by Kendrick, Sharon; Lawrence, Kim; Crews, Caitlin; Milburne, Melanie
He brought his hands up to stroke her breasts through the wet fabric of her bathers but that wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted to feel those gorgeous globes of sexy female flesh, skin on skin.
He needed to.
He ached to.
Draco turned them around so his back was to the villa, somewhat shielding her from view. He slipped the straps off her shoulders as if he were unwrapping a gift. Allegra’s breasts were neither small nor large but somewhere perfectly in between—creamy white with dark pink nipples erect as he was. He palmed them first, allowing her to get used to the slight roughness of his hands from working in his boat yard. She made a mewling sound when his thumbs rolled over her nipples, her mouth giving his sexy little nips and nudges that made his spine shiver as if sand were trickling down between his vertebrae. She caught his lower lip between her teeth in a little kittenish bite that made him wonder if he was going to jump the start like a teenager on his first sexual encounter.
He pushed her breasts upwards to meet his descending mouth, stroking his tongue around and over her nipple on her right breast, and then the left one, leaving them wet and peaking. Draco moved his mouth to explore the curve of her breast—the top side, the underside and the delectable space between. Allegra tilted her head back, her long hair trailing like black seaweed in the water behind her. She offered her breasts to him like a worshipper offers something to a god. He made the most of it. Beyond caring if his staff was watching from the villa. He subjected each of her breasts to an intimate exploration with his lips and tongue and with gentle nibbles of his teeth, evoking a panting response from her that thrilled every drop of testosterone in his body.
He was so hard, it was painful. But, as if she knew the agony he was going through, one of her hands slipped down between their jammed-together bodies and freed him from his undershorts. Her fingers were cool and firm around his length, stroking and squeezing him under the cover of the water. Not such a great cover, given the water was as clear as bottled water, but he was well beyond worrying about that.
He pulled her bathers down past her hips, slipping his hand down to cup her mound, letting her body feel the subtle pressure of his touch. She moved urgently against his hand, gasping against Draco’s mouth. ‘Please…’ The cry sounded as desperate as he felt. ‘Please. Please. Please…’
He traced his finger over her, teasing her with his strokes, finally slipping a finger into her hot, moist body, stroking the swollen heart of her until she came with a rush against his hand. He felt every contraction and ripple of her inner muscles, the sexy panting of Allegra’s breathing delighting him more than he could have imagined. She was so responsive to him. What full-blooded man wouldn’t be pleased about that? Nothing satisfied him more than giving a partner pleasure, but somehow Allegra’s pleasure meant something to him.
Something he couldn’t quite explain.
Draco withdrew his finger and held her while she recovered. Her cheeks were lightly flushed and it travelled all the way down to her décolletage in a rosy tide. She sent her tongue out over her lips again, her gaze a little dazed. ‘That was…’
‘Good?’
She pulled at her lip with her teeth, her gaze slipping out of reach of his. ‘Unexpected.’
‘In what way?’
‘I don’t normally… I mean I’ve never done that with a partner…’
He inched up her chin so her gaze reconnected with his. Allegra’s blue eyes swam with uncertainty…or was it shyness, or a combination of both? ‘The first time you’ve had sex in the water?’ he asked.
She took a tiny barely audible swallow. ‘The first time I’ve come with a partner present.’
Draco frowned. ‘Really?’
She gave a self-deprecating grimace, her half-mast lashes screening her eyes. ‘Yes, well, I can do it by myself, but as soon as a guy is there, pressuring me to get on with it, I just…freeze.’
To say he was stunned was an understatement. How had she put up with such an imbalance in her love life for so long? Or was it because of her first sexual encounter? The shame from being humiliated by some jerk who probably hadn’t known how to make love to her anyway? Draco’s guts roiled with anger at how she had been treated. She was responsive to him. Incredibly responsive, which meant she trusted him. Trust was an enormous part of sex, particularly for women, whose bodies could be so easily exploited by too rough a handling. He was all for a bit of athletic sex, but there was no way he would ever hurt or humiliate a partner during it, nor would he settle for anything less than mutual pleasure.
But, right now, his pleasure could wait.
He slid his hand along the side of her face, an unexpected wave of protectiveness sweeping through him. ‘Listen to me, Allegra. You can trust me to always put your pleasure first. You can take as long as you need. Women are wired differently from men. A good lover will understand that and allow his partner plenty of time.’
Her smile was shaky around the edges and her cheeks still tinged with flags of pink. ‘So much for the hands-off arrangement. We’re not even married yet and look how I’m behaving.’
He brushed her wet hair back from her face, looking into her dark blue eyes almost the same colour as the ocean. ‘This chemistry between us isn’t something to be ashamed of, glykia mou. It’s to be celebrated. It bodes well for a healthy marriage between us.’
She moistened her lips and her gaze flicked briefly to his groin. ‘But what about you? Aren’t you going to…?’
Draco shook his head. ‘Not that I don’t want to, but the next time we make love it’s going to be to consummate our marriage. And preferably we’ll be alone on my yacht without half my staff watching from the wings.’
She sank her teeth into her lower lip. ‘That hardly seems fair to you… I mean, things were getting pretty heavy there, just then.’
He took her hands in both of his and held them against his chest in case Allegra went in search of him. He could only take so much, especially from those silky little hands that seemed instinctively to know how to handle him. ‘It’s a man’s responsibility to control his desires, at all times and in all circumstances. I want you. Make no mistake about it. I can’t think of a time I wanted someone more. But tomorrow will be all the better if we wait.’
Her mouth formed a twist of a smile. ‘Careful, Draco, you’re starting to sound like our marriage is going to be a normal one.’
He held her gaze for a beat. ‘In bed, it will be.’
* * *
Allegra walked back along the sand to the pathway leading to the villa with Draco’s hand holding hers. Her body was still vibrating with aftershocks from the pleasure he had evoked. It made her aware of every inch of her flesh, as if all the nerves had been given steroids and were twice their size and three times as active.
How had it happened?
Why had she allowed Draco to touch her like that? He hadn’t followed through to claim his own pleasure, so didn’t that make her seem a little pathetic? Like that teenage girl she used to be? Her wanton response to him demonstrated her vulnerability. She was a fool to give him more ammunition. She was supposed to be resisting him. Rejecting his advances, not encouraging such intimate contact. Not only encouraging it but responding to it like she had never responded to anyone before. Her breasts felt fuller, more sensitive, her inner core tingling with the memory of his inserted finger. If she was going to shatter into a thousand pieces with the glide of his finger then what was going to happen when he made love to her fully?
What do you mean ‘when’?
Allegra ignored her conscience. Her conscience could take a running jump off the nearest cliff and drown in the Aegean Sea. Her conscience didn’t realise what it was like to be thirty-one years old and so feverishly in lust with a man she couldn’t sleep at night without her body writhing in frustration.
What was wrong with h
aving a ‘married’ affair with Draco? It was one of the perks of the deal. The only perk as far as she could see. Well, there might be a few more, but she didn’t want to think about them just now. Perhaps sex could be fine as long as she kept her emotions out of it, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem, because her emotions had never been involved before.
No. She was ready for this. More than ready. Her body deserved some excitement after the miserable drought it had been subjected to. It would make the prospect of getting married more palatable, knowing that as soon as they were alone they would be making love… No. Having sex.
Better get the terminology right from the outset. She wasn’t a romantic. That was Emily’s territory. Emily was the one who dreamed of being swept off her feet and carried off into the golden sunset by a handsome prince. A fantasy that had so far done Emily zero favours.
Allegra was far too practical for all that nonsense, which was part of the reason why she had got to this age without falling in love. She had ruled it out. Put a line through the notion. She had always kept herself from getting too attached to the men she occasionally dated. She was a career woman through and through, but career women needed sex too, didn’t they? They couldn’t be expected to do nothing but work. It wasn’t healthy. Balance was what she needed. A balance of work and pleasure, and how better to get it than to be married to heart-stalling, sexy-as-sin Draco Papandreou who would allow her to come and go for work and play?
Thing was… Allegra had a feeling she might want to play a lot more than work. And to come more than go—no pun intended. The thought of flying back to London, to dismal weather, traffic-clogged streets and difficult clients when she could have all this sunshine, white sand and water as blue as lapis lazuli didn’t hold any of the appeal it used to, when she’d been desperate to get away from Greece after visiting her father and get back to her normal routine.
All the paperwork, the phone calls, the emails, the lengthy court appearances and the constant tension from dealing with difficult partners of distraught, angry or bitter clients…. Here all she had to listen to was the sound of seabirds, the ocean lapping the shore and the whisper of the wind in the pines.
When they got to the top of the path, Allegra pushed back some wisps of salt-encrusted hair out of her eyes. ‘I so need a shower.’
Draco’s smile had a hint of devilment. ‘I’d join you but that would be asking way too much of my self-control.’
A tiny doubt peeped out from behind the curtain in her mind… What if his self-control was only that strong because she hadn’t done it for him? Down in the water, she’d been sure he would lose control and be swept away on a tide of passion just as she’d been.
But he hadn’t.
He had stepped away from her as if they had innocently embraced and not been in the throes of making… Strike that. Having sex. Did it mean she would always be the one in the relationship with less power? The one who needed most, lost most. She saw it every day at work. Women who cared too much, loved or desired too much, lost out in the end.
Was she going to end up one of those women she privately pitied?
Draco’s gaze went to the frown pulling at her brow before she could iron it out. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. ‘I know what you’re thinking.’
Allegra screened her features. ‘I’m hot and sticky and have sand in places I didn’t even know I had places.’
He gave a soft laugh and stroked the back of his bent knuckles down her right cheek. ‘Don’t doubt yourself so much, agape mou. You have no reason to feel insecure with me.’
Like that’s going to reassure me.
Allegra had never felt more insecure, more worried she was stepping over a vertiginous cliff into the unknown…or maybe not so much the unknown as the dreaded. Within less than twenty-four hours, she would be married to Draco Papandreou. She would wear his ring and share his bed and all his gloriously luxurious villas. But there was one truth she couldn’t escape from no matter how much she tried to ignore it.
She would never have his heart.
CHAPTER FIVE
ALLEGRA PREPARED FOR her wedding day like any other bride, the only difference being that a knot of panic had settled in her stomach and, as each second climbed towards the time of the ceremony, the knot tightened, drawing all her intestines into a clotted ball.
Elena had flown in from from Santorini by helicopter first thing with Allegra’s father and baby Nico, and was on hand to help her get dressed. Iona, Draco’s housekeeper, was in her element, fussing over Allegra as if she were her own daughter. In spite of Allegra’s reservations and nerves, she couldn’t help feeling reassured by their cheery presence. They believed this was a romantic wedding day for the bride and groom and she didn’t want to be the one to prick their bubble with the hatpin of honesty.
Along with Elena and Iona were a hairdresser and a make-up artist flown in specially, apparently at Draco’s command. Allegra knew he was keen to keep up appearances, but it still touched her that he had gone to the trouble of organising their attendance. It might not be her choice to be married under such circumstances, but there was no way she was going to look like a fright show on her wedding day.
But that wasn’t the only surprise.
The sound of the helicopter blades overhead announced yet another wedding guest arrival.
Not long after, Allegra was about to slip on her dress when there was a knock at the suite’s door.
‘That will be your bridesmaid,’ Elena said, beaming.
‘But I’m not having a—’
‘Surprise!’ The door burst open and in came Emily, carrying a garment bag folded over one arm. ‘One bridesmaid arriving for active duty.’
Allegra blinked back a sudden rush of tears. ‘Em, what are you doing here? I—’
‘Don’t cry! Your make-up will run,’ the make-up girl said, dashing back over with a cotton pad, eye shadow and eyeliner brushes like an artist touching up her precious canvas.
Emily handed her garment bag to Iona, who bustled off to press the dress ready for her to put on. ‘Draco called me at work a couple of days ago and asked me to come. He told me not to tell you as he wanted it to be a surprise.’
It was more than a surprise. Allegra couldn’t understand why he’d gone to so much trouble, contacting her friend and workmate without telling her. But then he didn’t know Emily knew their marriage was one of convenience. Had her friend blown it? Had Emily let slip she’d been let in on the secret against his express wishes?
Once the make-up artist had tidied up her face, Allegra clasped Emily by the hands. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’
Emily grinned like a child let loose in a sweet shop with a platinum credit card. ‘You should’ve warned me about Draco’s wealth. I didn’t realise you could have silver service on a helicopter. And he flew me first class from London to Athens last night and put me up in the most amazing hotel. I lost count of how many champagnes I was served on that flight. I felt like a movie star. That man has serious class.’
‘Em…?’ Allegra gave her a ‘did you or didn’t you?’ look.
Emily’s smile never faltered and she gave a covert wink. ‘You should see the dress I’ve got. Actually, I’ve got three, so you could choose the colour you like best.’ She went over to Iona who had hung the three dresses on silk-padded clothes hangers. ‘Shell-pink, baby-blue or café latte?’
‘The shell-pink,’ Allegra said, turning to Elena, who was hovering nearby. ‘What do you think, Elena? It would go best, don’t you think?’
Elena nodded. ‘Absolutely. It’s perfect with the oyster silk white of your dress. Speaking of your dress—we’d better get you into it. We’ve only got a few minutes until the ceremony starts.’
Allegra felt like a royal princess when the girls and Iona helped her into her dress an
d veil. She had never had so much attention showered on her and she was surprised to find she was enjoying it. Having Emily there meant so much to her. Why had Draco gone to so much trouble? It made her feel that he cared for her. Really cared for her. Or did he just really care what people made of their somewhat hasty wedding?
Elena and Iona went ahead to take their positions on the velvet-covered and ribbon-festooned seats set either side of the strip of red carpet laid down in the formal garden.
Emily stayed to adjust Allegra’s veil before they made their way out. ‘You look amazing, sweetie. You could model for one of those bridal magazines.’
Allegra grasped her friend’s hands again. ‘You didn’t let on that you know, did you?’
‘No, but even if I took my contacts out I could see you’re halfway to being in love with him, if you’re not fully there already,’ Emily said. ‘Truly, he’s something else to look at, isn’t he? And that smile. Gosh, I’m halfway in love with him myself.’ She winked. ‘Only kidding.’
Allegra drew in a steadying breath and smoothed her palms over the satin of her figure-hugging gown. ‘Are you sure I look okay? I don’t look fat, do I? I bought this in my lunch hour and now I’m wondering if I should’ve—’
‘You look a-maz-ing,’ Emily said. ‘That dress is perfect for you. It highlights everything I hate about you: your breasts, your hips, your bum—which is so tiny I wouldn’t even classify it as a bum. Seriously, hon, you’re going to pop Draco’s eyeballs.’
Allegra adjusted the cleavage of her dress and grimaced. ‘As long as I don’t pop out of this dress.’
She stood at the top of the strip of red carpet with her father a short time later, trying to settle the hive of nerves in her stomach. While it was nice to have Emily here, and for Elena and Iona to be so kind and helpful, it didn’t take away from the fact this wedding was not her choice. Not even marriage to Draco, the most attractive and sexy man she knew.
Especially because it was Draco.