Or wanted, after earlier fighting the impulse he’d had to follow her to the bathroom and sit and watch her as she bathed.
She had sat curled up against the cushions, her beautiful face bare of make-up, the rumpled folds of her robe revealing the creamy swell of her breasts, those long, sensitive fingers, that had caressed his back so arousingly the night before, curled loosely about the book she must have been reading when she fell asleep.
Alejandro had looked down at her for several long minutes, drawn between the desire to lie down on the sofa beside her as he kissed and caressed her awake, and the more sensible idea of waking her so that she could get herself off to bed before he gave in to that desire.
In the end he had done neither, instead bending down to lift her easily into his arms with the idea of carrying her up the stairs to her bedroom.
She felt so light in his arms, so soft and silky, that he realized now he had been foolish to think he could simply carry her to her room and just leave her there. The rapidly rising desire in his body clamoured for him to do something quite different…
Brynne, fully awake now, looked up at Alejandro beneath lowered lashes, seeing his tightly clenched jaw, a nerve pulsing in one rigidly set cheek.
He smelt faintly of wine and expensive cigars, of a spicy aftershave, and underlying those scents was the all-male smell that was Alejandro.
And he felt wonderful, she discovered as her arms moved up about his neck and her hands rested lightly on those broad shoulders. He was warm and sensual to the touch, the heat from his body transmitting itself to her much cooler one—that heat seeming to increase as her fingers became entwined in the dark thickness of the hair at his nape.
He looked down at her beneath hooded lids. ‘What are you doing, Brynne?’ he rasped.
After their earlier conversation about the danger of the two of them being close like this, she wasn’t quite sure, only she knew that she wanted to continue touching him. That she wanted more than to touch him. She wanted him to touch her too, to kiss her in the way he had the night before.
‘Do not look at me in that way, Brynne,’ he ordered, that nerve pulsing more rapidly in his cheek.
‘What way is that, Alejandro?’ she murmured huskily, slowly moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, deliberately holding his gaze as she did so.
His mouth firmed impatiently. ‘Have you been drinking?’
‘Not as much as you have, I’m sure,’ she dismissed, knowing it was Alejandro himself that was making her feel so wantonly reckless, not the two glasses of wine she had drunk hours ago and already slept off.
Alejandro came to a halt in the hallway as he looked down at her, knowing he should just take her to her bedroom and leave her there. But his own bedroom was nearer. And at this moment Brynne was so soft and willing in his arms…
His eyes narrowed. ‘Are you going to regret this in the morning, Brynne?’
‘Probably,’ she whispered. ‘But I’m trying not to be…hypocritical about it.’
His mouth curved into a smile at this joke directed towards herself.
‘You are intoxicated—’
‘With you,’ she murmured throatily as she turned to where his shirt was unbuttoned, her lips lightly caressing. ‘Only with you, Alejandro,’ she assured him huskily before her tongue moved to taste him.
Dios Mío, he could perhaps fight his own desire, but he could not fight Brynne’s as well.
He hesitated no longer, kicking his bedroom door open and then shut again behind them, before carrying Brynne over to his bed, laying her down there amongst the cushions.
‘I always wanted to sleep in a four-poster bed,’ she told him huskily as he moved to release the drapes that enclosed them in their own private world.
Alejandro gave a rueful smile. ‘Sleeping was not what I had in mind.’
Brynne returned that smile—if she was still asleep and dreaming, then this was a dream she never wanted to end!
Her arms moved up about his shoulders as she drew his head down towards her, her lips slightly parted as, with a throaty groan, he took fierce possession.
The last twenty-four hours since they had been together like this might never have happened, the desire between them instant, burning, out of control.
Alejandro’s mouth continued to plunder hers as he pushed her robe and then her silky top to one side and bared her breasts to the caress of his hands. Brynne’s back arched in invitation; she gasped low in her throat as she felt him first cup and then caress those swollen orbs, her nipples hard and sensitive to that touch.
Her hands moved restlessly across his back, nails slightly rasping through the thin material of his shirt, wanting to feel his skin in the way that he was caressing hers. Her fingers shook slightly as she unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off his shoulders and down his arms.
Alejandro’s mouth left hers reluctantly as he raised his head. ‘Let me look at you.’ He groaned, reaching out to switch on the bedside lamp.
She looked just as wild and wanton as he had imagined she would, her breasts small and perfect, the nipples a deep rose as he slowly lowered his head to suckle, first one and then the other. Drawing those hardened nubs into the moist heat of his mouth as he tasted and sucked, he felt the heat of Brynne’s pleasure as her thighs began to move restlessly against him, asking for more, begging for more.
‘I want to kiss and touch all of you.’ Alejandro groaned as he placed a lingering kiss on each nipple before his hands trailed down across her ribcage to the slender curve of her hips, sliding down the silky material of her pyjama bottoms to reveal the silky auburn triangle between her legs. His hand moved to part and then caress her there.
Brynne had seen the beauty of her body in Alejandro’s eyes as he had stripped that last remaining article of clothing from her body, her eyes widening slightly and then closing in ecstasy as he touched between her thighs. She moaned deep in her throat as she felt the touch of his lips against her now, gently seeking, and then finding, the tiny nub of arousal between her thighs. His tongue was a rasp and then a caress as she gasped in rising pleasure, his hand caressing before he entered her, matching that delicate thrust to the increasing caress of his tongue.
She hadn’t known—hadn’t realized—
And then she couldn’t think any more as a pleasure unlike anything she had ever known before tore through her with the force of a tidal wave. Her body convulsed against his hand as he continued to lick that hardened nub until he had given her every last vestige of pleasure.
‘So wet,’ he murmured huskily as he continued to caress her. ‘So hot and wet and ready for me.’ He groaned hungrily, lips and tongue kissing and tasting as he moved slowly up her body.
Brynne felt as if she had been taken to heaven and back, had seen the moon and the stars, and Alejandro was the very centre of that universe.
She moved so that she could push him back against the pillows now, instinct taking over as she stripped trousers and boxer shorts from the lean strength of his body before bending down to taste him as he had tasted her, wanting, needing to give him the same pleasure.
Her tongue ran the hard length of him. Feeling empowered, she felt him spasm with pleasure, circling the tip of him before she took him into the moist heat of her mouth, her encircling fingers moving with the same gentle rhythm as her lips and tongue.
‘Dios mío…!’ Alejandro gasped in protest even as his hands reached out to become entangled in her hair and hold her tightly against him. His thighs moved to match those caressing hands and lips, the last twenty-four hours of damping down the release he had craved last night bringing him to the peak of release much quicker than he would have wanted.
‘No, Brynne!’ He reached down to stop her, lifting her up and on top of him before lowering her down again, the hardness of his shaft pulsing with his need to enter her tight wetness.
Brynne felt Alejandro’s silken hardness move against her, reaching down to guide him into her, feeling a moment, a very br
ief moment, of pain, before he entered and filled her completely.
‘You are so tight, Brynne,’ he muttered achingly as his hands on her hips controlled her movements above him to the slow thrusts of his body. ‘So erotically tight and perfect.’ He groaned.
But she was so aroused, so ready for him, that the slickness of her body moved easily against his, taking them to even deeper heights.
‘Beautiful, Brynne,’ he murmured throatily, eyes dark as he gazed his fill of her breasts. ‘You are so, so beautiful.’
She felt beautiful, totally feminine, the pleasure she was giving him, the pleasure they were giving each other, having taken away any shyness she might otherwise have felt at such intimacies.
Alejandro’s hands moved up her ribcage to cup the pert swell of her breasts, his thumbs moving lightly across the sensitized tips. ‘Let me kiss you again,’ he groaned achingly even as he pulled her down to him and his mouth claimed her breast.
Brynne gasped, her hands on his shoulders, her head thrown back as Alejandro suckled the fiery tip of her breast into his mouth, the thrust of his hips against hers, the silken caress of his hardness, taking her to a climax that made her cry out in pleasure, her heat convulsing about him as Alejandro groaned and she felt him pumping his release deep inside her.
Seconds, minutes, hours later, she collapsed weakly down onto his chest, her rasping breathing matched by Alejandro’s own as his arms closed about her and held her close against him, their bodies still joined.
‘Next time we will go slower,’ he promised gruffly. ‘Next time I intend driving you to the point of madness before giving you the release you crave.’
Brynne felt so lethargic, so relaxed, so perfectly satiated, she couldn’t even think past this moment, couldn’t even imagine a next time.
Or could she? she marvelled as Alejandro began to slowly caress down the length of her spine before moving lower, his hands now cupping her bottom, fingers featherlight as he familiarized himself with every silken inch of her.
By next time, did he mean now? she wondered dazedly as she felt him begin to stir inside her. Surely it was too soon? Didn’t a man have to rest for some hours before—?
‘Ooh!’ she gasped breathlessly as she felt his growing hardness against her sensitive inner flesh.
Alejandro grinned up at her wolfishly. ‘I hope you are replete from your nap earlier, Brynne—because I really do not intend either of us to sleep tonight.’
Replete or not, Brynne could feel her own desire stirring, eager to know his body as intimately as he knew hers, wanting…
They both looked up as the telephone on the bedside table began to ring. Alejandro frowned. Brynne, in sudden panic, finally remembered exactly what the something was she had waited up to tell Alejandro!
‘I forgot to tell you earlier,’ she groaned in a rush of guilty apology. ‘Your brother telephoned this evening while you were out—’ She didn’t get any further with her explanation as Alejandro disentangled their two bodies to lie beside her, frowning darkly before he turned to reach out and snatch the receiver from its cradle.
Alejandro’s back was towards her as he took the call. He was speaking in Spanish so she had no idea what he was saying, but nonetheless Brynne was able to see the tension that stiffened his shoulders and spine as he listened to his brother’s end of the conversation. It just made her feel even more guilty that she had forgotten to tell him of the earlier call. It had to be something important for the other man to have called Alejandro again at—at almost midnight, Brynne realized after a glance at the bedside clock.
How could she have forgotten to tell him? Brynne berated herself as she slid off the bed to push the drapes aside and pull on her robe. She was in the process of tying the belt securely about her waist as Alejandro ended the call, his face turned away from her as he stood up to begin pulling on his clothes.
‘What is it?’ Brynne frowned as she watched him.
Alejandro sat on the side of the bed to pull on his shoes, once again the arrogant Spaniard she had known for the previous six weeks.
‘Alejandro…?’ she prompted nervously.
‘The chain of hotels we own in Australia are under threat of a takeover. I have to go,’ he spoke flatly.
Brynne stared at him, unable to comprehend what he was saying. ‘Go where?’
Alejandro shot her an impatient glance as he stood up. ‘Australia, of course.’
He received a telephone call from his brother in the middle of the night, and he had to go to Australia?
What of their lovemaking just now?
Did that mean nothing to him at all?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BRYNNE stared at Alejandro incomprehensbly as he took a bag from the wardrobe and started to throw things inside it.
The two of them had been to bed together, had made love—wild, abandoned lovemaking on her part—and now Alejandro was just proposing to leave her as if it had never happened?
‘Alejandro—’
‘I do not have time for this right now, Brynne,’ he cut in harshly as he finished packing his bag. ‘I have to call my pilot and have him ready the plane for immediate departure.’
Her eyes widened as he picked up the telephone receiver and pressed several buttons. ‘You’re actually leaving right this minute?’ Leaving her now, without any word being spoken between them about what had happened tonight…? ‘That doesn’t give me very long to wake Michael and pack our bags—’
Alejandro frowned as he turned to look at her. ‘And why would you need to do either of those things?’
‘So that we can come with you, of course,’ she came back sharply.
Take Brynne and Michael to Australia with him after what had just happened? To have her there waiting for him at the hotel whenever he had a spare minute from the lengthy business meetings that would no doubt ensue once he joined his brother in Australia?
No!
He had no idea what had happened between himself and Brynne this evening. She had looked so appealing as she had lain on the sofa, and had felt so soft and warm in his arms as he had carried her up the stairs, that it had been impossible to do anything other than take her to his own bedroom and make love to her.
But Brynne, he knew, was not like the women he had been involved with since Francesca died.
For one thing she was the aunt of his son.
More importantly, he had become aware as they had pulled apart before he had answered Roberto’s call—had seen the evidence himself on the sheet she had lain upon—that he had been Brynne’s first lover!
He had never been any woman’s first, had no experience whatsoever to draw upon to help him deal with that discovery.
His sudden departure might seem cruel to Brynne, but for himself Alejandro knew that he needed this time away from her, if only to consider where their relationship could possibly go after his discovery. If it went anywhere…
‘Do not be ridiculous, Brynne.’ Alejandro shook his head as he frowned down at her. ‘I do not intend to take either you or Michael to Australia with me!’
‘But—’
‘Consuelo?’ Alejandro said into the receiver as his call was finally answered, firing out instructions at a rapid pace before abruptly ending the call to turn and speak to Brynne once again.
Only to discover that she had gone…
Along with all trace of her, he noted with a frown, her pyjamas removed from the bedroom floor, only the rumpled bedclothes to show that he had not been alone in the bed a few minutes ago.
Alejandro drew in a ragged breath as he pushed back the dark swathe of his hair.
Going to bed with Brynne was not how he had envisaged his evening ending, and despite the excitement of their lovemaking he knew he had been less than gentle with her a few minutes ago, the discovery of her innocence having thrown his usually ordered life completely off balance.
For possibly the first time in his life he had not known what to do or say next, the urgency of Roberto’s telephon
e call offering him an escape he had badly needed. Brynne’s abrupt departure from his bedroom seemed to imply that she had needed to escape also.
He tidied his room slightly, removing those telling sheets, knowing Brynne would not care for Maria to know of the time she had spent in his bedroom.
Although he couldn’t hide his frown when he got downstairs a few minutes later and found Brynne there in the hallway, fully dressed in denims and a body-hugging white top, her hair brushed and tied back from her face. He had not thought he would see her again before he left. In fact, he had hoped that he would not, felt that he needed time away from her to understand what had happened between them tonight before he even tried to discuss it with Brynne.
Brynne saw Alejandro’s surprise—displeasure?—at her presence downstairs, her heart sinking at the realization.
This was the man she had made love with such a short time ago.
The man with whom she had shared intimacies she had never known before with anyone, her body still aching in several places from the unaccustomed lovemaking.
The man who now seemed disinclined to talk about those intimacies.
Thank goodness.
Because one thing she was sure of, Alejandro regretted the lapse, and the worst thing she could think of was actually discussing what for her had been a wondrous time in his arms. For her their lovemaking had been unbelievable, so much more, so much better, than anything she might ever have imagined it could be.
That was due to Alejandro’s experience, she knew.
It was that experience that made their encounter just another conquest for Alejandro. Tonight might have been something special to her, something undreamt of, but to Alejandro, if his urgency to get away from her was any indication—and she was sure that it was!—it obviously hadn’t meant anything at all.
Sad, but true.
It was also true that a single business telephone call from his brother had been enough to change Alejandro from an ardent lover into the single-minded businessman she had always thought him to be…
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