chance to gather his completely scattered senses, Alexio undid his own seatbelt and stood up. Deliberately he didn’t move out into the aisle completely, so that Sidonie had to brush past him. He saw the flash in her eyes, making them sparkle a brilliant blue-green, and felt that punch to his gut again.
As she went past him he saw that she was doing her best not to touch him, but even the most fleeting glance of her hip against his thigh sent shards of desire into his belly. He couldn’t help but smell her scent—cool and crisp, with a hint of something floral. That was what she was like—one minute spiky, the next as soft as a fresh rose. And as alluring.
She was taller than he had expected—about five foot seven...
When he’d sat down again, and she’d moved down the aisle to the bathroom, Alexio stuck his head out to watch her, his blood heating through every vein and artery at the way her skinny jeans hugged her slim, shapely legs and cupped her surprisingly lush derriere. To Alexio’s consternation he saw more than one other male head dip out to take a look too as she passed.
It felt as if he hadn’t taken a proper breath since he’d seen her take off that horrific sweatshirt. He’d happened to look at her for her response when the stewardess had asked if she wanted something, only to find her in the act of taking it off. He’d been unable to look away as Sidonie had fought with the voluminous material, gradually showing tantalising glimpses of pale flesh, slim arms, tiny wrists, delicate shoulders and collarbone.
She’d emerged flushed, and Alexio’s libido had been suddenly ravenous. She was wearing a vest top, with a loose singlet over it, so she was showing nothing that wasn’t completely respectable. But she might as well have been naked, the effect within Alexio was so violent. He felt like a Victorian man seeing bared arms for the first time; they were almost provocative in their slim, delicately muscled definition.
He’d sat there with a raging erection, trying in vain to concentrate on the conversation and those flashing expressive eyes and not let his gaze drift down to where her small but lush cleavage was revealed under those two tops. The hint of a bright pink bra strap every now and then had enflamed him more than the most expensive lingerie modelled by any of his previous lovers. The memory of his Latin lover of last night was being comprehensively eclipsed.
Alexio wanted to see her—all of her—with a hunger that might ordinarily cause him to stop and think. He could already imagine her perfectly formed breasts, made to fit a man’s hands like plump fruits. Would her nipples be small and peaked? Or large and succulent? He hadn’t been able to resist touching her hot cheek for a second. Her skin was as soft and unblemished as a peach.
This was the kind of desire he’d missed for so long. The kind he’d lamented not feeling last night. Urgent and hot. Utterly compelling. As if he couldn’t envisage not getting off this plane and taking Sidonie with him so that he could taste her all over. And Alexio had to wonder in that moment if he’d ever really felt like this. Or had it just been a figment of his imagination till now?
The revelation sent him reeling, and he wasn’t prepared at all when a soft voice said hesitantly, ‘Er...excuse me, Mr Christakos?’
He looked up and there she was, and just like that any semblance of clear-headedness was gone. He was reduced to animal lust again. Her breasts were in his eyeline and he could see the thrust of her nipples against the thin fabric of her two tops, like berries. He had to get up and let her back in, cursing his body, which would not obey his head.
One thing he was sure of as she brushed past him in the small space again and her scent tantalised him: he wanted this Sidonie Fitzgerald with her husky voice with a hunger he’d not known before. And he would have her. Because Alexio Christakos always got what he wanted. Especially women.
* * *
Sidonie sat down again and tried to hang on to the control she’d struggled to find in the tiny bathroom space just moments before. She’d splashed cold water on her face, as if that might wake her from the trance she seemed to be in.
Any return of her equilibrium had been short-lived. As soon as she’d got back Alexio Christakos had looked at her—that molten green gaze travelling up from her breasts to her face—and it had been so intense...almost predatory. Her whole body had reacted to it, igniting like a flame. Even the air seemed to be crackling between them now, as if something had been turned up a notch.
He’s a playboy, he’s a playboy, she repeated like a mantra in her head. He’s programmed to go after anything with a pulse. But Sidonie grimaced at that. Alexio Christakos, according to her fellow enamoured students, was discerning—only choosing the most stunning models and actresses. The beauties of this era. And Sidonie, with her fair colouring, freckles and wayward hair, did not fall into that category. Not by a long shot. This crazy desire...whatever it was she was feeling...she had to be imagining it.
A wave of mortification rushed up through her body, sending her hot and cold. Was she projecting her own pathetic subconscious fantasies onto this man who had the misfortune to be paired with her for the flight?
She heard him clear his throat beside her and was almost scared to look. She could sense his gaze on her—or could she? With a sick desire to know how badly she’d been deluding herself Sidonie turned her head and met that green gaze head-on. Slamming into it, almost. The breath left her mouth in a little sigh. Her belly swooped and her skin tingled all over. Her nipples drew so tight she could feel them like stinging points, chafing against her lace bra.
‘Don’t...’ he growled softly, intimately. ‘Don’t call me Mr Christakos again. It makes me feel like an old man. It’s Alexio.’
Sidonie could feel the plane dip in altitude. Somehow she found her voice. ‘We’re landing soon. I won’t see you ever again, so it doesn’t really matter what I call you.’
‘Don’t be so sure about that.’
Sidonie blinked. Her heart spasmed in her chest. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.’
* * *
Sidonie had two contradictory reactions. Head and heart/body. Her heart/body leapt and sizzled. Her head said Danger! Danger! He was definitely arrogant, and she was loath to let him see that even a small part of her was tempted. A man like this? He would chew her up over dinner and a one-night stand and then cast her out with little or no second thought.
She was a fleeting interest.
Maybe the lack of air and the confines of economy class had gone to his head. Maybe he was bored, jaded, and something about her intrigued him because she was so different from his usual women.
Sidonie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. She saw Alexio’s jaw clench, as if he was priming himself for a fight, and something deep within her quivered and then went soft and molten. She fought it. They were both oblivious to the stewardess, who had come to check their seatbelts for landing.
‘That sounded remarkably like an order and not an invitation. I’m catching a connecting flight to Dublin—or didn’t you hear that part earlier?’
Sidonie wasn’t sure exactly why she felt so threatened by his advance, but she did. Even though she knew she was probably right in her suspicions about why a man like Alexio was flirting with her, a very large part of her wanted to leap into his arms and say yes.
She would bet that not many women turned him down—if any. But she wouldn’t be able to live with herself
