A Devious Desire. JACQUELINE BAIRD
her leg, only the satin sheet preventing their naked flesh touching: Alex, naked and golden brown all over, reaching for her, his deep brown eyes smouldering with passion…
‘Coffee. Good.’
Horrified at her wayward thoughts, Saffron tore her gaze away from his legs and, shocked by her sexy fantasy, kept her head lowered to hide her blushes. She mumbled, ‘Yes,’ then breathed deeply and exhaled slowly. Her reaction to Alex Statis was getting ridiculous. What on earth was happening to her? She prided herself on her self-control but she had an awful premonition that around this man she would have to fight for every ounce.
‘Cabin OK?’ he asked.
He knew very well it was the height of luxury; he was deliberately goading her, but she would not rise to the bait. ‘What do you want, Mr Statis?’ she demanded firmly, pleased at the even tenor of her voice.
‘It is not so much what I want but what you want, Miss Martin.’ All trace of teasing was gone. His eyes, hard and dark as jet, caught hers. ‘My mother is a wealthy woman. I don’t know who persuaded whom to go on a holiday cruise which was totally unnecessary in the circumstances.’
‘I didn’t…’
‘Maybe you’re telling the truth. Mama can be very devious,’ he said drily.
Anna devious! Well, maybe a little, Saffron admitted honestly, but compared to this man Anna was innocence personified, and she listened in mounting anger as Alex continued.
‘I’ve checked with her doctor and apparently it is all above board. My mother likes you, she tells me you are good at your job, and I know to my cost——’ his lips thinned in a tight grimace ‘—you are more than capable of looking after yourself and her. But what worries me is where you learnt such talent, and why you needed to. So take this as a warning if you have any notion of fleecing my mother, or getting involved with any more of her madcap plans; I advise you to forget it—understand?’ He got to his feet, his dark eyes boring down into hers, a threat explicit in the black depths. ‘I will leave you to enjoy your coffee—oh, yes, and welcome aboard.’
Saffron had never been so insulted. The nerve of the man! Madcap plans indeed! And as if she would cheat an old lady. The temper that went with her red hair exploded, and she threw the half-full cup of coffee straight at him. The cup bounced off his chest, spilling coffee all over him.
‘Why, you…’ Two strong hands caught her upper arms and dragged her off the bed and against his hard body. She was suspended in mid-air, her feet dangling inches from the floor, but she did not have time to dwell on her predicament as a dark head swooped, Alex’s mouth capturing hers in a brutal grinding kiss that drove the breath from her body. She tried to struggle and felt herself falling…
SAFFRON fell back on the bed and felt the full weight of his huge body follow down on top of her; she tried to lift her knee, but Alex wasn’t the sort of man to be caught twice. His naked thigh pushed firmly between her legs, and as she tried to claw at his face his hands caught hers and pinned them either side of her head.
‘You damned hellcat,’ he swore. ‘Yesterday you got lucky. For the first time in twenty-odd years you caught me off guard. But it was also your last, sweetheart. It is time someone taught you a lesson, and I am just the man to do it.’ His deep brown eyes had darkened to black and the flame leaping in their depths sent fear scudding through Saffron’s body.
‘Says who——?’ Her last word was all but swallowed by his mouth once more closing over hers, his tongue gaining entry to the moist interior with devastating results. Suddenly she was conscious of his naked thigh between her legs, her short nightie rucked up somewhere round her waist; his towelling robe had fallen open and their lower bodies were naked flesh on flesh…Her breasts pressed against his muscular chest, hardened with inexplicable need and straining against the fine cotton of her nightgown.
To Saffron’s dismay, heat fierce and totally unexpected flooded through her veins. Her heartbeat accelerated like a rocket, and the kiss she had fought so furiously turned into a passionate seduction of her senses. She was aware of his powerful, virile body through every pore in her skin. His heavy thighs moved restlessly against her slender limbs, and something else…
Well, I certainly did not injure the man yesterday, she thought wildly, just as Alex’s mouth left hers, and she burst into terrified hysterical laughter.
‘What the hell…?’ His dark head reared back and he looked down into her flushed, laughing face. He let go of her abruptly and stood up.
Whether he recognised that it was fear more than humour that had brought on her hysterical reaction Saffron didn’t know; she only knew that, with a savage glance at where she lay tumbled on the bed, he snarled, ‘Cover yourself, woman; I’m not caught that easily,’ and pulled the sheet up over her.
Caught? What did he mean? She gazed up at the dark figure towering over her, and all trace of hysterical humour left her. He was virtually naked; his robe, hanging loosely off his broad shoulders, hid nothing of his magnificent body, or his obvious state of sexual arousal. Her earlier fantasy was fulfilled. His powerful body was tanned all over, except for a pale strip across his lean hips! Mesmerised by the stark beauty of his virile form, she could not look away…
‘Remember, you’ve been warned,’ Alex said coldly as unselfconsciously he folded the robe over his chest and knotted the belt around his waist. ‘Now I suggest you do what you were supposedly hired for and look after Mother.’ And with that he strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Saffron lay where he had left her, completely shellshocked. Nothing in her life so far had prepared her for such a lightning attack on her senses. Her body still pulsed with unfamiliar heat, her breasts felt heavy, the tips aching for she knew not what, and the lingering scent of Alex hovered in the air around her, seducing her even in his absence.
It was incredible—no, impossible, she told herself. She did not like the man, and yet for an instant she had wanted him in a shockingly sexual way. She who could count the men she had kissed on the fingers of one hand!
Slowly, as her breathing reverted to normal, she justified her reaction. It must have been a mental apparition; her response was not real, just a figment of her imagination. She was twenty-five years old and knew herself well enough to realise she was not a sexual person. Two unfortunate events in her teenage years had quickly squashed any real interest in the male sex.
At the age of ten she had lost her parents in a car crash and, left alone in the world, she’d been placed in an orphanage. It was quite nice, the staff friendly, but it could never make up for the loss of her home in Surrey and her parents. She had been thirteen, her body beginning to develop, when one of the older boys had caught her and forced her to the ground, his hands grabbing at her breasts. But Eve, her friend, had stopped him.
Saffron sighed and swung her legs off the bed. A soft film of moisture glazed her eyes as she stood up, remembering the past. Eve, two years older than Saffron, had been her best friend at the orphanage. Even after she’d left, she’d still called back occasionally to see Saffron. Eve’s untimely death not many months ago had affected Saffron deeply; she still wasn’t over it. She brushed the moisture from her eyes and headed for the en suite.
Memories were best left where they belonged—in the past. She stepped out of her nightie and into the shower; turning the tap on full force, she tossed her head back and let the reviving water wash over her.
The sensible thing to do was to pack in her job as soon as the boat docked and return to England. She would miss Anna, but common sense told her that the older woman would have no problem getting someone else to fill her role, and if she stayed she would have a problem with Alex Statis. He was a powerful, dangerous man, and he made no secret of the fact that he thought she was after something from his mother. It would be difficult; she had given up her room in the apartment she had shared