Loveknot

by Catherine George

  "Couldn't I just be your mistress, Alexander?"

  He swung round in utter astonishment.

  "My what?"

  "Your mistress," she said resolutely, feeling her colour rise.

  "I mean, you could spend your evenings with me, or as many of them as you wanted. Nights, too, if you like. Weekends in London, maybe, or even

  Paris. Holidays. That sort of thing. "

  Alexander stared at her as though she'd lost her wits. He raked a hand through his hair, then his lips began to twitch uncontrollably and he dissolved into laughter.

  Sophie glared at him.

  "What's so funny?"

  Alexander breathed deeply, trying hard to control himself.

  "I had this vision of myself slinking up to your door to find you reclining on that chaise-longue in a neglige, is that right? All seduction and suspenders!" He bit his lip hard.

  "My mistress, for God's sake!

  What put that idea in your head? "

  "If you're going to make a great big joke about it she began huffily, and jumped up, but Alexander caught her, holding her loosely round the waist.

  "Sorry. I couldn't help it, Sophie. It's such a preposterous idea."

  "Lots of people don't get-married these days," she said sulkily.

  "But they usually live together, nitwit! A mistress is. something a married man indulges himself in, darling. If he can afford it."

  They looked at each other in silence for a moment, while Sophie's flaring colour faded.

  "I love you, Sophie," said Alexander unsteadily. "I want you here with me.

  Always. I don't relish the thought of snatched hours of illicit bliss, thank you just the same, bliss though they'd certainly be. I don't fancy sneaking along Church Row in the small hours, hoping Mrs. Perkins wouldn't see me.

  I want a wife. I want you. “But I had everything worked out so beautifully," wailed Sophie in desperation.

  "It all seemed to be meant. I mean. Grail finding me the cottage, the new

  Paget branch opening up in Arlesford just as the job with Sam Jefford fell through . . She trailed away, eyeing him with suspicion.

  "That's a very odd look."

  Alexander's eyes flickered, then he sighed.

  "Let's sit down, Sophie."

  She looked at him in alarm, but allowed him to settle her in the crook of his arm on the sofa again.

  "Sophie, did you learn about my namesake in school?" he said unexpectedly.

  Sophie frowned, surprised, *0f course. Alexander the Great. Julian calls you that when he's feeling bitchy. "

  Alexander snorted.

  "He would! Anyway, I brought it up because I'm trying to explain something to you. If you remember, a certain Phrygian king by the name of Gordius tied a complicated knot no one could unravel, until Alexander came along with his sword and simply cut the Gordian knot in half."

  Sophie nodded, mystified.

  "So?"

  "I feel we've rather got ourselves tied up in the same sort of knot, so I'm going to wield a figurative sword to untie it. In a way I've done it before on your behalf. You see I haven't always been wrapped up in my own problems, even during the time I was involved with Delphine. I knew better than anyone how much you longed to leave home like the boys. So when my tenants in Ilex

  Cottage left... Your tenants?" Sophie's eyes opened wide.

  "Yes. It belongs to me. So I told Cecily you could have it for a while.

  Until you got married." His smile was rueful.

  "Only I didn't realise at the time I meant until you were married to me."

  Sophie's eyes dulled to a forlorn, lost look.

  "So Ilex Cottage was yours all the time."

  His arm tightened.

  "There's a bit more, too. I'd better come clean and tell you one of the reasons I made Arlesford my choice for the branch office was so you could work for me there."

  "But I was all set to work for Sam Jefford!"

  "I did a deal with him. If he told you the job was off, I'd put as much work his way as I could, on top of the branch office, the sale of your house, and so on."

  Sophie pushed away his arm and jumped to her feet, pacing back and forth in the space between the sofas.

  "So," she said tightly, 'all this new life of mine wasn't mine at all. I got it by courtesy of Alexander Paget. "

  He nodded, his eyes shuttered.

  "In a way. I wanted to keep you in my ken. Somewhere I could keep an eye on you."

  "Big Brother!" she said bitterly.

  "As if I didn't have enough brothers of my own."

  Alexander rose to his feet and caught her by the hands.

  "I'm not your brother, Sophie. I want to be your lover, your husband. And," he added forcefully, 'contrary to your belief, it is possible for a man to be both. "

  Sophie turned her head away sharply, trying to come to terms with the cold new light shining on _her bid for independence. What a farce it had all been, she thought bitterly, her teeth sinking so hard into her bottom lip that they drew blood. At last she looked up into his watchful face, with a smile that stopped short of her eyes.

  "All right, Alexander. You win. Now I think I'd like to go home, please."

  His eyes narrowed.

  "You mean you will marry me?"

  "I suppose so. If Ilex Cottage belongs to you, it's pretty pointless my staying there. I might as well move in here and let you rent it out again, save you some money. And since you're so set on a conventional arrangement, all right. Let's get married."

  Alexander pulled her into his arms.

  "You haven't said anything about feelings, Sophie. I thought you'd be angry with me. God knows, but I'd prefer a tantrum to apathy. Do you love me?"

  She shrugged.

  "I'm not sure " Then why the hell are you marrying me? "

  "Because if I don't, I assume your fine Italian hand will be writing the script for the rest of my life anyway," she cut back at him, suddenly fierce.

  "Whatever I do, wherever I try to go there you are, blocking my way. So to hell with it. Let's get married. I give in."

  Alexander flushed, then paled, his eyes glittering like a cat's in his set face, and suddenly he gave a smothered curse and took her by the hand, pulling her along with him as he strode from the room and up the stairs to the master bedroom at the front of the house.

  _"What are you going to do?" Sophie panted, as he kicked the door shut behind them.

  "Careful you'll mark the wood!"

  "What do you think I'm going to do?" he said through clenched teeth.

  "I'm sure as hell not marrying a female whose only reason for saying yes is because she's given up saying no. So I think I'll take advantage of your original offer. Once, anyway."

  "Not like this," wailed Sophie miserably, as she found herself dumped in the middle of the bed. "Please, Alexander!"

  "Shut up." And Alexander silenced her protests in the most effective way possible, stifling them with his mouth as he began removing her clothes.

  "I don't she gasped, pushing at him.

  "Yes, you do," he said flatly, and began to caress her breasts, her stomach, moving to her thighs as his mouth left hers to rove all over her, everywhere, astounding her by its encroachment on parts of her she had never dreamed would be so clamorous in response. The audacity of his marauding tongue took her breath away, and she stiffened as it left her navel to move downwards.

  "No!" she cried, rearing up, but he pushed her flat and parted her unwilling thighs to find the place that pulsed with response to his tongue.

  "No?" she said hoarsely, almost sobbing, her head thrashing to and fro.

  "No. But the words ended in a choked, quavering moan as waves of hot, languorous sensation convulsed her body. Before she had time to recover

  Alexander moved swiftly, and almost before the throbbing had subsided he _was over her and inside her and she gasped at their merging, her body rigid for a moment before it yielded. Abandoning all effort at resistance, Sophi
e clutched at Alexander as her one constant in an earthquake of new sensation as he swept her along on a mad, careering ride to the final glory they experienced almost in unison.

  Afterwards they lay very still for a long, silent interval while their pulses steadied and their breathing slowed, and Sophie came to terms with a fact she'd suspected all along. It would be very nice indeed to be mistress to a lover of Alexander's calibre. After years of Julian's company it was reassuring to find that a man like Alexander could want her so badly.

  "What are you thinking about?" asked Alexander at last, moving so that she fitted snugly against him.

  "Julian."

  "What?" Alexander shot up in outrage, but she pulled him down to her again.

  He allowed her to soothe him, then turned her towards him so that they lay eye to eye, one of his legs thrown over hers in an intimacy which distracted

  Sophie very thoroughly from thoughts of any other man.

  "I always thought Julian Brett's preference was not inclined in a feminine direction," said Alexander bluntly.

  "I could never see why you bothered with him."

  "Convenience. And I was his cover, I suppose." Sophie smiled into the eyes so close to hers.

  "Julian is one of those men who is just plain celibate, Alexander. Not gay.

  Once upon a time a man could be a bachelor without comment, but these days it's _different. So we had a sort of tacit arrangement. He wined me and dined me fairly regularly. In return I had a man in my life I knew wouldn't get any ideas about marriage."

  Like me. "

  "Nobody's like you, Alexander. Mind you," added Sophie, 'he did propose some sort of marriage when I told him I was moving away. Said I could move in with him and his mother--that I'd be company for her. "

  Alexander shook with laughter against her.

  "As proposals go, surely mine's more tempting than that." He ran the tip of his finger over her lips and Sophie bit it gently.

  "Very true. In fact----' She paused, wriggling even closer.

  "I've changed my mind again about marriage."

  Alexander lay very still.

  "You mean it's no now, not yes?" . ‘“No, I mean it's yes now, not no."

  Sophie giggled. "If you see what I mean."

  "Elucidate," he said sternly, then held her so tightly that Sophie was reassured enough to comply.

  "Perhaps," she said slowly, 'marriage to you wouldn't be so bad, after all. "

  "Careful, Sophie. Much more flattery like that and I'll get above myself!"

  She kicked his ankle.

  "What I meant was that, here with you like this, I feel I could very much enjoy being married to you,” Why, thank you, Sophie. Does that mean I pass muster as a lover? "

  "As I've always said, Alexander, superior's the _word." She thought for a moment.

  "No. I've changed my mind.

  Incomparable is better. "

  Alexander kissed her deeply, his hand moving down her spine to press her closer against him. He raised his head a fraction to smile into her eyes.

  "A graceful compliment," he whispered.

  "Except that comparison isn't possible, is it, darling? I'm the first lover you've ever had."

  True. "

  "I'm going to be the first husband you've ever had, too. And the last.

  Agreed?" He kissed her hard.

  "And I'll be a good husband, I promise."

  She chuckled.

  "You'll be a great husband Alexander."

  No corny jokes, please! “He turned her over on her back and hung over her.

  "But I've had a great idea."

  "Really?" she said, breathless.

  "Since for some reason you appear to have changed your mind about marriage’

  “You seduced me into it! "

  "Do you mind?"

  "No."

  "Right. Now because, like my namesake, my strategy was so brilliant that you capitulated ' " Is that what I've done? “She ran her hand down his thigh, and he breathed in sharply.

  "More or less. To proceed, since you are now more amenable to the prospect of our legal union, I'm prepared to make concessions."

  "Such as?"

  "I'm prepared to get someone to help you with the housework you detest so much, I'll even cook dinner myself sometimes after all, the greatest chefs are men ouch!

  Don't be so violent. Then, when we send the children ' "What children?"

  "Ours. I repeat, when our children go to school I'll persuade Kate to sew on their name tapes!" Alexander grinned down at her in such smug triumph that

  Sophie gave him a great dig in the ribs, whereupon he tickled her in retaliation and they collapsed together, helpless with laughter which gradually gave way to something very different as Alexander proceeded to demonstrate, beyond any last possible doubt Sophie might have harboured, how very superior a lover he could be when given the right and proper encouragement. If proper was the word.