Chapter 10
Nat woke in the wee small hours to Flo meowing and nudging her.
Rain drummed on the roof, which was unsurprising.
The day had been humid and a storm had been brewing as she’d climbed into bed.
She stroked Flo, lying there for a second just enjoying the noise and luxuriating in being dry and snuggled beneath the covers.
But Flo persisted with her nudging and Nat reluctantly got up.
‘All right, bossy-boots. I know you like to frolic in the rain, you crazy cat.’ She seriously thought Flo was a dog in disguise as she picked up the purring animal. ‘Come on.’
Familiar now with the layout of the house, Nat made her way downstairs in the dark and opened the laundry door for Flo to go out. She watched the cat bound into the rain and grinned. Silly animal – giving up a dry, warm bed snuggled into a doting little boy to chase a few raindrops around.
Nat shut the door, knowing Flo would be happy out there for an hour or so. Stopping to grab a drink of water in the kitchen she noticed a chink of light from beneath the office door. What the hell? Alessandro was still up?
She stood outside the door in a quagmire of indecision. Should she go in and check on him or just leave him to it? She’d barely escaped without doing something ridiculous like hugging him – or worse – earlier; why would she open the door to something like that again?
The near constant urge to comfort Alessandro was an issue she needed to tackle. Along with how easily her nurturing instincts morphed into something far less pure around the man.
By the time she’d left him earlier, her thoughts had been practically depraved.
But he’d gone from having his no-trespassing shutters up to so anguished at her suggestion of allowing Julian to have a photograph of his mother, it had almost hollowed her out.
She’d felt his pain all the way down to her toes.
Felt dreadful, pushing. But she knew enough child psychology to know she was right and Alessandro’s denial wasn’t doing Julian any favours.
Sticking to her guns had been hard when his obsidian eyes had turned flinty, and his fervent denial at her accusation about him pretending his wife didn’t exist had flared out at her like a striking snake.
But then he’d acquiesced to her request and the entire tempo in the room had changed.
His eyes had roved over her, agitating the beat of her heart, the rhythm of her lungs, and setting her flesh aflame.
Hell, the entire room had become a furnace, heat roaring between them.
So, it was probably best to just leave him be but… somehow Nat just couldn’t. She’d really pushed him tonight. What if he was in there drinking himself into a well of despair whilst hugging a photo of his dead wife?
She should definitely do a wellness check, at least.
Mind made up, Nat knocked lightly on the door and waited for his gruff ‘Entra’, but nothing. She knocked again a little louder – maybe he hadn’t heard her over the rain?
Still nothing.
Taking a breath, she pushed it open slowly, expecting him to swivel around, his face black as thunder. Instead, he was bent forward in his chair, head on desk, amidst the clutter of textbooks, his eyes closed.
Asleep? He was asleep?
Bloody hell, the man had a perfectly good bed. She approached quietly and whispered, ‘Alessandro.’
He didn’t stir and she stood for a moment just looking at him.
A soft light from the desk lamp spread a glow around the office and settled against the angles of his face, emphasising the richness of his bronze complexion and shadowing his mouth.
His black hair fell across his forehead, just like Julian’s did when he slept.
It was disarmingly innocent on the boy but the growth shadowing Alessandro’s jaw and his softly parted lips were one hundred per cent man.
He looked dark and dangerous and breathtakingly good-looking and her very first thought was to turn around and run. But her second thought was to the state of his neck in the morning if he stayed like this and she could do without his particular brand of grumpy.
‘Alessandro,’ she called again as she gave his shoulder a gentle shake.
He startled, sucking in a breath and sitting bolt upright, causing Nat to take a step back.
His hand automatically went to his neck like it was already twinging and she felt justified disturbing him.
For a moment anyway. Until his clouded expression took in her long sleep shirt under which she was wearing no bra, and her nipples reacted blatantly to his gaze.
‘I’m sorry.’ He used both hands to rub his neck. ‘I must have fallen asleep.’
There was a red mark on his cheek where it had been stuck to a textbook and Nat had a crazy urge to stroke it. ‘What are you doing up so late?’ she whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering. It just seemed appropriate in the dead of night.
Alessandro shrugged. ‘I’ve been working on St Auburn’s preparedness plan for the swamp flu.’
The swamp flu, as it had been coined by the media due to its suspected origins in a South American rainforest, was causing concern in health sectors right across the world due mostly to the spike in influenza deaths in the northern hemisphere.
‘It’s two-thirty in the morning,’ she chided, annoyed that he wasn’t looking after himself. Almost like he didn’t think he deserved self-care. Annoyed that she was in here with him looking all tired and rumpled and that it was pushing all her buttons. ‘That can wait. You need sleep.’
He shook his head, his dark gaze netting her in its web. ‘I can’t sleep,’ he murmured. ‘Haven’t been able to since…’
His weariness wormed its way right down to her soul and her instincts cried out to comfort him. ‘Oh… Alessandro.’
Compelled in that way she was around him, Nat didn’t give a second thought to moving closer, sliding one hand behind his neck and one into his hair, cradling his head against her stomach. ‘I’m so sorry.’
His arms automatically encircled her waist and everything lurched.
When he pressed his face into her nightshirt, everything tightened.
‘You smell like an orchard,’ he murmured, his voice muffled as he nuzzled just under her sternum, the heat of his breath warming the skin beneath the fabric of her shirt. ‘And rain.’
With every erogenous zone in her body on high alert, Nat knew she should step back, push away, but the plain truth of it was – she didn’t want to. ‘It’s Flo,’ she said. ‘She likes the rain. I put her out in it for a bit.’
He didn’t say anything for a beat, just held on until he whispered, ‘I’m tired. I’m so tired.’
She cradled his head and rocked slightly. ‘I know. I know.’ Because she did know. She knew what it was like to grieve the end of a relationship. To lose someone close. How exhausting it was right down to the bones.
He pressed a kiss to her belly, setting up a wild tangle of sensation directly underneath. Glancing up at her he murmured, ‘Nathalie.’
Nat shook her head. She knew that look in his eyes. Knew for damn sure it was reflected in hers. ‘Don’t call me that.’ Her voice shook. She hated how husky it sounded, hated that she knew where this was heading and had zero intention of slamming on the brakes.
He rubbed his chin in the spot he’d kissed and the prickle of his midnight shadow was an erotic scratch that sucked her breath away. ‘Why? It suits you.’
With each word, her abdominal muscles rippled beneath his stubble as if he had licked them, and deeper down other muscles stirred deliciously at the way he’d sighed her name.
Her hand drifted down from his hair to his face.
She rubbed gently at the red mark on his cheek with the back of her hand. ‘Because I like it too much.’
They stared at each other for the longest time. They didn’t move. All that could be heard in the small office was the rain on the roof and the staccato rhythm of their breathing.
It was Alessandro who made the first move, applying pressure through his arms, bringing her down on to his lap, their heads close. Their lips closer. Nat didn’t protest, mesmerised by his eyes, by the desire that gleamed there. That they could be black ice one moment and warm like sable the next.
She wasn’t supposed to be here, doing this, but she also knew she was utterly powerless to resist. She could almost feel his mouth on hers, taste it, and she wanted it so badly anticipation hummed through her system.
His hand crept up, brushed against her shoulder and moved along the line of her collar bone until it was cradling her nape, four fingers lodged in her hair, his thumb stroking her jaw. He exerted slight pressure, inching her closer.
Their mouths nearer.
‘Bella,’ he murmured. ‘I know there is a multitude of reasons why kissing you, taking your clothes off and having you right here, right now, is a bad idea.’
Oh, dear God. Nat’s entire body clenched at his frankness.
‘But I also know that amongst all the bad stuff that has gone on in my life lately, you feel very right. You make me feel more alive than I have in a long time. A very long time.’
His words fanned across her skin, thousands of goosebumps following in their wake.
His fingers drifted down her neckline, coming to rest where the material scooped low on her breasts and Nat shut her eyes as her erect nipples ached for his attention.
She watched fascinated as he dropped his head and kissed her not far from where the sauce had landed only a week ago.
His lips practically sizzled against her skin and she arched her back involuntarily.
‘Nathalie…’
She barely had a chance to whimper before his questing mouth found hers and brushed against it ever so lightly. Gentle, like a whisper of what was to come. ‘Alessandro.’ She wasn’t sure if it was a warning or an invitation.
But it was definitely surrender.