Mistress to the Mediterranean Male (Mills & Boon By Request)

by Carole Mortimer

  Although why this woman should think she had any right to comment on what he did in his private life was beyond him!

  He found his attention caught and held as Brynne pushed her halter-top up to just below her breasts as she now put oil onto her bare midriff. A completely flat midriff, with soft and creamy skin, and just a tanatalizing glimpse of the thrusting swell of her breasts beneath the green top—

  What was he doing?

  This woman was Miguel’s aunt by marriage, his nuisance of an aunt by marriage, not someone whose attractions Alejandro should find in the least arousing.

  His mouth tightened. ‘You have a comment you wish to make about my dinner engagement?’ he rasped hastily, all the time knowing that impatience was aimed at himself more than at Brynne.

  She was a constant thorn in his side, an irritant he couldn’t wait to be rid of, so what did it matter if she had a lithely beautiful body and that her skin looked like silk? Even the freckles that covered the whole of her body added to her sensuousness as he imagined discovering, and kissing, every single one of them …

  ‘Not at all.’ Brynne looked surprised by his question. ‘I was just making conversation, Alejandro,’ she dismissed lightly.

  Like hell she was!

  But he was not involved with Antonia in the way that Brynne seemed to think he was. Deliberately so. Flattering and charming Antonia was one thing, but he never, ever mixed business with the sort of pleasure he had been thinking of with Brynne herself a few minutes ago.

  Although that slight possessiveness Antonia seemed to be developing where he was concerned told him that he might not have been his usual careful self where relationships were concerned during his distraction over the custody of Miguel. Both Antonia and her father might be expecting something more from the interest he had shown Antonia.

  But he had no intention of ever going through the painful process of marrying again. And now that he had an heir in Miguel, he had no need to do so.

  But there was still the problem of Felipe Roig’s elusiveness …

  He stood up quickly. ‘I have some calls to make.’

  ‘My, what a busy man you are, Alejandro,’ Brynne looked up to taunt, her chin resting on her bent knee.

  His gaze was cold as he looked down at her. ‘I have business commitments, yes,’ he replied coolly.

  Brynne raised her eyebrows. ‘How pleasant for you when the business is as beautiful as Antonia Roig.’

  Alejandro’s jaw clenched. ‘Not that it is any of your concern, but my only connection with Antonia is business with her father, Felipe.’

  ‘Really?’ Brynne derided. ‘That wasn’t the impression I got!’

  ‘I do not care—’ Alejandro broke off his angry retort, breathing deeply as he looked down his arrogant nose at her. ‘You really do not have the right to question me in this way, Brynne,’ he finally snapped coldly.

  ‘But the two of you are having dinner together this evening,’ she challenged, not prepared to let him off that easily. After all, if he was considering making Antonia his wife, and consequently Michael’s stepmother, then she did consider it her business!

  ‘I am one of several guests invited for dinner this evening at the home of Antonia’s father, yes,’ he bit out impatiently.

  ‘Ah …’ she murmured speculatively, enjoying seeing this usually perfectly controlled man at a disadvantage for a change.

  Alejandro scowled darkly. ‘You really are the most—unsettling, of women!’

  Brynne smiled. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

  ‘I would not,’ he snarled, his accent becoming more pronounced in his obvious displeasure. ‘So far I have not found being with you a restful experience!’

  Her smile turned to a chuckle. ‘I believe that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Alejandro!’

  She was infuriating, Alejandro acknowledged, not for the first time. Infuriating, outspoken, and far too familiar.

  But at the same time he also knew that he had never found a moment’s boredom in this woman’s company, either …

  For a man who had been soured towards love years ago, his relationships since that time only having ever been on a physical level, it wasn’t just unsettling to realize this, it was extremely disturbing!

  He shook his head. ‘I really do have to go and make some calls. What now?’ he questioned in frustration as he saw Brynne’s disapproving expression.

  She shrugged. ‘I was merely wondering if you ever intended to spend any time with Michael?’

  Alejandro’s frown darkened to a scowl. ‘I have just finished having lunch with both of you.’

  ‘Eating together and actually spending time together are two totally different things,’ Brynne dismissed evenly.

  He drew in a controlling breath. No one, absolutely no one, ever questioned him in this way!

  ‘Tell me, Brynne,’ he said tersely, ‘have you ever been present at the taming of a wild stallion?’

  Brynne gave him a puzzled glance. ‘I can’t say that I have.’

  He nodded abruptly. ‘Then if you had you would know that it takes patience. That first you have to let the stallion slowly become accustomed to your presence, to the sound of your voice. Once you have done that, you can begin to touch the stallion as you talk to it. Again this takes time. But once he accepts these things it is time to put on the saddle and bit. Only to put it on, you understand. It will take many more days before you can actually attempt to get up into the saddle. If you try to go too fast, to force these things, then you will break the animal rather than tame it.’

  Brynne stared at him incredulously. ‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re treating getting to know Michael the same as taming a wild stallion?’ she gasped disbelievingly.

  He shrugged those broad shoulders. ‘It is a tried and tested method.’

  ‘You—you—’ Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright with temper as she stood up to face him. ‘Is that how you tame a woman too, Alejandro?’ she challenged in disgust. ‘Do you talk softly to them? Touch them? Caress them? Before taking them to your bed?’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.

  His jaw was tightly clenched, his pale grey eyes cold with anger as he glared down at her. ‘You have no right—’

  ‘I have every right if that’s really the way you think you’re going to get close to Michael!’ she replied. ‘You’re incredible, do you know that?’ She gave a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘Absolutely incredible, if you think you can treat the emotions of a vulnerable little boy as lightly as you would the taming of a wild stallion!’

  A nerve pulsed in that tightly clenched jaw. ‘And you, Brynne, have never even tried to understand how difficult this situation is for me—’

  ‘Forgive me, Alejandro,’ she came back sarcastically. ‘But you really aren’t my first priority!’

  ‘As well as Miguel,’ Alejandro finished angrily. ‘In fact, I believe you take delight in thinking the worst of me!’ he snapped.

  ‘I would think badly of any man who evaded his responsibilities for six years!’ she retorted.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘So now we come to the true reason for your obvious contempt for me!’

  ‘I’ve never even tried to pretend I feel anything else!’ Brynne scorned.

  He looked at her icily. ‘You have no knowledge of what happened between Joanna and myself seven years ago!’

  ‘I know enough,’ Brynne assured him scathingly. ‘Joanna didn’t even trust you enough to tell you of her pregnancy, let alone try to include you in it!’

  Alejandro’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to control his own temper, and tell himself that Brynne spoke out of ignorance rather than fact. She judged him on what she thought she knew rather than on what had actually happened seven years ago.

  It didn’t work, his anger not abating in the slightest. ‘I advise you not to make judgements on something you do not understand,’ he told her coldly.

  ‘Oh, I understand you only to
o well, Alejandro,’ Brynne assured him with a disgusted toss of her head, blue eyes glittering. ‘You’re cold. You’re aloof. And your all-knowing arrogance is just unbelievable!’

  He continued to look at her in frustration for several long seconds, his jaw clamped tightly together as he debated whether he wanted to verbally tear Brynne apart, or just pull her into his arms and kiss her until she was senseless.

  The latter emotion won!

  He reached out to pull her slender body into his and felt the softness of her skin against his own as he held her tightly against him and took possession of the sensuous curve of her lips.

  The kiss was so unexpected, so fiercely hot, that Brynne had no chance to do anything other than respond.

  It was like drowning! Every part of her seemed to melt into Alejandro, her hands moving up as she clung to the broad width of his shoulders.

  And then Alejandro was pushing her away from him, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw when he turned back from ensuring that Michael hadn’t seen the exchange. He hadn’t.

  ‘I have to go,’ he finally muttered determinedly before turning on his heel and striding purposefully back to the villa, his back and shoulders rigid.

  Brynne watched him go, very much aware of the fact that, instead of repulsing Alejandro’s kisses, the ache in her body told her she actually regretted that they had ended so soon …!

  CHAPTER SIX

  BRYNNE shifted on the bed as she tried to find a comfortable position in which to fall asleep.

  Something she had been trying to do for the last hour, feeling too restless to settle down to read the book she had brought away with her, and Alejandro not having returned from his evening out yet.

  She had been so angry with him this afternoon, then so surprised and aroused as he had kissed her.

  In fact, she had been so distracted, so disturbed, that she had felt relieved when Maria had come out and offered to take Michael for a walk to the village with her.

  But the result was that Brynne had been so worn out from puzzling over that kiss, her head so full of the things she should have said to Alejandro and hadn’t, that she had eventually fallen into a deep sleep as she had continued to lay on the lounger beside the pool.

  Only to wake up an hour later to find her back sunburnt because she had been too agitated earlier to remember to put any oil on it before falling asleep.

  Brynne got impatiently out of the bed, the after-sun she had managed to put on her shoulders earlier, and partway up her back, doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the heat or the stinging sensation that continued to keep her from sleeping.

  She opened the French doors to stroll out onto the balcony, hearing the distant clanging of a bell around the neck of a goat or sheep, and the clicking sound of the cicadas.

  The island really was beautiful, with the brightly coloured bougainvillea that grew in such abundance, the orange and lemon trees that grew on the terraced hillsides and the tiny villages with their wondrous smells of cooking, old-fashioned shops and cafés. Plus it was all surrounded by the most magnificently coloured sea Brynne had ever seen.

  But it was all ruined for Brynne by the presence of Alejandro.

  What had happened between the two of them earlier today?

  She wasn’t quite sure …

  The conversation had started out so innocently. And ended in that fiercely heated kiss, a kiss that had left such tension and disharmony between them that Brynne had felt restless and disturbed ever since.

  Because she was still angry with him, she had told herself after he had left her. It was only when she had come up to bed, and sleep had continued to elude her, that she had allowed her thoughts to become less angry, to try to understand why their conversation had deteriorated in the way that it had, with the result that Alejandro had actually kissed her.

  Her conclusion, at least as far as she was concerned, was not a pleasant one!

  There had been such intensity between them during that heated exchange, so that when he had kissed her so suddenly her body had given her no choice but to respond. At which point she had been totally aware of the heat of him, of the broadness of his shoulders, of the hard power—and pleasure—that hardness promised—

  No!

  Brynne closed her eyes to shut out the memory. It would be extremely stupid on her part to allow her sexual awareness of Alejandro to get any deeper than it already was.

  But what if it was something she had no control over?

  She could hear the sound of a car coming down the narrow, winding road to the villa, and knew it had to be Alejandro returning from his evening out.

  There was something slightly undignified about the possibility that Alejandro might see her standing out on the balcony and think she had been waiting here for him to come home.

  She hadn’t, had she …?

  It didn’t matter whether she had or not, she decided as she moved quickly back into her bedroom and shut the door behind her; Alejandro wasn’t going to see her and jump to any conclusion, erroneous or otherwise.

  Sounds carried in the silence of the night, and she heard Alejandro park the car in the garage, then the scrape of his shoes on the terrace as he walked to the villa and let himself in.

  Her nerves tensed as she waited for him to ascend the stairs and walk down the hallway as he went to bed.

  The light knock on her bedroom door startled her so much she almost knocked over the vase of lilies that stood on her dressing table.

  Alejandro had come to her bedroom, not his own!

  Because of that kiss they had shared this afternoon? Had Alejandro realized that part of her anger towards him had been because she had been inexplicably roused by the exchange?

  You’re being stupid now, Brynne, she instantly rebuked her panicked thoughts. As far as Alejandro was concerned she had told him how much she didn’t like him this afternoon.

  ‘Yes?’ she called out, lacing her fingers together to stop them from trembling.

  The door opened slowly, and Alejandro came quietly into the room. ‘I saw the light was still on in your bedroom and wondered if there was a problem …?’ He arched his dark brows.

  Yes, there was a problem, Brynne realized achingly as she felt her nipples harden beneath her silky pyjamas from just looking at him in his evening suit, the warmth of her body centred between her thighs now.

  The darkness of his hair was slightly ruffled by the evening breeze, and the top button of his shirt was undone to reveal the beginning of the dark hair that no doubt covered his chest and went down to his—

  She lifted her startled gaze back up to his face and instantly wished that she hadn’t as she found her eyes were now held and captured by the intensity of his.

  ‘Brynne …?’ he prompted.

  She swallowed hard, inwardly chastising herself for her stupidity. ‘Er—no, there’s no problem,’ she answered him determinedly. ‘I—just couldn’t sleep, that’s all. It’s—very hot this evening, isn’t it?’

  Hotter still since Alejandro had entered her bedroom!

  What was wrong with her? She wasn’t an impressionable teenager but a mature woman of twenty-five, and had been out with a number of men over the last few years—

  But none of them had been in the least like Alejandro!

  No, they had been nice men, ordinary men, men who had shared her interests, men she had been able to talk to, not a man who filled a room just by walking into it, a man who could command with just a look, a man who had upset and disturbed her life since the moment he had entered it six weeks ago, a man who—

  A man who created a moist heat between her thighs just by being in the same room as her!

  This was awful.

  Terrible.

  ‘Brynne, what—’

  ‘No!’ she exclaimed when she saw he was about to walk farther into her bedroom. ‘It’s late, Alejandro,’ she told him abruptly. ‘I would like to go back to bed now.’

  Alejandro searched her face. Was he being ridi
culous? Brynne had looked at him just now as if—well, as if she returned some of the desire he had felt when he had kissed her this afternoon.

  It was a feeling he had tried to dismiss as fanciful after he’d left her, and then again this evening as he had sat at the crowded dinner table of the Roigs, Antonia’s attempts to tease him out of his reverie completely unsuccessful. In fact, he had felt himself becoming more and more impatient this evening with Antonia’s attempts to beguile him with her sultry beauty!

  He had seen the light still on in Brynne’s bedroom as he had driven down the hill to the villa and had told himself not to knock on her door. It would not be a sensible move on his part after their last encounter, when the emotion had been so heightened between them he had had to walk away from it.

  He had told himself to go to his own bedroom, and forget all about Brynne Sullivan. But his feet had seemed to have a different idea of his intentions as he had found himself knocking on her door!

  It was there still, a tension, a frisson, that he could feel stretching across the room between them.

  Even in pyjamas Brynne looked beautiful, her hair draped across one shoulder and down over her breasts. Firm, uptilting breasts, the nipples of which were outlined against the soft peach-coloured material of her top. Alejandro’s lips tingled just at the thought of tasting the rosy tip with his tongue—

  ‘If you are sure you are all right …’ He nodded abruptly, knowing he had to leave now or put into practice all the things he was imagining doing with Brynne.

  ‘Yes, of course I—’ Brynne broke off, having started to cross the room to encourage his exit before coming to an abrupt halt, wincing slightly as she did so. ‘I’m fine,’ she told him brightly. ‘Just fine.’

  Alejandro’s brow furrowed. ‘Somehow I do not think so …’ he murmured slowly, stepping farther into the bedroom.

  ‘Please, Alejandro,’ she said in protest, knowing that she shouldn’t have moved, because it had caused the material of her top to rub painfully over her red and throbbing back. ‘What could possibly be wrong?’ she dismissed.