Time Changes
Part Twenty Three

Peter was rock hard, he’d never felt so alive or so sure of what he wanted, admittedly he’d come to Rio with a different agenda, to help her, because she needed him, but soon he'd realised that he still wanted her even if she was carrying that loser’s baby. He’d come here determined not to seduce her, to complicate things further, sex was the furthest thing from the rational part of his brain, but she was so sexy, so desirable, and he was so turned on by her, that he felt powerless to resist. Right now she was behind the door, and he had no idea how she’d be, but he wanted her. Could he ignore the voice that told him not to muddy the waters?

With a grunt he threw open the door, of course he couldn’t ignore her! Then he saw her and stopped dead in his tracks. He’d never envisioned her looking so beautiful. She had on a black lacy bra, and very skimpy pants. She was stood staring at him, a look of daring on her face.

"You are going to be the death of me Alexis Carmichael!" It was a growl, hoarse with desire.

She smiled, "I won’t let you die! Not yet anyway! Now, you’re far too over dressed!" she sat in a chair and stared at him. "Don’t hesitate, come on, get naked Mr Marlow!"

This was her power moment, part of his seduction of her in Stockholm was a complete reversal of this scenario, and she remembered how it had made her feel, she only hoped he felt the same.

A shiver of thrill whipped through his body, if it was possible to want her more, to need her more, he did in that instant. He took a few steadying breaths then pulled off his t-shirt, aware of her eyes taking in every inch of his chest, broad shoulders, flat dark nipples, whorls of dark hair surrounding them then trailing down his stomach, to disappear below his shorts. As he unbuckled his belt, she licked her lips in anticipation, and it was his undoing.

"Come here!" It was a rasp, a beg.

She paused wanting to maintain in control, but fought with the desperate need to touch him, to taste the saltiness of his skin, to smell the musky aroma that was purely him. She stood and reached for him, then spent far too long, doing just that. He closed his eyes as she touched him, her teeth nipping him as she teased and tasted him, the unexpected brush of her eyelashes, the warmth of her breath were as erotic as the planned seduction she was performing on his body. It was overwhelming.

Shaking his head he threw his arms around her and picked her up. "Sorry," he kissed her gently, "I have had enough! You know how to make a man explode!"

Tossing her on to the bed, he threw off his clothes and landed beside her. Now it was his turn. His mouth covered every inch of her flesh; his hands released her breasts, discarding her bra. Supporting each one with his fingers, he licked, nibbled and sucked them in turn, aware of her writhing body. Then he slid down her body, pulled off the last scant bit of lace and buried his face in her, touching, tasting and exposing her even more.

As he felt her start to convulse, he reached for a condom, almost messed up in his haste, then with a grunt of satisfaction, he slid into her, driving into her desperately, loving the feel of her nails embedded in his shoulders, her head thrown back, exposing her long slender neck. The end when it came was explosive for them both, and they collapsed back against the pillows clinging to each other and panting out of control.

How could that be wrong?

Alexis stretched, loving the feel of his chest below her cheek, his arm around her, and her thigh tossed over his strong one. She traced a pattern on his chest distractedly, as she breathed in the smell, absorbed the feel of him; this was where she had wanted to be since Stockholm six months ago. Without even thinking about it, she reached out and kissed his jaw. A possessive gesture and it was greeted by a murmur of approval.

"That was amazing Alexis!" He returned the kiss then sighed as she nibbled at his jaw, her hand sneaking lower down his body. Reaching out, he grabbed that wandering hand, "but I’ve been travelling all day. It’s still the middle of the night for me I think, and I’m about to fade, I need rest if you want a repeat before dawn!"

She did, so smiling she curled up with him and found sleep.

A knock woke her, glancing at the bedside clock she saw it was just before midnight, who would be knocking at the door this late? She paused for a moment wondering if she’d dreamt it, but then she heard another knock.

Jumping up she pulled herself gently out of his arms, finding her robe she tugged it over her and knotted the belt then paused at the door to look back at Peter, his bare chest rising and falling with the deep breaths of sleep, arm tossed over his eyes, those full lips, strong jaw. She couldn’t fight the shudder that washed over her, that man did things to her even in sleep.

By the time she reached the hallway there was another knock at the door, rushing to open it she panicked, without the intercom, this late at night she knew the visitor must be a neighbour, and her neighbour was pregnant, they knew she was a doctor, this could be serious.

Pulling open the door she looked up expectantly, only to be bounded over, hit against the wall by a dark hooded figure. Alexis reached out to stop herself falling, then looked up at the man who stood over her, Luiz. His face was half hidden by the hood, but his eyes were angry glaring at her, and he stank of alcohol.

                “Luiz! What are you doing here?”

He scowled at her, “was this the plan? To trap me? Or were you going to run away and never tell me?”

Instantly she knew what he was talking about, he knew, damn Ana Julia. The fact that he was contradicting himself was incidental. He was angry and confrontational. She needed every skill she possessed to deal with him here.

                “I don’t know what you mean,” she lied. Biding for time, wishing she wasn’t so tired, she wasn’t at her most alert.

He laughed, “any other pharmacy and no one would ever have known, but you went to the nearest one. I know you were buying pregnancy tests today.”

All her attempts to be calm, to not anger him fell away as she saw red, “and you waited until you were drunk to come here? I’m NOT pregnant, and if I was you’ve made it blatantly obvious that you don’t trust me, you think I’m some sort of loose woman! Well I’m NOT! And I’m GLAD I’m not pregnant. The thought that I might be tied to you for the rest of my life made me feel sick.”

Then things happened so quickly she barely knew what was going on, his hand whipped out and connected with her face, and Lex crumpled to the floor completely stunned a few seconds before the pain in her jaw hit her like a sledgehammer. As she tried to focus on the man who’d hit her to the floor, to defend herself, she saw him fly against the opposite wall, with a few grunts and groans she saw him being wrestled by a half naked Peter.  Dragging herself to her feet she tried to pull Peter free of Luiz, she didn’t want them hurting each other, Luiz wasn’t worth it. Peter brushed her off, gritting his teeth and trying to get a hold of the other man who was squirming.

                “Get out of this house before I kill you!” Peter finally scrambled to his feet, a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, then grabbing Luiz by the scruff; he tossed him out of the front door. As Luiz made a lunge towards Alexis once more, Peter shoved him again, but Lex got between him and the door, pushing it closed.

                “Don’t! This isn’t Britain, you’re not a local, don’t risk it! If you get arrested you’ve got no chance!”

                “But he attacked you!”

She nodded leaning against the closed front door, “and you don’t speak Portuguese, you’d be instantly trying to defend yourself. The police would believe him, and you’d be struggling, we haven’t come this far for you to end up in jail. Let it go.”

He lifted his hand to brush his thumb over her already bruised cheek hating that she flinched, “I want to hurt him!”

She laughed, ignoring the twinge from her cheek, “I have no doubt! But I’m not that interested in your testosterone surge! I want cuddles not fights.”

In the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, she watched Peter pacing, he still only wore his shorts, and looked livid. Striding over to him when he finally paused looking out of the window to the dark profile of the city, she slid her arms around his body, linking the fingers over his chest.

                “Don’t be angry!” She breathed against his shoulder blade.

He lashed out punching the window, “angry? He attacked you in your own home! Angry just doesn’t cover it Lex, he’s lucky I was half asleep!”

                “You’re my brave hero!” She announced turning him in her arms and smothering him in kisses, but as he responded his anger slowly ebbed away. There was little barrier this time to them coming together, pressing her against the wall he dragged open her robe, devouring her with his hands and mouth, she lifted her legs around his waist, and drew him even closer to him.

Later they lay in bed, curled up together watching the sunrise through the slightly parted curtains.

                “So how did your Aussie friend take you moving out?”

Peter groaned for a moment then rolled his eyes, “how do I keep making so many shit decisions? I reject this...with you...which is clearly perfect,” he dropped a kiss onto her forehead, “yet choose to walk into hell with her!”

Alexis craned her neck to look up at him, “like I chose Luiz, we were both trying to move on and we both got things wrong. How long have you got left in Australia?”

He shrugged, “I said I’d stay until the end of next month, but to be honest Hilda my PA is pestering me about a big company that is hounding her, I’ve said I’ll do a big job for them and they’re growing impatient. So I may head back to Geneva soon.”

She didn’t comment, since he’d come back into her life, the one thing she’d observed was that he moved around at will, he jumped continents at the drop of a hat, and had no ties or commitment to anything. She was hoping that would change. She wanted to travel after her job finished in a few weeks, and she wanted him to come with her.

She had the weekend to work on that.

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