The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin (13 page)

"What? So I like
coffee." She stuck her tongue out at him, and he poured himself his own
cup, grateful for the chance to keep his hands busy to stop himself from the
sudden impulse to throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to bed. As
tempting as that thought was, they didn't have the time.

He simply smiled at her and
handed her the basket of freshly prepared croissants.

"I could get so used to
this, you know." She licked the butter off her fingers, and Lakota's cock
rose to the occasion again. So much for being in a more comfortable state
around her once they were married. He was beginning to think he would be in a
permanent state of half-mast at least around her. He hadn't been this horny and
unable to control his dick since his teenage years, which should probably worry
him a great deal, but seeing Alice enjoy her breakfast with such enthusiasm
didn't leave any room for worry.

"Forrester said car."
She mumbled the words around mouthful of foods, and Lakota laughed. The just
departing housekeeping threw him an odd look. Had it really been that long
since he simply laughed? It must have been because she bowed and made a hasty
exit, muttering to herself in Spanish.

He got the gist of her
mutterings loud and clear though. Something along the lines of it being an
almighty miracle to see him happy.

"Lakota, are you even
listening to me?" Alice threw a croissant at him and giggled when she hit
him right on the nose. Bits of pastry fell around him like confetti, and he
sneezed, pitching his wife into gales of laughter.

He tried his best to glare at
her, but failed miserably.

"Sorry, but at least I
got your attention now. What is he going on about? What car?"

Lakota stood up and opened
his robe to shake off the offending crumbs. He smirked at Alice's sharp intake
of breath and the way her cheeks heated, before she hastily looked away.

"Like what you see,
sweet little Alice?"

"You know I do, so stop
trying to distract me. Where
are
we going?"

"Curiosity killed the
cat, my sweet. I told you that before. It's a surprise."

Alice sulked, and he laughed
again.

"How will I know what to
pack, if I don't know where I'm going?"

"It's all taken care of,
my sweet, and besides, we're on our honeymoon. I intend to keep you in as
little clothing as possible."

Lakota took great
satisfaction in seeing his sassy little wife turn a nice shade of beetroot, as
her coffee went down the wrong way.

****

Alice sank into the air
conditioned plush interior of their chauffeured car with a sigh of relief.
Despite wearing not much else but a skimpy summer dress, the short walk in the
Sri Lankan sun had left her covered in perspiration. It was about ten AM here,
and already the heat was stifling. She hid her yawn, and Lakota's low chuckle
in her ear sent shivers of awareness down her spine.
 
The heat of his chino clad thigh branded
hers, and she bit her lip when he placed his large hand on her upper thigh,
perilously close to her throbbing center.

She threw him a glance from
under her lashes, and whilst she couldn't see his eyes, hidden as they were by
his aviator sunglasses, his wicked smile gave him away.

"Lakota." Her
urgent whisper made that smile of his deepen, and Alice held her breath when he
trailed his hand higher until his fingertips just brushed against her core.

She pointedly looked towards
their driver, who was weaving through the steadily building traffic with
effortless ease, even if she had to shut her eyes a few times.

"Relax. He’ll get us
there in one piece." Lakota's hot breath feathered across her damp neck
and left tingles of awareness in its wake. He took her earlobe between his
teeth and bit down slightly at the same time as his fingers slipped under the
elastic of her thong. She tensed, and he kissed her. The kiss was a thorough
exploration of firm lips and slow measured thrusts of his tongue until she
clung to his shoulders and ground herself against his questing digits. He
groaned into her mouth, and her internal muscles clenched around his fingers.

"Lakota, we shouldn't."

"Oh yes, we should. I
want you so fucking much. This trip has been torture, so far."

The car lurched suddenly as
their driver slammed on the breaks to avoid a wooden lorry crossing into their
lane, and Lakota withdrew his fingers with an exaggerated sigh.

"I am so sorry,"
their driver said. "Traffic is particularly bad today."

"Just get us there in
one piece, will you?" Lakota winked at her and licked his glistening
fingers with great care.

"Bastard." She
whispered the words and glared at him, and Lakota laughed.

"We'll finish this the
minute I get you alone in our villa."

Alice's skin tightened in
need at the silken promise behind those words. In truth she longed to be alone
with him. When it was just the two of them, life was simple. Lakota laughed and
teased her, and the differences in their life styles didn't matter one iota.
Out in public, Alice couldn't help but feel inadequate. Men and women fawned at
her husband, bringing out his cynical side, and Alice couldn't blame him. The
trappings of his wealth were nice, but he seemed to be surrounded by very few
genuine people. Percy was the remarkable exception.

He had met them with their
luggage and passports at Heathrow Airport, and he'd handed Lakota a thick
manila file, entitled Langton Enterprises.

Lakota had been thoroughly
engrossed in the contents of that file for the first half of their long haul
flight.

It had given Alice plenty of
time to study his features, and when he had finally packed the file away, and
smiled at her, she'd had to ask.

"How did you get that
scar?"
                                    

His expression had grown
forbidding, and his knuckles had turned white, where he was holding onto the
armrests of the chair.

"Why do you want to
know?"

The snarled words had made
her feel uneasy, but she had ploughed on nonetheless.

"Is it that unusual that
I want to know more about the man I married? That scar looks as though it has a
story behind it. Please tell me what it is."

He'd grown so still, she
couldn't be sure he was even breathing, and just when she'd thought he was going
to ignore her question he'd finally mumbled his reply.

"I got into a fight. The
other guy smashed a beer bottle in my face. Hardly that big a story." He
hadn't looked at her when he'd spoken, and she'd narrowed her eyes and simply
waited, until he'd run an agitated hand through his hair.

"And?" She'd smiled
at him, and he'd sighed.

"You're not going to let
this go, are you?"

"Nope. Come on, Lakota,
I'm not stupid. I doubt anyone would get close enough to hit you, let alone
attack you with a beer bottle, unless you were distracted. So what
happened?
 
Jealous husband was it, caught
you in flagrante?"

She'd been rewarded with a
smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Hardly, sweet little
Alice. If you must know, I was looking for Zeb. His girlfriend at the time had called
me in a panic. They'd had an argument, and she was worried that he'd do
something stupid.
 
Stupid was Zeb's
specialty, after all." He'd glanced at her and had shaken his head in
remembrance. "He shouldn't even have been served any alcohol. He was only
fourteen for fuck's sake, but he was tall for his age, and he could charm the
birds from the trees, so…" He'd smiled grimly, and she'd taken his hand in
hers and squeezed.

"Anyway, by the time I
tracked him down he was drunk, and he'd managed to piss off this group of
bikers. They'd already roughed him up pretty badly, so I did the only thing I
could. Charged in there and threw my weight around. It got pretty nasty. One of
the guys let loose with a beer bottle and would have sliced Zeb with it, so I
got in the way."

"You took it for
him?"

Lakota shrugged his
shoulders.

"He was my baby brother.
I had to protect him. It's no big deal. In the end it didn't make any
difference. He still managed to kill himself with his recklessness."

He'd looked so sad that Alice
had had to blink her tears away.

"Zeb's accident wasn't
your fault, Lakota."

"Wasn't it? I gave him
too much freedom, and look where it led to."

"Lakota, we can't live
their life for them, no matter how much we'd like to." She hadn't been
able to hide the catch in her own voice, and with that uncanny ability to read
her, he'd tipped her chin up, and searched her face.

"That sounds as though
you're talking from experience, little Alice."

It had been her turn to shrug
her shoulders and not quite to meet his eyes, and the grip on her chin had
grown painful.

"Alice!"

She'd responded to the terse
command and looked at him, and he'd smiled. A smile full of quiet
understanding.

"Beth's mum?" he'd
asked.

Alice had nodded, and he'd
released her with a sigh.

"I know the story on
paper, but tell me your version, my sweet."

"Not much to tell. Mary
fell in with the wrong crowd when she turned into a teenager. She was beautiful
and reckless, and had Beth when she was just fourteen. It broke Mum and Dad's heart
when they found out, but they still stood by her, and not once did they blame
me, even though I was supposed to be looking out for her. I didn't do a very
good job of that. I knew her new boyfriend was trouble, but she pleaded with me
to keep quiet, and I could never resist her when she did that. She was my baby
sister you know…"

Lakota had nodded and dropped
a kiss on her nose.

"Fuck yeah, I know that
only too well. So what happened? I know she left once Beth was diagnosed with
cancer. Have you heard from her since?"

"No, and there's more to
it than that. You see she was using when she was pregnant. Beth was born
addicted to crack. It wasn't pretty. Anyway, we got her clean, and she was
getting her act together, well as much as Mary was ever going to get her act together,
and then Beth fell ill. Mary took it hard. She convinced herself that it was
her fault, that she had caused it due to her drug habit. I tried to reason with
her, to tell her it wasn't so, but she was paranoid. And then when Daddy died,
it was the last straw for her. She just took off. We haven’t seen or heard from
her since."

"I'm sorry." The
sincere words delivered in his deep baritone had settled deep in her heart, and
she hadn't been able to stop the tears from falling.

Lakota had pulled her close
and kissed the tears away. What started off as tenderness had quickly turned
passionate until the cabin crew's repeated throat clearing had reminded them
where they were.

"Your refreshments. May
I remind you that we will dim the lights soon to enable people to sleep? Your
cooperation in keeping quiet would be greatly appreciated. May I also remind
you that the airline does not allow passengers to partake in sexual acts whilst
on the plane?"

Her little speech had been
delivered with the perfectly practiced polite smile, and Alice had wanted the
ground to swallow her up.

Lakota had simply laughed and
drawn Alice close for another heart stopping kiss, before telling her to get
some rest.

Alice smiled now remembering
those happenings. Lakota had done his best to keep his hands off her after that
reprimand,
but clearly all bets were now off.

She wished the driver would
hurry up and get them to their destination already. When he did, half an hour
later, Alice did feel as though she had stepped through the looking glass.

Jamal, their assigned butler,
greeted them on arrival, and once they'd signed in he showed them to their very
own little slice of paradise.

Their beach pavilion was
nestled among tall palm trees and afforded perfect views at the Indian Ocean.
From the stepping stones across the goldfish pond to their secluded courtyard
with their personal splash pool, the ice cold bottle of champagne waiting for
them in its cooler, the air-conditioned interior and the elegant furnishings
the place spoke of sophisticated elegance, and Alice was rather grateful for
Lakota carrying her across the threshold. She wasn't at all sure her legs would
have worked at that moment, especially when he kissed her again with so much
passion she wouldn't have been surprised if her knickers had gone up in flames.

Jamal grinned and bowed and
left them alone, and Alice clung to Lakota's shoulders as he took the stairs
three at a time and flung her on the four poster bed with enough force to make
her bounce.

"Now, Mrs. Kemnay, where
were we?"

Alice squinted at her phone
display and sighed. It had been hours since Lakota had stormed out of their
villa, as though the hounds of hell were after him. Whatever that early morning
phone call had been about, it hadn't been good news, that much was clear.