by Tara Pammi
“Tomorrow morning.”
That sinking feeling in her stomach returned. “I hope whatever it is that caused distance between your father and you...you’re able to sort it out.”
He plucked her hand from her side where she had fisted it tight. Tingles spread up her arm as he traced the half-moons left in her palm by her nails. “You and I both know that that’s not possible. That nothing can make the distances carved over years lesser.
“I wish I could tell Andreas that I don’t give a damn about our father or him or Drakon—” tension emanated from every inch of him “—but I find I can’t.”
Just when she thought she knew him, he said something like that. There was grief in his eyes, even pain. She didn’t want to learn the cause of that grief; she couldn’t ask why he’d walked away from his destiny when it was clear his family meant something to him.
“Apparently, I’m a pushover.” An edgy grin, then laced with self-mockery.
“Or you have a serious case of hero complex,” she said, wanting to make him truly smile. Even with his contempt for her, he’d stayed at the press conference, hadn’t he? Thrill chaser or not, apparently Nikandros had a sense of responsibility.
“Families are never without complications,” she offered. “But if there’s a chance to say goodbye to him, you should take it.”
“Are you estranged from your family too?”
She shrugged, not quite meeting his eyes. There was no point in dwelling on each other’s past when, come tomorrow, they would never see each other again.
The inescapable fact was that tonight he seemed to need her just as much she did him—that bolstered her courage.
Soft strokes on her palms, to her wrists and above, all the way to the sensitive skin of her elbow. And back down. Every nerve tautened like the strings of an instrument.
Mesmerized, Mia couldn’t lift her gaze from the sight of his long fingers on her skin. Those long fingers everywhere on her bare skin, stroking and caressing—she wanted to burrow into his warmth. “I don’t want to say good-night yet.”
He tensed. “If it’s a shoulder you want to cry on, keep looking.” A thread of anger touched his tone. “There’s a line between challenging oneself and tormenting oneself and I’ve already crossed it.”
Words came and fell away from her lips, desperate and hard. For the life of her, she couldn’t put her want into words. How had he so cavalierly told her that she’d been an obsession he’d carried around for so many years? How hadn’t he felt vulnerable?
Or was it strength to go after what one wanted?
Bracing herself on his shoulders, she pulled herself up and pressed her mouth to the corner of his. Stubble scraped her lips, sending sparks of rough sensation all over. His breath fell loudly in the silence. Under her questing hands, the muscles of his shoulders were like steel spikes.
Heart threatening to explode in her chest, Mia kissed the defined line of his jaw.
Another featherlight kiss over his cheek. One more at the corner of his mouth.
Icy blue eyes darkened to the color of a stormy sky as he looked into hers. Long fingers tightened against her scalp. He’d push her away, and she couldn’t allow that.
Trembling from head to toe, she pressed her mouth flush against his. Jerked at the jolt of heat that coiled and uncoiled in corners of her body she’d forgotten existed.
Whiskey and heat—he tasted of sin, of deep desires she’d never indulged in.
She hadn’t kissed a man in a long time, but this, it felt natural, almost inevitable since the moment she’d seen him stand amidst that teeming crowd.
Keeping her gaze open with a boldness she hadn’t known she had, she traced his lower lip with her tongue. Grasped the cushiony softness of it with her teeth and tugged at it. The moment she ventured inside his mouth, the tenor of the kiss changed.
It was as if an earthquake had rocked the world beneath her feet.
Wide shoulders and hard muscles, he slammed her into him, and she was drowning. He kicked her feet apart, his hard thigh shoving between her own. His tongue tangled with hers, in and out, sending such stabs of relentless heat through her that she retreated, breathless and scared.
A hand curled around her nape while another gripped her hip tight and pulled her hard against his rock-hard body. “Don’t be scared of this, Mia mou.”
Any little breath of air she had in her lungs punched out. The hard column of his thigh pressed against her core, rubbing sensitive nerves. Mia cried out, her knees jelly. His mouth devoured her as if she were much-needed air, as if he would drown without her.
It was a salve over the wounds that had dug deep during her marriage. She sank into his touch, energized by the possessiveness of it.
“Damn it, I hoped I’d be proved wrong.” He almost sounded angry, his gaze a blue fire. “I thought I’d built you up, this attraction up into something more than it was.”
Whatever little niggles Mia’s painfully developed cautious nature threw at her dissolved at the potent need swirling in his strong face. He was right. This fire between them burned hotter and brighter the more they touched each other. It didn’t matter why she was attracted to him, or why she wanted to feel the power of his honed body over hers.
She just did.
She sank her fingers into his hair, caressing the thick black locks, carving the strong lines of his face into memory when he picked her up and started walking.
His bedroom was three times the size of hers, with French doors opening out into an incredible view of the sea. Dark gray curtains and a huge plasma TV opposite the massive bed were the only belongings in the room.
Swallowing, Mia forced herself to look at the bed. The same dark gray sheets covered the sleek, contemporary bed. The image of Nik and she tangled in those sheets sent heat rushing to her face.
“You are scared.”
She tilted up her face to see Nikandros unbutton his shirt and slide it off his wide shoulders. The insecurities brought on by the bed misted away at the sight of his broad chest. Liquid longing coursed through her at the defined contours and the sleek, tight flesh of his muscles.
“I have never...” The words died an instant death at the dark scowl on his face. “I’m not scared,” she said, tilting her chin up.
Lethal challenge glinted in his eyes. “Prove it to me.”
“How?”
“I took off my shirt. Now it’s your turn.”
She moved toward the bed and pulled off the duvet when she heard his sharp No.
“What?” she said, irritably.
She’d kept to her fitness routine almost maniacally this past year, but the idea of being wanted by him would drive any woman to doubts.
“Here, Mia. In front of me.”
“You’ve too many demands,” she said, greedily taking in the bands of muscle in his abdomen. She licked her lips, imagining running her tongue over those ridged bands.
“I’m a demanding man. You will not hide from me or from yourself, pethi mou. I’m aware that you’re jumping into this because we will never see each other again.
“But this night, this is ours. I have had ten years to imagine this moment. We’re going to do this very, very thoroughly, and in full light.
“So, come, Mia. Let me see you.”
Like a chastised student called to the front of the class, she dutifully moved back to the center of the room. Unbidden, snarky comments from Brian, always in this context, rushed into her head. Remembered frustration, with herself and him, propelled Mia forward. It was time to learn the truth.
“Two more steps,” Nikandros commanded.
“You’re enjoying this far too much,” she complained, her eyes still glued to his bare chest.
He laughed. “I believe that is what we’re supposed to do with each other—enjoy.”
She came to stand a foot from him. And stiffened. Silvery moonlight filled the spot where she stood now. He would see every inch of her skin.
“You owe me a discard
ed T-shirt.”
With fingers trembling violently, Mia rolled the edges of her T-shirt and pulled it off. The breeze from the sea was a soft caress against her heated skin. She threw the tee at him, her knees locked.
His gaze moved over her breasts, barely covered in her white lace bra. Her nipples became tight points, pushing against the flimsy fabric. The dark desire in those eyes gave her the courage she needed. She didn’t wait to be commanded again. With one hand behind her back, she undid the hook and shrugged off the bra.
A gravelly whisper fell from his mouth. She’d have given anything to understand if her body pleased him.
“Come closer.” His voice was a silken rasp over her naked skin. Panting breaths, his and hers, filled the velvety night. “Christos, Mia, do not argue.”
“You owe me a piece of clothing, Prince,” she demanded, lifting her chin.
With a casual movement of his hands, he unbuttoned his trousers and boxers, and stepped out of them.
He was huge, thick, jutting out and up toward his abdomen. Christ, he was bigger than she had ever imagined.
“All you have to do is ask, Mia, and you will have it,” he purred, eating away the distance between them with one long stride. Mia realized that she had her panties on only when she felt a rush of wetness seep through the cotton fabric. She had never been this aroused even when... No, he was not allowed here, in this room, tonight.
It was just this gorgeous man and her tonight. One night.
Hands on her shoulders, Nikandros pulled her close and took her mouth in a kiss that sent rivulets of pleasure up and down her body. Calluses from the pads of his fingers scraped her skin, the difference in the texture teasing out responses like she had never known. He devoured her mouth—stroked her lips with his tongue and licked into her mouth as if he would leave no inch of her untouched.
Knuckles played over her back, digging and testing, up and down, side to side, as if she were his favorite instrument. Toes digging into the cold marble, Mia sank into his kiss. The graze of her breasts, nipples distended painfully, against his velvety smooth and hard chest sent their mingled groans out into the air.
The rub of her thighs was pure torture. Her body had always been her instrument—honed lethally with focus and determination for over ten years. And it had served her well in her career.
But now, it was totally out of control. The more Nikandros gave her, the more it craved, pulsing with longing.
With a deep groan, he lifted her off the floor until she was almost plastered to his hard body shoulder to shoulder, abdomen to abdomen. The press of his shaft against her belly seared Mia. The ache at the apex of her thighs grew as he rubbed the thickness against her belly, his hips thrusting against her.
She had no idea when he had divested her of her panties. Only when his long fingers dug into the curves of her buttocks did she realize that they were gone. Plundering her mouth, and then trailing wet, thorough kisses over her neck, he shifted her until his hip bone opened her up scandalously.
Mia sobbed, the friction opening her sex making her mindless with need. “Please, Nikandros...” she whimpered, past fear and inhibitions. Rubbing the aching folds of her sex against his bare hip wantonly.
He seated her on the high bed and stared at her breasts with an unholy gleam. She’d always been a natural athlete, her body more lean muscle than softness. Her breasts were on the smaller side too.
And yet, when Nikandros lifted them in his hands and kissed the voluptuous valley between, all the while muttering in Greek, Mia felt like the sexiest woman on earth.
When he lifted the dark, knotted nipple to his mouth and licked it, she arched her body toward him with a needy groan. He continued to lick and stroke the nipple until it was wet and so painfully sensitized that each ministration of his sent a twang of pleasure straight through to her sex. “I can’t bear it,” she whispered, her breath panting in and out of her like a whistle.
Release hovered on the edge of her consciousness, taunting and teasing, twined with this gorgeous man.
“But I have only just gotten started,” he whispered, meeting her eyes. The devilish glint in them made Mia tremble all over. Still holding her gaze, he opened his mouth and closed it over her nipple. And did something that Mia had never imagined could be done between a man and a woman, something so wantonly glorious that a line of fire tingled down her spine.
Legs locked around his hips, Mia convulsed as he suckled on that nipple, his hands stroking every inch of her skin from her back to her buttocks. When he shifted his attention to the other nipple, she protested. Her mouth found his bicep. Damp and salty, he tasted like heaven when she licked him.
He kept up the strokes of his mouth over her nipple while his fingers separated the folds of her sex. When he pressed his thumb against the crest, Mia begged, “Please, now, Nik.”
Instead, he took her mouth. The kiss was damp and hot, her erratic breathing slowly spiraling down to normal. And then he built her up again, until every muscle was taut and begging. And again. And again.
By penetrating her slick sex with two fingers.
By suckling on her nipple with such delirious intent that the peak hardened.
And every time she was near release, he pulled her back from it. Fists clenched on his muscled back, Mia sobbed his name over and over again, begging for relief.
Gentle fingers pushed her hair from her forehead, while he studied her with a slumbering gaze full of wicked fire. “What do you want?” she bit out hoarsely, lips swollen and stinging and her body trembling.
Stubble marks covered the swells of her breasts and her abdomen.
His tongue flicked out against her tight nipple, which made her core dampen even more. “To see you like this. Your brown eyes—always so wary and reserved, dark and dilated—your body, damp and flushed with need...you my slave in this bed.”
“I hate you,” she retorted, on principle, even as her body arched off the bed when he tongued her belly button.
“I know,” he said with a wicked smile, and then he was rubbing that stubbly jaw against the tender skin of her thighs. Blue-black hair tickled the sensitive skin of her lower belly. Every pelvic muscle locked, tightened against his onslaught.
Digging her fingers in his shoulders, she said, “Nikandros—”
“Tut, tut, let me in, Mia,” he said, firm hands pushing her thighs wide apart, until her slick flesh was all but open to his devouring gaze. His nostrils flared and Mia closed her eyes. Embarrassment and anticipation and soul-wrenching need—she was a cauldron of emotions.
The long muscles of her thighs convulsed when he bent his dark head and took a long lick of her damp folds.
Back arching off the bed, Mia pushed herself onto her elbows and dug her hands into his hair. Pleasure rode her lower belly hard as he kept up the strokes of his tongue. She writhed and moaned, but his arm on her belly locked her against the bed.
Again and again, he licked, driving her high, then easing up the pressure. The moment he sucked her tender flesh with his lips, Mia broke apart.
The wave of pleasure was so intense that she saw darkness and light. Deep, wrenching spasms of her muscles went on and on, while tears soaked her cheeks.
She barely caught her breath when he flipped her onto her stomach, and then pulled her up until she was on all fours. Her hair fell over Mia narrowing her view to the silvery sheets spread in front of her. She was still panting, echoes of her climax still twisting and turning deep inside her lower belly.
Only when his fingers, digging into her hips, pulled her back toward him did she realize her vulnerable position.
She tensed, the position alien and intrusive to her. How intimately he would see and know her like this...
He bent over her until his mouth reached the curve of her shoulder. Soft heat swirled through her pleasure-suffused nerves as he kissed her. His thick shaft wedged into the crease of her buttocks and Mia jerked at the strange, unraveling tingles in her sensitive tissues. Expletives fil
led the room, his breath hissing out of him.
“Do you not like it like this?” He sounded hoarse as if he were the one who’d already broken apart and been remade anew. Another kiss, this time with his teeth involved. The drag of his teeth against her skin made her breath rasp against the sheets.
The slide of his hot skin over hers, his breath caressing her neck, every inch of Mia felt carnal, as if her body had been made for only this purpose, only this man. Words were an impossibility.
“Ahh...and you think I’m gentleman enough to say fine.”
She licked her lips, struggling to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t know whether I will like it this way.”
She instantly knew that he didn’t like that answer. Whether he never liked hearing about his lovers’ exes or particularly Brian, she had no idea. And she didn’t care.
One long finger traced the line of her spine all the way to the crease of her buttocks, teasing and taunting. A kiss landed on her left buttock and Mia blushed and burned in turns. Her arms ached, her body felt alien in the rivulets of sensations coursing through it.
She heard the whispered tear of a condom packet, and the sinuous slide of it over his shaft. Anticipation built like a balloon inside her and she felt him come up behind her.
Strong fingers drew a line of fire from her neck to her navel. “If it kills me, I’ll make it good for you. Trust me?”
Breath on tenterhooks, Mia nodded.
“Say it, pethi mou.”
“I trust you, Nikandros. More than I’ve ever done anyone.”
Hands on her hips, he entered her with one long stroke that set fire to her nerve endings. “Christos, you are tight.” He shuddered around her, the hard muscles of his body locked tight, as if to stop himself from moving. “You needed more, Mia? Tell me you’re okay.”
First came an achy, alien sensation that threatened to buckle her legs under him. In this position, it felt like there was no part of her that Nikandros hadn’t touched and claimed. “I’m...it feels...strange, but full, Nik.”