He still had her pinned to the side of the pool, the water making her light as gauze in his hands. Water lapped as he shifted, wrapping his arms around her waist so he could carry her to the steps. She buried her face against his neck, as if too shy to look at him.
“We’re not done, are we?” she asked.
“Not unless you want to be.”
“I don’t.” When they got to the steps he laid her down, so she was half in and half out of the water. Her nipples were peaked and tempting, pressing against the white bikini top and creating a slight shadow. Her bottoms fared no better—they were askew, revealing a little bit of dark, trimmed hair.
“Do you want me to take these off?” she asked.
“Yes. Let me see every part of your beautiful body.”
She wiggled her hips, drawing down the elastic waistband, and then tossing the bottoms onto the side of the pool. They landed with a wet slap, and she reached behind herself to untie her top. Slowly, she peeled it from her skin. Her breasts were perfect. They were full and not overly perky. He loved that. More importantly, he knew his hands would love that.
Her eyes darted up to his while she sat, waiting for him to make the next move. Nico had planned to take her inside after they’d explored one another on the steps, but then it occurred to him that he didn’t have any condoms in the house. Not surprising, since he never brought women into his home. This was his sacred place, where the real him lived. Not Nico the businessman, or Nico the billionaire. It was not a place for anyone but him and the tiny contingent of people he cared for. But for some reason, today had felt totally different. Natural.
The fact remained, however, that he was unprepared.
“I want to be inside you so badly.” He came down over her, placing a rough kiss on her neck. “But I don’t have any protection.”
For a moment she looked panicked, the sultry haze from a second earlier evaporating like smoke on a breeze.
“I’m on the pill,” she blurted out. “I have very painful periods and I…oh, no. You don’t want to hear about that.” She shook her head, that adorable blush flaring across her skin again. “What I mean to say is, I’m protected.”
Chapter Five
Great work, genius. Way to kill the mood. Why don’t you tell him about your latest Pap smear while you’re at it?
How was it possible for one person to be so damn awkward?
“I’m clean, too,” she added.
Mercifully, Nico seemed more occupied with her naked body than with the crap tumbling out of her mouth. His dark eyes lazily roamed her body, and Marianna felt the blush in her cheeks spread all the way down over her breasts and stomach, practically reaching her toes. She still pulsed from her orgasm. Holy moly. She hadn’t even known it was possible to come from rubbing against someone like that.
“So am I,” Nico said. “I get checked regularly. I’m rather…fanatical about my health.”
Marianna gulped. She couldn’t imagine a man like Nico doing anything without pushing it to the extreme. She’d stashed a condom in her wallet—that was where they always came from in the romance novels—but her bag was in the car because she hadn’t wanted to leave it on the beach unattended. And she was terrified that it might break the spell if she left now. What if the little bubble they’d created burst and he changed his mind?
She would not walk away from this without getting what she wanted.
She’d also read that sex without a condom was so much better than with. Was there anything else to consider? She was on the pill, they were both clean. Full steam ahead.
Nico regarded her with an expression that was hard to read. It looked like a smile, but there was nothing friendly about it. It was far too dark and too…smoldering. He yanked at the cord on his board shorts and pulled them down.
Don’t stare too much. Don’t look inexperienced.
But how could she not? The water came up his thighs, darkening the hairs against his tanned skin. His erection sprang up against his belly. It was long and slightly curved, a shade darker than the rest of him. And it was thick. So thick.
What if it didn’t fit? Fear raced through her, her mind spinning like a hamster wheel of inappropriate questions, none of which she could ask. They would give her away. Let him know that she was a bumbling country girl who was clueless about sex.
Would it hurt? Would she bleed? The internet told her there was a good chance that at her age, her hymen wasn’t intact anyway. It could have broken through using tampons or horse-riding, which she had done before. What if it hurt too much and she couldn’t go through with it after coming all this way—
“Are you with me?” he asked, sinking down to his knees on the steps in front of her. Seeing a powerful man like Nico kneeling for her made her throat constrict, made her mouth run dry and her pulse explode. “Do you still want this?”
“Yes,” she said, unable to elaborate. Once her lady bits got working, her body refused to devote energy to anything else. Like the part of her brain responsible for speech.
He braced his hands on her thighs, parting them with a gentle touch. The water brushed over her skin as he came forward, lapping at her sex in a way that made her shudder.
“So sensitive,” he murmured.
It was hard not to notice the contrast of their bodies—him richly tanned and hard, her pale as a seashell. Nico ran his hands up and down her legs, massaging the muscles with his thumbs. Each stroke brought him closer to where she wanted his touch most, closer to fulfilment. But he resisted, teasing her, chuckling when she let out an involuntary sound of lust entwined with frustration.
“So greedy, too.” He pulled her closer, and she wound her arms around his neck.
Marianna was practically in his lap, their bottom halves underwater. “Go slow, okay?” she said, fear of the unknown clogging her throat. “It’s, uh…been a while.”
A while…like, forever.
Nico slipped a hand between them, and she gasped when his long fingers found the lips of her sex. “Don’t worry. I don’t like to rush life’s pleasures.”
She felt a sharp bolt of sensation as he traced the line of her, from her entrance up to her clit. Of course she’d tried using her own fingers before, but this was totally different. The angle, the confidence—he knew he could make her feel like a firework exploding—made it so much better.
“You’re so perfect,” he whispered into her ear. “And you’re going to feel so very full when I put my cock in you.”
“Oh,” she gasped. The dirty words lit her on fire. She would be ash in his arms before it was all over.
“Does that feel good?” He circled the bundle of nerves, working her into a frenzy.
“Yes, so good.” She was panting now, the muscles inside her clenching deliciously.
“I want you ready for me.” His lips were at her ear, at her neck. The world went black as her eyes fluttered shut, because she could only focus on the feeling of him stroking her. It made everything else seem like too much—too bright, too loud, too…everything. “I want you dripping wet and begging me to make you come.”
“Please,” she whimpered. She was begging alright, although for what, she wasn’t sure. For the feeling of fullness he’d promised, for another explosive orgasm, for the experience of watching him reach his peak.
“Look at me,” he demanded. “I want to see those beautiful eyes get wide when I enter you.”
Her eyes snapped open, her mouth going slack as liquid heat spread through her. This was it. The moment she’d been hoping for and thinking about for so long. And now it was going to happen.
Nico slipped his hand away from her and reached for his erection. The sight of his big fist bobbing in the water as he touched himself was enough to make her brain sizzle like a sun-shower on hot tarmac. He handled himself—and her—with so much confidence.
“Tell me if I need to go slower,” he said, the fire and smoke of his dark eyes setting tremors off in her. “I want you to feel good.”
; Marianna nodded, her breath stuttering, and she tried to keep calm. Her emotions were an unwieldy knot in her stomach, nerves and trepidation intertwined with excitement and anticipation. Yes, now. It was happening.
Nico pulled her close and flipped them around so that he was sitting on the step and she was in his lap, facing him. Her knees bumped the smooth tile, and she wound her arms around his neck to keep herself steady. The water brushed the lower part of her legs, leaving the rest of her dry. The sun beat down on her back, warming her, and a cool breeze ruffled the tiny hairs around her temples. It was like being suspended in time, every tiny detail dialed up to ten.
He pushed inside her, and her gasp rang in her ears, her eyes screwing shut at the sharp sense of invasion. Painful for a moment, an ache lingering after, and then, eventually, pleasure.
“Easy, easy,” he whispered into her ear. His arms were around her, one hand cradling the back of her head as she tried to get used to the stretching sensation in her sex. “We’re not in a rush.”
They sat there for a moment, unmoving. But Marianna’s body relaxed, and she gave into the temptation to roll her hips in his lap, an action which earned her a guttural moan. Goose bumps skittered across her skin. It was the sound of pure desire, hedonistic and indulgent. Perfect.
The pain had subsided, though the tightness remained. She tried rolling her hips again and found the movement helped things along. Nico’s hand flexed against her skin. He liked that movement. A satisfied smile spread over her lips, but she buried it against his shoulder.
“Do that again,” he said roughly.
“This?” She rocked back and forth, testing the feel of him sliding in and out of her. Then she tried a more rounded figure eight motion, and that got her a hearty grunt from Nico. His hands flew to her hips, fingers biting into her curves.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Just the barest little movement of your body and I feel like I’m going to embarrass myself.”
What did he mean by…oh. She blushed.
“I love that wonderful pink tint to your skin,” he said, brushing a hand over her cheek. “You’re hiding roses under porcelain. And roses here, too.” He palmed her breast before taking her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, plucking the sensitive bud in a way that made her jolt in his lap. “You like that?”
She nodded.
The second his lips connected with her breast, she shuddered. He sucked at her, rolling her nipple against his tongue and nipping her gently with his teeth. Each bite was a bullet of pleasure piercing her, ruining her. She threaded her fingers into his hair and moved his head to her other breast, desperate for that first, sharpest snap of sensation again.
They could have stayed there forever, feasting on the details of one another. Sitting back up, she brushed her hand along his chest, letting her nails scrape against his skin until she ran her pointer finger over one flat nipple. A strangled noise rumbled in the back of his throat. Men were sensitive there, too. Interesting.
Her body felt good now, and it hummed. Her muscles were liquid. She was ready. She met his smoking gaze and brought her fingers back to his nipple, deliberately pinching him. Telling him what she wanted, without words.
“You’re testing my control.” His hands cupped her face. “You’d better know what you’re doing.”
She didn’t. She had no bloody idea.
But it didn’t matter. He was taking the lead, letting her off the hook. All she had to do was give him the cue he needed. And he seemed to have gotten the message, because he thrust up into her, the swift movement pushing all the air out of her lungs. Yes.
He pumped into her a few more times, the movement wanton and erratic since they couldn’t get much purchase on the steps. Letting out a frustrated growl, he stood, her legs around his waist while his erection was still buried inside her, and walked them to a banana lounge by the pool. A white towel lay on it, and he placed her down, hovering over her for a moment.
“Fuck me,” she said, unable to believe those words had left her mouth.
Who are you right now?
It unlocked something in Nico. His eyes became a thunderstorm of lust, his blacker-than-night pupils flaring until it was like looking into a deep abyss. Yes, this was what she wanted. To see a man come undone because of her, to know that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
He slid his hands under her thighs, lifting them up so that when he pushed into her, he went as deep as possible. Stars burst behind her shuttered eyelids. Yes! He was so hard and so thick, it was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Each thrust was a new level of pleasure. The feeling of his hips butting against her and the sound of wet skin hitting wet skin filled her head like white noise.
“Look at me,” he said. Now the words were scraped raw. “Stop hiding those beautiful eyes away.”
His shoulders were tense beneath her hands, the muscles coiled like an animal ready to strike. “You’re close,” she said. Oh god, she was going to watch a man come.
For some reason that set off little tremors in her body, a ripple that started deep inside her and radiated out.
“I am. So fucking close.” He thrust into her, the chair squeaking in protest beneath them as his big body covered hers.
Then he plunged deep with a strangled cry, a rush of warm moisture flooding her. He moved slower then, rocking back and forth as his body shivered. She felt his cock pulse inside her, and the feeling was both beautiful and strange.
So that’s what sex was like.
Marianna pressed her lips to Nico’s shoulder, letting the mixture of chlorine and sunshine dance in her nostrils. His weight was a comforting blanket over her, protecting her from the outside world. From the “now what?” question stirring to life in the depths of her pleasure-addled brain.
If only she could lay here forever without the thought of having to go home, knowing that she had been irrevocably changed. Would she be able to continue living her boring life back home? Would she be able to throw herself into work and subsist only on memories of today?
Had she opened Pandora’s box?
Nico stood. He was like a god towering over her, his broad shoulders casting a long shadow. One hand extended forward, and she took it, his strong fingers slipping over her palm so he could hoist her to her feet. Suddenly, she was very, very aware of how naked they were.
“Uh, thanks,” she said. “That was…wow.”
Nico bent down and plucked a fresh towel from the neat little stack sitting in a woven basket beside the lounge chairs. She hadn’t even noticed them there. What a luxury that must be, to have things at hand in case you might need them.
He handed it to her, and she wrapped herself up, grateful that she didn’t have to embarrass herself again by trying to struggle into her dress.
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” he said, his smile kinder and softer than it had been earlier that day. For some reason, she felt like she’d glimpsed the real man beneath the hard and beautiful exterior.
Don’t go writing love poems anytime soon. You’re leaving the day after tomorrow, and this was nothing but a checkbox on your bucket list.
…
In the past, Nico had been very careful about keeping a boundary between his home life and his sex life. He’d used the same approach with all women: fancy hotel, a nice bottle of wine, a little romance—though it was entirely superficial and mostly meaningless. Great sex. But he didn’t get close to anyone he slept with, because casual sex was difficult to use as a weapon.
His approach was purely for self-preservation.
But something about this soft little bird of a woman had him wanting to drop his guard. Their chemistry felt as real as anything, and the way she’d responded to him—so trusting and open—had him craving more. But now she could barely make eye contact, her hands clutching the towel that hung all the way to her knees, dwarfing her. Her nervousness was palpable, and it socked him square in the chest.
“Is everything alright?” he
asked.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You’re very quiet.”
She looked up at him, those big brown eyes grabbing him by the throat. “It’s just…umm.”
“Say it.”
“Was I any good?” She nibbled on her lip and shifted from foot to foot.
“My moaning wasn’t enough to tell you that?” Nico raised a brow. “You were perfect. You don’t do anything for show, and that’s very refreshing.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “Good.”
“Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “No reason. I’m just…not very experienced.”
He turned around, ready to help her gather her things when intuition grabbed at him like a fist around his windpipe. “You’re a virgin?” He shook his head, mentally correcting himself. “Were you a virgin?”
She blinked, her mouth popping open and her head shaking.
Did she mean no, she wasn’t? Or no, she couldn’t believe he was asking this question?
“I…” She sucked in a breath. “Does it matter?”
Not again.
His head spun, the past manifesting in the form of vicious images and a pain in his chest. An older man walking in on him, eyes blazing. The young woman—his best friend and lover—crying and trying to make it stop. But her father would not be calmed. He’d stolen something from her. Taken advantage of her. Only he hadn’t known it then. How could you take advantage of someone who was willing? Who wanted it as much as you did?
“Of course it matters.” His voice was ragged. He only had two rules when it came to women—keep it out of his home. And no more virgins.
“You wouldn’t even have known if I hadn’t said anything,” she protested. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Yes, you damn well should have said something…before you let me fuck you.”
She winced at his language. “It’s my business.”
“No, it’s our business. I’m involved in this too.” He raked a hand through his wet hair, feeling the downward spiral sucking him under. “Is this all part of the plan? You kept it quiet so then you could use it to manipulate me afterward?”
Beauty and the Greek Billionaire Page 5