Vienna Betrayal - Lila Dubois Page 0,50
grabbed the zipper, sliding it up.
Dressed but barefoot, she turned to look at him.
There were suddenly a million things he wanted to say, starting with “don’t leave yet” and finishing with the cliched but true “you make me feel something I’ve never felt before.”
She touched his cheek. “My quiet man.”
He leaned his face into her hand. Doing it felt so right, as if he were slipping into something he’d done a thousand times before, but he’d never felt the urge to lean into a woman’s hand.
Only Alena’s.
“Alexander.” The hand on his cheek slid down to his chest. She patted him, and he knew she was about to pull away.
“Alena, wait.”
She glanced up, brows raised in question.
“There’s one thing we haven’t done.”
She smiled. “I’ve wanted to do it all night.”
“I’m sorry I waited.”
She rose up on her toes, he bent his head, and their lips brushed together. They paused, feeling and tasting one another’s breath.
Then his needs—to taste her, claim her, possess her, and punish her—surged up inside him.
Alexander cupped the back of her head. His tongue swiped over her lips, then inside her mouth when she yielded. She sucked his tongue, which made his cock twitch in his pants. Three nights wasn’t enough. He needed more.
That thought was both alarming and invigorating. A wholly unfamiliar desire to simply be near her, to sit beside her on the couch with a glass of wine, to take her out to dinner just to watch her enjoy herself, was hammering at him.
Alena broke the kiss, gently pushing him away with the hand still on his chest. They looked at one another. Her face was pinched with regret. He hoped it was regret that she was leaving, and not that she regretted the kiss.
He wanted to say so damned many things. He wanted to invite her to dinner, to offer her a place in his bed, or to go down and sleep beside her so that when she got up to leave for the airport he’d be right there, able to steal one last kiss.
He had too many things he wanted to say, but he knew better than to speak when there was this much going on inside his head.
After a long moment, Alena stepped back. “I’ll call a car service, I don’t want to make your driver get up early.”
He formed the complete sentences in his mind before speaking. “I don’t need his services tomorrow. He can sleep when he gets back.” He hated that they were talking about such mundane things.
“Oh, that’s good.” Alena ran her palms up and down her upper arms. “Where should I meet him?”
“Wait for him on the first floor.”
“Thank you.” Alena walked to the door, pausing to put her shoes on.
Alexander snapped himself out of the indecision paralysis that gripped him as he tried to figure out what, if anything, he should say. Could say, without sounding like a moron.
In the end he said nothing. He opened the door, Alena murmured something polite and appropriate. At the top of the stairs she glanced back at him once, smiling tentatively.
He could feel the words crowding in his brain, knew that he wouldn’t make any sense if he tried to speak.
The moment passed and she turned away, starting down the steps to the fourth floor.
Alexander waited until she was out of sight to close and lean against the door.
“Dummkopf. Alex, du bist sehr dumm.”
He turned, then walked over to the couch. Her red pashmina lay on the couch where he’d tossed it. As they were saying goodbye he’d waited for her to ask about it, hoped she wouldn’t.
He picked it up and held it to his face. It smelled of her.
Tossing the pashmina around his neck, he wandered towards his bedroom.
Why did he feel like this? It wasn’t like he’d never see her again. There was another Orchid Club event next month.
Damn it, he didn’t want to wait a month. He should have said something. Should have…
He hung her pashmina in the closet. He’d have to tell his valet—who selected, purchased, and laundered his clothes—not to touch the vibrant scarf, or find somewhere else to keep it.
Alexander turned on the shower and stepped in, hoping hot water would wash away this odd feeling of loss.
He braced his hands on the wall, let the water sluice over his back, and finally admitted that he might have fallen in love with Alena Moore.
Alena took everything that had just happened, put it in a little emotion-proof box at the back of her