Читать книгу Modern Romance January 2017 Books 5 - 8 - Мишель Смарт, Andie Brock - Страница 18
ОглавлениеTHE ATHENS MUSEUM was in the Monastiraki neighbourhood, a short distance from Xander’s home.
‘We could’ve walked,’ Elizabeth said when they came to a stop outside an impressive neoclassical building.
He arched a brow. ‘You want to walk in those shoes?’
‘Maybe not,’ she agreed demurely.
All day she’d had butterflies playing in her belly. Throughout her career she’d acted as a stylist for many of her clients, mostly her female ones. Some were new to a particular section of the wealthy world their date inhabited. Others, unwilling to confide in anyone what they were doing, simply wanted the company. What Elizabeth rarely did was doll herself up and attend a function such as this. When she did it was always with one eye on her watch, looking for the earliest polite time to leave.
Tonight she’d deliberately left her wrist bare and her cell in her room. Like in Diadonus, Xander had put her in the adjoining room to his.
The car door opened and Xander got out. He turned to her and held out a hand.
Meeting his eye, she took it, swinging her legs out in what she hoped was a graceful manner, and was thrown back to a week ago on St Francis when he’d helped her out of the golf buggy at the airport.
It was crazy to think only a week had passed since that evening. She’d gone to bed that night hating him, certain she would never forgive him for his threats and blackmail when a simple explanation of the situation would have been enough to get her agreement.
She felt differently now. Having met Loukas and lived under the same roof as him for almost a week, she understood why Xander had been so determined to bring her here. Having met Mirela, she doubly understood.
It was to protect Loukas from that narcissist woman that she’d determined to be the best wife a man could want. In public in any case. In the privacy of Xander’s home it was safer to hide away when he was around.
Tonight though, they were on display to the public and she would play her part to perfection.
It was with this thought in mind that she kept her hand in Xander’s, even when she was upright. And it was with this thought in mind that she laced her fingers through his.
The butterflies ratcheted up a notch.
Their evening meal in Diadonus Town had felt like a punishment.
Tonight...
This felt like a date.
She had to remind herself it wasn’t a date in the true sense of the term.
And she had to remind herself that she didn’t want a date with him in any real sense of the word.
But when he let go of her hand and placed his arm around her back to clasp her hip and bring her closer to his side, her frantically beating heart begged to differ.
* * *
‘You look like you’re enjoying yourself,’ Xander said when they’d finally been left alone for a few minutes. It seemed every guest there wanted to say hello to the newly-weds who’d actually been married ten years. Their rehearsed story fascinated them. Elizabeth had repeated it so many times she was starting to believe it herself.
‘I do? Great. My acting skills are paying off.’
‘You’re not having a good time?’
She considered it, raising her champagne glass to her lips and letting the bubbles play on her tongue. ‘I’m not sure. I’ve been so busy trying to look like I’m having a good time that I haven’t had time to wonder if I actually am.’
He laughed. ‘You’re going to a lot of effort.’
‘I don’t want your mother hearing that her new old daughter-in-law had a sourpuss look on her face when we’re supposed to be showing devotion and happiness.’
‘Happiness was never on the list of requirements.’
‘It should have been. What couple in love doesn’t look happy?’
‘Look around you,’ he said. ‘Is there anyone here who looks anything less than happy?’
‘That’s smugness. It’s a different kind of happiness from the happiness that radiates when someone’s fool enough to think they’re in love.’ Ten years ago she had radiated in it.
Xander looked so darn gorgeous in that suit. Its colour matched his eyes so well she could believe it had been commissioned specially for it. There was just something about the way he filled a suit and the command in which he wore it... It was incredibly sexy.
He was sexy.
It occurred to her that she should stop drinking.
Silver trays of canapés were brought out. Elizabeth selected a square of pizza with a smile of thanks, and then there was a loud call for silence and they turned to see the museum director climb a podium to begin his talk.
‘Are you going to sponsor one of the pieces?’ Elizabeth asked, after it had been explained how individuals who donated above a certain—extortionate—amount could select which artefact they wanted their name to appear under when the renovations were complete.
‘That’s why we’re here.’
‘Which one do you fancy having your name under?’
He shrugged. ‘We’re a country with a rich heritage that brings pride to our nation and attracts tourists from all over the world. Preserving that heritage is important and I’m in a position where I can help. It doesn’t matter where my name is.’
‘Good for you.’ From the corner of her eye she spotted a face that made her look twice. Tugging at the sleeve of his suit jacket, she whispered, ‘Do you see that couple standing by the chocolate fountain? Don’t make it obvious.’
Rubbing his head and turning casually, Xander looked. A tiny snicker escaped his throat. ‘Little and large?’
‘That’s the one. I matched them together.’
Morgan Adie was a tech genius from Silicon Valley who barely topped five feet with a stomach almost as wide as his height. His wife, Miranda, was a good foot taller than him with her heels on and rake thin.
‘How did you match them?’
‘Morgan likes tall women with more than one brain cell to rub together. Miranda has a degree in mathematics and likes billionaires. Her only requirement other than money was someone without a hairy back. They’ve been married for five years now.’
Amusement was evident all over his face. ‘Shall we go and say hello?’
‘I think they’re avoiding us—they’re the only guests who haven’t introduced themselves.’ At his furrowed brow she explained, ‘Now the whole world knows what I did for a living, they’re worried people will think they know me, put two and two together and come up with four.’
The hours passed, more canapés were eaten, more champagne drunk. But it didn’t drag. Not in the slightest. She hadn’t seen Xander so relaxed since he’d forced her back into his life and it felt the most natural thing in the world to mingle with their hands clasped together and the warmth of his body pressed close enough to heat her skin.
Elizabeth had to constantly remind herself that this was all for show, but when they got back in the car at the end of the night, the dividing partition up, blacked-out windows that didn’t allow anyone to see in, he made no effort to let go of her hand.
Conversation that had come easily in the museum dried up. The silence was so absolute she could hear his breaths. She could hear the roar of blood pumping through her.
Suddenly she was afraid to move.
She should move her hand from his. But she couldn’t. Her hand refused to obey.
The short drive back took for ever, every second feeling like a minute.
When they pulled up outside Xander’s four-storey house her heart went into overdrive.
No sex. That’s what you both said.
She unlaced her fingers from his. Her hands had clammed up.
The driver opened the door on her side so she got out first. Xander followed and, as they walked up the steps to his front door, placed a hand in the small of her back.
The house was in silence, the only light the soft glow of a lamp in the reception hall, left on by a member of the staff for them.
Elizabeth removed her shoes and as she straightened she met Xander’s gaze and all the oxygen left her body.
The look in his eyes...
She waited breathlessly for him to make his move but he stood quite still, the only movement the pulsing in his eyes.
He was waiting for a signal from her.
He wouldn’t make a move without her explicit blessing even if they had to stand there the whole night doing nothing but gazing at each other.
This was her moment to run away and lock herself in her room but her body fought back, the longing careering through her trumping anything like rationality.
But desire had never been based on rationality. And desire didn’t have to mean anything unless she chose to make it so and hadn’t she decided long ago that love didn’t mean anything? And if that was the case then what was she so frightened of?
She wasn’t a naïve nineteen-year-old any more. She’d stopped believing in true love when Xander had broken her heart. It was a lesson she should’ve learned from her parents’ experience. She’d been a fool to believe that she would be different.
Some people found love but they were a rarity. For everyone else, lust was the driving force, confused and twisted into believing it was love. When the desire was gone there was nothing left apart from bitter recrimination. Only the lucky ones were left feeling empty.
She would not make that mistake again. Being with Xander again had unleashed a huge box of desire within her but she would not fool herself into believing it was love.
She was older, wiser and had learned how to protect her heart. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t experience the desire so long as she accepted it for what it was and so long as she accepted it would never go anywhere.
It had been so long...
Her hand trembling, she reached out to touch his face.
His eyes blazed...
‘Say it,’ he commanded.
She exhaled a ragged breath and met his gaze head-on.
‘Please, Xander, kiss me.’ Her words were barely above a whisper but it was enough. His pupils pulsed and he stepped to her.
Large hands cupped her cheeks, sliding back to loosen the crystal fastener holding her hair in place and letting it fall to the floor while his fingers speared her tumbling hair.
He lowered his head...
Her stomach melted and when his mouth covered hers, heat fired through her veins. Her lips parted and his tongue swept into her mouth; he was kissing her with such passion her knees weakened.
Dear heaven, this was what she needed, what she craved. Xander, and the all-consuming pleasure he gave.
And everything he gave she returned.
His hands slid down the nape of her neck and she moaned to feel his skin on hers. But not enough. Never enough. Her sensitised flesh wanted to be touched everywhere.
He pulled at her arms and laced his fingers through hers, then raised her hands above her head and pressed them to the wall.
Then he broke the kiss. For a moment he didn’t say or do anything, just stared intently at her with eyes that swirled, before saying roughly, ‘Not here.’
More than a little dazed, Elizabeth realised they were still in the reception room and that they could be walked in on at any moment.
‘Bed?’ she whispered.
His chest rose and he kissed her hard. ‘Come.’
Feeling as if she were floating, Elizabeth hurried up the stairs holding tightly to his hand. Neither made a sound until he’d shut his bedroom door behind them, thrown his suit jacket and tie onto the floor—she hadn’t even noticed him take them off—and pulled her back into his arms with a groan.
‘Theos, Elizabeth. You’re driving me mad.’
‘In a good or bad way?’
‘Both.’ And then he twisted her round so her back was to him. He gathered all her hair together and lifted it high and pressed a kiss beneath her ear.
She shivered with pleasure. Little moans flew from her throat as he undid the top button of her dress and found the hidden zipper. He pulled it down all the way to her bottom, trailing his tongue down her spine to follow before kissing back up to her neck.
Exquisite sensation flooded her, her body responding to his caresses with unbound delight.
His breath hot in her hair, he took each arm in turn and gently manipulated them out of the sleeves while she unbuckled the skinny belt around her waist. Nipping at her ear, he took hold of the material at her waist and tugged her dress past her hips and let it fall to the floor.
Now all she had on were her bra and panties. Even that felt like too much.
Xander pressed himself flush against her. His arousal was thick through the fabric of his clothes, his erection pushing into the small of her back. His hands bit into her flesh and swept up her thighs and over her belly, cupping her aching breasts for the briefest of moments then sweeping up to her shoulders and bunching her hair together again.
He stilled for a moment and she closed her eyes. Her senses were in overload, the need to touch and taste him...
She twisted round to face him and slid her arms over his shoulders, finding his mouth to devour it with kisses.
He held her tightly, muttering incomprehensible words into her mouth while she worked frantically, pulling at his shirt to loosen it from his trousers. Fumbling with his buttons until she could yank it apart, with a breath of relief she pressed herself against him, chest against chest, skin against skin, the lace of her bra the only barrier between their top halves. She could feel his heart beating and grabbed at his head, catching her breath as she stared into the dark blue eyes that contained as much desire in them as she knew echoed from hers.
It had always been like this; one kiss enough to ignite the fire that burned for him and only him. And now she didn’t want to fight it. She wanted to exalt in it. She wanted to let it burn.
He felt so solid in her arms, his skin smoother than she remembered. But his kisses were every bit as greedy as they’d been before, plundering her mouth as she plundered his in turn.
Heaven had come into her life ten years ago in the form of Xander Trakas and now, for one night, she would experience it again and she would revel in every minute of it. How could she fight something that grew so strongly within her, a physical connection she had never found or wanted with anyone else?
But she didn’t want to think. All she wanted was to feel. And in Xander’s arms, pleasure was the only feeling to be had.
Impatient sensations hurtled through her skin from her head to her toes, every part straining closer to him, desperate to lose the last barrier between them.
Xander must have felt it too for he released his hold on her to put his hands at the belt of his trousers as hers went to her bra and panties. His lips brushed reverently across her cheeks and nuzzled into her neck, then he unbuckled his belt and tugged his pants and boxers off, freeing himself.
A breathless sigh escaped her mouth as their lips found each other again and now, when they came together, every part of her that could touched him. His erection pressed right above her pubis, teasingly out of reach to where she really wanted it to be, and she ground against him, silently pleading.
And then she was swept up in his arms and he carried her to his bed.
Flat on her back, Elizabeth reached out her arms for him but he gave the smallest of smiles and sat beside her. His eyes glistening, his chest rising and falling in a tight rhythm, he placed his fingers on her belly and gently traced a circle around her navel.
Shivers raced down her spine and spread out, and she closed her eyes as he slowly traced his hands over her, stroking her breasts before dipping his head to take one in his mouth.
Sharp, acute pleasure speared her. The heat within her liquefied and she gasped. Then he moved his attention to her other aching breast, his wandering hands making circular motions over her shoulders and then down to her belly.
His lips moved from her breasts and up her neck, fire spreading through her flesh. He reached her mouth and nipped her bottom lip.
‘You’re even more beautiful than I remember,’ he murmured into her mouth, his breath merging with hers. His eyes held hers with an intensity that made the need inside her deepen, and he lowered his hand down onto her pubis and then lower still.
He slid a finger into her heat. She gasped again and clasped her thighs together to hold him there, in the place she most ached.
His eyes swirled, a thousand desires gleaming from that one look, and then his mouth was on hers and he was moving on top of her.
When he covered her completely, he kissed her again, a lingering yet gentle brush of the lips that filled her heart in the same way he filled the rest of her.
With one hand burrowed in her hair, he ran the other down her stomach and to her thigh, gently parting it before nudging the other aside too.
His erection was now pressed against the top of her thigh. It was so close to where she wanted it to be yet so far away. She grabbed his buttocks, kneading her fingers into the tight flesh, and writhed beneath him, urging him on.
He groaned and half pulled away. ‘We need protection.’
Elizabeth’s head reeled. If he hadn’t mentioned it, protection would never have crossed her mind.
What was happening to her?
He yanked his bedside drawer open and groped in it, removing a silver square, which he ripped open. He made deft work of putting it on, then his mouth found hers again and he shifted enough for his erection to be right there, where she needed. Raising her thighs a touch, she pushed forward at the same moment he thrust inside her.
Her last conscious thoughts evaporated.
The feel of him inside her...
It felt like heaven.
She didn’t think she had ever wanted him so much, not even in their heady lust-driven weeks of old. This was something else, the pleasure so intense that all she wanted was to hold on to it for ever.
Bound as tightly as two lovers could be, they moved in a slow, sensuous rhythm, lips locked together, the only sounds muffled gasps and tiny moans.
Not even heaven could feel this good.
His groin meshed against her pubis, intensifying the sensations happening inside her. One hand clasping his buttock to drive him in ever deeper, her other hand raced up and down the back she had never imagined she would scratch again and she embraced the growing pulsations within her until she was driven over the edge and into the blissful land of heightened pleasure that overcame her senses and drowned out everything else, locking her to him completely.
Xander’s groans deepened. His movements gained in fever, carrying her climax with him until he shuddered in her arms and thrust one long last time, so tightly inside her she felt every moment of it, and then he slumped down, his face buried in the crook of her neck.
His strong heartbeat echoed through her skin to her own skittering heart, and she drifted a lazy hand across his back, marvelling at the strength she found there, awed at the strength of her climax, at her feelings...everything.
‘I must be squashing you,’ he murmured into her neck a short while later.
‘Only a little bit.’ Quite a bit in truth but at that moment she felt so blissed out she didn’t care. She wasn’t yet ready to break the bond.
His muffled laugh played across her skin. He raised his head and kissed her before climbing off and heading to his bathroom.
Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes.
The euphoria of their lovemaking was already seeping away, memories of the black days after he’d ended it between them, when she would wake praying it had all been a bad dream, flooding her in its wake.
Those were days she would never go back to. Her feelings for him were already dangerous and she couldn’t afford to let them deepen further. Spending the night entangled in his arms was a danger too far.
By the time Xander returned, she’d gathered her clothes together.
He came to an abrupt halt to see her standing there.
Affecting nonchalance, she attempted a breezy smile. ‘I need to go back to my room. Loukas will be upset if he finds me in here.’
* * *
Xander, still trying to get a handle on what had just occurred between them, stared at her and tried to dissect what was going on in her head. When they’d been making love her eyes had been full of passion. Now the familiar shutters had come back down.
What they’d just shared had been better than anything he could have imagined. Better than he remembered it being and it had been damned spectacular then.
He’d felt as if he were a part of her.
And now she stood at the adjoining door acting as cool as if what they’d shared had been nothing but a pleasant interlude in a busy day.
And then he saw it. A flash of vulnerability.
For a spark of time he saw the old Elizabeth.
Yes. She should leave. Right now.
He ran a hand through his hair and gave a curt nod.
She hesitated only a moment, then gave a tight, awkward nod and slipped through the adjoining door.
She disappeared so quickly he could almost believe he’d imagined everything that had just happened.
