Everyone but Leo. Somehow she didn’t think he had forgotten his brother. She wanted to ask him about it, wanted to learn more about this man and what made him the way he was, and yet...
From the cool expression on Leo’s face, he didn’t want to have much conversation—not with anyone, and especially not with her.
The dinner was, as Alyse had expected, stilted and mainly silent. Alessandro and Sophia both made a few pointed references to their early return from honeymoon, but Leo was indifferent to any criticism, and Alyse just murmured something about looking forward to settling into life in the palace.
As if.
Alexa shot her an encouraging look when she made that remark, her dark-blue eyes—the same colour as Leo’s—flashing both spirit and sympathy. Alyse knew Alexa was engaged to marry a sheikh of a small Middle Eastern country next year, and she had a feeling her new sister-in-law didn’t relish the union. At least, Alyse thought with a sigh, Alexa hadn’t had to pretend to be in love with her fiancé. As far as Alyse knew, she’d only seen him a handful of times.
By ten o’clock the dinner was finished and Sophia was about to rise first to escort everyone out to the salon where they would have coffee and petits fours. It was another part of the formal ritual, and one Leo forestalled as he rose before his mother.
‘It’s been a very long day. Alyse and I will retire.’
Alyse felt herself blush even though there had been no innuendo in Leo’s words, just a statement of fact. Sophia looked frostily affronted but Leo didn’t even wait for her acquiescence as he took Alyse by the hand and led her from the dining room.
‘Your mother doesn’t like her order interrupted,’ Alyse murmured as they headed upstairs. Her heart was pounding hard and her head felt weirdly light.
‘My mother doesn’t like anyone to do anything except what she commands,’ Leo answered shortly. ‘She’ll have to get used to disappointment.’
They’d reached the top of the stairs and he drew her down the hallway to a wood-panelled door, opening it to reveal a luxurious and very masculine bedroom. The duvet on the canopied king-sized bed had been turned down and a fire blazed in the huge stone hearth.
Alyse swallowed in a desperate attempt to ease the dryness of her throat. ‘This all looks very romantic.’
‘Are you being cynical?’
‘No, Leo.’ She turned to him, tried to smile. She wasn’t going to let this evening descend into something base and soulless, or even just physical. ‘I was just stating a fact. Don’t worry, I don’t think you had anything do with it.’
Leo gazed at Alyse, graceful, slender and so achingly beautiful. She looked both vulnerable and strong, he thought and he felt a blaze of something like admiration for her presence, her self-possession. Then he pushed that feeling away, hardened his heart—if that was indeed the organ that was being so wayward—and said coolly, ‘I certainly didn’t.’ She stood a few feet away from him and he beckoned her forward. ‘Come here.’
‘Is that a command?’
‘A request.’
She let out a shaky laugh. ‘Rather ungraciously made, Leo.’ Yet she moved towards him, head held high, her eyes flashing with spirit.
Leo made no reply, because in truth he didn’t know what to say, how to act. He didn’t want sex between them to be romantic. He didn’t want either of them engaging their emotions. Ever.
He wanted it to be nothing more than a necessary—and, albeit physically, pleasurable—transaction, yet he was already afraid it couldn’t be. Already be realised that his feelings for Alyse had changed too much for this to be simple—or sordid.
With the tiniest, trembling smile on her lips, she took another step towards him. Leo watched her hips sway under the silky fabric of her evening dress, a halter-top style in ivory that hugged every slender curve. ‘Why don’t you take that off?’ he said, his voice already thickening with desire.
‘Oh, Leo.’ She let out a soft laugh. ‘Why don’t you take it off me?’ And, despite the sorrow in that laugh, he heard a hint of a challenge in her voice and he knew she wasn’t going to make this easy for either of them. ‘Just because this is necessary doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the experience,’ she continued quietly. ‘You desire me, Leo, and I desire you. That’s something.’
He didn’t answer, because he couldn’t. Somehow his throat had thickened; his blood pounded and his fingers itched to touch her. He’d thought at first she’d make it awkward by resisting, or at least not responding to his touch—a show of defiance.
Compliance, he realised then, was far more dangerous. Still he tried to keep himself emotionally distant, if physically close, knowing how difficult a task it was that he’d set himself.
Wordlessly he reached behind her and undid the halter tie of her dress. The garment slithered off her shoulders, and with one sinuous shrug it slid from her body and pooled at her feet. She gazed at him steadily, a faint blush tingeing her cheeks pink even as she kept her head held high.
She was magnificent. He’d seen her naked before but tonight it was different; tonight it was more. She wore a strapless lacy bra and matching pants, both skimpy items highlighting the lithe perfection of her body.
‘I don’t think I’m the only one who’s meant to be naked,’ Alyse said, and he heard both a smile and a tremble in her voice. She reached for the buttons on his shirt and, mesmerised, Leo watched as she undid them, her fingers long and elegant. Her hands smoothed over the already heated skin of his chest and shoulders as she pulled the tie and then the shirt off him.
She’d undressed him last night, had unbuttoned his shirt just like this and, while it had inflamed him then, it moved him now. Touched him in ways he wasn’t prepared for, didn’t want.
He pushed the emotion away and reached for her, needing to obliterate his thoughts—his feelings—with the purely physical. And at first the taste and touch of her lips against his was enough to accomplish his goal. He plundered her mouth, slid his hands through the luxuriant softness of her hair, brought her nearly naked body in achingly exquisite contact with his. All of it was enough to stop the unwanted feeling, the impossible emotion.
Almost.
Her response undid him. She wasn’t just unresisting, she was more than compliant. She answered him kiss for kiss, touch for touch, and he could feel the surrender in her supple body, the giving of herself. The offering.
With Alyse sex would never be a soulless transaction. Already it was something else, something he couldn’t want and yet desperately needed. He deepened the kiss.
Alyse matched him, her body molding and melting into his, her head tilted back as she emitted a low moan from deep in her throat, the sound swallowed by his own mouth. Desire consumed him in a white-hot flame; thoughts and feelings blurred and coalesced into one.
He was barely aware of unhooking her bra, sliding off her pants; distantly he felt her hands fumble boldly at his zip and then his trousers sliding down his legs. He kicked them off in one abrupt, impatient movement and, sweeping her up in his arms, her skin silken against his, he brought her to the bed.
Even now
