Falling for Alexander (Corkscrew Bay #2) (9 page)

Chapter Eleven

Alexander couldn’t remember when last a woman had occupied him so thoroughly. Correction. If it had ever happened before, he
would
have remembered. She was the heat coiled low in his abdomen, the restless energy in his limbs. She was the quick punches that struck at odd intervals when his mind lit on something she’d said or done.

He
’d gone into yesterday, fully prepared to remain repulsed by what and who Kate Hadley was. He should be slamming up those walls she seemed so convinced he lived behind. But, yesterday, he hadn’t seen a callous reporter whose conscience stopped at their by-line. And he’d looked damn hard. What he’d seen was a beautiful, sexy woman pushing everyone’s cause except her own.

He wasn
’t blinded to her faults. She’d made rash judgements and acted poorly on them. She’d also opened up to him in a surprisingly honest manner, placed her vulnerability into his safe-keeping.

No, he wasn
’t blinded. But,
Dio
, he’d started the day off resolved to tear her down and Kate alone, simply by being who she was, had flipped that determination on its head.

He wanted all of her.

He wanted the passionate woman who melted in his arms. The innocent woman who hadn’t learnt how to guard her secrets. The woman driven by hot-headed impulses instead of calculated motivations.

He wanted the imperfect woman with her all too human faults and her rash convictions, with her hot body and beautiful heart and gorgeous mouth and impassioned impulses.

He was playing with fire.

Tempting disaster.

His natural aversion to the media had deep roots, vindicated too thoroughly to be easily overcome, even for a woman he desired as badly as Kate. But this particular fault lay with him and he’d not hold that over the woman who’d captivated him, the woman he couldn’t walk away from. He’d simply have to find a way to reconcile the woman with his aversion to her chosen profession until this madness had been sated.

At five minutes to twelve, he buzzed the entrance gates open and made his way outside to wait in the gravel driveway that circled around a g
argoyle fountain at the front.

He had no doubt she
’d come, if not for him, then for her beloved town. And that was as far as he’d push his advantage. When they made love, it would be him and only him she wanted. He wouldn’t have the damn town in bed with them.

The rattle of her Jeep reached him long before the olive green vehicle came into view, navigating the driveway at a crawl. He imagined her gaze drinking in the splendour of indigenous bush and forest that wrapped the west wing of the castle and spread
up into the mountain, the spectacular setting that had grabbed his fascination three years ago. The acres of magnificent peace and quiet that had healed his sister and soothed his soul, inspired him to finally finish composing the piece he’d started just before Helena’s breakdown.

He broke into a stride as the Jeep pulled up alongside the fountain. Kate was too quick, the door swinging open and long, bare legs sliding from the high seat before he
’d reached her. She’d changed into a different sundress, a scrap of pale blue with spaghetti straps, a buttoned V that dipped between the valley of her breasts and skimmed her thighs. Not the kind of dress you wore on an overcast day with an intermittent drizzle that couldn’t decide what it wanted to do.

A lazy grin
spread, loosening his jaw, lacing his veins. She’d dressed for him, not the weather. “Hello, Kate.”

Her gaze, however, skipped straight over him and lifted to the limestone masonry at his back. “
Alexander,” she said, her voice filled with nostalgic awe. “Hello.”

“
Did you come to see me or the castle?” he asked, partly amused, partly not.

Her gaze dropped to meet his with a challenging flash of blue. “
Actually, I came to discuss the Easter egg hunt.”

He waved a hand over the forecourt grounds. “
Your committee will have access to this area from Thursday morning for whatever they need.”

“
Thank you.” She blinked, and her eyes softened to the blue of a summer’s sky. “I spoke to Marge after you left and she’s so excited. The news has spread across town by now, I’m sure.”

“
My pleasure.”

“
Yeah, right.” She twirled about, surveying the area. “We usually get an ice-cream van in for the day… and set up mini-races on the lawn.” She twirled back to wrinkle her nose at him. “Is that okay? The children are really careful to not ruin the grass.”

“
They can’t do more damage than a helicopter,” he said, chuckling at the sudden interest sharpening her gaze. “The manicured lawn makes for a decent helipad.”

She looked at him in silence, twisting her lower lip between her teeth.

“What?” he probed, although he probably didn’t want to know where her intrepid mind had taken that.

“
You own a helicopter?”

He shook his head. “
Some of the artists I collaborate with travel down from London or fly in from the States. The closest airport is Penzance and they don’t always appreciate the ambling country drive.”

Her expression crumpled in what resembled relief. “
Of course… Musicians and singers.”

“
As opposed to?”

“
You seriously don’t want to know.”

“
They come here to work and respect the privacy I afford them,” he said, worried he’d revealed too much. Why had he?

A subconscious test to see what popped up in her paper next week?

Maybe.

And why not?

It was one thing to play with an open flame, but plain stupid to do so without an extinguisher on hand. He wasn’t a fool, too naïve to take precautions before this went any further than a one-night stand.

“
Do you have any idea what a big scoop that is?” she groaned.

His jaw stiffened. “
I expect this to stay between us.”

“
Relax,” she said, smiling. “It is a scoop, even you can acknowledge that. The town would be titillated by what’s happening in our backyard. But I’m not going to say anything, okay? I wouldn’t betray any confidence you share with me, and if you don’t believe that, well…” Her smile faded and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Then I shouldn’t be here.”

“
I wouldn’t have told you if I suspected otherwise,” he said, the tension rolling off his shoulders. Not even a lie. He did trust her. He was a trusting man with an insurance policy, that was all.

“
Anyway,” she breathed out, as if releasing some tension of her own, “where were we?” She turned in place as she spoke. “The ice cream van, the races… Oh, yes, Gregg always puts up a tent for his pasties and it wouldn’t be a Corkscrew Bay event without the Donnaster sisters flipping their pancakes.”

She paused to study him for a moment. “
We do appreciate this, Alexander.” Her tone gentled, sweet, entirely genuine. “Stop me if you feel like I’m taking over your home.”

“
I won’t be here,” he reminded her. “You and your committee are welcome to do as you please in the grounds I’ve indicated.”

“
We won’t overstep the boundaries,” she promised.

“
Then that’s settled.” He dug into his back pocket for his wallet and withdrew his agent’s business card. “This is the name and number of my land estate agent. He lives in St. Ives, but has assured me he’ll be flexible to any meetings you wish to hold before Saturday. He’ll be here to open the gates and oversee the activities.”

“
Oh.” She took the card from him, her slender fingers brushing his with an electrical spark. “We’re done, then?”

“
Not nearly,
piccola
.” He moved in beside her, pressing his hand to the small of her back, propelling her toward the courtyard that ran up alongside the kitchen and utility entrances. “There’s still plenty of undiscovered territory for us to explore over lunch.”

He unlatched the wooden door and followed her into the half-acre orchard enclosed within the courtyard, his heated gaze admiring her from the tumble of her blonde hair to those shap
ely legs.

“
That goes both ways, Alexander,” she said, having apparently just digested his words.

The number of ways he planned to take her far exceeded two.

Her fingers trailed from one spindly trunk to the next as she drifted between the fruit trees. “I want to learn everything about
you
as well.”

He grabbed her around the waist, his grip feather-light, and turned her around into his arms. “
You’ll have unrestricted access,” he assured her as his mouth descended.

Her hands came up, pushing against his ches
t, her eyes widening into his. And then her fingers clutched instead of pushing, her eyes closed and her lips parted on a moan.

His mouth clamped over hers, his palms flattened over her backside, pulling her close, grinding her belly against his erection a
s he deepened the kiss. Her tongue curled around his, sucking gently to a slow pulse. Heat exploded inside his veins, burning up his skin. He ran his hands over her backside, lower, lifting the short skirt as he slid his fingers up again along her thighs.

Walking her back a step, he pushed her up against the nearest tree while her kiss devoured his senses. He
’d planned to make her lunch, seduce her with expert skill, make slow love to her in his bed. Now he didn’t think he could make it to the kitchen table, not even if he wanted to. And he didn’t.

He withdrew from the intoxicating dance of her tongue, his fingers sliding over the flimsy silk of her underwear and hooking on the lace trim.

“I want to take you now, right here, like this.” He didn’t recognise his voice, thickened with the Italian drawl he’d mostly shaken off years ago.

Her eyes opened into his, murky with desire. “
Here?”

“
We’re alone.” He tugged the silk over her buttocks, inch by tantalising inch. “No one around for miles.”

She drew breath on a
shudder as his hands slid over the curve of naked skin, her arms snaking around him. Her nails scraped his back as he went down, caressing the satin smooth length of her thighs and calves as he dragged her panties down and slipped them over one sandal-clad foot, then the other. He came up, hitched the slip of pink on a branch. By the time he’d retrieved a condom from his wallet and rolled it on, he was hard, throbbing. His body had been begging for this since yesterday morning.

He lifted her up against hi
m. “Wrap your legs around me,
cara
.”

Her legs clamped around his waist, her ankles hooked low at his back, her damp, sleek centre grazing the base of his erection as she strained back against the tree with a strangled moan. “
Alex, wait…”

Wait?

He stilled. “I’ll stop if that’s what you want.” A guttural laugh scraped his throat raw. “But you should know,
cara
, it will probably kill me.”

“
I don’t want you to stop,” she said. “Just wait…a moment.”

“
What is it?” Concern instantly cooled his ardour. Not by much, but enough to gain a momentary measure of control over the primal urge to push deep inside her. “Is this uncomfortable?”

“
No, not at all.” Her fingers filtered through his hair, down the side of his neck, then curled lightly over his shoulders. “This is too good, Alex, too perfect, too
right
. Too everything, too much to be had with a stranger.”

Alexander had always considered himself intelligent, but right now he felt as dumb as hell. Didn
’t help that he was poised on the edge of torture, losing his balance fast. “You’ll have to be more specific than that,
cara
.”

“
I want this. I want you. You can slam into me right this second and I’ll explode and I just know it will be the best sex I’ve ever had; will ever have.” Her gaze fed into his, hooked into his soul. “You’ll eclipse my world and I don’t know who you are. Talk to me, tell me a little about yourself. I want you to make love to me, right here. I don’t want to have sex with a stranger.”

“
We’re already having sex,” he breathed out, a bittersweet thread of pain pulled from his gut. But he knew what she was saying. He understood. It wasn’t sex alone that had clawed its way into his restless sleep, keeping him awake half the night.

How could he deny her?

“Alright, let’s get to know me,” he conceded, but only partly. This was going to be a blitz tour. He massaged her bottom cheeks gently, pulling her closer, rolling her against his length. “If you can hold out.”

“
That’s not fair.” The words were sucked in on a gasp.