A Deal with Demakis

by Tara Pammi

  He stood up from the couch like a coiled spring, his face a tight mask. She kept her gaze on his, amazed at how steady he looked. His jaw was granite. “We will leave immediately.”

  “I don’t want to leave.”

  He covered the distance between them and smiled. With his hands on her shoulders, he tugged her closer, and smiled. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have started this here. I know you are new to all this...” He pressed a furious kiss to her mouth, his lips clinging devouring, until she couldn’t breathe. That’s what she wanted—his passion. “It’s not the end of it, either.” He pulled back, and this time he didn’t sound so steady.

  She pushed his hands away, her heart stuttering to a halt. “Stop trying to protect me, Nikos. You’re acting just like Tyler.”

  His gaze blazed with anger. “I don’t know what you are talking about. But you should know this. No man wants to hear the ex’s name and definitely not like that.”

  “Then stop acting like him.”

  A curse fell from his mouth. “Explain.”

  “You are doing what you think I want. You’re not being yourself.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

  “I’m not going to break, Nikos. I want honesty between us, whether it is in the way you make love to me, or when it’s time for you to say we’re done. You are controlling yourself, wondering if I will break, wondering if you will hurt me.”

  He pushed his hair back, and Lexi noticed he was not as in control as she thought. This was not the Nikos that had pushed her into admitting how much she wanted him. Something had changed in him; something had changed between them, and she didn’t know what.

  “I won’t be responsible for hurting you. Despite everything I proposed and did, I never intended to.”

  “Then tell me...no wait, show me what you like. Do this...” She moved her hand between them. “Make love to me the way you would do it with Nina, or Emmanuelle.”

  He jerked back from her as though she had polluted the air by speaking those names in this moment between them. “Christos! Stop comparing yourself to them. I cannot forget everything I know about who and what you are.”

  Lexi bit her lower lip. Warmth that had nothing to do with desire and lust flew through her veins. He was making concessions for her. She didn’t want him to, but she couldn’t help being affected by it, either. “You’ll hurt me more if you are not yourself, Nikos. I believe that Tyler... He only slept with me because he thought it would make me happy. I can’t bear the thought that you are doing the same...”

  “Theos! I can’t think straight with wanting you. I’ve never spent so much time thinking about it instead of just doing it.”

  Her heart stuttered and started. She couldn’t speak for the breath caught in her throat.

  She was terrified of what she was doing, of where she was going with him. But mixed in with that fear was also a sense of rightness. She covered the distance between them and pulled him down for a kiss.

  His lips were soft and firm against hers, his hands on her waist lifting her off the ground. His tongue delved into her mouth, seeking and caressing, his hands on her buttocks tucking her tight against the V of his legs.

  Pulling her hands up, he slowly guided her to the wall behind him. A slow smile curved his lips. “You want to know what I like?”

  “Yes.”

  “I would like for you to tell me what you want me to do. You have to ask me for it, thee mou.”

  Her gaze flew to him, heat streaking her cheeks. For some reason, he was pushing her, expecting her to back out of this. She had no idea why. But she wouldn’t let him win. “Fine.”

  She unbuttoned the metal clasps on her vest and the leather fell away inch by inch to reveal her heated skin. Her fingers were steady despite the butterflies in her stomach. There were at least a hundred people on the other side of the glass. But it was the darkening of Nikos’s gaze that spread desire like wildfire through her. Her small breasts felt heavy, her nipples rigid and chafing against the lacy silk of her bra.

  The sound of his jagged breaths filled the room. “I can’t wait to touch your breasts, Lexi. I have been going out of my mind thinking about them.”

  He ran his knuckle over the strap of her bra, his gaze hungry and hard. Without touching her, he bent and licked the upper curve of her breast. Lexi jerked and arched her spine greedily into his touch.

  His forearm kept her against the wall, stopping her from leaning into him. “Sorry, thee mou. I forgot my own rules. Now if you want something...”

  She looked up at him, every nerve in her tuned tight. Her mouth was dry but need triumphed over shyness. She pulled his hand to her mouth and kissed his palm. “I want—” she swallowed at the need rippling through her “—you to...touch my breasts.”

  A lick of fire burst into life in his eyes and a curse fell from his mouth. The sound of it cocooned them in the room.

  He dipped his head again. His hair tickled her jaw, his fingers tugging the silky lace down. Rough fingers traced circles around her nipple, again and again, sending shivers of pleasure through her. Finally, he flicked the taut, aching buds, pinched them between his fingers. And the throaty sound of her moan filled her ears.

  He took her mouth in a stinging kiss. “Next?”

  “Suck...” She was wet just thinking it. If his plan was to drive her crazy with lust, he was succeeding.

  He smiled against her mouth, before tugging her lower lip between his teeth. She clutched her legs tight together, a pulse of need vibrating at her sex. “Yes?”

  She closed her eyes and shamelessly pushed herself into his touch. “Please, Nikos.”

  “What. Do. You. Want, Lexi?”

  “Suck my nipples into your mouth.”

  In response, he tugged her up until she was straddling his knee. His hard arousal rubbed exactly where she needed it. She moaned and moved. And then his mouth closed over her nipple.

  His tongue laved it and then he sucked it into his mouth. A white-hot shaft of pure sensation arched between her legs. She moved, needing more. He straightened his leg, and she would have crumpled to the floor if he hadn’t been holding her up. She whimpered aloud, just short of begging.

  “What next?”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. Twin streaks of color highlighted his sharp cheekbones, and his features were stark, his gaze ablaze with lust. He was just as far gone as she was. If she could reduce this powerful man to this, there was nothing she couldn’t do. She felt absolutely, powerfully feminine in that moment. She widened her legs just a little and pulled her skirt up. “Touch me between my legs, Nikos,” she said, owning the words, owning the desire she felt.

  His nostrils flared, his eyes were the deepest brown she had ever seen. “No please?”

  She shook her head, her pulse vibrating in her entire body. “No please anymore. You want to do it just as much as I want it.”

  The most gorgeously sinful smile curved his mouth, digging deep grooves in his cheeks. “Take off your panties.”

  She reached under her skirt and tugged her panties down.

  He took them from her shaking fingers and threw them behind him, the sight of her white panties in his rough hands erotic.

  She was not naked, but under his scrutiny, she felt hot and exposed and all kinds of sexy.

  “Don’t look down.” Nikos whispered the words into the curve of her breast.

  Every inch of her skin hyperaware, Lexi kept her eyes on him, the languid curve of his mouth, the tight cast of his features, the way his breath hissed in and out....

  She could stand there and drink him in all night.

  Slow, sinuous need tugged in her lower belly. The hot rasp of his roughened palm on her skin was a searing brand as his fingers crawled up her thighs, his mouth trailing wet hea
t between her breasts. Her nipples knotted with need.

  His long fingers finally found the folds of her sex. He stroked and tugged, pulled with a relentless pressure that had her moaning his name, tension coiling in her lower belly.

  She clutched his shoulders and he traced slick, maddening circles around her nipple. “Now what, yineka mou?”

  His voice was gravelly, coarse and deep with hunger. She sank her hands into his hair and pushed the words out. “I want you to move your fingers, Nikos,” she whispered. Her wanton desire tightened her need.

  His fingers pushed inside her and she threw her head back. It felt intrusive, erotic, nothing like she had ever experienced before.

  It was unrelenting, intense. “What do you want now?” he whispered, his words abraded and slow.

  “Faster, Nikos.”

  He laughed and increased the pressure.

  Nerve endings she didn’t know existed bloomed into life. He tugged and stroked her, whispered words in Greek that only added to the havoc he was wreaking on her.

  He pinched the tight bundle of nerves at her sex, just as his mouth sucked at her nipple, and she came violently, the waves of her orgasm unending as he continued the combined assault of his mouth and fingers.

  She shuddered against him, her breath hitching painfully in and out.

  She opened her eyes and stared into eyes darkened to a molten black with desire. He licked one long finger and the sheer eroticism of the act sent another wave of jagged sensation to her sex.

  She felt alien in her body, a fierce freedom running through her veins.

  “What do you want, Nikos?” she said, more than a hint of brazen challenge in her tone.

  He didn’t answer her. Fingers digging into her hips, he lifted her off the ground. Her thigh muscles still quivering from aftershocks, she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  She heard the sound of the zipper of his jeans, of a condom being ripped, felt the shudder that went through him as he sheathed himself.

  And then he was pushing inside her with a guttural sound that seemed to have been ripped from him. She clawed her hands into his shoulders, pleasure and pain coalescing inside her, the walls of her wet sex clamping him tight.

  She threw her head back and a long whimper escaped her. His breath stilled, a long shudder racking his powerful body.

  “More, agape mou?”

  How he was able to utter a single word, Lexi had no idea. “Yes,” she whispered, her throat raw, her body aching for more.

  He pushed in a little more, stretching her, making her achy and hot all over. He was big and she was tiny, and the most decadent pleasure pulsed through her sex.

  He did something with his hips that sent a pulse of pleasure sputtering through her. And then, he was deep inside her—hot and throbbing. And it felt painfully good, intensely erotic.

  She opened her eyes and caught him studying her, stark desire and something that was entirely Nikos.

  His features stripped of all control, his breathing shaky, he was the most gorgeous sight she had ever seen. Every bone and muscle locked tight, his gaze devoured her. “You’re so tight, Lexi.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and Lexi braced herself against the reverent touch. A frown rippled over his face, his shoulders hard knots under her fingers.

  “I’m afraid to move.”

  She was hot, and tingly and possessed, and she never wanted to stop feeling like that. “I can’t bear it if you don’t, Nikos.” She moved her hips and gasped at how deep he was embedded, at how mind-numbingly good it felt.

  Clutching his shoulders tight, Lexi buried her mouth in his neck. He tasted of sweat and musk, an incredibly erotic taste. She clamped her teeth over his skin and sucked hard. Instantly, his hips moved, and an incredible fire licked along her aching core again.

  His curse felt like the sweetest words to her ears.

  His gaze never moved from her. His breath feathered over her, the raw sounds that fell from his mouth enveloped her. He pulled out slowly, the length of his erection dragging against the walls of her sex, teasing and tormenting her. Until she felt his instant loss, until her body cried out to be possessed again.

  And then he thrust back into her. He moved slow, hard and deep, and she trembled, awash with jagged sensations, bursting to full with a raw awareness. Every square inch of her thrummed with a fever, shuddered with the influx of sensation.

  And he did it again and again.

  Lexi cried out his name as need coiled again and burst into a million lights. Her throat was raw, her entire body was raw.

  His skin was slick under her palms, his muscles bunching and flexing, every inch of him rigid with want that was all for her. To have him inside her, to hold this powerful man shuddering in her arms, it was the most powerful, most freeing thing she had ever felt.

  Every time, he thrust into her, Lexi felt his control snap, his finesse slip and his desperation take over. Until a hoarse grunt fell from his lips and he became utterly still.

  Lexi pushed his hair from his forehead and pressed a kiss to his lips, unable to hold herself back. She had known that sex with Nikos would be fantastic, earth-shattering. But the tenderness in his eyes, the soft, slow kiss he pressed to her mouth, as if she had given him the most precious gift ever, seared through her.

  She had no defense against it. Except to tell herself that she was imagining things, that it was her innate need to bond with him, to make this more than it was.

  It was amazing sex, and she wasn’t going to let her insecurities ruin it.

  She could do this. In fact, she would not only do this, but she would have the time of her life doing it. Fears and doubts, regrets and tears...she would have the rest of her life to indulge in once she was back in New York.

  CHAPTER TEN

  LEXI HAD JUST returned to the mansion from the beach the next afternoon when Nikos returned from wherever it was that he’d been. Wraparound shades shielded his expression from her as he stilled in the foyer at the sight of her. But she still felt his scrutiny as vividly as if he had laid those big hands of his over her skin. Her neck prickled, every inch of her skin stretched taut at his continued perusal.

  “I am going to the other side of the island where the new hotel is being built. If you would like to accompany me, meet me at the entrance in fifteen minutes. Ask Maria to pack a change of clothes for you.”

  “I can do that myself but...I... Why?”

  “I might have to stay there overnight. Do you want to be here alone? If you wish to, that is fine.”

  “No, I want to go. I will be ready in fifteen.”

  She made her way to her bedroom, more confused than ever.

  Instead of the smoldering sexual tension between them cooling off, it had only thickened once he had straightened his clothes and then hers last night.

  She had just stood there on shaking legs, the aftershock of her orgasm still rocking through her, her body still quivering at the assault of unbearable pleasure. It was as though her brain circuits had gone haywire from so much pleasure. Only Nikos’s gentle movements, as he’d held her in his arms for what seemed like an eternity had punctured the sensual haze.

  The raucous gaiety of the nightclub, the quick ride to the private airstrip, she remembered nothing of it.

  Her memories of last night were all of him—how he had felt inside her, how he had held her after and how he had her carried her to the waiting limo when her knees had threatened to buckle under her.

  She had been glad that he hadn’t commented on her silence, because she’d had no idea what she would have said. All she knew was that she had been buried under an avalanche of sensations and feelings. None of which she had wanted to examine or give voice to.

  The next thing she knew, she had woken up in the vast bed in the Demakis man
sion, a strange lethargy in her blood. Which meant she had fallen asleep on the flight to the island.

  She walked back to the foyer and followed the sounds of the chopper. Clad in another pair of jeans and white T-shirt that fitted snugly against the breadth of his chest, he was waiting for her. She settled down in the helicopter, too absorbed in her own thoughts to complain about his silence.

  His pants molded the hard length of his thighs. Those thighs, they had been like solid rock, clenching her tight, supporting her, cradling her.

  A twang went through her belly at remembered pleasure.

  She fisted her hands, a hint of regret swarming through her. She had been so lost in the sensations when he moved inside her, so lost in everything he had done to her, she had been nothing but a passive participant. The urge to touch the hot slide of his skin, to feel his muscles tighten under her was fierce.

  The ride to the other side of the island didn’t take more than ten minutes. Blue water and golden sand stretched in every direction she looked. It was as close to paradise as she had ever seen. And a hotel would ruin the tranquility of it, bring tourists, puncture the peace.

  But she kept her thoughts to herself as they landed and stepped out.

  She stared around her with mounting wonder as Nikos had a word with the pilot.

  The new hotel was nothing like she’d imagined. For one thing, it was, maybe one tenth of the size of the Demakis mansion. It was a simple, clean design with pristine whitewashed walls, designed to reflect the Greek architecture.

  She smiled at Nikos as he joined her. “It’s not what I expected.”

  “Do you like it?”

  She nodded eagerly. “I was worried that it would ruin the peaceful atmosphere, that it would be a noisy, touristy place.”

  “It’s a new kind of approach to a hotel, really more of an authentic experience than just a place to stay. There are no televisions in any suite and the guests are guaranteed the utmost privacy. Even the meals are local Greek specialties. Every material that is used is environmentally conscious, and even the furniture and pieces inside are all one-of-a-kind specially made by local craftsmen using simple, organic materials. Kind of back to—”