The Convenient Wife
by Kelly

chapter 49

Alexis fidgeted a little, feeling rather like prey to his predator.
She tried to joke her way out of the feeling. "Are you insinuating
that I'd trade my feminine favors for a hefty legal sum?" she asked
saucily.

Sonny grinned. "You? Never. You got too many principles."

She nodded, obviously satisfied with his answer.

" `Course—if I recall-- you tend to lose those principles in satin
sheets…"

"Sonny—"

"And in Egyptian cotton ones, too."

"You—Sonny—stop it--"

"That's not what you say to me on top of a goose down comforter…or on
this very sofa as a matter of fact…"

"You're an absolute jerk," she told him, but couldn't erase the smile
on her lips. He was far too sexy when he was being this way. And his
body was far too close to hers now. How had he managed that? She got
up from the couch and walked over to the dining room table. Folding
one leg beneath her, she perched on a chair and distractedly plucked
at some pineapple in a bowl leftover from dessert. Her tactic didn't
work because—of course--he followed her, taking the seat opposite
hers.

He wore a dangerous smile and an even more dangerous glitter in his
eyes. "What?" he queried. "What's the problem, Lex?"

She gave him a droll look. "You know damn well what the problem is.
We're alone without Krissy or Alice for like five minutes and you
start getting all…"

"Getting…what?" he demanded when her voice trailed off.

"Getting…you know…suggestive."

"And that would be wrong because?"

"Well…because…you just keep me all unsettled, Sonny," she
protested. "I don't know what you really want here."

His eyes twinkled wickedly; his lips curved. His voice grew husky. "I
think you know pretty well what I want."

The look she gave him was that of a mother to an overindulged
child. "I meant, I don't know if this is your heart talking or just
your libido."

She selected another chunk of pineapple and licked her fingers of its
juices. His eyes followed the progress of her tongue.

"Oh, my libido's definitely talkin'. Always does around you. Why
would you still be surprised by that?"

He had slid forward in his chair until her thighs were pinioned
between his cloth-covered legs. He'd effectively cut off her route of
escape. She shook her head and tried a more direct argument.

"Do you honestly think it's wise to be together when things are…the
way they are…between us right now?"

"Hell, yeah. First of all, Lex, I'm a man. Men always think sex is a
good idea. Besides with the two of us, it's not just run of the mill
sex….it's lovemaking. It's magic."

She looked away. "We had that magic today, but it didn't change
anything," she remarked. "And anyway, you were the one who asked to
sleep alone after you found out about Kristina. You recognized that
we needed some time apart to adjust to this."

"But I ached for you all night…physically and emotionally, Lex. It
was one of the worst nights of my life. And being apart didn't change
anything either."

She sighed, sensing a loss in this battle as her stomach fluttered at
his words. " I know," she whispered. "But we've been through five
kinds of hell these last few days and at least as many mood swings. I
don't know the right thing to do…the right way to act…or even what to
think."

"So don't think. I don't wanna think. I just wanna be with my best
friend."

She swallowed hard, her eyes falling to her lap. She wanted the very
same thing…with every ounce of herself. "You called me that earlier:
your best friend," she said. "I thought I'd lost that title to Jason."

Sonny tipped her chin up with one warm hand. "Jason is…he's my
brother. Always will be. But there are things Jason can't do for me.
He takes my orders. He supports me even when he doesn't believe I'm
right. But he'd never challenge me like you do when I'm wrong. He'd
never expect me to be better than I ever dreamed I could…and he'd
never inspire me to believe in a life beyond this violence."

He reached across to stroke the soft skin of her cheek. "You do. You
do all that."

His hand---strong and warm---traced a slow, delicate path down her
face to her neck to her collarbone, where his thumb stroked back and
forth over the fine bone structure she knew that he loved to touch.
All the while those dark intense eyes followed his fingers with rapt
almost reverent focus. Her breath hitched as his hand continued its
inexorable progress downward to trace the sexy vee that hid her
breasts and then further still. The satin robe had fallen open and
gaped at her middle. He slipped his fingers past the barrier of satin
to touch the warm skin of her abdomen.

She flinched, her cheeks going pink. His eyes lifted questioningly to
hers.

"Someone ought to have told you that a woman of a certain age who has
had a child doesn't really want her lover staring at her stomach,"
she explained, and tried to laugh but it came out husky and
fractured. And he knew that she was serious.

"It amazes me that you don't know you're beautiful," he told
her. "There are so many places on your body I love. But none more
than this: the place where you did something a man can never do.
Where you kept our child safe, nurtured her, and loved her long
before she came into this world. You didn't have to keep my child.
Hell, you didn't even have to bare my child. But you did. And the
love in that is more than words can say."

He stroked a finger across her navel and back.

"There's no place on you more beautiful than this, Lexis," he told
her solemnly and flattened his palm against her so that he felt his
heat there…so that it radiated outward to secret places that made her
shiver…so that she felt him within her even without sexual connection.

"God," she asked silently, trembling again. "Will it always be this
way? Will I always fracture and fall apart at the thought of this
man's hands on me?"

Its simple power stunned her, and she was at once helpless to argue
against it for even one more minute. With embarrassing speed, she'd
had her mind changed for her. She was ready to risk it all again for
him…and worry about his forgiveness later. Much, much later.

Tenderly, he took her hand, pulled her to her feet, and led her to
their bedroom. Having shut the door, he sank to his knees before her.
Alexis gasped as he pulled her by her hips to his mouth. And gently,
he kissed her there, on her navel and on the slightly rounded curve
of her belly. Over and over, he paid homage to her, his tongue
meeting the silk of her warm flesh until she felt weak and shivery
with the heat of his mouth and hands and what they wrought in her.
She couldn't halt the groan that slid between her lips.

"You're beautiful,' he murmured against the softness of her
skin, "and you're mine."

She threaded her fingers through his hair, cradled him gently against
her, feeling wanted and cherished and loved because of this simple
adoring act. The ruthless powerful domineering Sonny Corinthos was at
her feet, offering himself body and soul to her. It moved her beyond
words. And desperately, she fought off a fresh onslaught of tears.

"You belong to me, Alexis," he whispered against her. "My beautiful
love. Te amo."

The next moment, she fell to her knees with him, wrapping her arms
about his neck and drawing him into a deep and soul shattering kiss
until their mouths were swollen and wet and tingling from their
exertion.

"You belong to me, too," she whispered, her hands on his broad chest,
reveling in the ripple of his muscles at her touch.

What would pass between them this night would be magic and passionate
and shattering as it always was. But it would also be more than just
physical. And later, as he moved to be one with her, he marked her
his in his soul; she felt it as clearly as though he'd branded his
name upon her breast. And as she caught and held his shuddering body
to hers, she knew that she had branded him hers as well.

The cell phone buzzed on the dining room table. It vibrated all over
the mahogany wood singing out notice of Justus' impatient call. But
no one heard and no one answered… until the next morning.