The reaction in her husband’s face was instantaneous.
His nostrils flared. His blue eyes narrowed.
Alanna’s reaction to her husband’s jealousy was also instantaneous. Chaos, inside. Chaos and panic.
‘I don’t believe this,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Reece is never jealous.’
‘He’s a man, Alanna. It comes with the territory.’ Mike abruptly lifted the pressure on his hand and Alanna moved back to a more discreet distance.
‘But he’s never been jealous before!’ she protested. ‘You’ve seen some of the dresses he likes me to wear. Would a jealous man buy such dresses for his wife?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On why he wanted you to wear such dresses in the first place.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t you?’
Alanna was taken aback. ‘You’ll have to be a bit more specific.’
‘What do you know about your husband’s past?’ came the blunt question.
Alanna frowned. ‘A fair bit. I know he’s the eldest son of a family of three boys. I know his father died in an electrical accident when he was in high school. I know he worked weekends selling real estate from the time he was seventeen and was so successful he abandoned his plans to go to university. He told me he made his first million by the time he was twenty-one.’
‘That’s not what I meant. What do you know about his more immediate past, the years just before he met and married you?’
‘Well, I know he went through a horror patch, financially, a few years back. He told me he would have gone to the wall if Richard hadn’t helped him out. But I suppose you’re referring to his ex-fiancée, Kristine. Reece told me how she dumped him for some wealthy older guy during that time.’
Which was why, Reece had explained the first night they’d met, he was no more interested in romance than she was. He’d been madly in love, and been hurt, as she had. And he didn’t want to go there any more.
Of course, Reece thought her hurt came from her beloved husband’s tragic death in a car crash. Alanna couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about Darko.
Which made her wonder if Reece had been totally honest with her as well. Did Mike know something she didn’t know?
‘So Reece did tell you all about Kristine,’ he said.
‘He told me everything about her.’ How beautiful she was. How she desperately wanted to be an actress. How they were only three weeks from their wedding when she left him.
‘I doubt it, Alanna. No man tells his wife everything, especially about a previous woman who did the dirty on him the way she did. Men have their pride, you know.’
So do women, she wanted to throw at him.
‘What did she do?’
‘You’ll have to ask your husband that. I’ve already said more than I should have.’
‘But I can’t ask Reece something like that. You have to tell me.’
‘Tell you what?’
Alanna whirled to find her husband standing right behind her, looking daggers at Mike.
‘Your wife wants me to explain how my new program works,’ Mike said without missing a beat. ‘But she’s much better at teaching dancing than I am at teaching computer-speak. Do you want her back now? I gather by that he-man look on your face that you do. Time for me to go, anyway. I’ll just have a word with the bride and groom first. See you around, folks. Thanks for the dancing lessons, Alanna. They might come in handy one day.’
Alanna felt new respect for Mike as he walked away. Whilst she was aware he was a genius in his field, she’d never thought much of his social skills. That little display, however, had been very clever. It wasn’t easy to think on your feet like that.
As she turned to face her husband Alanna decided to tackle his seeming jealousy head-on. She knew she would worry if she ignored it. As for her curiosity over what Kristine had done to Reece… That would have to remain unsatisfied for now. No way could she broach such a subject with Reece. He would be angry with her for discussing him with Mike behind his back. And rightly so.
‘Why were you glowering at me just now?’ she demanded to know. ‘Mike said you were jealous.’
For a moment, Reece’s face stiffened, his square jawline looking even squarer with his neck muscles all tight like that. His nicely shaped lips, usually relaxed and smiling, were pressed tautly together. As for his eyes… Alanna had never seen them so hard. And so cold.
But then he laughed, and the Reece she knew and felt safe with was back. ‘Aren’t I allowed to be a bit possessive of my beautiful wife?’
‘Being possessive is too close to jealousy for my liking,’ she chided, but gently. ‘I don’t like jealousy, Reece.’
Reece pursed his lips, but his eyes were smiling at her. ‘Don’t you, darling? Sorry. Blame that dress you have on.’
‘This dress? That’s silly. This is a very modest dress.’
‘It’s the colour. It does things to me. If you must know, I’ve been thinking wicked things ever since I watched you walk down that aisle,’ he said, his voice dropping to the low, sexy timbre that he used during foreplay.
Reece was a talker in bed, giving her head-turning compliments and calling her ‘Babe’ whilst he caressed her and turned her on.
Her breath quickened just thinking about those times. He was suddenly thinking about them, too. She could see it in his face, and in his eyes.
‘I want you badly, Babe,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘I don’t think I can wait till we get home.’
His calling her Babe at this stage was not only telling, but instantly arousing, as if he’d turned a switch on inside her. Alanna opened her mouth, then closed it again, finding herself speechless under his by now smouldering gaze.
Reece had looked at her with desire before. Many times. But this was a different type of desire tonight. Darker. And infinitely more exciting.
Suddenly, the room around Alanna began to recede, till she was aware of nothing but her husband’s eyes on her. Her lips fell slightly apart. Her mouth went dry. Her skin broke out into goose bumps.
Very dimly, she heard the music change to a slow, moody number.
Without saying another word, Reece drew her into his arms, his eyes not leaving hers as he let them do his talking for him for a while. As he pressed her stomach against his stark arousal the most exquisite sensations gripped Alanna’s body. Her nipples hardened. Her belly quivered. Her insides contracted.
Her arms slipped up around his neck and their bodies melded even closer together.
‘I need to kiss you,’ he whispered into her hair.
‘You…you can’t,’ she answered shakily. ‘Not here.’
‘Where, then?’
She knew what he was asking her. It wasn’t just a kiss he needed. The thought of him taking her somewhere relatively private sent the blood rushing to her head.
Even as she flushed possible places jumped into her mind. There were several powder rooms, a couple of them well away from everyone, on the first floor. Alanna had been upstairs with Holly the previous day, delivering her going-away outfit, so she knew the layout of the place quite well.
The temptation to go up there with Reece was acute. She