Apollo's Daughter
Page 19
She turned quickly, half afraid he might have been discouraged by her silence, but he still stood in the same spot, tall and lean and unbelievably dear to her. Tm leaving on Saturday, Bethany.' He spoke quietly, but there was a vibrance in his voice that shattered her self-control. 'I'll go without you if I have to, but '
*No, Niko, no!' Bethany flung herself forward into his arms, her own arms clasped tightly around him while she buried her face against the broad warmth of his chest. And the whispered plea was half lost as she pressed so close she could feel every muscle that strained her to him. 'Don't leave me, please don't leave me!'
One hand stroked long fingers through her hair and his lips brushed her forehead while he snuggled her in the deep haven between shoulder and chin. 'If you won't come with me I must leave you, little one,' Nikolas murmured. *I have to remember that I have more family than one small and very beautiful cousin who will wind me around her little finger if I allow her to.' His lips kissed lightly, her forehead, cheek and neck, one hand still stroking her hair. 'I don't want to leave
l&l APOLLO'S DAUGHTER
you, ray little one, but if you give me no choice, I must.' That searing, irresistible longing rose in her again and Bethany rubbed her cheek against the warm body through a thin-textured shirt, her hands reaching up and sliding inside the neck of the shirt. 'Niko.' She looked up at him with her lips parted, soft and eager for his mouth, and Nikolas moaned like a man in torment as he bent his head and took the lure she offered. Strong gentle hands moulded her softness and he took her mouth with the fierce hunger of a man who has for too long been denied that which he craves— eager, seeking, demanding a response that she gave only too readily, yielding her mouth to a passion that seemed insatiable and sought to draw the very breath from her body. Releasing her lips with lingering slowness, he kissed her throat and the slender softness of her neck, then once again looked down into her face, folding warm flushed cheeks between his palms as he tried to see her in the almost vanished light.
'I shall take you with me/ Nikolas said in a voice that was not only firm but huskily sensual and brought a clamouring urgency to her heartbeat. *I shall take you if I have to drag you forcibly by your beautiful hair, do you hear me? I shall take no more nonsense from you!'
His strong fingers twined in her hair and he gave it a brief, sharp tug while his smiling mouth breathed warmth on to her lips, and reaching up, Bethany put her arms around his neck. *I want to come with you,* she whispered huskily, her lips half smiling and shamelessly inviting another kiss. *I don't want to stay here without you, Niko.'
*I never intended that vou should,' he told her with a gleam of white teeth, 'but I wanted you to come to me of vour own free will, if you would.'
'And if I hadn't?'
*If you hadn't,' Nikolas told her in a deep quiet voice that both promised and threatened, 'I should have invoked my right as your guardian and followed my cousin's wishes to the letter.'
It was diflScult to judge his expression, for the darkness was complete until the moon came up above the thrust of the hilltop. 'Papa?' she asked, leaning back a little on the hands that rested in the small of her back. Tapa wanted me to marry '
*Me,' Nikolas agreed, and laughed at her obvious surprise. 'You shouldn't believe all you hear, my precious love. I tried to give Aunt Alex an inkling without telling her outright, just in case you wouldn't have me, but she got the wrong idea and, I gather, passed it on to you.' He sought her mouth in the warm darkness and kissed her long and lingeringly, then pulled her close and rested his face on the softness of her hair. 'That young brother of mine gave me quite a few uneasy moments,' he confessed. 1 thought you might fall in love with him.'
'With Theo?' Bethany considered for a moment, and realised with some surprise that it had never even occurred to her. 'I never thought of falling in love with Theo,' she confided after due consideration. 'I don't know why—^he's good-looking and charming, and '
Nikolas cut short the list of his brother's virtues, using every means at his disposal to persuade her that his claim was the more pressing, and Bethany was in no mind to deny him. 'You'll marry me,* he told her some time later and with a hint of the familiar ruthless insistence.
But Bethany no longer felt the need to defy him seriously. 'Because Papa wanted you to?' she asked, and caught her breath in a shivering little laugh when that ravishing mouth came close again.
'Because / want to,' Nikolas insisted, and gripped her tightly. 'And if you're playing your teasing games again '
'I love you,' Bethany murmured hastily. *I love you, Niko!' She brushed the hovering mouth with her lips and smiled. 'You're the only one I ever—played those games with, my darling, I promise you, and I just couldn't resist teasing you.'
'And if I didn't love you so much-
He did not complete the sentence, but buried his mouth in her soft lips again, lips that yielded eagerly as they always did. And for the first time in her life Bethany did not care whether she was in Apolidus or where she was—it didn't matter as long as Nikolas was there too.
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Table of Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Pages
Back Cover