She dropped her spoon into the empty yogurt bowl. “You already have that, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Grace looked at Aidan and Michael as if both men hung the moon and stars. As much as she loved men, Erica couldn’t imagine sleeping with more than one at a time.
“Actually, about that.” Aidan braced his elbows on the table and propped his chin up on his clasped hands. “Grace was wondering if you’d be interested in joining us this afternoon.”
“For lunch? Of course. I’d love to.”
“No. For sex.”
Erica stared at him in surprise, not sure whether or not he was joking. “Isn’t your bed crowded enough as it is?” Then she laughed before she could catch herself. “Don’t answer that.” She shook her head, still chuckling. “I—I’m very flattered, but I don’t think so.”
“Think about it.” He grinned, apparently not taking offense at her rejection. “Grace would like another woman to play with. It’s been a while for her, and you know Michael and I will take care of you.” He licked his lips in an exaggerated way that left no doubt what he was talking about.
“I don’t doubt your skill,” she murmured, not hiding her smile. “But I just don’t have any interest in sleeping with more than one person right now.”
“Not even if we got your boyfriend to join us?”
He’s not my boyfriend. The words almost fell from her lips, but then she thought of something else. “Did he agree to sleep with you?”
“No. Not yet. But you never know the answer to a question until you ask.”
“Very true.” Then she shook her head again. “I really thank you for the invitation to sleep with you guys. I’m flattered that you thought of me in that way, but I’m not interested right now, even if you get Nikolas to join in. I’m a little selfish where my lovers are concerned.”
The Australian shrugged. “At least I tried. Thanks for at least hearing me out.”
“No problem.”
After he left, she looked up to the main mast, where Nikolas still dangled precariously. Was it her imagination, or did he just smile at her? She dipped her head, hiding her own smile.
* * *
The island of Kos was a place of simple charms. Its climate was similar to Santorini, arid and desertlike but with golden beaches that made it one of the most beautiful islands in all of Greece. Barely twelve miles long and five miles wide, it was home to little more than a hundred inhabitants, who mostly lived in houses built high in the mountains. The area around the low-lying temple was deserted, populated only by wild goats and olive trees.
Erica was one of the last to leave the boat, preferring to find her way around the island with the rough map provided for each of the passengers instead of following Lani. The girl and Max planned to lead the small group to the temple, then up to the town in the hills, where they would explore and have lunch before heading back down to the beach for a swim.
Erica made her way slowly to the temple, deliberately taking her time along the dusty, winding path so she would miss seeing Lani. By the time she reached the temple, it was deserted.
Ahead of her, the remains of Anahita’s temple loomed above the road. A stone wall. Four cracked marble columns of various heights. A waist-high slab with a headless, winged figure of the goddess. Her rippling, floor-length dress left one breast uncovered, and she held the feet of what seemed like two snarling lions in each hand. In the bright morning, the goddess was beautiful. Around the slab were the discarded remains of the temple. Pieces of marble strewn here and there, and short brown grass grew up between the ancient stone platform and through gaps in the wall.
As she looked up at the goddess, the whispers of a conversation came to her on the breeze. Two voices, male and female, urgently speaking Greek. The path leading to the voices took her away from the main temple and toward a high but crumbling wall, a place made for privacy. Erica crept closer, chastising herself with every step for being nosy.
Her sneakered feet crept over the dry gravel and through the drifting white dust, making a crackling noise. At the ruins of the wall, she poked her head around the corner. And gasped. In the private arbor behind the wall, a surprisingly fertile area with lush green grass and a sprinkling of bright purple blossoms, two people stood nearly chest to chest. Nikolas and Lani.
Lani looked as ordinary as the first time Erica had seen her, blond hair straight and loose around her face, an overflowing bounty of breasts in her white tank top, pale yellow shorts clinging to her narrow hips. The couple stood in profile to Erica as they argued.
Lani had Nikolas’s shirt gripped in her fists as she cried out to him. She pulled his face down to hers, but Nikolas turned away before their lips could connect. She stumbled back from him and pulled off her tank top and bra. Her bare breasts tumbled free.
Erica’s hands gripped the edge of the wall, the stones digging hard into her palm. She stared at Nikolas’s face. He was more serious than she’d ever seen him. His jaw was clenched tightly and his posture was stiff as he said something to Lani.
But she shook her head and grabbed Nikolas’s hands. She dragged them to her breasts. After what seemed like an eternity to Erica, he pulled his hands away from the other woman’s chest, put them on her shoulders instead and said something softly to her.
She reared back and slapped his face.
The sound of it was loud in the clearing. Abrupt. Nikolas’s face hardened. But he said nothing. Lani raised her hand to slap him again, but he grabbed her hands and forced them to her sides. The girl pulled away from him, yanked on her bra and shirt and stalked off, walking toward where Erica stood, eavesdropping.
Erica ducked her head back around the wall and straightened from her crouch just as the blonde reached her. Lani’s eyes widened at the sight of Erica, lips skinning back from her teeth.
“You bitch!” she spat. “I told you to stay away from him. He was mine before you started wagging your fat ass in his face!”
Erica stepped back, expecting the girl to try to slap her. Instead Lani froze mere inches from her and started crying. The tears flooded from her wide blue eyes, and black mascara ran down her pale cheeks. “You two deserve each other!” the girl screamed, spit flying. “If he doesn’t know a good thing when he sees it, then screw him.” Lani jerked away from Erica and ran down the path toward the beach.
“Erica.” Nikolas walked up to her from beyond the wall, shadows around his normally smiling eyes. “Did that entertain you?”
“I wasn’t looking for entertainment,” she said. “And I’m sure you know I don’t speak Greek.”
“You don’t have to speak Greek to understand what that slap was about. Or those tears.”
Erica shrugged. “You and her could have been discussing your recent engagement for all I know.”
“Trust me when I say that’s definitely not it.” Nikolas sighed heavily. “Walk with me.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she fell into step with him. They walked gingerly down the path together and found themselves standing beneath the statue of the goddess. Nikolas sank down at the goddess’s feet and leaned back against the marble pedestal.
The sun fell over him like a golden blanket, illuminating his smooth face, full mouth, the slumberous brown of his eyes.
“I’ve never understood the big deal about things like this.” He gestured to the statue and the ruins of the temple.
“They represent history and give people something to believe in—like love. Everyone wants love,” Erica said. “Some need it.”
Nikolas shook his head, a tight smile pulling at the edges of his mouth. “Everyone needs sex, maybe. Not love.”
“Why would you say something like that, especially when sitting in the presence of the goddess?” She joked with him as she gestured up to the figure of the goddess, trying to distract him from the scene
he’d just had with Lani.
“I think the goddess would forgive this nonbeliever.”
She sat down next to him, leaned into the sun-warmed marble and tilted her head to look into his face. “I’m sorry about what happened back there. Are you going to be all right?”
For a moment, he glanced at her, a frown marring his smooth brow. Then he looked off in the distance, allowing the sunlight to move across the symmetrical planes of his face, his mouth and his neck.
“I mentioned before that I don’t do relationships.” The corners of his eyes tightened as he spoke. “The reason why happened a lifetime ago.”
He looked so sad that Erica wanted to hold him in her arms until the smile she was used to transformed his face once again. She touched his knee.
“As if you’re that old,” she teased.
“I’m twenty-six years old.” He said it as if he were Methuselah.
Erica rolled her eyes, keeping her hand on his knee. “And I’m twenty-eight. So what?”
“Are you really?” He looked surprised.
“Why? Does that mean you’re not interested in my body anymore?”
“You know,” he said, his eyes holding a faint teasing light. “I’ve always enjoyed older women.”
Erica sighed with the beginnings of relief. He almost sounded like himself again. Then he put his hand on top of hers, his palm radiating warmth into her skin.
“A lifetime ago,” he said, “my parents were happy.”
In a low and reflective voice, Nikolas told her how his father went to Zambia on a business trip and met his mother, Uzondile Kani. The pair fell instantly in love and married within a week. Their happiness in Zambia and then later in Greece was enough to make anyone who saw them envious.
Then, after twenty-two years and three children, Anatol Stephanides suddenly announced that he was no longer in love with his wife and wanted a divorce. He had discovered a passion for the twenty-five-year-old daughter of a business associate and wanted to start a new life with her. Despite what his father said, Nikolas had always suspected that it was Anatol’s desire for the girl’s money and status rather than her body that drove him from his family.
Nikolas’s mother, a dignified and beautiful woman, accepted what her husband wanted and moved out of the family home. The three Stephanides children were devastated.
Uzondile moved to a smaller house on the island, a house with a swimming pool that she was always a little frightened of. One night, she ran out into the yard, chasing the small dog she had gotten to keep her company. It was dark. She tripped and fell in the pool. Drowned.
The security cameras caught everything on film.
Nikolas’s voice broke. “My sisters and I thought father was joking when he told us. We could not believe it.” Nikolas blinked as if walking through cobwebs. He looked up. “For a long time, I hated my father. If it had not been for him, she wouldn’t have been alone in that house. She would be alive.”
With Uzondile’s death, Anatol rediscovered his love for his wife. He discarded the woman he would have put in her place. He moved her things back to the family home. But it was too late.
“One moment she was everything to him,” Nikolas said. “And the next it was like she never existed. A relationship of twenty years and three children scattered like ashes. My mother dying alone in the dark.” He refocused his eyes on Erica. “What do relationships mean when something like that can happen?”
For a moment, Erica said nothing. She sat next to the man she had come to feel so much for in such a short time, only able to imagine his pain. Her hand tightened briefly on his knee.
“Your father was having a midlife crisis,” she finally said. “Don’t allow what he did to ruin your chances at happiness.”
“Other men have done similar things. Other women, too.”
“So instead of being a better man, you’re the one who plays around and discards your lovers’ feelings?” She thought of Lani and the look on her face. The hurt and anger. Would that be her at the end of this trip?
“No. Never. Women have tried to change my mind, but they always know where I stand. I’m always clear that I just want sex.” He dipped his head, glanced up at her through the thicket of his lashes. “You are the only one who has made me question myself...”
Erica’s heart began a wild drumbeat at his words, but she forced a laugh. “Whore.”
“Never. I’m much more discriminating than that.” The smallest of smiles moved across his face. “Love is beautiful. I believe that anyone who wants it should have it, but it’s just not for me.” He looked at her defiantly.
She only shrugged. “Whatever you say, lover boy.”
“You make me sound so unsavory.”
“Never that,” she murmured. “Because you are savory indeed, one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time.”
Nikolas laughed as he threw off the last of his melancholy, reached out and drew her to him. “Every day, you surprise me.”
His eyes looked deeply into hers. Erica felt every centimeter of his hands on her skin. Heard the far-off whisper of the sea rushing up to the sand. The breeze moving through the oasis behind them. Everything else disappeared except for his eyes and his touch.
“Are you trying to bewitch me?” she asked.
“Is it working?”
His mouth slowly lowered to hers. Nikolas took command of their kiss with a skill that made her thighs fall open. His hand at the back of her head guided her to his mouth. His tongue tested the pucker of her lips, tracing it before parting it, diving into her. A whine of sound escaped the back of her throat.
In the brightness of the day and with the alcohol gone from her system, Erica was better able to appreciate the sensations moving through her, the syrupy drip of arousal between her legs. Pleasure unwinding slowly in her from the caress of his hands on her back. He touched her belly through the shirt, making slow and languorous circles. Teasing. Aching. She pulled away from him, panting.
“I don’t—” Her voice escaped her and she tried again. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to do what you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking?” His voice was low. Rough.
At the touch of his hand between her legs, through her bathing suit, she hissed at the pleasure of it.
“I don’t want to give people an eyeful out here in the open. Someone’s going to see us!”
But she was the one who reached between them. She was the one who unzipped his shorts. His dick sprang out, thick and hard in her palm. He swallowed thickly.
“Wow!”
They kissed again. A wild tangle of lips and tongues that caused an itch between her legs and made her heart pound viciously in her chest. The breeze blew over her skin, over her back.
“We can’t,” she said. “Not here.”
“If not at the feet of the goddess, then where?”
His words were teasing, but his tone was urgent, hard. He pulled her into him, and the heat of his skin set hers on fire, made her nearly burst with the desire for him. She straddled him, and he rubbed against her through her bathing suit. Erica shoved aside her bikini bottom and gripped him in her fist. She thumbed the weeping head of his thickness, stroking him while the breath left him in urgent gasps.
“A condom!” she said. “Do you have one?”
He fumbled in his pocket, found a wallet, a silver packet. She ripped it open, slid it onto him. He groaned at the feel of her hands on him.
“I’m going to ride you.” She whispered the words in his ear as she took him in her hand, touched it to her entrance and slid down onto him.
They both groaned.
“That was so easy, wasn’t it?” He grabbed her hips. She undulated in his lap, gripping his fullness inside her wet and dripping walls, a hungry snake, swallowing him as she was
absorbed in pleasure.
“The goddess would be pleased,” Nikolas moaned.
Their eyes met and held as she moved on his lap. Her knees dug into the sparse grass. He adjusted his hips, moved so her knees wouldn’t press into the slab at his back.
“Take off your shirt,” she commanded as she moved on top of him. Moments later, his chest was bare and glistening in the sun, deep brown flesh, defined pec muscles moving under his silken skin. She pinched his nipples. Erica gasped as he reached under her shirt and yanked her bikini top down and her shirt up. His mouth licked her nipple, a light feather’s touch. Then he moved back, working his hips, inside her; then he licked her again. Erica twitched, the tease driving her wild.
“Suck it,” she moaned.
He licked her nipple one last time, then latched onto it, pulling it hard into his mouth, laving it with his tongue. She bucked in his lap; her sex clutched at his hardness. Heat twisted in her belly. Flooded her.
“Nikolas!”
He hummed against her skin, his hands firm on her back.
The smell of the sparse grass around them was heavy in the air. Sweat dripped down Erica’s skin as Nikolas thrust up inside her. He sucked hard on her breast, his tongue cupping her nipple, turning her entire body to liquid in his lap. Erica thrust her fingers into his hair, threw her head back to blink up at the heavens as the very sunlight itself seemed to pour into her body. Her heart thumped in her chest. Her hectic breath scraped her throat raw; her feet slid in the white dirt as she moved around. Lust was a wildfire in her.
She cried out his name again.
He grabbed her ass, slamming her down on his lap, and the sensations wrapped around her until she could barely breathe. Could only feel. His hardness full and thick inside her. The sun burning into her back. Sweat dripping down her skin. Heat. Her sex swollen with want for him. Wetness. Light. Lust.
Nikolas kneaded her breasts, squeezed her pebbled nipples, growled in his throat as she rode him toward satisfaction. He burst inside her like sunrise. She gasped at the feel of him jerking inside her. He clutched the back of her head, fingers gripping her scalp tightly as his breath huffed against her throat, as his body spasmed in its lust throes.
Dim the Lights: Islands of DesireLiquid ChocolateHer Wild and Sexy Nights Page 8