Page 42 of Dangerous Temptation

She sighed and kissed his collarbone. She felt such a connection with him like this.

It was the calm in the eye of the storm.

Rubbing her cheek against his chest, she thought back to when they’d first met.

They’d somehow found a way to each other, even with all the obstacles in their path.

They’d found the heart of each other. Why wouldn’t others do the same?

At the very least, why couldn’t they just let them be?

She stroked his shadowy beard and kissed him with more heat. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. They might as well take solace in one another.

‘Do you need me, Siren?’

‘You know I do.’

He caressed her breast and stroked her down to her flank.

Catching her knee, he pulled her top leg over his hip.

The position was easy and free. Elena stretched and rolled her hips towards him.

That same wicked hand glided over her bottom, and her toes pointed in pleasure when he explored the heart of her.

He rubbed her intimately, preparing her.

She bit her lip to hold back a moan, but it came out when he tweaked her sensitive nub.

‘Don’t hold back with me.’ His mouth covered hers and his tongue pressed deep. ‘Ever.’

She worked her hand between their bodies. She explored him fearlessly with palm and fingers. When her nails scraped ever so gently along the underside of his erection, he jerked.

It was enough for him.

They shifted on the covers until they were positioned just right. Elena hitched herself up and then he was there, at her entrance. Their mouths locked together and their fingers laced at her hip. With one long, continuous thrust, he took her.

Her moan was soft and airy.

He inhaled the scent of her hair.

And then they began to rock.

Slowly. Passionately. Their coming together wasn’t frenzied and feral, but that didn’t make it any less momentous. The need was just as strong, but it was accompanied by emotion and meaning.

Maybe it always had been.

Their bodies undulated together, finding a rhythm. They weren’t racing towards an end. It was all about the connection.

Alex groaned. ‘You are so tight, so hot. It’s like you don’t want to give me up.’

Elena tucked her face into the pillow. ‘I don’t.’

He felt so good moving inside her. Hard and thick.

Words fell into touches. Their bodies warmed and their skin clung. The air in the room became steamy as they rode one another. Sighs blended with grunts. Caresses stoked the fire.

When they came, it was as one. Their bodies arched. Their muscles tensed. Elena let out a soft cry and Alex whispered her name.

When they finally floated down from the high, neither was ready for it to end. They stayed connected, physically and emotionally, as the night darkened the room. They fell asleep in each other’s arms with the world held at bay. The night was theirs.

But they both knew that daylight would come much too soon.

Things changed after that. They worked from the penthouse the next day, and Elena made dinner for them the next night. The following day was the same. And the next.

Nothing had been discussed, but their adventures in New York stopped.

They didn’t attend any more events. They didn’t even consider the invitations.

Alex had food delivered on nights when neither of them felt like cooking.

They watched movies on the big screen and worked out in the gym.

They even saw people. He invited programmers over from Wolfe Pack for a code jam one day and, when she needed to consult with someone on her dissertation, he sent James to pick up Dr Walters.

It was insular and protective, but it was driving Elena out of her mind.

At least at the manor they could go outside. She’d gone on long walks and had felt the air on her face. She’d smelled the flowers and had swept her fingers through the lake’s cold water. Even switching between the lake house and the manor had offered a change of scenery.

Here, she felt like Rapunzel in her ivory tower. Her knight in shining armour might be with her, but it wasn’t the fairytale that it seemed.

She tried begging, and she tried rationalising. Alex just wouldn’t hear of it.

‘The bankruptcy decision for Wolfe Financial is still too volatile,’ he told her. ‘The press is still looking into you.’

And they were. They just weren’t finding anything – much like when they’d tried to find anything a year and a half before.

Only Caroline Woodward wasn’t giving up.

She’d taken some heat for her romantic relationships, but that had just made her more dogged in her determination.

Alex had promised she wouldn’t be a problem any more, but not even his lawyers could fight the freedom of the press.

The reporter was coming after them like a hyena after fresh meat.

Last night, she’d interviewed Candace. The talk had been full of supposition, lies and venom. It hadn’t been pretty, and Alex had been pacing around the room by the end. His lawyers probably didn’t get much sleep.

Elena’s patience was waning. The two of them couldn’t bury their heads in the sand. It wasn’t helping. It was only making the media wonder why they wouldn’t face them. Were they plotting something new? What were they trying to hide?

After nine days of it, she couldn’t take it any more.

She sat cross-legged in an easy chair in the office Alex had set up for her. A three-drawer desk with a reading lamp sat unused across the way. Her laptop was open on the table at her side, but she hadn’t touched it for nearly half an hour. Its screensaver was spinning random shapes.

She watched the blue oval turn into a yellow square. ‘I don’t what to do any more,’ she confessed into her phone. ‘I’m going stir-crazy, Mom.’

‘Can’t you just run down to the corner shop? Maybe grab a cappuccino?’

‘Caroline Woodward would be there within minutes asking her nasty questions.’

‘Don’t you have security people?’

‘We have lots of people. If I wanted a cappuccino, any of them would go get one for me. It defeats the purpose.’

‘Oh, honey.’ Her mother sighed. ‘I hate to say it, but –’

‘Please don’t say I told you so.’

‘I wasn’t going to.’ In the background, a beater whirred. ‘Hard as it may be to believe, I was about to say, “Maybe he’s right.”’

Elena cocked her head, certain she’d heard incorrectly. ‘What?’

‘I know. Listen, I wasn’t happy about you getting involved with him, but you had to go back to the city eventually to finish your degree. I can’t say I’m unhappy that he’s there, protecting you. Especially after what happened at the zoo. Honey, that was scary for everyone.’

‘But I feel smothered.’ Trapped. She was beginning to understand what he felt like when his claustrophobia kicked in.

They had an entire floor to stroll around in, yet she craved her freedom.

She wanted to buy a hotdog from a vendor on a street corner.

She wanted to feel the chilly air whip down the streets as if they were wind tunnels.

Even the crummy drizzle outside today would be refreshing.

‘He cares about you, Elena. I can see it in the photographs in People and the stories on Entertainment Tonight .’

‘I know he does, but he’s afraid of what might be lurking around every corner.

I just can’t say that to him.’ The big bad wolf wasn’t supposed to be afraid of anything.

‘I’m worried about him,’ she confessed. ‘He’s not meant to be held back like this.

’ She watched the shapes spin and morph as they bounced off the corners of the laptop’s screen.

They weren’t able to escape either; they just kept spinning round and round. ‘Neither am I.’

‘I understand,’ Yvonne said. ‘His intentions are good, but the results are not.’

‘He’s not doing well, either.’ Elena was quick to defend him. ‘I can see how it’s wearing on him, but he feels a responsibility to his company now that he’s returned. He’s as stuck as I am.’

‘Have you told him how you feel?’

She sighed. She’d tried, and he did understand. He just wasn’t willing to compromise. ‘He’s stubborn.’

‘Have you tried getting him out?’

Elena toyed with the cuff of her slipper. ‘He won’t even go into the office. I know he’s comfortable there, and the whole company is wrapped up in some big project. He says he can do everything he needs to by teleconference.’

‘How about something fun?’ her mother suggested. ‘Is there any way you can lure him out for something like that?’

Elena grimaced. ‘I made the mistake of suggesting we go visit Siren and the pups the other day. It was a bad call.’

One she hadn’t thought the whole way through.

‘Oh, baby.’

‘I thought we could replace a bad memory with a good one.’ At the very least, they could apologise to Dr Hoff. The reception had been so delightful until they’d created such a commotion.

Well, they hadn’t created it. The reporter had. Clips from that ambush were still trending on YouTube.

‘He’s richer than God, Mom. He can get anything that he wants delivered.’ Anything. They’d even had dinner from restaurants that supposedly didn’t cater.

There was a long pause at the other end of the line. ‘OK, I’m with you now,’ Yvonne said. Her voice was calm but clipped. ‘But you’re not going to like what I have to say.’

Elena bit her lip. They both knew that was why she’d called.

She just needed to hear it aloud.

‘The behaviour you’re describing isn’t healthy. It’s controlling and it’s disturbing.’

‘He’s not –’

‘You have to look out for yourself, Elena. I know you care about him, and you’ve convinced me he wasn’t that involved with the Ponzi scheme, but you have to take care of number one.’

‘I’m trying to think about myself.’ It was why she’d called. ‘But I don’t want to hurt him.’

She’d tried adjusting, and she’d tried working with him. If they’d never met … If she hadn’t gone to the lake house, she’d probably be in exactly the same situation, only she’d be a hermit in a tiny studio apartment. Yet he was involved, and she’d become stronger than that.