The Promise of Change - By Rebecca Heflin Page 0,56

you want? If not, I will leave. All you have to do is ask. But thirty more seconds of this, and I can’t vouch for my self-control.” He searched her face with his fathomless eyes, almost black now with desire.

She took a deep breath, as if she was about to dive into the deep end of the pool. “Yes,” she said with a sigh. “This is what I want.”

He kissed her again, more urgently this time. Retreating a step, he took her hand and led her to the bed.

She didn’t move, afraid that she would wake up from this dream. Her murmured, “no apology necessary,” and Alex’s seductive grin and tender parting kiss were part of that dream.

She sighed, trying to keep consciousness at bay, but she was pulled inexorably to wakefulness. She rolled over and caught his scent. The other pillow had an indentation where his head had lain. It wasn’t a dream. Of course, how could she expect it to have been a dream, when she’d hardly slept long enough to enter that state?

She waited for the panic to set in. This was completely out of character for her. She wouldn’t think about the only other time she fell this fast for someone. No panic. She stretched like a satisfied cat, smiling at the memories. For someone who had slept very little, she felt remarkably well.

Alex had snuck out of the inn in the pre-dawn with a promise to be back by nine. He thought it best that he didn’t come down for breakfast in his stiff, rumpled clothes from yesterday, murmuring something about her reputation. He’s such a gentleman, she thought.

She reluctantly climbed out of bed and tried to locate her robe. It lay in a pool on the floor a few feet from the bed where Alex had slipped it off her shoulders. She staggered to the bathroom as if she was drunk, stopping in front of the mirror.

She stared in dismay at the image. There was no denying what she’d done last night. It was readily apparent in her face. Her lips were swollen, her eyes too bright, and her cheeks flushed. Add to that her tangled, wild hair, and she was a walking billboard for sex. She cringed. A little butterfly fluttered in her stomach. Was that panic, or excitement? Definitely a little bit of both.

Sex was not a recreational activity for her. She knew this was a bit old-fashioned, but according to the Book of Sarah, sex was more than just a physical activity, a union of two bodies. It was an emotional, spiritual, and even intellectual merging of two people who cared deeply for one another.

So how did her actions of last night fit with her feelings for Alex? Or vice versa? And how did Alex feel about last night?

The shower cleared her head and calmed some of the rising panic, but the consequences of last night’s events chipped away at the bliss she initially felt when she woke.

What was I doing? she asked herself yet again. How many times this week did I ask myself that question, and how many times had I shoved it aside? There was no shoving it aside anymore. She only had two more days in England, and she didn’t know how this would end, but it couldn’t end well. Could it?

Thrusting further introspection aside, she looked for something to occupy her mind until it was time to meet Alex for breakfast. She wondered if they were fooling anyone by putting on this charade.

Picking up the TV remote, she clicked on the news. She hadn’t seen the TV news since she’d been in England, and come to think of it, she hadn’t missed it.

As the news played in the background, she grabbed her phone, and with her tongue firmly in her cheek, texted Ann and Becca: “Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.”

Laughing at her foolishness, she turned back to the TV in time to catch the name ‘Fraser.’ On the screen was a heavy-set man, his broad face capped by slightly thinning brown hair, dressed in a conservative suit. He stood at a podium surrounded by a few dour looking suit-clad gentlemen.

The caption on the bottom of the screen read: “Robert Fraser to run for Prime Minister.” Sarah gasped. Alex’s brother. Grabbing the remote, she turned up the volume, catching him mid-speech.

“. . . announce my candidature for Prime Minister under the Conservative Party. I will support the principles of Thatcherism: free markets, deregulation, financial