palms and felt their weight and softness.
He muttered something indistinct beneath his breath and colour flared briefly along his cheekbones. ‘Beautiful,’ he said thickly, and stroked his fingertip across one nipple in a feather-light caress. The sensation was so exquisite that Kitty gasped and then closed her eyes and felt the pleasure build when he brushed his thumb pad lightly over the crest of her other breast.
Nikos guided her hands to the front of his shirt and aided her in freeing the buttons. Hands shaking, Kitty pushed the material aside to reveal his broad, muscular chest; olive-gold satin covered with whorls of dark hair that arrowed down over his taut abdomen. He drew her to him and she caught her breath at that very first contact of a hard male chest pressed against the softness of her breasts. It felt so good, so right, and so very seductive that she burrowed closer still, loving the strength of his arms around her as he found her mouth once more and kissed her until she was breathless.
Nikos had convinced himself that he was in control and that he would only allow things to go so far before he called a halt. He had occasionally had one-night stands: brief, mutually satisfying encounters with sexually confident women who, like him, wanted to answer a basic need without the complication of emotions. But those occasions had always been on his terms and, although the sex had invariably been enjoyable, he had never been driven by uncontrollable desire. For reasons he did not understand Rina was different. The raging need he felt to make love to her had never happened before and he was shocked to realise that he couldn’t fight it.
Perhaps it was because she was so amazingly responsive and so unguarded in her pleasure when he caressed her? Frustrated by his inability to resist her, he gave her a hard, almost angry kiss, but she responded with such sweet passion that he gave up battling with himself and eased the pressure of his lips until the kiss evolved into a sensual tasting that became increasingly erotic. When she was utterly pliant in his arms he trailed his mouth lower, following the path of his hands to her breasts and drew lazy circles with his tongue around one nipple until it hardened to a taut peak.
The sensation of Nikos’s mouth on her breast was indescribable, and when he drew her nipple fully into his mouth Kitty instinctively arched her back. She curled her fingers into his hair and gave a soft cry, shifting her hips restlessly beneath him as the tugging sensation on her breast became unbearably exquisite.
‘Nikos…’ His name left her lips as a whimpered plea and she tossed her head from side to side when he transferred his mouth to her other swollen crest and metered the same delicious torture.
He growled something she did not catch, but his intention became clear when he unfastened the last button of his jacket and spread the material to reveal the faint curve of her stomach and the triangle of dark curls clustered at the junction between her thighs. He moved so that he was kneeling above her, and Kitty blushed when he trailed his eyes deliberately down her body. The knowledge that he had watched her undress earlier was no help. She had been unaware of his presence, and even beneath the bright moon she must have been partly in shadow. Now she was completely exposed to him. No man had ever seen her body before, and desperate shyness, combined with her insecurities about her figure, caused her to try and shield herself with her hands.
It was time to end this craziness, Nikos acknowledged, trying to ignore the stomach-dipping sense of disappointment that clawed at his insides. He couldn’t quite comprehend how they had got to this point. He’d had no intention of actually having sex with the waitress he’d met only hours before, but she was so sexy she would tempt a saint, let alone a mortal man who was burning up with sexual frustration.
But Rina had tensed, he could sense her uncertainty, and it would be unfair of him to try and persuade her to take their passion to its ultimate conclusion—even though he was certain that with patience and restraint he could arouse her to a level where she would willingly make love with him. Another moment and he would refasten the jacket and bring them both back down to reality, he told himself. He took a deep breath, nostrils flaring as he fought for control, but he could not resist stroking his hand lightly over her stomach, and then lower.
Her thighs were silky smooth, and he caught her faint gasp when he brushed his fingers through her silky curls. ‘Why do you want to hide yourself from me?’ he murmured huskily. ‘You have a beautiful body, Rina. I’m sure you can be in no doubt that I’m massively turned on by you,’ he added self-derisively, knowing that she could hardly miss the throbbing hardness of his erection pressed against her thigh.
‘Are you?’ her breathy little voice whispered in the silent cave and Nikos stiffened, thinking that she was taunting him. But there was no hint of teasing in the big brown eyes that were focused on him. She reminded him of a timid deer that was poised for flight, and yet, with gentle handling, might stay and allow him closer.
‘What do you think?’ he said quietly as he took her hand and laid it over the bulge beneath his trousers. He watched her eyes widen, her pupils hugely dilated, and could not resist lowering his head and kissing her softly swollen mouth. The feel of her lips parting beneath his threatened to shatter his self-control, and, tempted beyond bearing, he slid his hand between her legs and delicately probed the tightly closed edge of her femininity. Her whole body jerked with reaction, and he thought for a moment that she would reject him, but then she slowly relaxed, and his blood thundered in his veins when he gently parted her and discovered the unmistakable evidence of her arousal.
Kitty’s heart was beating so fast that she was sure it would burst through her chest as she felt Nikos part her, and she caught her breath when he slowly inserted a finger between her silken folds. She could feel the betraying dampness between her legs and was embarrassed that he would know she was aroused, but he gave a low growl of satisfaction and eased deeper inside her while his thumb pad found the tight little nub of her clitoris and tenderly stroked across it with devastating effect.
‘Oh…’ The shock of experiencing her first intimate male caress caused Kitty to cry out. The feel of Nikos’s finger moving inside her was bliss, rapture beyond anything she had ever imagined, and she trembled as intense sensations rippled through her. To her untutored body it seemed impossible that there could be more, that she wasn’t already at the peak, but the ache deep inside her was growing ever more demanding, and following an instinct as old as time she tried clumsily to pull him down on top of her.
‘Wait, agape.’ His voice was hoarse, as if he too was no longer in control of himself and was driven by a deeply ingrained, basic need that could no longer be denied. Kitty did not know how he divested himself of his clothes without her being aware of it, but suddenly he was naked and he spread the edges of his jacket that she was still wearing wide open and came down on her, the rough hairs that covered his thighs and abdomen feeling slightly abrasive against her skin. She felt the jutting length of his penis press into her belly—so shockingly rigid and alien to her that her eyes flew open and she stared up at him as he loomed over her, and swallowed at the hard gleam in his eyes.
What on earth was she doing? Was she really going to allow Nikos—a man she had never met until tonight—to make love to her? A tremor ran through her. She shouldn’t be here, should never have allowed the fiery attraction between them to burst into flame. Nikos was a notorious playboy and she was a princess from the royal house of Karedes—yet even knowing that it was wrong, she acknowledged with searing honesty that she didn’t want Nikos to stop.
‘I bet you’re still a virgin.’ Vasilis’s sneering voice echoed in her head, and rebellion flared in her heart. She was twenty-six, and it was time she became a woman, but out of fairness to Nikos she knew she must confess her inexperience.
‘Nikos,’ she whispered faintly, ‘I think I should tell you…’ But the rest of her words were lost beneath his mouth as he claimed her lips in a searing, soul-shattering kiss that dismantled the last of her doubts and fears.
‘Tell
