NICOLAS had experienced several moments of happiness in his life.
But this moment surpassed all others: it was true happiness. He was stunned to feel tears pricking at his eyes. Never in all his forty years had he cried with happiness.
‘Well you’ve done it now,’ he choked out.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m never going to let you go now, Serina. Not if you love me.’
‘I still won’t go overseas with you, Nicolas. Well, I would…briefly. Just not permanently.’
‘Even that small compromise shows me you do really love me.’
‘You doubted me?’
‘Might I remind you that you were the one who said I was only good for one thing.’
‘Oh, Nicolas…I’m so sorry I said that. That wasn’t nice. But you only have yourself to blame. A girl tends to forget a man’s other qualities when one stands out.’
‘You should be grateful that it stands out at all. When a man approaches forty…’
She laughed. It was a delightful laugh.
‘When can you get away?’ he asked.
‘Soon.’
‘How soon?’
‘Very soon,’ she said softly.
An hour later, Nicolas was pacing the pavement outside Blue Horizons, impatiently waiting for Serina’s car to arrive. The temperature had risen dramatically during the last sixty minutes and a hot wind was whipping down the street. He’d finally dressed sensibly in shorts and T-shirt but was still feeling uncomfortably warm.
Suddenly, there she was, pulling up to the curb opposite. Nicolas raced over and wrenched the driver’s door open.
‘Why has it taken you so long?’ he demanded to know. ‘I could have flown back to Sydney in that time.’
She smiled up at him as she climbed out of the car, looking cool and pretty in cream Bermuda shorts and a lemon blouse.
‘I was held up for a while with a builder who wasn’t happy with the timber we’d delivered to him. Sorry, but Mum isn’t at her best dealing with difficult customers, and Allie’s useless.’
Nicolas wasn’t in the mood to be mollified. ‘I thought you’d had an accident. You could have called me. That’s what mobile phones are for.’
‘I said I was sorry.’ Her smile widened. ‘My, but you’re not a happy chappy when you have to wait for something,’ she said, echoing his words of that morning. ‘Now why don’t you just kiss me and stop being obsessive compulsive?’
‘Takes one to know one, sweetheart,’ he growled, and pulled her into his arms. His kiss was deep and long and brought several toots from horns of passing motorists.
‘I have something I want to show you,’ he said when he finally came up for air.
‘Not down here, I hope,’ she teased. ‘I don’t want to be arrested for indecent exposure.’
‘Very funny. No, it’s nothing like that. I want you to come upstairs with me.’
She laughed. ‘I already gathered that.’
Nicolas gave her a droll look. ‘Will you get your mind off sex for the moment?’
‘You mean you want to actually do something else?’
‘No, I don’t want to do something else. I just thought it might be wise to show you that I can do something else.’
‘Such as what?’
‘If you’ll just be quiet for a minute or two,’ he said as he steered her across the road, ‘I’ll show you.’
‘I’m already speechless.’
Serina laughed when he ground to a halt and speared her with a fierce narrowed-eyed glance. ‘You will be punished later for your sarcasm!’
‘Oooh. Is that a promise or a threat?’
‘Another twenty lashes for Madame!’
‘Are we on the Bounty here, or in one of those old war films? You keep changing characters.’
‘I am the master of disguise.’
‘Good grief,’ she said, laughing. ‘It’s Boris Karloff!’
‘I’m not that old!’
‘You’re nearly forty.’
He pretended to look horrified. ‘You must not mention the dreaded F word. Not unless you want to be punished.’
‘That depends on the punishment.’
‘You will be tied naked to my bed for the rest of the day.’
Her face fell in mock disappointment. ‘Oh…is that all?’
‘I will rub your entire body with oil.’
Her eyebrows arched coquettishly. ‘What kind of oil?’
‘What other kind is there?’ he countered, flexing his biceps like Popeye. ‘Olive oil!’
‘You’ll ruin the sheets.’
He waved nonchalantly. ‘There are plenty more sheets where they came from. But first, we must ride up to the penthouse.’
‘The penthouse! You’ve moved apartments?’
‘Not as yet. But I’m thinking of buying the penthouse. It’s for sale.’
‘Oh, my!’ Serina exclaimed as soon as she walked inside. ‘This place is out of this world. But it must be worth a small fortune.’
‘It’s on the market for three-point-five million. But in this current economic climate, I think I can close the deal for three.’
‘Far be it for me to persuade you otherwise, Nicolas,’ Serina said as she wandered from the extensive and expensively furnished living area into the equally lavish master bedroom. ‘But can you afford it?’
‘My apartment in New York is worth five times that much. I also own a town house in London worth at last two and a half mil. Pounds, that is. Neither have mortgages. So yes, I can afford it.’
She just stared at him. ‘I didn’t know you were that rich.’
He shrugged. ‘I’ve been very fortunate. And very astute, when it comes to investments. I know there’s a line in the show The Producers that says to never put your money in the show. But if you put your money in the right show, then the sky’s the limit when it comes to profits. I’ve put my money into two super successful musicals. And I manage some extremely successful musicians. So yes, I’m very rich.’
And very used to getting his own way, Serina appreciated. It had to be very corrupting to be that rich, to be able to buy whatever you wanted.
Does he really love me? Serina suddenly worried as she gazed at the king-sized bed. Or does he just want me?
His hands curling over her shoulders startled her. She hadn’t seen him move behind her.
‘So what do you think, my darling?’ he murmured as his lips brushed over her hair. ‘Should I buy it, or not?’
Serina swallowed when he pulled her back against him and she felt his hardness. ‘It seems a lot of money for a place you’ll hardly ever be in.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ he said, taking his hands off her shoulders and moving them down under her arms and over the swell of her breasts. ‘I have a feeling I’m going to be here quite a lot.’
Serina sucked in sharply when he started undoing the buttons on her blouse. ‘What…what do you think you’re doing?’
‘What do you think I’m doing? You know I don’t like making love with clothes on.’
‘But we can’t… Not here… Someone might come in…’
‘Why would they? The girl on the desk said I could take all the time I wanted inspecting the place.’
‘But someone still might come in…’
‘I very much doubt it.’
Her blouse and bra were quickly disposed of.
‘But they might,’ she protested even as he unzipped her shorts.
‘We’d hear them before they came in here. Ah. That’s better,’ he said as the shorts fell to the floor. ‘Mmm. Very sexy panties but I prefer you without them.’ Her underwear went the same way as the shorts, leaving her naked except for her sandals.
His right hand smoothed over her stomach, then dipped between her legs.
‘Nicolas…please…I…I don’t think I can relax.’
‘I don’t want you relaxed.’
She gasped when his other hand started playing with her extremely erect nipples.
‘I want you as turned on as I am.’
When Serina moaned, he stopped what he was doing.
‘Lie back across the bed,’ he ordered her thickly. ‘And touch yourself while I get naked.’
Why did she do it? Why?
Because she loved obeying him as much as she loved him. It was like a drug, the way he could make her feel.
‘Yes, that’s the way,’ he said as he hurriedly stripped off his clothes. ‘Open your legs a little wider, darling. You look so beautiful like that.’
Beautiful? More like brazen. For she no longer cared if anyone came in.
‘Beautiful,’ he said again as he knelt between her legs and lifted her hand away….