“Last chance to leave,” he growled.
Deliberately, she leaned back against his bed.
Unblinking as a wolf, he stared at her. Her eyes devoured his bare chest. Dark hair covered his torso, tightening to a vertical line that disappeared beneath the waistband of his exquisitely tailored pants.
His clothes were elegant and fine. The uniform of a wealthy, civilized man. But his body was something else, something more. As he discarded his clothes, tossing them on the white tile floor, he revealed the savage warrior beneath.
He stood in front of her, naked and unselfconscious. His muscles were hard, wide. She saw the old scars, almost faded, brought into stark relief by new white lines across his ribs and collarbone. She saw how much he wanted her. Most of all she saw his dark eyes, hungry with need. She sat up, reaching for him, holding out her arms.
He was on her in an instant, pressing her back roughly against the luxuriant softness of the bed.
“Agape mou,” he whispered. “I have waited so long. Wanted you for so long…”
Reaching his broad hands beneath her back, he unzipped her skirt. He pulled his shirt over her head and tossed them both to the floor. The stroke of the fabric, the sheen of his breath, sent prickles of longing up and down her skin. As he kissed slowly down her body, between her breasts and down her belly, it was all she could do not to blurt out the three forbidden words.
Kissing her, he pushed her back against the soft goosedown comforter, spreading his hands wide as he caressed her body, making her shiver as he ran his fingers over her white panties and bra.
He covered her with his naked body, pressing her into the soft folds of the thick comforter. She felt as if she was drowning. She clutched at him like a life preserver, gasping as he unhooked her bra and freed her breasts. He slowly moved his body up against hers, rubbing his chest against her, pressing his naked hardness between her legs as he sucked on her neck, her shoulder, her earlobes. Holding her tightly, he ran his tongue around the tender edge of her ear, slowly moving inward until he made her gasp as he penetrated the center with his tongue. She turned her face to him, grabbing the back of his head as she kissed him hungrily.
Then she pulled away, looking into his eyes.
She had to say the words. She couldn’t keep them inside anymore.
“Nikos, I love you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
NIKOS froze. “What?”
“I love you.” Anna’s face looked bare, vulnerable, as she repeated the words.
Nikos had tried for the last hour to speak those same three words—the simple lie that would close the deal and give him the upper hand. But he’d been unable to force the words out of his mouth. He hadn’t wanted to say them, hadn’t wanted to lie to her. He’d let himself hope that making love to her would be enough.
Tsou. No. It was now or never. He had to act now, or it was all over.
He pictured his son with a man like Sinistyn as his stepfather. He imagined Anna in another man’s arms, and his lips pressed into a line. To protect his family he’d do anything, say anything, sacrifice anything.
Even his honor.
Watching his face with a troubled expression, Anna rushed to say, “I know you don’t love me back, and it’s okay—”
“I love you, too.” He spoke the words quickly, spitting them out as if they were a live grenade in his mouth.
“You love me?” Anna stared at him in amazement, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard.
“Yes.” His voice was low, strained.
Her whole face started to light up from within, like a thousand Christmas candles glowing at once. “You love me?” she repeated in a whisper, her eyes filling with tears. If he’d truly loved her, the joy on her face would have been enough to keep him warm through a thousand cold, dark winters. “I never expected—I never dreamed—Oh, Nikos…”
She kissed him then with a passion so pure and sweet it was unlike anything he’d ever known. He returned her kiss with fervor, desperate to forget the lie he’d told, to wipe his sin clean through the fire of his longing for her. He wanted her. He wanted every part of her. Her beauty and innocence and goodness. He kissed her back with all the hard, brutal honesty in his soul.#p#分页标题#e#
He ran his hands down the length of her soft skin, kissing her lips, her breasts, sucking the tips of her fingers as she reached for him, trying to pull him closer. The way she moved, the sway and tremble of her body beneath him, brought him perilously close to exploding. Only the thin barrier of fabric kept him from seizing her hips and plunging himself into her. The image had barely crossed his mind before he kissed down her belly, running his hands beneath the fabric, gently nudging her panties down as his kisses went lower. He pulled the cotton down with his teeth even as he ran his fingers between her splayed legs, lightly tracing upwards from the sensitive area behind her knees to her inner thighs. He reached his hands beneath her panties and pulled them down. His tongue descended on her, spreading and licking her wide. As he ran his tongue over her hot nub, swirling in a circular motion, she writhed and moaned beneath him.