Alpha: Christmas Alpha Part 7

"How long ago is a 'while back'?"

"Six months." He grimaced. "She was not the sort of woman you would ever take home to meet your family, especially not my family. We saw each other on Friday and Sat.u.r.day evenings-nights, for about six weeks," he admitted uncomfortably.

"And?"

"And from Sunday to Thursday she spent the night with her much older and married lover. He worked in the city during the week, kept an apartment there, and went home to his wife in Cornwall on weekends. I had no idea." Finn gave a disgusted shake of his head.

"But you found out," Eva guessed.

"Oh big time," he confirmed, his voice hard. "I turned up as usual one Friday night and he was there-his wife had gone away for the weekend to visit her sick mother in Aberdeen. They suggested, as I was there, that we have a threesome." His top lip turned back with distaste. "I declined. Which was when I found out that Moira had been secretly recording the two of us together for weeks, and that the two of them would...watch it, when they were... Apparently it excited both of them." Finn stood up again, feeling the same nausea as he had that night when he had learned he had basically been used as the star in a p.o.r.n movie for Moira and her aged lover to enjoy.

"The mistress..." Eva realized.

"The mistress," he echoed bleakly. "I demanded and destroyed every one of those d.a.m.ned discs with me on them before walking out. I just wanted to forget every moment I had ever spent in that apartment. Moira had other ideas. She-" He breathed shakily. "Apparently she decided that she preferred me to her married lover. She came to my apartment building the next day, I refused to see her. She began to telephone me, day and night, so I changed my number. She began following me whenever I went out. I... I took another woman out to dinner for the first time four months ago, and Moira followed us to the restaurant and made a scene."

"What sort of scene?"

Finn couldn't even look at her as he related what had happened in the restaurant that evening.

Eva looked suitably disgusted. "Couldn't you both have pressed charges?"

"Yes, we could have pressed charges!" His eyes blazed a deep and angry blue. "The woman, an actress, didn't want the publicity. If I had pressed charges then she would have been brought into it whether she wanted to or not." He gave a shake of his head. "I decided that the best thing for everyone would be if I removed myself from London for a while. Let the situation with Moira calm down."

"And has it?" Eva chewed on her bottom lip.

"I don't believe so, no." He sighed wearily. "The parcel you delivered earlier? It was sent from her."

"What's in it?"

"Nothing I want to talk about," he dismissed grimly. "I won't bore you with any of the details, but suffice it to say that she used that parcel as a means of finding out where I am."

Eva's eyes widened. "And did she succeed?"

"I believe so, yes."

Eva could only stare at him as the nausea warred with shock inside her. Oh not towards Finn. What had been done to him, without his knowledge or consent, wasn't his fault. He was the victim, not the perpetrator.

No, it was the thought of this woman, Moira, her obsession with Finn, that made Eva feel queasy. The length the other woman had been willing to go to in order to- Eva tensed. "The person I saw standing outside under the trees earlier, watching the house..." She turned instinctively to look at the kitchen window, noting for the first time that the blinds had been pulled down. That Finn had made a point of pulling the curtains in the sitting room when they played chess earlier. She turned sharply back to Finn. "She's here, isn't she?"

"Yes." He nodded grimly. "Yes, I believe she just might be."

Oh G.o.d...

Chapter 9.

"Finn, you've been outside and checked in the stables, been down to the bas.e.m.e.nt too... Any whips and paddles down there, by the way?"

"No," he drawled ruefully.

"Oh."

"There's no need to sound so disappointed!"

Eva wasn't disappointed at all, she was just trying to make Finn feel less tense. "Finn, you've made sure the house is securely locked, the alarm is switched on, now you really have to try and get some sleep," she advised softly as he lay on his back beneath the duvet beside her, one arm over his eyes, but obviously far from being able to sleep.

Not that Eva felt much like sleeping herself. But probably for completely different reasons than Finn.

Unpleasant as his revelations about his ex-girlfriend had been, it was the knowledge that this woman could be outside the house somewhere that now had the adrenaline singing through Eva's veins.

To a degree that all Eva's senses were now very much alive.

To a degree that she was super aware of Finn as he moved restlessly beside her. Of the warmth of his body just inches away from her own. Of the fact that he had removed his denims, but replaced them with a pair of black boxers that hugged his thighs-and left even less to the imagination than the hip-hugging denims had.

Eva had stripped down to her panties and t-s.h.i.+rt, for the sake of comfort, too.

She gave up trying to sleep and rolled over onto her stomach, resting her chin on the palm of her hand as she looked up at Finn, his skin gleaming a light bronze in the firelight. "Did you love her?"

He gave a disgusted snort but kept that arm over his eyes. "Don't be b.l.o.o.d.y stupid, the woman is off her head!"

"But you didn't know that at the time."

"I know it now, okay?" He lowered his arm to frown at her. "I was never in love with her, but she could be fun, outrageously so, and-" he broke off, jaw tensing.

"And she was good in bed," Eva guessed ruefully. "But if you didn't love her, I don't understand what the mistress photographs are about...?"

"The mistress photos aren't because I care for Moira." He glowered moodily. "They're for the opposite reason. A way of exorcising her. Of... Of... Oh b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!" He scowled darkly.

"They're a way of laying her bare, literally, in the same way that she did to you," Eva realized softly.

"Maybe," he muttered gruffly. "I feel... d.a.m.n it, I feel violated, Eva. Can you understand that?" He glared at the admission.

Yes, Eva could understand that, knew she would feel exactly the same way if someone had made recordings of her in such an intimate situation, and then shared it with another person.

"It isn't your fault, Finn. This woman sounds as if she was...unbalanced, well before you decided to walk away." Filming yourself with one lover, so that you can share it with another lover, was definitely not normal. "Her stalker behavior these past months only confirms it," Eva added as Finn would have spoken. "What about the photographs you took of me, Finn? You never did say whether or not I look the part?"

He closed his eyes, instantly able to picture every one of those images of Eva he had taken this afternoon. Photographs he had intended to be as raw and revealing as those images of him having s.e.x with Moira had been.

Instead Eva had looked sensual, utterly beautiful, an alluring siren with long and silky sable hair, with seductively inviting rather than carnal green eyes, her lips pure temptation.

As for her gorgeous b.r.e.a.s.t.s...

Finn was sure Eva was completely unaware of it, but he could see those beautiful rounded b.r.e.a.s.t.s right now, down the gaping neckline of her t-s.h.i.+rt.

They were just so... Jesus, Finn had never seen and touched such wonderful responsive b.r.e.a.s.t.s. As for her nipples-they were so d.a.m.n sensitive he was sure Eva had been on the edge of coming when he stroked and tugged on them earlier.

He ran his tongue over his bottom lip, almost able to taste her. "Your photographs are beautiful, Eva," he a.s.sured huskily. "A sensual delight. Every one of them."

Eva felt her cheeks become warm at the sincerity she could hear in Finn's voice. He thought she was beautiful. A sensual delight. "Have you been to bed with anyone since... Since?"

"No," he ground out. "I couldn't. I've tried, but every time I could see myself as if I were in a p.o.r.n movie, and... Today, with you, it was the first time I've reacted physically to a woman since the night I destroyed those discs."

Eva held back a smile, knowing that just hours ago Finn would have taken delight in using more graphic language, if only as a way of shocking her.

She had no doubts now that he liked her.

As she liked him.

Maybe more than liked him...?

It was far too soon to know if liking could develop into something deeper-although having his psycho ex-girlfriend stalking the house, and them, certainly dispensed with the usual niceties of taking days and weeks to get to know a person!

Maybe it was because they were stranded in this snowstorm together, with Finn's stalker of an ex-girlfriend as an added danger, but Eva knew that, niceties or not, she wanted him.

Right now.

She moistened her lips before speaking. "Would you like to...react again now?"

Finn slowly turned his head to look at her through narrowed lids, those blue eyes cold, his jaw set. "I'm not in need of a pity f.u.c.k-" He broke off as Eva began to laugh. "What's so d.a.m.ned funny?"

She laughed all the harder at the sight of his disgruntled expression. He must have been very cute as a little boy.

Eva laughed for so long and so hard her sides ached.

Finn looked thunderous as he sat up and turned towards her, before rolling her onto her back and raising her hands and holding them captive on either side of her head as he bent over her. "Now tell me what's so d.a.m.ned funny?" he repeated grimly.

Eva grinned up at him, not in the least concerned by his deliberate domination. Not when she could feel the rigid evidence of his desire for her pressing against her thigh. "Finn, I have to tell you that you're the very last man in the world any woman would ever want to give a pity f.u.c.k! Well apart from that guy I saw in a movie last year, but he was playing a part so-"

"What are you blathering on about, woman?" Finn looked down at her as if he thought she might be becoming hysterical.

Eva became very still as she lay beneath him gazing steadily up into his eyes. "I think we should make love together, Finn."

She could feel his body tense above hers. "Care to explain why?" he prompted cautiously.

"Because we both want to?"

Finn did want to. He had wanted this woman since the moment she had come to his door in that woolen hat, bundled up to her throat in warm clothes, looking up at him through dark silky lashes with those curious moss-green eyes.

The moment Eva had removed the hat, and that silky curtain of ebony hair had cascaded onto her shoulders and down her back, his c.o.c.k had jumped to attention and remained that way ever since. Add in her lippy mouth, a mouth just made for kissing-and other things-and h.e.l.l yes, he wanted her.

Badly.

Very badly....

Just as part of him really didn't want Eva to think he was taking advantage of her because of the circ.u.mstances of their having been thrust together in a snowstorm.

And since when had he become so high-minded and principled, that he was thinking of turning down a woman who had just bluntly stated that she wanted to have s.e.x with him?

Since Eva apparently...

"Oh come on, Finn," she grinned up at him. "There's no television here, we've already played chess, neither of us is sleepy; we have to do something to pa.s.s the time!"

"Why you little-!" Finn kept her hands pinned above her head as he lowered his head and kissed her for the first time.

Was it possible he had deliberately avoided this intimacy earlier, despite having made a veritable meal out of her nipples, because he had known exactly how the taste of Eva's lips was going to affect him?

Her lips were so d.a.m.ned soft and yielding as they parted beneath his, her breath a soft sigh of satisfaction as he released her hands to draw her body harder into his as he deepened the kiss.

Her arms moved up over his shoulders, her body-that soft and full-breasted body that Finn enjoyed so much-arching up into the hardness of his.

His kiss turned hungry, feral, as Finn pulled her even closer, his fingers becoming entangled in that silky hair, his hands cupping her cheeks as he devoured the softness of her lips.

Eva didn't hesitate in returning that hunger as she gave him back kiss for kiss, as her hands restlessly caressed his back and shoulders.

Her inner heat drew him in, tempting, enticing, until Finn gave a groan as he thrust his tongue into that velvet hot cavern, only the sound of their ragged breathing and gasps of pleasure to accompany the crackling of the wood in the fireplace.

Finn finally dragged his mouth from hers to look down at her with hot, hungry eyes. "Your t-s.h.i.+rt has to come off," he growled as he reached down and pushed her t-s.h.i.+rt up and then pulled it off completely. "h.e.l.l...!" His voice sounded as if he were being strangled as he stared down at her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "I thought you still had your bra on..." A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.

Eva looked up at Finn completely unselfconsciously; he had already seen her like this, and obviously liked what he saw, so why should she feel self-conscious with him now? "You know what thought did?"

"Not a clue. You?" he answered distractedly as his hands moved to cup beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Not a clue either." She giggled as she ran her hands over Finn's tautly-muscled chest, lingering to touch the penny-shaped discs tipped by bronzed, hard nipples. "My mother used to say it to me when I was little. I'm not sure she knew what it meant either, but it certainly confused me as a child."

Finn dragged his gaze away from her bared b.r.e.a.s.t.s to look at her, those blue eyes glittering feverishly, a flush across those hard cheekbones. "Are you sure about this, Eva...?"

"Very sure." She nodded unblinkingly.

He drew in a sharp breath. "Thing is, I didn't think I was going to need protection, way out here in the wilds of Wales..."

Or that Moira's obsession would drive her to such lengths to track him down here.

If that really had been her out in the snow earlier...

Someone was certainly out there. Just as someone had stood outside looking through the window, watching him and Eva together in his studio.

He would have done more about finding that person too if he wasn't so concerned about ensuring Eva's safety. Even with the doors and windows all locked, and the alarm switched on, he didn't dare to move too far away from the house, just in case Moira came back here while he was gone.

"I'm on the pill," Eva now answered him shyly. "And I haven't been...involved with anyone in that way for over a year."

"I'm clean too." Finn had himself tested for everything after Moira.

"Stop thinking about her." Eva reached up and smoothed the frown from between his eyes. "Don't you see that she will have won if you allow her to keep affecting you?"