CHAPTER FOUR
THE SULTRY NIGHT AIR, so quiet and still as they stood at the railing and took in the cityscape, seemed to envelop Izzie in a world so far removed from her normal life that she could almost believe that it was. That it was just the two of them who existed and this incredible panoramic view of London with its lights twinkling across the water had been created for them and them alone.
That what felt like a defining moment in her life was utterly, absolutely the right thing to do.
“You must spend so much time out here,” she said to Alex, shaking her head. “It’s breathtaking.”
A wry smile curved his mouth. “It’s my second office when I’m in London. When the weather is good...”
Izzie tried to focus as he pointed out the London landmarks to her, stopping to give her a bit of history on each, but the anticipation coursing through her veins made her feel weak-kneed. Light-headed.
“What’s that?” She pointed at a series of small structures stretching across the water on either side of a bridge.
“That’s the Thames barrier.”
“Those white things that look like little Sydney Opera Houses?”
He moved behind her and directed her fingers toward the circular structures she’d been looking at. “Those.”
Her temperature spiked dramatically as the hard, warm length of him brushed against her back. “Right,” she murmured. “That’s what I thought.”
He didn’t move away, but dropped his hands to the railing instead, resting them on either side of her. Her heartbeat sped up.
“Flooding has become an issue for London over the years. Water levels have been continuously rising and threatening the city. In one of the big floods, many years back, hundreds of people died.”
“Really?” She could barely breathe, so distracted was she by the pulses of electricity his big, warm body was sending through hers.
“Are you listening?” He moved his lips closer to her ear. “There’s going to be a quiz later, you know.”
“Later?” She gave up all pretext of paying attention when his hand brushed the weight of her hair aside and he set his lips to the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck.
“Mmm...one kiss was not nearly enough, Isabel.”
Her legs felt as though she’d been through one too many Spin classes. Weaker still when he pressed his mouth to the sensitive junction between her neck and shoulder. The question was, did she have the guts to go through with this? For all her bravado, she’d only ever had one lover—and not a good one at that—in her college boyfriend. What if she disappointed Alex with her lack of experience?
“I can see the smoke coming out of your ears,” he murmured against her skin. “Stop thinking so much.”
Which was exactly what she needed to do. She’d been thinking so much her entire life she felt as though she’d been watching it from the sidelines. And if there was anything this crazy day had taught her, it was that life was tenuous. Fragile. And it could be taken from you at any moment. So best to jump in and take your chances.
Taking a deep breath, she turned around and met the questioning intensity of his deep blue gaze. Felt the heat—oh dear Lord—the heat of those sizzling good looks up close. The hard planes of his face that made him look formidable...until he smiled. That square jaw with its delicious indentation that made a woman want to put her lips to it. The sensuous, full mouth... It was all a bit heart-stopping.
And incredibly difficult to find her voice. In the end, she didn’t try. Just went up on tiptoes, lifted her chin, and brought her lips a hairbreadth away from his in silent invitation.
Something flickered in his eyes. “Can I ask you a question?”
She nodded.
“Are those glasses for distance?”
She blinked. “Yes.”
He reached up and plucked them from her face. “Then I guess you won’t be needing them.” Her breath caught, strangled in her throat as he set the glasses down on the railing beside them. “This is about to get up close and very personal.”
Oh God. Her heart raced in her chest as he reached up and captured her jaw in his palm, his gaze following his thumb as it swept across her cheek and over the surface of her bottom lip. “You have the most amazing mouth,” he murmured, exerting a slight downward pressure so she opened for him. “It’s the kind of mouth a man couldn’t resist even if he wanted to.”
Which was good because if he didn’t kiss her right now, she was going to die. Transfixed, she watched as he lowered his head, her lashes fluttering down as he angled his mouth over hers in a caress so light, so sensuous, it made her whole body go weak. Her hands came up to balance her against the hard wall of his chest, a sigh escaping her throat as he explored, tasted every centimeter of her lips, getting intimately acquainted in a way that made her toes curl.
The kiss seemed to go on forever and ever, a leisurely tasting that neither of them seemed inclined to end. “This needs to go,” he muttered, reaching up to unclasp her hair so it fell in a heavy swath down her back.
He drew back and raked his gaze over her. “You also have the most sensational hair.”
“I almost cut it all off recently.” She’d thought it might look more professional on-camera.
He reached out to twist one of her curls around his finger. “Don’t ever, ever do that.”
She smiled. “What is it about men and hair?”
He wound the curl tight, then let it go. “It’s great fodder for fantasies...I’ve been imagining what it would look like spread across the white satin sheets of that big lonely bed of mine in there.”
Words. She knew there were words in the English language. But the thought of him fantasizing about them in bed together wiped them clean from her head.
It didn’t matter, though, because he was lifting her up on her tiptoes again, tunneling his hands in her hair to cup the back of her head, his sinful expression as his mouth came down on hers telling her he intended to indulge every minute of that fantasy in short order.
This time his kisses were of the hot, openmouthed variety that left her gasping. He made her give back everything he was offering her, hotter and hotter until she felt as though she were going to combust.
By the time his tongue traced the trembling fullness of her bottom lip, dipping inside and tangling erotically with hers, she wanted all he had to offer and more. She tipped her head back and took him in, giving him full access to her mouth. The intimacy of the kiss set her blood on fire.
He nudged her backward against the cool, hard concrete of the wall, his muscular thigh sliding between hers at the same time he dragged his lips down to explore the sensitive skin at the base of her throat. “Your pulse is racing...” he murmured against her skin.
She fought to control a shiver than ran through her as he trailed his lips across her collarbone to the soft skin of her shoulder. “I’m a little—”
“Excited?” he finished, a wicked smile curving his lips as he raised his blue gaze to hers. “But we’re only just getting started, sweetheart.”
Izzie squeezed her eyes shut, heat flooding her cheeks. Alex’s low laughter danced across the night air as he bent to press his lips to her shoulder, his teeth nipping lightly at the tender skin as he slid his fingers under the strap of her dress and eased it off her shoulder. Izzie grabbed hold of the wall on either side of her as his lips worked their way over to her other shoulder and dispensed with the other strap.