by Anne Mather
‘Oh,’ she breathed, taking short gulping breaths as he began to move inside her. The swelling ripples of delight, that previously she had only touched upon, were already overtaking and overwhelming her, and, although she was sure a woman was not supposed to be aroused so quickly, she couldn’t help herself. Alex’s nude body was crushing hers, the exquisite heat of him, filling and expanding her to an unimaginable extent, was driving her to a mindless state of ecstasy. And all coherent thought splintered when the wet force of his release spurted into her…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
‘I’M SORRY.’
Camilla was drifting on a limitless sea of pleasure when Alex’s words brought her back to an awareness of where she was, and what she was doing, and her eyes darkened bewilderedly.
‘You are?’ She didn’t understand his words, and as usual she jumped to the wrong conclusion. ‘Well, don’t be. I was as much to blame—’
‘To blame?’ Now it was Alex’s turn to look confused, and he propped himself up, with his elbows at either side of her head. ‘What are you talking about?’
She was intensely aware that he was still a part of her. Their bodies were still joined, and, even as she looked up at him through emotionally dazed eyes, she could feel him hardening again inside her.
‘Well,’ she said, moistening her lips. ‘I thought—’
‘Yes?’ He bent his head to brush his tongue against her temple and she quivered. ‘What did you think?’ he asked, his movement causing the slight covering of hair on his chest to tickle the sensitive tips of her breasts. ‘You’re not going to tell me this was a mistake, are you?’
‘I—well…’
Alex’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you?’ he repeated warily, and she quickly shook her head.
‘Of course not.’
‘Then what?’
‘Oh…’ She sighed. ‘It was you. You said you were sorry—’
‘For losing control,’ he told her huskily. ‘God, Camilla, it wasn’t meant to be this way. I intended to love you by degrees, not throw you on the bed and practically take you by force!’
‘You didn’t take me by force!’ she exclaimed, her lips parting now. ‘I wanted you just as much as…as you wanted me. You must know that.’
‘Even so—’
‘It was…fantastic,’ she breathed, putting up her hands and sliding them into the silky dampness of his hair. ‘For me, anyway.’
Alex’s mouth twisted. ‘I trust you don’t expect an answer to that,’ he told her wryly. ‘Right now I’m not in a mood to trade unnecessary remarks of that nature. Suffice it to say, you’ve gone a small way to solving a problem I’ve had for the past three months.’
Camilla’s lips parted. ‘A problem?’ she echoed swiftly. ‘What kind of problem?’
‘Wanting you,’ retorted Alex with some heat. ‘Don’t pretend I’ve made any secret of the fact. God knows, you must be the last to know. My family have been left in no doubt about my feelings for the past several weeks. Loving you has made me hell to live with, believe me.’
Loving you!
Camilla trembled. She found the notion that Alex might have been as miserable since she’d left Hawaii as she had been herself very appealing, and the little smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth revealed the fact.
‘I suppose you find that amusing,’ he muttered, and the amazing realisation that he was as unsure of himself now as she had been earlier made her hasten to reassure him.
‘Not…amusing,’ she denied huskily, taking his face between her hands and drawing his mouth down to hers. ‘Incredible, perhaps,’ she added against his lips, and Alex found himself incapable of continuing this conversation.
His mouth was gentle as he kissed her, once, twice, turning his head from side to side, so that she was left weak and breathless. Then, feeling her instinctive response, his mouth hardened, and the pressure of his tongue drove all other thoughts aside. She knew him now; knew the hot possession of him inside her; knew the feel, and the taste, and the clean musky smell of his maleness. He was hers, she thought dizzily, just as she was his, and the liquid heat he created was like a fire in her veins.
This time their lovemaking was slower, more deliberate, Alex using his undoubted skill to bring Camilla to the brink of sensation time and time again, until her senses were screaming for a fulfilment he was intentionally withholding. He used his power over her body to arouse her to a complete awareness of her own sexual potential, and when she tumbled into the heady chasm he had created for her she was mindless, exhausted, and totally content…
* * *
Some time later Alex rolled on to his side, taking her with him, and Camilla buried her face against his chest as she said softly, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’
‘Do you?’ Alex took her chin in his hand, and tipped her flushed face up to his. ‘Do you mean that?’
‘Do I have to prove it again?’ she asked ruefully, the colour that was never far from the surface of her skin deepening the brilliance of her green eyes. ‘You must know I do. I just didn’t…believe…’
‘That I loved you too?’ Alex finished for her softly, and she nodded. ‘Oh, sweetheart, I think I fell in love with you that first day, when I saw you at the airport. Only there was nothing I could do about it then. But when I found you waiting at the house—well, nothing was quite the same after that.’
‘Wasn’t it?’ Camilla found she liked this kind of exchange after all. Propping herself up on one elbow, she looked down at him adoringly, hardly able to believe even now that this was actually happening. She stroked the outline of his lips with one exploring finger. ‘I thought you resented my being there.’
‘I did.’ Alex pulled her teasing fingers into his mouth and bit them hard. He sighed. ‘You have to understand my feelings at that time. My opinion of women was at an all-time low, and the last thing I thought I needed was some smart-ass lady lawyer telling me what I should and shouldn’t do.’
‘I didn’t do that!’
Camilla was indignant, and Alex grinned at her struggles to extract her smarting fingers from his hold. ‘You did,’ he argued, caressing the tiny scars he had made and soothing them with his tongue. ‘And, I guess, subconsciously I was aware of the dangers you represented.’
‘Dangers?’
‘To my peace of mind,’ explained Alex huskily. ‘Dear God, after my experiences with Virginia I had no intention of ever getting involved with anyone else. I’d already decided that if I got Maria back safely I’d take steps to ensure that nothing like that ever happened again. I was going to get a divorce, whatever threats Virginia cared to throw my way, and marrying someone else was simply not on the cards.’
Camilla’s tongue appeared. ‘Marrying someone else?’ she echoed. ‘Does that mean what…what I think it means?’
Alex gave her an old-fashioned look. ‘Stop fishing.’
‘No.’ Camilla caught her lower lip between her teeth. ‘I’m not. It’s just that…’
Alex regarded her quizzically. ‘You’re not going to turn me down, are you?’
‘Oh—no.’ Camilla shook her head helplessly. ‘Not…not if it’s what you want.’
‘Believe me, it’s what I want,’ said Alex heavily. ‘God, I don’t think I could stand another few weeks like those I’ve just spent. You’ve no idea how hard it’s been.’
‘Oh—I think I have,’ murmured Camilla huskily, bending her head to brush his temple with her lips. ‘It’s just…unbelievable, that’s all.’
‘Why?’
‘Well—it has been almost three months—’
‘D’you think I don’t know that?’ Alex’s eyes softened, and he ran his long fingers up into her hair. ‘Believe me, I have the scars to prove it. But, baby, England is the other side of the world, and, like it or not, I had to stay in Honolulu until that business with Grant was tied up.’
‘Is…is he…?’
‘In prison?’ Alex shook his head. ‘No. No, he’s not. My father found him a
good lawyer, and after some negotiation Virginia decided not to press charges. I guess she decided she didn’t need any more adverse publicity, and, although it wasn’t easy, the family name remains more or less intact.’
‘I see.’
But Camilla still looked troubled, and Alex pulled her down to him and cradled her head against his shoulder. ‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘I wanted to nail that bastard just as much as you did, but my aunt means a lot to meto all of us—and she was the one who would suffer most. So…Grant’s got what you might call a “stay of execution”, with the sure and certain knowledge that if he transgresses again he doesn’t get a second chance.’
‘You mean he’s still working for you?’
Camilla was horrified, and Alex chuckled. ‘Oh, no,’ he said softly. ‘I’m not that benevolent. Grant’s sacrificed any chance he ever had of running the Conti Corporation. Forfeiting the shares he had in the company was only one of the demands his lawyer agreed to. Leaving Hawaii was another. At present he’s in Venezuela, working for a subsidiary of Conti Oil, with a good friend of my father’s to keep an eye on him. I don’t think he’ll trouble us again. Grant has too fine a liking for his own skin.’
‘Ah!’ Camilla breathed more easily. But there was still one more thing she had to ask. ‘And…and what about Virginia?’
‘What about Virginia?’ Alex frowned. ‘I’ve told you about her. She’s in a clinic—’
‘Yes. Yes, I know that.’ Camilla sighed. ‘I just meant—’
‘Does she know about us?’ prompted Alex gently, and she nodded again. ‘Well,’ he went on, ‘the answer is yes. I told her. Right about the time she told me she thought we’d be good for one another.’
‘No!’ Camilla lifted her head.
‘Yes.’ Alex was complacent. ‘Virginia may be many things, but she’s no fool. She knew how I felt when you went back to England. God, I wasn’t fit to live with. I knew I couldn’t go tearing after you, not with Virginia in the hospital, Grant in custody, and Maria still unwilling to let me out of her sight. I guess she thought she was doing me a favour by telling me that she thought you felt the same. The trouble was I couldn’t prove it, and the last few weeks have been a living hell!’
Camilla snuggled down again, sliding her leg between his, and exulting in the unfamiliar intimacy. ‘So…you got a divorce?’ she ventured, and he groaned.
‘That was my mother’s idea. You have to remember family is important to my parents. My mother may not be of Italian extraction, but she’s been married to my father for more than forty years, and I guess she’s absorbed his customs by osmosis. Anyway, her contribution was that maybe you left because I was married. She said she thought you were a decent girl, and that you’d never consider having a relationship with a married man.’
Camilla chuckled now. ‘Oh, dear. If she only knew!’
‘Yes, well—let’s keep it our secret, shall we?’ suggested Alex laughingly. ‘So long as she can attend our wedding I’m sure she won’t make too many objections.’
‘Our wedding!’
Camilla’s voice was dreamy, and Alex couldn’t resist bestowing a lingering kiss on her parted lips. ‘Our wedding,’ he agreed huskily, easing himself closer. ‘And it had better be soon, because I don’t intend to go back without you.’
Camilla returned his kiss, and then, with her fingertips caressing his cheek, she said, ‘Will…will Maria mind, do you think?’
‘Maria?’ Alex brought her fingers to his lips again. ‘I don’t think you have to worry about Maria.’
‘But she is going to live with us, isn’t she?’ exclaimed Camilla anxiously. ‘I mean…Virginia…’
‘Virginia never wanted Maria,’ Alex told her softly. ‘Our marriage was a mistake, from start to finish. Maria was just the innocent result, that’s all. You must know if she hadn’t been around I wouldn’t have tried so hard to sustain the pretence. And it was a pretence, believe me. Only I had the money Virginia needed to support her habit, and I—well, I was foolish enough to think that it was better for Maria to have two parents, instead of only one.’
But…do you think she’ll like me?’
‘Well, she already feels she has a certain…obligation to make sure nothing else bad happens to you,’ remarked Alex drily. ‘I mean, I’ve already told you that she understands how important her contribution to your discovery was. Well, let me tell you, that’s not an obligation Maria takes lightly.’
Camilla smiled. ‘Really?’
‘You’d better believe it,’ Alex advised her wryly, and Camilla thought how delightful a prospect that was.
* * *
A year later Alex took Camilla out to dinner. It was their first outing together since the birth of their baby son, and Alex had been desperate to get his wife alone.
‘You know,’ he said, putting his hands across the table and imprisoning hers between them, ‘I never used to think I was the jealous type. But lately I’ve had to revise my opinion.’
Camilla’s eyes danced. ‘Jealous?’ she exclaimed. ‘What have you got to be jealous about?’
‘Not what—who!’ amended Alex ruefully. ‘Our son, of course. James Alexander Victor, to be precise. For the past three months it’s been impossible for us to be alone together.’
Camilla smiled. ‘Well,’ she said consideringly, ‘we do sleep together, darling…’
Alex’s eyes darkened. ‘When we’re allowed to.’
‘Oh, Alex!’ Camilla chuckled. ‘You wouldn’t have wanted me to let him starve, would you?’
‘No.’ Alex conceded that point. ‘But I’m glad he’s going to be bottle-fed from now on.’ He raised her hands to his lips. ‘I like having you all to myself, and our having a baby straight away wasn’t exactly in my scheme of things.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have pretended you wanted your will changing when you had something else in mind,’ Camilla reminded him laughingly, and Alex had to smile at her undeniable logic.
‘All right, all right,’ he said. ‘So I admit I couldn’t keep my hands off you. But let’s not have another baby for a while, hmm? Like maybe…ten years?’
Camilla shook her head. ‘Well—maybe not quite that long,’ she amended, remembering the sensuous pleasure of feeling Alex’s baby growing inside her. ‘But a couple of years—yes. I could handle that.’
‘And me?’ enquired Alex softly, and now she brought his hands to her lips.
‘Oh, yes,’ she said. ‘I think I know how to handle you. I’m getting lots of experience.’
‘Camilla!’
His husky use of her name reminded her of where they were—in one of the most exclusive hotels in Honolulu—and that bringing that particular light to Alex’s eyes was not entirely wise.
‘Besides,’ she said then, in an effort to divert him, ‘I don’t think Maria would like it if we produced another baby too soon. James is a doll, and she thinks the world of him, but we’ll let her get used to the idea of having a baby brother before we consider giving her a baby sister, too, hmm?’
‘Anything you say,’ agreed Alex, his eyes dark and slumbrous as they lingered on the dusky hollow between her breasts. Then, glancing round for the waiter, he lifted his hand. ‘But right now I think we ought to get some practice. I mean,’ his husky teasing tone bringing the colour to her cheeks again, ‘they say practice makes perfect, don’t they?’ And Camilla couldn’t argue with that.
ISBN-13: 9781460347713
DIAMOND FIRE
© 1991 Anne Mather
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