“It does matter,” I whisper. “Just because your family is rich doesn’t mean you’re never allowed to want things—other things, different things. I’d like to hear about it. It matters to me.”
He raises our joined hands to his lips and presses a sweet, soft kiss to my knuckles. My breath comes in short, fast puffs as I watch his eyes.
“You’re making it awfully hard for me to be only a friend,” he says, his voice wine-soaked sex.
My chest heaves, and everything south of my belly button tingles in anticipation. “Maybe I’m rethinking that particular rule,” I answer.
His eyes turn hot, his lips part. “Oh yeah? I was afraid—the other night—that my text would upset you. I don’t ever want you to feel like you did that night in the club. Like I’m pressuring you to do something you don’t want to. I’m your boss, and if we’re being smart, we shouldn’t do this.” There is a tension that’s nearly palpable now, and he’s strung tight as a wire, I can almost see the strain of the effort he’s exerting to hold himself back.
I pause and think for a moment. I know I shouldn’t do it. I shouldn’t get involved with my boss. I shouldn’t get involved with someone I have nothing in common with. I should stick to my work, my friends and my ordinary life. But there is this anything-but-ordinary man in front of me, and he wants me, and I want him. So badly I can taste it. It tastes like wine and sunshine, olives and starlight. It tastes like Niko, and Niko tastes like the adventure of a lifetime.
“Maybe being smart is overrated,” I answer. Then I close my eyes and wait.
Niko
Tess’s eyes flutter shut and I don’t move, watching her long lashes resting on her cheeks. God, she’s beautiful. Like an angel in some rococo painting, all soft curves and peaches and cream coloring. I probably shouldn’t let her give us the green light. No matter who allows it or doesn’t, I have no business kissing my student intern. It makes me seem like some sleazy politician. But I can’t turn away from her. I can’t imagine not kissing her now. It’s embedded in my very soul. So I lean forward the last two inches between our faces and press my lips to hers.
She lets out a tiny sigh and I groan in utter desperation. I nip at her bottom lip and feel her smile under my kisses. I touch the tip of my tongue to the seam of her mouth and she opens to me. It sends me over the edge. Raising up on one elbow and angling my head, I kiss her properly. And damn does she kiss me back in all the best ways. Our lips crush against each other and her sweet little tongue dances with mine until I’m lightheaded.
I move one arm to the other side of her so I have her caged in and my chest is resting against hers. And God, her soft, lush breasts feel incredible. My balls ache and I’m panting now, as she wiggles beneath me.
“Am I too heavy,” I gasp as I lift my mouth from hers a fraction.
“No,” she answers, arching into me and nipping at my lips before she giggles.
“What are you laughing at,” I tease as I lick up the side of her neck and take her earlobe between my teeth.
“Oh my God,” she moans, rolling her head back so her neck is curved like some sort of exotic bird’s.
“You like that?” I hiss, my dick straining against my dress pants.
“There aren’t words.”
I move back to her mouth and kiss her deeply while I test my luck and run my fingers across one of her breasts. The nipple is already hard and begging for attention, so I palm it and slowly rub in circles. She nearly comes off the blanket, crying out, “Oh!” as she writhes. Fuck, she’s hot.
“Do you want me to make you come, princess?” I breathe into her ear.
Her eyes blink open and I look down at her. She’s dark promise and sweet reward, and I’m more turned on than I have ever been in my life.
I slowly move my hand down her body, our eyes locked the entire time. When I reach the waistband of her shorts, I unbutton and unzip them. All the while she stares at me, never once breaking eye contact.
Slipping my fingers into the top of her lacy panties I feel the soft silky hair there. Then I move lower, until I reach her clit, and rub it with my finger, dipping into the slick wetness that’s soaking her.
“Niko,” she gasps.
“You’re so wet, so perfect.” I slide my finger up and down her slit, then inside of her. She presses against my hand and I know that it’s not going to take much. I can’t help but thrust my dick against her hip as I stroke her.
I use the heel of my hand to push against her clit, and with my finger I find that tiny rough patch inside of her, rubbing it at the same time. She sobs and her whole body goes rigid, everything freezing in place for long, silent seconds. Then she cries out, “Yes!” and I feel her muscles contracting all around my hand, in wave after wave of hot, sweet, release. I capture her cries with my mouth, thrusting my tongue inside of her too.
As she comes down, I soften the kisses, until I’m giving her gentle pecks on the lips, and I take my hand away. My balls hurt, and my dick is on fire, but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, because I made Tess happy, and suddenly, I feel like I’ve found a new purpose in life.
“You’re beautiful,” I tell her. She gazes at me with a tiny smile, and it lights up my world. I’m so overcome all I can do is bury my head in the crook between her neck and shoulder and breathe her in. I haven’t even come myself and what I feel is so much more intense than what I’ve ever felt with another woman.
Her slender fingers drift through my hair as she looks at me and licks her lips. “We probably shouldn’t be doing this,” she tells me. “But for the first time in my life, I don’t care.” I chuckle and lean down to give her another kiss, but she surprises me and flips me onto my back, her long hair hanging in a curtain around our faces as she leans over me.
“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh princess?”
“You have no idea,” she answers, before unbuttoning my dress shirt, planting delicate kisses along my chest and abs as she goes.
“Fuck, that feels good,” I gasp. She brushes my shirt aside and gazes at me, her eyes hot with desire as I sit up with her straddling me and shrug out of the shirt. “Now it’s your turn.”
Her smile is wicked as she slowly lifts her own blouse and lets it slide over her head before dropping it to the deck, leaving her in only a skimpy, red satin bra, the cups cut so low I can see the dusky pink skin around her nipples.
She’s a vision that works its way from my chest where my heart thumps time and a half, down to my dick that throbs at the same pace—I take in her shiny, gold hair waving around her shoulders, contrasting with the deep red of the bra. Her breasts are the perfect size, full and round, and her waist is tiny, hardly any bigger than my two hands.
I skim my fingers over her shoulders, awed at how fortunate I am to experience this with her. The light scent of the saltwater drifts in the air, and I hear the waves washing ashore on the adjacent beach. My lips meet with hers, and in my soul I get the same feeling—the feeling I have when I’m on the water, when I’m sailing and the wind is rushing, the water spraying, I’m part of something powerful, something bigger than me. I’ve never felt this anywhere but on the water, but I feel it here, with her, and I know that I will never sell this boat. Ever.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask.
She tilts her head to give my lips more access to her long, smooth neck. I chuckle as I lick her like an ice cream cone.
“Mmm,” she moans. “I’m sure that I want you to do more of that.”
“Oh princess, I’ll do as much of that as you want.”
I feel her hand slip between us, and she grasps my dick through my pants. I jerk, my balls tightening and sending tingles all the way up my spine.
“Jesus,” I moan as I cup her face in my hand and lean my forehead against hers. “If we’re going to keep this up I think we need to go below deck. How about it?”
Before she can answer me a shriek followed by giggling drifts toward us. Then we hear heels thudding along the dock. A second
later Christos’s voice snaps me out of the lust-induced haze Tess has me in.
“Here,” I grab her top and hand it to her, reaching down and trying to zip up her shorts. She’s still straddling me, and she’s moving too much as she fumbles with her top. I lift her off of me and stand, dragging her up at the same time. She’s gotten her arms through the sleeves, but still has the front of the shorts unbuttoned when Christos appears at the front of the boat, flanked by two girls decked out in club clothes—mini skirts, lots of cleavage, sky high heels.
I grab Tess and shove her behind me, giving her a chance to button up. My shirt’s still open, and my pants are tented a mile high, but hopefully in the low light Christos and company won’t notice.
The girls are hanging off of Christos’s arms, and he’s whispering to one of them while she giggles.
“C,” I say, using his old soccer nickname. “What are you doing here, man?”
Christos’s head jerks up, and he pauses, craning to look to one side of me before a smirk spreads across his face.
“Hey, bro. These lovely ladies and I were going to hang out, have a few drinks.” He sways on his feet, obviously drunk. “But I see you have company. Who’s your little friend?”
I can feel Tess huddled against my back, her head nestled between my shoulder blades. She’s not offering to reveal herself, and for some reason I don’t want Christos to know it’s Tess. This, being here with her, feels like something fragile, something special and unique that’s all mine. And I realize in that moment that she might be the only thing in the whole wide world that is all mine. Not my father’s, not my family’s, mine. And right now, I want to protect what’s mine.
“So you party on my boat without me often?” I ask, deflecting so I don’t have to answer his question.
Christos stiffens, seeming a lot less drunk than he did two minutes ago.
“No, man, we were wandering by is all. It’s no big thing, right? We didn’t mean to interrupt your private event. But, hey, more is merrier. Why doesn’t your guest join us? I bet you’ve got some champagne below, we can chill, help keep the girls warm.” His two companions giggle more and wrap themselves around him like octopi.
“Yeah, maybe some other time?” I try to put the warning into my voice so he’ll understand that I’m not in the mood for this right now. “I think I’d like to keep my party private.”
He puts his hands up like I’ve got a gun on him. “Got it. No problem, we’ll head out, maybe go to the house. Come on ladies, you can see Niko’s place. He’s got the biggest television on the island.”
I give him a thumbs up and the three of them disappear down the dock out of sight.
I hear Tess mumbling behind me and finally turn around to look at her.
“Oh hell,” she squeaks. “Did he really not see me?”
I put my arms around her, rubbing her back lightly. “No. He couldn’t tell who you were. I’m…” I don’t know what to say about this, or even what I feel. “I’m sorry he interrupted. I don’t know what he was doing here.”
“It’s okay,” she says, stepping away from me and leaving me chilled on the outside and the inside. “We sort of got carried away, right? I mean, it was probably for the best…” Her voice fades as she looks up at me from under her lashes.
I take her hand and walk us back to the bench along the edge of the deck. When we sit I pull her onto my lap and hold her close.
“I don’t think so. I think that may have been the best thirty minutes of my life.”
She chuckles, her breath warm against my neck where her head is tucked. “Says the horny guy.”
“Hey, I’ll freely admit I’ve got blue balls right now, but that’s not why I said it.” I gently push her away so that I can look her in the eyes. “I like you, princess. I always have, and the more time I spend with you the more I like you. That was the best thirty minutes of my life because I got to know you better, I got to make you smile…” I take a deep breath, trying to control my raging hormones. “And watching you come will fuel my fantasies for months.”
If the light were brighter, I’m sure I’d see her blush.
“Oh wow,” she moans as she buries her head in my shoulder again.
I laugh. “So. Can I ask you something?”
She nods.
“When you said you didn’t mind breaking the rules with me—did that mean tonight? Or would you be willing to do some rule breaking in the future too?”
A small smile curves her lips as she watches me. “I have to give you props,” she says, her voice low and rough. She runs a finger down the skin on my chest that still peeks out from my unbuttoned shirt. “You’re pretty persuasive in the rule breaking department.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mmhm. I could probably be persuaded to break them again.”
Things inside my chest are dancing around. “You’re right though about the work stuff. We’ll need to keep the rule breaking to ourselves. My dad’s not going to get angry, but he asked me not to, and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. I know I’m asking you to place a lot of trust in me. I want to be worthy of it. I think you’re worth the risk.”
She thinks about this for a moment. “Okay,” she says finally, and relief washes through me like warm spring rain. “Not at work.”
“Not at work,” I repeat. I pull her closer to me then and lean down to kiss her. “But we’re not at work now.”
“No,” she whispers as her eyes flutter closed. “We’re definitely not.”
Tess
I stumble into my apartment at seven a.m., and am greeted by a very pissed and very tired Cass.
“Where the hell have you been?” she snaps as I shut the front door.
“Oh! You’re home.” I go to the couch and flop down, exhausted, but deliciously so. “I figured you’d be at Anton’s.”
“Well, I’m not. He had to visit his grandmother in Athens, so he’s gone for a few days. But I had no idea where you were. You didn’t answer your phone, and I’ve been up half the night worried about you.”
I leap off the sofa and run to hug her. “Oh, Cass! I’m sorry. My phone died and I’m so used to you being gone I didn’t even think that there might be someone waiting for me at home.”
She gives in to my hug even though I know she’d like to stay pissed. “Okay, it’s all right. But next time you’re out all night give me a heads up.”
“I promise.” I go back to the sofa, putting my feet up, closing my eyes and getting ready for a nice early morning nap.
“So. Where were you?”
I open one eyelid to see Cass standing over me with a wicked gleam in her eyes. Oh shit.
“Ummm…”
“Out with it,” she demands.
I sigh and sit up. “Fine. I was with Niko.”
“Oh. My. God!” She jumps up and down and puts her hands over her mouth. “Seriously? Niko? Your boss, Niko? Billionaire Niko? Hot as hell Niko?”
I nod slowly, a grin taking over my face. “Yeah. And he was amazing.”
“You slept with him?!” Cass nearly breaks glasses with her high-pitched shriek.
I put my hands over my ears and shake my head vehemently. “No! No, I didn’t sleep with him.”
She collapses on the sofa next to me. “Well why the hell not?” she asks, a pout on her puffy lips.
I can’t help but laugh at her antics. “I’m not really a first date kind of girl.”
“Was this?”
“Was this what?”
“A first date? Because if it was? Congratulations, superstar. Niko’s not exactly known for dating if you get my drift.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to hear about it.”
“But answer the question—was last night a date?”
“No. I mean, yes. Well…no.”
“Tess?”
“Okay. It didn’t start off as a date. We ran into each other after work and had a friendly walk together, ended up on his boat and one thing led to another.”
; “Another what?”
I laugh again. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Come on,” she whines as she tucks her feet up under her butt and gives me her best puppy dog eyes. “You spent the night with one of C-TV’s most eligible bachelors of 2014, you’ve got to give me something here.”
I sigh, thinking about Niko’s hands on me, his lips, his skin. “We uh, you know, had quite a bit of fun. I guess you could say his boat is really great.”
“Ooh, ooh! Did you rock it?” She laughs hysterically at her own joke. Yeah she’s one of those people.
“We might even have rocked it more if his cousin hadn’t shown up all of the sudden. Those two are weird with each other, I don’t understand that whole thing.”
“Christos? You know he’s Niko’s deftheri, right?”
“Yeah, he explained that to me. And I like Christos, but something between the two of them seems off sometimes. Like maybe Christos isn’t as happy being the consigliere as everyone thinks he is. I mean, who would want to spend their whole life voluntarily coming in second to someone else?”
“It’s not quite like that.” Her face scrunches as she struggles to explain. “In that family it’s a huge honor, they’ve been doing it for generations. In any Greek family everyone accepts their place. You’re used to it from birth, you know? But in the Stephanos family if you’re going to live with an assigned role, being the deftheri is the second best one you can have.”
I think about it for a moment. I can understand it, even though it’s very different from the family I grew up in. “It’s not so much the idea that I doubt,” I tell her carefully. “There’s something else. I can’t really put my finger on it.”
The Heir: A Standalone Greek Billionaire Romance Page 12