His fingers trailed up and down Sidonie’s spine. After carrying her up the steps from the sea earlier he’d walked her straight underneath the outdoor shower on his terrace, near the glittering infinity pool. The cool spray had done little to stem hisdesire. Within seconds Sidonie had been in his arms, her body pressed against his, and they’d inevitably ended up in bed.
Alexio forced his mind from the memory because it made him uncomfortable. ‘Did you hear me, Sid? I want to take you out tonight...’
Sidonie eventually lifted her head and looked at Alexio with slumberous eyes and deliciously tousled hair. ‘You might have to give me a piggyback again.’
Alexio tipped her chin up, averting her hungry gaze from his mouth to his eyes. ‘No. You’re not going to tempt me again. We’ll pretend we’re civilised if it kills us.’
Sidonie shifted slightly so that she was moving on top of Alexio. His blood started to sizzle all over again. She spread her thighs either side of him and her breasts touched his chest, the hard nipples scraping against his chest hair, making him thicken with need.
He could see something in her eyes—something innately feminine and full of wicked mystery. She wriggled her bottom so that his erection pressed against her body, where she was already damp, ready for him again. And just like that Alexio had to give up any pretence that he could be civilised.
He took her hips in his hands, pushing her back so that he could thrust up and into her. Sidonie gasped at the intrusion and then sighed voluptuously as her body began to move against him, the delicious dance of desire starting all over again.
‘Witch...’ Alexio muttered as their movements became more urgent and they gave themselves up to the inexorable ride into ecstasy.
* * *
Alexio was waiting for Sidonie to emerge from the villa after her shower late that evening. The sun had set a while ago. They’d watched it from a lounger by the pool, both languid after their intense lovemaking. The spectacular sky was now fading into a faint orange and pink hue and the famous lights of Santorini’s west coast were coming on.
Alexio was oblivious to it, though. He was feeling more and more off-balance. Exposed. And, even worse, vulnerable. The last time he’d felt like this had been in front of his mother as a child, when she’d coldly infected him with her cynicism. From then till now it had formed a part of his protective armour. It had become a second skin, and everything in his life had merely compounded his world view.
As soon as he’d turned his back on his inheritance so publicly his coterie of so-called friends and hangers-on had left him—apart from one or two people and his brother. Then, as soon as he’d shown signs of making a fortune, they’d come back in their droves.
Nothing much had surprised him after that telling experiment in human nature—as if he hadn’t had enough lessons from his parents. Until Sidonie. She surprised him. She was like a whirling dervish, smashing everything in her path and taking him with her. He’d had no intention of taking a few days’ holiday until he’d woken up beside her in London the morning after that night and felt the insistent throb of hunger in his blood and his body.
No way could he have let her go.
He’d known one night wouldn’t be enough, but he’d felt then as if a month wouldn’t be long enough to sate himself with her. Feeling slightly panicked, Alexio had decided that the best thing to do would be to take her away, so that he could indulge this desire day and night and let it burn out.
However, this was the third night, and he felt as if a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to sate himself with Sidonie. He’d done his best to hold her at a distance, deliberately curbing the way she made him want to relax and speak whatever was on his mind. But it was hard. And getting harder.