A Bride at His Bidding

by Michelle Smart

  Her breaths were now coming in sharp ragged motions, her sweet yet coffee-laced scent whispering over his mouth and seeping into his pores, but still she made no effort to kiss him back.

  And nor did she push him away or tell him to stop.

  And nor did she push him away or tell him to stop when he found the hem of her top and slipped his hand under it.

  The texture of her skin was silkier and softer than he remembered, as if some benevolent creator had wrapped her in satin.

  Needing to kiss more than just her mouth, he dragged his lips over her cheeks and jaw then made a trail down her neck, the scent of her flesh firing into senses already fit to burst.

  He was fit to burst. Never—never—had he felt sensation and heat like this and it was everywhere in him, from his heart that battered against his ribs to his loins that weren’t aching, they were burning.

  And never had he felt he would give all his worldly goods to receive just one kiss.

  Carrie was letting him kiss her. She was letting him touch her. But she was giving nothing back. She was clinging onto that last ounce of stubborn denial for dear life.

  But still she didn’t push him away or tell him to stop.

  He brushed his lips over her mouth again and nuzzled his nose against hers. His hands swept over her back then moved to her belly, which quivered under his touch as it had when she had kissed him on his veranda. She jolted again when his fingers brushed the underside of her breast, her own fingers tightening reflexively on his arm, but this time she made no attempt to escape.

  For a moment he thought fevered wishful thinking had imagined her rubbing her pelvis tighter to his until he heard her swallow between the shallow breaths and her fingers tighten on him again.

  Cradling her head in his hand, he tilted her back a little to stare deep into her eyes.

  She stared back mutely, everything those stubborn, beautiful lips wanted to say, everything she was feeling reflecting back at him.

  Wordlessly he brought his other hand up to her throat then slowly dragged it down, over the breasts he longed to touch without a barrier, feeling the heavy beats of her heart through it, skipping over her quivering belly, down her thighs until he could reach no further and he gathered the material of her skirt into his fist. Then, working slowly, he brought it up to her knee before letting the skirt go so it covered his hand, which now rested on her bare thigh.

  Her left hand still gripped his biceps, her right hand...

  Her right hand was now splayed on his abdomen, the heat from her touch penetrating through his shirt.

  Andreas gritted his teeth. He wanted nothing more than to escape the straightjacket his clothes had become but instinct told him to wait just a little longer...and Carrie pressed her pelvis into his again, her body making spasmodic movements, her lips parting as if readying herself for his kiss again...

  He obliged, covering her mouth with his. He felt the lightest of movement beneath it before she clamped her lips back together and turned her head to rub her soft cheek against his. Her fingers on his abdomen had slipped around to splay across his back in short grabbing motions.

  He traced his fingers further up her thigh until he found the heat he was seeking and brushed his thumb against the damp, burning cotton.

  She jerked against him, the hand holding his lapel moving up and gripping his neck. When he slid his hand under the cotton and found the damp, downy hair that covered her most intimate secret, she jerked again and pressed her cheek even tighter against his.

  He slid his fingers lower and discovered her in full bloom, the feminine complement to the painful constriction in his underwear.

  Closing his eyes to everything but this moment, he breathed her in as he continued to touch her, finding a rhythm with his fingers that had her grinding against him, her breaths so shallow and rapid he couldn’t distinguish where one breath started and another began until she flung herself tightly against him and buried her face in his neck, crying out. Shudders rocked through her frame as she clung to him, her breaths rapid and hot in his neck.

  Andreas, his cheek pressed into her hair, now had both arms wrapped around her, stroking her back.

  And she held him tightly too.

  ‘Don’t say it.’ Her words were spoken into his neck but then she shifted and loosened her hold on him, disentangling herself to cup his face with her hands. Dark, ringing hazel eyes beseeched him. ‘Please, don’t say it.’

  He gave a short, sharp shake of his head. Blood roared in his ears, his chest the tightest he had ever known it.

  Even if she hadn’t asked, he couldn’t look at her and smugly say, See, I knew you wanted me.

  That had been the most erotic, mind-blowing and...touching moment of his life, and he would never diminish it.

  Her eyes still gazing into his, she swallowed then slowly brought her face closer and covered his lips with her own.

  It was the sweetest, most tender kiss of his life.

  And then her lips parted, her tongue danced into his mouth, her arms locked around his neck and he was kissing her back with all the passion his soul possessed.

  Carrie shut off the part of her brain shouting at her in increasingly terrified shrill tones to stop this madness now.

  She shut it down completely.

  She had never felt so alive, had never known her body capable of such intense, concentrated pleasure.

  He had done this to her. Andreas. His touch, his scent...him. It was as if every part of her body had been tuned to a frequency only he had the dial to.

  She had fought her desire with everything she had and it hadn’t been enough. He’d broken through her resistance completely. And now she wanted the rest of it and she wanted him to have the pleasure he had just bestowed on her too.

  He tasted so darkly masculine, she thought headily, as she drank in his kisses and razed her fingers up and down the nape of his neck. Why fight something that felt so right? Just what was she scared of?

  But she had to shut her mind off again when the shrill voice tried to break back through to tell her exactly what she was scared of.

  She was giving her body to Andreas, nothing more. Nothing more...

  For the first time in her life she was going to let her body guide her. Consequences only happened when people allowed foolish dreams to overtake their reality.

  Dimly she was aware of him gathering her tightly to him and lifting her off the worktop.

  Later, she would have no concrete memory of them getting to a bedroom, just floating images of being carried in his arms and them falling onto the nearest bed in a tangle of limbs.

  Their eyes locked.

  Carrie lifted her top up and over her head, discarding it without thought.

  His throat moved before he held out a hand.

  With fingers that fumbled with inexperience, she undid his shirt buttons. As soon as she had the first three opened she put her lips to his chest and breathed in his clean musky scent, a pulse rippling through to her core when he groaned. His skin felt so smooth yet so different from her own, hard where she was soft and so very warm. Brushing her lips all over his chest, rubbing her cheek against the fine hair covering much of it, feeling his raging heartbeat thrum through his skin, she worked the rest of the buttons until the shirt was undone and Andreas shrugged it off, then his arms wrapped around her waist to undo her bra. He flung it away and sat back to stare at her naked breasts for the first time.

  His eyes dilated, a moan dragged from his throat. He raised a hand that belied the faintest tremor and cupped her.

  A bolt of need pulsed through her, so pure and so shockingly strong that she snapped her eyes shut and struggled for air.

  Breasts that had always just...been there, a part of her like her arms and legs, suddenly felt heavy and swollen and needy. He massaged them gently then replaced his hand with his mouth.

  She gasped and clenched her hands into fists.

  All those wonderful feelings he had brought about in her such a s
hort time ago were building up again but this time they felt so much more, the need being evoked no longer concentrated but everywhere, every part of her aching for his touch and yearning for his kiss.

  As if he could sense her need, Andreas stripped off the rest of her clothes, trailing hot moist kisses all over her flesh, increasing her hunger.

  Her skirt was unbuttoned and pulled off, thrown to the floor, the plain cotton knickers quickly following and then she was naked, lying fully exposed to a man’s gaze for the first time in her life.

  Andreas stared down at her, his eyes a colour she had never seen before, dark and molten. He’d removed his trousers—how, when?—and now all that was left to remove was his underwear.

  Not taking her eyes from his, Carrie sat up to kneel before him and placed her hands on his heavily breathing chest. She dragged her fingers slowly down, over the hard muscles of his abdomen, to the band of his snug-fitting grey boxers.

  Swallowing the moisture that had filled her mouth, she gripped the band between her fingers and tugged them down over his hips.

  Released from its tight confines, his erection sprang free.

  She swallowed again, unable to hide her shock.

  The glimpse she had seen when he’d been in the bath...that had been nothing to seeing it loud and proud in the flesh. She’d already gauged that he was well endowed but had been unprepared, not only for his size but also the unexpected beauty of it.

  She looked back into his eyes and drank him in, a languid, floaty feeling seeping through her. How could it have been anything but beautiful when it belonged to the most beautiful man in the world?

  The molten eyes seemed to drink her right in too. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, then gently lowered it down to his erection, holding her loosely enough that she could snatch her hand away if she wanted.

  She did not want to snatch it away, she thought dreamily. She wanted to touch it. Tonight, she wanted everything.

  Letting him guide her, she took it into her hand and felt it throb beneath her fingers.

  He moaned, his throat moving.

  With his hand covering hers, showing her without words how he liked to be touched, she followed his lead. Thrills raced through her to hear his tortured groans and see the ragged movements of his chest. She could feel the heat bubbling inside her, every bit as turned on with what she was doing and the effect it was having on him as she had been when he’d been touching her.

  She didn’t hide her disappointment when he suddenly pulled her hand away.

  He speared her hair and brought his face to hers to growl, ‘I want to come inside you.’ And then he kissed her, a kiss so deep and passionate she felt her bones turn to heated liquid.

  The kiss was over all too soon as he pulled away from her and climbed off the bed. Stepping out of his boxers, he grabbed his trousers and pulled out his wallet. From it, he removed a small box of condoms.

  He flashed her a tortured grin. ‘I have been living in hope, matia mou.’

  He was back by her side on the bed before she could blink.

  He dropped the box on the pillow and pinned her down beneath him, kissing her again, her mouth, her cheeks, her neck, his hands roaming her body, muttering words she didn’t understand into her ear but which added to the sensations already consuming her. The weight of his erection lay heavy on her thigh and she made to touch it again but he grabbed her wrist to stop her.

  ‘Later,’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘You can do whatever you want to me later but right now I need to be inside you.’

  She kissed him, sweeping her tongue into his mouth, letting him know with her body how badly she needed him inside her too.

  It didn’t matter that this was something she had never done before. She hadn’t done any of this before, had spent her adult life denying herself something so beautiful and...necessary. Not any more.

  Keeping his body so deliciously flush on hers, he groped for the packet and quickly extracted a square foil from it, which he ripped open with his teeth. Then he shifted slightly onto his side and deftly sheathed himself.

  His mouth found hers again as he twisted back to lie on top of her, using his thighs to nudge her legs a little further apart so his erection was right there...

  He entered her with one driving thrust, plunging her straight into a world where heaven and hell collided.

  Hell; the sharp pain she hadn’t expected and that made her suck in a shocked breath...and which Andreas either felt or sensed because he stilled.

  ‘Carrie?’ He lifted his head a little to look at her, confusion appearing in the molten depths of his eyes.

  But already her body was adjusting to the feel of him inside her, the pain already diminished.

  She smiled and tilted her chin to press her mouth to his. For long moments they simply touched lips together and breathed each other in. Then she closed her eyes as he began to move, and then...

  Then she found herself in heaven.

  He made love to her slowly, his thrusts tempered. His hands held hers tightly as he ground his groin against hers, stimulating her as he filled her.

  Yes, she had found heaven.

  Then he raised himself onto his elbows to lock eyes with her, causing the stimulation to deepen in rhythm with his deepening thrusts. Sensation pulsed like bolts of lightning in her core, a burning need growing and intensifying.

  Wrapping her arms tightly around him, she ran her hands down his back exulting in the feel of his muscles and sweat-slicked skin beneath her fingers, then closed her eyes to everything but the sensations taking control, submitting to them, submitting to the pleasure and magic of everything they were creating together until the lightning exploded.

  Pleasure shattered through her like a tsunami, bolts tearing down her spine and into her every crevice with an intensity that sent white light flickering behind her eyes and a cry from her mouth that sounded distant with the drumming in her ears.

  Electricity danced on her and through her, almost stunning her. She held onto Andreas as if he were an anchor in this world, a dim acceptance that this was all because of him and only him, that there could never be another...

  His lips crashed onto hers as he gave a roar that seemed to have been dredged from his very soul and drove into her for one last powerful thrust that made him shudder with the force of his own release.

  Shocked eyes fell on hers before he gave one last groan and lowered himself onto her with his full weight, and buried his face in her hair.

  Carrie tightened her hold on him, sighing to feel his breath tickling her scalp.

  The sensation that had erupted through her with such violence was now a gentle ripple and she closed her eyes, wishing with all her heart that she could bottle this moment for eternity.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ANDREAS AWOKE ON his side to find Carrie’s face pressed against his chest, an arm and thigh slung around him.

  He also awoke to find himself fully aroused.

  He took a deep breath and rolled onto his back, careful not to disturb her sleep. She rolled with him, her face now buried in his side, her hand drifting to rest on his abdomen.

  The room was shrouded in such darkness he knew without having to look that he’d slept for many hours. He smiled ruefully to know he’d done that most male of male things and fallen asleep almost immediately after sex.

  Yes, a most male of male things but not something he had ever done before. But then, he had never known sex to be like that before, an experience so intense that climaxing had felt as if his brains might explode from his head. He’d made it to the bathroom to dispose of the condom then fallen back into bed, scooped Carrie into his arms to cuddle against her, and fallen straight into blissful sleep. The evening had still been light outside.

  He’d never done that before either: fallen asleep with his arms wrapped so tightly around someone.

  He had good reason to believe Carrie had never done any of this before.

  The little spot of blood he’d seen
on the sheets when he’d climbed back into bed had only consolidated what his body had told him when he’d first entered her.

  Carrie had been a virgin.

  He hadn’t bedded a virgin since he’d lost his own virginity. Then, they had both been seventeen and full of raging hormones. He’d promised faithfully to marry her if she slept with him, a blatant lie told by horny teenage boys the world over. They’d given each other their virginity and afterwards he’d ridden off on his scooter, cigarette dangling from his mouth, feeling like a king.

  He smiled at the memory. He hadn’t thought of Athena for years. She’d dumped him for one of his friends a few weeks later, which he was sure had broken his heart for at least five minutes. As far as he knew, Athena and Stavros were still married with an army of children running them ragged.

  He was quite sure she was the last virgin he’d been with. The irony of him actually marrying the second virgin he slept with after promising to do that faithfully with the first did not escape him.

  He ran a hand gently over Carrie’s hair, smoothing it, enjoying the silky feel of it on his skin.

  What had made her wait so long?

  To have missed out on those heady teenage years where hormones dictated every part of your life? No office romances either? He kept a strict hands-off rule with his staff but he didn’t expect them to keep their hands off each other. So long as it didn’t interfere with their work he couldn’t care less what the consenting adults he employed got up to.

  Had Carrie been waiting for someone special?

  He brushed his finger along her cheek, his chest tightening to imagine the myriad reasons why she had chosen to remain a virgin and what the implications for them were.

  She stirred against him and nuzzled into his chest. Her movements were enough to tighten the other, much baser part of him that had already been wide awake and aroused and when her fingers began to drift lightly down his abdomen...

  Minutes later and he was inside her again.