Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers (13 page)

Jessica had just adjusted to her privacy and her thoughts when Alexi strolled in carrying two cups of coffee. He smiled briefly as she sank lower into the mounds of bubbles and then handed a cup to her. “You’ll have to sit up to drink that.”

The dark, rich brew smelled like heaven. He smelled delicious, and he was grinning like a boy tormenting a girl. “You’re not going to ask me to leave, are you?”

“Of course not.”

“Of course. You’re only hiding your body beneath the sudsy water because you’re not shy, right? Tell me how it is that no man has seen your body,” he ordered suddenly, surprising her. “Tell me why you have been married twice and are still so tight inside. Tell me why you are surprised at how your body reacts, at your own needs. Tell me why you blush when you think of how we made love.”

Intimate talk, lovers’ talk in the early morning, frightening talk, which could reveal too much…. “I want to understand,” Alexi added softly, watching her.

“I—I’d rather not,” she said quietly, avoiding his stare as she sipped her coffee and stared out the window. “This view is magnificent.”

“Yes, it is.” Alexi’s voice was deep and uneven, and when she forced herself to turn back to him, their sexual hunger leaped into life, quivering on the steamy layers in the room.

Alexi stood and walked over to the tub. His gaze lowered to her breasts, surrounded by bubbles. “Very beautiful. But if I don’t leave now, I’ll be in that tub with you.”

“There’s not room.”

“You should see your face. You’re shocked, Mrs. Sterling—come out when you’re ready.” Alexi chuckled softly as he closed the door, leaving her alone.

He was hungry for Jessica even now, Alexi thought as he placed a platter of bacon, eggs and toast onto the table.

Jessica’s slow, careless stroll into the bathroom must have cost her, because she must be aching and because she was definitely shaken by her own desire. She’d fought her passion, shaking within his arms, and yet it had risen out of her fiercely, demanding and hungry and perfectly matching his own needs.

The woman was new to lovemaking, to enjoying it, to the pleasure they’d shared, and he had taken her three times!

Alexi silently promised himself to be very careful of her today, fearful of frightening her away. Jessica was shy of him yet. When she looked at his body earlier, the hunger was there, but also uncertainty. Her lashes had lowered and the blush rising up her cheeks was too revealing. She’d pulled the sheet to her breasts, covering herself; he had been tempted to come back to her, to draw away that sheet and kiss that long, soft body beneath, to make her sigh and shake and—her soft cries echoed within him, his body hard now, though he would resist.

He would give Jessica time to adjust to—She still loved her husband, and it would not do to have him in bed with them.

Alexi didn’t like his jealousy of the man who had married Jessica, who had given her everything.

His pride seemed to rise up, choking him when he’d thought his old wounds had healed. When he sensed Jessica had come into the living room, he turned to her. “When you are in my bed, there will be no other man between us.”

Those green eyes widened with shock. Clearly unprepared for his harsh demand, Jessica stepped back. Her hair was down, softly framing her face, gleaming in rich shades of chestnut. She wore designer jeans and her feet were bare—the pedicure probably more expensive than he could imagine. But she’d chosen to wear his flannel shirt and that eased his uncertainty about her love for her husband.

That haughty look was there, the independent woman with an obvious chip on her shoulder. “Terms, Alexi?”

He lifted an eyebrow and reminded her, “You came to me last night. A man can assume certain things.”

“Tell me that wasn’t an invitation you served me in Seattle.”

Tit for tat, a fighter moving in to protect herself. Alexi admired that, the woman who had chosen him above other men—because it was obvious that Jessica hadn’t been sexually active. He enjoyed the way she shifted her head away from his prowling finger, how she stood as he flicked open the shirt to reveal her breasts, to smooth the slightly reddened patches his stubble had caused. “Do they hurt?”

“Do you?”

“But I am not soft and sweet and tender.” He cupped her breast and watched that sensual heat leap to those green eyes, darkening them.

“Stop testing me.”

“But I have to. Just as you are testing me. It is what we are about—challenges—is it not? I like you wearing my shirt.”

“You just have to have it all, don’t you? Okay, I’ll give it to you. I’m sensitized a little, here and there. This was loose enough to wear without a bra. The lace only—”

“Can breakfast wait?” he murmured against her cheek.

“Can you?” Jessica returned as her arms lifted to circle him and her lips parted for the intimate fit of his….

“Hand that board up to me,” Alexi ordered from the rafters over Jessica’s head.

At eleven o’clock that morning, she was uneasy with their new relationship. He could feel her circling him, weighing the heat of the storm against the softer moments they’d shared. Her eyes avoided his, and she’d eased away from his body when he passed too close. Jessica was definitely as aware of him as he was of her.

She’d put on her makeup as though she was placing her shields between them, withdrawing back into her control where she could understand and safely schedule and predict.

Alexi had started to work on the roof, bracing it from inside, his work giving him an escape from his emotions. Would she stay the day? Would she stay the night? The week?

He looked down at Jessica and found that mysterious quiet look in those dark green eyes. Was she frightened of what had happened between them? Was she leaving? “Is the lady corporate executive above a little manual labor?” he attempted to tease with a smile.

“I’ve done my share.”

She lifted the short, premeasured board he had pointed to and took a few rungs up the ladder, pausing to hand it up to Alexi. He placed his hand over hers and asked the question troubling him: “Are you staying?”

Her expression was guarded. “I’m going to talk with Willow now. I have to know that she is safe.”

“She is.”

He lifted the board away and Jessica frowned. “How do you know that Willow is safe, Alexi?”

He shoved the board into place, a support for the old boards, and pounded nails into it. Jessica had moved up the ladder and stood on it, staring at him. “You are a very frustrating man, Alexi Stepanov. Are you going to tell me or not?”

She’d placed her hair into that prim knot, straight back from her face. Dressed now in expensive navy sports slacks and
matching jacket, she had settled down earlier to work at her laptop on the kitchen table. He’d heard the ring of her cell phone, her voice muffled. “Who just called you?” Alexi asked.

“I run a business, you know.”

“Ah. Howard.”

“Yes.” The flash of her eyes and Jessica’s one word said she didn’t want his interference. Too bad, Alexi decided. He was taking the rights of a lover to protect his own.

“Get out of here,” he said lightly. “That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Leave? Pack up and go, then. We’re both adults. There’s no need to try to make nice.”

He didn’t need to look at Jessica to feel her response to his challenge. Alexi could feel her bristle in the cold air between them.

“I thought you Stepanov boys were supposed to be easygoing. But you are definitely a mountain of trouble.”

Alexi looked down at her. “Make up your mind. Either you want me—what I am—or you don’t.”

“Your bruises are showing, Alexi.”

“Maybe. Either you stay or not. Either you come back or you don’t.”

“This is some morning after,” she muttered, and tossed a small piece of wood at him.

Alexi moved his arm, deflecting the wood. He’d thought about flowers and breakfast in bed. At another time, when his edges weren’t so raw, terrified that she’d walk away from whatever might grow between them, he might have been less harsh. A wealthy woman, Jessica was used to more, more than he could give her.

And he couldn’t settle for less than what they could have—“You can’t make it here, Jessica. There’s no way you can give up everything you have and lower yourself to a working man’s life—my life.”

“I know what you’re doing, Alexi. You want me to commit to you right now. You’re challenging me. And you really think I’ll walk, don’t you?”

“The choice is yours. I want you here, with me. And I’m not sneaking up to the resort to visit your suite when you drop
in now and then.” Maybe his pride was showing—or his fear—but pushing Jessica into a semi-commitment was something he needed now. Uncomfortable with his insecurity, Alexi knew what he was challenging Jessica to do—to overturn her entire life to stay with him, a man who had little to offer. “If you want to keep tabs on Willow, on whatever her problem is, you’ll have to do it yourself. Let me know what you decide.”

Then to soften his fear, to reassure himself and to give Jessica something to balance during her day, Alexi reached down to cradle the nape of her neck. He watched her eyes darken, felt the sensual heat stir in the shadowy cold air between them. “Come here,” he whispered.

The resistance to his order was there in the stiffness of her body. She was a woman who chose her own path—would she choose him?

Then she took two more steps up the ladder. That encouraged Alexi, and he bent down slightly. “Come here,” he whispered again, and feared he was pushing his luck.

Jessica’s next step took her to a level where their lips met and played and warmed. “I thought you were civilized, Stepanov, or trying to be,” she whispered, and caught his bottom lip with her teeth.

He smiled lightly and his tongue traced her upper lip. “Only when I have to be.”

Her lips opened and his tongue instantly slipped inside. Their eyes met, so close he could see himself in the darkness of hers. The slight suction of her mouth caused his body to harden instantly.

Jessica leaned a fraction away, studying him. She licked her lips and tilted her head, those dark green eyes heavy-lidded and sultry. “I could make you beg.”

The taunt was sexual, playful, and Alexi delighted in this feminine woman set to torment him. “Try it. Now.”

Her shocked expression pleased him and Alexi couldn’t help grinning.

“You’re overconfident, Stepanov,” Jessica murmured. “Someone needs to take you down.”

“Try.”

She shook her head and Alexi could feel the heat in her, that need to meet his challenges. She snapped her fingers. “I could seduce you in a minute. Just like that.”

He grinned, enjoying the intimate, playful rivalry between them. “Try.”

“It’s cold outside and you’re sweaty. You look fizzed. What’s wrong?” Willow asked anxiously as Jessica entered her shop.

“I’ve been running. I do work on keeping in shape, you know.” Jessica regretted her sharp reply, an aftermath to fighting her instincts to climb that ladder and wipe the smile—rather, change Alexi’s expression to one of that dark hunger.

But then that would have just tripped her own, and they would be back in bed—or the first flat surface or—Jessica blinked with an unexpected thought: Alexi could support her weight; he’d just carried her into the house and he’d carried her to bed.

When he’d looked down at her and said that one word, “Try,” she almost did, her body warming and softening and aching for his.

It was all about sex and testing each other’s limits, nothing more. Alexi was a tall, fascinating challenge and he knew it. He knew just how to test her, pushing for more.

Jessica held her smile inside, where she was warm and happy and feeling like taking Alexi down and—
All she had to do was to circle him sensually, find his weakness and go for him, and then they’d see about “Try.”

Her legs were shaking—either from her hard run along the beach or thinking about Alexi’s demands, pushing her to the limit and leaving her exhausted, clinging, sated and smiling against his damp shoulder. She’d never felt so complete, her body blending with his, as if he were the other part of her. How could a man be so tender, soothing her later? How could he be wrapped in his own demanding hunger and yet put hers first?

Jessica caught Willow’s puzzled expression. “I’m sorry, Willow. I’ve got things on my mind. What were you saying?”

Willow’s eyebrows rose and behind the glint of her small glasses, her eyes sparkled with humor. “Things on your mind like Alexi Stepanov? That dreamboat? So you spent the night there? Tell all. I’ll put the teakettle on. I’ve never seen you blush before, Jessica.”

Jessica leveled a look at Willow, who was studying her with interest, as if noting every minute change.

She ran her fingertip over the small strawberry-shaped soaps on display with others, all placed in ceramic clam shells and sealed in plastic. Was it that evident? The hours spent making love with Alexi? “It was only because the weather conditions were bad. My car stalled.”

“Uh-huh. Like I believe that,” Willow said, leading the way back to her apartment. “I know what I’d do if I could catch that guy. I’d nail him on the spot.”

Jessica shivered, remembering how Alexi had watched her bathe…how those blue eyes had stroked her body beneath the sudsy water. That dark, contemplative, hungry look brought to life emotions she hadn’t experienced, and she feared trusting them.

Once in her kitchen, Willow ran water into the kettle, put it on the flame and turned to Jessica. Willow leaned back against her kitchen counter and studied her friend. “I’ve known you too well for you to put one over on me. You had sex with him and liked it—this, after not being touched by a man since your teenage marriage. He’s got you all steamed up—a man like Alexi would do that to a woman he wanted. And he’d make life pretty darned difficult for that woman, too. Now you’re running because you’re frustrated and don’t know how to handle yourself, or what to do next, and you want to go to him and tell him all that, but you don’t know how to give yourself over—to trust anyone but me. Is that about it?”