AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He remembered how she’d apologised over the same thing at the hotel. ‘Don’t be.’ He was surprised how little it hurt now, when it had gutted him so badly a decade ago. ‘It made me a better person. The cancer. Sonya. It taught me two important lessons.’
‘Oh?’
‘Life’s short. And guard your heart closely.’
Her chest ached for him. ‘We’re not all like that, you know.’ She wouldnever have squandered his love. Left him when he needed her most. ‘Not all women leave.’
Funnily enough, lying here next to her like this, he could almost believe it. There’d been an honesty between them tonight that had never existed between him and Sonya. Maybe she was right? Still, the first cut was always the deepest.
‘I’d prefer not to put it to the test again. I think I’ll stick with my game plan.’
‘Ah. That would be the old catch-kiss-and-throw-back game plan?’
Alex chuckled at the derision in her voice. ‘That would be it.’
Isobella yawned. The last thing she wanted right now was to get into a discussion about the idiocy of his theory, when her avoidance of fishing altogether wasn’t any more healthy.
‘I wonder what the time is?’ she murmured.
Alex lifted his arm and pushed a button on the side of his watch. ‘Nearly one a.m.’
They were silent for a few minutes, contemplating the long night still ahead of them. ‘Thank you, Alex,’ she whispered.
Alex nodded. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to talk about the dream?’
Isobella shook her head. ‘Thanks, but no.’ What good would it do? ‘I think I’m just going to go to sleep.’
Alex listened as her breathing evened out and her head grew heavy against his chest. He envied her that as he lay awake, staring into the impossible blackness and listening to the storm rage outside whilst simultaneously ignoring the one raging inside him.
Alex’s eyelids snapped open an hour later. The noise from the Cyclone was disorientating, and it took a second or two to realise what exactly had woken him. Isobella’s hand had crept perilously close to a part of his anatomy that was now more than aware of her nearness. He was painfully hard. He swallowed, shutting his eyes and reaching for a modicum of sanity.
She muttered something in her sleep and shifted, her knuckles grazing the length of him. He opened his eyes again, and bit his lip to stifle a groan. He tried hard not to think about her grasping his erection, running her hand up and down the length of it, testing its girth, relishing in its contours.
Enough!He might be practising his gentlemanly ways, but there were limits!
He gingerly picked up her lifeless, uninterested hand and removed it from the proximity of his very interested appendage. She muttered something and then shifted, rolling on her side, her back to him. Alex was so grateful that all her interesting bits were now not squashed into him that he too rolled on his side, his back to her back.
At least it would make it easier to sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ANOTHERhour passed, and Isobella woke to utter blackness. She was conscious that they’d both moved during their sleep. She was on her side, Alex’s arm heavy around her waist, his frame curled around hers. The noises from outside still raged. The wind whipped around the building like a hundred angry ghosts, and the sea pounded its fury against the shore.
But she was safe and warm in Alex’s embrace. The nightmare of earlier had completely receded, and she snuggled back against him. She became aware of the sudden tightening of his arm at the same time she became aware of the hard rod pressed into the cleft of her bottom.
She stilled, even as her heart pounded clear out of her chest. The evidence of his arousal was as fascinating as it was terrifying. The lab geek in her wanted to leap out of bed and cross herself, but the woman, the lacy lingerie woman, who despite her best efforts still thrived beneath the white-coated exterior, wanted to move again, stretch against him, reach for him.
Was he even awake? Men got erections in their sleep without their knowledge all the time. Everyone knew that—it was just a fact of life. It had nothing to do with her as a woman and everything to do with a man’s biology and diurnal rhythms. He’d probably have an erection at this hour of the morning regardless of whether she was there or not.
Still, she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that part of her, the vain ex-model part, wanted it to be because of her. And before she could stop herself she wiggled against him. Alex’s erection surged against her, and she could have sworn she heard him groan.
