The Convenient Wife
by Kelly

chapter 43

He was looking at her in a way that made Alexis feel more naked than
clothed. In a way that told her clearly what he desired…what he
needed. To be wrapped around her body in her bed in the next room.
Now. Heat flamed in her belly and slowly flooded her entire being.
She wanted exactly the same thing.

But she hesitated between two extremes: passion and abject fear. The
desire in his eyes called to her, so dark and vitriolic in its
nature. But after the depth of yesterday's hurt, the depth of today's
wanting petrified her to her heart's core. She couldn't move.

But he could.

All at once, he was standing in front of her, mere inches away,
without her realizing he'd shifted an inch. With the stealth of a
predatory cat, he'd glided across the room until he was so close she
literally felt his heat emanating towards her body and his breath
sifted through the tendrils of her hair. She breathed deeply. The
dark heavy scent of his cologne mingled enticingly with the
inimitable scent of his skin. Alexis' tongue darted out to lick lips
that were suddenly very dry.

She hadn't known that wanting like this was possible before Sonny.

And then his hands, strong and sure and warm, were framing her lovely
face; his thumbs sweeping sensuously along the line of her full
bottom lip, mimicking an action he clearly wanted to emulate with his
mouth.

Wide eyed she gaped at him, tried to see into his very soul. Was this
forgiveness or was it just the basic elemental need that always
surged between them like lightning? Was this an end to the conflict
or just a lull in the storm?

"Sonny?" she questioned, her voice low and raspy.

"No words," he whispered, shaking his head. But his eyes did not meet
hers. Rather he stared at her mouth like a thirsty man in a desert
land. Then his head dipped and he took possession of her mouth with
an expertise…a mastery that had long since driven the taste of any
other man from her head. His lips now burned a hot wet path across
hers, drinking deeply from her in a manner she would always crave.

For ages it seemed, he made love to her mouth with his own, bestowing
an ever changing arsenal of kisses upon her…some demanding and almost
savage…others gentle and giving and full of intimate persuasion…still
others suggestive and sexual beyond words…beyond dreams. Her knees
almost buckled when his tongue slid out to tease the sensitive corner
of her mouth and his teeth nipped playfully at her bottom lip. But he
didn't touch her anywhere other than on her face. He held his body
from hers while he mercilessly teased and tempted and stoked the fire
blazing within her.

Alexis had lost sense of time or place. The whole apartment could
have burned to the ground around her without notice. She was
trembling, breathless with need moments later, and quite ready to beg
him to touch her, when he seemed to read her mind and finally swept
her into his muscular arms. Pressed close to him with not an inch
separating their two bodies, she felt the proof of his ardent desire;
his body was taut with it, throbbing insistently against her, and
every nerve ending she possessed screamed out his name.

She set herself free to explore him, the palms of her hands shaping
the muscled contours of his shoulders, his chest, his tapered hips,
the solid strength of his thighs. The feminine heart of her was
gratified when she felt a shudder of longing run through his hard
body.

His hands were by no means idle. They slipped indecently down her
spine, spreading the insidious warmth that seemed to be her constant
companion when he was within five feet of her. Then his hands crept
lower still to lift her bodily into his raging heat. This time she
was the one to shudder with longing.

"Now," she whispered fervently, defying his order for silence between
them. "Now, Sonny, I can't wait any more."

He compelled her into the bedroom, somehow having the presence of
mind to shut the door behind them, and there was a mindless blur of
garments being shed in haste.

It was not slow and seductive. Nor was it particularly loving. It
was...in a word…intense. His teeth, his tongue ravaging the elegant
arch of her neck. Her shoulder, her navel, her inner thigh. Leaving
marks of his possession behind as testaments to passion. Her hands
threading demandingly through his dark, curly hair. Her nails raking
the sweat soaked skin of his back. Marking him just as surely as he'd
marked her.

She came apart wrapped in his arms the very moment he shattered with
her. They kissed as if the only air to breathe was in each other's
mouths, and made love as if she were a river and he, the man
determined to find the source. And find it he did.

***

Jason slid soundlessly onto a bar stool and motioned for a beer from
Coleman. Jerking his head in an informal greeting, the bartender
placed one in front of him; then he turned glittering eyes to Carly,
eyebrows raised in a question.

"Yeah, I'll have another," she said quietly, her eyes flitting to
Jason nervously and then back to the bar top. She could feel the
anger emanating off of him and knew to be wary. Jason typically kept
his emotions deeply in check; when he got mad at most people all he
gave off was ice. Ice cold hatred. Ice cold professionalism. She
imagined that allowed him to carry out the types of ugly,
unmentionable tasks Sonny needed him to do.

But when he was mad at her, it was always fiery. Always heated. She
smiled inwardly at the thought that he loved her too much to be cool
and detached when she angered him.
Somehow her mind was able to twist his anger into a positive. At
least he cared enough to be furious, she mused.

"So, talk," he said.

She smirked prettily and edged closer to him. "Gee, no `hello,
Carly'? No how are the kids?"

He frowned darkly. "Don't get cute. We're way past that," he told
her, his voice cutting into her rose toned version of the
situation. "The deal was I meet you for a drink; you tell me what the
hell you did to Sonny."

She swallowed a healthy swig of Guinness and allowed her eyes to
wander to a few stray pool players at the opposite end of the
room. "I just thought we could talk about other stuff, first," she
said. "You know, like about us."

"There is no us anymore," he told her in a tone so sharp it brought
her eyes careening back to his.

"You know you don't mean that. We been friends for too long for you
to…we've been through too much to just…"

"Yeah, I went over all that in my head," he said. "And you know I had
to admit that we have been through a lot, you and me. A love affair
and betrayal, a custody battle and then a friendship no one saw
coming. Umpteen stupid schemes against the world, which I mopped up
for you. But I did it gladly. Cuz I knew that you were my friend. And
that no matter how crazy things got I could count on you."

"You could then and you can now," she said insistently, placing her
hand on his forearm. "Nothing's changed."

"Something's changed, Carly," Jason said, turning his blue gaze
directly to her. "Me."

***

Sonny lay beside her, one muscled arm thrown carelessly above his
head. The picture of a sated male in repose after earth shattering
lovemaking. But where he would usually hold her, stroking her in
languid loving movements, now he was perfectly still. Oddly still.
Usually his eyes would chase her; he would stare with an intentness
that often made her blush, as if in an attempt to memorize the planes
and contours of her face. Now his dark eyes were distant, turned from
her, focused instead on a spot on the opposite wall. Absent were the
accustomed lover's words. He didn't speak at all. Did not make one
sound. And the silence was deafening. He simply lay next to her, as
close as a heartbeat, yet miles away from Alexis in his spirit.

She could feel the distance between them as though it were physical,
and closed her eyes on the vicious wave of pain that stabbed her
heart. She was surprised at the wetness behind her eyes, the fresh
sting of tears. She'd thought that she'd cried out all the tears in
her body last night.

Ashamed, she rolled away from him and let the aloneness fall heavily
upon her like a layer of snow on a cold hillside.

It had happened. What she had feared two years ago when their child
was born.

She'd lost the love of her life. Because of her lie.