m going for a shower. I haven’t got the energy to reassure you.’
‘Very amusing, Katie!’ He smiled at that. ‘Well, let’s see if we can conjure some energy up, shall we?’ He pulled her closer and crushed her lips with his. For a moment she tried to resist him, tried to act as if his kiss meant little, but after a while the passion and the heat started to simmer inside her and she started to kiss him back hungrily.
‘Now run that word by me again,’ he murmured, his hand moving inside the jacket, stroking over her curves.
The way he was caressing her now made her scared that he could prove his point all too easily. ‘Don’t, Alexi. Stop …’
He pulled down her bra, stroking her breasts with firm strokes. ‘Now what were you saying?’ he asked playfully as he felt her body responding very positively.
What had she been saying? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything except how good that was. ‘Alexi, don’t stop,’ she whispered as his hand moved away.
‘I’ve no intention of stopping …’ he told her huskily. ‘None at all.’
Katie lifted her head to the full force of the shower, letting it run over her face in cooling jets. After the heat of their passion she needed cooling down. How was it that Alexi was able to turn her on like that? How did he make her feel so alive, so excited—almost delirious with passion and then so sated—so deeply sated? And then so sad …
The first time they had made love had been wild and abandoned but just now he had taken her with a gentle tenderness that had been so incredibly moving it made her just want to cry.
But it was just sex, she reminded herself fiercely. Alexi had just been proving to her how much he could control her and turn her on. And the tenderness had been just out of deference to the fact that she was expecting their child.
There was no point reading anything into it. No point day dreaming or hoping for loving, meaningful words; it wasn’t going to happen.
She snapped off the water, stepped out of the shower and put on one of the fluffy white-towelling robes that were hanging on the back of the door.
Then she stepped back through to the bedroom. Alexi had left about thirty minutes ago—but he must have returned whilst she’d been in the shower because their luggage was now sitting next to the wardrobe. She opened up her case and wondered what she should put on.
Alexi had said something about having an intimate candlelight supper out on the terrace. The thought made her heart tight with pain.
She had all the trappings of a romantic honeymoon—but none of the feelings. Was she destined to go through her marriage like this? Was this as good as it would get? And just say Alexi got tired of her soon? He enjoyed a challenge, and if he could have her twenty-four-seven then sexually he might want to move on to some other conquest. He might just keep her tidily tucked away in the background—the little wife who had given him the all-important heir.
She sat down on the bed. Why was she torturing herself with these thoughts? She needed to stop. She needed not to care!
Her eyes drifted around the room. Deep golden carpets covered the floor and turquoise-and-gold heavy curtains hung at windows leading out to a large balcony. The doors were open, and a soft breeze stirred the frothy voiles that were pulled across to keep the insects out.
Katie felt a little disorientated after all the travelling, and she would have liked to lie down and sleep, but, mindful of