'Courtney
is a little young for boarding-school,' she derided.
There
was no answering smile from Alex, just a renewed tightening of his mouth. 'I
don't plan to send him to boarding-school—ever,' he bit out.
Morgan's
eyes widened. 'I thought all you Hammonds went to boarding-school?' she
frowned.
'Wc
did,' he growled. 'Which is precisely the reason I would never send a child of
mine to one.'
She
stiffened. 'Courtney isn't your child.'
"Not
yet,' he acknowledged softly. 'But I plan for him to be. And I think you should
be his mother.'
She
swallowed hard. 'What do you mean?'
Alex
shrugged, staring into the fire. 'You obviously love the baby very much. And I
think those reporters may have come up with the solution to our problem.' He
turned intense grey eyes on her. 'I think we should get married.'
Morgan
stared at him with widely shocked eyes, the pupils dilating in her surprise.
Marry
Alex
Hammond? That wasn't unorthodox, that was ridiculous!
'I
can see the idea surprises you,' he drawled derisively. 'But I can see no other
solution. I refuse to give Courtney up, and so do you, and unless we want him
to become a child who's tugged from one side of the Atlantic to the other on a
six-monthly basis I don't see what else we can do.'
'But
my work is in the States.' It was the first objection that came to mind—but
not the only one!
Alex
looked grim. 'You enjoy your career?'
'I—Yes.'
'Then
we'll have to find a way round that.' He frowned thoughtfully. 'I could always
move the Hammond head office to the States so that Courtney and I could be with
you.'
'No!
I mean—You would really do that?' she asked incredulously, knowing by the
seriousness of the suggestion that he was in deadly earnest about marrying her.
I
ie nodded. 'If I have no other choice. Courtney has to come first.'
'And
what about you?' she queried breathlessly. 'Don't you want to marry a woman you
love?' She looked at him with tense curiosity; his answer to this was suddenly
important to her.
His mouth twisted, the grey eyes cold. 'Love
is a destructive emotion. It tends to leave the people who really love with no
will of their own, completely vulnerable to the other person's whims. No,' he
met her gaze steadily, 'I have no wish to be destroyed in that way. Ours would
be a marriage of convenience
'
'That
went out with the Victorians!' Morgan snapped, deeply confused by his views on
love. He must have loved—and lost—someone once, someone who took
advantage of his love instead of treasuring it.
'I
didn't say it would be platonic,' Alex drawled. 'I have no intention of living
the rest of my life celibate. I have had—relationships, in the past. You
didn't find my kisses unpleasant this afternoon, I'm sure you wouldn't find me
unsatisfactory in bed.'
She knew she must have flushed, despite the veneer of
sophistication she had acquired as an actress. She just didn't expect Alex
Hammond to talk to her in this intimate way. Tm sure I wouldn't,' she
acknowledged quickly, knowing this man would be successful at anything he did—including
making lovet 'But I can't marrv you.'
Why
not?' That probing grey gaze swept over the confusion of her face. 'You told me
you have no intention of marrying this man Sam you've been eemg. Just think of
me as a lifetime affair rather than a fleeting one. I can assure you I wouldn't
force myself on
you more than
necessary,' he added at her gasp of jdignation. 'I enjoy women, when in the
mood, but if mecessary I can control my sexual urges to a minimum.'
She
couldn't take this in, couldn't accept what was • calmly being said to her.
'Let me get this straight,' be said tautly. 'I marry you, we live-^wherever,
provide Courtney with parents, and occasionally you
mta/kf
the trip from your
bedroom to mine?'
The
latter would be a two-way thing,' he told her arrogantly. 'Women have desires
and needs too, I'm ware of that.'
'So
if I want a man I just come over to your bedroom?' Her eyes sparkled deeply
green in her anger.
Alex
shrugged. 'What's wrong with that?'
'Nothing—if
you happen to be a damned machine!' she snapped furiously. 'What you're
proposing is inhuman!'
His
frown of puzzlement seemed genuine. 'I don't see it that way.'
'That's
obvious!'
He
sighed. 'Look, if you're worried I won't be able to give you a fulfilling
physical relationship I can always show you now that you're wrong.'
Morgan
backed away from him, from the cold determination in his face. 'This is no way
to make love .. .' she told him weakly as he pushed her gently back against the
cushions.
'Perhaps
we won't make love now,' he agreed. 'Although I think I should show you that we
could physically give each other pleasure.'
'You're
so clinical!' She pushed ineffectually against his chest as he bent over her.
'I
can be less so,' he promised throatily. 'You're very beautiful, Morgan. Let me
show you how good it could be between us.'
It
wasn't a case of 'letting' him do anything—she couldn't stop him! Maybe
if her emotions hadn't already been heightened by the trauma of the day she
might have been able to stop him—and maybe she wouldn't! At the first
touch of his lips that now familiar languor swept over her body, and she was
powerless to resist anything he did.
He
kissed her with long drugging movements of his mouth, devouring her, drawing
her into him so that she had no thoughts but those of pleasing him and being
pleasured by him in return.
And
he did pleasure her, slowly moving the zip of her gown down her spine, pushing
the soft black material off her shoulder, exposing pert pink-tipped breasts to
his avid mouth. He didn't take the hardened nipple completely into his mouth,
teasing it with the warm moistness of his tongue until she groaned with needing
more than that, then he left that breast to the pleasure-giving ministrations
of his fingertips, his mouth moving in slow hot kisses between the valley of
her breasts to the other waiting nipple.
She
gasped at the sudden sucking on the taut bud, the teasing bites of his teeth as
she arched against him, her fingers intwined in the darkness of his hair as she
held him to her. She was completely under his sexual domination, and knew by
the tautness of his thighs that her body aroused bim in return. But it wasn't
enough for her, she wanted him to be more than aroused
by
her body, wanted
him to
shake
under
her caresses too, to know that as a woman she pleased him.
With
a slight shift in their positions on the sofa she was able to be slightly above
him, and so in the dominant position herself, her breasts still knowing the
fevered caresses of his lips and tongue. She felt him stiffen as she began to
slip the jacket from his shoulders, and then he relaxed, sitting up slightly to
help her take it off completely, his mouth nuzzling her throat now, biting
erotically into her earlobe.
She
quivered in reaction, squirming against him, her hands shaking as she slowly
unbuttoned his shirt, loving the muscled hardness revealed to her caressing
fingers. Her mouth kissed and tasted every area of his chest, teasing the male
nipples in the same way he had caressed her, feeling him shudder in response.
He
gasped. 'No woman has ever—How did you know
-'
She
smiled down at him in satisfaction. 'Intuition,' she murmured throatily.
'Do
you know any other—intuitive caresses like that?' he groaned, a high
flush of sexual pleasure to his lean cheeks.
'I'll
make them up as I go along,' she promised against the tautness of his hard
stomach.
And
she did. Her caresses were all instinctive; she had never known the full
intimacy of a man's body before, but found she loved the barely leashed control
of Alex's, making no protest as he again took over, kneeling beside the sofa as
he slipped her dress off completely, only her black lacy panties covering her
nakedness now.
'You're
perfect!' Alex groaned as he covered her body with his, one hand caressing the
firm curve of her hips, slipping knowledgeably beneath the lace to find the
centre of her passion-
His
caresses knew no bounds now, and Morgan
groaned into the warmth of his
mouth as her desire threatened to spiral out of control, flicking her tongue
enticingly along the edge of his lips as she pleaded for an end to his tortuous
caresses. Alex's mouth opened against hers, and he groaned, his thighs surging
wildly ist hers. Moments later he was pulling roughly away from her, breathing
deeply. 'We have to stop now,' he said raggedly.
'No
.. .!' She gave a moan of sexual frustration. 'Alex, please!' She clung to him
in appeal.
'Do
you think I don't want you too?' He held her arms at her sides. 'You know I
do!' he groaned. 'But not here, and not like this.' His eyes were a smoky grey
colour as he slowly regained control of himself 'And I don't think we should
cloud the situation with a physical relationship.' 'But you just said——'
'I
know what I said.' He swung away from her, standing up, pulling on his shirt
but making no move to fasten it. 'I've changed my mind. We've just proved that,
physically, we're compatible. We don't need to go any further to know that.
Agreed?'
Her
own control was slower in coming, the rapid rise and fall of her breasts
evidence of that. But the way Alex couldn't even bring himself to look at her,
staring down at the dying embers of the fire, was like a cold shower on her
emotions, and she pulled her dress back into place, feeling a return of some of
her dignity along with it. 'Agreed,' she said curtly. 'I wouldn't want to
cloud
the
situation,' she added tautly.
Alex did turn now. 'Morgan
'
'I can't marry you, Alex
-
'
'You
haven't even thought about it!' 'I don't need to,' she spoke calmly. 'It
wouldn't work, Alex. All the problems that made Glenna so unhappy would apply
to me too if I were your wife.'
'What
problems?' he bit out savagely.
Just
to look at him unnerved her, his dark hair still ruffled from her caressing
fingers, his tanned hair-roughened chest still aching to be touched. She wasn't
aware of her own tousled hair, her lips bare of lip-gloss, still swollen with
the passion that had raged through her minutes earlier. 'Your mother, living
here, the fact that England is not my native country. We don't even have love
between us to help make it work.'
'Granted,'
he acknowledged curtly. 'But that's precisely the reason I think it would work.
My mother is
my
problem, not yours. And you haven't seemed as if you dislike
England while you've been here. Besides, you'll still have your career.'
She
frowned her puzzlement. 'I can still work?'
'Of
course,' he replied, as if he had never considered she would do anything else.
'If the character of Mary-Beth is completely acting, as you say it is, then
you're too good to stop.'
Morgan
flushed at the taunt. 'You might be surprised,' she snapped. 'But have you
considered the fact that if I continued with the series I'd be in the States
for six months of the—Ah,' she gave him an accusing glare. 'I understand
now. If I marry you Courtney stays here all the time, but / leave for six
months every year. No way, Alex!'
He
looked down his nose at her with haughty arrogance. 'I believe I told you I
would make the move to the States if that's what you want. I want to provide a
stable background for Courtney, at any price.'
Her
anger turned to confusion. He meant it about moving to the States, she could
see that in the determination of his expression. She only had to say the word
and he would leave this house and move his business to the States. She couldn't
ask that of him, and no matter how much she disliked Rita Hammond she couldn't
do it to the other woman either. The other woman had already lost one son; to
lose her other one, and her only grandson, was likely to break even the hardened
Rita Hammond.
'Don't
think about it now/ Alex encouraged softly as he sensed her uncertainty. 'Go
back to the States tomorrow, think about it while you're away. There's no
rush,
a
few
weeks
isn't
going
to
make
any difference. And I believe it's
something you do need to think about.'
'You
didn't,' she pointed
out softly. 'Not for long, no,' he admitted. 'But then it's different for me, I
have nothing to lose by marrying you.' 'Your freedom?'