‘Betsy...’ he husked not quite evenly, fingers lacing into her silky blonde hair to brush it back from her cheekbone.
‘We can make each other happy. We can make it work,’ she repeated with dogged conviction.
‘Shut up,’ he told her in Greek and he kissed her with urgent claiming force.
It was a kiss filled with lust and frustration and it was hotter than the fires of hell, burning through Betsy like a flaming arrow that ignited a wanton ache between her slender thighs. She fell into that kiss like a falling star and burned up. When he gathered her up in his arms and carried her through to the sleeping compartment, she looked up at him with her heart in her eyes, warmth and fear and longing all tangled up together, but she still didn’t give him the words of love she had once given so trustingly. Once she said those words, she couldn’t take them back again, couldn’t impose any distance between them and couldn’t make the same demands. Once she said them he would know her for a fake; he would know she wouldn’t turn her back or walk away. Not because she didn’t want to but because she simply couldn’t...
CHAPTER TEN
BETSY GRIMACED AT her reflection in the mirror. She was getting ready for Belle’s party but her thoughts were far removed from frivolity.
If Nik had loved her, she was convinced she could have buried every atom of her insecurity for ever. As it was, unhappily, she was convinced that her husband had only returned to her because she was pregnant and that knowledge was a humiliation that would only fester with every passing year. Her troubled blue eyes dampened. Blinking ferociously fast, she quickly grabbed up a tissue to soak up the tears before she could smudge her mascara.
But it was a fact that Nik didn’t love her and never had loved her. He lusted after her like crazy, a chemical connection that had evidently kept him true even while they were separated. Be grateful for what you have rather than yearning for what you can’t have, Betsy urged herself in frustration. After all, some people would kill for the power to ignite such high-voltage passion in a partner. It should be enough. It had to be enough.
It was barely twenty-four hours since they had returned to Lavender Hall and a good deal of that time they had spent in bed. Her face burned at the recollection. She couldn’t stop wanting Nik, couldn’t put the brakes on the wild, greedy hunger he invoked every time she looked at him. But if she continued to be so easily available, how long would it be before Nik recognised that he had her exactly where he wanted her? In the palm of his hand to treat as he saw fit. A position of such weakness and vulnerability could never be a good starting point, particularly for a shiny new reconciliation.
Pale blonde hair, freshly washed and dried, swung in a silken bell round her shoulders as she walked back into the bedroom. Almost simultaneously, Nik strode out of the dressing room, fully dressed and immaculate. In a designer jacket teamed with close-fitting black trousers that enhanced his height, narrow hips and long, muscular legs, he looked absolutely gorgeous, all dark and sleek and the very ultimate in raw sexual power.
Heat pooled low in Betsy’s pelvis and she fought that sizzle of awareness with every fibre she possessed. After all, there was no point trying to play it cool with Nik to keep him on his metaphoric toes while at the same time falling into the nearest bed with him at every possible opportunity. Wasn’t that what she had been doing? Whenever she looked at Nik, she could barely keep her hands off him.
Nik studied her with unconcealed appreciation. ‘Blue is definitely your colour, kardoula mou.’
Betsy’s midnight-blue evening dress was fitted at breast and hip and the sleeves and skirt were made of lace. Her pale skin gleamed with the shimmer of a pearl through the mesh and her bright eyes reflected that rich blue like a mirror.