Reunited by the Greek's Vows

by Andie Brock

  Nikos stood in front of Kate, still not touching her, just waiting. His eyes travelled to the front of her pretty chiffon blouse. The top three buttons were undone, he noticed, revealing the very edge of a pink lacy bra. He swallowed.

  Their eyes met again, but still neither of them moved.

  ‘Nikos...’

  Never had his name on a woman’s lips sounded quite so sinfully seductive. The blood in his veins slowed to a sluggish crawl, as if preparing itself for a very particular exertion, while the crotch of his jeans tightened painfully.

  He waited, the air in the room pressing down on him. And when she said nothing he prompted her. ‘Kate?’

  ‘Nikos, I... I...’

  ‘Yes?’ The agony and the ecstasy of the wait was all but killing him. But wait he would. For Kate to come to him.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, as if to make it easier for her. There was a faint rustle, the sense of a vacuum being filled, and then the sweet, soft whisper of her breath on his neck. Nikos opened his eyes. Kate was right in front of him, gazing up at him, her pupils so dilated that her dark green eyes were almost black. Her mouth was slightly open—a soft, sensual pout, waiting to be claimed.

  When she raised herself on to her tiptoes, bringing her upturned face within inches of his, Nikos finally let go—finally gave himself permission to do what he had been wanting to do so badly for the last hour, the last week...ever since he had set eyes on Kate again in that revolting club.

  His mouth came down on hers in a bruising kiss, his hands spanning her waist to pull her closer to him, then moving down to feel that leather-clad bottom again. And, God, did it feel good.

  Pressing her against him, he let his lips glory in the feel of her soft mouth, the way it opened for him, passionately kissing him back. A thousand memories crashed through him—the taste of her, the feel of her, the way she fitted her body so perfectly to his. Everything she did to him. The way she always had. Right from that very first time.

  The urge to make love to Kate when they had first met had been overpowering, all-consuming. Even though he’d guessed she was far less sexually experienced than him she had left it until the very last minute—literally the point of no return—to tell him she was actually a virgin.

  Grappling with a desire so strong it had blurred his vision, Nikos had tried to hold back, tried to make sure it was what she really wanted. That even though they had only just met she was certain she wanted to give herself to him. And Kate had laughed softly, cupping his cheeks in her hands, smothering his face with wet kisses, urging him to take her there and then. No doubts, no second thoughts.

  And take her he had.

  Nothing had prepared him for the power of their union. It had completely blown him away. Sex with Kate had been so much more than three little letters. So much more than it had ever been with anyone else. Totally absorbed by her and the strength of their passion, it had felt like the smallest step for Nikos to decide he had to make her his for ever. To ask her to be his wife.

  Three years later and Kate was finally bound to him. But the circumstances couldn’t be more different. Gone was the starry-eyed joy, the bluebirds tweeting overhead, the silhouetted image of them set against a rosy sunset. What a fool he had been to have thought that was possible—with Kate or anyone else. Hadn’t his parents’ disastrous relationship taught him anything?

  According to his father, theirs had been a crazy, mad love affair, full of fire and passion. And look how that had ended. Spectacularly imploding when his mother hadn’t been able to take the responsibility of raising a child—raising him.

  And Nikos had stupidly done exactly the same thing—fallen for the wrong woman, rushed blindly into a doomed relationship, all the lessons of his past forgotten. Only he and Kate hadn’t even made it as far as having a child. The look on Kate’s face of immense relief on discovering she wasn’t pregnant with his baby still had the power to knife him in the guts.

  But this wasn’t about confronting those demons. He had no intention of wasting a second of this precious window of time in trying to unknot their twisted past. He was going to live this moment as if it were his last.

  As he felt for the buttons of her blouse, roughly pulling them apart, he heard Kate moan. She was deepening the kiss, her hot, fierce attention making lust rage through his body like a desert storm, leaving no part of him untouched. His hands grazed over the lacy fabric of her bra to the swell of her breasts above, feeling the scatter of tiny goosebumps beneath his touch. Sliding her blouse over her shoulders, he let it fall to the floor behind her, and when Kate’s fists knotted in his shirt he finally broke the kiss and took a step back so he could tug it over his head.

  They stared at one another. Deliberately holding her gaze, Nikos slowly undid his belt buckle, then unfastened the buttons of his jeans one by one. Tugging them over his hips with hands that trembled in the effort of holding back, he impatiently kicked them to one side. Still holding her gaze, he stood before her, the might of his arousal straining against his boxers.

  He wanted her so badly he thought he might scream with the power of it, but he could do this. He could make her wait. Just a bit longer.

  * * *

  Kate watched as Nikos slid his hand down inside his boxers. Her eyelids flickered, her throat moving on a swallow. Beneath the white cotton fabric his hand started to move, his eyes never leaving hers as he smoothly, steadily began to tease her, taunting her with this erotic show of sexual command.

  Enough! Kate could stand it no longer. She wanted her hand around his magnificence. She wanted to feel him inside her. She wanted Nikos.

  Tugging at the waistband of her leather trousers, she half fell, knocking her elbow against the corner of an ornately gilded chair when she tried to save herself. It hurt, but the frustration of trying to get the trousers off hurt far more.

  Supressing a wail of frustration, she wriggled her way out of them as best she could, holding onto the edge of the chair to steady herself as she pulled at them with her other hand.

  With a rush of movement Nikos was in front of her, lifting her effortlessly into the air before placing her back down in the chair. The offending trousers were peeled from her legs like a shed skin, taking her panties along with them. Then, pushing her thighs apart, Nikos knelt before her.

  Kate gripped the arms of the chair. She was dimly aware of the sight of his dark head between her legs before she closed her eyes and surrendered herself to the utter bliss of his tongue. She moaned, long and deep, squirming so that the chair creaked beneath her, unable to stay still as the delirium inside her mounted with every sure lave of his tongue, every ecstatic touch.

  Just as the first shudders of pleasure began to surface she felt him move away, heard him stand up. Opening her eyes, she saw him stripping off his boxers. She held herself very still. Was he doing this deliberately to torture her?

  She moved her hand down between her legs. She would finish this herself if she had to. With Nikos standing before her, looking like the epitome of every woman’s wildest sexual fantasy, she could tip herself over the edge here and now without doing anything. Simply by gazing at the glorious sight of him.

  ‘Uh-uh.’ Reaching down, he removed her hand, placing it on her thigh. ‘No, you don’t. I’ve been waiting for this moment for far too long to be denied the final pleasure.’

  Was that true? Had he really been waiting for her? For Kate, certainly, there had been no one else. What would have been the point? No man could ever match up to his strength and beauty, his potent virility. He was the very definition of alpha male, and when they had first met his sexy, confident ease had been the biggest turn-on, completely eliminating any virginal worries Kate might have had.

  Now time and wealth had given that confidence a harder shell, polished it like armour, but the effect was just as lethal. His assured arrogance, his sheer perfection, still held Kate prisoner to hi
s lure.

  As he bent down to lift her off the chair Kate instinctively looped her arms around his neck. When her legs wrapped around his naked torso she pressed herself against him, nudging her sex against his groin, thrilling to the sensation of his hard body.

  Nikos groaned deep in his throat. His mouth came down on hers, his kiss deep and wet as he took a step back, and then another, until Kate was pressed against the wall. There was a glorious second of anticipation before Nikos finally sank himself into her, long and hard and deep. Kate gasped, closing her eyes against the bliss of feeling him inside her, right up to the hilt, filling her so completely, so perfectly.

  As he broke the kiss she heard his intake of breath.

  ‘Open your eyes.’

  It was a soft but deadly command. and as her lids opened Kate was immediately snared by the dark pool of his midnight gaze.

  ‘That’s better.’

  Still asserting his authority, Nikos took total command. With their eyes locked together, he started to move. The first few strokes were slow, silky-smooth. With her back braced against the wall he had the control he wanted, moving his hips to get just the right angle, gripping her shoulders with each skilful thrust. But he needed more.

  Uttering something low and deep in his native tongue, Nikos lifted her up and wrapped her legs around him again, transferring his hands to the wall on either side of her head.

  He started to thrust. Harder, deeper, and deeper still, each stroke taking Kate nearer and nearer to the edge of that precipice of oblivion. She fought it for a long as she could, intent on prolonging the ecstasy, never wanting this exquisite pleasure to end. But as Nikos’s thrusts became ever more forceful, his breath rasping hot and dry against her face, Kate gave herself permission to let go.

  Her slick core tightened, then spasmed, and then again, building and building until Kate shook violently with the ultimate bliss, surrendering control to the ecstatic wonder of her orgasm, to the wonder of Nikos.

  And as she fell she took Nikos with her. His guttural moan echoed around the room, his jerky shudder of release resonating throughout her body, filling her with joy.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘WHAT TIME IS IT?’

  Kate murmured the words against his naked chest.

  ‘Hmm...not sure.’

  With the shutters closed, the bedroom was so dark there was no way of knowing. They had been in his bed for hours, Nikos did know that. And still he felt a wave of desire kicking in again. He could never have enough of Kate. Sex with her now was just as amazing, just as perfect, as it had been the first time around. Kate knew how to turn him on in a way that no other woman ever had or ever could. Somehow they just fitted, anticipating each other’s needs to perfection. Somehow it was just right.

  And, judging by her moans of pleasure, by the wild thrashing of her limbs, the long, endless juddering of her beautiful orgasms, it felt the same for Kate. Nikos had made damned sure of it, in fact.

  The thought that he might be compared to some other lover, past, present or future, filled him with a blind kind of fury that he couldn’t even to begin to address. If he had his way, no other man would so much as touch a hair on her head, let alone take her to bed.

  Which left them where, exactly?

  Nikos had no idea. Neither did he want to examine it. Right now they were man and wife, in bed together, doing what came so very naturally to them. He was going to make the most of that.

  ‘You hungry?’

  Releasing his arm from where it was trapped under Kate’s body, he smoothed his hand over the top of her head. He loved the feel of her hair when it was short like this, silky and springy beneath his touch. He loved the way he could rake his fingers through it, feeling her scalp beneath. He loved the way it tickled his skin when she dipped her head to kiss his body, to taste him, to take him in her mouth.

  He wanted to do it all over again. And again. But his stomach was telling him he had other needs.

  ‘Starving.’

  ‘Good.’

  He swung his legs over the bed, pulled on a pair of boxers and crossed the room to open the shutters. On the other side of the majestic Grand Canal the buildings were floodlit a soft gold, the cafés busy under their red awnings. A couple of illuminated pleasure boats cut through the inky water.

  ‘Eat out or Room Service?’

  He turned to look back at Kate, who had propped herself up in bed with the large pillows. With her face in shadow, he couldn’t easily read her expression, but her voice was warm and soft.

  ‘Room service, please.’

  ‘Anything in particular that you fancy?’ He stepped closer, just in time to see her bite back a smile.

  ‘You choose.’

  Walking through to the adjoining salon, Nikos phoned through his order, then looked around for his cell phone. Finding it still in the pocket of his discarded jeans, he brought the screen to life as he walked back into the bedroom. He could hear Kate in the bathroom, splashing water in the basin.

  Getting back into bed, he started to look at his messages. It was nine-thirty in the evening here in Italy, but different time zones meant there was always something happening somewhere in the world that needed his attention. The Nikoladis empire comprised a wide range of different businesses and enterprises, employing several thousand people. It was a big responsibility, and Nikos knew he had a reputation for being a hard task manager. But you didn’t succeed in business without being ruthless.

  However, work held no interest for him tonight. This was all about enjoyment and making it last as long as he could. He didn’t know what tomorrow held, and for the moment he didn’t care.

  However, one text message did catch his eye and he clicked to open it.

  ‘Anything interesting?’

  The mattress moved as Kate got into bed beside him, sliding a hand to his thigh. She was wearing a hotel robe and smelled of lemon soap.

  ‘It’s from Sofia.’

  ‘Oh, right...’

  Nikos heard the caution in Kate’s voice, as if talking about Sofia was off limits.

  ‘She says she’s going on a school trip to London and she’d like to meet up there.’

  ‘And will you?’

  ‘We will, yes. You and me.’

  ‘Nikos.’ Kate took her hand away. ‘Don’t you think this is a bit unfair on Sofia? Fooling her like this...pretending that we’re a happily married couple? I mean, the poor girl has been through enough, hasn’t she? Without us letting her down as well.’

  ‘I have no intention of letting her down. Quite the reverse. I am doing all this to protect her.’

  ‘But...’

  ‘Sofia knows the score, Kate. She knows that our marriage is simply a means to an end. That once the courts have granted me legal guardianship it will be dissolved.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Nikos watched as Kate bit down on her lip. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she looked hurt.

  ‘And what does Sofia think about that?’

  ‘She’s cool with it.’

  Kate hesitated. ‘And what does she think about me?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Nikos frowned. ‘I’ve never asked.’

  ‘But what reason did you give her for me agreeing to go along with all this?’

  ‘I told her you were doing it for the money.’

  ‘Nikos!’ Kate pulled away.

  ‘Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well, yes, but...’

  ‘So what’s the problem? Sofia is smart and knowing and she’s very independent for her age. She’s had to be. I think you’ll like her. Oh, good—food.’

  At the sound of the knock on the door, Nikos leapt out of bed again. Kate watched his retreating form—the way the shadows played across the muscles of his back, the tapered waist, the strong, firm length of his ba
re legs. So perfect.

  He was back in no time, wheeling a trolley laden with domed silver dishes.

  ‘Where would madame like to take her evening meal?’ With a flourish, he draped a white linen napkin over his arm and picked up the lift-off tray.

  Kate smiled, pushing away the feeling of unease that had started to creep over her. She mustn’t let herself spoil this precious evening with nagging doubt. She should be glad that Sofia had been told the truth—even if it did mean she would probably think Kate was a gold-digging little tramp. Perhaps she was...

  ‘Here on the bed, please.’ She held out her arms to take the tray from Nikos. He had made it look light as feather, but her arms almost buckled under the weight.

  ‘You okay with it?’

  ‘Sure.’ She settled it down on the bedcovers.

  Meanwhile Nikos was opening a bottle of champagne, expertly filling two flutes. Handing one to Kate, he got into bed beside her and held his glass aloft.

  ‘To us.’

  Kate clinked her glass against his. ‘Yes, to us.’ She took a sip, feeling the bubbles sliding down her throat. ‘Whatever us is.’

  She hadn’t meant to say that. She knew the rules—why was she pretending that she didn’t? Why would she want to challenge the status quo and expose herself to the certainty of being hurt?

  ‘Us is we two, here and now, living for the moment.’ Nikos took a large swallow of champagne.

  Kate nodded. That would have to do. But deep inside her a small voice yearned for more.

  The food was delicious and they both tucked in hungrily. Nikos had ordered far too much, but they attacked it with gusto, passing each other forkfuls of sea bass carpaccio and smoked salmon ravioli, exclaiming through full mouths about how good it was.

  Finally stuffed, they leant back against the pillows, the wreckage of the meal still scattered on the bed before them.

  ‘Thank you.’ Kate turned to smile at Nikos, raising her hand to remove a crumb from his lip.