She lifted her dark gaze to his and raised her glass. “To new beginnings.”
They drank as they watched the sun sink into the horizon, a hazy pink lancing blue as it made its fiery descent. When it took its final dip into the ocean, bidding adieu to the spectacular show, Nik turned to Sofía. “We should eat.”
She stood on tiptoe, brought her mouth to his ear and told him, very explicitly, what she was hungry for. And it wasn’t food.
His blood fired. “You won’t pass out on me?”
“Depends on what you do to me.”
He picked her up in his arms and headed for the villa, his heart pounding with anticipation. Heading for the wide set of stairs, he carried her up to their room, set her down on the floor and flicked on a light.
He reached for the buttons of his shirt while Sofía walked to the window to look at the pink sky the sunset had left behind.
“I can’t imagine a more spectacular view than this.”
“I can,” he growled, his frustration bubbling over as he ditched his shirt.
She turned, an amused smile twisting her mouth. “I’ve kept you waiting long enough, King Nikandros?”
He collected her from the window by way of response, picked her up and carried her to the bed. Depositing her on the silk coverlet, his hands moved to the zipper of her dress, yanking it down to expose the creamy skin he coveted.
He stripped the dress off her shoulders and pushed it down to her waist. Her breasts had swelled, bursting from the lacy cups of her bra. The blatant reminder of the child they had conceived together stopped him in his tracks. Stole his breath. The heir to this country, yes, but also their baby. The product of that mind-numbingly sensual night they had spent together.
He hadn’t stopped long enough during the insanity of the past few weeks to even think about this. To come face-to-face with the evidence that he would be a father in short order was earthshakingly real. Mind-bending.
He splayed his fingers across her abdomen, where her flat stomach was just beginning to turn convex. “You are so beautiful,” he said huskily, bending to bring his mouth to hers. “I only want you more.”
He consumed her then with a kiss that plundered every inch of her beautiful lips. She arched her neck back, giving him full access to the heat of her mouth. The sweetness he craved.
His palms cupped her engorged breasts, the skate of his thumbs across her nipples pulling a hiss from her throat.
“Sensitive?”
She nodded, ebony eyes drunk with a heavy dark desire. He bent his head and took a lace-covered nipple into his mouth, her low moan kicking him in the gut. Determined to master the insatiable urge to possess her now without waiting, he brushed his thumb over her other nipple as he sucked hard; laved her with his teeth and tongue until her fingers were buried in his hair, tugging. Demanding. He transferred his attention to her other nipple, bringing it to the same erect attention as its twin.
Sofía uttered his name on a low, sweet moan. He pulled free, surveying her complete surrender with satisfaction. “What do you want?” he asked roughly. “Tell me.”
Her fingers traced a provocative path down his chest to capture his hand and bring it to her inner thigh. He closed his fingers around her soft, silky flesh. “Tell me.”
“I want your hands on me. Here.”
His inner beast liked that. A lot. Because he loved to touch her there. To feel how much she desired him. To taste it.
He sank his knee down on the bed between her thighs and moved his hand up, pushing her dress higher until his fingers came into contact with the edge of her silk panties. Her breath hissed through her teeth. “Here?” he asked, sliding his finger along the edge of the silk.
“Yes.”
He pushed the silk aside with one hand, tracing his thumb along her cleft with the other. She jerked against him, her highly sensitized reaction heating his blood. He dipped deeper, probing her wet, hot flesh. His sex throbbed to life at such an overt display of her desire for him.
He took her lips in an erotic, openmouthed kiss as he sank his fingers into her. He had big hands, powerful hands, and she moaned into his mouth as he filled her. He wanted her crazy, his inner beast dictated. As desperate as he’d been for her for weeks.
“Nik—please—”
He thrust his fingers deeper into her. “Tell me, glykeia mou.”
“More,” she begged. “More, please...”
He caught her lip in his teeth. “You want my mouth on you?”
“Yes.”
He pushed her back on the bed and dragged her dress up to her waist. The need to taste her, to claim her, swept over him in the basest of urges. Lying there, her gorgeous hair fanned out on the bed, her dark eyes hot with desire, she was everything he’d ever coveted. The only woman who could destroy his control with her exotic, sensual beauty.
“Give yourself to me,” he commanded, his mouth taking hers in a hot, breathy kiss.
She knew the command, spread her legs for him in that half-uninhibited, half-shy way that made him crazy. Her eyes burned into his as he worked his way down her body, watching him the whole time. And then his brain went a hazy gray as her scent blurred the thoughts in his head until there was nothing but the soft, sweet flesh between her legs under his mouth, the rounded globes of her bottom he cupped to hold her where he wanted her and her soft cries as he raked her with his tongue. Again and again until she was squirming beneath him, begging for him to make her come.
He flicked his tongue against the hooded center of her, featherlight movements at first, then when her fingers curled in his hair and pulled, urging him on, he laved her in purposeful circles, applying a deliberate pressure to take her where he wanted her. She was close, so close. He plunged his fingers back inside of her and her scream rang out in the night.
“Oh, God.” She pressed her hands to her face, her body supine beneath his, her chest rising and falling rapidly. He crawled his way up her body, stripped her hands from her face and kissed her until she tasted his dominance.
He lifted his mouth long moments later and surveyed her hazy gaze. “You still need to soothe the beast.”
Her delicious mouth parted. “How might I do that?”
He ran a finger down her cheek. “I want you on top of me, riding me, until there’s nothing left in me. And then,” he added deliberately, “you can do it again.”
* * *
Sofía had never been so turned on in her life. Nik was like a cat who’d escaped his pen tonight, desperate to possess her, single-minded in his intent. It made her feel delicate and feminine and oh, so hunted.
She ran her finger along his bottom lip. He closed his teeth around it and tugged, pulling a smile from her lips. “That would require great stamina. Is the king up to it?”
He took her hand and brought it to his groin, closing her fingers around his thick erection. “What do you think?”
Electricity rocketed through her. He was so big, so rampantly male. The thought of having him inside her after all these weeks was unbearably exciting.
She pushed a hand against his chest. He moved obediently off her, his gaze tracking her as she slid off the bed and shrugged her shoulders to send her dress slithering to the floor. The expression on Nik’s face made her tremble. He looked as if he wanted to devour her whole.
Nik joined her, stripping off his pants and boxers. He sprawled on the bed, spreading himself out like an olive-skinned feast for her personal consumption. His impressive erection was impossible to ignore, skimming the taut, defined wall of his abdomen. He looked as if he might last forever...
She climbed on the bed and straddled him, her hair sliding against his muscular chest as she brought her mouth down to his. She kissed him, feasted on him until he captured a chunk of her hair in his fingers and lifted her mouth from his.
She rested her palms on his abdomen, eyes closed as she absorbed the sensation of being impaled on him. When the world righted itself, she opened her eyes.
“You are an animal tonight.”
“Too long,” he growled. “It’s been too long.”
His fingers gripped her hips. He lifted her off him, then back down, filling her with his hard, hot possession. Blinding her to anything but what it was to be taken by him, body and soul. Because that’s what this was, no matter what either of them said, wanted to admit to each other, this was far beyond sex.
A moan escaped her. He gave her no reprieve, pulling her down on him again and again, his rough commands to take him deeper, harder, more animalistic than they’d ever been before.
Her body stirred back to life at the feel of him everywhere. He was that big, that powerful in this position. Indescribable.
He wrapped a hand around her jaw, his eyes blazing a path right through her as he brought her mouth down to his. There was a fierce need for possession in his eyes, but there was also a hunger. A hunger so deep she felt it down to her toes.
He wanted her. He needed her. But there was more. A depth of emotion he couldn’t hide.
Witnessing it evoked dangerous thoughts. The thought that maybe, someday, he could get past his lack of trust. Be able to love her. Because she was afraid that’s what she was beginning to want.
His tongue raked her bottom lip, demanding entry. She opened for him as he thrust it inside, mimicking the hard drives of his body. Her flesh softened, melted around him, giving him everything he asked for. He continued his merciless assault until his breath came in harsh pulls and his big body tensed, poised on release.
He slid his hand between them then, the rough pad of his thumb finding her core. He circled against her, his breath hot on her cheek as they came up for air. Sofía moaned, low and desperate.
“That’s it, agapimeni,” he urged, “come with me.”
His expert touch, his hard driving body pushing her closer with every stroke tumbled her into a sweet, deep release that washed over her like a powerful tide, radiating outward from where his thumb played her. She uttered a strangled groan as it racked every nerve ending.
Nik growled, took her mouth and ground against her as he sought his release, the friction pulling her orgasm out in an extended, exquisite shudder.
The hot clench of her body pushed him over the edge. He drove harder, his essence spilling into her in a sweet, hot rush. She wrapped her legs tighter around him, savoring him.
When their breathing slowed, Nik pulled her down to nestle against his chest. She rested her head against the hard thud of his heart as he stroked her hair. It slowed gradually to an even, regular beat beneath her ear.
The connection they shared, the perfection of it, brought a question tumbling from her mouth.
“Who was she, Nikandros?”
CHAPTER TEN
NIK’S HAND STILLED on her hair. “Who are you talking about?”
She pushed herself up on her forearms to look at him. “The woman who’s made you so gun-shy. So mistrustful. Stella told me about her, but she wouldn’t give me details.”
A flat, self-contained expression moved across his face. “She was nothing.”
“If she was nothing, then you can tell me.”
“Why?” Antagonism invaded that cool composure. “Why dredge up old history?”
“Because it goes to the heart of your mistrust of women. And I need to know.”
He lifted her off him and set her on the bed. Sitting up, he raked a hand through his hair. “There isn’t much to say. I dated a woman in my early twenties. I was less guarded back then. I shared things with her I shouldn’t have. Near the end, when our relationship was coming to its natural conclusion, she could sense it and used some of the things I’d told her against me and my family.”
She frowned. “What do you mean ‘used them’ against your family?”
“She sold a tell-all story to the press about our relationship. In it she revealed intimate details about my family.”
“What details?”
“About my father’s indiscretions.”
Her heart sank. Oh, Lord. No wonder Nik held such a severe mistrust toward women. No wonder he’d accused her of doing anything she could to hang on to their relationship when a woman had done that to him.
She shook her head. “She is one woman, Nik. One woman out of the greater majority who would never be so vengeful, so spiteful as to do something like that to you. Surely you understand most people are more trustworthy than that?”
“Are they?” A dark brow winged its way upward. “I have never been with a woman who didn’t want me for something, Sofía. Some are simply power hungry. To walk into a room on the arm of a prince holds great appeal. To enjoy my personal fortune in a city like New York does as well. Their intentions might not all have been as vengeful as Charlotte’s, but they all wanted something from me. That’s the way women work.”
Her shoulders stiffened, her gaze raking over his face. “I didn’t.”
He said nothing.
Blood pounded her head. He was never going to believe her. He was always going to paint her with that brush.
She slid off the bed before her anger consumed her. “I’m going to shower.”
“Sofía—”
She waved a hand at him, continuing her headlong flight toward the bathroom. She was almost there when he caught up with her, his fingers digging into her biceps to spin her around. “Thee mou, but you are a recalcitrant creature.”
“Recalcitrant? Are all women children to you, too, Nik?”
He cupped the back of her head, his eyes blazing. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say you know I am different. That you know I could not have planned that pregnancy. That that isn’t me.” She lifted her chin. “Did I ever at any point in our relationship lead you to believe I wanted to hang on to you past our due date? That I wasn’t playing by the rules?”
“That last night,” he said in a clipped tone. “You were different. I think you were getting emotionally attached. You were ending it because you were afraid you were going to get hurt.”
She stared at him. Caught red-handed because it was true.
“You know what, Nik, you’re right,” she agreed, knowing one of them had to end this game of chicken they were playing. “I was ending it that night because I was falling for you. Even though I told myself it was unwise, that I knew the rules, I thought somewhere in us, in that complexity you threw around the other night, we had something special. That it was beyond sex. That we were different. There was no planning. No scheming to make a baby. And that is the truth.”
He said nothing for a long moment, clearly caught off guard. She studied the emotion darkening his eyes. “What’s the matter?” she taunted. “Does it unnerve you that I care? That I think we have the potential to be more?”
“No,” he said, after a long moment. “I think we need more to have a good relationship.”
“Then what?”
He rubbed his palms against his temples. “I think maybe I’ve been wrong.”
“About what?”
“About you. About you engineering this pregnancy. I made that accusation based on experiences, situations I’ve faced which have taught me that people can’t be trusted, Sofía. That I can’t afford to trust people. When I found out you were pregnant, it was a natural assumption for me to think it ha
d been planned, considering how careful we had been never to let that happen. Perhaps not a right one, but the one way I’ve become conditioned to think.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a mutinous look. “Contraception is not foolproof, Nik. I had no idea the medication I was on would have interfered with it or I would certainly never have suggested what I did.”
“It was my responsibility, too,” he admitted. “I could have used a condom. I didn’t.”
She bit her lip. “Why this sudden change of face? Why now?”
He shook his head. “Because it isn’t you, Sofía. My head’s been a mess from my brother’s death. From everything that’s been thrown at me. I wasn’t thinking straight. When I did start thinking clearly again, it just didn’t seem like you. You are so fiercely independent and honest. It seemed like you were fighting it too hard to have wanted it. But I didn’t have the head space to process those thoughts. I didn’t want to be wrong again and trust someone when I shouldn’t.”
She pursed her lips. “And now you’ve had time to process it?”
“Yes.”
Suspicion warred with a desperate need to know he believed her. She shook her head. “You have to trust me, Nik. You have to let me in. You have to know that I am different.”
His mouth thinned. “I just shared with you an incident that nearly broke my family apart. I told you about my father earlier. We are talking, Sofía. I can’t promise it’s always going to be easy for me or I’m always going to be perfect at it, but I am giving it my best shot.”
Her heart softened. He had been trying. Had been opening up slowly, piece by piece. She knew in her heart they could make it together if he’d just continue to let her in. If she could continue to let him in. They had so much to build on.
She stepped closer to him. “You promise I’m not going to wake up tomorrow with you doubting me again?”
“I promise.” He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Lypamai. I’m sorry. I’m sorry my suspicions have made this so difficult for us.”
She held his gaze with hers. “Everything for me right now is based on me trusting you. On taking a leap of faith that petrifies me, Nik. I need to know I can rely on you. That you will be there for me.”
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