Mistress to the Mediterranean Male
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Joanna had been the same beautiful free spirit when Brynne had known her too, when Tom had fallen in love with her.
And that almost gentle way that Alejandro talked of her seemed to imply that his own emotions had not been as removed in that relationship as he would have liked them to be …
‘There is only Michael now,’ Alejandro continued briskly. ‘He is all that is important.’
‘I agree,’ she said quietly.
‘You do?’ Alejandro sounded amused now.
She raised her head to look at him, that amusement also in his eyes. ‘Yes, I do,’ she confirmed ruefully. ‘And I’ll try not to be hypocritical again,’ she added softly.
Alejandro studied her between narrowed lids, knowing exactly what she meant by that last remark.
Brynne intended to ensure that the opportunity to make love with her did not occur again.
He knew it was the sensible thing to do. The right thing to do. And yet sensibility was not an emotion this young woman aroused in him.
He had wanted her badly last night, had felt her quiver in response a few minutes ago when he had touched her, and knew he could not offer the guarantee, given similar circumstances, that it would not happen again …
‘You will “try”, Brynne …?’ he taunted softly.
Her mouth tightened. ‘Yes.’
Alejandro nodded. ‘Then I will try also,’ he murmured huskily.
‘Although this is perhaps not the right room in which to make such an assertion?’ He looked around them pointedly.
The sudden vision he had of Brynne lying naked with him on his four-poster bed, those golden limbs entangled with his, the fiery swathe of her hair cascading over his chest, was perhaps not conducive to such a claim either!
‘I’ll go back and sit with Michael now.’ Brynne turned away from him abruptly.
‘Brynne …?’ Alejandro reached out to lightly grasp her arm. She stared up at him and he looked down into that beautiful but pale face; he saw the guarded emotions in those dark blue eyes.
Alejandro was overwhelmed with a desire to kiss her again, to touch her, caress her!
Instead he spoke harshly. ‘I shall be out to dinner again this evening but I will speak to Michael before I leave.’
Brynne didn’t need two guesses as to whom Alejandro would be having dinner with again this evening.
Obviously their discussion earlier had made no difference to his continuing a relationship with that other woman. No doubt Antonia Roig was sophisticated enough to deal with the sort of relationship Alejandro was used to, the only sort of relationship he would allow in his life.
The sort of relationship she and Alejandro had almost fallen into themselves last night …
Alejandro had been right to upbraid her on that subject. Her own response to him last night had made a complete nonsense of her assumptions about his casual relationship with Joanna all that time ago.
Last night she had been a victim of her own desire for this man. She knew even now that she could so easily have forgotten everything but Alejandro as his hands and lips had weaved a magic over her body that she had had no thought of denying.
Just the touch of his hand on her arm right now was once again weaving that magic …
‘I’m sure Michael would like that,’ she bit out.
‘And you, Brynne?’ Alejandro murmured throatily. ‘What would you like?’
She would like him not to go to Antonia Roig! But to stay here with her this evening. For them to talk. To laugh. Before they made slow, leisurely love together.
Madness!
Her chin rose; she was determined to fight these feelings. And to go on fighting them.
‘Once Michael is awake I would like to go and have a quick bath before our evening meal,’ she dismissed lightly.
The thought of Brynne, those long, golden limbs completely naked, her hair secured loosely on top of her head as she floated in the Jacuzzi bath in the room that adjoined her bedroom, was almost Alejandro’s undoing.
Instead he thrust her away from him, his expression harsh and remote. ‘Go and bathe now, if you wish,’ he rasped, forcing that image firmly from his thoughts. ‘I will sit with Michael until you return.’
She looked at him quizzically. ‘You’ve decided to call him Michael, after all …?’
‘For the moment, yes.’ Alejandro shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Perhaps in wanting him to become immediately Spanish, I am expecting too much too soon.’
Brynne gave a rueful smile. ‘I think that’s very wise.’
‘Wise, Brynne?’ he echoed mockingly. ‘I did not think you believed me capable of such an emotion.’
She believed him capable of many more emotions than she would care to admit, the main one, she realized as she continued to look up at him, being an integrity where the existence of his son was concerned.
Alejandro had remained in ignorance of Michael’s existence for over six years, and even once he had seen the newspaper article on Joanna’s death, and realized that her son could also be his own son, he could have continued to ignore that existence if he had chosen to. But instead he had claimed his son, had fought a legal battle with her in order to secure that claim. And through all of that he had maintained a respect and affection for Joanna that was unshakeable.
Alejandro Santiago, she acknowledged, was indeed an honourable man.
The fact that he resented her, and her earlier efforts to deny him his son, was perhaps the price she paid for that realization …
Her smile deepened. ‘I’m sure that what I think of you is of absolutely no importance to you whatsoever, Alejandro!’ she said with certainty.
Was it unimportant? Alejandro wondered. Last night he had made love with this woman, would have taken her completely if Antonia had not arrived so unexpectedly. How would Brynne have behaved towards him today if that had happened?
It would, he knew with sudden clarity, have made it impossible for them to continue to stay here together.
He gave a hard smile. ‘None whatsoever,’ he confirmed dismissively. ‘Go and take your bath,’ he instructed curtly before turning away, his back rigid, hands clenched at his sides as he stared out of the window until he heard the bedroom door close softly as Brynne left.
His breath left him in a shaky sigh as he forced the tension from his shoulders and slowly unclenched his fists.
This completely candid conversation with Brynne had been necessary and perhaps long overdue. Even though she didn’t appreciate the comparisons he made between his past relationship with Joanna and what had happened between the two of them last night, it had needed to be said. Although it hadn’t been deliberate, Brynne now knew that desire was as forceful an emotion as love was reputed to be.
Reputed. Because Alejandro had never loved any woman. Not Joanna. Not Francesca. Certainly none of the now nameless, faceless women he had been involved with over the years.
He wasn’t in love with Brynne either, but nevertheless her flame-coloured hair, those candid blue eyes and that delectably arousing body had become a torment to him, a temptation.
It was a temptation he was finding it increasingly difficult to resist …
CHAPTER TWELVE
BRYNNE awoke drowsily as she felt herself being lifted, an arm about her shoulders, another beneath her bent knees. Her lids felt heavy as she looked up and found Alejandro’s face only inches from her own, those two cradling arms obviously his.
‘What are you doing?’ she murmured sleepily.
He looked down at her, eyes dark and unfathomable. ‘What does it look like I am doing?’ he came back softly.
It looked—and felt—as if he were holding her against that muscled hardness of his chest. Brynne was able to hear the steady beat of his heart beneath the silk material of his shirt.
‘I found you asleep on the sofa when I returned home,’ he added huskily as he began to walk up the stairs.
Oh, yes, she remembered now. She and Michael had eaten a leisurely dinner together, her own meal accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine. After she had put Michael to bed she had sat in the sitting-room reading—still unable to banish thoughts of Alejandro out with the beautiful Antonia Roig—and must have fallen asleep.
She had been waiting for Alejandro to return, that was it. She had something she needed to tell him. But cradled close against him like this she couldn’t think straight, certainly couldn’t remember what that something was!
‘Where are you taking me?’ She frowned.
Where indeed? Alejandro wondered as he looked down at her, the long red hair feeling like silk as it cascaded over his bare arm, her eyes once again that dark smoky blue, her face slightly flushed from sleep, those slightly parted lips so full and inviting.
It was an invitation, with her silk robe–covered body held so closely against him, the swell of her breast pressed to his chest, that he was fast losing the struggle to resist!
He had gone upstairs to check on Michael when he returned home shortly after eleven o’clock. He hadn’t expected to find anyone still up, but the small lamp he had seen still on in the sitting-room when he had let himself in had drawn him back downstairs to investigate.
Finding Brynne there asleep on the sofa had been the last thing he had expected.
Or wanted, after earlier fighting the impulse he’d had to follow her to the bathroom and sit and watch her as she bathed.
She had sat curled up against the cushions, her beautiful face bare of make-up, the rumpled folds of her robe revealing the creamy swell of her breasts, those long, sensitive fingers, that had caressed his back so arousingly the night before, curled loosely about the book she must have been reading when she fell asleep.
Alejandro had looked down at her for several long minutes, drawn between the desire to lie down on the sofa beside her as he kissed and caressed her awake, and the more sensible idea of waking her so that she could get herself off to bed before he gave in to that desire.
In the end he had done neither, instead bending down to lift her easily into his arms with the idea of carrying her up the stairs to her bedroom.
She felt so light in his arms, so soft and silky, that he realized now he had been foolish to think he could simply carry her to her room and just leave her there. The rapidly rising desire in his body clamoured for him to do something quite different …
Brynne, fully awake now, looked up at Alejandro beneath lowered lashes, seeing his tightly clenched jaw, a nerve pulsing in one rigidly set cheek.
He smelt faintly of wine and expensive cigars, of a spicy aftershave, and underlying those scents was the all-male smell that was Alejandro.
And he felt wonderful, she discovered as her arms moved up about his neck and her hands rested lightly on those broad shoulders. He was warm and sensual to the touch, the heat from his body transmitting itself to her much cooler one—that heat seeming to increase as her fingers became entwined in the dark thickness of the hair at his nape.
He looked down at her beneath hooded lids. ‘What are you doing, Brynne?’ he rasped.
After their earlier conversation about the danger of the two of them being close like this, she wasn’t quite sure, only she knew that she wanted to continue touching him. That she wanted more than to touch him. She wanted him to touch her too, to kiss her in the way he had the night before.
‘Do not look at me in that way, Brynne,’ he ordered, that nerve pulsing more rapidly in his cheek.
‘What way is that, Alejandro?’ she murmured huskily, slowly moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, deliberately holding his gaze as she did so.
His mouth firmed impatiently. ‘Have you been drinking?’
‘Not as much as you have, I’m sure,’ she dismissed, knowing it was Alejandro himself that was making her feel so wantonly reckless, not the two glasses of wine she had drunk hours ago and already slept off.
Alejandro came to a halt in the hallway as he looked down at her, knowing he should just take her to her bedroom and leave her there. But his own bedroom was nearer. And at this moment Brynne was so soft and willing in his arms …
His eyes narrowed. ‘Are you going to regret this in the morning, Brynne?’
‘Probably,’ she whispered. ‘But I’m trying not to be … hypocritical about it.’
His mouth curved into a smile at this joke directed towards herself.
‘You are intoxicated—’
‘With you,’ she murmured throatily as she turned to where his shirt was unbuttoned, her lips lightly caressing. ‘Only with you, Alejandro,’ she assured him huskily before her tongue moved to taste him.
Dios Mío, he could perhaps fight his own desire, but he could not fight Brynne’s as well.
He hesitated no longer, kicking his bedroom door open and then shut again behind them, before carrying Brynne over to his bed, laying her down there amongst the cushions.
‘I always wanted to sleep in a four-poster bed,’ she told him huskily as he moved to release the drapes that enclosed them in their own private world.
Alejandro gave a rueful smile. ‘Sleeping was not what I had in mind.’
Brynne returned that smile—if she was still asleep and dreaming, then this was a dream she never wanted to end!
Her arms moved up about his shoulders as she drew his head down towards her, her lips slightly parted as, with a throaty groan, he took fierce possession.
The last twenty-four hours since they had been together like this might never have happened, the desire between them instant, burning, out of control.
Alejandro’s mouth continued to plunder hers as he pushed her robe and then her silky top to one side and bared her breasts to the caress of his hands. Brynne’s back arched in invitation; she gasped low in her throat as she felt him first cup and then caress those swollen orbs, her nipples hard and sensitive to that touch.
Her hands moved restlessly across his back, nails slightly rasping through the thin material of his shirt, wanting to feel his skin in the way that he was caressing hers. Her fingers shook slightly as she unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off his shoulders and down his arms.
Alejandro’s mouth left hers reluctantly as he raised his head. ‘Let me look at you.’ He groaned, reaching out to switch on the bedside lamp.
She looked just as wild and wanton as he had imagined she would, her breasts small and perfect, the nipples a deep rose as he slowly lowered his head to suckle, first one and then the other. Drawing those hardened nubs into the moist heat of his mouth as he tasted and sucked, he felt the heat of Brynne’s pleasure as her thighs began to move restlessly against him, asking for more, begging for more.
‘I want to kiss and touch all of you.’ Alejandro groaned as he placed a lingering kiss on each nipple before his hands trailed down across her ribcage to the slender curve of her hips, sliding down the silky material of her pyjama bottoms to reveal the silky auburn triangle between her legs. His hand moved to part and then caress her there.
Brynne had seen the beauty of her body in Alejandro’s eyes as he had stripped that last remaining article of clothing from her body, her eyes widening slightly and then closing in ecstasy as he touched between her thighs. She moaned deep in her throat as she felt the touch of his lips against her now, gently seeking, and then finding, the tiny nub of arousal between her thighs. His tongue was a rasp and then a caress as she gasped in rising pleasure, his hand caressing before he entered her, matching that delicate thrust to the increasing caress of his tongue.
She hadn’t known—hadn’t realized—
And then she couldn’t think any more as a pleasure unlike anything she had ever known before tore through her with the force of a tidal wave. Her body convulsed against his hand as he continued to lick that hardened nub until he had given her every last vestige of pleasure.
‘So wet,’ he murmured huskily as he continued to caress her. ‘So hot and wet and ready for me.’ He groaned hungrily, lips and tongue kissing and tasting as he moved slowly up her body.
Brynne felt as if she had been taken to heaven and back, had seen the moon and the stars, and Alejandro was the very centre of that universe.
She moved so that she could push him back against the pillows now, instinct taking over as she stripped trousers and boxer shorts from the lean strength of his body before bending down to taste him as he had tasted her, wanting, needing to give him the same pleasure.
Her tongue ran the hard length of him. Feeling empowered, she felt him spasm with pleasure, circling the tip of him before she took him into the moist heat of her mouth, her encircling fingers moving with the same gentle rhythm as her lips and tongue.
‘Dios mío …!’ Alejandro gasped in protest even as his hands reached out to become entangled in her hair and hold her tightly against him. His thighs moved to match those caressing hands and lips, the last twenty-four hours of damping down the release he had craved last night bringing him to the peak of release much quicker than he would have wanted.
‘No, Brynne!’ He reached down to stop her, lifting her up and on top of him before lowering her down again, the hardness of his shaft pulsing with his need to enter her tight wetness.
Brynne felt Alejandro’s silken hardness move against her, reaching down to guide him into her, feeling a moment, a very brief moment, of pain, before he entered and filled her completely.
‘You are so tight, Brynne,’ he muttered achingly as his hands on her hips controlled her movements above him to the slow thrusts of his body. ‘So erotically tight and perfect.’ He groaned.
But she was so aroused, so ready for him, that the slickness of her body moved easily against his, taking them to even deeper heights.
‘Beautiful, Brynne,’ he murmured throatily, eyes dark as he gazed his fill of her breasts. ‘You are so, so beautiful.’
She felt beautiful, totally feminine, the pleasure she was giving him, the pleasure they were giving each other, having taken away any shyness she might otherwise have felt at such intimacies.
Alejandro’s hands moved up her ribcage to cup the pert swell of her breasts, his thumbs moving lightly across the sensitized tips. ‘Let me kiss you again,’ he groaned achingly even as he pulled her down to him and his mouth claimed her breast.
Brynne gasped, her hands on his shoulders, her head thrown back as Alejandro suckled the fiery tip of her breast into his mouth, the thrust of his hips against hers, the silken caress of his hardness, taking her to a climax that made her cry out in pleasure, her heat convulsing about him as Alejandro groaned and she felt him pumping his release deep inside her.
Seconds, minutes, hours later, she collapsed weakly down onto his chest, her rasping breathing matched by Alejandro’s own as his arms closed about her and held her close against him, their bodies still joined.
‘Next time we will go slower,’ he promised gruffly. ‘Next time I intend driving you to the point of madness before giving you the release you crave.’
Brynne felt so lethargic, so relaxed, so perfectly satiated, she couldn’t even think past this moment, couldn’t even imagine a next time.
Or could she? she marvelled as Alejandro began to slowly caress down the length of her spine before moving lower, his hands now cupping her bottom, fingers featherlight as he familiarized himself with every silken inch of her.
By next time, did he mean now? she wondered dazedly as she felt him begin to stir inside her. Surely it was too soon? Didn’t a man have to rest for some hours before—?
‘Ooh!’ she gasped breathlessly as she felt his growing hardness against her sensitive inner flesh.
Alejandro grinned up at her wolfishly. ‘I hope you are replete from your nap earlier, Brynne—because I really do not intend either of us to sleep tonight.’
Replete or not, Brynne could feel her own desire stirring, eager to know his body as intimately as he knew hers, wanting …
They both looked up as the telephone on the bedside table began to ring. Alejandro frowned. Brynne, in sudden panic, finally remembered exactly what the something was she had waited up to tell Alejandro!
‘I forgot to tell you earlier,’ she groaned in a rush of guilty apology. ‘Your brother telephoned this evening while you were out—’ She didn’t get any further with her explanation as Alejandro disentangled their two bodies to lie beside her, frowning darkly before he turned to reach out and snatch the receiver from its cradle.
Alejandro’s back was towards her as he took the call. He was speaking in Spanish so she had no idea what he was saying, but nonetheless Brynne was able to see the tension that stiffened his shoulders and spine as he listened to his brother’s end of the conversation. It just made her feel even more guilty that she had forgotten to tell him of the earlier call. It had to be something important for the other man to have called Alejandro again at—at almost midnight, Brynne realized after a glance at the bedside clock.
How could she have forgotten to tell him? Brynne berated herself as she slid off the bed to push the drapes aside and pull on her robe. She was in the process of tying the belt securely about her waist as Alejandro ended the call, his face turned away from her as he stood up to begin pulling on his clothes.
‘What is it?’ Brynne frowned as she watched him.
Alejandro sat on the side of the bed to pull on his shoes, once again the arrogant Spaniard she had known for the previous six weeks.
‘Alejandro …?’ she prompted nervously.
‘The chain of hotels we own in Australia are under threat of a takeover. I have to go,’ he spoke flatly.
Brynne stared at him, unable to comprehend what he was saying. ‘Go where?’
Alejandro shot her an impatient glance as he stood up. ‘Australia, of course.’
He received a telephone call from his brother in the middle of the night, and he had to go to Australia?
What of their lovemaking just now?
Did that mean nothing to him at all?
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