Shades of Trust

Chapter 35-1

Chapter 35

“Everything I hoped and expected,” Alistair said, putting a hand on his flat stomach. “The Roux family is blessed.”

They were seated at the rear of the restaurant. The tables were more intimate, and they could enjoy the ebb and flow of the River Thames reflected in the mirrored panels above their heads.

“If only every day were like this.” She sighed, contentedly, enjoying the elegant environment.

“This is just the beginning, Sophia. Our days together will be memorable.” He leaned in to kiss her leisurely on the lips. “Now, the best part of dinner…dessert.”

“I didn’t know you liked it so much,” she said.

He grinned broadly. “Oh, I do like dessert. But, sweetheart…” He brushed his thumb over her lips as he explained, “what fascinates me is the way you make love to the dammed thing. To say it drives me crazy doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

She laughed. “Next time I’ll order dessert as an entrée, main course, and dessert.”

“Then I’ll have to have you on the table, in the middle of our dinner.” His beautiful eyes flashed devilishly.

She thinned her lips, trying to contain her laughter, but it bubbled up anyway. “Alistair Connor! You have the strangest ideas.”

“I love it when you call me Alistair Connor.”

“Alistair Connor,” she said, raspily. “It’s a beautiful name. As strong as its owner. What does your name mean?”

“I have no idea.” He shrugged. “And yours?”

“Sophia is Greek for wisdom.” She grabbed her iPhone from her purse. “Let’s see what yours means.” She whistled low as the answer appeared on the screen and looked at him. “That’s what I call powerful. Alistair means the savior of mankind.”

I’m no savior, Sophia. Nothing else could be less apt.

She typed in his second name and scanned the information. “Connor. Also Gaelic, like Alistair.” Her lips curled up and she gazed at him with teasing eyes. “Sure you want to know?”

He nodded, smiling.

“Lover of hounds. And I thought you were fond of women.” She giggled.

“Still in doubt about that, Sophia?” Alistair raised his brows at her taunting. “Seems to me that I’ll have to strive to prove it to you.”

“Seems so, Alistair Connor.” Her smile broadened and a mischievous look appeared in her eyes.

Alistair jumped in his seat when her hand clamped down on his crotch. He hissed in a breath, “Christ, Sophia.”

She shifted on her chair and blinked innocently at him. “What?”

“Don’t play with fire.” He leaned toward her, his hand diving under the table to press hers down onto him. “If you don’t want to get burned.”

She batted her long, dark lashes at him while brushing her fingers over his growing erection. “Alistair Connor, I’m just testing a theory.”

“Very funny,” he huffed. Then a slow rakish grin spread across his lips. “Please, feel free to test it then. Right here, right now.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Are you coaxing me, Alistair Connor?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged.

“Oh…” The mix of the potential danger and strong lust turning her blood to lava. She smiled as she bent in his direction, her hand still fondling him, and murmured in his ear, “Oh. Wouldn’t I? Wanna bet?”

“Aye,” he answered, “a thousand pounds.”

“I don’t gamble with money. Let’s say…” She paused, thinking.

He leaned over and proposed, “Your ass.”

Her hand stopped moving. “What?”

“Your ass,” he repeated, his breath fanning her earlobe before he licked and nibbled it. “If I win, I’ll f**k your ass tonight.”

She leaned away from his caresses, blinking and biting her lip, too astonished to speak.

“You’ve never done it,” he said. The information simultaneously surprised him and made him happy.

“No, I’ve never done it,” she murmured, shaking her head slowly.

“And?” His blood ran hot with expectation and desire. He lifted his hand to tuck a strand behind her ear, letting his fingers brush her face and neck.

“And?” she parroted, trembling with uncertainty.

“Do you feel like trying?”

“I don’t know.” She withdrew her hand and put it demurely on the arm of the chair, looking down at her lap. “Not yet.”

Don’t push your luck, Alistair Connor. He held her hand gently and his thumb caressed her knuckles. “Let’s take a rain check, Beauty. There’s no need to be frightened, it’s quite pleasurable.” He kissed her inner wrist and signaled to the waiter. “Shall we order dessert?”

“I know what I want.” She waved her menu away. “Alain’s selection of six mouthwatering desserts.”

“Mademoiselle, it takes up to twenty minutes to prepare this dish,” the waiter informed her.

Sophia looked up at Alistair.

He answered, “We have time.”

“Let’s share it,” she suggested as he studied the menu.

“All right.” He closed the menu and handed it back to the waiter who thanked them and left, after replenishing their glasses with wine.

“Can I ask something personal?” she started tentatively.

“Aye,” he answered.

She drank a gulp of wine and c****d her head, studying him, still unsure how to broach the subject.

“Come on, Sophia, don’t be shy,” he coached.

“All right, here it goes,” she inhaled deeply. “Someone, umm—showed me some photos of you with—lots of different women. I mean, I’ve seen—”

“I don’t keep tabs, but I’ve had more than three women, perhaps around three hundred,” he smirked. “But no one as—”

“You’re lying!” she interrupted him. When he shook his head, her eyes widened. “Dear God! So, I’m bound to bump into one of your exes.”

“They were mere encounters to abate lust, not my exes, or whatever you want to call them. I always made that crystal clear from the get-go. And some are not from our circle.”

Unsettled, Sophia chewed her lips as she studied his inscrutable face. “What do you mean by some are not from our circle?”

He sighed. “Some were professionals.”

“You mean, you mean…” She couldn’t complete the thought.

His lips curled I a half smile at her hesitation. “Sophia, every now and then a man like me calls an escort.”

“Like you?”

“I have a very high-s*x drive.” His face split with an amused grin, his eyes twinkling.

“You’re laughing at me,” she huffed.

“It’s impossible not to,” he sniggered. “You’re too good to be true.”

“So, you weren’t lying when you said that you would call an ex or an escort.” She blushed and looked down.

“Nae. I don’t need to lie, Sophia.” He curled his fingers under her chin, lifting her face to peer into her troubled eyes.

“Sometimes you seem so cold. All business; all logic and facts.”

He gave her that ghost of a smile and he stared appraisingly at her, considering her remarks. “Possibly.”

“And where…”

“Where?”

Sophia bit down on her lip, thinking for a second. “No dates, no one to love. Where is your heart in all this?”

“It’s buried six feet under with Nathalie,” he answered in a dry tone. Let it be, Sophia.

She flicked her eyes to the other tables. “And you appear to like only blondes…”

“I have a preference for blondes.”

She flinched and opened her mouth to speak.

He immediately reached out and put his finger over her mouth. “As I was saying before being interrupted by your unconvinced remark about the number of my s****l partners, I’ve never had a woman like you. There’s something about you, something special that makes me want to do things I’ve never wanted before, with or for any other woman.”

His deep voice transfixed Sophia.

“Something has attracted me to you since that Wednesday—a cold and gray January day—when you entered the meeting room. It was like…” Christ, Alistair Connor! You’re swooning like a lovesick teenager. He stared at her face, enthralled by the bafflement imprinted there. f**k!

“Like?”

Fuck my rules, f**k my promises. f**k everything. He cupped her face in his long fingers, his thumb pressing on the center of her soft and plump lips. “It was like the sun had appeared again in my life, Sophia,” he said. “You. You changed everything when you stepped into that room. You have a freshness, a strength, an allure I’ve never seen before. The way you walk, talk, hold yourself. You’ve become the light of my life.”

His words made Sophia speechless. How can he say these things after saying he has no heart? His beautiful words reminded her of Gabriel’s a long time ago and she shivered. Too soon, too soon.

“I was mad with jealousy.” He exhaled as if he had run a marathon.

She shook her head to disperse the spell he had cast over her. “Jealousy?”

“I thought you and Davidoff were lovers,” he said sheepishly.

“Really? I don’t believe it.” She smiled and c****d her head. “Why would you think that?”

“You were so intimate, you touched him with a…” He frowned, searching for the right word to describe the way she touched and talked to Edward. “I dare say you were overly familiar with each other.”

“I’ve known Edward since I got married and—what can I say—I’m Brazilian. A Carioca. We touch, kiss and hug all the time. We are friendly people. For you British, it may be strange, but it’s common behavior for us.”

“I’m not British, Sophia. I’m a Highlander,” he said, and releasing her face, shoved his hand through his raven strands to push away a lock that had fallen over his eye.

“I love your hair,” she murmured, running her fingers over his hair. “I-don’t-give-a-f**k hair.”

He burst out laughing.

“What?” She stared at him. “Are you laughing at me again?”

“Nae.” He chuckled and murmured, enchanted, “It’s the first time I’ve heard you saying the F-word. It’s adorable. Everything about you is adorable and I—” A movement caught his attention and he turned his head to look at a couple exiting the restaurant.

Sophia followed his gaze and watched as a distinguished older man escorted a gorgeous blonde, blue-eyed woman scantily clad in a tight lemon-yellow dress, who reminded her of Juliette, the previous owner of her house.

The blonde woman discreetly pointed at them and whispered something into the man’s ear.

Sophia flashed a look at Alistair and back at the couple in time for her to see the man studying her carefully, and then said something that made the woman change directions and walk toward them.

Alistair’s glare and slight shake of head stopped her short.

Is she one of his exes-or-whatever? A sudden chill ran through Sophia’s spine. A coincidence that we just spoke about this? Or just my imagination?

The woman’s face fell and she again whispered in the man’s ear and threw her head back in a fake and spiteful laugh.

The man just smiled and nodded at them.

Sophia looked over at Alistair, who sat rigid in his chair. His fists clenched and his eyes narrowed, his gaze fixed on the woman.

Just before the blonde exited the restaurant, she blew a kiss to them.

“Alistair.” Sophia put a hand over Alistair’s clenched right fist.

He whipped his head toward her, his hair flying over his face from the sharp movement. “What!” he growled, looking at Sophia, but he saw the shimmering mask of his beautiful blonde, blue-eyed late wife.

“Are you okay?”

His hand ran over his face and he rolled his neck over his broad shoulders, cracking it. “Aye,” he answered in a more normal voice. “Everything…is fine.”

“What—” Sophia interrupted herself when the waiter approached with their dessert. She licked her lips and smiled at him, a sassy look in her eyes. “Mmm, your favorite part of dinner. Prepare yourself, Alistair Connor.”

“Sophia.” He entwined his fingers with hers. “I don’t think I’ll ever be prepared for you.”

On the way out of the restaurant, Alistair took Sophia’s hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm, squeezing it lightly. He looked down at her. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the cottage?”

“I’d like a relaxing Armagnac.” She stopped and craned her neck to look at his face, raising an eyebrow at him with a mischievous look in her eyes and licking her lips. “And also, I find it very, hmm, stimulating to smoke a cigar after dinner.”

He flashed a grin of even, white teeth, his forest-green eyes sparkling. “Surely, you’re not provoking me, are you?”

“No, no,” she answered with a faked naïve grin, batting her eyelashes. “I’d never dream of doing that.”

“Sophia, Sophia.” He shook his head at her. “You drive me to distraction.”

“Do I?” Sophia stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. She pushed him with her hands on his hips, her thumbs brushing his already semi-hard member. “Will you ask a waiter to bring our drinks and cigars? I’ll wait for you here, Handsome.”

He leaned down to nibble her earlobe and whispered in her ear, “You’re playing with fire, Sophia.”

“Maybe I want to get burned,” she answered in a throaty voice, turning and leaving him standing there.

He watched her, mesmerized, as she walked to the edge of the riverbank. He shook his head, slowly in disbelief, not sure if he should be amused. She ordered him around, expecting him to obey. And worse, he knew he would do as she asked.

A smile of pure joy appeared on his face as he strolled inside, lighthearted, whistling one of the songs from Sophia’s playlist.

Alistair came back out and narrowed his eyes at the scene by the river. Sophia laughed at something a blond man was saying.

Rage boiled in his veins as the man leaned near her to say something, and she put a hand over her right breast, an unconsciously sensual gesture, as she laughed harder.