space dragging him in, and he simply gave in and thrust into her, loving the sense of her unleashed. He felt a pull in his stomach and the rise of his balls and somehow, somehow there was that brief flash of common sense and he dragged his thick length from her, and both watched as he shot silver over her.
It was delicious to look down while too scary to look up and meet the other’s eye.
It had been better than good.
ISLA WOKE TO the roaming of his hands.
There was a moment of bliss as instinct told her to roll towards him or just lie there and relish the slow exploration, to kiss him as she wanted to, and then she remembered the sheer recklessness of last night.
It was Alessi who addressed it.
‘You owe Blake and Christine an apology,’ Alessi said to her ear as he kissed it. ‘It is possible to get too carried away.’
‘It’s fine,’ Isla said, and somehow her voice sounded together. ‘I’ve got it covered.’
He would assume, of course, that this good-time girl would have contraception all taken care of, especially as she was a midwife.
Isla closed her eyes on sudden tears.
What the hell would he say if he knew she’d been a virgin until last night, that she wasn’t even on the Pill?
Isla was starting to panic, not that she would let him see.
‘I have to go.’ She rolled over and gave him a smile.
‘Now?’
‘Now.’ Isla nodded.
‘Hey … His hand was on her shoulder as she sat up. ‘There’s no need to rush off.’
But there was.
She had to get home.
She had to think.
And so she climbed from the bed and headed out to the lounge, where her clothes lay strewn.
‘I’ll drive you,’ Alessi said as she pulled on her dress.
The embarrassment of getting a taxi in last night’s clothes was the only reason she agreed.
Alessi made do with last night’s clothes also and the lack of conversation in the car had him rolling his eyes. ‘I knew that you’d do this,’ he said as he pulled up at a café.
‘Do what?’
Alessi gave a mirthless laugh and got out and Isla sat there, watching him order coffee through the café window. Next door the shutters were going up on a pharmacy. Once home she could go and get the morning-after pill, Isla thought, and then closed her eyes because she knew that she wouldn’t. She had nothing against others taking it, it just wasn’t for her.
She sat there, telling herself she was overreacting, that she couldn’t be pregnant, except her assurances had the same ring to her as her teenage mums’ did.
She was twenty-eight!
Damn you, Alessi, Isla thought as he walked back to the car carrying coffee. Damn you for making me lose my head.
Not just last night but this morning, too, for she wanted more of him. She wanted that grim mouth to smile, she wanted his kiss and to be back in his bed, she wanted more of whatever it was they’d found.
‘Here.’ He handed her a coffee and Isla took a sip and screwed up her face.
‘I don’t take sugar.’
‘How the hell would I know?’ Alessi said as he started the engine. ‘Because you don’t communicate …’
Her shoulders moved as she let out a small involuntary laugh. ‘Did you plan that?’
‘I did.’ He glanced over and gave her a smile. ‘I actually know that you don’t take sugar so I asked them to put in three.
‘What’s your address?’ he asked, and after she had given it to him he resumed the conversation. ‘Do you know how I know that you don’t take sugar?’
Isla said nothing, just stared ahead as he answered his own question.
‘Because I don’t really like how I am around you, Isla. I don’t like it that even though you run so very cold, I still find myself hanging out for the occasional heat. I notice things about you that I would prefer not to. Like you don’t have sugar, like the day you told someone you were going to walk in your lunch break yet you never have. How you hold back on everyone and everything …’
‘I don’t.’
‘You do.’ Alessi glanced over as he drove her home. She was back to being unreadable, back to being cool and aloof and just everything that she hadn’t been last night, and he wanted her back.
‘We’re going out this afternoon,’ he said as they pulled up at her apartment.
‘I’ve got plans.’
‘Cancel them. I’ll pick you up at one.’
‘I might be out.’
‘Then I’ll be back at two.’
‘Alessi …’ Isla didn’t know what to make of this. ‘Last night—’
‘I don’t want to hear you regret it,’ Alessi interrupted, ‘or that it was something that shouldn’t have happened or that it was just a one-off. Get it into your head that I’m going to date you, Isla, and that starts today. I’m certainly not waiting until Monday to find out if you’re speaking to me or avoiding me.’
Isla let out a pale smile. ‘It would have been the latter.’
‘Which is why we are going out today. There is one thing we need to get straight though, Isla—I don’t cheat, and I expect the same from you.’ Her cheeks were on fire as he continued speaking. She knew he was referring to the night when she had practically offered to get off with him while Rupert and Amber had been back in the bar. ‘I don’t care what you got up to when you were with Rupert but if you are seeing me, then you are seeing only me. Do you get that?’
Isla nodded but her heart was heavy.
He really didn’t know her at all.
‘We have a companion,’ Alessi said, when Isla opened her door at one to find him there, holding Niko in his arms. ‘Allegra’s husband, Steve, is working and she called and asked if I would mind having Niko for the afternoon as she needs a break. She rarely asks …’
‘That’s fine.’ Isla smiled. ‘Hi, there, Niko.’
‘I thought we could go to the zoo,’ Alessi
