he instantly dismissed it. Kitty’s suggestion of sharing their thoughts and feelings was his idea of hell. His thoughts were his own; he’d learned long ago, when he was growing up on the streets,
to keep his own counsel and trust no one—and that lesson had been brutally reinforced by his ex-
wife.
‘We know we are sexually compatible,’ he continued in a coldly clinical tone, ‘and I believe that
is as good a basis for marriage as any. The chemistry between us burns as fiercely now as it did
on the night of the ball,’ he insisted when she shook her head. ‘But perhaps this will convince
you.’
‘Nikos…’ He moved before she had time to react, and her cry of protest was lost when he
snaked his arm around her waist and lowered his head to claim her mouth in a searing kiss. His
lips were firm, moving over hers with fierce urgency, while his tongue probed the stubborn line
of her mouth with an implacable determination to force her response.
And it was growing harder and harder to resist him. Crushed against his chest, Kitty could feel
the heat that emanated from him, and smell his clean, male scent—a mixture of soap and
aftershave and another, more subtle scent of male pheromones— that inflamed her senses. When
he had kissed her in the church she had wanted him to never stop, and now she felt that same
sense of being swept away to a place where nothing but Nikos and the mastery of his touch
mattered. Her mind and body were locked in a battle where caution waged against the sensations
he was arousing in her and she could feel her resolve slipping away.
He slid his hand beneath her hair and cupped her nape, angling her head so that he could deepen
the kiss to something so flagrantly erotic that Kitty’s will crumbled and she sagged against him,
parting her mouth beneath his. She was barely aware of him unfastening her jacket and sliding it
over her shoulders. And then somehow they were on the bed and he had removed her bra, and
she gasped when he cupped her breasts in his palms and stroked his fingers lightly across her
nipples, so that they swelled to tight, tingling peaks.
He was her husband; they were tied together because of the child they had created during a brief
passionate encounter, and maybe he was right, maybe sex would be a start to them building a
relationship. She was so confused by what she wanted, but the solid ridge of his arousal nudging
her thigh drove the uncertainty from her mind and replaced it with piercing desire that caused
molten heat to flood between her legs. She gave up trying to fight him and the dictates of her
treacherous body, and curled her arms around his neck, but instead of responding to the tentative
foray of her tongue into his mouth, Nikos lifted his head and stared down at her, his dark eyes
glittering.
‘Yes, the chemistry is still there, isn’t it, agape ?’ he drawled, his mouth curving into a mocking smile when she blinked at him dazedly. To her shocked disbelief he rolled off her and sauntered
out of the room, leaving her lying half naked on the bed. He returned almost instantly with what
looked like a pile of laundry in his hands.
‘Sheets,’ he told her. ‘You’ll need them if you’re going to make up a bed on the sofa in your
dressing room.’ He paused and his eyes trailed an insolent path over her flushed cheeks and bare
breasts where her nipples were still jutting provocatively. ‘Unless you’ve changed your mind
about wanting to sleep alone, of course?’
‘I…’ Kitty’s tongue seemed to have cleaved to the roof of her mouth, and she felt sick with
humiliation that she had succumbed so easily to his potent charm.
‘Still not sure, I see.’ Nikos laughed softly as he walked over to the bed, dropped the sheets into
her lap and scooped her up into his arms, blithely ignoring her sharp cry of protest as her battered pride finally woke up. ‘We both know that I could make love to you for the rest of the night, and
you would be willing and responsive in my arms,’ he told her with breathtaking arrogance that
made her want to hit him, ‘but I don’t want a reluctant bride. I have never taken a woman against
her will in my life, and I don’t intend to start with you, agape .’#p#分页标题#e#
He strode though the connecting doors into her dressing room and dumped her unceremoniously
on the sofa. ‘You know where to find me when you’ve admitted the truth to yourself.’
‘The truth being that I find you irresistible, I suppose?’ Kitty said grittily as she clutched the
sheets to her breasts. She hated him, and hated herself more for her pathetic inability to resist