She could only sag against the wall and look at him, so huge and dark in the hot mist, like some kind of pagan warrior. She was boneless, and as if he could sense the lethargy rolling through her body he turned off the spray and wrapped her in a towel, rubbing her brusquely before scooping up her long hair and wrapping it up turban-style.
Then he picked her up again and Sidonie protested weakly. ‘I can walk, you know.’ But even as she said the words she doubted that she could walk right now.
Alexio pulled back the covers and laid her gently on the bed. Sidonie’s eyes were already closing and she fought to keep them open, aware of the towel on her head.
‘My hair will be frizzy...’ she protested sleepily.
Alexio pulled a cover over her, still naked and damp from the shower himself. Sidonie was very aware of that.
‘Shh, it’ll be fine. You need to rest now. I’ll be back in a minute.’ He pressed his mouth to her forehead.
Sidonie cracked her eyes open enough to see Alexio drag on his jeans, leaving them tantalisingly open, before he walked out of the room. And then it was too much to fight. She slid into sweet oblivion.
CHAPTER FIVE
WHEN ALEXIO POURED whisky into the glass his hand was shaking. He’d had to get away from Sidonie and he cursed himself for thinking it would be a good idea to take her into the shower. Washing her supple body, seeing her delicate skin marked after their making love and knowing he couldn’t touch her again so soon, had been a torture he wouldn’t inflict on an enemy.
He’d barely been able to walk away from her in bed, even though her eyes had been closing.
Sex. It had been sex. Alexio knew all about sex. He’d been having it and excelling at it pretty much since he’d been seduced by the sister of a friend of his older brother at the age of fifteen.
But what he’d just experienced up there in his bedroom, with someone he’d met mere hours before, had not been any kind of sex he knew. It had blown his mind. And yet they’d done nothing kinky... Apart from that little striptease downstairs it had been perfectly straightforward. Sidonie obviously wasn’t experienced.
Alexio’s brain struggled to grapple with this anomaly. Was it that? That she was a little gauche? Was his palate so jaded that the sheer novelty of an inexperienced lover turned him on?
But he knew in his gut it was more than that. Deeper. And he hated to admit it. Alexio threw the whisky down his throat as if it could burn away the hunger that was already building again, which had abated only for mere seconds after his orgasm. He prided himself on his stamina, but this was ridiculous.
When he went back into his room Sidonie had shifted to lie on her front. The sheet clung precariously to her bottom, barely hiding its voluptuous swell, and those dimples were making his mouth water. Her hair had come out of the towel, which had been flung aside haphazardly, and the damp strawberry golden tresses were spread out around her head like glowing halo.
Alexio curled his hands into fists. No way could he go near her on that bed and not rouse her and make love to her again. Silently he turned and took his aching body to his office, where he tried to distract himself with some work.
After staring at the computer screen for a while and seeing nothing but the memory of Sidonie’s face as he’d slid into her tight body for the first time, he sat back and rubbed his hands over his face. This was crazy. He was useless. He needed Sidonie again. Now.