He intentionally waited in the doorway for her, so that she’d have to brush past him. He didn’t know if she was involved with his brother in law, though he suspected it was highly likely.
The only thing he knew for certain was that he wanted Sophie all to himself. For a while at least.
Chapter 2
“She was crying again, Eric.” Sophie kept her voice low, and her head bent towards her employer.
“Where?” He was tired. So tired of worrying about his wife, and trying to make her happy and well.
“In the laundry. Early this morning. Before I went for my walk.”
“She didn’t come to bed last night.”
Sophie bit down on her lower lip. The propriety of speaking to Eric about his wife had bothered her at first. But within only a few days of joining the household, Sophie had come to realise that Helena was struggling with the pressures of motherhood and her high profile as Eric’s wife. She had been hesitant, at first, to jump to any conclusions, but another few days into her tenure had convinced her that something was badly wrong.
Helena was depressed. She needed to meet with a professional and get proper support.
Only Eric didn’t seem to share Sophie’s worries. Or, if he did, he was determined to ignore them.
“How was she at dinner?” Sophie blushed at the question, which could have been seen as prying. But not by Eric. He understood. Sophie was worried about Helena, and especially about the boys. He’d come to count on her counsel in the last few months.
“Quiet.” He shrugged. “But she is always quiet lately.”
“Maybe you should go away for a while, like she suggested,” Sophie pushed, lifting a hand comfortingly to his shoulder.
“You’re the one who told me how important my place in the boys’ life is. I don’t want to leave them.”
“They could go with you. I could come.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It doesn’t solve anything. That’s a temporary fix. Whatever is going on with Helena, she needs to right it.”
Sophie compressed her lips. “I don’t know if it’s that easy.”
“She has two children. Two children we spent five years trying to bring into being, and who love her and need her. I don’t give a shit if it isn’t easy. She must do it. There is an imperative on her to meet their needs.”
Across the room, Alex couldn’t hear what they were saying. Their pose was unmistakably intimate, with their faces close and her arm on his shoulder. They weren’t even trying to hide it!
Alex’s temper, under a tight reign for two days, began to fray as he realised with a grim frown, that his sister had been right. This beautiful ingénue had come into his sister’s life and was now attempting to usurp her place in it.
He was sure of it.
“Be patient. She will find her way.” A feint noise caught Sophie’s attention and she looked in its direction, straight into the hard, sardonic eyes of Alessandros Petrides. A shiver flexed down her spine. She looked away again quickly. “You have Alessandros here now. Have you spoken to him? Maybe he’d have an idea …”
“No.” Eric’s scowl formed a perfect line between his brows. He followed her gaze and shifted into a polite smile. “Listen, Soph. Alex is a … top chap. But when it comes to Helena, he’s controlling as hell. If he thinks she’s not happy, he’s just likely to put her on a Petrides jet to Greece.”
“Surely not,” Sophie countered, her eyes drifting back to Alex’s face. He was fuming about something; that much was obvious even to Sophie, who knew very little of the Greek billionaire beyond what the press had publicised over the years. “She’s your wife …”
“But she’s also his sister, and Alex will always trump me in Helena’s mind.” He let out a peevish sigh. “He’s the quintessential control freak. It’s better not to involve him or I’ll lose my wife for good.”
She laughed despite herself. “And here I thought you were far too staid for melodrama.”
He lifted his eyes heavenward. “It might sound melodramatic, but believe me, it’s no exaggeration. Alex doesn’t believe in second chances.”
“Second chances?”
“He gave me a chance when he agreed to our marriage. He was against it at first. Though I doubt he’d have liked any man who married Helena. But he trusted me. And he made it obvious that he was willing to give me one chance to make her happy. If he knows she’s miserable, he’ll do whatever he can to end it.”
“Eric,” she shook her head, her eyes so blue there were like denim in the dusk light that filtered in through the bay windows. “You’re being ridiculous. Helena is a grown woman. Her life has nothing to do with Alex.”
“You mightn’t think so, but trust me, he’ll make this his business and he’ll take over.” He shrugged, but his expression was tired. “Listen, we’ll stick to the plan. You keep a firm eye on the children, and I’ll slowly find a way to get through to her. But please keep it between us. Alex being here is a complication I hadn’t anticipated.”
Eric’s eyes moved beyond Sophie. Alex had stopped reclining indolently on the far side of the room and was prowling towards them. A hint of determination sparked in his expression.
Though Sophie and Eric couldn’t have known it, a plan, so perfect for its precision and cruelty, had come to Alex, fully formed.
“Sophie.” His accent was thick, his voice as seductive as ever. “The children are in bed. You are free for the night, are you not?”
“What?” She blinked, her eyes enormous as she lifted them to his face. He was bewilderingly handsome, particularly dressed as he was now, in a pale shirt that showed off his caramel skin.
He followed the direction of her gaze and rewarded her with a sensual smile, loaded with promise. I understand, it said. I want that too. “I would like to take you out.”
She shook her head, confused and uncertain. “You would like to … take me out?”
Eric looked from one to the other and decided it was his place to save his employee from the overpowering Alessandros Petrides. “Sophie usually goes to bed early, because the twins still stir overnight.”
“You don’t give her even a night off?” Alex’s tone held a note of warning, and Eric didn’t miss it. His brows beetled as he studied his friend.
“She’s never asked for one,” Eric demurred, shrugging his shoulders as though it didn’t matter to him.
“Then let this be the first time.”
“I’m fine,” Sophie interrupted, finally remembering that she had a voice and a say in matters.
His eyes were black and loaded with speculation when he turned to her. “But you do not yet know what I wish to show you.”
His intention was set. She would become his. And her mind would become so full of him, and her body would crave only his, so that any thoughts of Eric would flock completely from her mind.
And if he was wrong? If Helena were wrong? And there was an innocent explanation for her apparent closeness to Eric?
He discounted it almost instantly. Oh, of course there was a small possibility. But Alessandros had lived and died by swift decisions, and that attitude had rarely failed him.
Unfortunately for Sophie, Alessandros was not a man who had been born with a proverbial silver spoon. He’d grown up tough, fighting for everything he had in life, and it had turned him into someone who fought dirty, and with any tools at his disposal, if the ends justified the means. What would he not do for the sister he had raised? Seducing this woman was hardly unpalatable to Alex but he understood it was morally questionable. Only his loyalty to Helena hardened his resolve. He would have Sophie. And sooner rather than later.
Sophie opened her mouth to object but no words came out. She was momentarily mute. This was a man unlike any she’d ever met. He was handsome as sin, gorgeous, in fact, and she was filled with a drowning sense of powerlessness that was foreign to her.
Alex’s gaze moved from her eyes to her mouth, and then he angled his fa
ce toward his friend. “Good evening, Eric.” He put a hand in Sophie’s back, and before she could find her voice, or her mind, he ushered her towards the front door.
It was only when they’d reached the pavement outside the elegant townhouse that Sophie stopped walking and stared up at him. “Alessandros …”
“Alex, please,” his voice was barely a breath. A husk of sound that curled around her body and soul.
“Alex, what are we doing?”
His expression was droll, and he easily made her feel like a complete wowser.
“We are walking. Or, at least, we were, until you stopped and said, Alessandros.” His imitation of her voice sent shivers down her spine. Was that really how she spoke? So husky and intimate?
She turned away from him, embarrassment making her skin crawl. “But why?”
Alex’s fingers on her back began to run up and down her spine, sending answering darts of awareness shooting through her whole body. “Sophie, are you going to lie to me?”
“To lie to you?” She repeated softly, lifting a hand to her throat and toying with the necklace she always wore.
“Mmm,” he urged her forward and she fell into step beside him. “You are going to lie and pretend you don’t want to be here with me?”
“I …” She was anguished. Had she been so obvious?
“Are you going to lie and say you have not been thinking about me and wondering? Are you going to say you do not feel this same tug of attraction that warms my body when you are near?”
He was being direct. So direct. And with good purpose. He could not afford to delay. Not when his sister’s marriage was likely at stake.
He turned the corner and she followed. It was a beautiful, private square lined with elegant Georgian houses. One in the corner had darkly tinted windows and geraniums in the window boxes.
“Well?” His voice was almost a growl.
“Well,” she shaped her mouth around the same word, her eyes lifting to his. It was as though she had been singed. There was something so powerfully, ferociously hot in his look, and Sophie wasn’t sure she was equal to it.
“You are not going to lie to me after all?”
Sophie was lurching uncertainly. She had limited experience with the opposite sex, and absolutely zero clue with a man like Alex. “I … don’t know what you want me to say.”
His laugh was a soft, teasing sound. He ran a thumb over her lower lip, and his eyes chased after it. His body was close to hers. So close she could feel his warmth and smell his intoxicating fragrance.
“I hardly know you,” she whispered desperately.
“So?” He dropped his hand to the collar of her shirt and traced the stitching. When his fingers moved close to the dip of her breasts, she drew in a shuddering breath.
“Alessandros.” Step back! She needed to put some distance between them. Only her hips swayed forward and her eyes fluttered closed.
They were long lashes, dark and curled. Alex stared at her face, and felt a swift jab of compunction for her youth. But this woman could not continue in his sister’s home if she harboured feelings for Eric. It was unacceptable.
And it was Alex’s job, as had been divined by birth and circumstance, to make sure Helena was kept from harm.
“I will not kiss you here, agape mou, for I do not trust that I can control myself to stop.”
Sophie’s heart turned over in her chest. How she wanted him to kiss her! The very idea was terrifying, and sobering. She could not get involved with a man such as this. Oh, for so many reasons, it would be wrong, wrong, wrong. He was her boss’s brother! And a well known womaniser to boot. It would muddy the waters terribly if she allowed herself this indulgence.
But what an indulgence it would be.
She almost groaned when she imagined what it would be like to be kissed by him. For he was strong and confident and most definitely knew how to please a woman.
“That’s probably a good idea,” she said, relief in her voice that he, at least, was going to be strong enough for both of them.
“Oh, I’m going to kiss you.”
Her eyes flared and her stomach rolled.
“Not here though.” He put his hand around her shoulders and pulled her gently with him. His walk was faster now, and she had to stride quickly to keep up. It was not far to go though; he paused just outside the house at the corner.
“This is yours?” She asked in surprise.
He nodded. “I bought it when they married.”
“To be close to Helena?” She guessed, remembering Eric’s assessment that Alex was a meddlesome, overbearing brother.
“Of course to be close to her. And to give her somewhere to stay if it didn’t work out.”
Sophie slanted a curious gaze up at him, but he was pushing the door inwards.
“Surely Helena doesn’t need you to fight her battles for her.” The last few words of her statement were lost in the crush of his mouth to hers. He pushed her back against the front door and held her there with his lips alone. His tongue was demanding and Sophie felt her knees going weak with a deluging surge of need. Her insides were slick with heat. She moaned deeply in her throat and lifted her hands to his chest.
He was just as firm to touch as she had known he would be. Firm, strong and warm. Up close he smelled of spice and summer. He was electrifying.
“Alex,” it was a passionate cry into his mouth but he didn’t release her. Instead, he brought his hands to her back and curled them possessively inside the waistband of her jeans, to cup her naked rear. Sophie hadn’t been touched so intimately in a long time, if ever. Her one and only boyfriend had been a spectacularly unimpressive Rohin Smith, from the same little Margaret River school she’d gone to. They’d fumbled around a few times and that had culminated in a very brief coming together, followed by another attempt a week later.
Beyond that, Sophie was an absolute novice.
“Alex!” She pulled her mouth away with effort, and dipped her head forward. She was panting, not from exertion but from the sheer strength of her desire.
The slight darkening along his chiselled cheekbones showed that he was not immune from the power of their kiss.
Sophie tried again. “Alex, I can’t get involved with you.”
“Can’t you?” He murmured, lifting her shirt up to her neck. With a look of frustration, Sophie reached her fingertips to the sky, so that he could remove it completely. Her bra was a sensible, plain cotton piece; certainly not the lace and silk lingerie he was used to on his women, and yet he found it totally alluring.
“What were you saying?” He murmured deeply, as he bent one scrap of fabric aside to reveal a perfect, pert breast.
Sophie gasped as his fingers ran over her nipple possessively. “That you’re related to my employers. And that I hardly know you. I can’t do this with you.”
Alex took her nipple in his mouth and rolled it with his tongue, before pressing his teeth against it lightly. Just enough to sear a sharp wave of painful longing through her. “Do you want me to stop?”
Sophie was hot and cold; pins and needles were in her body and soul.
And Alex understood. He knew the effect he was having on her. He knelt before her and undid her jeans, but he only slid them down to her knees, so that she was virtually imprisoned against the door. He quickly brought his mouth back to her breast, and his fingers he drifted lower, to her most intimate core.
“Do you want me to stop?”
Sophie felt a shudder of delirium as he moved one long finger inside her silky, wet centre.
“Alex?”
“So-phie,” he teased, his accent thicker than normal as he transferred his mouth to her other breast. He tasted her through the fabric of her bra, and Sophie cried out impatiently.
“Please,” she whimpered, her fingers digging sharply into his shoulders.
“Please?” He repeated, slipping another finger inside her. She bucked against him, hard, but her jeans were limiting her movement. He grinned and
lifted her over his shoulder thinking that she was like his very own mermaid.
Only far, far more beautiful, and infinitely more dangerous.
His room was upstairs, but he was too impatient for that. He took her to his study instead, and lay her down on the rarely-used desk.
“This is cold,” she surprised him by laughing.
Her laugh was a beautiful, sweet sound. Her face was beautiful and sweet too.
But she was not. At least, he was pretty sure she wasn’t. The flash of doubt wasn’t welcome. He disregarded it.
“You’ll survive.”
His tone was cold and it surprised her. She blinked up at him, but before she could question his meaning, he reached behind her and unclipped her bra, freeing her breasts into his broad hands. He held them and moved his body over hers, so that his arousal was intimately connected with her, despite the pants he wore.
Sophie lifted her hips, but her jeans were still wrapped around her ankles and she couldn’t get as close to him as she wanted. She went to pull a leg free but he shook his head.
“No.”
“No?” Her voice was puffed. She was breathless from desire.
He wanted to make love to her. He wanted to seduce her. He wanted to make her beg for him, over and over again.
He wanted her to fall in love with him.
To fall so hard, so spectacularly, that she would do anything he asked of her.
Including quit her job and never speak to Eric again.
His smile hid a cold sense of determination.
He undressed quickly, pausing only to protect them from unwanted consequences, and then he took possession of her body. She was ready for him, and yet when he swiftly pushed into her, she cried out. Her voice was a tremulous throb in the silence of his house.
“You are okay?” He checked, stroking her cheek.
Tears sparkled in her eyes and she nodded, dragging her lower lip between her teeth. Her cheeks were flushed. And as he looked into her face, he knew. No one had made her feel like that.
Billionaire Brides: An Anthology Page 21
