Lisa raked his chest with her nails and strained back. Alex laughed, and twisted his hand in her long hair, his lips meeting hers, his tongue delving deep into the hot, moist depths of her mouth while he moved his body against hers. His other arm wrapped around her like a steel band.
Lisa wriggled against him. She was so hot, so furious, and perspiration beaded her skin, but even in her anger, when Alex swung her beneath him, she opened her mouth to give a helpless moan. In a tangle of arms and legs they rolled around the bed, Lisa determined to be the dominant one, but Alex not about to let her.
They battled for supremacy as they kissed, bit and caressed in a storm of unbridled passion, each seeing who could give the other the most pleasure, and finally they came together in a wild, hungry mating that took them both to the heights of ecstasy. Lisa cried out at the intensity of it, and her cries mingled with Alex’s as his body shuddered in spasm after spasm of prolonged pleasure.
Afterwards, when Alex lay by her side in total exhaustion, Lisa knew this had been the best ever, and also the worst. The worst because it had revealed her deepest fear: she could not resist Alex; even in her rage and anger she felt love.
Alex stirred, and, putting a possessive arm around her shoulder, he said, ‘If I didn’t know I am your only lover, I might be suspicious of your new-found aggressive sexuality.’ And with the pounding of his heart almost back to normal, he added, ‘But I knew the moment I saw you that you had a deeply sensuous nature and it only needed the right man to reveal it.’
Lisa glanced sideways at him. ‘And you’re the right man?’ She’d meant to sound sarcastic but instead the breathless tone of her voice sounded as if she agreed with him. Filled with shame at her own behaviour, she quickly looked away.
Alex chuckled. ‘Of course.’ Tucking her firmly under his arm, he yawned widely. ‘Remind me to leave you alone more often, if tonight’s episode is to be the result, hmm?’ He yawned again.
She stared at him. He looked like some great slumbering lion lying on the bed, his eyes half closed, his broad chest rising and falling in rhythm to the deep beat of his heart, his mouth curved in a satisfied smile, content and assured of his masculine virility.
In that moment Lisa did not know whether she wanted to hit him, or hug him. Instead, to her horror, she heard herself ask the one question that had tormented her for the past few hours. ‘Do you really love me, Alex?’
‘After what we have just done, need you ask?’ he murmured, already half asleep.
But sleep did not come so easily for Lisa. She was tormented by the thought that Alex and Nigel were plotting together. But, seduced by the warmth of his body and the protective arm around her shoulder, slowly Lisa felt her anger began to drain away. Maybe she had been too hasty in her conclusion. It was perfectly possible her first meeting with Alex had been a set-up, but that did not necessarily mean that what had happened next had been a lie.
Lisa turned on her side and examined her sleeping husband. In repose he looked younger than his thirty-five years, his black hair tumbling in disarray across his broad forehead. She reached out and brushed the offending lock of hair back, but Alex did not stir. Sleeping the sleep of the innocent. But was he?
Sighing, Lisa turned on to her back and gazed at the ceiling. Perhaps she had overreacted. She loved Alex, and up until tonight she had been sure he loved her. He hadn’t been able to wait to marry her. Thinking about it now, Lisa decided his haste to marry her could not have been solely for business reasons. He could easily have waited a few more weeks, so it had to have been because he had wanted her. In fact, she probably had nothing to worry about. The solution was in her own hands. If, or when, she was approached to sell her company and asked to agree to flatten it—which was worse—she would simply refuse. If Alex made any comment then, and only then, would she discover the absolute truth.
Her decision made, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was taking a coward’s way out by deciding to wait, rather than confront Alex with what she had overheard straight away. But she was giving herself time. Time to share his life and his love. If tonight had taught her anything at all, it was that she was hopelessly in love with him and could not resist him even when she thought she hated him.
Oh, my God! Suddenly Lisa was wide awake, because she had overlooked one very important fact. From the conversation she had overheard, Alex did not know yet that she had donated five per cent of her shares in Lawson Designer Glass to the hospice! It had never entered Lisa’s head that the charity, at some future date, might sell the shares. But with a ruthless operator like Alex on the prowl she had to see it as a possibility.
If the hospice and the Lee estate sold to Alex, that would leave Harold with the deciding vote in the company. Much as she loved her stepfather, she hadn’t a lot of faith in his ability to resist the demands of his son. Nigel was his one blind spot. As she actually owned only forty seven percent of the company, she would lose overall control! How could she have been so stupid?
Finally, with a brief glance at her sleeping husband, she slipped out of bed. A hot drink might cure her insomnia. Pulling on Alex’s discarded shirt, she buttoned it up and padded barefoot from the bedroom, along the hall and into the living area. It was a huge room, with a raised dining area, and seating at its opposite end arranged to take full advantage of the view through a wall of glass, with doors that opened out on to a roof garden. Architecturally, it was a magnificent room, but the plain black leather seating, the clean lines of the elm wood furniture and the polished hardwood floor had an oddly sterile look in the bright silver light of the moon. There was nothing personal or homely about it; in fact it looked exactly what it was: a company penthouse.
Lisa walked the length of the room to where double doors opened into a wide hall. At one side of it was the door leading to the kitchen and on the other side another two doors, one of the cloakroom and the other of Alex’s study. At the end of the hallway stood a half screen in marble and glass and, beyond that the actual entrance door to the apartment.
Lisa entered the kitchen and switched on the light, pushing the door almost shut behind her. In a matter of minutes she’d made a cup of hot chocolate and, sitting down at the breakfast table, she cupped the mug in her hands and sipped it slowly, her brain spinning with confusion. Alex and Nigel! If she hadn’t heard them with her own ears, she would never have believed it, and yet it seemed they were planning on being business partners, at the expense of her business! The mind boggled…
If she felt more secure in her marriage, the sensible thing to do would be to confront Alex and demand an explanation. But it was too late now; she could hardly admit it tomorrow without looking a fool. No, her earlier decision was the best. Wait and see, and hopefully Alex would prove her wrong.
Suddenly an odd noise made Lisa straighten up in her chair. It sounded like a key turning in a lock.
Hardly daring to breathe, Lisa very quietly put the mug down on the table, her back stiffening with tension. Someone had let himself into the apartment. She heard footsteps on the polished wood of the entrance foyer floor. It had to be a burglar! She thought of screaming for Alex, but he was sound asleep at the other end of the apartment.
Glancing frantically around the kitchen, Lisa looked for something with which to defend herself from the intruder. A shelf of bright orange pans caught her eye. They were a well-known French make, and heavy. Silently she got to her feet and, picking up the largest saucepan from the shelf with the utmost stealth crossed to the slightly open kitchen door.
A very feminine giggle stopped Lisa in her tracks. Her blue eyes widened in amazement. A red-headed woman was bent over, and rather unsteadily removing a pair of high-heeled shoes at the entrance to the living room. As Lisa
