Andrea Laurence - Seduced At Sea

Oh, boy! Sensation the like she had never experienced arced through her body, turning it liquid, and she found herself involuntarily arching into him to assuage the ache that had sprung up deep in her pelvis.

She knew he felt her undeniably sexual response because the hand that gripped her arm moved to the nape of her neck and then fisted in her hair as he tilted her face up towards his. She wanted to tell him he was dreaming, but she lost all sense of reason as their eyes met in the dimly lit room and everything else faded. A breath shuddered through her and as his masculine scent acted like a drug on her senses she raised her face to receive the hard promise of his beautiful mouth.

It was as if all the tension of worrying about Ty and the second childcare centre, and Leo himself, coalesced into this moment and she gave herself over to the feel of him, moaning in pleasure as his lips crushed hers in a hard, possessive kiss.

Excitement barrelled through her and her hands slid up the smooth skin of his back, kneading and testing the muscles as she went. His skilful tongue demanded entrance to her mouth and when she gave it their muted groans mingled hotly in the otherwise silent room. Lexi felt as if she were on fire and when his hands started roaming over her body, learning her shape, it was all she could do not to tell him to hurry up as his hands moved closer and closer to her aching breasts. She shifted again, trying to make it easier for him, and then cried out as he sensed what she needed and shoved his hand up under her T-shirt and palmed her naked breast, the rough pad of his thumb drawing an animalistic sound from her throat as it swept across her painfully sensitive nipple.

‘Oh!’ Her legs scissored helplessly as she tried to lift her hips under the heavy weight of his, energy building inside of her and driving her towards a nirvana she’d never felt in a man’s arms before.

‘Easy,’ his rough, sleep-laden voice whispered against her ear at the same time as one of his hands slid to her hips to stay her restless squirming.

But it was as if that one word had intruded on a magical, secret world and shattered it, reality returning with a sickening thud as she recalled where she was and who she was with.

Lexi pushed against his chest, her movements now frenzied for a different reason. ‘Leo … Mr Aleksandrov. Get off. You’ve had a bad dream.’

He stilled instantly, hovering over her. Then his hand slipped from her bottom and he rolled onto his back.

Lexi jumped to her feet, her body feeling both hot and cold, her breathing ragged.

She didn’t know what to say and wondered if he’d fallen back asleep and then she heard a young child’s cry.

Ty.

Her thoughts a complete jumble Lexi did the only thing she could—she fled. Down the hall and straight into Ty’s room.

Leo woke, feeling as if he had a hangover. He’d slept, fitfully and the recurring dream he’d had on and off since his brother’s death had returned last night to haunt him. Of course he knew why, but he didn’t want to think about that any more than he wanted to recall Sasha’s death. A death he had inadvertently caused.

Leo turned his head to the side, as if that might dislodge the heavy guilt shrouding his heart, and caught the faintest trace of vanilla. Instantly another memory, a much more pleasurable one, slammed through his body and turned him as hard as stone.

Lexi Somers. She’d woken him and he’d momentarily thought it was his father attacking him. Had he hurt her? His mind sifted through the way he’d gripped her arms and brought her under him, the feel of her soft curves, the warm V of her thighs as she’d cradled him intimately. Her taste … like the sweetest dessert …

Leo closed his eyes. There was something about her that had called to him since they’d met, so coming fully awake to find her under him had been too great a temptation to resist.

Chort vozmi .

He hadn’t meant to kiss her but she’d said his name and lifted herself against him and what was a man supposed to do with that? The natural thing, of course.

Shafts of pleasure pulsed his groin as he recalled the feel of her mouth, the touch of her fingers.

He cursed again.

He couldn’t remember ever being so turned on and if she hadn’t stopped him he’d have buried himself inside her with no questions asked.

He pushed out of bed and padded into the bathroom. He didn’t bother shaving and just rolled straight into the shower, welcoming the stinging bite of icy-cold water as it lashed his shoulders and overheated torso.

He leant his forehead against the wall and refocused his mind. He had a massive weekend planned. The maiden voyage of his new super-yacht, Proteus , which he had helped design and which he planned to use as a prototype to launch a new area of his business—building first-class environmentally powered yachts, ferries and ships. But first he had to convince the Greek environmental minister to sell him land in Thessaly for a new cutting-edge ethanol plant that could revolutionise the world’s use of friendly fuel sources and one he needed to power his future ships.

Then there was Ty. For most of the night he’d tried to figure out how to handle things this weekend, Lexi’s questions about why he didn’t know him and her assertion of how much Ty needed him weighing heavily on his conscience. The trouble was he couldn’t look at Ty without thinking of Sasha and he couldn’t think of Sasha without getting emotional—something that made his blood curdle. Emotions led to two things in his experience—weakness or violence—neither of which he wanted to let into his life. Which was why, despite his guilt, he’d stayed away from Ty. It would have been selfish to have done anything else and the last time he’d acted selfishly his brother had lost his life.

Sighing heavily, he quickly pulled on his usual work attire and paused outside Ty’s partially opened doorway. Not hearing any sound, he pushed the door further open to check if he was up.

What greeted him was the sweet curve of Lexi Somers’ backside in the pale pink panties he’d shoved his hand into not a few hours ago. She was asleep on her side, his T-shirt bunched around her waist, her magnificent hair like a dark flag streaming out behind her, her body curved like a protective bow around the small form of his son.

Leo felt a vice grip his heart and absently rubbed his chest. They both looked so innocent, so untouchable, and his mouth tightened as he forced himself to turn away and leave the room.

He should never have agreed to take them to Greece.

A THOUGHT that had only grown stronger since his private plane had taken off from Heathrow an hour ago. Having worked with Danny for the past hour, he now cupped his hands behind his head and stretched his legs out in front of him.

His eyes cruised Lexi Somers’ creamy complexion and lowered to her even white teeth as she smiled at something Ty said. They were sitting on the floor playing with toy cars Lexi had insisted he buy at the airport. She was wearing a plain T-shirt and denim jeans with her hair in a ponytail and should have looked like any other girl, but she didn’t. She had an understated sexiness that she didn’t seem to be aware of and while he appreciated that the scrubbed, girl-next door image turned some men on, he hadn’t numbered among them before now.

He wondered how lover boy had taken the news that Paris was off and whether she had told him about the kisses they had shared the night before.

Probably not. Women were rarely honest about such things. And if she had, and lover boy was worth his salt, he would have come and laid Leo out cold. That was what he would have done if the situation had been reversed. If she was his and some guy had held her underneath him. But why was he thinking like this? She wasn’t his. No woman was, or ever would be.