CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT – SEEKING THE BEST TACTIC

Reveillon had been their place - the exclusive French bistro where Charlotte and Alexander first began delving into the complex tapestries threaded between them, body and soul. Its opulent, candlelit ambiance with its plush ruby damask wallpaper and smell of butter and white wine always made Charlotte think of...awakening. As if their trysts in its dimly lit corners and satin-sheeted suites over endless Bordeaux'd hours were the first tastes of some sublime form of bliss she'd been denied all her life. Here, Alexander had finally shed his suave, controlled facade and given himself over to the liquid flames that consumed them whenever their gazes locked. Here, his hands first learned every silken plane of her body with a tenderness and reverence that stoked Charlotte's own desires to a molten, all-encompassing burn. And here, six months into their torrid romance, he'd invited her back for a sumptuous anniversary tasting...where he revealed the sparkling diamond solitaire accompanyi