What would he say if she revealed that her family had ruled Aristo for generations? Kitty felt as
though she were falling deeper and deeper into a mire. She wasn’t lying exactly, she told herself.
She just wasn’t telling the whole truth. ‘I have a mother, sister, brothers…’ She faltered, thinking of the person who was missing from the list, and her heart contracted. ‘My father died a few
months ago.’
‘I’m sorry.’
It wasn’t a throwaway remark—Kitty heard the note of compassion in Nikos’s voice, and tears,
sudden and unbidden, stung her eyes. ‘I miss him so much,’ she admitted thickly. ‘Sometimes I
see his face in my mind, hear his voice, and I can’t believe he isn’t here any more.’ She brushed
her hand across her wet eyes, and was startled when Nikos captured her fingers in one of his
strong hands and traced his thumb pad down her cheek, following the damp trail.
‘I’m sorry.’ She didn’t want to cry in front of him. Her grief was a private matter that she shared
with no one, not even her family. She had been especially close to the king, and he had called her
his gentle dove, but she had been taught never to display her emotions. One of the golden rules
of the royal family was to exert self-control at all times. Embarrassed by her weakness, she tried
to draw away from Nikos but he curled his arm around her shoulders and tugged her towards
him.
‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘I know how devastating it is to lose a parent. My mother died
many years ago, but I will never forget her. You won’t forget your father, Rina, but the#p#分页标题#e#
memories will become easier, and eventually you will think of him without the sadness you feel
now.’
He smoothed her hair back from her face, and Kitty closed her eyes, soothed by the rhythmic
stroking of his fingers. She felt his warm breath on her face and when she lifted her lashes she
drowned in the depths of his midnight-dark gaze. He was so strong, so alive , and she wanted to absorb some of his strength because she felt weak and lost and achingly lonely inside.
Tentatively she rested her hand on his chest and felt the steady thud of his heart beneath her
fingertips. It was utterly silent in the cave, as if they were cut off from the outside world and
were the only two people in the universe. She could hear the sound of Nikos breathing—no
longer steady but quicker, like his heartbeat; and she lifted her eyes to his face and stared at him, mesmerised by his masculine beauty.
Nikos knew he should move and break the spell that had been cast on him in the witching hour,
but his muscles were locked. In the lamplight the tears that spiked Rina’s lashes glittered like
tiny diamonds and the shadow of pain in her eyes moved him. It was more than fifteen years
since his mother had died. He had been sixteen, a boy suddenly forced to be a man, but he still
remembered the pain in his gut, the feeling that his insides had been ripped out, and the dull
acceptance that the only person who had ever loved him had gone.
Rina’s loss was clearly still raw, the unspoken plea in her eyes asked for comfort, and that was
all Nikos intended to give when he lowered his head and brushed his mouth softly over hers. For
a moment she did not respond, but neither did she pull away and he tasted her again, delicately,
offering her the warmth of his body and silently letting her know that he understood the agony of
grief. Even when she parted her mouth beneath his and tilted her head back a fraction for him to
deepen the kiss he was sure he was in control. But her lips were so beguilingly soft and the
temptation to dip his tongue between them and drink the lingering nectar of champagne became
overwhelming.
Slowly he tightened his arm around her and slid his hand into her hair. It felt like silk against his skin and his heart began to pound with a thudding drumbeat of desire as he tangled his fingers in
the chestnut strands and drew her closer still so that her breasts pushed against the wall of his
chest.
Kitty couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when Nikos’s kiss changed from a gentle caress that
soothed her fragile emotions to one of hungry passion that stirred her soul and sent molten heat
flooding through her veins. All she knew was that the pressure of his mouth increased and slid
over hers with increasing urgency, and his tongue no longer traced the shape of her lips but thrust
between them with a fierce demand that made her tremble.
The voice in her head warned her that she was heading into dangerous waters and she should
pull back now, before she was swept away. But she did not want to move out of his arms and feel