Читать книгу Modern Romance December 2016 Books 1-4 - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 23

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ANTICIPATION RACED THROUGH Talia as she hooked her arms around Angelos’s neck and held on. He entered his bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him, before he deposited Talia on the huge bed, its dark silken sheets slippery beneath her.

She stared up at him, her eyes wide as he began to unbutton his shirt. She’d seen his bare chest before when they’d gone swimming but she’d never seen him like this—eyes dark, liquid and burning with intensity, his long, elegant fingers slipping his buttons out of their holes, his gaze never leaving hers.

She let out her breath in a shaky rush and wondered if she should tell him how untouched she was. But surely he knew? Since she’d confessed to living like a hermit for seven years?

‘You’re not having second thoughts?’ Angelos asked in a low voice.

‘No, of course not.’ Her whole body throbbed and ached with the need to feel him again. Touch him again.

‘I don’t have any birth control,’ he told her, his hands stilling on his shirt as his gaze widened in realisation. ‘I’ve never...’ Talia gaped in astonishment as a light blush touched his cheekbones. ‘I haven’t needed any here.’

‘I’m on the pill,’ Talia assured him. She’d been on it since she was sixteen, to regulate her heavy periods. ‘And as for...other stuff, I’m not...that is, I’m...’ She was trying to tell him she was a virgin, but Angelos cut her off with a nod.

‘So am I.’ Somehow she didn’t think he was talking about virginity. ‘Clear,’ he clarified, and she realised she must have been looking blank.

‘Oh. Right. Well, then...’ The moment for telling Angelos she was a virgin had passed. Talia didn’t want to ruin the mood, and he seemed like the kind of man who might scruple at taking a woman’s virginity.

‘It’s all good,’ he said, his smile turning wolfish as he finished unbuttoning his shirt and shrugged the crisp white cotton from his glorious shoulders. Talia was glad not to have to explain, especially since she seemed to have lost the ability to speak or even to think. Angelos, with his hair rumpled, his eyes burning and his chest bare, was an utterly magnificent sight.

She watched, her mouth dry and her heart pounding, as his hands went to his belt buckle, and then stopped.

‘Don’t...’ she breathed, and he frowned.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Don’t stop,’ she clarified on a groan and, amazed at her own audacity, she reached for him, her fingers sliding around his belt buckle so she could tug him towards her.

He put one arm out to brace his fall, landing beside her on the bed, his body lean and hard, hot and bare. Gently Talia skimmed her fingers along his chest, her fingers brushing the crisp dark hair, teasing, questing.

‘I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,’ she admitted on a laugh, and then because she couldn’t keep herself from it, she pressed a kiss to his chest. Angelos groaned and rolled onto his back, taking her with him.

‘You are so very sweet.’

‘I’m... I’m not sure I’m very good at this,’ she confessed, which was as close as she was willing to come to admitting she was completely inexperienced.

‘Trust me, you are very good at this,’ Angelos said. He slid his hands under her T-shirt, his palms exquisitely rough against the smooth skin of her back. With one swift tug he had the shirt up and over her head and she struggled to pull it off, laughing breathlessly until her naked breasts came into contact with his chest and then she gasped in the sheer pleasure of the sensation.

‘Oh...that feels good.’

Angelos grinned up at her as he started to tug off her shorts. ‘We’re just beginning.’

Another tug and her shorts were gone, and she lay before him completely naked, utterly exposed, and yet she felt no nervousness or vulnerability. She basked in his appreciative stare, the way his pupils flared as his gaze roved over her.

He reached out and cupped her breast, his thumb moving slowly over the peak. Talia arched up helplessly to meet his hand.

‘You are so beautiful,’ Angelos rasped, his eyes dark with desire.

‘You’re beautiful,’ she answered on a gasp, and he laughed softly before he put his mouth to her breast and Talia gasped again, her hands fisting in his hair, as pleasure rippled through her in exquisite shocks. ‘Oh...’ She sucked in a hard breath as he moved his mouth to her other breast. ‘Oh, I didn’t know...’

He lifted his head to glance at her, lazily amused. ‘Didn’t know what?’

‘That you could feel...’ She trailed off, overcome, because Angelos was giving her so much, showing her so much. If she hadn’t come to Greece...if she hadn’t been able to feel this way, to know you could feel this way...

It didn’t matter that it would end in a few weeks or even that night, Talia told herself fiercely. It didn’t matter if she left Greece heartbroken and alone. She had this, and it would be enough. She would never regret it.

‘Talia...’ Angelos propped himself up one elbow as he looked down at her, his smile soft, his expression unbearably tender. ‘Talia, are you all right?’

She realised how close she was to weeping, not with sorrow, but with sheer emotion. With joy. ‘I’m fine,’ she assured him, and kissed him hard, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her naked body to his. ‘I’m completely and utterly wonderful.’

Angelos caught her up in the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers as his arms came around her, clasping her to him.

He flipped her onto her back, making her let out a sudden laugh of surprise, and then slowly he slid his hand down her body, savouring each dip and curve before he pressed his palm to the juncture of her thighs.

Talia let out a little yelp of shock and Angelos glanced at her, one eyebrow quirked in question.

‘That feels...’

‘Good?’ he finished as his fingers touched her more intimately than she’d ever imagined.

‘Yes,’ she gasped as her hips arched instinctively. ‘Yes...’

She felt her body convulse as pleasure ripped through her in deepening waves, so an instinct she hadn’t even known she’d possessed took over, driving her forward. She grabbed Angelos’s hand with both of her own, and he gave a low laugh as his fingers worked their deft magic.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he assured her.

‘You’d better not,’ she breathed, and then pleasure gripped her like a vice before releasing her in a breathless daze. ‘Oh...’

In one fluid movement Angelos rolled over her before he slid smoothly inside, only to stop before he’d barely begun, shock turning his body rigid. ‘Talia...’

She blinked, surprised and a little alarmed at how...full it felt. ‘I’m okay,’ she said.

Angelos’s jaw was clenched as he struggled to keep himself still inside her body. ‘But—’

‘I’m okay,’ she insisted, and she angled her hips upwards to take him more fully into her body. It hurt; not a sudden, sharp pain, but more of a deep ache of adjustment.

Angelos’s face was etched with lines of restraint and regret. ‘I didn’t...’

‘No, don’t, please.’ She pressed her fingers against her lips. ‘This is what I wanted.’ She shifted beneath him, felt her body expand to accommodate him. ‘This is good.’

‘Tell me if—’

‘It doesn’t hurt, I promise.’

Angelos started to move, a groan escaping him as he braced himself on his forearms and after a few seconds Talia sought to match each smooth stroke. And with each stroke she felt the embers of pleasure rekindle, and then her body found a rhythm of its own. She clutched at his shoulders, meeting each thrust, gasping as it stoked the fire inside her higher and higher, until finally it exploded in a rush of sensation that left her boneless and trembling, tears leaking from beneath her closed lids.

‘Talia,’ Angelos said brokenly as he kissed the tears away from her cheeks. ‘Please don’t cry.’

‘It’s only because I’m so happy.’ She opened her eyes, giving him a watery smile. She still felt as if she could burst into tears, but not in a bad way. ‘That was...amazing. Overwhelming. I didn’t know...’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t know?’ Angelos asked. He’d rolled over onto his side, his skin glistening with a faint sheen of sweat, his eyes dark and fierce. ‘How much you didn’t know?’

‘I was afraid you wouldn’t want to go through with it,’ Talia confessed.

‘You should have told me,’ Angelos insisted as he brushed away a strand of hair from her cheek, tucking it gently behind her ear. ‘I would have done things differently.’

‘I didn’t want things done differently. And actually, I thought you might already guess... I told you how limited my life was.’

‘Yes, but...’ Angelos shrugged. ‘You’re a beautiful young woman. I thought you must have still had opportunities.’

Talia shook her head ruefully. ‘I dated a boy when I was seventeen, and we kissed a couple of times. That’s all.’

Angelos’s eyebrows rose almost comically. ‘That’s all? But then you were completely untouched.’

‘I wasn’t all that interested in boys to be honest,’ Talia told him. ‘I wanted adventure of a different kind. Seeing the world, painting pictures...that was what interested me.’

‘Which makes it all the more tragic that you hid yourself away for so long.’

‘I’m not going to hide away any more,’ Talia promised. ‘No matter what happens. I want to live life properly now.’ Angelos frowned and she hastened to add, ‘I’m not expecting... I know we haven’t made any...’ A flush rose to her skin and since she was naked Angelos could see how she blushed everywhere. She let out a groan of embarrassment as she closed her eyes.

‘Haven’t made any what, Talia?’ Angelos asked, and she couldn’t tell if he was amused or annoyed.

‘Commitments. I just wanted to assure you I didn’t expect any kind of...’ Again words failed her. ‘You know.’

‘I’m not sure I do know,’ Angelos answered. He cupped her cheek, his thumb resting on her lips, and Talia opened her eyes. ‘You know, you’re the first woman I’ve been with since my wife.’

‘What?’ Talia stared at him in shock. ‘I know you said you hadn’t recently, but it’s been seven years...’

‘Trust me, I know. A very long seven years, at least in that regard.’

‘Why haven’t you...? I mean, there must have been women in Athens.’ Her mouth curved in a playful smile that he traced with the pad of his thumb. ‘And what about all those nannies who crawled into your bed? Maria told me about them.’

Angelos gave a mock shudder. ‘I did not want any of them. They were brazen, grasping. But the truth is...’ He let out a sigh. ‘I had no desire for a woman, or for any of life’s pleasures. I felt numb...frozen even, after all the fire and then its aftermath. Survival was all I could manage. And like you, I hid away from life.’ He grimaced. ‘And now I have realised that Sofia paid the price.’

‘And, like me, you won’t hide away any more,’ Talia said softly. ‘Will you?’

‘No. For Sofia’s sake I will allow her to go to school on Naxos, and come to Athens with me on business trips. I decided that tonight. I’m not ashamed of my daughter, Talia.’

‘I know you’re not.’ Fresh tears shimmered on her lashes and she blinked them away. ‘You’re a good man, Angelos, even if you haven’t believed you are. I know you did everything you could the night of the fire, even if you refused to believe it. You couldn’t have saved them both. You couldn’t have.’

Angelos’s face contorted for a second and then he threw his arm over his face as he took a few deep breaths. ‘I know you believe that...’ he began, and Talia pulled at his arm, needing to look at him, to have him see her and how serious she was.

‘You need to believe it,’ she said. ‘For Sofia’s sake as well as your own.’

‘I’m not sure I can.’

She pressed her palm on his chest, felt the steady thud of his heart underneath. ‘In time, then,’ she said softly. ‘I know it isn’t easy. One boat ride doesn’t cure my claustrophobia, and living life outside the walls of my grandfather’s estate isn’t going to be easy. But with time, all things are possible.’

‘You believe that?’

‘I need to. And so do you.’

He let out a sigh and then gathered her into his arms, resting his chin on top of her head. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered. ‘For giving me a second chance at life.’

‘You deserve one.’ They lay there quietly for a moment, their arms around each other, and Talia wondered if she would ever possess the courage to say all the things in her heart. That she loved him. That she didn’t want this to be some kind of fling. That she was already dreaming of for ever with this man, even though she knew it was crazy and unrealistic and maybe even impossible.

But what if it wasn’t?

What if they could have a love that healed their old hurts and brought them both a second chance at life, made them into the family Sofia needed, that they needed? What if?

In that moment, with Angelos’s arms around her so securely, it all seemed possible, like a promise shimmering on the horizon, almost able to be grasped if she just dared to reach for it. If they both did.

Angelos stroked her hair and she snuggled against him, contentment vibrating through her bones, sleep beginning to settle over her.

Her eyes were starting to drift closed when her gaze settled on the book lying on the bedside table. A slender, leather-bound tome with hand-tooled engraving. Giovanni’s book.

Her gaze snapped open and every nerve twanged with realisation as she struggled out of Angelos’s embrace.

‘Talia...’ His voice was fuzzy with sleep. ‘What...’

‘The book,’ she said, the words spilling from her. ‘You really do have the book.’

She felt Angelos’s body stiffen in surprise and he propped himself up one arm. ‘Book? What book?’

‘This...’ Reverently Talia reached for the book of poetry. The leather was butter-soft and worn. She flipped the book open and let out a gasp of both surprise and satisfaction at the sight of the inscription, which she read aloud: ‘“Dearest Lucia, For ever in my heart, always. B.A.”’ She smiled, feeling emotional all over again. ‘Just like he told me.’

Belatedly Talia registered the tension emanating from Angelos’s body. He withdrew from her, sitting up, his arms folded across his chest. ‘Just like who told you, Talia? And how the hell do you know about my wife’s book?’