‘Are you saying I’d be safe with you?’
‘You have my word, pedhaki mou.’ His voice lost its teasing edge and he regarded her steadily, noting the betraying tremor of her mouth. ‘You can trust me, Anna mou.’
Anna had always believed that New York was an amazing city but with Damon it became truly magical. As he had suggested, they boarded a cruise boat at the harbour and enjoyed a leisurely trip around Manhattan, their eyes drawn to the towering skyscrapers that dominated the horizon.
He was an attentive and tactile companion. On the boat he stood behind her and slid his arms around her waist to draw her against the solid strength of his chest. The steady thud of his heart was strangely comforting and although Anna stared determinedly at the view, she was overwhelmed with longing to turn and bury her face in his shirt.
After lunch they took the ferry from Battery Park across to the Statue of Liberty. As they strolled around the base of the great monument he threaded his fingers through hers with an easy familiarity that dismantled her defensive barriers one by one. She didn’t understand what he wanted from her—why he was here—but suddenly she no longer cared.
When he paused and drew her into his arms, she stared up at him, silently willing him to cover her mouth with his own. He aroused feelings within her that she’d never experienced with any other man. The knowledge should have terrified her but she was tired of being scared.
Damon had given his word that he wouldn’t attempt to rush her into a sexual relationship before she was ready, and she knew with complete certainty that he would never try and force her.
She had never believed she could trust any man but maybe, just maybe, he was different.
As the week slipped past she realised with growing certainty that Damon was unlike any man she had ever met. To the outside world he was a successful, powerful and undoubtedly ruthless businessman at the top of his game. But there was another side to him that she guessed few people outside his immediate family were privileged to meet.
Only a truly confident man could team strength with gentleness and a tender consideration that made her want to weep. Damon had the ability to make her feel like a princess. She adored the way he treated her as if she were infinitely precious to him, even though she knew in her heart that it could not be so.
He could have any woman he wanted. Why on earth was he wasting his time with a sexually inexperienced novice who was incapable of satisfying him?
It was a question that increasingly demanded an answer the more time she spent with him.
‘You’re very quiet, pedhaki mou. Are you tired?’
‘A little—but it’s been a wonderful day. My head’s still buzzing from everything we saw today.’ They had spent several hours at the ‘Met’—the world famous Metropolitan Museum of Art—and Anna felt as though her senses had overdosed on the visual feast of fantastic exhibits. Tonight they had dined at one of New York’s finest restaurants and afterwards Damon had surprised her with a romantic carriage ride through Central Park.
Now they were back at their hotel and he had accepted her invitation to join her for a nightcap in her suite. The natural conclusion to the magical evening they’d spent together was for him to sweep her into his arms and carry her through to the bedroom, where they would spend the night making love.
If she was a normal woman, she would saunter over to him, link her arms around his neck and issue him with a bold invitation to take her to bed. But she was not normal, Anna brooded miserably. She was frigid—unable to enjoy or bestow sexual pleasure, even with the man who was fast capturing her heart.
‘What is it, Anna? Do you want me to go?’
She was standing by the window, staring unseeingly at the myriad neon lights that lit up Times Square. As Damon spoke he moved to stand behind her and slid his arms around her waist to draw her up against the solid wall of his chest.
‘I guess you should…it’s getting late,’ she whispered, helpless to disguise the tears that clogged her voice. She offered no resistance when he turned her to face him, and watched the way his eyes darkened as he caught the trickle of moisture with his thumb pad. ‘I wish things could be different,’ she admitted despairingly. ‘You’ve been so kind to me these past few days and I feel I should…’
‘Sleep with me? Offer yourself like a sacrificial virgin because I’ve been kind to you? Anna, when you come to me it will be because you want to make love with me, not because you feel obligated,’ he assured her.
‘But what if that day never comes? How can you be so sure? There must be literally dozens of women willing to fall into your bed,’ she muttered, fighting a wave of nausea at the mental image of him holding another woman in his arms.
‘I only want you, Anna mou. No one else will do. And you are not completely immune to me,’ he added softly as his arms tightened around her. ‘You simply need time to feel comfortable with me before we can enjoy a fully intimate relationship.’
Comfortable! Dear God, she felt anything but. Comfortable conjured up an image of easy familiarity that was a million miles away from the fierce tension that suddenly gripped her. The sensual heat in Damon’s eyes sent fire coursing through her veins and she trembled with anticipation rather than fear when he lowered his head.
He had kissed her several times during the past week—gentle, tender kisses that were bound by the tight restraint he exerted over his emotions. Anna had appreciated his sensitivity. He’d promised not to rush her and was obviously determined to honour that promise, but there was a part of her that had longed for him to lose control and kiss her with the fierce passion she glimpsed in his simmering gaze.
Now that passion was a force he could no longer deny and he claimed her lips with uncompromising hunger. It felt so right, she thought wonderingly as she parted her lips and revelled in the masterful sweep of his tongue. With Damon she didn’t feel dirty or ashamed. He brought her to life so that every nerve ending quivered to his touch.
For the first time in her life she relished the feeling that she was a sensual, sensuous creature. Her body seemed to have been created solely for the purpose of giving and receiving pleasure and she exalted in the thrusting proof of his arousal pushing against her stomach.
She followed blindly when he led her over to the sofa and drew her down onto his lap. He captured her mouth again in a slow, seductive kiss that drugged her senses so that she was mindless to everything but the feel of his hands on her body, and she shivered with excitement when he began to unfasten the tiny pearl buttons at the front of her top. She remembered how it had felt when he had caressed her breasts and already her nipples had hardened in anticipation of the pleasure to come.
Damon freed the final button, but to Anna’s disappointment he made no move to slide the soft satin from her shoulders. She stirred restlessly in his lap and he groaned and clamped her hips to prevent her from moving.
‘I am not made of stone, pedhaki mou. If you don’t keep still, I’m likely to do something that will shock you and embarrass me.’
She stared at him wordlessly, her cheeks flaming at the erotic images his words evoked. She didn’t want him to stop, she acknowledged with a sense of wonderment. She wanted him to kiss her again, touch her where she ached to be touched, and she swayed towards him, her eyes unconsciously pleading.
‘I don’t think you could shock me,’ she told him seriously. ‘I feel safe with you, Damon, and I want you to kiss me…touch me,’ she admitted huskily.
She felt his chest heave—as if he were a drowning man snatching for air—and she noted that the hand he used to stroke her hair back from her face was not quite steady. His eyes had darkened to the colour of mahogany, lit by a flame of desire that made her tremble with an answering passion.
‘You are so beautiful, Anna mou. I have never hungered for any woman the way I hunger for you,’ he muttered rawly. ‘But I won’t rush you, or hurt you, and I give you my word that I’ll stop the moment you ask me to.’
Maybe she wouldn’t w
ant him to stop, Anna thought as he claimed her lips once more in a fierce, hard kiss. Hope surged through her and she opened her mouth to accept the bold sweep of his tongue. She trusted Damon to keep his word, but maybe she would be so caught up in the pleasure he evoked that her fears would remain in the far recess of her mind.
The fine boning of her top provided sufficient support for her small breasts without the need for a bra. She gave a murmur of approval when he pushed the material aside and cupped each pale mound in his big hands. The brush of his thumbs across her swollen nipples sent sensation flooding through her and she moaned softly and allowed her head to fall back so that her breasts were fully exposed to his gaze.
Damon trailed his lips down her throat and continued an inexorable path lower, to stroke his tongue over one tight peak until it throbbed for his full possession. Anna shifted on his lap and slid her hands into his hair to hold him to his task, whimpering when his lips finally closed around her nipple and he suckled her.
By the time he transferred his attention to her other breast she was shaking with a combination of shock that what he was doing to her could feel so good, and a burgeoning need for more. There was nothing in her mind other than a feverish desire for him to assuage the ache that was building inside her and when he slid his hand beneath the hem of her skirt she quivered at the butterfly touch of his fingers skimming the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.
He paused, mistaking the little gasp she gave as a request for him to cease his gentle exploration of her body. ‘Is it too much, Anna? Do you want me to stop?’ he whispered, his breath grazing her shoulder as he lifted his head to look into her eyes.
Slowly she shook her head in negation and watched the smouldering heat in his gaze when she leaned towards him and initiated a tremulous kiss that stirred his soul. For a moment he allowed her to maintain control before he deepened the kiss to another level that was flagrantly erotic. His tongue was an instrument of sensual delight and he explored her with a thoroughness that left his desire for her in no doubt.
Anna was aware of his hand sliding higher and higher beneath her skirt but the pressure of his mouth on hers was creating such havoc with her emotions that she felt neither fear nor revulsion when he gently stroked his fingers over the tiny triangle of lace at the junction of her thighs. Desire flooded her, leaving her hot and slick, and she held her breath when he eased his fingers beneath her knickers to initiate an intimate exploration that was new and utterly beautiful.
She parted for him like a rose opening its velvety petals to the sun and with infinite care he slid in deep, feeling her muscles spasm around his finger. She was tighter than he had expected and he was desperate not to cause her pain, but rather than wanting him to withdraw she seemed intent on urging him to continue caressing her.
Anna closed her eyes; her whole body focused on the incredible sensations Damon was arousing. Her body felt on fire, with the brightest flame burning at her central core. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted, just knew that it was there, hovering, and with a little cry of frustration she rocked her hips and pushed herself against his hand.
Damon seemed to sense the tumultuous sensations that were building inside her and began to move his finger with little pulsing strokes. At the same time he rubbed the tip of his thumb over the acutely sensitive nub of her clitoris, and Anna’s world exploded.
Spasm after spasm ripped through her so that she trembled in his arms. It was frighteningly new and yet so utterly exquisite that she wasn’t afraid. She threw her head back and cried out; unaware of the pleasure he took from watching her climax for the very first time.
An emotion that was deeply primitive surged through Damon. Anna was his woman and his alone. No other man had ever caressed her so intimately or made her cry out with the pleasure of sexual release.
She was his and he would treasure her always, he vowed as he felt her tremors gradually lessen. Whatever had happened in her past still haunted her. There was still some way to go before she would feel confident enough to give herself to him completely. But he could wait, God help him. He would use his iron will-power to control the desire that threatened to overwhelm him and one day his patience would be rewarded and he would be able to penetrate her fully so that their bodies were joined as one.
The thought was enough to make his penis strain uncomfortably against the restriction of his trousers and with one swift movement he stood with her still in his arms. The pressure of her pert bottom rubbing against him was enough to tempt a saint but he had promised not to rush her and he would keep that promise, even though he would probably spend the rest of the night beneath a cold shower.
Anna opened her eyes as the room swayed alarmingly, and discovered that Damon was carrying her purposefully towards her bedroom. He had given her more pleasure than she had believed it was possible to experience. Even now, little quivers of aftershock were spiralling through her. It was only fair that he should want to experience the same sexual ecstasy, she told herself as she tried to ignore her frisson of apprehension.
When he placed her on the bed, she stared at him silently, unaware of the stark vulnerability in her eyes when she gave him a tremulous smile. He would be gentle; she knew it. She trusted him. He wasn’t a barbarian and he certainly wasn’t the balding, sweaty, middle-aged excuse for a man that her stepfather had been.
Damon would never mock her or make her feel tainted, she frantically reminded herself. But as he leaned over her she felt her breath catch in her throat so that her chest jerked unevenly.
‘I’ll give you some privacy to get undressed,’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone that brought her crashing back to reality.
She blinked at him in bemusement when he gathered up her nightshirt and handed it to her and his next sentence added to her confusion.
‘Can I get you something—a cup of tea perhaps?’
Tea! He wanted to calmly sit and drink tea as if they were at a vicarage tea party before he threw her down on the bed and made passionate love to her. If she hadn’t been terrified out of her wits at the thought of the passionate lovemaking, Anna would have found the situation hysterical.
‘I’m fine, thanks,’ she croaked, clutching her nightshirt in front of her naked breasts like a talisman. Damon gave her a brief smile before he strolled into the sitting room and it was only when he had closed the door between them that she released her breath.
She had no idea how long her reprieve would last and shot into the bathroom where she scrambled out of her skirt and into the nightshirt, washed her face and brushed her teeth, all in record time.
She could do this, she told her reflection, desperately trying to ignore the fact that every last vestige of desire that Damon had aroused in her earlier had disappeared. Her nerves were at screaming point, and the sensual heat that had flooded between her thighs had gone, leaving her as dry and barren as a desert. But she could do this.
For a second, her stepfather’s face leered back at her and she blinked hard to dispel his image from her mind. She heard faint sounds from the bedroom. Damon was waiting for her and sick fear lurched in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t remain a virgin for the rest of her life. Better to get the first time over with. And at least she trusted him enough to know he would be patient.
She looked like a small lamb at the gates of the slaughterhouse, Damon thought grimly when Anna emerged from the bathroom. Her voluminous white cotton nightshirt, decorated with yellow daisies, was curiously childlike and he wanted to draw her into his arms and simply hold her close. Instead he turned back the bed sheets with brisk efficiency and patted the mattress.
‘Come on, in you get. You look all in, pedhaki mou.’
Fighting the urge to flee from the room, Anna obediently climbed into bed and lay down. Damon was still fully clothed. Perhaps he intended to strip in front of her, she speculated frantically, and squeezed her eyes shut to block out the image of him peeling the clothes from his body.
She felt him draw the covers ov
er her and when the mattress dipped she dared to peep between her lashes to discover him sitting, still clothed, on the edge of the bed.
‘I thought we could try and get tickets for a Broadway show tomorrow—if you’d like to?’
‘That sounds…nice,’ she muttered stiffly, finding it hard to make plans for the next day when there was still the night to get through.
Damon stood up but made no effort to remove his clothes. ‘Good. I’ll make enquiries at Reception in the morning. Sleep well, Anna.’ He leaned over and brushed his lips over hers in a gentle benediction before he strolled across to the door.
‘But I thought…’ She jerked upright and stared at him in bewilderment. ‘I assumed you were going to stay the night.’ Faced with his silence, she chewed on her bottom lip, her cheeks scarlet as she ploughed on. ‘Earlier, when we…when I—’ oh, God, this was difficult ‘—I didn’t satisfy you.’
‘On the contrary, Anna mou, the fact that I was able to give you pleasure gave me more joy than I’ve ever known,’ he told her gravely. ‘Soon I hope to make love to you fully, but only when you’re ready—only when you trust me enough to give yourself to me without fear or reservation.
‘Until then I will sleep in my own bed, although it may be necessary to spend most of the night beneath a very cold shower,’ he admitted with a wry smile that tugged at her heart.
‘Sweet dreams, Anna. I’ll see you at breakfast,’ he bade her softly, before he stepped out of her room and closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER NINE
ANNA slept fitfully and woke at dawn to spend the next couple of hours rehearsing what she wanted to say to Damon. After showering, she blow-dried her hair so that it fell in a sleek gold veil around her shoulders before selecting white linen trousers and a lacy top from the wardrobe. The finished effect was cool and elegant, and hopefully masked the fact that inside she was a seething mass of emotions.
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