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CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU see?’ Alanna said, smiling up into Mike’s face. ‘You can dance. In fact, you have a great sense of rhythm.’

Alanna had become tired of Mike always making excuses not to come to their parties, having suspected it was because he couldn’t dance. When she saw him sitting down by himself at the bridal table, looking glum whilst everyone else was up on their feet, she’d decided to take matters into her own hands. So she’d sent Reece off to dance with Sara whilst she’d dragged Mike onto the dance floor.

The function centre Richard and Holly had chosen for their wedding reception was a converted Edwardian mansion that was simply huge, with polished wooden floors just made for dancing.

‘You’re a good teacher,’ Mike said, glancing up from his feet at last.

‘You’re a fast learner. Now you can take your girlfriend out dancing.’

‘Don’t have one at the moment.’

‘Oh? That’s not like you.’

‘Been working too hard.’

‘On anything special?’

‘A new anti-virus, anti-spy program. It’s going to make me a fortune. Or it will,’ he added, ‘if and when I can get the right company to market and distribute it.’

‘What about your own company?’ Alanna knew that Mike’s software company had been very successful. Reece had shares in it. So did Richard.

‘Not big enough. I need a top international company. American, preferably. With plenty of clout. I’ll ask Richard to do the negotiating for me, once I decide who to approach. He’s much better at that type of thing then I am.’

‘But he’ll be away on his honeymoon for the next month,’ Alanna pointed out. ‘He’s taking Holly to Europe.’

‘No sweat. The program’s not quite ready. It needs more testing. Make sure there aren’t any bugs.’

‘I see.’ Sort of. Alanna was no dummy, and she was competent enough on a computer. She used to use a computer every day at work. Although she’d given up her job in public relations after marrying Reece—being Mrs Reece Diamond was a full-time career—she still paid all the housekeeping bills over the Internet. Nevertheless, she had no idea how computers really worked.

‘I don’t think Reece is too happy with you dancing with me,’ Mike suddenly muttered under his breath.

‘What?’ Surprise sent Alanna’s eyes darting around the room till she found her husband, who was still dancing with Sara. Even with his back towards her, he was easy to spot with his being so tall and having fair hair. When he turned around enough for their eyes to meet, Alanna was taken aback by the angry expression on his very handsome and usually cheerful face.

‘Yep. He’s jealous,’ Mike repeated.

Alanna’s hackles rose instinctively. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped. ‘Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.’

‘Come on, Alanna. Get real. You are one drop-dead gorgeous woman. If you were my wife, I’d be jealous of you being in another man’s arms. Just because you two have a different sort of marriage doesn’t mean a damned thing. You’re Reece’s wife and I’m a single guy with a certain reputation. It’s only natural for him to feel threatened, even though it doesn’t say too much for our friendship. He should know that you’d be the last woman on earth that I’d hit on. You and Holly.’

Despite Mike’s explanation, Alanna still could not conceive of Reece being jealous of her in any way, shape or form. She’d danced with lots of men in front of him before, and wearing a whole lot less than she was today.

Not once had Reece ever criticised, commented, or cared.

As for feeling threatened by Mike…

That idea was equally ludicrous. Alanna had never met any man as confident or as self-assured as her husband. And he had every reason to be. Not only was he very good-looking and very successful, his personality outshone everyone else’s. When Reece walked into a room, he became the sun around which the rest of the world revolved. Frankly, Alanna had never met another man quite like him.

‘I don’t believe he’s jealous at all,’ she pronounced firmly. ‘Sara must have said something to annoy him.’

‘Want to put it to the test?’

‘What do you mean?’

Mike’s hand in the small of her back suddenly pressed Alanna close against his hard male body, making her gasp.

The reaction in her husband’s face was instantaneous.

His nostrils flared. His blue eyes narrowed.

Alanna’s reaction to her husband’s jealousy was also instantaneous. Chaos, inside. Chaos and panic.

‘I don’t believe this,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Reece is never jealous.’

‘He’s a man, Alanna. It comes with the territory.’ Mike abruptly lifted the pressure on his hand and Alanna moved back to a more discreet distance.

‘But he’s never been jealous before!’ she protested. ‘You’ve seen some of the dresses he likes me to wear. Would a jealous man buy such dresses for his wife?’

‘That depends.’

‘On what?’

‘On why he wanted you to wear such dresses in the first place.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Don’t you?’

Alanna was taken aback. ‘You’ll have to be a bit more specific.’

‘What do you know about your husband’s past?’ came the blunt question.

Alanna frowned. ‘A fair bit. I know he’s the eldest son of a family of three boys. I know his father died in an electrical accident when he was in high school. I know he worked weekends selling real estate from the time he was seventeen and was so successful he abandoned his plans to go to university. He told me he made his first million by the time he was twenty-one.’

‘That’s not what I meant. What do you know about his more immediate past, the years just before he met and married you?’

‘Well, I know he went through a horror patch, financially, a few years back. He told me he would have gone to the wall if Richard hadn’t helped him out. But I suppose you’re referring to his ex-fiancée, Kristine. Reece told me how she dumped him for some wealthy older guy during that time.’

Which was why, Reece had explained the first night they’d met, he was no more interested in romance than she was. He’d been madly in love, and been hurt, as she had. And he didn’t want to go there any more.

Of course, Reece thought her hurt came from her beloved husband’s tragic death in a car crash. Alanna couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about Darko.

Which made her wonder if Reece had been totally honest with her as well. Did Mike know something she didn’t know?

‘So Reece did tell you all about Kristine,’ he said.

‘He told me everything about her.’ How beautiful she was. How she desperately wanted to be an actress. How they were only three weeks from their wedding when she left him.

‘I doubt it, Alanna. No man tells his wife everything, especially about a previous woman who did the dirty on him the way she did. Men have their pride, you know.’

So do women, she wanted to throw at him.

‘What did she do?’

‘You’ll have to ask your husband that. I’ve already said more than I should have.’

‘But I can’t ask Reece something like that. You have to tell me.’

‘Tell you what?’

Alanna whirled to find her husband standing right behind her, looking daggers at Mike.

‘Your wife wants me to explain how my new program works,’ Mike said without missing a beat. ‘But she’s much better at teaching dancing than I am at teaching computer-speak. Do you want her back now? I gather by that he-man look on your face that you do. Time for me to go, anyway. I’ll just have a word with the bride and groom first. See you around, folks. Thanks for the dancing lessons, Alanna. They might come in handy one day.’

Alanna felt new respect for Mike as he walked away. Whilst she was aware he was a genius in his field, she’d never thought much of his social skills. That little display, however, had been very clever. It wasn’t easy to think on your feet like that.

As she turned to face her husband Alanna decided to tackle his seeming jealousy head-on. She knew she would worry if she ignored it. As for her curiosity over what Kristine had done to Reece… That would have to remain unsatisfied for now. No way could she broach such a subject with Reece. He would be angry with her for discussing him with Mike behind his back. And rightly so.

‘Why were you glowering at me just now?’ she demanded to know. ‘Mike said you were jealous.’

For a moment, Reece’s face stiffened, his square jawline looking even squarer with his neck muscles all tight like that. His nicely shaped lips, usually relaxed and smiling, were pressed tautly together. As for his eyes… Alanna had never seen them so hard. And so cold.

But then he laughed, and the Reece she knew and felt safe with was back. ‘Aren’t I allowed to be a bit possessive of my beautiful wife?’

‘Being possessive is too close to jealousy for my liking,’ she chided, but gently. ‘I don’t like jealousy, Reece.’

Reece pursed his lips, but his eyes were smiling at her. ‘Don’t you, darling? Sorry. Blame that dress you have on.’

‘This dress? That’s silly. This is a very modest dress.’

‘It’s the colour. It does things to me. If you must know, I’ve been thinking wicked things ever since I watched you walk down that aisle,’ he said, his voice dropping to the low, sexy timbre that he used during foreplay.

Reece was a talker in bed, giving her head-turning compliments and calling her ‘Babe’ whilst he caressed her and turned her on.

Her breath quickened just thinking about those times. He was suddenly thinking about them, too. She could see it in his face, and in his eyes.

‘I want you badly, Babe,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘I don’t think I can wait till we get home.’

His calling her Babe at this stage was not only telling, but instantly arousing, as if he’d turned a switch on inside her. Alanna opened her mouth, then closed it again, finding herself speechless under his by now smouldering gaze.

Reece had looked at her with desire before. Many times. But this was a different type of desire tonight. Darker. And infinitely more exciting.

Suddenly, the room around Alanna began to recede, till she was aware of nothing but her husband’s eyes on her. Her lips fell slightly apart. Her mouth went dry. Her skin broke out into goose bumps.

Very dimly, she heard the music change to a slow, moody number.

Without saying another word, Reece drew her into his arms, his eyes not leaving hers as he let them do his talking for him for a while. As he pressed her stomach against his stark arousal the most exquisite sensations gripped Alanna’s body. Her nipples hardened. Her belly quivered. Her insides contracted.

Her arms slipped up around his neck and their bodies melded even closer together.

‘I need to kiss you,’ he whispered into her hair.

‘You…you can’t,’ she answered shakily. ‘Not here.’

‘Where, then?’

She knew what he was asking her. It wasn’t just a kiss he needed. The thought of him taking her somewhere relatively private sent the blood rushing to her head.

Even as she flushed possible places jumped into her mind. There were several powder rooms, a couple of them well away from everyone, on the first floor. Alanna had been upstairs with Holly the previous day, delivering her going-away outfit, so she knew the layout of the place quite well.

The temptation to go up there with Reece was acute. She wanted to. Far too much.

When she’d married Reece last year, Alanna had vowed to keep a tight rein on her highly sexed nature. No good ever came from a man thinking his wife was a whore.

She’d been quite content with their sex life so far. And happy in her marriage. Reece liked and respected her. Would he continue to respect her, however, if she let him do this? It worried her where such a surrender might lead. She wanted to be his wife and the mother of his children, not his married mistress, catering to his every sexual whim, regardless of time or place.

No. She had to resist temptation.

‘I can’t, Reece,’ she said tautly. ‘I have to go help Holly change into her going-away outfit.’

‘She’s dancing away happily at the moment,’ Reece pointed out, nodding towards the bride and groom who were wrapped in each other’s arms, gliding slowly around the dance floor. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’

‘Go where?’

‘You know where,’ he ground out. ‘I saw it in your eyes.’

She drew back and stared up at him, her heart pounding. Was she that easy to read?

‘We’re married, Alanna,’ he went on brusquely. ‘Whatever we do together is perfectly acceptable.’

‘Being married doesn’t make everything acceptable,’ she countered heatedly. ‘I’m sorry, Reece. You’ll just have to wait till we get home.’

His face darkened with frustration. ‘This is bloody ridiculous. You want to. I know you do.’

When his fingers tightened on her arm, Alanna wrenched her arm out of his hold and glowered up at him.

‘Don’t ever presume what I want to do, Reece,’ she bit out. ‘I said no. That means no. I don’t know what’s got into you tonight but, whatever it is, I don’t much like it. Now I’m going to take Holly upstairs to change. Hopefully, by the time we get home you will have gotten over your caveman impulses and gone back to being the sophisticated man I married.’

CHAPTER THREE

THE strained silence in the car during the drive home gave Reece plenty of time to wonder, and to worry. He’d soothed his earlier frustrations with the surety Alanna wouldn’t knock him back when they got home. But had his thinking been correct?

Alanna wanted a baby. Quite desperately, judging by her disappointment over not conceiving yet. She’d started reading books on the subject, and had circled the days on the kitchen calendar when she was most likely to conceive. Tonight was not optimum but it was close enough.

Back at the reception, he’d reasoned that no way would Alanna let this day end without sex, especially since they hadn’t made love last night. She’d been busy with Holly on last-minute wedding preparations whilst he’d been out having a few drinks with Richard and Mike. When he’d finally come home around one o’clock, Alanna had been in bed, sound asleep.

So he felt quite confident that some of his desires would be satisfied tonight. Although not all.

For a few seconds tonight he’d glimpsed a different Alanna, one who’d almost agreed to have a quickie. Her gorgeous green eyes had glittered wildly with the idea.

He wanted that Alanna to surface again. He also wanted a wife who didn’t lock the bathroom door after her any more. One who wasn’t so darned protective of her privacy.

Such thinking revived his frustrations. All of a sudden, he wanted to snap at her. Taunt her. Challenge her.

Do you only let me make love to you because you want a baby? he felt like flinging at her. Do you fake your orgasms? Do you care for me at all, or am I just a means to an end?

Actually, Reece didn’t believe she faked her orgasms. But there was something fake about Alanna. He just didn’t know what. Up till this point, it hadn’t bothered him how much of herself she’d kept to herself. As long as he’d got what he wanted, he hadn’t made waves.

But everything had changed tonight. Reece wanted more from Alanna now, and, by God, he aimed to get more!

Alanna sat in the passenger seat of Reece’s red Mercedes sports, her face turned away from him, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.

She knew Reece was angry with her. She could feel it. If there was one thing Alanna had become adept at over the years, it was sensing a husband’s anger.

Not that Reece’s anger was anything like Darko’s. She’d trembled with fear when he’d been angry.

Alanna wasn’t even close to trembling at that moment. But she was agitated. And upset.

She hated having made Reece angry. Hated herself for her silly overreactions. He’d hardly behaved badly. So he’d been a little possessive of her. A forgivable sin, considering he’d been turned on at the time and she’d been off teaching another man to dance.

In hindsight, however, Alanna suspected most of his anger came from the fact that he’d witnessed her momentary willingness to go along with what he’d wanted. Seen it in her eyes, he’d said.

She’d acted like a tease. Going hot, and then cold, on him. No wonder he was mad.

She should apologise. She knew she should. But the words simply wouldn’t come, and before long Reece was turning into their driveway and braking abruptly to a halt. He zapped the automatic gate-opener, then waited, his fingers tapping impatiently on the steering wheel till they opened.

Once again, Alanna tried to force herself to say something. She turned her head in his direction, but still could not find her tongue, gazing past him instead at the impressive facde of their home.

Every now and then—usually at the oddest moments—Alanna took a mental step back from her present life and tried to see it as others saw it.

All of her girlfriends thought her a very lucky woman. Which she was. She lived in an extremely beautiful home. Drove a snazzy car, and had a fabulous wardrobe.

But it wasn’t any of these material things that were the main subject of her girlfriends’ ‘you-are-so-lucky’ remarks.

No, it was Reece himself they envied Alanna the most. Her charismatic and very handsome husband.

Admittedly, he was a dream of a husband. Hardworking, cheerful, complimentary and generous. A great lover, too, who, till tonight, had not been at all demanding where their sex life was concerned. He seemed content with fairly straightforward lovemaking. In bed. Tonight had been the first time he’d wanted something different.

So, yes, on the surface, she was a very lucky woman.

But all that would mean nothing, she realised with a pang in her heart, if she never had a child.

Reece hadn’t been the only person to feel unexpected jealousy tonight. When she’d accompanied Holly upstairs to help her change out of her wedding dress, Holly had confided to Alanna that she was already pregnant.

Alanna had done her best to express delight at the news, but, down deep, she’d been worried. Reece had been making love to her very regularly since she’d come off the pill three months ago, but still no baby. Was there something wrong with her? It was possible. You couldn’t throw yourself out of a speeding car and not sustain some internal damage.

The doctors had assured her that she would be fine, that her recovery would be complete in time.

But maybe they were wrong.

Perhaps she should go for some tests…

‘I presume you are coming inside.’

Reece’s sharp words snapped Alanna back to the present, where she was surprised to see they were already parked in the garages, the door had shut be hind them and Reece had taken his keys out of the ignition.

‘Yes, of course,’ she said, and opened her door with a weary sigh. Clearly, Reece was still angry with her. ‘I was daydreaming,’ she added as she levered herself up onto her red high heels.

‘What about?’ he asked as he climbed out also, banging the car door after him. ‘Becoming a dancing teacher?’

His nasty crack shocked Alanna. He was never like this. ‘You’re not still going on about that, are you?’

‘Why not? A man doesn’t like his wife to enjoy another man’s company more than his own.’

She stared at Reece over the roof of the Mercedes. ‘I usually don’t. But if you keep acting like this, I just might in future.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘I meant nothing.’

When she came round the front of the car and went to walk past him, heading for the internal access to the house, Reece grabbed her arm and spun her round to face him.

‘I won’t tolerate you sleeping around on me, Alanna,’ he ground out. ‘We might not love each other but we promised before God to be faithful.’

‘I would never break my marriage vows,’ she denied fiercely. ‘But I might ask for a divorce if you keep manhandling me.’

He didn’t let her go. Just glared down into her face, his own flushed and frustrated-looking.

‘That won’t get you a baby,’ he snapped. ‘Which is the only reason you married me, isn’t it?’

‘It was one of the reasons,’ she threw at him. ‘I told you I wanted a family.’

‘What were the other reasons? My money, I presume.’

‘I wanted security. Yes. But if you must know, I had no idea you were as rich as you were when I agreed to marry you. Now let go of my arm.’

He did so, but remained standing in front of her, blocking her way. When she stepped back a little, the front bumper bar of the car contacted her calves.

‘What about sex?’ he ground out. ‘You said at our first meeting that you discovered you weren’t cut out for celibacy. You implied you wanted a man in your bed every night for the pleasure he could bring you. Have I brought you pleasure, Alanna?’ he demanded to know.

When she went to move sidewards, his hands shot out to grab her shoulders, holding her and forcing her to look up at him.

‘Have I, Alanna?’ he repeated harshly, giving her a little shake.

‘You know you have,’ she choked out.

It was cold in the garages, but her sudden shivering had nothing to do with the air temperature.

He yanked her hard against him, his blue eyes blazing like a pitiless summer sky. His mouth was just as pitiless.

Reece knew exactly the kind of kissing she liked. Right from their wedding night she hadn’t been able to resist his kisses. By the time his head lifted, she was no longer shivering.

‘Lie back across the bonnet of the car,’ he commanded, his voice rough and thick.

Her eyes flared wide with shock. ‘But…’

‘Damn it, don’t argue with me,’ he ground out, then kissed her some more till all her defences were gone.

No protest came from her lips when he lowered her back across the engine-heated bonnet and started pushing her dress upwards. Up. Up to her waist.

Her heart pounded. Her skin flamed. Her head spun.

‘Oh, Babe,’ he groaned when he saw what she was wearing underneath her dress.

A red strapless corselette, with suspenders holding up her stockings, and only a wisp of a red lace covering her.

Her underwear had been a present from the bride. Not that she didn’t like sexy underwear. She did. She just didn’t usually buy red.

Reece ripped the lacy thong off her with a single yank, leaving her totally exposed. When he pushed her legs apart and leant forward, Alanna bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

She tensed in anticipation of his mouth making contact, but it was his hands she felt first, touching her, exploring her, teasing her.

‘So wet,’ she heard him say, and knew it was true.

He made her wet so easily. Made her want to be made love to, even when she thought she didn’t.

His fingers continued to play with her till she almost cried out to him to stop. She wanted his lips. And his tongue.

When he finally did what she wanted, her head twisted from side to side, her face grimacing as the exquisite sensations he evoked brought with them an equally exquisite tension.

His sudden abandonment had her eyes flying open.

‘You…you can’t just stop!’ she cried out.

He laughed as he scooped his hands under her bottom and swept her up from the bonnet. ‘Oh, yes, I can.’

‘You bastard.’

His eyes glittered wildly down at her, his smile devilishly sexy. ‘Tch tch. You’re a lady, remember?’

‘I don’t feel much like a lady at this moment.’ Her frustration was at fever pitch, making her almost violent with need.

‘Tell me what you feel like,’ he challenged her as he carried her inside the house. ‘Tell me what you want me to do to you.’

Her already heated face must have gone bright red.

‘You can say it,’ he whispered wickedly in her ear. ‘There’s no one here to hear you but me. And I want you to say it, just the way you’re thinking it right now. Go on. Say it!’

She said it.

‘Don’t worry, Babe,’ he muttered, his arms tightening around her as he began mounting the stairs that led up to their bedroom. ‘It’ll be my pleasure to do that, and more.’