by Penny Reid
“You do?” he asked, a bit loudly. And then, again, his voice a whisper, “You do? You do. Aria don’t fuck with me—”
“Oh, come on. I’m serious. Of course, I’m serious.”
He grabbed her, ignoring her shrieked warning about the needle she still held and his brand-new tattoo. “Mine,” he murmured against her lips, wrapping an arm around her. “You’re mine. You’re with me. For real.”
“I mean, I thought we could… date,” she said awkwardly. “I’ll be honest, my relationships are always fucked up. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do, at this point.”
“Well, I’ve never had a relationship,” Nik said, “but I’ve been thinking about this a lot.”
He had? She should probably wonder about that fact, but he was saying lots of lovely things, and their lips were very close. She really had no time for thinking. She was extremely busy.
“You’re mine,” Nik repeated, “and I’m yours, and we’re going to do exactly what we’ve been doing, and it’s going to be great. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Do you trust me?”
She only hesitated for a heartbeat. That barely meant anything, all things considered. “Yes.”
Maybe he’d felt that slight pause. Maybe he hadn’t. Regardless, when he kissed her, she didn’t sense a single reservation from him.
Not one.
Chapter 16
Nik had never been high before, but he was absolutely certain that this was what it felt like. He wasn’t dreading the end of the week anymore, counting precious seconds until the moment when Aria walked away from him. By the penultimate day of the party, he’d convinced himself that Aria couldn’t walk away from him. She was the one, after all, who’d said that they should be together. She was the one who dragged him into unoccupied rooms to fool around all the time; she was the one who curled up in his arms before falling asleep; she was the one who listened to his tentative ideas about the next step in his career and didn’t shoot any of them down.
Funny how the transition from a fake relationship to a very real one had gone so smoothly. He almost felt like they’d never been faking in the first place—which, technically, they hadn’t. Or rather, he hadn’t. Really, this was all just a very long and expensive first date, a funny story they could tell their grandchildren one day. At least, that’s how Nik was choosing to think of it. He really hoped Aria would see it that way too, because he’d decided to come clean about everything tonight.
He supposed some people might argue that he had nothing to come clean about. After all, he hadn’t lied about himself or his circumstances. He was bad at turning people down. He didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. And she did have to scare off overzealous fans for him.
So maybe he could keep his slight dishonesty to himself—except he didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to bite his tongue or remember his own bullshit. He didn’t want to hide the fact that he’d wanted her from the moment he saw her. And, most of all, he didn’t want to abuse Aria’s trust.
It seemed pretty fragile. And it was definitely precious.
Of course, he was having a tough time figuring out how to tell her. In fact, pondering that question that made him so distracted, his team actually lost an impromptu five-a-side game on the afternoon before their last day.
“What’s up with you?” Kieran demanded with a breathless laugh as they jogged over the grass. “You let Varo past you about a thousand times!”
“Sorry.” Nik scowled. “I did, didn’t I? I’m just… thinking about stuff.”
Kieran rolled his eyes. “You think too much these days. It’s not like you.”
True. But he was trying to be more thoughtful because certain people in his life deserved it. Nik’s gaze drifted over to the seats arranged at the edge of the grass, where Aria sat by a group who were all huddled over a single phone. Whatever they were doing, it apparently didn’t interest her.
She was watching him.
And she had that sketchbook in her hands, as always, the one full of all her tattoo ideas. Sometimes, at the end of the day, she’d show him everything she’d done and start talking a mile a minute about her plans for the future, her vision for the shop, how she didn’t even know what to call it…
“Hey,” he shouted over. “You checking me out?”
She gave him a smirk and shouted back, “I’m wondering how the hell you ever made it if you play like that.”
Cheers and hoots of laughter followed her words. Nik couldn’t help but grin, even though he usually hated losing. If anyone else had needled him, he’d have been pissed. But right now, he was more enthusiastic about playing than he’d been for the last hour, just because he wanted to wipe that cocky look off her face.
“You don’t know anything about football,” he reminded her, walking across the grass. “You can’t judge me.”
“Sure, I can. I’m smart. I pick things up fast.”
Nik reached her chair and planted a hand on each arm, locking her into place. As he leaned close, her lashes fluttered and the humour in her eyes became a challenge. He felt an answering tingle in his core, his muscles tightening at their proximity. The possessive beast inside him woke up and pointed out that now would be a great time to drag her into the nearest empty room with a lock.
But he’d already fucked her three times in the past eight hours, and he was trying not to be a complete pest. So, instead of throwing her over his shoulder, Nik darted forward to steal a quick, sweet kiss before straightening up. “Come and play, then. If you’re such an expert.”
Her eyes widened, amusement replaced by alarm. “Oh, no, I—”
“Go on, Aria!” G beamed. “It’ll be fun! We should all play!” She gave a little gasp and slapped her hands to her cheeks. “Girls versus boys!”
“What?” Aria squeaked. “No. Nooo. I’ve never even played before! And the guys are all pros!”
“So am I,” Georgia said.
Aria blinked, her face taking on that adorably baffled look he loved so much. “What?”
“Didn’t you know? Most of us are. And everyone knows women’s football is way better than men’s.” She stood with a wink, stretching her arms above her head, and hollered, “Five-a-side, guys! Lads v. lasses.”
Nik stepped back and watched with a shit-eating grin as Georgia grabbed a protesting Aria and dragged her towards the pitch.
The afternoon had just gotten a hell of a lot more interesting.
Clearly, Aria’s life had gone horribly wrong somewhere along the line. Because if all was running smoothly, she definitely wouldn’t be sweating her tits off in a Spanish garden, trying—and failing—to keep up with a bunch of professional football players.
She was going to murder Nik. Brutally.
He’d barely paid attention throughout his last game, but now that she was on the pitch he’d come over all David Beckham. Did David Beckham still play football? She wasn’t entirely sure. In fact, due to a tragic lack of oxygen, Aria wasn’t entirely sure about anything. Her brain had shrivelled up like a walnut in an effort to keep all of her muscles going.
“Come on, chrysí mou!” Nik jogged by and smacked her on the arse. “Keep moving!”
“Fuck off!” she managed. The words were more mangled gasps than bitten out insults, but she followed them up with a glare.
Nik slowed his pace, jogging backwards as he grinned at her. “You’re doing great. You’re a natural. You just have to go for it. Stop holding back.”
Stop holding back? What, did he want her to throw herself around like he was? “I am wearing a bikini!”
His gaze darkened as he swept a slow, hungry look over her body. “Yeah. I noticed.”
“Aria! Stop fraternising with the enemy!” Georgia snapped as she sprinted past, dribbling the ball as if it were glued to her feet. “Get in the box!”
Ugh. Rolling her eyes and girding her loins, Aria ran.
“You’re an absolute bastard.”
“I know, sweetheart.�
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Aria scowled up at the ceiling as Nik sat beside her, his strong hands undoing the ties of her bikini. “Stop fucking humouring me. I mean it! You’re a bastard and I hate you.”
He released the last tie on her bikini bottoms and slid the fabric out from under her body, leaving her completely naked. “You already said that.”
“And I’m going to keep saying it until my muscles stop feeling like pulverised bloody meat!”
“Do what you must, agapi mou.” He was trying not to smile, but she could hear the barely contained amusement in his rich, low voice. A second later, she felt it, his curved lips gliding over her lower belly.
“Will you behave yourself? I’m absolutely dripping with sweat.”
He replaced his lips with his tongue, swiping it over the tan line just above her mound. “Clearly, I don’t mind.”
She snorted and propped herself up on her elbows, glaring at the top of his head. “I can’t believe you made me play and didn’t even let me win.”
“How could I let you win,” he murmured, his lips moving down to her pussy, “when it’s a team sport?”
“You’re supposed to find a way! You—ahhhh, fuck, Nik.” Her indignation was cut off as if a switch had been flicked. Which, if her clit counted as a switch, it had. Nik’s tongue parted her folds and found that tight little bud with unnerving accuracy, swirling a hot, wet circle around it. Aria’s breath caught as arousal burst to life inside her, forcing her tired legs to fall open.
At which point, Nik stopped licking her and sat up.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she demanded.
He laughed. “I thought you wanted a shower?”
“I did want a shower! Until you started stripping me—”
“I stripped you for the shower.” He gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look. “I’m just trying to make up for the match. I know you hate losing.” God, he was adorable, with that sweet, wicked mouth and those huge dark eyes. The prick.
“I hate losing? You’re the sore loser in this relationship, sugar.” Aria rolled her eyes and clambered off the bed. “Fine. In the shower I go, to masturbate all alone.”
“Woah, hold on a second.” Nik managed to sound alarmed, mildly offended, and turned on, all at once. “I didn’t say anything about alone.”
She shot him an arch look over her shoulder. “So? Maybe I want to be alone.”
“Aria,” he growled. God, he was too easy. Just as her feet left the bedroom carpet and landed on the bathroom’s cool tiles, his arm snaked its way around her waist. She looked up and found their reflection in the room’s huge mirror, Nik’s body bracketing hers, his gaze devouring her nakedness. “You don’t want to be alone.”
She arched back against his hardening cock, biting down on a smile. “I do. You can watch, though. If you want.”
Surprise made him falter, just for a second—which was long enough for Aria to pull free of his arms and head toward the shower. She stepped in and switched on the spray as Nik pushed down his shorts on the other side of the glass, freeing his erection. “You’re too kind,” he said dryly, but the sarcasm didn’t quite work when his breath hitched at the end. He gripped his cock so hard his knuckles paled.
Aria turned away to hide her satisfied smile. Nik would bitch and moan, but he wouldn’t follow her into the shower, not even playfully. When it came to her body, her emotions—her—he did exactly what she wanted and nothing more.
It hit, her like a football to the face, that she felt completely safe with him.
And you love him.
Ah. Now that she wasn’t sure about. Because it was awfully fast, wasn’t it? And she’d had fast before, but never like this.
Although, she supposed, she’d never had someone like Nik, either.
She’d think about it later. It was too difficult to focus on emotions right now, with lust pumping through her veins and him stroking himself on the other side of the glass. Aria reached for the soap, her smile widening into a grin as she saw what stood beside it: one of her many toys, a clear, pink dildo with a suction cup bottom. They’d had a lot of fun with it this morning.
Clearly, its time in the sun wasn’t over yet.
“Look what I found.” She waved the silicone cock before sticking it to the wall.
Nik released a ragged breath and squeezed his eyes shut, his brows drawing together. “Aria…”
“Open your eyes, love. I thought you wanted to watch?”
When he looked at her again, the need in his gaze was almost enough to make her cave. Especially when he combined it with words, those filthy fucking words she loved so much, tumbling desperately from his mouth. “Let me in. Let me touch you, agapi mou. You don’t want that. You want me.” He jerked his hips up, thrusting into his own fist as if he couldn’t control his movements.
Coils of need slid over her body, tightening like rope, making her limbs feel heavy. Aria’s pulse pounded in her ears, its rhythm earthy and lustful. Her pussy was so wet, so hot, so swollen, she felt as if she had something wedged between her thighs—as if the cock she wanted so badly had already driven its way home.
But it hadn’t. Not yet.
“You’ve won quite enough today,” she told him over the water’s gentle spray. “You’re getting even cockier than usual. If you want something from me, sweetheart, you’ll have to beg.”
His eyes flared at the challenge, his hand stroking faster. He leaned back against the bathroom counter and watched her from beneath heavy lids, his mouth easing into a lazy smirk. “We’ll see.”
Yes, they fucking would. Rolling her eyes, Aria poured out a handful of body wash and let soft, creamy bubbles form. Then she ran her foamy hands over her arms, her movements slow and sensuous and deliberately teasing. It was pretty fucking gratifying to start with something as small as her wrist and have Nik hiss under his breath like she’d just swallowed his cock.
When she started stroking her hips and abdomen, Nik straightened, abandoning his casual posture. He came to stand right by the glass, one hand flat against the shower door as if he wanted to break through. But he wouldn’t.
She had a glorious close-up, now, of his big hand rubbing that dark, veined cock. Of the pearly beads of pre-come dripping steadily from its head, making the taut skin gleam. Of his face, lips parted, eyes heavy-lidded and glittering with need.
“Fuck, yes,” he groaned when she pinched her nipples with soapy fingers. “Play with yourself for me.”
“Not for you,” she corrected primly, running a hand over her the curve of her belly. He liked her belly, soft and fleshy and stretch-marked as it was. Just like he liked her tits, tiny and sort of saggy as they were. In fact, Aria realised, he seemed to have a thing for every single part of her. She skimmed her hands over her thighs and he grunted out a curse; she spun around and soaped up her arse, and he banged a fist against the door.
“You want me to come in now,” he said, desperation lurking beneath his confident tone.
“No, thank you.”
“You do. Bend over, moro mou, let me see your cunt. Spread your legs and—God, yes. Fuck. Don’t you want me inside you? I know you do. I know you do.”
“No,” she lied, standing up and letting the shower wash away all of her soap.
“Look at me, Aria.” His voice was smooth as caramel, rich as chocolate, smoky as sin. She turned despite herself and did as he asked. She looked.
She looked at the way his biceps shifted as he worked his own cock. She looked at the desire on his face when he ran a thumb over the slick, swollen head. She looked at his broad chest and remembered the spine-tingling sensation of its soft, crisp hair rubbing against her tender breasts.
“Let me in,” he murmured.
She shook her head and reached behind her, finding the toy she’d stuck to the wall. “Beg.”
“Let me in,” he gritted out.
Aria bent forward and pushed herself back onto the dildo. Her pussy was so slick that the thick head breached her entrance without is
sue, just a smooth, slick glide that made her moan low.
Nik’s ragged moan joined hers as he watched. “Aria—”
“Beg,” she repeated.
His head fell back as he released a strangled growl. And then, finally, he met her eyes and said, “Please. Please, Aria, let me in so I can fuck you until you scream—”
“Why?”
“Because I need you!” he burst out, lust and desperation tangled in his voice.
I need you, too. I want to tell you all the ways I need you, but I’m not brave enough yet.
Soon, though. Soon. Because I know that you won’t hurt me when I do. Because I know that I can’t hurt myself on you.
“Fine,” she said aloud. “Come—”
He didn’t even let her finish the sentence.
Chapter 17
Nik shoved the shower door open, stepped inside, and slammed it so hard behind him he was surprised it didn’t shatter. If it had, he probably wouldn’t have noticed. His heart pounded out demands against his rib cage: need her want her take her have her taste her—
Aria didn’t stand up, didn’t ease the toy out of her pussy and come to him, because she was a witch whose purpose in life was to melt his fucking brain. That was really the only explanation. She watched him with a wicked smile on her face as she rode that pink dildo like she was on a mission. A mission to undo him completely. Judging by the drugging swirl of pleasure that had taken over Nik’s body, she was succeeding.
She reached out and grabbed his hips, yanking him forward. When her tongue flicked the head of his cock, he buried his hands in her hair and swore. “You want me in your mouth, moro mou? Like this?”
“Yes,” she panted, still thrusting against the dildo, arching her back with every stroke.
“Oh, fuck. Fuck. You look so good.”
She laughed darkly, then wrapped her lips around him and sucked hard enough to make his knees weak. Nik almost bit off his own tongue with the effort it took to keep still, to stop himself from thrusting into the heat of her mouth.