Sweet Surrender (The Dysarts) (8 page)

‘It wasn't your fault, Alasdair,' she assured him, ‘only mine for being such a fool.'

‘Adam said you were in Italy for most of that summer afterwards. Why did you stay away so long?'

She looked away. ‘I thought you might have worked that one out already.'

Silence fell, and lengthened until the sudden crash of falling logs broke the spell. Alasdair got up to see to the fire, then turned to look down at her.

‘You mean you were pregnant?' he said quietly.

‘No.' She shrugged. ‘In the circumstances the scientist in me knew that was highly unlikely. Which didn't stop me from feeling afraid I might be.'

‘Didn't the idiot use protection?'

‘Oh, yes.' Kate looked away. ‘Unfortunately it—it wasn't equal to the occasion.'

Alasdair swore softly and sat down again to put his arm round her. ‘Which must have resulted in weeks of purgatory for you.'

‘Not that long, actually. Lorenzo, my sister's husband, called in his personal friend, Dr Bruno Tosti. Due to Bruno I knew straight away that I wasn't pregnant, and the blood tests he took proved that I was suffering from nothing else more terrifying than mild anaemia.' Kate leaned against him as she felt him relax. ‘Jess insisted I stay with her until I felt better. So I spent the summer taking iron pills, eating good food, playing with my nephew and lying in the sun.'

‘What happened when you got back to Cambridge? Did you meet up with Romeo again?'

‘No. He was a year ahead of me, thank heavens, so he'd left by then, which made things easier in some ways.' She sighed. ‘But life was hard in others because there were two things missing from it. You, for one. The other was my enthusiasm for research. Which, dear
reader, is how I come to be teaching little darlings of both sexes in Foychurch.'

Alasdair pulled her closer. ‘So now I know the whole story. Or is there more I should know?'

She twisted round to look up at him. ‘You don't
have
to know anything about me, Alasdair Drummond. I wouldn't have embarked on my life story tonight if I hadn't had the silly idea of seducing you. I must remember not to do it again. It never turns out well for me.'

‘As an experiment,' he reminded her sardonically. ‘I've had more flattering offers.'

‘I bet you have!' Kate looked at her watch and stood up. ‘Time I was off. Which is a pity. This fire is too tempting to leave.'

‘Do you have to leave?' he said, getting to his feet.

‘Are you offering me the use of your spare room?'

‘If you insist. But the bed's more comfortable in mine.' He smiled down at her. ‘Not that I have a hope of persuading you to join me in it, of course.'

‘You give up too easily,' she said rashly, and found herself yanked hard against Alasdair's chest.

‘Fighting talk,' he muttered, and turned her face up to his.

This time, her emotions running high after her revelations, Kate's mouth responded so passionately to his that in seconds they were straining each other close until the inequality in their height threatened to overbalance them. With a smothered laugh Alasdair picked her up and sat down with her on the sofa again, still kissing her as he bore her back into the cushions. He slid his hands into her hair to look down into eyes which gleamed up at him, molten gold in the firelight.

‘Do you know,' he said, in a tone that sent shivers
down her spine, ‘what this seductive hair of yours does to me, Kate?'

She stretched against him deliberately. ‘Do I have nothing else to recommend me, then?'

‘Your eyes. Your mouth—' He backed up his statement with kisses, and went on kissing her until she was restless and breathless in his arms. ‘And these,' he said hoarsely, as his hands slid up beneath her sweater. She clenched her teeth to stop them chattering as he released the catch which delivered her breasts naked into hands which cupped them so that he could kiss the satin-skinned slopes. Alasdair took such a long, savouring time over it that when his lips found her expectant nipples at last she gave a smothered gasp, and dug her nails into his back through his shirt. At the precise moment the exquisite torture became unbearable Alasdair moved his mouth back up hers, his tongue penetrating as he spread her hair out on the cushions. On fire from head to foot by this time, Kate thrust her hips against him, her body vibrating with need and anticipation against his.

‘Do you mean it?' he demanded hoarsely.

She nodded mutely, and he got up, bent to put a guard in front of the fire, then turned back to pull her to her feet and lead her from the room.

To Kate it was an increasingly unreal experience to go hand in hand with Alasdair up into the darkness of the upper floor. So unreal that somewhere along the way she lost her urgency. She kept looking up at his tense profile to convince herself that this was really Alasdair, dream lover in the past, but now soon to be lover in fact. But when she stopped dead, in disbelief at the prospect, Alasdair picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. He sat down with her on his lap on the edge of the
bed in his room, and Kate looked up at him, her eyes enormous in the semi-darkness.

‘Changed your mind?' he whispered.

Feeling it was too late now, even if she had, Kate shook her head.

‘Are you sure?' he said huskily.

‘Oh, well, if you're going to argue about it—' She gave a smothered cry of protest as he tossed her onto the pillows and let himself down on top of her, taking her breath away.

‘I never argue with a lady,' said Alasdair. And, giving her no time to recover, he undressed her with the speed and skill of someone familiar with the task, laughing indulgently when she turned her back as he stripped off his own clothes. Kate lay with her head buried in the pillow, no longer sure about this at all. This was Alasdair, she reminded herself. What if she disappointed him? It had happened before. Then she gasped as he flipped her round and held her against his naked, aroused body. At which point Kate discovered that her own body had turned into one great erogenous zone from head to foot. She shivered, and clutched at him with feverish hands, and Alasdair laid her flat and knelt over her, fighting for control.

‘Wait,' he said breathlessly, and slid his hands into her hair to look down into her eyes. ‘I want this to be as beautiful for you as I can make it, Kate. And different. So lie still, darling—at least for a while. Let me love you as you should be loved.'

Kate gave a deep sigh, and submitted herself to the bliss of the moment as he kissed her. It was a long time before his mouth left hers at last to make a slow, arousing journey downward to set her on fire again as his lips and fingertips caressed her sensitised, quivering nipples,
sending streaks of fire down to the part of her which dissolved in anticipation as his mouth moved lower. She tensed, her breath tearing through her chest as his fingers probed to test her readiness, then her eyes opened wide as he found the hidden core of her response.

Kate gave a hoarse, disbelieving little cry as waves of sensation coursed through her and Alasdair held her close, murmuring such gratifying things in her ear she opened dazed, disbelieving eyes at last, straight into the molten gleam in his.

Quick to read her mind, he smiled in reassurance. ‘It is me. And this is you. And it did happen. Keep looking at me, Kate.' and with one smooth, sure thrust he entered her and held her still.

Kate lay unmoving for long, breathless moments, gazing up at Alasdair as her body adjusted to the throbbing reality of their union. Then her eyes widened in surprise as she felt her innermost muscles clench round him in response. Instantly he thrust deeper, and kissed her open, gasping mouth, his hands threading through her hair as he began to move in her and with her, coaxing her body to answer his, his patience so absolute that at last Kate lost hers, and arched against him in imperious demand. He responded fiercely, the rhythm of their loving mounting as it grew wilder and faster until she cried his name in disbelief as she climaxed, and he crushed her close as he surrendered to his own release.

Almost at once Alasdair rolled over, taking her with him to hold her close in his arms, his cheek on her wildly dishevelled hair.

‘This,' he whispered, pulling the covers over them, ‘is where I ask “how was it for you”?'

Kate thought it over, waiting until her breathing was normal enough for her to answer. ‘Different,' she said
at last, pushing her hair back from her eyes. ‘So different that it's hard to believe it was the same basic process as the other times.'

‘Times plural?' he said sharply, and reached out to switch on a lamp so he could see her face.

‘Well, yes. It's a long time since the anonymous Romeo.'

Alasdair propped himself on an elbow to look down at her. ‘So you'd already made one experiment. One that you're telling me about, anyway.'

‘I didn't think of it as an experiment. I met Julian when I was doing my teacher training.'

‘And?' prompted Alasdair coldly.

‘For a whole term we got on very well. A fine romance, kind of thing. Not exactly no kisses, but certainly no bed.' Kate sighed. ‘But when I got back to college after the Christmas break he asked me to marry him. When I said yes he required a more physical relationship.'

Alasdair drew her close, his lips against her cheek. ‘Was it a repeat of the first time?'

She shook her head. ‘It couldn't be in one way, obviously. And at least Julian seemed to enjoy it.'

‘But you didn't.'

‘Not much. It seemed only polite to try to fake it. But that didn't work. So by half-term the affair, if you could call it that, was over.' Kate sighed. ‘Julian wasn't interested in being just friends. Which was a pity, because I was fond of him. And after that I decided sex was just too much trouble to bother with.'

Alasdair kissed her fleetingly. ‘And how do you feel about it now?'

‘Astonished.' Her colour rose as her eyes met his. ‘As
I'm sure you could tell, there was no faking involved this time.'

He laughed, his eyes triumphant. ‘I know. And now, my dear Miss Dysart, I'm going to prove it was no fluke.'

And to Kate's surprise and ultimate rapture Alasdair did as he said, taking so long over the process she was driven to pleading with him by the time he engulfed her in such an overwhelming cataclysm of pleasure that she fell asleep in his arms afterwards.

She woke to the touch of his caressing fingers in her hair.

‘Darling,' he whispered. ‘It's getting late, and its raining cats and dogs out there. Ring home and say you're staying the night.'

Kate shot upright, blinking and yawning as she looked at her watch. ‘Eleven!' Conscious of her nudity, she scrambled out of bed in ungraceful haste. Alasdair watched with deep enjoyment. ‘I must go,' she said, frantically searching for her clothes.

Alasdair slid to his feet and pulled on a dressing gown. ‘You can't drive home in this. Besides, we have things to talk about.'

‘But I
must
go—' she began, then frowned. ‘What things?'

‘What happens next,' he said, taking her by the shoulders.

Kate stared at him blankly. ‘But I told you. I drive back to Foychurch tomorrow.'

‘I know that,' he said impatiently. ‘I'm talking about us, Kate. Where do we go from here?'

‘I thought you were coming to see me next week.'

Alasdair gritted his teeth, and gestured towards the bed. ‘Did you hear any of those things I said just now?'

Kate looked away, but he jerked her head back.

‘To refresh your mind, Katharine Dysart, I said I loved you.'

Her eyes fell. ‘I assumed that was just good bed manners.'

‘You obviously have a lot to learn on the subject.' said Alasdair coldly. ‘It happens to be something I've never said before.'

‘Not even to the lady in New York?' she said tartly, forgetting she was naked.

His eye narrowed to slivers of steel. ‘No. Nor to anyone else until tonight. So pay attention. I love you, Kate. In some ways I did even back then, at Cambridge. But now it's different. You're a woman, and I want you. I've no intention of losing you a second time.'

Kate looked at him in such unflattering disbelief Alasdair turned away.

‘Since you're obviously not going to stay the night you'd better get dressed,' he flung over his shoulder.

Kate made some hasty repairs in the bathroom, pulled on her clothes, and borrowed Alasdair's brush to tame her hair, her mind working overtime. At last, when she could put off the moment no longer, she went down the stairs Alasdair had left brightly lit for her and found him in the kitchen, making coffee.

‘If you're determined to drive home,' he said curtly, ‘you'd better drink this first. And give your parents a ring before you start out so they don't worry.'

‘I always do that,' she said defensively.

They sat at the kitchen table in tense silence, facing each other over steaming mugs of coffee.

‘So,' Alasdair said at last. ‘I rushed things, obviously.'

‘And astonished me.' She eyed him uncertainly. ‘Did you really mean what you said?'

His eyes kindled. ‘It's hardly a joke! So perhaps you'd be kind enough to tell me how you feel about me.' He smiled mirthlessly. ‘One thing you must admit, Kate. The experiment was a success. You wanted to know if sex could be something you enjoyed, and unless you're the best actress never to win an Oscar you did enjoy it. With me,' he added significantly.

‘I did,' she said without hesitation. ‘It was bliss, Alasdair. But I never expected you to bring love into it. I used to dream that you would once, of course. But the dreams stopped dead after my farcical bid to make you jealous.'

His face set into a blank mask. ‘By which I take it my sentiments are not returned?'