He pushed her back against the pillows, his lips travelling slowly over her throat and back to her mouth. They were slow drugging kisses and she felt herself responding to them without reserve.
She began to feel her first feelings of restraint when his hands began to roam beneath her tee-shirt, and she pulled back from him. ‘What are you doing?’ Her panic was obvious.
He was trembling against her. ‘I love you, Alexandra. And I—I want you.’
‘Roger!’ She was shocked now. ‘You can’t—we can’t.’
‘Of course we can,’ he kissed her again. ‘We’re going to be married soon.’
Alexandra pushed against him. ‘That isn’t the point Roger. We aren’t married now.’
‘Don’t be such a prude!’ He held her roughly. ‘We’re all alone here, we may not get an opportunity like this again. Don’t fight me, darling. I want to make love to you.’
‘No, Roger!’ She moved her head from side to side to evade his searching mouth. ‘No, I won’t let you.’
His mouth claimed hers with a savagery he had never used before, forcing her lips apart to deepen the kiss. His legs across her knees pinioned her to the bed and her protests went unheard by him, his hands running freely over her body.
‘I love you, Alexandra,’ he groaned raggedly, his face buried in her hair.
‘I’m sure she’s glad to hear it,’ said a chillingly angry voice. ‘But if you don’t take your hands off her immediately I may be forced to ram those words down your throat.’
Roger was off the bed in two seconds flat, glaring with resentful anger at Dominic Tempest. ‘You have a way of turning up when you’re not wanted,’ he said nastily, his face flushed.
Dominic looked at him scornfully. ‘By the look of it I turned up at exactly the right time. Gail’s condition isn’t a good excuse for using this house for your assignations.’ He looked at Alexandra as she sat pale-faced on the bed. ‘I told you about that earlier. I thought you’d taken notice of what I said.’
‘I—I did.’ Roger’s unusual behaviour and the humiliation of being found in such a compromising situation by Dominic Tempest had made her feel ill. ‘I did,’ she repeated in anguish, unable to look at either of them.
‘It damn well looks like it,’ Dominic rasped. ‘Go on, Alexandra, get back to the house. I’ll talk to you later. And I’ll thank you for your key to this house.’ He held out his hand.
She stood up, reaching with shaking fingers into her denims pocket. ‘I—It isn’t what you think, Dominic. This has never happened before,’ she added pleadingly.
He took the key from her hand. ‘I don’t suppose it has, not in this house anyway. Gail and Trevor would hardly go out and leave you to it. Now go on home, I want to have a word with your boy-friend.’
Roger put a hand on her arm as she walked past him, her head downbent. ‘Alexandra, I—–’
She flinched away from him. ‘Leave me alone!’ She glared at him, huge tears like lakes in her blue eyes. ‘Just don’t touch me!’
‘Alexandra, I didn’t mean—–’
‘I know exactly what you meant to do,’ she cried. ‘And you won’t get a second chance. Goodbye!’
ALEXANDRA never knew how she managed to drive the car back to the Tempest house, her feelings a mixture of pain and humiliation. Once back in her room she gave in to the threatening tears.
How could Roger, how could he! Oh, he had tried all the usual moves when they had first started going out together, but once she had shown her dislike of a more intimate relationship between them he had treated her with the greatest love and respect.
But this evening he had lost control of his feelings like never before, and she felt sure that if Dominic Tempest hadn’t turned up as he had Roger would not have taken no for an answer.
Not that she would have given in to Roger willingly, but already he had been proving the stronger before Dominic had interrupted them. He had never acted like that before, and it had frightened her. She didn’t know how she was going to face him again.
She hurriedly wiped the tears away from her cheeks as someone knocked on the door. ‘Come in,’ she said huskily.
Dominic entered the room. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked softly.
Perhaps if he hadn’t been so gentle with her she would have been all right, but the sympathetic look in his eyes was her undoing. ‘Oh, Dominic,’ she cried, ‘I feel—I feel so degraded!’
He sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms to cradle her head on his shoulder. ‘Hey, come on. What’s happened to the little firebrand I’m used to?’
Alexandra gulped down the tears. ‘She seems to have disappeared.’
‘For the moment,’ he teased.
She shook in his arms. ‘It was all so horrible! If you hadn’t come along he would—he would have—–’
‘He just got carried away with the moment, Alex,’ he said gently. ‘I spoke to him after you left, I drove him home, actually. He couldn’t help himself—you have to expect that when you put temptation in his way.’
‘But I—I didn’t,’ she denied indignantly. ‘At least, not intentionally.’
Dominic chuckled. ‘I’ve got news for you. You don’t need to do it intentionally.’
She pushed away from him, a new panic entering her eyes. ‘Please, I—–’
‘Calm down, Alexandra,’ he ordered sternly. ‘I’m the last person you should fear those sort of attentions from. We can’t stand each other, remember?’
She gave a shaky smile. ‘I’m sorry, my nerves are all shot to pieces. I just didn’t expect that sort of behaviour from Roger. I thought he loved me.’
Dominic stood up. ‘You really are an innocent, Alex. It’s because he believes himself to be in love with you that things got out of hand. At his age you don’t have a lot of control, when you get old and ancient like me it takes a little more than a beautiful face and a youthful body to turn you on. And he’s very sorry it happened, he did nothing but apologise all the way back to his home. He’s suffering, Alex, if that makes you feel any better.’
‘It doesn’t.’
‘I realise he’s frightened you,’ Dominic said gravely. ‘And I realise that what I witnessed tonight had never happened before. You were really upset about it.’
‘It was awful!’ She couldn’t meet his eyes.
‘Oh, surely not awful, Alex? After all, if the two of you were married, as you’d wanted to be, you would be on a much more intimate footing.’
‘Yes, I know, but it—it wouldn’t be the same!’
‘Of course it would,’ he contradicted. ‘Exactly the same. Do you love Roger?’
‘You know I do,’ she said resentfully.
‘And you’ve never been tempted to go to bed with him?’
She blushed scarlet. ‘Never.’
‘Then you don’t love him,’ he stated calmly, reaching for the doorhandle.
‘How can you say that?’ She stood up. ‘How can you possibly know how I feel about him? You couldn’t tell that on such short acquaintance.’