by Sophia Lynn
And that’s enough of that. I no longer care if I’m in trouble at all.
He didn’t go to her immediately. There was no reason to do so.
In the space of a moment, his strategy had changed. It went from wanting to keep his distance so she wouldn’t see the true man he was, to wanting to know all about her. She was a person with hidden depths, and now he wanted to see what they were.
He sipped at the champagne. He smiled. He made his way through the crowd. It made him think of a wolf circling a herd, waiting for the deer to become unwary. The image was a little grim, but it was one that suited him.
Soon, pretty, he thought to himself.
* * *
When Marianna decided to find her own way to the library, she hadn’t realized how difficult it was to get across Athens when most of the city seemed to be intent on celebrating the end of the week. Her cab hit a snail’s pace more than once, and more than once she was tempted to get out and walk.
Finally, however, the driver delivered her to the library in question, and after she paid and tipped the cabbie, she took a deep breath and walked in. She was quiet enough she didn’t bother the people who were listening to the opening address, but when she saw who was speaking, her heart clenched.
There was something natural about the way he stood in the limelight, she thought absently. He looked as if he was born to command hearts and minds. He spoke with aching simplicity about the meaning of libraries and literacy to the Greek people, and when he was done, she felt as if she understood the subject a little more personally than she had before. She clapped for him until her hands ached.
She knew he was going to be swamped by dignitaries and other important people for a while. Marianna circulated herself, keeping a weather eye on Nikolos’s whereabouts. She navigated the crowd, chatting here and exchanging contact information there. She certainly wouldn’t mind more work for this set, who all seemed to be well-educated, tasteful and interesting people.
She kept meaning to approach Nikolos, but every time she looked over, he was with another person. The last time she looked over, he was chatting with a statuesque blond who shined like the sun. Marianna throttled her jealousy, because there was absolutely no reason for her to be feeling that way, and kept moving.
This is a good thing too, she decided. This gives me another view of him, one that I might not have gotten had I gone with him.
The entire library, three stories of human knowledge and endeavor, was open to the public. Despite the fact she was very much there for her work, Marianna realized she was enjoying herself immensely. There was something amazing about the volumes of ancient knowledge, the fact that scholars from different eras had ventured through the very halls she now wandered.
She came to a small dark room at the end of the hall, almost by accident. She thought perhaps it was closet. Instead, it opened out to a small room that seemed devoted to a single book.
It was a gorgeous thing, nearly as large a dining room table if it were actually opened. Sitting under a spotlight, in a glass case, the book had a presence all its own. It was a handsome volume bound with leather that had once been black, and the silver clasps that held it together retained the gorgeous patina of age.
She angled her head to read the placard.
Being the stories and histories of the Great King, Avila…
She hadn’t heard a step. Instead, she felt a prickle up her spine, and she suddenly realized she was not alone. A lifetime’s worth of hard-won experience following leads in some seedy places reared up and she spun around, crouched and ready to act if she needed to.
To her surprise and shock, she saw that it was Nikolos. In his black tuxedo, he looked ridiculously handsome, and the smile on his face could have come from a painting of Lucifer himself, the fallen angel.
“Nikolos! You scared me.”
“Apparently,” he said, entering the room casually. “I thought that you weren’t going to be here tonight.”
“Oh, I never said that,” she said with a small smile. “I just told you that I wouldn’t be needing a ride.”
“I see, and what was the point of this exercise?”
There was something restrained about him, something waiting, something coiled. She could feel her heart beat faster, but there was no fear in her reaction. She knew that she should have backed away for a number of reasons, but instead, all she wanted to do was to get closer, and closer and closer…
“I want to see every side of you,” she said quietly.
“Explain.”
“I want to see you when you think I am watching. I want to see you the way the people back there see you. I want to criticize you and see how you take it, and I want to touch your heart and see how you take that as well.”
She wasn’t sure where those words had come from, but she knew in her heart they were true. In her years as a journalist, she knew there was nothing to do with truth but to live with it. To accept it, and she did.
“I see. And do you want to do all of this because it is your damnable job?” Despite the heat of the words, there was something plaintive about them as well.
She had decided on telling him to the truth, and so now she did.
“No. I formed a deep and personal relationship with Opal. We will be friends for the rest of our lives. And when I look at you, friendship is not what I feel.”
He took another step closer to her. His eyes were black as night, and she could feel the heat of them on her, as if he wished to burn her alive.
“If I am not your friend or your client, then who do you want me to be?” There was a threat there, but shew knew it for what it was. It was a plea, and she gave him what he was asking for.
“I want you to be you,” she said fiercely, looking straight up into his eyes. She was not afraid of him. She never would be.
It was like a fairy tale. The moment she said those words, she knew her fate was sealed. He took another step, bringing them right up to each other. He caught her up in his arms, and kissed her hard.
The kiss they had shared in the car was a gentle thing, something meant to teach them about each other. There was nothing instructional or gentle about this kiss. It was nothing but need and fire. She could feel the way his frame pressed against hers, could feel his muscles and the way he trembled.
She had never been desired like this before, not really. But the idea was not unwelcome, because she was not sure that, in all her years on this planet, she had ever wanted someone this badly.. Her career and her professionalism were on the line, but now she knew what she wanted even more than those things.
She threw her arms around him, kissing him with the fervor she’d been hiding for a full week. She didn’t care if he saw the truth of her. She was open for him. She needed him. The pleasure of being in his arms swamped her senses, making her feel light-headed.
His mouth ravished hers, then it moved to her neck and to the tender spot behind her ear. She clung to him because suddenly it seemed as if he were the only safe and stable point in the world. There was nothing she wanted more than him.
Somehow, he was the one who was able to hear the footsteps coming.
With a muffled curse, he pulled back from her, swiping at his mouth to remove any traces of her lipstick and straightening her dress with his free hand.
When the library director poked his head in, He saw only that they were examining the book in the case, exclaiming over its size.
“Oh, that is our special beauty,” he said with a beam.
Oh, oh no, please don’t come in here, Marianna thought desperately, and of course, he did just that.
“This is a text that dates back to the tenth century. The work is all done by hand, of course, but what is truly exceptional is the subject.”
“It said it was the biography of a king,” Marianna said, in an attempt to hurry the older man up, and he beamed at her.
“Yes, but not quite. In fact, it was a story that was made up by the king and his favorite wife. It told of
his life as it never happened, and portions of it were passed down to become fairy tales in their own right. This was the story that they wove together over the span of his twenty years on the throne. If you look very carefully, you will be able to see the gilt edges and the fine embossing that was done on the leather before it wore away. It’s quite a gorgeous example of both Byzantine craftsmanship and original creativity that marked the reign of…”
“Oh, director, there you are!”
Marianna was relieved when an older woman entered the room, waving the director down. He looked a little displeased to have lost his audience, but as soon as he was gone, Nikolos grinned. It was a dangerous kind of grin, one that made her blood sing.
She had known that tonight would not be an ordinary night. One way or another, things were going to change, and she knew that she needed to embrace it.
“So?” he asked.
“So?”
“So do you want to stay here and possibly be found by the director again, or do you want to come home with me?”
Marianna knew what her answer was going to be, but she couldn’t resist drawing her response out just a little longer, adding a little more anticipation to the wait. Opal had often said it was better to travel hopefully than to arrive, and though she didn’t quite believe the old star, she could see why she might say it now.
“And what we would do at your home, Nikolos?” she asked, her breath light and fast.
For a moment, it looked like Nikolos was going to take her in his arms again, but then he stopped, a slight smile on his face.
“That’s something that we can decide together, but I do have a few ideas,” he drawled.
“You do?”
“Yes. It starts with me undressing you until I can see all of that beautiful pale skin that I know you have. It starts with me kissing you until you can barely stand it anymore. It starts with me moving over you so that we can feel every part of each other.”
Marianna swallowed hard.
“And that’s just for a start, is it?”
He nodded, and his eyes were never so bright.
“So what do you think?” he asked, and she didn’t have it in herself to resist any longer, if she had ever been resisting at all.
“I think we should leave. Right now.”
He laughed, but before they left the room, he kissed her lightly on the mouth. She almost melted into him, but footsteps in the corridor pulled them apart.
“Oh, are you both leaving so soon?” asked the disappointed director. “I wanted to show you some of the artifacts we have that are related to this work…”
“I am very much afraid that we need to leave,” Nikolos said smoothly. “But I will certainly remember your offer and take you up on it at a later point.”
“That was nicely done,” Marianna murmured as they left behind a visibly preening director. “You have a way with people.”
Nikolos snorted.
“I have a way of getting what I want. Let’s not forget that most of the things I do have an ultimate goal.”
She knew his Ferrari was fast, but still it seemed to take forever to get back to his penthouse. She was not surprised to see that he lived in one of the most exclusive buildings in the city. She would have seen the inside of the penthouse at some point, but there was a certain intimacy to coming to it like this. As he locked the door behind them, she looked around at the modern furniture and the spare, cold paintings on the walls. There was a certain angularity to the look of the room, she realized, something austere and restrained.
Her musings on his apartment were quickly dismissed when he appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close. She tried to turn to face him, but then he was nibbling on her neck. His lips and his teeth sent deep vibrations through her body, making her gasp and moan.
“That feels amazing,” she sighed, settling back against him. “You feel amazing.”
“It’s nothing to how you feel,” he purred, running his hands up her sides. “So soft and warm and perfect. I can’t get enough of looking at you, and now I definitely can’t get enough of touching you.”
She let herself fall into a pleasured fog as his hands reached up to cup her breasts through her dress, squeezing softly.
The caress wasn’t for him, she realized. Most men she had known touched women’s breasts for their own pleasure. From the way he was lightly touching her, squeezing her, and stroking her, he was doing it for her. The thought brought a rush of heat to her body. She wasn’t entirely sure about what was going to happen tonight, but she knew it would feel so, so good.
“Will you come to bed with me, little beauty?” he whispered in her ear. “Will you allow me to make you feel good?”
“Yes, yes,” she whispered, and then she yelped because he scooped her up in his arms, holding her securely. She clung to him, first instinctively because she was surprised, and then simply because he felt so good. There was a power to him that made her strong, that made her want him more than she had wanted anything in her life.
His room was surprisingly plain. It was large, but most of the space was taken up by an enormous bed. When he lay her down on it, she stroked the covers appreciatively.
“Silk,” she said, amused. “I should have known.”
“Does it please you?”
There it was again, that slight vulnerability, that small bit of unease that made her want to throw her arms around him.
“It does. You do.”
This time, it was her turn to wrap her arms around his neck and bring him down for a kiss. She tried to pull him on the bed with her, but he pulled back with a grin.
“I want something first.”
With a strength she had really only guessed at before, he flipped her over so that she lay on her belly. For a moment she was confused, but then she felt his clever hands on the zipper at the back of her dress.
“Did you notice that there is a little glass gem hanging from the zipper pull?” he asked conversationally. “Did it occur to you that it would capture the eye completely, making anyone who saw it want to pull it down.”
“I…I just thought it was pretty,” she said. The sentence ended in a gasp because he kissed the soft skin between her shoulder blades. She had never thought that that part of her would be so sensitive, but there it was. He undid the clasp of her bra with deft, quick fingers, then he was pulling everything up, stripping it over the top of her head, leaving her on the bed in nothing but her lacy panties.
She wanted to roll over to face him, but something kept her on her belly. She peeked over her shoulder at him, and saw his eyes widen with desire.
“You are always such a direct woman,” he said softly, running a dark hand down her smooth, bare back, “that when you look at me with such coyness, it takes me apart.”
She was about to make some kind of retort, until his hand slid down the small of her back up to the rise of her rear. His palm was warm, and when he started to squeeze the flesh there, it made her moan.
“Like petting a cat,” he teased, and she started to ask what he meant when she realized he was referring to her movements.
She had been pressing her rear up against his hand without thinking about it. Now she was up on her knees while her weight rested forward on her elbows. She blushed to think just how wanton she must look, but when she went to squirm back down, his hands on her hips stopped her.
“No, stay where you are,” he murmured. “I love the look of you just like this, so natural and so lovely.”
He ran his strong hands along her rear and down her thighs. When he tickled her calves and her feet a little, she whimpered, because it was just this side of unbearable, but it still felt so, so good.
When Nikolos cupped his hand between her legs, she sighed with pleasure and need. She knew he could feel how warm she was through the thin fabric. Without thinking about it, she pressed herself against his seeking hand, looking for the sensations she knew he would give her.
“Take o
ff your clothes,” she whispered. Her voice was soft and husky. She could feel him respond to her command in the way his hand paused.
“Is that what you want?” he asked, and there was a slight shake in his voice that told her he needed this as much as she did.
“Yes,” she responded. “It’s what I want. Please, Nikolos, please give it to me…?”
He groaned, standing up to tear his clothes off. She moved over to her side of the bed, simply watching him. She had seen statues of Greek gods before, but now she saw what they might look like if they were made flesh. He was not thick-bodied, like a Zeus or a Poseidon. Instead, there was a leanness and a grace to him that remind her of Ares and Apollo, perhaps even clever Hermes.
When he was bare, he wasted no time getting back in bed with her, lying on his side. For several long moments, they simply kissed as if they were still clothed, but in fairly short order that ceased to be enough for them. Suddenly, his hands were on her shoulders, pushing her back to the bed and sliding over her.
Marianna thought about the words he’d said at the library, and how he talked about how their bodies would meet, join, take joy in each other. She didn’t want to wait any longer. She spread her legs, wrapping them around his waist. She wanted to urge him inside her, but apparently Nikolos wasn’t ready for that yet. She could feel the hardness of his erection pressed against her belly, but instead, he shifted slightly so that he could slide a hand down between their bodies.
“Oh…oh Nikolos!” she murmured, as his fingers slid inside her panties. At first he merely toyed with the light fluff of hair there, but soon enough, he was sliding his fingertips along flesh, making them wetter with every pass.
When he slid his fingers deep inside her, she cried out, but then he pulled them out again just as quickly. She moaned in protest, but he brought the liquid from the deepest well of her up to her sensitive bundle of nerves. He toyed with her clit as if he had all the time in the world.
The waves of pleasure started low in her body, lightly at first and then growing in intensity until she was shaking. She clung to his arms and whimpered when the sensation went from being a lovely pleasure to something that was almost too much. At once she wanted the feeling to stop, yet she wanted it to keep going on, and on, and on…