a demanding man. You will not hide from me or from yourself, pethi mou. I’m aware that you’re jumping into this because we will never see each other again.
“But this night, this is ours. I have had ten years to imagine this moment. We’re going to do this very, very thoroughly, and in full light.
“So, come, Mia. Let me see you.”
Like a chastised student called to the front of the class, she dutifully moved back to the center of the room. Unbidden, snarky comments from Brian, always in this context, rushed into her head. Remembered frustration, with herself and him, propelled Mia forward. It was time to learn the truth.
“Two more steps,” Nikandros commanded.
“You’re enjoying this far too much,” she complained, her eyes still glued to his bare chest.
He laughed. “I believe that is what we’re supposed to do with each other—enjoy.”
She came to stand a foot from him. And stiffened. Silvery moonlight filled the spot where she stood now. He would see every inch of her skin.
“You owe me a discarded T-shirt.”
With fingers trembling violently, Mia rolled the edges of her T-shirt and pulled it off. The breeze from the sea was a soft caress against her heated skin. She threw the tee at him, her knees locked.
His gaze moved over her breasts, barely covered in her white lace bra. Her nipples became tight points, pushing against the flimsy fabric. The dark desire in those eyes gave her the courage she needed. She didn’t wait to be commanded again. With one hand behind her back, she undid the hook and shrugged off the bra.
A gravelly whisper fell from his mouth. She’d have given anything to understand if her body pleased him.
“Come closer.” His voice was a silken rasp over her naked skin. Panting breaths, his and hers, filled the velvety night. “Christos, Mia, do not argue.”
“You owe me a piece of clothing, Prince,” she demanded, lifting her chin.
With a casual movement of his hands, he unbuttoned his trousers and boxers, and stepped out of them.
He was huge, thick, jutting out and up toward his abdomen. Christ, he was bigger than she had ever imagined.
“All you have to do is ask, Mia, and you will have it,” he purred, eating away the distance between them with one long stride. Mia realized that she had her panties on only when she felt a rush of wetness seep through the cotton fabric. She had never been this aroused even when... No, he was not allowed here, in this room, tonight.
It was just this gorgeous man and her tonight. One night.
Hands on her shoulders, Nikandros pulled her close and took her mouth in a kiss that sent rivulets of pleasure up and down her body. Calluses from the pads of his fingers scraped her skin, the difference in the texture teasing out responses like she had never known. He devoured her mouth—stroked her lips with his tongue and licked into her mouth as if he would leave no inch of her untouched.
Knuckles played over her back, digging and testing, up and down, side to side, as if she were his favorite instrument. Toes digging into the cold marble, Mia sank into his kiss. The graze of her breasts, nipples distended painfully, against his velvety smooth and hard chest sent their mingled groans out into the air.
The rub of her thighs was pure torture. Her body had always been her instrument—honed lethally with focus and determination for over ten years. And it had served her well in her career.
But now, it was totally out of control. The more Nikandros gave her, the more it craved, pulsing with longing.
With a deep groan, he lifted her off the floor until she was almost plastered to his hard body shoulder to shoulder, abdomen to abdomen. The press of his shaft against her belly seared Mia. The ache at the apex of her thighs grew as he rubbed the thickness against her belly, his hips thrusting against her.
She had no idea when he had divested her of her panties. Only when his long fingers dug into the curves of her buttocks did she realize that they were gone. Plundering her mouth, and then trailing wet, thorough kisses over her neck, he shifted her until his hip bone opened her up scandalously.
Mia sobbed, the friction opening her sex making her mindless with need. “Please, Nikandros...” she whimpered, past fear and inhibitions. Rubbing the aching folds of her sex against his bare hip wantonly.
He seated her on the high bed and stared at her breasts with an unholy gleam. She’d always been a natural athlete, her body more lean muscle than softness. Her breasts were on the smaller side too.
And yet, when Nikandros lifted them in his hands and kissed the voluptuous valley between, all the while muttering in Greek, Mia felt like the sexiest woman on earth.
When he lifted the dark, knotted nipple to his mouth and licked it, she arched her body toward him with a needy groan. He continued to lick and stroke the nipple until it was wet and so painfully sensitized that each ministration of his sent a twang of pleasure straight through to her sex. “I can’t bear it,” she whispered, her breath panting in and out of her like a whistle.
Release hovered on the edge of her consciousness, taunting and teasing, twined with this gorgeous man.
“But I have only just gotten started,” he whispered, meeting her eyes. The devilish glint in them made Mia tremble all over. Still holding her gaze, he opened his mouth and closed it over her nipple. And did something that Mia had never imagined could be done between a man and a woman, something so wantonly glorious that a line of fire tingled down her spine.
Legs locked around his hips, Mia convulsed as he suckled on that nipple, his hands stroking every inch of her skin from her back to her buttocks. When he shifted his attention to the other nipple, she protested. Her mouth found his bicep. Damp and salty, he tasted like heaven when she licked him.
He kept up the strokes of his mouth over her nipple while his fingers separated the folds of her sex. When he pressed his thumb against the crest, Mia begged, “Please, now, Nik.”
Instead, he took her mouth. The kiss was damp and hot, her erratic breathing slowly spiraling down to normal. And then he built her up again, until every muscle was taut and begging. And again. And again.
By penetrating her slick sex with two fingers.
By suckling on her nipple with such delirious intent that the peak hardened.
And every time she was near release, he pulled her back from it. Fists clenched on his muscled back, Mia sobbed his name over and over again, begging for relief.
Gentle fingers pushed her hair from her forehead, while he studied her with a slumbering gaze full of wicked fire. “What do you want?” she bit out hoarsely, lips swollen and stinging and her body trembling.
Stubble marks covered the swells of her breasts and her abdomen.
His tongue flicked out against her tight nipple, which made her core dampen even more. “To see you like this. Your brown eyes—always so wary and reserved, dark and dilated—your body, damp and flushed with need...you my slave in this bed.”
“I hate you,” she retorted, on principle, even as her body arched off
