A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

by Cathy Williams

  And Alessandro, in a weird way, might pose a danger because she was physically attracted to him, but physical attraction was like a virus that struck hard and then blew over—in another way, he couldn’t have been a safer bet. He wasn’t luring her on with the pretence of a relationship, as Colin had. And she was never going to fall for him. The guy for her really would be someone who shared her beliefs and values and wasn’t motivated by money and power.

  ‘Are you going to carry on staring at me? Or shall we move the conversation along?’

  Laura started and reddened. ‘I’ll get the time off, although I’m not sure myself where his possessions are kept. I mean the ones he wouldn’t want a team of removal men to manhandle, and I’m sure he’ll insist on doing it himself. He’s very proud. Doesn’t like accepting help.’

  ‘You knew where to find a scrapbook.’ Alessandro clenched his jaw and shoved his hands into his trouser pockets. For a second his formidable self-control seemed to desert him but it was only a fleeting sensation, then he met her green eyes squarely. ‘I expect,’ he told her drily, ‘the rest of his stuff might be in the same cubbyhole. People are nothing if not predictable.’

  ‘It wasn’t in a cubbyhole. It was in his bedside drawer. I went to fetch some tablets for him shortly after his operation. It fell out. Maybe he’d been looking through it.’

  Alessandro didn’t want to feel any softening towards his father. The time for that had come and gone years and years ago. He knew Roberto Falcone for what he was, an unforgiving man who had probably never wanted a child in the first place, a man who kept his past a secret, even though, as a kid, Alessandro could remember asking him for details of his mother until eventually he’d given up. They had retreated into their own worlds and it was a relationship that worked for both of them. There was no room for any sudden curiosity about a scrapbook his father had kept over the years.

  ‘You’re quite the Good Samaritan, aren’t you?’ he murmured softly.

  This was where he felt comfortable. He could relax when he was playing a game of seduction and he was certainly relaxed when he noticed the shell-pink colour that rose to her cheeks at his change of tone.

  He reached out and delicately brushed a tendril of hair from her face and then he left his finger there, tracing her soft cheek until he was trailing it along her mouth.

  This was where he was supposed to be.

  Not thinking crazy thoughts that weren’t going to get anyone anywhere...

  But right here, touching her and putting an end to the will-they, won’t-they game. Those sorts of games were tiresome. Reduced to its barest bones, the chemistry between them was as powerful as a live current and there was no way that a three-act tragedy about why she shouldn’t sleep with him should get in the way.

  Caught in a balancing act of wondering what she should or shouldn’t do, Laura allowed her body to sink into that feathery touch. Her mouth trembled and she half closed her eyes, released a small sigh. She wasn’t even aware of raising her hands so that she could curl her fingers into the lapels of his coat, or of reaching up on her toes, her whole body leaning towards him and demanding more than just the touch of his finger on her skin.

  Her mind went blank when she felt the coolness of his mouth hit hers. She couldn’t get enough. She returned the kiss urgently, fiercely seeking out his tongue. Her breasts were pushed against the rock-hard wall of his chest and she nearly collapsed when he shifted his big hands underneath her jumper and cradled them.

  Her nipples itched and strained against her bra. She wanted to reach behind and rip it off because the need to have him touch her without the barrier of itchy, starchy fabric was overwhelming.

  Somehow he had managed to manoeuvre her against the wall without breaking the contact of their kiss.

  Nothing, but nothing, had ever felt like this before. So this was what it felt like to be submerged in a tidal wave of passion.

  He cupped her bottom, shifted her so that she could feel the hot steel of his erection, and she squirmed against it.

  ‘I don’t care,’ she broke away to whisper, and he looked at her. ‘I’m not going to be careful. I want you. You were right. I want you so badly...’

  Alessandro was so turned on that he feared the unthinkable might happen, especially as the chances of them ending up in a bed somewhere were remote, not while Edith was asleep upstairs.

  When he took her, he wanted to do it slowly, without having to listen out just in case her grandmother came flying out of a bedroom somewhere.

  It shouldn’t matter but somehow it did. For once, he wasn’t operating in his usual vacuum, where he had no one to whom he had to refer and no one whose opinion mattered.

  ‘We can’t...here...’ He was breathing heavily and his hands were shaking ever so slightly as he set her apart from him. ‘Trust me, I would sling you over my shoulder and take those stairs two at a time to the nearest bed, but...’

  ‘But Gran’s upstairs. I know.’ She straightened her jumper and did something with her hair.

  ‘Dream of me tonight,’ he said roughly. ‘When we make love, I want to take my time.’ He sifted his fingers through her hair, marvelling at its sexy, silky length. ‘Trust me, Laura, it’ll be worth the wait...’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  FROM ALWAYS MAINTAINING a polite distance, Alessandro found, over the next week or so, that his father now seemed to be around constantly.

  The sale of the house, as he had confidently predicted, was all progressing nicely. It just went to show that anyone could be bought, because the Saunders children, having initially made noises about their sentimental attachment to the place, jettisoned all that the second there was a concrete and very inflated offer on the table. In fact, they couldn’t hurry things on fast enough.

  Builders were on standby, ready to begin work on renovations, and his father wanted a say on every single detail of those renovations.

  ‘Not being shoved out of my own house to find myself in a dump!’ he had bellowed the evening before as they had sat at the kitchen table, poring over plans.

  ‘I’ll get Edith along to back you up when you say that you’re being shoved out, shall I?’ Alessandro had countered. ‘I’m thinking she might have a different take on the matter.’

  Frankly, he was finding it almost impossible to concentrate on anything, never mind where a greenhouse was going to go, because Roberto Falcone was going nowhere unless there was a greenhouse of a specific size that could house specific plants, flowers and vegetables. Alessandro was making the occasional trip back down to the city, but for the most part he was working from his makeshift office, and for the first time in his life focus was proving a problem.

  Laura had somehow eroded his perfectly ordered life and he had quickly worked out that that was because they still hadn’t slept together. He saw a lot of her...every evening she came to the house, where they would go through rooms, working out what could go, what could stay and what needed to be packed by them. And every evening, the brush of his fingers against hers as he reached for something, the slightest physical contact, sent his blood pressure soaring. It was a form of protracted foreplay that was driving him crazy. There were a thousand times when he would have taken her in whatever part of whatever room they’d happened to be in, but for his ever-present father.

  Never had it taken him so long to get nowhere with any woman. And the longer it took, the more he wanted her. He couldn’t get her out of his head. Returning to London full-time and shifting the overseeing of this project to any one of the many, many capable people he could call upon was out of the question.

  Now, at a little after six, he pushed himself away from his desk, stretched and sauntered to the window to stare out at a pitch-black nightscape.

  There would be no Laura this evening. Parents meeting at the school, apparently. He couldn’t remember his father eve
r being interested in something as mundane as attending a parents’ meeting. He had always been abroad, away on business. A suitable replacement had always been sent, usually a nanny.

  Realising that it would be a pointless exercise to continue trying to work, he began sorting through the lower reaches of the bookcase that stood against the wall. He’d never noticed them before but since every nook and cranny in the house seemed to contain something, he felt he wouldn’t be disappointed.

  * * *

  Alessandro heard the bustle of his father in the kitchen before he entered. The door was ajar and he could make him out, yet again neatly attired in formal clothes, as though the Queen might take it into her head to pay him an unexpected visit for which he had to be ready. They had dumped the formal dining room a while back for the informality of the kitchen. At least in a smaller arena the silences weren’t quite so resounding.

  He inhaled deeply and glanced down at the wad of envelopes in his hand. They were sepia with age.

  ‘Found one or two things,’ he said, walking in, knowing that this was something that had to be confronted. He watched as his father turned around and then he strolled towards the kitchen table and dumped the envelopes down. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  ‘Tell you what?’ Roberto adjusted his tie and cast a baleful look at his son.

  ‘You know what. Why didn’t you tell me about my past?’

  * * *

  An hour and a half later, Alessandro was on his way to see Laura. For once, he had no desire to be on his own. He and his father could have continued talking into the night but they were too accustomed to their silences for that. They had stopped talking when both had felt that everything that had been said needed to be digested.

  He killed the engine of his car and sat in the darkness for a few seconds, before swinging out and heading to the front door. He half expected Edith to get it but she didn’t. Seeing him there, Laura’s eyes opened wide, then she stepped aside so that he could brush past her.

  ‘I’ve only just got back from the parents’ meeting,’ she said, eyeing him nervously as he prowled into the sitting room and, once there, remained standing by the window, having divested himself of his coat.

  ‘Where’s your grandmother?’

  ‘What are you doing here? She’s having dinner with friends in the village...why?’ Her heart fluttered and she wanted to ask him if he just couldn’t stand it any longer, if he had had to come because days of being in the same space, clearing out Roberto’s stuff while he’d watched like a relentless chaperone, had been as difficult for him as it had been for her.

  Alessandro saw the blaze of unbidden desire in her eyes and smiled slowly. ‘Fortuitous.’ He put down his coat and walked towards her. ‘Been thinking of me?’

  ‘I’ve seen quite a bit of you recently so why would I...?’ Laura went bright red. Yes, she had made her mind up that this was what she was going to do. She wasn’t going to fight lust. There were so many reasons for just giving in but there was a limit to what she was ever going to admit. She certainly wasn’t going to admit that she had been thinking of him...something about that sentiment would have made her feel uneasy, although she didn’t know why because he had said it lightly, jokingly.

  ‘Do you know, I have never...’ he was right up close to her now and he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her jogging bottoms and began slowly tugging them down ‘...spent so long...’ he propelled her backwards, in small steps, until she had her back to the wall ‘...in the company of a woman I’ve wanted...’ the jogging bottoms were halfway down her legs, but instead of removing her panties he slipped his finger under the silky fabric, unerringly finding the wet slit between her thighs ‘...and been forced to practise such self-restraint...’

  He began stroking her, rubbing her clitoris, losing himself in the sensation, letting it flood his mind and overwhelm the raging confusion of his thoughts.

  This was exactly what he needed.

  Right here. Right now. His chaotic mind was silenced. He felt her wetness and his mind went completely blank, allowing pure sensation to flood through.

  ‘I have wanted this for so long...’ he muttered, as she squirmed against his exploring finger, barely capable of breathing. ‘I don’t want to make love to you here, standing by the front door, with you pushed up against the wall...’

  ‘We can go up to my bedroom...’

  ‘And I don’t want your grandmother walking in on us...’

  ‘She won’t. She’s having dinner with friends and then they’re going to the town hall fifteen miles away to hear a lecture on orchids. There’ll be a lot of questions...’

  ‘Where’s your bedroom?’ He drew back, his dark eyes giving her the opportunity to back off, but he didn’t know what he would do if she did. He was so tightly wound that he could scarcely think straight.

  Laura trembled, linked her fingers through his, and they took the stairs quietly and quickly up to her room.

  He had caught her unawares. She hadn’t had time to anticipate or for her nerves to build, but her heart was beating fast and when they reached her bedroom she paused as the enormity of what she was about to do sank in.

  Was this her? Really? What had happened to the dream of finding Mr Right? What had happened to her resolution never to have any sort of relationship with any guy who wasn’t going to be there for her as a life partner?

  When she had made that resolution, she hadn’t known about Alessandro, she thought ruefully. She hadn’t yet discovered that there would be someone out there capable of driving all those careful plans out of her head. It just hadn’t seemed possible at the time, not when she had felt bitter and wounded.

  When it came to women, Alessandro Falcone was a taker. Those lazy, dark eyes saw, desired, conquered and then, shortly after, when his appetite had been sated, he dismissed.

  He had no sense of anything aside from himself. He had no sense of family, no sense of wanting to start a family of his own, no belief in love, no ability to give commitment. He represented everything she abhorred and yet...

  Here I am now...

  She didn’t switch on the overhead light. Instead, she turned on her bedside lamp, which sent a dull, mellow glow through the room.

  ‘You seem to have a thing for dogs...’ For a few seconds Alessandro took time out to glance at the room, which was small and cosy. There was a rocking chair by the window in which sat an assortment of stuffed dogs.

  ‘I should have got rid of them a long time ago.’ Laura laughed a little self-consciously. ‘I always wanted a dog but Gran put her foot down at that and decided that stuffed dogs would do the trick. I’ve never been able to bring myself to dump them. They’re too much a part of my past.’

  Alessandro strolled towards her. ‘We have something in common. I wanted a dog as well but, of course, in a boarding school pets were not permitted. I don’t want to talk. I want to touch. Take off all those clothes. Let me see you naked.’

  After the briefest of hesitations, during which some small voice urged caution, she began doing as he asked. She ignored the small voice. This was her choice, to live in the present, to enjoy this man with no strings attached. If there were no strings attached, she wouldn’t be disappointed. She knew what she was getting into and she was going into it with her eyes wide open.

  And it was now or never. Her grandmother wouldn’t be back for at least a couple of hours. There was no opportunity to do anything at the big house as Roberto was always around. He seemed to think that unless he was supervising things, valuable possessions would end up in the bin.

  This was a golden opportunity and then she knew that he would walk away. They would both leave this behind but right now her want and her need poured through her like a deadly virus and the only way she could clear her system of it was to do what she was going to do, to sleep with this beautiful, arrog
ant, clever and utterly inappropriate man.

  The jumper was on the floor and she unclasped her bra. She could feel his eyes on her and it was a little thrilling, if she was honest. The cool air hit her hot, naked breasts like soothing balm. The sort of women he dated didn’t have breasts and she feverishly wondered what he thought of hers. Bigger than he had expected? Not neat and small enough?

  Her breath was coming and going in painful gasps as he moved towards her and she fell into his arms, enjoying the way his jumper eased some of the pain of her sensitive nipples. She rubbed herself against him and he lifted her ear and whispered,

  ‘You have the most amazing breasts...’

  ‘They’re far too big.’

  ‘Amazing breasts and even more amazing nipples.’

  ‘Too big as well.’

  ‘That’s not possible.’ He propelled her gently towards the bed, which was unfortunately not king-sized, and Laura fell back onto the pillows with a heated sigh.

  In the semi-darkness of the bedroom, Alessandro took a few seconds to just look at her. His erection was a shaft of steel, almost painful, but he had to regain some of his self-control or lose it completely.

  Her arms were folded behind her head so that her breasts were pushed up, offering themselves to him like ripe, succulent fruit. She had removed her jogging bottoms but her panties were still on and he knew that if he felt them, they would be soaked through.

  He got rid of his jumper and the T-shirt underneath. His hand loose on the button of his trousers, he took a few deep breaths and then pulled down the zipper, very slowly, taking his time. He didn’t want to rush this but, God, he was close to coming just looking at her and at the drowsy smile tugging the corners of her mouth as she watched him.

  ‘Enjoying the striptease?’ he murmured roughly, and her smile broadened. She wriggled a little on the bed, parted her legs, and Alessandro emitted a low, unsteady groan.

  ‘I’ve never been treated to one before,’ she told him truthfully.

  She was so turned on that she could barely get the words out. Even in the dim light she could see the proud bulge of his erection and she cupped her mound, then slid her hand under the panties because she was hurting down there, aching to be touched.