by Kendrick, Sharon; Lawrence, Kim; Crews, Caitlin; Milburne, Melanie
His mouth kept up its disarming of her senses, taking her on a journey of heady arousal unlike anything she had experienced before. Who knew her jawbone was an erogenous zone? Her jawbone! His lips nibbled their way down to the space between her lower lip and her chin. He was so close to her lips. So close… Close enough for them to buzz, tingle and ache for him to cover them with his mouth. But, still, he kept his lips away from hers as if he had made a private vow of kissing celibacy.
Draco’s hands moved from her waist to cradle both sides of her head, his fingers splaying under the weight of her hair in a sensual glide that made something at the base of her spine heat, sizzle and melt. ‘You are so damn beautiful,’ he said in that same deep, gravelly burr.
‘So kiss me, then.’ Allegra slid her hands around his neck, which brought her lower body flush against his. She could feel the battle going on in his body where it was touching hers—the urge of the primal in combat with his iron will and steely self-control. Her own self-control was nowhere to be seen and she couldn’t be bothered to send out a search party.
She wanted him to kiss her.
She needed him to kiss her.
She would make him kiss her.
She needed it like she needed her next breath. She would die if Draco didn’t give in to the desire she could feel throbbing in his flesh where it was pressed against her. Mutual desire. Dark, wicked desire that refused to go back into its cage now it was released from its prison of denial. If he kissed her it would prove she wasn’t the only one who was vulnerable. It would prove he had his weak spot—her. This time he wouldn’t push her away with a cutting comment. This time she would kiss him as a woman kissed a man, not as a fumbling teenager. She would show him he wasn’t as immune to her as he wanted her to think. ‘Kiss me, Draco. What are you scared of?’
His hands came back down to settle against her hips, his fingers harder now—possessive, almost. His eyes were sexily hooded, his gaze honed in on her mouth. ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’
Allegra moved like a sinuous cat against the hard frame of his body, her arms winding around Draco’s neck, her fingers tugging, stretching and releasing his black curls. His erection was hot and heavy against her belly, the pounding of his blood echoing the deep, urgent thrumming of her own. She could feel her own moisture gathering, her body preparing itself for the pleasure it craved. Never had she felt desire like it. It was a raging fever, a torrent of need that refused to be ignored. Allegra wasn’t going to sleep with him, but one kiss would be enough to take the edge off it, surely? What harm would one kiss do?
‘You want me so bad,’ she said.
His body pressed harder against her as if he hadn’t the strength of will power to do otherwise. His hands tightened their grip on her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh as if he never wanted to release her. ‘Yes. I want you.’
Draco didn’t say it out loud, but she could hear the word ‘but’ somewhere in that statement. Allegra brought her hand around to trace the outline of his mouth, her stomach pitching when the soft pad of her fingertip caught on his stubble. ‘I bet you’ve kissed a lot of women in your time.’
‘A few.’
She sent her fingertip down the shallow stubble-covered dip between his lower lip and his chin. Her eyes came back to his intensely dark gaze. ‘Did you know you were my first kiss?’
‘Not until you kissed me.’
Did he have to remind her how inexpert she had been?
‘I’ve learnt since then. Don’t you want to see how much I’ve improved?’
Allegra sensed he was wavering. He kept silent but his body spoke for him, his desire for her pulsing invisibly in the air like sound waves. His breath mingled with hers. His body was hot and urgent against hers, increasing her hunger for skin-on-skin contact. She slipped her arms back around his neck and rose on tiptoe, bringing her mouth to his in a soft touchdown. When she lifted off, his lips clung to hers like a rough surface to satin. Allegra touched down again, moving her lips against the warm, firm heat of his in an experimental fashion, discovering their texture, their shape. Their danger.
Draco drew in a breath and took control of the kiss, crushing her lips beneath the fervent pressure of his. His hands went from bracketing her hips to cradling her head, angling it so he could deepen the kiss with a spine-wobbling glide of his tongue through her already parted lips. She welcomed him with a breathless sigh, his tongue tangling with hers in an erotic duel that had unmistakably sexual overtones. Her inner core recognised them, contracting in a fireball of lust that threatened to overwhelm her. Allegra kissed him back with feverish intensity, as if his mouth was her only succour and without it she would cease to exist.
He made a low, growling sound in the back of his throat and explored every inch of her mouth, his tongue sweeping, swirling, diving, darting until her senses were spinning like a top set off by a slingshot. Need ricocheted through her, clamouring to be assuaged. Begging, pleading, to be satisfied with every breath she snatched in while his mouth worked its fiery magic on hers.
One of Draco’s hands went to her breast, cupping it in a possessive hold that sent another wave of sensation coursing through her body like sheet lightning. His thumb found her nipple, rolling over it through the fabric of her dress and bra, but she might as well have been naked. The thrill of his touch, even through two layers of fabric, was enough to make Allegra whimper for more. He moved to her other breast, cupping and caressing her through her clothes as if they were star-crossed teenage lovers on a clandestine date. His mouth left hers to blaze a blistering trail of fire down her neck and décolletage, his stubble ticking and tantalising her, his lips and tongue ramping up her desire until she felt like a pressure cooker about to blow.
But, while her self-control was shot to pieces, it seemed his was not.
Draco slowly drew back from her, still holding her in the circle of his arms but without chest-to-chest contact. She felt the loss keenly—her breasts were still tingling from his touch, from being crushed so tightly against his body. She searched his face for a moment but his expression was largely unreadable…all except for that glint of triumph lurking in the depths of his gaze.
Allegra slipped out of his hold and straightened the front of her dress. Time to rein things in. She couldn’t allow him to think she was his for the asking. She had proved her point…sort of. But she had a disquieting feeling Draco had proved his own. ‘Just to remind you. Kissing is fine, but that’s as far as it goes.’
One side of his mouth came up in a slanted smile. ‘You seriously think you can maintain that, even if by some remote possibility I agreed to it?’
Allegra raised her chin. ‘Those are my rules.’
‘Here’s what I think of your rules.’ He stepped back into her body space, standing close enough for her to feel the tug of attraction pulling at every one of her organs like invisible silken cords. His eyes moved back and forth between both of hers, searching, penetrating, challenging. She drew in a breath but it caught on something in her throat. Her thighs were less than a couple of centimetres from his, her breasts getting all excited about his chest being even closer.
Draco sent a fingertip idly down the slope of her cheek, then continued his tantalising pathway to the fullness of her bottom lip, his finger moving over its already sensitised surface like a mine sweeper. It took all her self-control and more not to take his finger into her mouth, to swirl her tongue around it and draw on it with her lips. The urge to do so was so primal and raw it made her insides quake with need. Allegra licked her lip instead, but her tongue came into contact with his finger on its return journey and an explosion of lust barrelled through her. She gripped the front of Draco’s shirt, pressing her body against his, her mouth going to the exposed, tanned skin of his neck, sucking, nibbling, grazing him with her teeth and finally—dear God, finally—finding his mouth.
&nbs
p; His lips moved with thrilling expertise on hers, his tongue delving deeply to call hers into sensual play. She made little breathless sounds of approval when his hands clasped her by the hips to hold her against his heat. She wanted more. Needed more. She sent her hands on a journey of discovery, sliding them over his hardened length, shaping him through his trousers, her own feminine muscles a frenzy of excitement.
After a moment, Draco placed a hand over hers to stop her from going any further. ‘If we play by the rules, then those rules have to be fair.’
Allegra gave a shrug and stepped back, as if she didn’t care either way, even though her body was crying out for release and her fingers were aching to feel the weight and heft of him. ‘Can’t take a little fooling around, Draco?’
His eyes glittered in the darkness. ‘I would have you here and now but your father’s household staff might be shocked. Don’t look now, but his housekeeper Sophia’s been watching from the window behind you.’
Allegra’s cheeks grew so hot she was sure she was contributing to global warming. How had she let herself behave in such an abandoned way? She prided herself on always acting with poise and decorum around the staff. She wasn’t the sort of person to behave recklessly or immodestly. But in Draco’s arms she became a wanton woman with no thought for anything other than her body’s needs. Needs that still thrummed and hummed inside her like a plucked violin string.
‘Well, we are supposed to be acting like a couple in love,’ she said. ‘I might say you were doing a mighty fine job of it too.’
He gave a soft laugh. ‘Don’t confuse good old-fashioned lust with love.’
Allegra turned back to look at the ocean cast in its silver glow from the moonlight. She was conscious of Draco standing beside her, close enough for their arms to be touching. Even though his was covered in finely woven cotton, she could still feel the sensual energy of him. The potent vibrancy of him. Couldn’t stop imagining how it would feel to have those strong, tanned arms wrapped around her in the grip of passion. ‘What if you fall in love with me?’ The question was out before she could block it. Had she sounded as if she wanted him to fall in love with her?
He turned and leaned his back against the balustrade, his hands resting on the railing either side of his hips. ‘We’ve covered this, Allegra. I’m not sure I’m capable of loving you.’
Allegra flashed him a look. ‘How charming of you to say.’
He gave a shrug, as if he recognised the veiled insult but was not going to apologise for it. ‘Just saying.’
Of course, Draco falling in love was only a remote possibility. His heart was untouchable. He wasn’t the type of man to allow himself to be vulnerable. He was the one who controlled his relationships to a set timetable. Few relationships of his had ever lasted more than a few weeks—one or two, perhaps, a couple of months.
Allegra looked down at her right hand resting next to his on the railing. His skin was so dark and hair-roughened compared to her pale, smoother hand. It was an erotic reminder of all the essential male and female differences between them. If she moved her pinkie a couple of millimetres she would touch him. The temptation to do so was a force inside her body over which she seemed to have little or no control. It was as though he were an industrial-strength magnet and she was a tiny iron filing. He had beautiful hands—broad and dusted with black hair that also lightly touched the backs of his long, strong fingers.
She couldn’t stop thinking about those clever hands on her body. Not through her clothes, but on her naked skin. Draco wasn’t averse to physical labour. He didn’t sit behind a desk all day. He was the sort of man who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty at the coalface of the businesses he ran. What would it feel like to have those hands gliding over her flesh? Touching her in places that hadn’t been touched in so long she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be a woman?
She sent him a sideways glance. ‘Why haven’t you been in a long-term relationship before?’
‘I have.’
‘A month or two is not considered long-term.’
A beat or two of silence passed.
‘I had a partner for close to a year once.’
He had? ‘Really? I never knew. Gosh, you kept that awfully quiet. The press always—’ Allegra thought it best to stop speaking before she revealed how closely she had been following his love-life in the media. It had been a bit of an obsession over the years One she wasn’t too proud of, but she’d always had an unhealthy fascination with whomever he was squiring around town and for how long.
There was another long moment of silence.
‘I was thinking about asking her to marry me.’
Allegra turned so she was facing him. Draco’s face was backlit by the moonlight, so it was hard to make out his expression, but she could see his mouth had a rueful twist to it. ‘You were?’
‘I even bought the ring.’
She’d never heard even a whisper of an engagement. Why hadn’t it been made public? Who wouldn’t be interested in a self-made playboy like him settling down? Draco had dragged himself up from abject poverty to become one of Greece’s most eligible bachelors. Who was the woman? Who had captured his attention to the degree he would offer to marry her? And, more to the point, why hadn’t he gone ahead with the marriage? ‘What happened?’
He pushed away from the railing and turned back to look at the moonlit view. She could only see one side of his face but it was enough to make her suspect he didn’t like talking about the memory. His features had a boxed-up look about them, the line of his jaw tense, his gaze looking into the far-off distance. ‘It turned out she wasn’t the one after all.’
‘She said no?’
He glanced at his watch and frowned. ‘I’d better be on the move. I have some work to do back at my villa before I call it a day.’
Allegra placed her hand on his forearm when he turned from the railing. His muscular arm was warm and the dark, masculine hair faintly prickly under the softer skin of her hand. ‘Wait. Tell me what happened.’
Draco went to brush her hand away as if it were a fly but she dug her fingers in. ‘Leave it, Allegra.’
No darn way was she going to leave it. Not while she had a chance to find out who he was behind the persona of suave and ruthless businessman. ‘I told you about my first time. It wasn’t easy talking to you about that, let me tell you. I’ve only ever told my best friend, Emily. Surely you owe me this one confession?’
It was a moment before he spoke. He stood there looking down at her with her hand on his arm without seeming to move a muscle. But then his arm flexed under her touch and he let out a stream of air that sounded resigned. ‘She had someone else lined up. Someone far richer than me. I ended up buying the guy’s company a couple of years ago when it got into trouble. Sold it for a profit too. A handsome profit.’
As you do when you’re filthy rich and want revenge.
It was a timely reminder to Allegra that the field they were playing on was tipped in his favour. He could be calculating and ruthless when he needed to be. Hadn’t Draco already proved that with his non-existent marriage proposal? ‘What did your ex think about that?’
He gave a breath of a laugh, a glint of cynicism entering his gaze, making it harder, darker. ‘She asked to meet in private and offered herself to me.’
Allegra couldn’t explain why she felt such a sharp dart of jealousy. What did she care who he slept with and why? She might care once they were married, but his past was his past, and it had nothing to do with her. ‘What did you do?’
‘What do you think I did?’
‘Told her to get lost?’
‘Wrong.’ His eyes contained a gleam of malice. ‘I slept with her first and then I told her to get lost.’
CHAPTER THREE
ALL THROUGH THE christening service the following day, Allegra c
ouldn’t stop thinking about the ex who had spurned Draco’s proposal. She’d tried searching for information on the net, but there was nothing about him having been in a long-term relationship. How many years ago had it been? Had it been long before he’d risen to the top, while he’d been still making his mark on the world?
Was that why he had never fallen in love and insisted he never would? Was that why he only ever hooked up with women for short periods of time—because developing an attachment would make him too vulnerable? If he had truly loved the woman, then Allegra could understand how hurt he must have felt—especially when his ex had supposedly chosen someone because they were richer than him. It would have been a cruel slap to the ego for someone as proud as Draco Papandreou.
There were few men richer than him in Greece now. His empire was vast, not just the luxury yacht building, which was growing exponentially across the globe, but also property. He owned numerous villas, not just for his own private use, but also for lease to super-wealthy customers. He had a sharp eye for business and had rescued many from collapse, building them up over time and selling them for a massive profit. He rarely spoke in public about his humble background as the only child of a fisherman, but she guessed it was a powerful motivator to keep expanding his business empire.
But Draco was also an enigmatic man. He only allowed people so close and he never allowed anyone to manipulate or hoodwink him. He was a good judge of character, a fact she had witnessed first-hand when he’d warned her about her first boyfriend. He’d been familiar with the boy’s family—this being Greece and all—and had told her she was wasting her time with someone who only wanted to date her because she came from money. That had stung. No sixteen-year-old girl with confidence issues and a body she hadn’t quite grown into wanted to hear something like that.