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‘Would you like me to gift-wrap it for you?’ The tall, beautifully dressed willowy blonde was all long red-painted nails and flashing gold bracelets as she carefully placed the small key-ring in a tiny box and wrapped it with a small white bow, fixing a little card to the outside and handing Fabia a pen.
‘Oh...thank you.’ She thought for a moment and then wrote swiftly, ‘Who caught who?’ Would he tie it in with that first message?
Alex was standing just where she had left him when she stepped out of the lift and as she glanced over and saw his big dark figure quite detached from the rest of the noisy milling throng she felt a jolting sensation in her heart region. He looked severe and distant, and absolutely gorgeous.
The golden gaze fixed on her when she was a few yards away and he smiled lazily, his eyes travelling to the huge box in her hands which contained Isabella’s gift. The key-ring was in her pocket. ‘You don’t mean to say you’ve chosen something already?’ he said mockingly as she reached his side. ‘Curiouser and curiouser, as Lewis Carroll wrote. You’re a real little Alice, aren’t you?’
‘Am I?’ She smiled nonchalantly, her stomach churning as he wrapped an arm protectively round her shoulders, pulling her into his side, fighting the pleasure the act of possession aroused.
‘You sure are.’ He looked down at her, his eyes travelling over the tousled blonde hair and huge violet eyes before they fastened on her lips. There was a heat in their depths that caused the fluttering in her stomach to intensify a hundredfold. ‘Most of the women I know take a couple of hours to choose a lipstick!’
‘Do they?’ She smiled again, forcing her lips to turn upwards as his words rang painfully in her ears. ‘Most of the women I know’. Oh, she hated all this, she did!
‘Fancy a coffee before we leave?’ He took the box from her, tucking it under his arm.
‘Where?’ They were moving towards the lift and he glanced down at her, a wry smile on his face.
‘Well, we could go to my office on the top floor. It’s nice and warm there and quite secluded, and once Tomkins has brought the coffee I could make sure we are quite alone. Or...’ the tawny gaze was mocking ‘...we could go to the coffee lounge on the third floor.’
They stepped into the lift and he smiled down at her pink face as he pressed the button for the third floor. ‘When I think of the girls who would have jumped at that offer,’ he said lazily into her ear as they stood pressed together in the close confines of the crowded lift. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’
‘Why don’t you ask one of them, then?’ she said snappily as the metal doors swished open on the third floor.
His answering chuckle made her teeth grind in helpless defiance and she eyed him balefully as he led her over to the fresh aroma of percolating coffee.
It was dusk when they stepped back into the icy air, the pavements treacherous underfoot and the heavy sky a pale pink against the white world beneath. The long, low car was forced to pick its way carefully through the crowded streets, growling softly at the indignity, and then they were in the open countryside again, the hedges and trees picked out in startling clarity against the darkening red sky.
‘There’s a picture-book view at the top of this hill,’ Alex said quietly when they had been driving for ten minutes or so. As they reached the peak of the gently rising fell he drew to a halt, letting the slow purr of the car’s engine fall silent as the grandeur of the sweeping wooded slopes dotted with the odd stone farmhouse and tiny isolated village tucked away in the snow-covered expanse worked their timeless magic.
Fabia forgot the flutter of panic she had felt when he had stopped the car, forgot that the man sitting next to her so quietly was a ruthless man of the world used to having his smallest whim granted with immediate deference, forgot everything as she gazed out into the miles upon miles of Christmas-card countryside frozen in exquisitely pale beauty beneath a darkening sky of red and gold. It was breathtaking, and the heavens had turned a light milky grey before she glanced at him, coming back to the world surrounding her with a small sigh that expressed what words couldn’t.
His eyes were fixed tight on her face, a sensual slumberous warmth in their browny-gold depths that had her breath catching in her throat and her lips half opening in anticipation. His mouth was warm and mobile as it covered hers demandingly until he was crouched over her in her seat and she felt as if time itself had been suspended. His hands moved beneath the warm tweed of her coat without her realising it, drawing her into him with sensuous ease as they caressed each curve and contour of her melting body. She was utterly lost in the moment, the beauty of the world outside and the scent of his light tangy aftershave creating a heady sensation of pliant, soft oneness that had her moaning his name against his hard mouth. His breathing was harsh and ragged as he felt her response and now his lips were exploring her face as though he were blind, moving over her flushed skin in tiny darting kisses that had her straining against him for more, her arms reaching up to the broad shoulders above her in wordless abandonment.
It was when she felt the coolness of air tighten her breasts that realisation dawned. She had been unaware that he had unbuttoned her dress, unaware of anything except the sweet pressure of his mouth and the feel of the hard, dominant body next to hers, but now she recoiled as though he had struck her, moving violently beneath him so that his hands were stilled and his mouth raised from hers.
‘What is it?’ He raised his head to stare into the wide, shocked blue eyes. ‘I won’t hurt you—don’t be frightened.’
‘No...’ She struggled against him, pushing his hard chest with the flat of her hands, and he moved away immediately, his face settling into the expressionless mould she knew so well that hid his feelings like a cold blank mask.
‘It’s him, isn’t it,’ he said quietly and with no trace of emotion in his voice, making the words a statement rather than a question. ‘It might be over but you’re still thinking of him, aren’t you?’ The slanted eyes swept over her flushed face as he raked back his heavy fall of hair with his fingers. ‘Do you love him that much? He must have left you, finished it, and yet you still want him that badly?’ As he turned from her and rested his hands on the steering-wheel she noticed, with a detached numbness, that they were shaking slightly, but apart from that he betrayed no feeling at all. They could have been discussing the weather all those moments before, such was the quietness of his whole being now.
‘I can’t explain...’ She knew she was going to cry in another moment and bit hard on her bottom lip to still the tears as she buttoned her dress with shaking hands, staring out of the side-window into the colourless world outside as she pulled her coat more closely round her.
After a full minute he relaxed back into his seat with a deep sigh, his hands still on the steering-wheel and his eyes straight ahead. ‘I’m sorry, Fabia; believe it or not, that wasn’t planned,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m not the sort of man to seize upon any advantage and it’s been years since I’ve made love in a car.’ He stopped suddenly. ‘Hell, I’m making things worse, aren’t I? What I’m trying to say is—’
‘I know, I know.’ She couldn’t look at him—if she did she would be lost—so she stared out through the side-window, her face as white as the snow outside. ‘Could we go back now, please...?’
He said nothing, adjusting his long legs in the close confines of the car as he turned the key in the ignition, his face grim and cold as he checked the mirrors before turning the car fully into the road and continuing down the hill, the car lights gleaming yellow in the darkness.
She felt sick with mounting horror as she remembered how easily he had overcome all the barriers erected so firmly during the last seven years. She had barely allowed a man to kiss her in all that time, earning a reputation for frigidity, she knew, but hugging it to her as though it were a prize. She hadn’t wanted to be involved with anyone again—even the nicest of the men she had occasionally dated had left her cold—and here she had virtually thrown herself into his arms, inviting— She closed her eyes for a second and forced back the tears that were threatening to overflow. Inviting a lot more than she had got, she admitted honestly. She couldn’t have blamed him if he had been unable to stop; all her signals had been bright green... She moaned silently. What was he thinking
? She dared not risk a glance at his face.
The short drive home seemed like hours, so rigid and tense was her body, and as they drove through the gates and into the sweep of the long drive she uncurled her hands from her lap and tried to soften the tightness in her face. It was Christmas Eve, there was bound to be a houseful when they got in, and she had to appear relatively normal if only for Isabella’s sake.
It seemed as though every light in the house was glaring as they drew to a scrunchy halt outside the door, and as Alex noticed a large white Mercedes to one side of the driveway he frowned, his eyes narrowing in protest. ‘Great, just what we need—Susan and family en masse, if I’m not mistaken. I told everyone to keep their visits confined to the day for once; Isabella can’t take too much excitement and she’ll be exhausted by now.’
‘Susan?’ Her timid enquiry was lost as he opened his door abruptly and marched round to her side of the car, opening her door and helping her out with his eyes fixed on the house. Almost as though he had willed it, the door opened a second later to reveal a horribly familiar figure, the sleek dark hair swept up into an elegant chignon, each strand beautifully in place.
