The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance 2016. Кейт Хьюит
a magic mirror on your wall...?’
Alexa laughed, but there was a telling catch in her laughter and Theo experienced a moment of disorientation during which he felt weirdly tender and possessive towards this prickly, argumentative woman who had given him nothing but a hard time ever since their paths had crossed.
‘I overheard a conversation when I was eleven,’ she confessed. ‘I was in a toilet cubicle at school and I overheard some of my friends giggling about me. I’d never thought I was fat but it seems that I was...and I had also developed way ahead of everyone else. That’s a big deal when you’re a kid. Whilst all the girls in my year were busy shooting up like beanpoles I was getting...well...a figure... It seems I was something of a figure of fun...especially to boys...’
‘Boys that age can be idiots,’ Theo told her fiercely. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and held her against him, her face pressed against his neck. ‘In fact...’ he angled her so that he could look down at her seriously ‘...quite a few idiot boys grow up into idiot men.’
Was that her opinion of him? A guy who judged by appearances only?
He sensed that that was just the sort of introspective question that might not benefit from too much in-depth analysis. Her whole persona now made sense to him. Her defensiveness...her passionate interest in the intellectual as opposed to the physical...her mulish aversion to the sort of high society affairs where she might feel herself judged, yet again, on appearance instead of personality.
The fact that she was here now, playing at a relationship with the sort of man she had probably spent her entire adult life erecting walls to keep out, spoke volumes about her close relationship with her parents.
‘I suppose...’ She laughed a little self-consciously. ‘Thanks for listening...’
Theo was highly offended. ‘Of course I listened to you! Why wouldn’t I?’
‘Because you don’t listen a lot when women moan and whine?’ she suggested teasingly.
Theo had the grace to flush. ‘Maybe that whining and moaning always had a certain predictable flavour...’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We’re having a conversation,’ Theo heard himself say.
Alexa nestled against him, nerves temporarily banished. ‘Isn’t that what you told me we had to do, considering we’re about to tie the knot?’
‘I don’t do a lot of that either,’ he admitted with a wry smile.
‘Talking in bed with a woman?’
Theo thought that it might have been more accurate to say talking, and leave it at that, but of course he did talk to women... Regrettably, the conversations were not usually of an inspiring nature and, having never—not once—thought about that, he now wondered whether he had set his standards a little on the low side in the past. At least insofar as intellectual stimulation was concerned.
‘There always seem to be far more exciting things to do than chit-chat...’ He shoved aside the niggling moment of introspection and returned to the business of making love—his comfort zone.
He curved his hand along her side, smoothing it over her rounded hip and confidently inserting it between her legs, parting them and laughing under his breath at her little pant of anticipation.
This was definitely more like it.
‘Now it’s time for you to lie back and think of England...’
‘Is that an order?’
‘Of course it is. Haven’t we already established that I’m the arrogant sort, who gives orders and expects them to be obeyed...?’
Alexa giggled breathlessly and closed her eyes—although she knew the last thing she would be doing was thinking of England...
He explored her body and took his time doing it, suckling on her swollen nipples, arching her body up so that he could enjoy them all the more. The longer he spent there, the more she frantically wanted him to go further, and her whole body was tingling as he made his way down, inch by inch, until his mouth found the dampness between his legs.
Alexa gave a little yelp and tried to wriggle away, but Theo pinned her down by her hips and glanced up at her.
‘What’s the problem?’
‘There’s something you should know...’
She had debated whether to say anything or not. Could a man tell the difference between a virgin and a woman who was not? Alexa didn’t know, but she knew that she would reveal the full extent of her inexperience the very second he started getting too intimate.
As he had just been doing.
‘Hasn’t anyone been intimate with you like that?’ Theo was tickled pink by that. ‘Shh... Time for me to show you what you’ve been missing...’
He didn’t want her to think about this. He just wanted her to enjoy. He gently parted her legs and felt her tense. He licked the inside of her thigh and she relaxed with a soft moan, and then, so slowly, he began to explore her.
She tasted of musk and honey, fragrant and seductive. He licked her, and then darted his questing tongue, touching the protruding nub of her clitoris. After gently smoothing her thighs he parted the lips concealing her womanhood with his fingers, so that her sensitive clitoris was even more exposed to the erotic dance of his tongue.
Alexa groaned. She could barely breathe, the pleasure was so intense.
She shielded her face with her arm and twisted away. She was so wet down there...melting like candle wax.
The pleasure became more and more intense, spiralling until she was hurtling towards the edge, and only then did Theo slowly ease his rhythm, leaving her begging for more, pleading with him to bring her to orgasm.
By which time he was so shockingly turned on that he could barely steady his hands to apply the condom. More than anything else, he wanted to come inside her, to feel her wet tightness wrap around his erection...
Alexa stayed him with one trembling hand and gulped. ‘There’s something I should tell you...’
‘Alexa... Not now... I want you so much I’m not sure I’m going to be able to withstand another conversation—not unless we pause for an intermission and I have a cold shower...’
‘It’s...it’s something you really need to know, Theo,’ she said with wrenching urgency.
Theo stilled and gazed down at her flushed cheeks. He couldn’t imagine what she might have to say that couldn’t keep. She was as turned on as he was and he could barely think straight. Add to that the fact that he was highly experienced and you didn’t need to join too many dots to work out how explosive her effect on him was.
Was she about to tell him that she was involved with someone else? It was a question he had asked of her before and she had given a negative response—but that might have been a diplomatic denial, intended to halt a sticky conversation.
With a jolt of surprise he realised that he had already formed assumptions about her, and one of them was that he believed she was genuine—and that annoyed him, because he was cynical when it came to members of the opposite sex.
‘If you’re going to break my heart by telling me you’ve got the hots for another man, then it’s a conversation I have no interest in having.’
He lay back and felt her nestle against him, propping herself up against his chest. Her long hair hung on either side of her heart-shaped face, a jumble of curls.
‘What are you talking about?’ Alexa was genuinely puzzled. ‘If I had the hots for someone else why would I be...? Well...’
Theo dealt her a slashing grin, relieved at the earnestness in her voice. He curled his fingers into her hair and tugged her down to kiss him.
‘Then what...?’