In Need of a Wife, page 11
Good heavens! she thought, he’s really going to do it. Undress me without using his hands.
‘There’s a zip at the back.’
‘I’ll get to it.’
‘You’ll need help. You can’t do this by yourself.’ The strapless bodice was boned to mould around her breasts and it was impossible to tug it down without undoing the zipper first.
‘Trust me. I can do it,’ he growled, having moved the satin enough to dip his tongue into her cleavage, making her impatient to feel the hot, tingling caress on her nipples. What would he make her feel when he reached them?
‘You undressed yourself with the tricky bits,’ she argued.
‘True.’
‘It’ll be better if I undress myself.’
He sighed. ‘If you must.’
‘Stand up for a moment.’
He moved swiftly, unpinning her. He was off the bed, ridding himself of the last of his clothes before Sasha found enough presence of mind to sit up. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat, made her temples pulse with a roaring of blood. Her mind glazed with the wonder of taking all of him. An experience, she thought, a once-in-a-lifetime experience no woman in her right mind would pass up. Even if it was wrong.
She swung herself off the bed, turning away from him so she wouldn’t be caught staring. He was tearing off his shoes and socks. Her legs felt quivery. Her hands were tremulous. She fumbled over the hook and eye. She finally managed to get it apart, grabbed the head of the zipper and scorched it down her back.
As the red satin slid off her body to pool at her feet, Sasha heard Nathan’s sharp intake of breath, knew they were definitely beyond the point of no return now, and didn’t care. A wild exultation filled her mind as she stepped away from the dress and turned to face what was to come.
For this one night I’ll do anything I want, anything I like, she thought, casting off all the inhibiting shadows that might encroach on the blissful sense of freedom. She had wanted Nathan Parnell almost from the first moment they met, and the wanting had increased with everything he’d done for her, everything he was. If she never had him again, she would have him tonight.
He stared at her, his eyes feasting on what she had bared for him. ‘Perfect breasts,’ he groaned, stepping closer to cup them in his hands. The warmth of his palms and the caress of his fingers felt perfect to Sasha.
She ran her hands up his arms, over his shoulders, revelling in the naked strength that was bared to her. He felt like polished wood, hard and satiny smooth, but he was warmly, wonderfully alive. His hands suddenly slid around her back, pulling her into an urgent embrace, flattening the soft pliant fullness of her breasts against his chest, flooding her body with the throbbing heat of his. His fingers raked her pantihose down, clearing the curve of her bottom so he could fill his hands with its roundness and press her into an even more intimate awareness of his arousal.
‘You’re too excited!’ she exclaimed.
‘Disagree.’
He had no time for words. He bent to roll the sheer nylon down her thighs and his mouth closed over one of her breasts, and he used his lips, tongue, teeth, with such exquisite eroticism that Sasha thought she would die from the pleasure of it. She grasped his head and forced it to her other breast, wanting to feel it there, too. She lifted her leg so he didn’t have to move away to complete the removal of the stocking. He took her shoe with it. The other leg. The other breast.
Please. More. Yes, yes, yes. She didn’t know if she said the words or whether they simply pulsed through her. Free of the other stocking and shoe, his hand sliding between her thighs. Yes, there, too, yes, yes, and he did it with caring softness, sweet blissful caresses along the sensitive folds, soothing and exciting, more and more exciting, an arc of vibrating excitement from her breasts to the rhythmic plunging of his fingers, but fingers weren’t enough. She wanted...
‘Nathan...’ Her hands clawed at his back, tugged at his head, frantic with urgency.
He responded with a surge of strength, lifting her, sliding the hard power of his virility to the centre of her need. She coiled her legs around his waist, leaned back, and moaned with ecstatic relief as she felt the massive force of him enter her, filling her, pushing past the convulsive spasms of muscles that closed and expanded around him, reaching further, further, stretching for...
‘Let go, Sasha. Let go.’
Her mind was in chaos, unknowing what he meant. Her legs were locked around him. She couldn’t let him go...except her arms. She let them slide limply from his neck and he caught her securely as she fell back, supporting her bottom and waist. And he began rotating like a ballet dancer in a spin. She stretched out her arms, her hair floating as he turned and turned...a carousel of throbbing intimacy, the connection deeply inside, undulating, all of him, all of her.
There was a sharp tingling through her skin as the blood drained into her torso, her face, her head. It was dizzying, intoxicating. The room was going around and around with the beat of his thrusting maleness, a pump of pleasure deep within her, strong and constant as she floated around it, melted around it, shattered into a million exploding pieces around it.
Then he caught her to him and laid her back on the bed, stacking pillows under her so she didn’t need his support, and his hands were free to stroke her in harmony with the stroking within. An erotic feathertouch under her hipbones as he slid forward, a light palm pressure on her stomach as he deepened the thrust, the uplifting capture of her breasts as he drove to the end, then all the way back again with the mind-blowing anticipation of the next slow plunge, and the next.
It was beautiful, enthralling, hypnotic in its repetitive pattern, yet the desire to touch him stirred Sasha to lift her heavy arms, reach out, capture his face. It broke his concentration. His eyes met hers and they stared at each other in dazed wonderment. She pulled his head down and kissed him with all the love and yearning for oneness with the mate of her heart and mind and soul. The uninhibited outpouring of her passion shattered his control. She felt his body start to tremble.
He tore his mouth away. ‘Sasha...’ It was a hoarse breath of need. ‘Sasha...’ An acknowledgement of what she did to him.
She found the strength to rock with him as he frenziedly sought the fulfilment of release. It came with a great shuddering cry from him, and again it was ‘Sasha...’ like a bursting dam of feeling that could not be contained any more.
She did not know if it was a moment of truth. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. She didn’t speak. Her feelings went beyond words. But her heart beat its own refrain... Nathan... Nathan...
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A LOUD rap on her door stirred Sasha from deep sleep. She found herself half sprawled over Nathan whose eyes were closed, but, as she started to move, his arm instinctively curled more firmly around her.
‘Sasha, are you awake?’
Marion Bennet’s raised voice was a clear call to attention. The thought of Bonnie jerked Sasha up with a guilty start. How late was it?
‘Whass wrong?’ Nathan slurred sleepily.
‘Hush!’ She clamped a hand over his mouth, her heart galloping at the thought of Marion walking in on them.
‘Sasha?’ Another louder knock.
Sasha managed a reply. ‘Yes. Hold on a moment. I’m coming.’
Nathan heaved himself up on one elbow as she hurtled out of bed and ran to the wardrobe. He watched with a smile as she quickly wrapped herself in the turquoise silk robe. She frowned a warning at him, and he kept a discreet silence as she went to the door.
Mindful of the chaos of clothes on the floor, not to mention the man in her bed, Sasha squeezed around the door, carefully blocking any view past her as she addressed Nathan’s housekeeper.
‘Sorry I slept late, Mrs Bennet. I’ll come and get Bonnie now.’
‘She’s fine, dear. Harry and Matt are playing with her out in the back garden. It’s your visitors. I wasn’t sure what to do about them. So I’m checking with you first.’
‘Visitors?’ Sasha hadn’t expected anyone to call on her, except perhaps her parents, and they would telephone first. ‘Who are they?’
‘A Mr Cullum and a Mr McDougal.’
Tyler and Joshua! What did they want? ‘I’d better get dressed.’
‘Will I ask them in?’
‘No!’ Her emphatic refusal startled Marion. Sasha quickly tempered her voice. ‘I’ll go and talk to them, Mrs Bennet. Did you leave them waiting on the portico?’
Marion nodded. ‘It wasn’t polite but I had orders not to let anyone harass you.’
Sasha didn’t have to ask where the orders came from. He was in her bed. ‘I’ll get dressed and go down to them straight away.’
‘Take your time and don’t worry about Bonnie. When you’re ready is soon enough,’ Marion assured her.
Sasha whirled back into her room as the housekeeper headed for the back staircase. She shut the door, took a deep breath, then met Nathan’s acute blue gaze.
‘Who’s McDougal?’ he asked.
‘Tyler’s partner. They share a photographic studio.’
‘What do they want?’
She shrugged to express her lack of knowledge.
‘Is this trouble, Sasha?’
‘I doubt it. Not with Joshua along.’
‘I’ll come with you.’
‘No. I’ll handle this. You clean up the evidence.’
She waved at the wild array of clothing on the floor. He grinned, the memory of last night’s wild abandonment sparkling in his eyes. Her heart jiggled as though he had it on a yo-yo. Regretfully, it wasn’t last night any more. It was tomorrow.
‘I’ve got to get moving, Nathan.’
She hurried back to the wardrobe, grabbed some fresh clothes, and raced off to the bathroom. By the time she emerged, washed, hair brushed, clothed in jeans and T-shirt, Nathan was gone and the floor was swept clean of any reminder of their intimacy. She found the red satin evening dress hanging up. She didn’t pause to wonder where he’d put the other telltale items.
As she hurried downstairs to meet the man who had shredded the trust she had given him, Sasha had to wonder if she had committed the ultimate foolishness in succumbing to her feelings for Nathan Parnell. Whatever the outcome of their union, it was done now. At least her relationship with Tyler was well and truly resolved. She had no regrets about leaving him and had no desire or intention of ever going back to him.
If he had brought Joshua along to act as his advocate in a reconciliation, she had to make it absolutely clear there would be no future for them, except for Tyler’s rights as Bonnie’s father. Despite this resolution, Sasha opened the front door with some trepidation. Tyler was a man of many moods, most of them volatile. Initially his uninhibited responses had been a source of attraction. Somewhere along the line they had become self-indulgently excessive.
They weren’t on the portico. They were both at the foot of the steps, leaning against a huge king-of-the-road four-wheel-drive Range Rover, complete with bull bars and insect screens. It was not the kind of vehicle Sasha would have readily associated with Tyler, but apparently he or Joshua had the use of it this morning.
Tyler was stern but Joshua had a smile for her, giving his characteristic gesture of peace and goodwill. The tension inside Sasha eased slightly. Joshua’s long, loose-limbed body seemed permanently relaxed. Unruffled by anything, he presented the absolute contrast to Tyler’s air of restless energy.
‘Quite a step up, Sasha,’ Tyler drawled derisively, casting a glance over the impressive façade of the house.
‘How did you find me, Tyler?’
‘Your parents gave me the address so I could write to you.’ He gave a harsh bark of laughter. ‘What’s it like, living in a mansion?’
‘The same as anywhere else. It’s the people who count.’
‘And I don’t count any more.’
‘Not in my life, Tyler. I’m not blaming you. We didn’t fit together in the end.’
Tyler chewed that over in his mind. Then his face lightened and he jerked his head sideways. ‘What do you think of her?’
Puzzled, Sasha looked about, trying to locate the female in question. No one in sight.
Tyler didn’t notice. He slapped his hand down on the bull bar. ‘When you walked out on me, I had to find a replacement. Josh and I pooled our resources and we bought this. We’ve named it Mary Bryant. How does that strike you?’
Replaced by a car, Sasha thought numbly. She couldn’t trust herself to any words. She raised her arms slightly, opened the palms of her hands and heaved her shoulders. Let him make what he could of that expression of his inadequacy.
Tyler didn’t notice that, either. ‘We’re off to the interior,’ he declared with an air of triumph. ‘Take the greatest photos ever taken. Coffee-table stuff. We won’t be back for years. We might never come back.’ He grinned at his partner. ‘Will we ever come back, Josh?’
‘Never,’ Joshua agreed amiably.
Sasha had the strong sensation that this was all meant to be very vengeful and threatening from Tyler, but somehow it struck her as a great idea.
‘I’m glad you’re doing what you really want to do,’ she said in a conciliatory tone. She did not want to part bad friends with Tyler. There might come a time when Bonnie wanted to know her father and Tyler did have an attractive side. It was responsibility that weighed him down.
‘I do care for you and Bonnie,’ he jerked out.
‘I know that, Tyler,’ she replied sadly, thinking of the wasted years. ‘But you need your freedom.’
‘You understand.’
‘Yes, Tyler, I understand.’
She looked at Joshua with knowing eyes. His reflected the same knowledge. They both knew it was easier for Tyler to travel lightly without the burden of a wife and child. She looked back at Tyler and managed a generous smile.
‘I hope this venture leads to all you ever wanted.’
‘Yes...well...I have to admit it’s a relief you’ve taken it like this, Sasha,’ he acknowledged. ‘We weren’t getting on so well, but it made me feel inadequate for wanting to duck out on you and Bonnie.’
Sasha understood that, too. It was a question of pride and self-image. Tyler didn’t like to feel badly about himself. No doubt it had driven him to the abortive attempt at reconciliation in the park, despite his desire to be free of any encumbrances.
‘It’s OK,’ she assured him. ‘It wasn’t working for either of us. It’s better we go our separate ways.’
‘I’ll pay you maintenance for Bonnie, Sasha. Josh convinced me I should. What we figured...’
Tyler’s voice trailed into silence. Both he and Joshua stared past her and she felt Nathan’s presence like a force-field, generating potent elements that changed the status quo. The surprise on Tyler’s face tightened into pugnacity.
‘You! What the hell are you doing here?’ Tyler demanded, his eyes furiously accusing Sasha of putting him in the wrong again.
‘I live here,’ Nathan answered blandly, and, much to Sasha’s consternation, put his arm around her shoulders, laying claim to her, flooding her body with a hot awareness of his. Then to compound the possessive action, he asked, ‘Can I help, darling?’
Tyler gave Nathan a scathing look. ‘You’re the cop who broke up my talk to Sasha in the park. If this is your home you must be the most corrupt cop in the whole damned police force. You’ve got to be worse than Shags Bordello, worse than...’ He was lost for words.
Joshua eyed Sasha with some concern. ‘If you’ve got yourself involved in something...’
‘I left the police force after I won Lotto,’ Nathan interrupted, explaining away the unexplainable.
‘Some people have all the luck,’ Tyler muttered bitterly. ‘I’ve never won Lotto.’
‘Precisely,’ Nathan agreed.
Tyler turned truculently to Joshua. ‘She’s found a new lover. One that can supply her with more than I ever could. That’s what’s to blame.’
‘Is that right, Sasha?’ Joshua asked, not as ready as Tyler to leap to conclusions.
‘Yes, it is,’ Nathan confirmed before she could begin to defend herself against the accusation of being a heartless gold-digger. Her mouth opened and snapped shut in stupefied shock as Nathan rattled on.
‘Absolutely correct. Expressed very succinctly. Sasha is much better off living with me. So is Bonnie. Took to me straight away. I always wanted a ready-made family.’
Tyler looked as if he was about to burst a blood vessel. ‘I was trying to do the honourable thing,’ he seethed. ‘Now I’ve changed my mind. You’re not getting one damned thing from me, Sasha. No maintenance. Nothing for the kid, either.’
‘Hold hard there, Tyler,’ Joshua said lazily. ‘We haven’t heard Sasha’s side of this.’
‘Not one cent! Let him look after her and his ready-made family. All my work. He’s getting what he wants. All my hard work wasted.’ With a dismissive wave of his hand, Tyler headed for the driver’s side of the Mary Bryant.
Sasha recognised the futility of saying anything. Even if it was possible, it was too late to correct the impression Nathan had so deliberately and effectively imparted.
Tyler hurled himself into the driver’s seat. Joshua threw up his hands and hurried to the passenger’s side. Tyler was starting the engine when a white Porsche zipped into the driveway, passed the Range Rover, ducked in front of it, braked fiercely, and came to a gravel spitting halt.
Out whirled Elizabeth Maddox.
The expression on her face promised that revenge was sweet. She didn’t so much as flick a look at the rumbling Range Rover. Her sleet grey eyes glittered at Sasha and Nathan as she strode between the two vehicles.
‘I told you not to come here again, Elizabeth.’ Nathan had steel in his voice.
It didn’t stop her. She started mounting the steps, her arm sweeping up to point an accusing finger at Sasha. ‘She is not Urszula Budna, and don’t think you’re going to get away with fraud. Urszula Budna has come to see me. She is now my client.’
