'Theo.' Her fingers crept up to his face, dying to touch his warm olive skin. 'Let it go. Whatever my father did, revenge would only bring you fleeting satisfaction.'
His jaw tightened but he didn't look as forbidding as he'd looked before. 'It's the only thing I've dreamed about for the last twelve years.'
Her hand crept up to settle over his heart. 'Have you stopped to think that obsessing about it may just be feeding the demons?'
One large hand settled over hers and he stared fiercely down at her. 'Are you offering me another way to quiet them, anjo?'
'Maybe.'
He captured her hand and planted a kiss in her palm. When he glanced down at her, a feverish light burned in his molten eyes. 'He doesn't deserve to have you as a daughter.'
'I can say the same about your parents but we play the hand that is dealt us the best way we can. And when it gets really bad I try to remember a happier time. Surely you must have some happy memories with your mother? And was your father really all bad?'
His mouth tightened. Then, slowly, he shook his head. 'No. It wasn't always bad.'
'Tell me.'
He frowned slightly. 'They thought Sakis would be their last child. I came as a surprise, or so my mother tells me. She used to call me her special boy. My father … he took me everywhere with him. He had a sports car-an Aston Martin-that I loved riding in. We'd take long drives along the coast … ' He stopped and his eyes glazed over.
She kept silent, letting him relive the memories, hoping that he would find a way to soften the hard ache inside him. But when his eyes refocused, she saw the raw pain reflected in them.
'I'm not a father, and I probably never will be. But even I know those things are easy to do when life's a smooth sail. The true test comes when things get rough. I find it hard to believe that my brothers and I were ever in any way special to our parents when they turned their backs on us when we needed them most. He could've saved me, Inez-' He stopped abruptly and her heart clenched with pain for him.
'How?'
'One simple phone call to warn me and I wouldn't be here … I wouldn't be afraid of going to sleep each night because of hellish nightmares … ' A deep shudder raked his tall frame.
'Oh, Theo,' she murmured. He leaned into the hand she placed on his cheek for several seconds then he pulled away and tilted her chin up.
The vulnerable man was gone. 'This changes nothing. I am what I am. Do you still want me?'
She swallowed. 'Yes.'
Something resembling relief swept through his eyes. 'You have half an hour and a lot of head-clearing air before we're back on the boat. I suggest you use that time to think carefully about whether you want this to go any further. Because, once we cross the line, there won't be any going back.'
CHAPTER TEN
THEO THREW THE REINS of the launch to the waiting crew member and turned to help her out. Her bare feet hit the landing pad and she swayed a little when the boat rocked.
Contrary to her thinking he would rush her back to the boat after his pronouncement, Theo had taken his time walking her back down the streets to the promenade and onto the beach that led to the pier.
Hell, he'd even taken the time to help her out of her shoes so they could walk along the shore.
But the plaguing doubt that perhaps he didn't want her as much as her screaming senses craved him evaporated the moment she looked into his eyes.
Burnt a dark gold by volcanic desire, he stared down at her for several seconds before he demanded in a hoarse voice, 'Well?'
She licked her lips and watched his agitated exhalation. 'I still want you.'
'Are you sure? There will be no room for regret in the morning, Inez. I won't allow it.'
'I'm not drunk, Theo. Besides, I wanted you this morning and I wasn't drunk then. Or last week, or the first night we met.'
His nostrils flared as he dragged her close on the deserted lower deck. 'That first night, you felt what I felt?'
An impossible attraction that had no rhyme or reason? 'Yes,' she answered simply.
He swung her up in his arms and strode into the galley and down the steps into his large, opulent suite. Somewhere along the line, her shoes fell from her useless hands. She knew they had because her fingers were buried in his hair, and her mouth was on his by the time he kicked the door shut behind them.
Their tongues slid erotically against each other as they explored one another, his forceful, hers growing bolder by the second. Because she knew he liked it, she nipped his bottom lip with her teeth.
His deep growl echoed inside her before he pulled away. Eyes on hers, he slowly lowered her body down his sleek length. Hard muscles and firm thighs registered against her heated skin and even after her feet hit the plush carpet she held onto him, fearful she'd dissolve into a pool of need the moment she let go.
'I need to undress you,' he said raggedly.
Unable to look away from him, she nodded. The dark purple knee-length dress was form-fitting and secured by a side zip. After a couple of minutes of frustrated searching, she laughed and pointed to the hidden zip beneath her arm.
With a dark curse, he lowered it and tugged the dress over her head.
He dropped the dress. He swallowed. Then he stared so hard she stopped breathing.
'Thee mou, you're so beautiful,' he groaned.
The feeling suffusing her was different from her reaction to the incandescent hunger in his eyes. It was pleasure that he liked what he saw, that he might well pardon her for her inexperience.
Eager to experience more of the feeling, she reached for her bra clasp.
'No,' he commanded. He grabbed her hands and placed them on his chest. 'That's my job. You don't move.'
He drifted his fingers up her sides, eliciting a deep shiver that brought a satisfied smile to his lips. Her bra came undone a second later and he glanced down at her heavy breasts.
'Do you know how long I've waited to taste these?' He cupped one globe in his hand, lowered his head and flicked his wet tongue repeatedly over her nipple.
Fire scorched through her veins and her head fell back as pleasure surged high.
'Theo,' she gasped as he delivered the same treatment to her other nipple. Caught in the maelstrom of sensation, she wasn't aware her nails were digging into his pecs until he hissed against her skin.
'Take my shirt off, querida. I want to feel those nails on my bare skin.'
Fingers trembling, she complied with his demand, pulling the shirt off his broad shoulders and down his arms before giving in to the need to caress his bronzed skin. Heated and satin-smooth, his muscles bunched beneath her touch as she explored him.
But, much too soon, he was pulling her hands away, catching her around the waist and striding to the bed.
Depositing her in the middle of the king-sized bed, he stood staring down at her, one hand on his belt. The power and girth of him knocked the breath out of her lungs and a momentary unease sliced across her pleasure.
So far, Theo hadn't commented on her inexperience but the evidence would become glaringly apparent in a few minutes. She opened her mouth to tell him but he was crawling over the bed towards her, his intense focus paralysing her to everything but the pleasure his eyes promised.
He kissed her again, deeper, more forceful than all the times before. She gave in to her need and buried her hands in his hair, scraped her nails along his scalp and won herself a deep groan of pleasure from him. His lips moved along her jaw to nip her earlobe before going lower to explore her neck and lower.
Once again, he suckled her breasts and once again she lost the ability to think straight.
'You love that, don't you?' he observed huskily when he raised his head.
'Sim,' she groaned.
'There are many more pleasures, anjo. So many more.'
His lips trailed down her midriff … he kissed his way to the top of her panties before he gripped the flimsy material in his hands. Expecting them to be ripped off-a notion that made her wildly breathless-she was surprised when he slowly and gently lowered them down her legs and drew them off.
Equally slowly, taking his time to savour her, he kissed her from ankle to inner thigh. When his mouth skated over her secret place, her hips arched off the bed in delirious anticipation.
She'd never imagined she'd want a man to go down on her but now she couldn't imagine not feeling Theo's mouth on her heated core.