seconds while he withdrew almost fully, and then with his next powerful thrust the dam broke
and she was racked by spasm after spasm of intense sensation that dragged a sharp, animal cry
from her throat.
Still he continued to move, each thrust more forceful and urgent than the last. But the feel of her
vaginal muscles tightening around him, squeezing him, shattered his formidable control, and
with a harsh groan Nikos spilled his seed inside her, his big body shuddering with the power of
his release and his chest heaving as he dragged oxygen into his lungs.
In the aftermath Kitty lay still, and stared dazedly at the ceiling. His head lay on her breasts and she crossed her arms around his back, swamped by the same feeling she’d had in the cave when
she had lost her virginity to him: that their souls were inextricably linked. It was an illusion of
course, she told herself firmly, brought about by the intensity of the passion they had just shared.
For Nikos it was simply good sex—a fact that he emphasised when he rolled off her and
stretched his lean body out on the silk sheets, tucking his arms behind his head as if he were a
sultan who had just enjoyed the services of his favourite concubine.
‘You see, agape ,’ he murmured lazily. ‘Our sexual compatibility is not in doubt.’ He drew a ragged breath, waiting for his heartbeat to slow and wondering why he had felt so reluctant to
withdraw from her. He would have liked to pillow his head on her breasts and simply lie with
her. But the curious feeling of closeness that had swamped him in the aftermath of their
lovemaking wasn’t real, he assured himself. It was just good sex that he hadn’t wanted to end.
Fantastic sex; the best he’d had in a long time. Perhaps ever, his mind taunted him. It didn’t
mean anything. He had married Kitty because he wanted his child, and the fact that sex with her
was dynamite was an added bonus that left his body satisfied and his heart untouched.
Kitty’s skin had quickly cooled without the heat and welcome weight of Nikos’s body pressing
down on her, and she longed to curl up against him and lay her head on his chest. But now that
he no longer filled her she sensed a distance between them far greater than the width of the bed.
For her own self-protection it was vital she rebuilt her defences against him. She did not know
what he expected now that he had made love to her. He seemed suddenly remote, lost in his
thoughts, and she wanted to escape to the privacy of her own room, but when she sat up and
swung her legs over the side of the bed he reached out and curled his arm around her waist.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I thought I would sleep in my room.’
His eyes narrowed on her flushed face and he sensed the tension that once more gripped her.
‘It’s too late to run away now, agape . You are mine, and from now on you will sleep with me.
Besides,’ he murmured as he drew her back down and moved over her, ‘I intend to make love to
you several times during the night and it would be most inconvenient if I had to trek backwards
and forwards to fetch you.’
Beneath his teasing tone was a wealth of sensual promise that caused a tugging sensation low in
Kitty’s stomach. ‘Several times?’ she murmured faintly.
‘Certainly, agape ,’ he assured her, ‘starting now.’
Kitty watched their reflection in the wall of mirrors; Nikos’s dark head bent to her breast, and
she inhaled sharply when he painted moist circles around one areola with his tongue and then
drew her nipple into his mouth. She ran her fingers through his hair, and then paused when she
noticed for the first time the tattoo of a scorpion on his shoulder.
‘What is this?’ she asked, remembering how Vasilis had said that Nikos had once been part of
the criminal underworld.
He followed her gaze to his reflection in the mirror, and his face hardened. ‘A reminder of my
past—it is the mark of the street gang I used to belong to when I was a youth. Stavros and Sotiri
were members of the same gang, and we used to make money from illegal bare-knuckle boxing
in back-street clubs.’
‘Dear God!’ She could not keep the shock from her voice. ‘How old were you?’
He shrugged. ‘Fifteen—but as I was bigger than most of my opponents, none of the sharks who
organised the fights cared too much.’
‘You mean you fought men, even though you were not much more than a boy?’ Kitty felt sick
and her horror must have shown in her eyes because Nikos grimaced.
‘Many things in my past are not pretty, agape . I had a tough childhood—but our child will not have to fight to survive,’ he vowed fiercely, placing a hand on her stomach as if to protect the