More than a Mistress(23)

"And you bought me."

Alex winced. "I-I made that bid, yes," she said, her voice as brittle as paper.

"I see."

The coldness of the words sliced through her self-pity. Alex looked up and saw the darkness in Travis's eyes.

"I was right, then," he said. "Your husband was in that bed with us."

"No! Oh, no."

"Maybe not because you were mourning his loss, but he was there, just  the same." His mouth twisted. "So he could see you perform, and know  what he was missing."

Alex hissed through her teeth and took a step back.

"It's amazing," she said, her voice trembling, "how I seem to specialize  in making myself look stupid in front of you. Is that all you can think  of? Your own pathetic ego? Yes, I bid on you out of anger. And yes,  maybe it was anger that drove me to-to respond to you, in that doorway."  She lifted her chin in defiance. "But what happened when you came to my  home had nothing to do with anger, or with Carl, or with those witches  in the ladies' room at L'Orangerie." Angry tears glittered in her eyes.  "And I don't know why I thought I owed this explanation to you, Mr.  Baron, because, frankly, I hate-"

Travis's mouth came down on hers.





CHAPTER NINE




THE thunder of the surf against the shore seemed no louder than the thundering beat of Alex's heart.

Travis's kiss was everything she had remembered, and more. She felt as  if he were demanding the surrender of her soul as well as her body, but  that wasn't true. How could it be, when the only thing between them was  desire?

Oh, but such desire.

Travis's hands were in her hair, tipping her face up to his, holding her  a willing prisoner as his mouth ravaged hers. It was a hard, possessive  embrace, almost savage in its urgency. You belong to me, it said, to me  and to no other man.

She knew it was an illusion. She didn't belong to him. She didn't want to; she had belonged to her father, then to her husband.

But Carl had never made her feel like this.

Travis whispered her name, sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. She  moaned and wound her arms around his neck, lifted herself to him and  shuddered with excitement when she felt the rigidity of his arousal hard  against her belly.

His hands were under her blouse. She trembled as his callused fingertips rode her hot skin.

"Travis," she said, her voice broken and husky, "Travis..."

"My Princess," he said, and his hands swept up the soft underside of her breasts and cupped them.

Need roiled through her blood but she fought it back. Don't, she told  herself, don't do this, Alexandra. Remember how you felt the last time,  the terrible feeling of emptiness, the self-loathing...

Remember the feel of him within you, the blinding pleasure of his body  in yours. Remember that moment when you tumbled off the edge of the  earth and exploded in the heavens but most of all, most of all, remember  how it felt afterward, lying in his arms, so at peace, so replete with  happiness...

"Give yourself up to me," Travis whispered, against her throat. "Come  with me, Alex, come with me and let me show you how it can be."

A hot, sweet wave of desire swept over her. Lost to it, she reached for him but his hand clamped down on hers.

"No," he said thickly. "Let me do this. Let me do it all."

She whimpered as he drew back, and the knowledge that she didn't want  him to leave her was almost more than he could endure. He imagined  having her now, pulling her down to the sandy beach in the darkness,  rolling her under him, entering her on one long, hard thrust and riding  her until she shattered in his arms.

It was how he'd taken her before, swiftly and with an elemental hunger.  But it was not how he wanted to take her now, especially when the words  she'd spoken with such terrible dispassion still echoed in his head.

Sex had been unsatisfying.

That was what she'd said, this woman who burned in his arms. Sex, with  her husband, had been unsatisfying. He knew what it meant, that she had  been a dutiful wife, that the son of a bitch who'd taken her to his bed  had given nothing and taken everything.

Tonight, he would change that forever ...but not if he gave in to the  animal instincts that drove him. It took all his strength to stop her  from touching him but even more than he wanted Alex, he wanted to give  her this night.

"No," he said. "Not here."

"Of course." She stepped back. "I'm sorry, Travis. You're right. I should never have..."

"Dammit," he said roughly, and hauled her into his arms again. He kissed  her, over and,over, until she was clinging to him. "Don't ever  apologize for wanting me. Don't you know how exciting that is, Princess?  To know you feel the way I feel?" He took a deep breath, clasped her  face gently in his hands and brushed his mouth over hers in a soft,  lingering kiss. "I have a suite at the inn. It's where I planned on  spending the night. Will you come there with me, and let me make love to  you as if this were our first time?"                       
       
           



       

He waited for her answer, knowing that giving her time to think was a  gamble'. He was asking her to admit her need for him instead of being  swept away by it, but he didn't want her to come to him blinded by  passion.

Not tonight. Tonight, he wanted to seduce her. Awaken her. And to know,  after this, the only man she would remember would be him.

"Alex." He ran his thumb over her parted lips. "I want to make love to  you. Tell me it's what you want, too." Her answer was in the soft  surrender of her kiss.



His bedroom was high in the round turret of the handsome old inn.

The night's darkness held the room in close embrace, save for the ivory  path laid across the bed by the moon. Travis shut the door and locked  it. The turn of the lock seemed to echo through the silent room.

Alex shivered.

There'd been no time for thinking, or for fear, when she'd gone to bed  with him that other time. Desire had made her a creature of instinct,  not of logic.

This was different. Travis had given her a choice and she'd made it. It was her decision that had brought her here, to his bed.

What would he expect of her, and what could she give him? If she failed him, she would fail herself...

"I can't do this," she said, and spun toward the door, straight into Travis's waiting arms. "Travis. Travis, please. I can't."

She was trembling. What was she afraid of? Of him? Of herself? Of the  passion he had unleashed in her, that last time? She sighed, and he felt  the warmth of the exhalation against his throat.

"What is it, Princess? Why are you afraid?"

She drew a shaky breath. "There was no time to think, before. It's why everything was... Travis. I'm not-I'm just not-"

"What?" he whispered, and kissed her, slowly, gently, his lips coaxing hers to soften and cling.

Alex gave a choked laugh and buried her face against his shoulder. "You'll laugh."

Travis gathered her closer. "Tell me."

"I'm not ... experienced. I know that sounds silly, after the way I acted with you, but-"

"I don't believe you."

She shut her eyes in misery. "I didn't think you would. But what I told  you is the truth. I've never-I've never been with any man except for my  husband, and you."

"I believe that, with all my heart." He smiled and stroked his thumbs  along her cheekbones. "But I don't believe you acted when we were  together last time."

"Acted?" She drew back and looked up at him. "No. Oh, no. Everything I did and said was-"

"Real."

"Yes. But this isn't going to be the same. I can feel the difference  already. I'm all the things I've always been when it comes to-to bed."

Travis gritted his teeth. Alex's husband really had been a bastard but  he didn't want to think about that now. He wanted to think only of Alex.

"Yes," he said calmly, "you are all the things you've always been.  You're beautiful." He feathered kisses over her face. "Desirable." He  smiled. "And incredibly sexy, even without that red dress."

Alex shook her head. "That dress! I can't believe I bought it, or that I wore it. Carl used to say-"

"I don't give a damn what Carl used to say." Travis shut his eyes, told  himself to take it easy. Pretending the wall was her ex's face and  putting his fist through it was not going to make things better. "Listen  to me, Princess. If you've changed your mind about making love with me,  tell me so. But if your ex is lodged inside your head, I know exactly  how to get rid of him."

Alex's smile trembled. "I don't think you can." "Will you let me try?"

She looked up at him. "I'd like to. But-"

Travis took her into his arms. "Do you hear the music, Princess?"

She did. It was drifting in through the open windows, along with the soft, sighing breaths of the sea.

"Dance with me," he said, and he began moving to the slow, romantic tune.