by Abby Green
He pulled the towel off his shoulders and threw it down on a nearby chair. Then he said, ‘Come here.’
Maggie took the step towards him, her skin tight all over, prickling with anticipation and awareness.
‘Take down your hair.’
She reached behind her, as if in a dream, and pulled her hair loose. It fell around her shoulders. Unruly hair. Thick and unmanageable. Too much. But it was the same as her mother’s so she loved it.
So, apparently, did Nikos. He reached out, taking a long strand and twining it around his fingers. ‘Your hair is amazing...’
He tugged her even closer. Maggie’s legs were like jelly. He slid the hand holding her hair around her neck, his thumb over the pulse that was hammering against her skin.
He tipped her jaw up. ‘Touch me.’
Maggie lifted her hands and put them on Nikos’s chest, felt his hair scratching her palms, his skin warm and alive. Muscles tensed under her fingers. Suddenly there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room, even though Maggie felt a faint breeze coming from an open window.
Nikos put his other hand on Maggie’s arm and bent his head, his breath feathering over her mouth for a moment. She smelled whiskey, and it rushed to her head all over again.
Everything inside her went still as she waited for his mouth to touch hers. She felt superstitiously that nothing would be the same after this... And then his mouth settled over hers and she knew it wasn’t a superstition. It was truth.
Like dry kindling to a match, she went up in flames.
Nothing could have prepared her for how Nikos’s mouth felt on hers—how it moved and enticed, encouraging her to open up so he could explore the very depths of her.
And the deeper the kiss got, the hungrier she became. It was as if she’d been starved her whole life until this moment. His hand was in her hair again now, tugging her head back to allow him more access, and Maggie moved closer, seeking more contact. She was responding instinctively, from a primal place of need...
Nikos was drowning in heat and lust. Maggie’s mouth under his...hesitant and soft at first, and then becoming bolder...ignited his senses like no other woman ever had, blasting apart any jadedness or ennui.
Her body was quivering against his like a taut bow. Full breasts were pressed against his chest, and he itched to explore her curves, explore every womanly inch of her. Her height was a novelty he relished.
He found the front of her shirt, his hands uncharacteristically inexpert, and undid the buttons, pushing the shirt apart. He pulled back from her mouth and opened his eyes, groaned softly. Her eyes were still closed, lashes long and dark on her cheeks, and her mouth was plump and pink.
She opened her eyes and it took a second for them to focus on him.
Desire wound tight as a drum inside Nikos. When was the last time he’d kissed such a responsive woman? Perhaps when he’d been a teenager, fumbling and awkward?
He looked down and stopped breathing. Her breasts were full and high. Encased in lace. Her waist was small and her hips flared—she embodied a feminine sensuality that he suspected she wasn’t even aware of.
She ducked her head but he tipped her chin up. ‘You are stunning.’
Her cheeks were hot. ‘I’m not wearing anything...special.’
Nikos had to control his urge to strip her bare and bury himself to the hilt, seeking immediate relief.
‘Believe me, you are the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen,’ he said.
She looked serious. ‘You don’t have to say things like that.’
‘I’m not just saying it...’ He meant it. The women he took to bed were usually so confident they required little or no compliments. Maggie seemed...shy.
Something occurred to him then and he went still. But he dismissed it out of hand. She might seem inexperienced, but she was probably putting it on—because in this day and age no one her age could be that innocent. She just wasn’t worldly or sophisticated...
Maggie looked up at Nikos. For a second she wondered if he suspected how inexperienced she was, and she knew if she was going to say anything then this was her moment. She should tell him.
But all she could see in her mind’s eye was the way he would look at her—with shock and then disgust. She felt panicky at the thought of him rejecting her. Surely he wouldn’t notice?
A sense of desperation made her say, ‘Nikos... I do want this... I want you.’
His eyes grew darker. He pushed the shirt off her shoulders, down her arms, and it fell to the floor. Maggie kicked off her shoes, undid the button on her trousers and pushed them down, stepping out of them.
Now she wore only her underwear, and Nikos’s gaze travelled down over her body in a slow and thorough appraisal. Her hands itched and she clenched them into fists. She’d never felt so needy in her life.
With a brisk economy of movement Nikos shed the rest of his clothes until he was naked.
Maggie looked down and gulped. He was hard. Thick and long.
‘Touch me, Maggie.’
She wanted to. But suddenly she was shy.
She reached out and traced a finger down his length, over a throbbing vein. She heard a low moan. Was it her or him? She couldn’t think straight. She wanted to wrap her hand around him.
But he took her wrist and said, in a choked-sounding voice, ‘I’m feeling a little underdressed here...’
Maggie looked up at him. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, undoing her bra and letting it fall forward and off. He tugged her panties over her hips and down. They fell to her feet.
Her breathing was so shallow now she felt dizzy. No one had ever seen her as naked as this. She’d even been shy in front of her mother.
‘Turn around, Maggie.’
Slowly she turned around, eyes down. She heard Nikos’s indrawn breath. She bit her lip...saw his hand come into her line of vision. He cupped a breast, feeling its weight. His thumb traced the areola around her nipple and it stood to attention. Tight and hard.
Maggie bit her lip so hard she could taste blood. It was excruciatingly intense, the sensation rushing through her body. She’d never expected it could be like this—slow, exploratory... Torturous in the most pleasurable way.
She looked up at Nikos. His eyes were heavy-lidded. Cheeks flushed.
She tried to articulate what she was feeling, ‘I can’t... I need...’
He looked at her, his hand closing over her plump flesh, trapping her nipple between two fingers. Maggie reached out, her hands landing on his biceps. She had to hold on to something. She was drowning.
‘I need...you. More...’
Nikos took his hand from her breast and Maggie almost cried out. He led her over to the wide bed. The bed that she remade every week with fresh linen.
No, don’t think about that now.
He came down on the bed beside her, and the clamour of needy voices in her head stopped when he covered her mouth with his again. He explored her with his hands, finding curves she hadn’t even been aware of. His mouth moved down, leaving a trail of fire in its wake as he came closer and closer to where she ached most for him to explore: the throbbing points of her breasts.
When his mouth closed over one, encasing it in hot, sucking heat, she arched her back helplessly. Her hands were buried in his hair as he moved from one to the other, his hands plumping her breasts even more, feeding her to himself like some decadent pasha lingering over a tasty meal.
When he moved downwards Maggie was panting. He settled his body between her legs, opening her up to him. She’d never been more exposed, or so much at someone else’s mercy, and yet she felt no sense of vulnerability or insecurity. Only a sense of wonder and awe.
He looked up at her and she could only describe the expression on his face as wicked—just before he dipped his head and she felt his mouth on her—right there—at the most i
ntimate part of her body.
Maggie’s hands, no longer in Nikos’s hair, found the sheets and gripped them as he mercilessly demonstrated his skill. At one point the feeling was so intense she tried to close her thighs, but he kept them open. He put a hand on her belly, as if to soothe her, while his tongue explored her with a thoroughness that left her dizzy.
Everything inside her was winding tighter and tighter, bringing her to an edge she’d only ever explored on her own before. And then, with a rush, she tipped over the edge, her whole body spasming as a huge wave of pleasure undulated out from the centre of her being. She hadn’t expected it to be so violent—like a force rushing through her body that she couldn’t hope to contain. A force outside her control.
She looked up, dazed, as Nikos loomed over her. She’d heard the sound of foil ripping and looked down now, to see that he’d sheathed himself with protection. Her muscles quivered with renewed desire. Already. What was happening to her? She was insatiable.
Nikos looked at her. ‘You’re unbelievably responsive...do you know what a turn-on that is?’
Maggie couldn’t speak. She could only shake her head.
Nikos moved between her legs and his thighs pushed hers apart a little more. She instinctively shifted, welcoming him into the cradle of her body, still sensitive after the rush of pleasure but already aching for more.
Nikos looked down at her, and then he slid an arm around her back, arching her up to him while at the same time guiding himself into her body, pushing deep in one cataclysmic thrust.
Maggie gasped, clutching at his arms, eyes wide as she absorbed the sensation of his body joining with hers.
Nikos went still, eyes narrowing on her face.
‘Maggie...are you—’
Reacting on pure instinct, and a desperate need for him not to say it out loud, she wrapped her legs around his hips, which deepened his thrust inside her. ‘Please, don’t stop...’
The sting of pain was fading as Nikos’s body pulsed inside hers. She could have cried with relief when he started to move out and then moved back in. She welcomed him, her body flowing and adapting around his as an instinctive rhythm caught their bodies up in its timeless dance.
Nikos held her thigh against him as his thrusts became harder, deeper, faster. And Maggie could only cling on as the storm leapt and danced within her, whirling her higher and higher into a vortex of gathering pleasure that she couldn’t escape. Didn’t want to escape.
Her body arched up into Nikos’s as tension held her taut for a long moment, the pinnacle beckoning, making her desperate for release. And then it broke, hurling her high over and over again, not letting her catch her breath as her whole being pulsated and throbbed in the aftermath.
Nikos knew she wasn’t even aware of him tensing over her body as he, too, found his release, his body spasming deep inside her in the strongest climax he’d ever experienced, turning him inside out.
It tore through his body so powerfully that for a moment he could ignore the truth that had seared itself onto his brain before she’d pushed him over the edge and to the point of no return.
She’d been a virgin.
CHAPTER THREE
MAGGIE LAY ON the bed, unable to move. The aftershocks of what had just happened still rippled through her, inside, where Nikos’s body had filled her to the point of almost pain...and then such pleasure as she’d never known could exist.
He’d gone into the bathroom, and Maggie was glad of a moment’s respite to try and absorb what had happened. How it had made her feel. She hadn’t expected it to be so...so intensely exquisite. So bone-shakingly desperate.
She heard the bathroom door open and pulled the sheet over herself. Nikos emerged with a towel slung around his waist. The sheer magnificence of his body made her mouth go dry. To think that a man like him had wanted her...
And then he spoke.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?’
He’d noticed.
Maggie’s insides dropped like a stone. Of course he’d noticed.
She looked at him and couldn’t speak. Not yet. Still too shocked at what had happened. The speed at which she’d gone from dealing with the unexpected arrival of her absentee boss to this moment was truly mortifying. As was her total and absolute capitulation. He hadn’t even had to touch her to seduce her!
Now he looked the opposite of seductive. He looked positively icy. Condemning. A cold shiver went down her spine. What had she done?
She made her mouth form the shape of a word. ‘I...’
‘You...?’ he said, impatience and something else less definable making his tone sharp.
Maggie’s brain wouldn’t function. She dragged her gaze away from his naked torso. ‘Can you put some clothes on, please?’
He emitted a curse in some language that sounded guttural. She took advantage of the fact that he’d moved towards where his trousers lay, in a crumpled heap on the floor to pull the sheet up over her breasts.
He came back, hitching his trousers over his hips, pulling up the zip. ‘Well?’
Maggie wanted to point out that his top button was still open but she resisted the urge. She swallowed. Focused on his question.
Virgin.
‘I didn’t think...’ She trailed off.
That had been the problem, from the moment he’d appeared on the doorstep earlier she hadn’t had a rational thought in her head. First of all she’d sparked off him, and then...then she’d wanted him.
He opened his mouth, but she didn’t want to hear that sharp tone again so she said, with a little sheepishness, ‘I didn’t want you to stop.’
I was afraid you’d stop. Those words trembled on her lips but she clamped her mouth shut.
‘Theos, Maggie. You should have told me. I thought you were experienced. I don’t sleep with virgins. I am the last man who should initiate a woman in her first sexual experience.’
Maggie’s body disagreed. After what had just happened, the thought of another man being the one to initiate her in the ways of lovemaking almost made her feel nauseous.
And that was an earth-shattering revelation.
Wasn’t Nikos Marchetti the antithesis of everything she wanted in a man?
At what point had she succumbed to his wicked temptation?
It was all fuzzy now, but Maggie knew that somewhere along the way she’d justified having sex with him. And now she felt exposed. She’d had sex with a man who was the same as her father: rich and powerful. And she’d done it without a second thought.
She said, ‘Could you pass me a robe, please?’
Nikos looked at Maggie for a long moment, feeling conflicted between anger and desire. She looked thoroughly and utterly debauched. Her skin was still pink from his touch. Her hair was in a wild tumble around her shoulders. Her lips were swollen. Her eyes were huge with the same conflict he was feeling, but there was also something slumberous. And dazed. As if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Neither could he. He hadn’t had such an erotic encounter in a long time. If ever. He’d never felt such desperation to join his body to a woman’s.
He emitted a frustrated sound and retrieved a robe from the bathroom door, handing it to Maggie, who scooted into it awkwardly, trying not to show her skin.
It didn’t really work. Nikos still got a view of one plump breast and recalled how his hand hadn’t been able to contain its bounty.
His body tightened again. He ran a hand through his hair.
Maggie belted the robe and stood up from the bed. It was no consolation to see her legs wobble slightly. His own didn’t feel much steadier.
Nikos shook his head. ‘How were you still innocent?’
She shrugged minutely, avoiding his eye. ‘I just...never met anyone I wanted to...’ A blush stained her cheeks red.
‘Have sex with?’ h
e supplied, with a tone that he knew was astringent.
She looked at him. ‘Something like that.’
There was something defiant in her eyes now. Proud. It impacted on Nikos down low in his gut, pulling everything tight again. Making him want more.
Then she said, ‘That was a mistake.’
The strength of the rejection he felt at hearing her say that surprised him. He shook his head. ‘Oh, no, angeli mou—it’s a bit late for regrets. We knew what we were doing—or are you now going to claim that you didn’t?’
His conscience struck him. She’d been innocent, so technically she hadn’t really known.
Anger eclipsed his conscience. He said again, ‘You should have told me you were a virgin.’
She looked at him. ‘You’re right. I should have, maybe then we would have come to our senses.’
The thought of the dilemma Nikos would have faced had he known of Maggie’s innocence wasn’t lost on him. Would he have had the strength to deny himself? In spite of his lofty assertion that he didn’t sleep with virgins?
And his pride was piqued. ‘Do you really mean that?’
She flushed pinker. ‘I’m disappointed in myself for sleeping with someone like you.’
Shock and indignation rocked through Nikos. No woman—ever—voiced regret for sleeping with him. The opposite, in fact.
He folded his arms. ‘Someone like me? Please elaborate.’
Maggie regretted saying anything, but she couldn’t escape or prevaricate. Nikos’s laser-like gaze wouldn’t allow it.
‘Someone rich and entitled. Privileged.’
Her conscience pricked. She knew her judgement of him wasn’t entirely rational, but from the moment she’d seen him he’d got under her skin and impacted on her in a place where no one ever had before.
After the lessons learnt in her own life, and from her mother, she’d hoped she’d be immune to the lure of a man like him. Cynical. Street-smart. But apparently not.
‘Being rich and privileged isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be—or haven’t you read the books and watched the movies about poor little rich kids?’