One Night...Nine-Month Scandal Read online

  Bad, she thought, sucking air into her lungs. Definitely bad.

  He was right in front of her now, legs spread apart, unapologetically male, his aura of rough sexuality sending the temperature in the room soaring to dangerous levels.

  Her body aching with a need she’d suppressed for far too long, Kelly shoved at his chest with the flat of her hand. ‘You’re invading my personal space, Alekos. Get away from me.’

  ‘I’ve spent the last five seconds thinking about coffee,’ he said silkily, ‘Which means I’ve now moved onto sex.’

  She was stupid, stupid to have mentioned sex to this man.

  She didn’t want to think about sex while she was in the same room as him. It was the one topic they should have avoided. The most dangerous.

  But it was already too late.

  The heat was spreading through her pelvis, slow and insidious, stealing through her like smoke from a fire. And the fire was raging, curling inside her, ready to burn up everything in its path.

  Fighting that reaction, Kelly pushed past him, but he caught her arm and hauled her against him. Their bodies collided with an almost fatal inevitability, and in that single, highly charged instant he read her body. As sure as if he’d stripped her naked, he knew what she was feeling. He’d always known, even before she’d known herself.

  That intimate knowledge hovered between them, as acute as it was unwelcome.

  Without warning, his mouth came down on hers, hard and demanding. She was dragged back four years, sucked back into a time when passion had ruled thought, when the world had been a perfect place, and when the only thing that had mattered was being with this man.

  For a moment she melted. She couldn’t breathe or think.

  Swamped, Kelly struggled to free herself and dragged her mouth from his. ‘No!’

  She heard him draw a ragged breath, his eyes blazing into hers as he tried to focus. ‘You’re right.’ His usually accent less English was thickened and pronounced. ‘It is crazy.’

  ‘I don’t—’ Her mouth was burning. Her body was on fire.

  ‘Neither do I.’

  If either of them had stepped back, they might have stood a chance.

  Instead their mouths collided again with almost brutal force. The raw chemistry that exploded between them was so intense that for a moment she couldn’t help herself.

  She’d missed this.

  She’d missed him.

  Missed the feel of his mouth. The touch of his hands. Kelly kissed him back hungrily, her mouth every bit as greedy as his, her tongue every bit as bold. But there was anger in her kiss too, and as she felt his response to her she thought, just look at what you’re missing: just look at what you gave up.

  He muttered something in Greek, so shaken that she felt a vicious rush of satisfaction.

  Yes, she thought, it was good and you threw it away. You threw this away.

  Purring in her throat, she licked at the corner of his mouth, the caress dangerously provocative. She had no idea what was pushing her—desire? Pride? Revenge? All she knew was that she wanted to be with him again. Just this once.

  Without breaking the kiss, Alekos powered her back against the work surface, jabbed his fingers into her hair and gripped her head. Her fingers were locked in the front of his shirt, dragging him closer. They kissed as if it were their last moment on the planet, as if the future of civilisation depended on their desire for each other, as if they had never parted.

  Kelly was so turned on she ignored the thought that this was really, really stupid.

  His touch was as skilled as she remembered—his kisses as bone-meltingly perfect.

  Yes, she was angry with him—blisteringly angry—but that just seemed to intensify the emotions that flared between them. Anger was just another fuel to stoke a fire that was already white-hot. She didn’t want to feel like this, but sex had never been the problem between them, had it? Maybe that was why she’d given it up, she thought as she dug her fingers into the hard muscle of his shoulders. She’d known it could never be like this with anyone else. Celibacy had been preferable to disappointment.

  ‘Theé mou, we should not be doing this.’ He growled the words against her throat and she gasped and slid her leg around his, unwilling to let him go.

  ‘You’re right. We shouldn’t.’

  ‘You’re angry.’

  ‘Boiling mad.’

  ‘I’m furious that you sold the ring.’

  ‘I’m furious you’re giving it to another woman.’

  ‘I’m not!’ He jerked her head back, his gaze black and intense, his voice thickened by the swirly, sultry atmosphere. ‘I’m not giving it to another woman.’

  ‘I hate her. I hate you.’

  He breathed in deeply. ‘I probably deserve that.’

  ‘You definitely deserve it.’ But her hands were on his belt and she heard the breath hiss through his teeth as her fingers brushed against the hard, rigid length of him.

  ‘If we do this, you will hate me even more than you do already.’

  ‘Trust me, that isn’t possible.’

  His hand slid up her thigh, hooking her leg higher. ‘In that case, there is no incentive to stop.’ He groaned as his fingers touched bare legs. ‘You’re wearing stockings?’

  ‘I always wear stockings for work.’ Does she wear stockings, Alekos? Does she do this to you? Does she make you feel this way?

  ‘Stockings under that prim black skirt.’ The prim black skirt hit the floor. ‘The whole teacher-outfit thing really turns me on.’ He dragged the clip out of her hair, silencing her gasp of pain with his mouth. ‘Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt you.’

  ‘You always hurt me.’ Her hair was all around them and she could feel his hands buried into the soft mass, his fingers biting into her scalp. ‘In the scheme of things, a little more pain doesn’t count.’

  ‘I know I was a complete bastard.’

  ‘Yes, you were—still are. And now could you please just—?’ Rocking her hips against him, she sank her teeth into his lip and Alekos took her mouth hungrily, his hands now locked against her bottom.

  ‘No other woman has ever made me feel the way you make me feel.’

  The words sent a thrill of satisfaction through her. ‘But I’m sure you’ve kept looking.’

  He buried his face in her neck. ‘You were never this wild four years ago.’

  She was never this desperate. Kelly’s eyes closed. ‘Don’t talk.’

  His answer was to weld his mouth to hers again and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe or stand upright. Her hands closed over his shoulders, but what began as a need for support, ended in a caress as her fingers slid over hard, male muscle.

  ‘Kelly…’

  ‘Shut up.’ She didn’t want to talk about what they were doing. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to think about it. Her teeth gritted, she ripped his shirt so that she could get to his chest, hair tickling her fingers as she slid her hands over the hard muscle of his chest. His tie still hung between them but she ignored it, too absorbed by his body to bother undressing him.

  To have sex with Alekos was to understand why her body had been invented.

  His eyelids were lowered, his eyes half-shut as he watched her. It was a look of such raw, sexual challenge that she shivered.

  Later, she thought, I’m going to really regret this.

  But right now she didn’t care.

  He was probably lying about the ring. He was probably going to give it away, but she was going to make sure that he didn’t forget her, Kelly thought as she trailed her mouth over his jaw, feeling the roughness of stubble graze her lips. Other women had sex with men they didn’t know. She’d never done that; for her, sex had begun and ended with this man.

  She was achy, needy, and when he backed her to the table and lifted her she just gave a groan of assent, closing her fingers around the glorious velvet length of him.

  ‘Alekos…’

  ‘I need to taste you, I need to…’ Muttering s
omething in Greek, he ripped at her shirt, tore at her bra and fastened his mouth over her breast.

  Kelly’s head fell back, the heat of his mouth like a brand. She squirmed as hot, liquid pleasure pumped through his veins and he lifted his head and devoured her mouth again, both of them crazily out of control.

  ‘Now!’ She yanked at his tie, pulling him towards her, and he flattened her to the table and pushed her thighs up. Dragging aside her panties, he entered her in a single, driving thrust that had her crying out his name. It had been so long that it took her a moment to adjust to the size of him. He was hard, full and pulsing hot, and Kelly held herself rigid, afraid to breathe or move. And then his mouth claimed hers again and from then on it was wild, each rhythmic thrust driving away all thoughts of how much she hated him—the fact that this was going to turn out to be a bad decision. He wrapped her thighs around his hips and she dug her nails into his back as she matched his demands with her own.

  It was so shockingly good that when his phone buzzed there was no question of him answering it; neither of them were capable of focusing on anything but each other. He had one hand locked in her hair, the other under her bottom, anchoring her in a position designed to give them both maximum pleasure. He thrust hard, fast, his movements so unerringly skilful that she felt her body erupt with sensation. After four years it was never going to last long, and when she felt the first ripples take hold of her she moaned his name. Exquisite pleasure bordered on pain; his fingers tightened in her hair and his mouth locked on hers as he drove them both higher.

  They were kissing when the explosion took them. Wave after wave engulfed them, crashing down on them, leaving no room for breath or recovery as they were caught in the web of sensation they’d spun for themselves. They kissed through her choked gasps and through his tortured groan, through the contractions that racked both of them and left them shaken.

  His chest was slick against hers, his fingers still digging hard into her bottom as he dragged in air.

  Kelly lay stunned, deliciously aware of the weight of him, the feel of him. If she’d been young and naive, she might have thought that such incredible sex could only happen when there was love, but she wasn’t a naive teenager any more.

  Slowly recovering her powers of thought, she realised with a flash of horror that the ring was round her neck. Panicking, Kelly pushed him away and fastened the few remaining buttons on her shirt with hands that shook.

  Had he noticed?

  No; both of them had been too carried away to notice anything but each other. Even if the ring had bashed him in the face, she doubted he would have seen it.

  And now she had to get him out of here before she made a fool of herself. ‘I’ll get you the ring,’ she croaked, walking to the door without looking over her shoulder. Her legs were shaking and her body was on fire but she knew she didn’t dare think about what they’d just shared. Not yet. Not now. Later—when she was on her own.

  Up in her bedroom, she unfastened the gold chain she wore around her neck and slid the ring into her palm. It glinted and winked at her and she felt a lump build in her throat. It had been next to her skin for four years. It had witnessed her pain and her slow, faltering recovery. Giving it back should feel cathartic—that was the theory.

  The practice was something quite different.

  Hearing a sound from the hall, Kelly quickly wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and walked back down the stairs.

  The front door was wide open.

  ‘Alekos?’ Puzzled, she glanced from the open door to the kitchen and then heard the unmistakeable, throaty growl of an impossibly powerful engine.

  Sprinting to the door, the ring still in her hand, she watched in disbelief as the Ferrari roared away.

  Chapter Four

  ‘OK, BREATHE, breathe…I always seem to be saying that to you; how come you have so much drama in your life? I’m having an exciting day if my card doesn’t work in the cash machine.’ Juggling a half-eaten tub of chocolate ice cream and a box of tissues, Vivien sat on the sofa next to Kelly. ‘How can you be pregnant? You haven’t had sex for four years. Even elephants don’t take that long.’

  Kelly tried to fight her way through the panic. ‘I had sex three weeks ago.’

  Ice cream and spoon fell to the carpet. ‘You had sex three weeks ago? But you don’t—I mean, who with? You never go out. You’re not the one-night-stand type—and three weeks ago was when Alekos…’ Vivien’s smile faltered and Kelly wrapped her arms around herself, feeling her face heat.

  ‘Yes.’ Just admitting it made her want to shrink. What had she been thinking?

  ‘Alekos?’

  ‘Can you stop saying his name? I seem to remember you being happy enough when he was kissing me.’

  ‘That was a kiss! Last time I checked, a kiss couldn’t make you pregnant! Alekos? This is the guy you hate, the guy who ruined your life.’ Vivien grabbed a handful of tissues and tried to mop up the worst of the ice cream. ‘What an unbelievable mess.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘I meant my carpet, not your life—although your life isn’t looking too great, either.’ Covered in chocolate ice cream, Vivien licked her fingers. ‘So is that why he walked out without taking the ring?’

  ‘I don’t know. I suppose so, but he didn’t talk to me, so I don’t know. He just vanished. As usual.’ Increasingly agitated, Kelly sprang up and walked around Vivien’s tiny living-room.

  ‘Kel.’ Vivien’s voice was firm. ‘It’s not that I don’t love you or that I don’t care deeply about your trauma, but would you mind awfully not treading on the bit with the ice cream? You’ll walk it all around the flat, and my landlord is going to shred me if the place is covered in chocolate footprints.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Kelly stood still, rubbing her hands over her arms, trying to warm herself up. She felt sick; was that pregnancy or panic? ‘Sorry. I’ll help you clean it up.’

  ‘Forget it. I’ll squirt something on it in the morning.’ Covering the stain with a cloth, Vivien flung herself in the chair and picked up the tub again. ‘So, you don’t speak to the guy for four years and then suddenly you have passionate sex. I’m seeing a whole different side to you. I honestly never thought of you as—’

  ‘Sex mad? Sex starved? Maybe this is what happens when you keep men at a distance for too many years. Oh God, what was I thinking, Vivi? He dumps me—’ her voice rose ‘—and what do I do? I reward him by having sex with him. What is the matter with me? Am I sick?’

  Vivien eyed her warily. ‘I hope not because my carpet has taken enough punishment. How many years?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You said this is what happens when you keep men at a distance for too many years. How long actually is it since you last had sex?’

  Distracted, Kelly racked her brains. ‘I think it was about four years ago. Just after—it was part of my Alekos rehabilitation-programme.’

  ‘I gather it didn’t work.’

  Kelly took slow, deep breaths, trying to calm herself so that she could think clearly. ‘Have you ever had a relationship where you just can’t help yourself? You know it isn’t good for you, you know there is going to be agony at the end of it, but something between you is so powerful it just draws you together.’

  ‘No. But my sister-in-law is an alcoholic and that description sounds uncannily close to how she feels about a bottle of vodka.’

  ‘I don’t find that analogy comforting. If she went without vodka for four years, would she still feel like that?’

  ‘Oh yes. She says the feeling never goes away. It’s just a question of not putting yourself near the vodka.’

  ‘The vodka took me home and barged into my house.’

  Vivien blinked. ‘This conversation is getting too complicated for me. But vodka sounds like a good idea. I have some somewhere, for emergencies.’

  ‘I’m pregnant,’ Kelly said in a high voice. ‘I can’t drink.’

  ‘But I can. I’ll drink for both of us while you deci
de what you’re going to do.’ Moments later, Vivien emerged from the tiny kitchen carrying a bottle, her face white. ‘Forget that. You don’t need to decide what to do, it’s been taken out of your hands. There’s an enormous limousine outside my flat and I don’t know anyone who owns one.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s Alekos; it has to be.’

  ‘No!’ Panicking, Kelly sprang to her feet. ‘It can’t be him. Why would he be here? He can’t know I’m pregnant.’

  ‘Well, he was present at the time of conception,’ Vivien said helpfully. ‘And he obviously has a planet-sized brain, so there is a possibility that he’s considered that as a potential outcome.’

  Her breath coming in rapid pants, Kelly pressed her hand to her chest. ‘No. No.’

  ‘On the other hand, men are a bit thick sometimes, so it’s always possible that he’s just come for the ring.’ Vivien patted her shoulder soothingly. ‘In which case, he’s going to be leaving with something that’s going to cost him a whole load more by the time you’ve added up nappies, clothes, an iPod and all the stuff kids seem to need now. Then there’s university fees, and—’

  ‘Shut up, Viv! You can’t let him in. Don’t let him in. I haven’t decided what to do.’ Kelly was panicking badly. ‘I need time.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous! Time isn’t going to change anything but your age.’ Vivien sprang towards the door. ‘But I promise not to say, “hello, Daddy”. Or “did you bring the nappies?”’

  Kelly sank back onto the sofa with her head in her hands. Was she going to tell him? Of course she was going to tell him. She couldn’t deny her child the right to know his father, could she? That wasn’t her decision to make.

  Maybe they could be one of those couples who seemed to get on perfectly well but just didn’t live together. But that would mean shuffling her child backwards and forwards like a lost parcel, and she didn’t want to do that.