Heirs Book Two: American Lady (7 page)

After a curt nod from Bruno, the maître d’
led them to an outside balcony which became their own private
domain. Around the edge of the balcony was a thick black iron
railing, because the rocks dropped away to the alpine lake beneath
them. She could hear the sound of water lapping. The faintest tang
of seaweed mixed with the heady scent of the thick jasmine bushes
climbing around the iron railings enveloped them.

As the maître d’ lit the candle on the table
and handed them menus, the sun finally sank, leaving them in silent
twilight. Charley looked down at the menu in her hand but she
couldn’t focus. She closed it.

“You order for me,” she said, her voice
sounding low and heated to her own ears.

Maixent didn’t even open his menu. “Seafood
is their specialty.”

The breeze blew dark tendrils of hair lazily
across her cheek. Maixent reached out to slip the strands behind
her ear. When the waiter brought out their shrimps, scallops and
mushrooms swimming in crayfish sauce they were gazing starstruck at
each other. From inside they could hear a violin playing softly
each time the waiter opened the French doors to serve them.

Charley paid hardly any attention to her
Napoleon of smoked salmon and Boursin cheese sprinkled with dill
and capers or the crabmeat gâteau with crayfish dressing that
completed the meal. Nothing seemed as satisfying as having Maixent
in front of her to feast her eyes on. He’d barely touched her and
yet she’d never felt so overcome with lust, her insides throbbing
in heated expectation.

She could feel him watching her coral mouth
and gold shadowed eyes, deeper black than the night. Although she
hardly touched her food she drank several glasses of Moët.

“It’s so beautiful here. So still and calm.”
In a pitch black sky the stars twinkled indistinguishably from the
lights shining from the cottages dotted along the alps. It didn’t
matter. “Can we stay here forever?” she sighed. She had so many
stars in her eyes already.

“Maybe not forever. But at least for
tonight.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth, just
grazing her knuckles with his teeth.

She caught her breath, dizzy with longing
and Moët.

“What do you think, Miss Cassidy? I promised
that we could be alone at last. No family. No servants. No phones.
Just you and me together for the night?”

“Yes, please.”

He leant forward to hear the words she was
barely able to breathe. He pushed back his chair, waving away the
maître d’ and pulling her up out of her chair at the same time. “I
have a room booked.”

Maixent whisked her upstairs to a tiny
bedroom in the inn and as he closed the door behind them, she
suddenly felt overcome with shyness. He advanced towards her and
cautiously took hold of her hands, placing them on his chest. Under
her palms she could hear the speeding tattoo of his heart.

“You see, I’m nervous too,” he whispered,
his eyes clinging to hers. “I don’t want you just for tonight.
These past four days, you’ve brought my life something I never had
before. Something I didn’t even know I wanted.” There was a rawness
to his voice that cut Charley’s heart, yet his sincerity wrapped
her in a warm glow of tenderness. His words were like an offering
of newly minted pennies that had never been circulated and she
truly believed that this was a new experience for him. “But now
that I’ve experienced being with you I don’t want to lose that. I
don’t want to lose you from my life.”

Was that a hint of terror in his eyes? Was
it because he was waiting for her to say something? But she was too
absorbed in handling the emotions his words had triggered. These
past few days had been an incredibly intense experience for her
too. Her own world had fallen away, dissolving into his. But was
she ready for such intensity? Four months ago, which seemed like an
infinity ago, she had been living with another man, prepared to
spend her life with Dan, her bitterly resentful boyfriend who had
simultaneously used and despised her family connections. Maixent
was as different from Dan as misery to happiness. The switch was so
monumental that she wasn’t sure she had begun to process her
extreme feelings.

“Say something,” he finally pleaded, tension
quilting his strong jawline.

“Something,” she joked weakly.

He gave a mock growl. “Preferably something
I’d like to hear,” he scolded smilingly. “Have I scared you
totally?”

“I’m scaring myself with how intensely close
to you I feel,” she murmured, unable to release his eyes which were
now bright and excited. Their burning desire turned the heat up on
her own simmering urges. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry with
expectation, her heartbeat racing to keep pace with his. Thank God
she had brought those birth control pills!

He tugged her closer so they were locked in
each other’s arms. He bent his head to the side, nibbling gently on
her earlobe, his breath tickling her neck as she felt herself
slowly combust from the inside out, her desire screaming for
release.

“I want you so bad. I have to have you now.”
Maixent’s voice was raw with need.

He turned so their faces were nose to nose,
their panting breaths intermingled. Buttons ripped from his shirt,
bugle beads flew from her four thousand dollar dress as their
clothes were thrown to the floor and they avalanched naked onto the
mattress of a bed, hardly bigger than a single cot. Charley crushed
herself against him, feeling her breasts squash against his chest,
their legs entwined, his teeth biting and teasing her open lips,
her hands clawing at his back, his hands cupping her buttocks as he
drove himself inside her, their rythmic coupling as animalistic as
her ragged moans.

Returning to earth, Charley felt as relaxed
as a string puppet, grinning goofily at Maixent with a satisfied
Cheshire smile. Beside her Maixent nuzzled her neck.

“Wow,” she breathed. Never had she
experienced searing passion that couldn’t be denied. She hadn’t
even realized her body was capable of such exquisitely violent
pleasure. Sex with Maixent was a revelation. Sex with Maixent could
easily become an addiction. His eyelashes tickled her neck as he
blinked his eyes.

Emboldened, she tunneled her hand in his
hair, wrapping her fingers around his messy locks and tugging his
head up towards her. She wanted to kiss him. She needed to kiss
him.

Her eyes fastened on his dazzling blue gaze
before her lids reflexively closed when their lips touched. The
tentative press of lips quickly became deeper as they both
responded, tongues circling and tangoing together. Maixent’s hand
behind the nape of her neck kept their mouths locked, not allowing
her to draw away or draw breath until he shifted his lips
unhurriedly in a series of nibbles across her jaw, working his way
slowly downwards towards her breasts.

Under his suckling, her nipples elongated
and desire unfurled in her groin. She caught her breath with
disappointment as he removed his mouth. Leaning up on his elbows,
one eyebrow quirked smugly, his eyes gleamed wickedly as though he
knew the full effect he had on her.

Leisurely he stood up and moved to the side
of the bed where a magnum of champagne nestled in an icy bucket. He
was standing in the shadows of the room, lit only by a soft glowing
lamp on the opposite side of the bedhead as she drank in the width
of broad shoulders, tapering in muscled planes towards a sculpted
waist and hips and chunky thighs that looked strong enough to crush
a horse between their grip. Deftly he popped the cork.

She waited for him to fill the glasses, but
instead he dipped the bottle over her and dribbled ice-cold liquid
over her tiny breasts. She squealed. He grinned devilishly, pinning
her hands down beside her squirming body. Unhurriedly he buried his
head between her breasts, licking up each droplet. The combination
of icy champagne and hot wet touch of his tongue quivered her body
with desire.

“This time we’re going to take it slowly,”
he said.

Languidly his tongue snaked its way
downwards over her gently rounded stomach, circling her navel.
Traveling further he buried his nose amongst her damp curls,
inching lower until he was inhaling her salty essence. The quivers
in her body intensified as he took his time thoroughly kissing
inside her thighs, down the sides of her knees and calves, finally
sucking on each individual toe. The suction seemed connected to her
groin, rolling over her in sweet, sensual waves.

He bent her legs, pushing her knees up and
outward so he could trail his tongue along her clitoris, at the
same time sliding one long finger into her wet depths. She was
moaning now, her head tossing from side to side at the pressure he
was applying as he slid a second finger inside.

“Oh, please,” she begged in a voice hoarse
and thick with desire.

He stood up between her legs. His erection
seemed massive in the dim light and she knew she wanted to taste
him just as he’d been tasting her. She knelt on the bed, her heels
digging into her thighs. She parted her lips and ran her tongue
slowly around them. His eyes scorched her with their intensity.
These bold moves were so unlike her normal behavior. Being with
Maixent brought out an audacious, wanton goddess who had obviously
had enough of prim, proper Charley.

She leant forward, opening her mouth to suck
him inside. He gasped so she sucked harder, twirling her tongue
around his velvety tip. She heard him groan, his breath panting as
she moved her mouth up and down his shaft, her fingers fondling and
squeezing his testicles. His hips began flexing, meshing with her
rhythm. His excitement caused her own muscles to clench and she
ached to feel him inside her again.

She raised her head, pulling him with her as
she toppled onto the bed. In a frenzy she pulled him inside her.
She felt every inch of him plunging in and out, his thumb rubbing
mercilessly over her clitoris until her body was bent like a
plucked bow with her hips arching off the bed, bucking
uncontrollably under him. Groaning, sobbing his name, she hooked
her legs behind him urging him even deeper inside as their orgasm
crashed over them like a tsunami.

Still shuddering they held each others’
sweaty bodies as their pounding hearts slowly calmed. Maixent’s
arms were wrapped tightly around her and she felt that was all that
was holding her tethered together otherwise she would drift away,
her thoughts and senses scattering in all directions. She felt
deliciously aglow and languid, as though her body were fluid and
not solid.

“I think I love you.” She was aghast to hear
herself saying as she clung to him. Damn! She hadn’t meant to say
that out loud.

Maixent jerked his head back so he could
look directly into her eyes. There was a long minute of silence
between them and Charley squirmed internally, dying of humiliation.
Just as she was about to retract her words and laugh them off as a
poor-taste joke, his eyes crinkled and he gave a huge grin.

“I hope you really mean that and it’s not
postcoital banter?” His voice sounded hesitant, as though her
answer was really important to him. More than that, as though her
affirmative answer was maybe even vital for his well-being.

Her inner goddess pushed her to risking
bravery over defensiveness. Keeping her starry-spangled eyes firmly
glued to his so he would know that, as unexpected as the words had
been, they were truly heartfelt, so much so that with her heart in
her mouth she was unable to speak and simply nodded her head.
Vigorously.

His grin was now shining as brightly as the
anticipated Halley’s comet.

“Dis donc, ma chérie, I know I love you.
Will you marry me?”

The telephone receiver dropped from Nikki’s nerveless
fingers, dangling freely on the end of its coiled cord, as she
slumped onto the sofa. On the other end of the line she could hear
Charley’s voice.

“Mom, are you there? Mom?”

Sucking in a huge breath, she counted to ten
silently.

“Mom? I can’t hear you. Is everything okay?
Is this line dead?”

Nikki sighed out the breath and picked up
the receiver, looping the cord around her fingers so frantically
she was in danger of cutting off her blood supply. “Yes, darling,
I’m here,” she said mechanically. “I’m just a bit dazed at your
news.”

“I’m more than dazed,” Charley crowed
jubilantly. “I’m absolutely over the moon about marrying Maix!
You’re going to love him. He’s so adorably continental and yet
American at the same time.”

“Charley, are you rushing into things? I
thought you were still heart broken over Dan. Is Maix some sort of
rebound?” Nikki fought frantically to get her head around Charley’s
astonishing news. How could she possibly be getting married?!

“I know it’s sudden and it’s a shock for
you. But living with Dan made me realize how different and happy my
life will be with Maix. How can I describe it so you can
understand? Let me see, it’s like my life with Dan was a dark,
grainy black and white photo but with Maixent we’re in an instant,
full-color polaroid. I just can’t describe how right it feels when
we’re together. But we’re not going to elope tomorrow, you know.
Everything will have to be hush-hush until the formalities are
sorted out. Because Maix is the heir to the Dragonblood Throne he
needs to get permission from the National Council to get married.
And then we have to settle details like my dowry,” Charley giggled.
“Isn’t it a scream? I feel just like a heroine in a romance
novel.”

She sighed. “Really, it’s going to take
weeks before we sort through all the bureaucratic red tape. And
Maix is upset that I didn’t let him ask you for my hand in marriage
instead of breaking the news to you myself,” Charley giggled again,
giving the perfect impression of a teenager in love.