Chapter 14
Late the next morning, Tallia stepped hesitantly into the cozy, informal dining room. Since arriving on Seleni she had taken all her meals on the terrace, but since the rain was still pelting down in torrents, she followed her nose. Walking past a large, unlit dining room, she came to a much smaller room off of the kitchen, where food was waiting for her on a lovely, round oak table that looked as if it were quite old.
Costa was also waiting for her, and she blushed to her roots as their eyes met over his newspaper. She wanted to sink through the floor as the memory of what happened between them washed over her, specifically the part where she threw herself at him and begged him to make love to her.
He lowered the paper fractionally and gave her a warm smile. "Good morning," he tossed out lightly, as if they were the best of friends.
It was obvious Costa meant to put her at ease by pretending as if nothing had happened between them. Stiffening her spine, Tallia forced her feet to move. After waking up alone in bed, she knew he had not changed his mind about his antiquated notions on virginity and felt doubly embarrassed to think he had given her pity oral sex last night, just to shut her up.
It was lowering in the extreme to know, unequivocally, that she had made a fool of herself in front of this man. And now he meant to politely gloss over it and continue as if nothing were amiss. She supposed it was the best plan of action since they would probably have to see each other quite a bit in the years to come, considering their siblings were soon going to be married.
At that sobering thought, Tallia realized she should probably be grateful to Costa. Uncomfortable as she was now, it was probably nothing compared to how strained things would be between them if they did have a fling and then spent the rest of their lives being thrown together during family gatherings with the memory of something like that between them.
"Good morning," she muttered, sinking into a chair across from him. She wondered who she was kidding. Things were going to be very awkward between them for a very long time.
"Did you, ah… sleep… well," Costa mumbled, clearly regretting the question the moment it popped out. Flags of bright color darkened his high cheekbones, and he rattled the newspaper, holding it up between them like a wall he completely hid himself behind.
"Mm," she grunted, deciding against making any reply, especially as none came to mind. All she seemed capable of doing was blushing furiously. Head down, she poured herself tea and grabbed a roll, slathering it hastily with butter and the first jam that came to hand. As luck would have it, she happened to choose fig, and almost choked on the piece of bread she bit off.
"Well, I- ah, I'll leave you to it. I have a lot of work to do," Costa blurted out a moment later, crumpling the paper into a wad and shoving it under his arm as he hurried out of the room.
Tallia sagged in relief, feeling as if she were a teenager in school again, suffering her first, humiliating crush. She took the coward’s way out. After breakfast, she locked herself in her room for the rest of the day. She busied herself taking a long soak in the huge, decadent sunken tub in her bathroom. Afterwards, she gave herself a pedicure, flipped idly through a stack of magazine's Emmy brought with her from London, and generally did everything in her power to stay busy and distracted.
Outside the house, the storm raged with varying degrees of intensity. Towards nightfall, the lightning became stupendous, electrifying the sky for long stretches of time while rain hammered down, and a fierce wind whipped against the windows.
In the interest of avoiding Costa, Tallia skipped lunch, but by dinnertime she was too hungry to go without something to eat. It didn't occur to her to wonder why no one brought her a tray for lunch, considering Calamini had been mothering her since she arrived, until she crept downstairs to find Costa puttering around in the room where they had breakfast, setting a table for two. She watched him covertly from the door, amused to see him bending his most intimidating frown on a butter knife that had the audacity to bear a watermark on it. Scrubbing the offending spot off on a corner of the thick linen tablecloth, he disappeared into the kitchen and returned a moment later with glasses and a basket of bread.
Feeling like a naughty child spying on him, Tallia cleared her throat and stepped into the room. He looked up and just stared at her for a moment before a smile crossed his face.
"Hello, how are you?" he asked politely.
"Hungry," she replied, hating the way her heart started to race and her palms became damp just from being in the same room with him. Suddenly she didn't know what to do with her hands and her whole body felt clumsy. Crossing her ankles, she curled her toes into the hardwood floors and wished she had worn shoes when Costa looked down to stare at her toes with a bemused look.
"Plum," she thought she heard him say, but then he jerked his head up and gave her another impersonal smile. "Well, it's going to be just the two of us tonight. I told Calamini and the others to stay home this morning because of the weather."
"Oh, good- I mean, that makes sense," Tallia replied, wishing that she could calm down. It was obvious Costa was just as nervous as her, which struck her as odd since he hardly seemed the nervous type. But she felt all out of sorts. "Can I do anything to help?"
"Uh… no, well, actually," he corrected himself, "can you look through that cabinet for candles? The power might go out," he said, nodding towards a long wooden sideboard.
While he finished setting the table and brought out the food, Tallia dug candles and matches out of the cupboard and set them around the table. She lit them reluctantly, knowing how romantic the room was going to look. Sure enough, the warm, flickering golden light made the simple dining room glow, even with the tiny lamps fixed to the walls turned on.
Costa waved her to a seat, and she noticed with a sinking feeling that he had put the two place settings side by side instead of on opposite halves of the table, which would have been more tolerable, though hardly practical.
"I hope you don't mind leftovers, I'm not much of a cook," he told her as he took the seat beside her.
"Everything looks lovely," Tallia assured him, and in truth it did, there was enough food and such a variety of it that she certainly would not go to bed hungry.
There were two kinds of cold fish, a haunch of cold ham, and homemade pate in a ceramic terrine. She saw a board covered with different cheeses, a smaller board with two different dry salami's, and of course bowls of olives and dolmas, which were staples at every meal in the house. Costa had even gone to the trouble of preparing a salad, and set out a huge basket of bread, whole raw radish, a jar of pickles, and for desert, several small tarts and a dish of cherries, as well as a bowl of apples and oranges.
It was a feast, and they set to it without any fanfare. They were silent as they helped themselves to the food, pausing awkwardly when they would reach for the same thing or their hands would brush by accident. Once her plate was full, Tallia wasn't sure she could swallow a bite she was so nervous.
Costa seemed equally disconcerted and tore a loaf of bread in half with unnecessary savagery before exclaiming, with no small amount of relief as he jumped out of his seat, "The wine!"
He disappeared into the kitchen for almost a quarter of an hour. When he reemerged he had a bottle of red and two glasses, and then made a production of uncorking the wine and serving them both. He finally sat back down, sighed loudly, and poured the entire contents of his glass down his throat in one swallow.
"Listen Costa-“
"I want to-"
They stopped as abruptly as they had both started to speak and lookd at each other. Tallia didn't know who started, but when one of them burst out laughing, they both roared with it, as if they had just heard the funniest thing. It was nervous laughter, but it cleared the air.
Costa spoke first, "I want to apologize-"
"For what?"
"Everything," he said with another weighty sigh. "I feel as if I have misbehaved from the start, Tallia," he explained. "I would like… well, I w
ould like us to begin again."
"As if we just met?" she asked skeptically, thinking of a fig-drenched kiss and not finding the idea remotely desirable.
"We will be family soon," he said judiciously, echoing her very own thoughts that morning, "and we can not go on like this forever. One of us is bound to die of embarrassment."
Tallia smiled reluctantly. "Ok," she agreed, amused and faintly interested to see where this would lead. Mostly though, she was just glad to play along if it would keep the tension between them at bay.
Costa nodded and held out his hand, she shook it, grinning at the silly formality. "Hello, my name is Costa."
Laughing, Tallia schooled her features to appear serious when he gave her a slight, scolding frown, "Brigitte, pleased to meet you."
"Brigitte!"
"I thought I might try something different," she retorted flippantly.
"You're not taking this seriously," Costa complained, though he was grinning.
"No, no, I'm serious, just call me Bri."
He rolled his eyes, "But I love Tallia. It's beautiful, unusual, and unique," he said softly, making her wonder if he was still talking about her name.
"Really?" she asked shyly.
Costa nodded and leaned over to kiss her lightly on the lips.
"I beg your pardon, sir! I hardly know you," Tallia cried, leaning back and giving him a teasing look of reproach.
“I can't help myself. I don't know. I feel as if I've met you before," he retorted playfully.
"Oh, then you should probably kiss me again… to make sure you haven't."
"Met you before, or kissed you?" he asked.
"Whatever," Tallia muttered as she swayed impatiently towards him to press her mouth to his.
"Still not sure," Costa sighed thickly against her lips after a few moments. He slid a hand into her hair to cradle the nape of her neck in his palm and deepened the kiss.
"Well?" she breathed into his mouth several minutes later, when he finally pulled away.
"What?" Costa asked.
Tallia smiled at him when she saw the unfocused look in his eyes. "I hope you don't go around kissing every woman you meet like this," she joked.
"Only the really sexy ones," Costa retorted.
"You, sir, are much too forward, and I suspect a shameless flirt."
"And you need to eat something," he said, popping an olive onto her tongue.
"I won't be silenced," Tallia warned him with a cheeky grin.
Costa fed her a paper-thin slice of salami with a wry look on his face, "French girls never know when to shut up."
Picking up a juicy olive, Tallia tucked it between his full lips, enjoying feeding him immensely. She and Costa fell silent as they fed each other for the remainder of the meal, stopping often just to kiss with slowly escalating intensity.
"I won't make love to you," he told her firmly when Tallia dropped little kisses along his jaw and nibbled on his chin, while she boldly unbuttoned his dress shirt so she could stroke his bare chest.
"How very presumptuous! We only just met," she whispered into his ear, biting down on his earlobe to punish him for that remark.
Costa pulled his ear away from her, "I'm serious, Tallia."
"Not even if I beg?" she asked softly, running her tongue down the strong column of his throat and pinching one of his wide, flat nipples. To her delight, Costa shivered and groaned softly. Licking her lips, Tallia let him see how she savored the salty taste of him.
"Minx," he growled, dangling a cherry in her face.
Sticking her tongue out, Tallia balanced the dark red fruit on the tip and drew it into her mouth. Catching the stem between her teeth, she was well aware of Costa watching her with heated interest. She blushed at her forwardness, but the wine and the candlelight created a warm, safe retreat from reality. She wanted Costa quite desperately and realized to get him she was going to have to do more than sit around hoping and looking pretty.
It seemed ludicrous to her that she could seduce a man like him, but there was no denying his attraction. After two years of having her life on hold, she was not about to let such a perfect opportunity and such a perfect man slip away. She reasoned to herself that she had already made a fool of herself in front of him, so she didn’t have anything to lose.
"I thought you were such a shy, innocent young thing," he commented as he helped himself to a cherry. He held her gaze as he bit into the ripe, firm fruit.
"You must be thinking of someone else," Tallia purred, sticking her tongue out to reveal the cherry stem now tied in a perfect knot.
Costa's eyebrows shot upwards. But he pushed her hand away when it drifted dangerously low on his hard stomach, so her fingertips could tease the waistband of his chinos.
"Here, finish your wine," he coaxed, lifting the glass to her lips. They were already halfway through their second bottle, though it wasn't the alcohol making Tallia feel intoxicated.
"I hope you're not the sort of man who likes to get women drunk and take advantage," she remarked before she drank obediently.
Costa bent his head to sip the wine from her lips, and Tallia shivered as his tongue slid into her wine drenched mouth. It made her think of last night, when that exceedingly clever tongue of his explored an entirely different part of her body.
The gleam in his eyes told her he knew exactly what he was doing and what he was making her think of. And he probably knew exactly how it was making her body react. Suddenly, Tallia’s palm itched to slap him. She became furious with him for being such a practiced lothario and treating everything as if it were a game.
He licked his lips like a big cat and grinned at her, his face so close she could see a sun burst of topaz gold surrounded each of his pupils. "I told you I wouldn't make love to you Tallia, with my, ah, cock, at any rate," he clarified a bit crudely. Then he added in a rough undertone, "Though maybe you have something special, something hot and wet to offer me for desert, something with a little honey in it?" he asked, his lips curving into a very smug, suggestive smile.
Stung by his continued pigheaded behavior, as well as his colossal ego, Tallia turned her head and gave him a delicate cold shoulder. "I think not. If you won't make love to me like a real man, then I shan't have you at all," she informed him coolly.
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded, sounding less than amused. He reached around and caught her chin in his hand, so he could jerk her face around to glare at her darkly.
"I'm not interested," she hissed, narrowing her eyes angrily, "and- and I won't be offering you any… honey!"
Plunging the fingers of one hand into her hair, Costa seized the back of her head to hold her still so he could grind his mouth down on hers roughly. Tallia tossed her head and tried to turn her face away, but he fisted his hand in her hair, holding her captive. She nipped warningly at his lower lip, wanting him to let go and stop acting so domineering simply because he was more experienced than her. Costa responded by biting down on her lower lip hard.
Gasping in outrage as the gesture was clearly meant to put her in her place, Tallia lost all restraint. She shoved at his chest, ignoring the pain in her mouth as her struggles made his teeth cut into her lip, piercing her flesh. She tasted blood, and it infuriated her. Costa tried to sooth her, his lips growing soft against hers. But Tallia was having none of it and heaved herself out of her chair, pushing against his shoulders angrily.
"You little witch," he growled, slipping an arm around her waist and tugging her down into his lap. Tallia held her arms out to keep from falling on top of him and kicked at him with a bare foot, catching him in the shin. Costa snarled and lunged up, sending both their chairs tumbling backwards and knocking the table so hard the wine bottles tipped over and food went flying. Neither of them cared as they struggled heatedly.
"Let go!" Tallia snapped.
Costa ignored her. He ripped her hands from where they were braced against his chest to keep their bodies apart. Whipping her hands behind her back, he pushed her up aga
inst the nearest wall. Leaning his full weight into her, he pinned her flat as he glared down at her hotly. Tallia returned his glare with interest, refusing to be cowed, until she felt something very long and hard digging into her belly. His erection felt like a burning hot brand even through the layers of their clothing. Her breath whooshed out, and she looked up at him in shock.
"Is this what you want?" Costa bit out harshly, grinding his huge sex against her. "I didn't think so," he spat when Tallia paled. He bent down and took her mouth then with an almost lewd kiss, forcing his tongue past her lips and thrusting it deep, again and again, making her feel penetrated and fully possessed.
"Your not ready for this, Tallia," she heard him growl when he finally tore his mouth from her bruised lips.
"I want you," she insisted plainly, her voice grave with unshakable certainty.
Costa shuddered against her, his hips bucked, driving his penis hard into her soft belly. "I want you too, but it wouldn't be right," he whispered, sounding almost tortured as he panted in her ear.
His hands released her wrists and went to her hips to lift her so he could fit himself more snugly against her. He shuddered and groaned, his fingers digging into her flesh as he fought for control. "I don't want to hurt you," he rasped unevenly.
Tallia reached for his shoulders and slid her hands over the bunched, straining muscles, awed by the strength in his body and the force of the desire he held in check. He trembled under her touch like a wild thing, clutching her to him convulsively.
"It would hurt with anyone Costa. It always hurts the first time. I want it to be you."
She didn't know where she found the audacity to even suggest such a thing, with the frightful weight of him poking her stomach, yet the words just tumbled out.
He groaned as if she had wounded him and shook his head feverishly. "You don't understand Tallia."
"I want you," she whispered, kissing the top of his silky head as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her.
"Then marry me," he said against her temple.
"Wh-what?"
"Marry me," he said with greater force, kissing the corner of her jaw and the hollow beneath her ear.
"You want to get married?" she asked weakly.
"With you, as soon as possible," he clarified, showering kisses over her face.
"But… that's crazy," she whispered.
"If you want me, you have to marry me," he told her flatly, nuzzling under her chin.
Her eyes slid shut as his lips moved over her throat, kissing and licking seductively. "You can't be serious," she breathed, losing herself in his lovemaking.
"I am," Costa growled.
Setting his teeth to the curve of her neck and shoulder, to that sensitive spot he seemed to hone in on with such skill, he bit down, sending pleasure rippling along her nerve endings. One large, capable hand closed over her breast and squeezed, weighed, and kneaded her aching flesh lovingly.
A building wave of pleasure was gathering, lifting her up, ready to sweep her away. As if in a dream, Tallia heard her voice, thick and drugged, obediently tell him, "Yes, Costa, I'll marry you."
For Your Love Only Page 16