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‘You protest too much, I think,’ he remarked with a wicked look. ‘Maybe it’s time for that swim so we can both cool down.’
‘Is that water as cold as it looks?’ Sadie asked with concern as she glanced at the river.
‘Colder,’ Alejandro confirmed. ‘But if you can swim as well as you ride, it should be a pleasure for you.’
‘As in, if I survive it will be a pleasure?’ Shaking her head, with an amused look she accepted the challenge. ‘So, what are we waiting for?’
‘For you to strip,’ he said flatly.
‘After you,’ she invited with a challenging smile.
She whizzed her head to one side when he started to work on his belt. ‘You could give me some warning.’
‘Okay, I’m naked. Is that warning enough?’
Hearing his clothes hit the ground, she tensed, and waited until she heard a splash as he dived in. Only then did she quickly undress down to her modest, serviceable underwear.
The shock of the icy river snatched her breath away, but it also prompted her to swim strongly against the current. Alejandro was right in that she was as confident in the water as she was on horseback, and she soon made good headway towards the opposite bank. The rush of cool, clean glacier melt against her overheated skin was just what she needed, she had decided by the time she found her feet in the shallows.
‘This is fantastic,’ she confirmed.
‘Are you ready to swim back?’ Alejandro queried as he shook his thick black hair out of his eyes. ‘Or would you prefer to wait until you become an icicle?’
He didn’t wait for her answer, which was perhaps as well, Sadie thought as she plunged in after him. The thrill of the race was upon her again, and if they hung around much longer they’d both be frozen solid.
Alejandro’s face was a picture when she swam up alongside him. ‘Infuriating woman,’ he exclaimed, eyes dancing with laughter, and something far more dangerous, as he helped her up the bank and grabbed his clothes.
* * *
Nothing could dull his hunger for Sadie, or his impatience to hold her in his arms. He’d got to know her a bit, and everything he’d learned made him want to know more. Having introduced her to people who lived in these remote areas, and who were generally wary of strangers, he’d seen them welcome Sadie with open arms. They couldn’t resist her. She was warm and inclusive, and sharing good food crossed all boundaries. Like music, it brought people together. His mother had been a wonderful cook, and his father a gifted musician. Sadie combined these qualities. Perhaps that was why he was drawn to her. He would be the first to admit that his childhood had been idyllic, while hers had been anything but, which accounted for her wariness, he thought as he watched her clamber out and quickly dress.
When they were dry again and settled on the bank, he thought it the right time to resume their conversation. He was curious about Sadie and wanted to know more.
‘So your mother didn’t want to know you, but what about your father? Was he not willing to mend fences and attend your graduation?’
‘My father cared for me even less than my mother. He blamed his drinking on her, and by extension me, for being the cause of her unhappiness. I’ve told you that he drank, I should also tell you that his alcoholism led to his early death.’
‘It’s hard to lose a parent, even, I imagine, if that parent was not the best role model for you. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through, Sadie. A young girl needs both of her parents.’
‘I was sad to lose my father, despite our difficulties, but my mother was relieved and found a younger man within a month of his death.’
‘I see,’ he said, wondering what other horrors were about to come out. Sadie hadn’t finished yet, he suspected.
‘Only he came to like me better than my mother, and so she threw me out.’
‘Did he touch you?’ he asked as fury erupted inside him.
‘I left before he had the chance to.’
But goodness knew what had happened before then. ‘Do you miss your mother?’
‘I don’t have anything to miss,’ she explained, staring at him intently. ‘I’m not like you, Alejandro. I don’t have any happy memories to look back on. And I have my own life now...a life that makes me happy.’
‘That’s good,’ he said, though what she said was only partly true, because the scars remained behind her eyes, and that wasn’t good.
‘I was spoiled,’ he admitted wryly, sensing a change of subject was badly needed.
‘Tell me,’ she encouraged.
For once in his carefully ordered existence, he found he wanted to share. The pain of thinking back was usually better avoided, but as he talked and Sadie listened, he was surprised by how light he felt after confiding in her. She was naturally gregarious with so much love to give. He’d seen that in action when she met his people and they took Sadie to their hearts, and he was seeing it again now.
Was he in danger of becoming involved with this woman? The idea was so unexpected he laughed.
‘Well, you’ve cheered up,’ she observed as she rested back on her elbows.
‘You amuse me,’ he admitted.
‘Anyone would think we were getting to know each other,’ she observed dryly.
‘You’re shivering,’ he noticed. ‘I should have made a fire.’ Or there was another way—
She gasped as he brought her into his arms. ‘Basic survival tactics,’ he insisted. ‘Mutual heat...’
CHAPTER NINE
SADIE WAS STILL chilled after her swim, while he was steaming. The urge to be skin-to-skin was overwhelming him, but some instinct warned him to hold off. Her full, tempting lips were only a hair’s breadth away, but her eyes were wide and worried.
‘Have you never been kissed before?’ he suggested as she shivered in his arms.
‘I’ve never been this cold before,’ she admitted, teeth chattering uncontrollably. ‘No—don’t pull away,’ she instructed. ‘I’m only just beginning to thaw out.’
‘Glad I can be of help,’ he said as she snuggled closer.
‘Any port in a storm,’ she teased as he wrapped his arms around her.
‘Thanks a lot.’
‘Don’t mention it,’ she murmured, but it was a relief to hear her smiling. He was glad that she could trust him enough to relax in his arms. It was the biggest sign yet that they were getting to know each other, and that some of the barriers were coming down. ‘Better now,’ she said, making a token effort to push him away.
He was a man, not a saint, and he brushed her lips with his before pulling away to gauge her reaction.
Challenge darkened her eyes. ‘Call that a kiss?’
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘I call this a kiss.’
* * *
They came together like an unstoppable force. A starburst of emotion hit Sadie full in the heart as Alejandro drove his mouth down on hers. Blanking all thought, apart from the need to claim him, she felt as if some primal force had taken over from a lifetime of common sense. His tongue probed, her lips parted and pleasure surged. That was all it took for her to demand with everything she’d got that he deepen the kiss even more. No longer a novice, she was learning fast. He kept her marooned on a plateau of pleas
ure where she was quite happy to stay, making her disappointment all the keener when he let her go.
Cupping her face, he stared fiercely into her eyes. ‘I don’t know what happened to you in the past, but I do know this is now, and I want you.’
It was such a primal thing for him to say she was excited beyond reason. But then her sensible side took over. The fire in Alejandro’s eyes might dare her to believe him, but did he want her for a few hours, for a few days, or for eternity, and what did she have to say about those options?
‘I never say anything I don’t mean,’ he said as he traced her kiss-swollen lips with his forefinger.
‘And I never agree to anything unless I’m certain,’ she countered, pulling back.
‘Then, this might turn out to be a very long seduction indeed.’
‘A seduction?’ she queried.
Thinking better of where this was heading, she put some more distance between them. She might be drawn to Alejandro, but she had no intention of setting herself up for heartbreak. Confident in every other area of her life, she knew nothing about happy relationships between a man and a woman, and where they were concerned she always shied away.
‘Caution rules you,’ Alejandro observed in a lazy growl, not in the least bit fazed, ‘and that’s something I intend to change.’
Could anyone? she wondered.
She should have remembered how experienced he was, and when he kissed her again, and kept on kissing her gently and persuasively, she felt so safe, though at the back of her mind there remained the nagging thought that her heart was in danger. But his drugging kisses made her want him even more, and the clothes she’d so quickly tugged on were slowly being peeled off again.
‘I want you.’
The wicked murmur in her ear echoed Sadie’s own thoughts. She guessed Alejandro didn’t need an answer when he could feel how taut with anticipation she was, and see how hunger was blazing from her eyes. Her breasts ached, and her nipples were thrusting imperatively against his chest. Every atom in her body craved him, and he knew this. The faint smile on his hard mouth had the power to make her forget everything, and his kisses to her neck, her cheeks, her eyes and her lips, while his hands worked a special brand of magic on her body, made the outcome certain.
